Frightened or disinterested?

This is to discuss the book City under the Sands. There is a scene where a powerful Demon lays Siege to the Naggaramakamm. (hope I spelled that correctly) and Nibenays shadow wives fight it off using his powers. The book flirts with the idea that this demon is so powerful that the Shadow King is reluctant to come out and face it. Now I have a hard time accepting that. Gallard successfully wiped out his race. He controls one of the strongest city states in the world. He devised the prison that held Rajaat for 2K+ years and he’s one of the most knowledgeable sorcerer monarchs in the world. I choose to believe that like a lot of things that don’t require his direct attention he analyzed the situation and determined his wives could handle it so he just funneled an extra amount of elemental power their way. No need to dirty his own claws.

Also as a side note. There’s a scene where his various favoured wives start argueing with each other and put him in the middle and he acts like a henpecked husband. That would never happen in my campaign. The last thing any of his wives wants is to attract his attention. Him being such a thoroughly evil and sadistic being.

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I didn’t read the book but heard that late books were not much coherent with previous lore.

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You and everyone else who knows anything about the setting.

I’m a little puzzled as to why you would describe him as sadistic. It’s your Dark Sun game but literally no source has ever described him as such. In fact, he seems to be perhaps the least evil champion with the exception of Oronis (even Lalali-puy, for all her popularity, is known for her violent temper and cruelty).

This is putting it mildly. The Dark Sun Novels that came out during 4e had about the same amount of connection to continuity as RaFoaDK, but without Lynn Abbey’s skill at writing, plotting, and characterization. One of the 4e Dark Sun books introduced Tharizdun to Dark Sun. Yes, from Greyhawk. Yes, it makes exactly as much sense as it sounds. No, I have no idea who approved it.

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You make a good point regarding the Shadow King. The only things in cannon I can point to are when he wanted his slaves to throw themselves into a fire to burn themselves to death after disposing of the grove Sadira defiled in the Amber Enchantress. The fact he doesn’t bother to hide his true form to have his wedding nights with his new templars 3rd or 4th stage would be pretty horrible for the girls in question. And the idea that Rajaat specifically looked for the most powerful, cruel and evil men and women to be his champions.

You’re right though. They never use the word sadistic in describing him. I just sort of assume after 1500 years of war and another 2k ruling regular villainy would be pretty boring to him now.

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I have the book on Kindle and keep intending to read it. I haven’t yet.

Do you remember what type of demon it was? Nibenay would mop the floor of any ordinary typed demon, like a balor. The balor would be in for a world of pain.

It would take a demonlord to pose a threat to any of the Sorcerer Monarchs. Even then, Nibenay stands a very good chance of winning.

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As I recall they didn’t name what type of demon it was. Just that it possesses a treasure trove of steel and the more steel it had the more powerful it became. Also both Dhojakt and Seimouk make appearances in the book.

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