Questions on Brell and his creations.

[Thorindil]

<p>Ok, so I did a few searches, but I'm not too sure how accurate the results were.</p><p>Firstly, it seems that the Ratonga worship Caertex, whoever he is, but recognise Brell as their creator, so would it be possible lore-wise for a Ratonga to worship Brell? Maybe Caertex and Brell together e.g. worship one but pay homage to the other. And if possible who/ what is Caertex and what does he/ it stand for? What attributes does he look for in his followers?</p><p>Secondly, so far I have established that Brell is the God of Crafting and Mining, but what traits would he look for in his followers, and also, what Gods is he aligned with, and what Gods is he enemies with?</p><p>And, finally, what classes would his followers choose?</p><p>I chose Paladin for my Dwarf, because it seemed right, and Necro for my Ratonga, but I intend to betray to Conjuror (I figured those rock golem pets are sort of like creations of Brell). Are there any specefic classes favoured by Brell?</p>

[Arianah]

<p>I think there's some mixed information out there on Caertex, when I did a search for him when I was researching the deities of EQII, most people wrote that he wasn't really a deity, just a powerful mage that the other Ratonga viewed as a deity (remember, the real gods were away for a while).</p><p><strong>Quote from Vhalen (previous Lore dev):</strong><em>"<span >I cannot comment on EQOA spirit deities, but I can comment on Caertex and the ratonga. Caertex has much lore surrounding him that may or may not be true. Did he have any involvement in creating wererats? Is he even a true deity of any kind? Is he among the horde that has begun to infest the surface world of Norrath? All these and other questions can only be answered by Caertex, if he even exists.</span></em></p><p><em><span >The ratonga do recognize Brell Serilis as their creator. They know quite well who commissioned the creation of the ratonga and roekillik clay statues that now rest within the Clay Menagerie, the planar depository for all of Brell's creations.</span></em></p><p><em><span >From what outsiders can decipher, most ratonga and all roekillik worship a deity named Caertex. He is a mad being of supreme mental powers. Along with these powers comes the inability to block the thoughts of other entities within a massive range. This rat-like deity is said to exist deep in the Plane of Underfoot, within a portion called the Endless Tunnels. This is said to be a place not even planars venture. Those who enter the Endless Tunnels are lost forever. Here can be found the only peaceful sanctum for Caertex, who hides from the thoughts of nearly an entire plane.</span>"</em></p><p>But the Lycanthropes story from EQOA says that he is one of the Spirit Deities, and a deity to the Ratonga.</p><p><em>"Their most powerful magic-wielders called upon their deity Caertex and convinced him to bestow upon Yindrius powers similar to his brothers. He was given the ability to change into the form of the ratman;"</em></p><p>Brell Serilis (God of the Underfoot, Duke of Below) is allied with Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane and enemies with Veeshan.</p><p>He is the god of the Underfoot (caves, caverns, tunnels). From what else I know of his followers, gems, rocks, metals and mining are very important things, and since we celebrate ale on Brew Day, I'd guess ale as well <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>However, I do not believe he is the god of crafting, since I'm pretty sure Varig Ro is.</p><p>As far as traits... most of his creations seem to share similar traits; Dwarves, Gnomes, Ratonga, Roekilik(sp?), Kobold, and I think goblins and maybe gnolls? I've never played a Brell follower or any of those races so I couldn't be more specific on their traits other than their love for the underfoot and mining.</p><p>In EQ1 Dwarves could be Clerics, Paladins, Rogues and Warriors.Gnomes could be Clerics, Enchanters, Magicians, Necromancers, Paladins, Rogues, Shadowknights, Warriors, and Wizards. Though I'd attribute Necromancers and Shadowknights to those gnomes that followed Bertoxxulous.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>Caertex is a false diety. A mortal, to be precise. He's just a legend among Ratonga. Ratonga just worship him for whatever reason they choose, but he can't hold a candle up against Brell or any other actual diety. There's no explained reason (not one in good detail anyway) as to why they worship him, so there's no problem with a Ratonga worshipping Brell instead. especially since he's an actual god.</p><p>In EQlive, Dwarves were able to play as 4 classes: Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, and Paladin. Brell Serilis was the patron diety of all dwarves. Clerics and Paladins had to worship him regardless, since it was hard coded as such.</p><p>The Dwarves are a good race, but Brell doesn't really care about good or evil. He's created many races (the most out of any god) ranging from good to evil. Most of them are neutral in thier own ways, and often come across as either good or evil by outsiders.</p><p>Dwarves, Gnomes, Burynai, Boarfiends, Minotaurs, Ratonga, Roekillik, Kobolds, and a few others. Goblins worship Brell, but they used to be another race that Rallos Zek originally created.</p>

