do you have any more thoughts on what you think karsus' personality is? i'm dming for a game where he's the warlock's patron but i'm struggling on how he should interact with them...
I`m very happy to share some of my *very personal* thoughts on him! Karsus can be a very interesting choice for a patron, because although he is a higher power, his current life might be 1000 times more miserable and hellish than his warlocks lol
🔺Karsus`s characteristics
For starters I will go for words like: shattered, tortured, madness. Karsus was a proud and enthusiastic mage who shined brightly among his colleagues, until he disastroulsly failed. Having never faced any setbacks before that point, you could say Karsus was somewhat naive with a sense of omnipotence. And when that blind confidence was shattered, I don`t think he was able to pick himself up very soon (if ever). The guy was all over the place. Canon lore rarely showed Karsus speaking in his current status, I tend to think that his soul is so broken, that forming any intelligible sentence is hard.
Karsus after the folly became a vestige, which is a being stuck between the cycle of life and death, the time they have spent in this senseless void will inevitably let them descend into madness. In 3R, an individual who forms a pact with a vestige is called a binder (FYI binder will be introduced in 5R as a warlock subclass in the upcoming supplement Arcana Unleashed). The only way a vestige can influence the reality, is through sharing part of its soul (how deep...) with the binder.
"Since vestiges constantly hunger for any small taste of reality, they always answer the call of any binders powerful enough to draw them forth from the void."
This creates an interesting dynamic between a vestige and the warlock: Unlike many other powerful patrons among the realms, a vestige really *needs* the player. They are more like a pair of broken souls on a bumpy trip.
🔺The aspect of body horror
Karsus`s image after his death was kind of gory. He literally swelled and turned into a rock upon death. His gigantic heart beat heavily inside the remain, cultist worshippers of the momentum god would chant in sync with this endless beating. Karsus`s binder would bleed nonstop from even the slightest wound, and his manifestation as a vestige is a red boulder than burbles blood when it speaks. I think a living piece of flesh as his manifestation can also be cool.
So, Karsus, wallowed in shame, a hollow shell of his former self, unable to gather enough consciousness to make coherent actions. He binds with warlocks out of the instinctive desire to walk on faerun again. It is ironic to see him like this, while people across Faerun are fighting tooth and nail using his legacy, and the story of his might and folly still spreads across the land.
My take on Karsus can be shitty, because I irrationally like this guy and my brain had melted away through time. In that case here are some materials I referenced:
Legacy of the green Regent
Return of the Archwizard: The summoning
these five more or less includes some lore on Karsus as a patron(or as a worhipped"deity").
and of course Netheril: Empire of Magic and the Netheril Trilogy
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