[Thorindil]

<p>Thanks for the info, but one thing still bugs me- Why do all of his races seem to fight one another?</p><p>Especially the Dwarves and Kobolds. From glimpses gained while passing through Butcherblock Mountains it seems that the Kobolds now dwell in Kaladim, and as well as being the sworn enemy's of the Dwarves, they are, at the same time, both worshipping Brell?</p><p>Surely Brell would intervene, or at least not create races to hate eachother?</p><p>And another thing- does Brell have a favoured race? Apparently he resembles a Dwarf, but i have my own theory that he favours the Gnolls, as the deity questgiver says about the Gnolls continuing to worship Brell when the Gods left while his other followers turned away. Is there any lore on this?</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Thorindil@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Thanks for the info, but one thing still bugs me- Why do all of his races seem to fight one another?</p><p>Especially the Dwarves and Kobolds. From glimpses gained while passing through Butcherblock Mountains it seems that the Kobolds now dwell in Kaladim, and as well as being the sworn enemy's of the Dwarves, they are, at the same time, both worshipping Brell?</p><p>Surely Brell would intervene, or at least not create races to hate eachother?</p><p>And another thing- does Brell have a favoured race? Apparently he resembles a Dwarf, but i have my own theory that he favours the Gnolls, as the deity questgiver says about the Gnolls continuing to worship Brell when the Gods left while his other followers turned away. Is there any lore on this?</p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #3366ff;">*Edit*: Sorry about the wall of text</span></p><p>Oh that's right, I forgot he created the Gnolls and Bugbears too. How silly of me to forget. Supposedly, It was his twisted brother Bolgin Serilis who created the Goblins. He's not really a diety who holds any position in Norrath's Pantheon though. He's just a black sheep.</p><p>There have been stories and disputes in the past from various quests and NPC's stating that Brell favors such and such race because they all think that they're Brell's greatest gift. It's a selfish point of view on their own race. The Burynai think they're the best that Brell created, as per the Lore & Legend book, but all the other races see themselves as his chosen. He doesn't play favorites, but in the sense that most of the gods create a race in thier own image, the Dwarves themselves represent Brell the most. They were the first race he created, according to the History of Norrath story when EverQuest first started.</p><p>I think it was stated that the Roekillik were Brell's absolute first creations, though I don't know if they are or not. I can't search for more detail on that right as of this post. I know they were too powerful for their own good though. They have strong psionic mental abilities that made them unstable, so he locked them back up and asked Bristlebane to help him create the Ratonga.</p><p>Nobody but the developers themselves really know what Brell was thinking when he created most of these races. According to the Boarfiend L&L, he was seriously drunk when he created them. Most of his races were created from the mythical Clay of Cosgrove in his workshop in the Plane of Underfoot, and as I've mentioned, he's made mistakes with races in the past and tried to start over. I don't think Brell is the type of god who really cares how his races act, as long as they have a common love for living underground. It's true that the gnolls continued to worship him after he left Norrath in the last 500 years, though there isn't any lore to expand onto that other than the Brell diety questline, and back before Echoes of Faydwer came out, the Brell prelude event when dwarves, gnomes, ratonga, and especially gnolls from Blackburrow and Splitpaw all gathered around Blackburrow to celebrate his return after so many centuries.</p><p>Personally, I think the reason why most of his races don't get along with each other is due to isolation. The Underfoot is a REALLY BIG PLACE. Many of these races are scattered all over the world, so being able to communicate with each other is a difficult task. They've been so isolated for so long that they focus only on thier own cultures, traditions, and ways of life.</p><p>The Burynai themselves have been living under Kunark for so long, that after Kurn's Tower was built, an iksar prisoner managed to escape and dig a tunnel underneath to what he hoped would take him to freedom. He ended up digging right into the heart of the Burynai race. The prisoner was immediately killed before he even had a chance to realize what he had stumbled across, and the Burynai viewed the tower itself as a threat to their ways of life. They invaded the tower and quickly took it over. They expanded out to the surface from there. As far as we've been told, that prisoner may very well have been the first sentient surface-dwelling life form they've ever encountered.</p><p>I imagine that if I lived secluded underground like that for so long, I'd go a little stir crazy and freak out when I first encountered outsiders as well.</p><p>I remember doing a few quests in Kaladim that revealed why the Horde of the Underfoot invaded Kaladim and kicked the dwarves out of thier own home. Supposedly in thier own way, they were driven by Brell Serilis to seek something that belongs in Kaladim. Something about a forge deep down in the Underfoot and a source of metal.. I don't remember the full details. There's nothing to prove that Brell actually did tell them to invade. I think it was just one of those demented "Hey, I just got a vision from our god, and he's telling us to do this!" sort of things.</p>

[Meirril]

<p>I think the main reason they fight amongst each other is that they are competing for a very limited resource: good mining. Each of Brell's children follow the father's ways. Each mines. Miners are notorious for disputes over their claims. Fighting over these resources turns race against race, and the fighting just continues from the mines to the rest of the terratory claimed by each race.</p><p>The only common ground between most of Brell's creations is that they live underground and were created by him. They were then deposited in a seperate location and left to fend for themselves. All of them we know of have been successful, carving a nitch out of the underdark and most to the surface. Who knows how many exist that have never surfaced? Only Brell would know how many failed to survive the test of time.</p>

[Lodrelhai]

<p>For the fighting between Brell's races, I suspect that could be attributed to what my aunt likes to call the hands-off method or discipline-by-neglect.  She's pretty much let her son stumble his own way through socializaton, figuring he'd either get along with people or offend people, have no friends, get into some fights, and learn to get along with people from negative reinforcement.</p><p>It's worked about as well with my cousin as it apparently has with Brell's children learning to get along with each other.</p><p>Some reading that might be of interest, specifically relating to Kaladim's invasion - there was a prophecy about the conquest of Kaladim which you can find in the kobold L&L, <a href="http://www.lorelibrary.com/?page=book&bid=337" target="_blank">The Prophetic Mystery</a>.  There's also a forum quest which I can't find the original starting post of, but which you can find info on <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=186530#4048941" target="_blank">here</a>, and which results in getting the book <a href="http://www.lorelibrary.com/?page=book&bid=350" target="_blank">The New Path</a>.  While not directly related to Brell, it IS directly related to the Ratonga, and they do use the shared faith in Brell to bring the Serilian Horde together.  As a follow-up to the information in The New Path, when working on In Honor and Service you have this conversation with the Mushroom King:</p><p>You say, "Hail, The Mushroom King"The Mushroom King says to you, "Whoa! Who might you be, little trotter?"You say to The Mushroom King, "My name is Aylrin."The Mushroom King says to you, "Yeah... well... you better hold onto that name before someone steals it from you. First you and your name are all happy and then some big fat prophet will come in and persuade it to betray you."You say to The Mushroom King, "I have no idea what you mean by that. So, what's your name?"The Mushroom King says to you, "Listen here, Aylrin, I don't have a name, but you can call me the Mushroom King. But the only thing I am king of these days is King of Depression Patch. I am definitely not King of the Ivory Patch anymore."You say to The Mushroom King, "You really need to cheer up. What is the Ivory Patch?"The Mushroom King says to you, "You had to mention the Ivory Patch... my lost kingdom. The Ivory Patch was the greatest mushroom patch found in any behemoth boneyard in the entire Underfoot. I used to rule there. Oh! Those were the days. "You say to The Mushroom King, "Who took your crown away?"The Mushroom King says to you, "A big fat, lying rat named Caertex. At first he played like he was just a friend and then... WHAM! He starts filling the caps of my kingdom with visions of a new order, an order free from my monarchy. Aww... my life is no good, no good at all."You say to The Mushroom King, "Tell me more about this Caertex."The Mushroom King says to you, "I am not going to bury myself deeper in depression by mentioning his name again. I have not felt this... less depressed in weeks. This shrool is going to turn his life around."</p><p>After that the quest continues.  But from the book, I'd gather that the Ratonga/Roekilik/Ratkilik or whatever they're calling themselves now barely even acknowledge Brell as their creator any more.  Of course, that doesn't mean there might not be Ratonga who choose to go back to their first faith.  Or, like in The New Path, make a public show of following Brell to gain general acceptance and mask their real goals.</p>

[Thorindil]

<p>Ugh, must be hard roleplaying a Ratonga, when not even the player behind the character knows what the Ratonga are secretly planning.</p><p>Also, I know this probably has nothing to do with Brell, but why are their mages working in the Freeport Militia, I thought it was the Academy of Arcane who provided mages for the Overlord's armies, but there are these spell splitter guys all over the militia house. </p><p>Thanks again for your help everyone.</p>

[Meirril]

<p>What? You expect the Freeport Millita to <em>trust</em> the Academy of Arcane Scientists when they need mages? Any competent leader in Freeport knows you have to be able to stand on your own!</p>

[Thorindil]

<p>I guess. In both Qeynos and Freeport none of the factions seem to like eachother.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>Thorindil@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I guess. In both Qeynos and Freeport none of the factions seem to like eachother.</p></blockquote><p>Everyone has thier own views on how everyone operates. I know the Tunarian Alliance complains about the Ironforge Exchange polluting the air with it's forges, but that doesn't mean they don't like each other.</p>

[Thorindil]

<p>I guess what I was trying to say was- While many of the factions are allies, they all think that their method/ solution is the best, leading to disagreements, but not anything as great as a feud or war between factions.</p>

[Meirril]

<p><cite>Thorindil@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I guess what I was trying to say was- While many of the factions are allies, they all think that their method/ solution is the best, leading to disagreements, but not anything as great as a feud or war between factions.</p></blockquote><p>There is a fundamental difference between the way Qeynos and Freeport operate. In Qeynos you get petty bickering between the major faction leaders as they vie for political favor. In Freeport there is actual in-fighting between the major factions as they vie for the equivellent political favors. Assassination of guild officials is not unherd of. The Overlord does nothing to discourage this because he believes that the survivors will be stronger than if he tried to put a stop to those kinds of actions. As long as it doesn't break down into actual civil war, Freeport "benifits" from this atmosphere of paranoia and betrayal.</p><p>Well, it prevents the guild leaders from becomming powerful enough to challenge Lucan at least. The point being is that the Qeynos factions don't go around threatning each other, while that happens occasionally in Freeport. The bond of trust is much stronger in Qeynos.</p>

[RaphaNissi]

<p>I wanted to add a little clarification on the Caertex topic.  It's true he is not a true deity like Brell but he is also NOT a mortal.  Though some ratonga have taken up his name sake (like the King in Kaladim), the true Caertex is a being of planar origin.  The true Caertex is still lost in those Endless Tunnels...</p>

[Thorindil]

<p>Thanks- so I guess its unlikely we'll be seeing Caertex anytime soon...</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p><cite>RaphaNissi wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I wanted to add a little clarification on the Caertex topic.  It's true he is not a true deity like Brell but he is also NOT a mortal.  Though some ratonga have taken up his name sake (like the King in Kaladim), the true Caertex is a being of planar origin.  The true Caertex is still lost in those Endless Tunnels...</p></blockquote><p>...Where did you hear that???</p>

[RaphaNissi]

<p><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>RaphaNissi wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I wanted to add a little clarification on the Caertex topic.  It's true he is not a true deity like Brell but he is also NOT a mortal.  Though some ratonga have taken up his name sake (like the King in Kaladim), the true Caertex is a being of planar origin.  The true Caertex is still lost in those Endless Tunnels...</p></blockquote><p>...Where did you hear that???</p></blockquote><p>I sought information and heard a tale.</p>

[Rainmare]

<p>as a side note...I think those spell spliter guys in the milita house are the ones opal mentioned that are like 'anti-mage' troops.</p>