Farcluun - the backstory

Rules 3rd Edition D&D or Pathfinder
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Farcluun is a mysterious NPC that appears in Black Flames. He has partially undergone the draconic metamorphosis. Abalach-Re considers him an enemy. Here is a description of that module.

There is much speculation about the background of Farcluun. His background most certainly centers on Abalach-Re. In the module he is a defiler/psionist that has cast the defiler metamorphosis spell. But that got me thinking. What if he isn’t a defiler? What if he is actually a former templar of Abalach-Re, and Athas’ first templar advanced being? To whit -

Farcluun

At first Farcluun was thrilled to be made immortal by Abalach-Re. The Queen promised to make Farcluun “like her”, immortal and all powerful. The Queen made many promises, including promising to make Farcluun her king and to rule Raam side by side for all time. But in less than a century Abalach-Re had become bored of Farcluun, she had numerous other lovers, and she never made him king or kept her promises. Farcluun was looking at his future, and was expecting that he would be a virtual slave to the Queen for all eternity.

A psion of minor note before joining the templarate, Farcluun used the next three centuries of being ignored by Abalach-Re to increase his authority as a templar and deepen his psionic abilities. Roughly 350 years after being made an immortal Farcluun discovers the truth about Abalach-Re and the other Sorcerer monarchs deep in a hidden archive in the Royal library. Learning of the defiler metamorphosis, and the elemental vortices, Farcluun develops a plan to get his independence from Abalach-Re and flee Raam. Farcluun then develops ‘Farcluun’s Open the Vortex’, an epic spell that will allow him to connect to the spell granting elemental vortice of a long dead Sorcerer monarch. After casting the spell succesfully, Farcluun flees Raam.

After centuries of ignoring Farcluun, Abalach-Re is nonetheless infuriated when Farcluun disappears. Wondering if he had been assassinated (a not uncommon fate of templars in Raam), Abalach-Re used her psionic and magical abilities to discover that Farcluun still lived, although she was not able to ascertain his location because he had taken extensive precautions against such divinations. At this stage Abalach-Re ordered her servants to bring back Farcluun alive. She was still unaware that he was able to access the vortice of another Sorcerer Monarch, and when she found out she would order Farcluun’s death.

As for Farcluun, he had escaped with copies of the documents describing the essentials of the defiler metamorphosis. Using the defiler metamorphosis as a template for his own version of an advanced being draconic metamorphosis, he spends the next half century evading the agents of Raam and preparing his own metamorphosis. Casting his own version of the draconic metamorphosis, Farcluun becomes the first (and only) templar to evolve into an advanced being.

Even as an advanced being, Farcluun doesn’t have the necessary might to confront Abalach-Re directly, nor does he want wish to confront her. His current research focuses on how he might gain control of an unattended elemental vortice to channel spells to templars of his own. Farcluun knows that it cannot be Sielba’s vortice, because he cannot draw spells from the Sielba’s vortice and be the nexus of Sielba’s vortice at the same time. Farcluun has researched by method by which he might get a vortice of his own but gathering the necessary magical and psionic power to do so may take centuries. If Farcluun gets the ability to channel spells to templars he will likely return to Raam and attempt to overthrow Abalach-Re. Alternatively, if there is a city lacking a sorcerer monarch (like the Free City of Tyr if Kalak has been overthrown in your campaign), then Farcluun will plot to take over that city once he is able to create his own templars.

Farcluun’s Open the Vortex

Conjuration [Teleportation]
Spellcraft DC: 27
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 11 minutes
Target: Personal
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: N/A
Spell Resistance: N/A

To develop: 243,000 Cp, 5 days, 9,720 XP. Seed: reveal (DC 19). Factors: reveal a vortice that is unattended by a Sorcerer King (+10 DC). Primary seed: transport (DC 27). Factors: open the elemental vortice to caster (+10 DC). Mitigating factor: Burn 1700 XP (-17 DC), increase casting time by 10 minutes (-20 DC), change from target, touch, or area to personal (-2 DC).

Farcluun developed this spell to get out from under the thrall of Abalach-Re. This spell locates, and then ‘switches on’ an elemental vortice that is unattended by a living Sorcerer Monarch. In the case of Farcluun, he found Queen Sielba’s vortice, and opened it to himself so he was able to receive templar magic from it. Hypothetically this spell could be used to locate the vortice of a living Sorcerer Monarch, but the Sorcerer Monarch would then be able to switch off the connection at will. Sielba being dead, the connection is open to Farcluun permanently.

Benefit: the caster can take levels in the templar classes or is able to cast templar spells if already a templar. The caster does not receive the Sovereign’s Empowerment (Ex) ability. Pseudo domains change to that of the Sorcerer King to whom the vortice belonged. A creature channeling power from the vortice of a dead Sorcerer Monarch has no secular authority.

Lover’s Gift

Transmutation/Metacreativity
Spellcraft DC: 28
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

To develop: 252,200 Cp, 6 days, 10,080 XP. Seed: metamorphosis (DC 28). Factors: ageless (+10 DC), self-sustaining (+10 DC), fast healing 5 (DC +90), apply advanced simple template +1 CR (+50 DC). 1-action casting time (+20). Mitigating factor: 67d6 backlash damage (-67 DC), 5,000,000 Cp focus structure (-50 DC), burn 6300 XP during casting (-63 DC).

This is the spell that Abalach-Re cast on Farcluun, her templar lover.

Once this spell is cast, Farcluun becomes ageless and has no need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. Farcluun no longer takes penalties to ability scores for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that he has already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and Farcluun no longer dies of old age. Farcluun gets fast healing 5. The advanced simple template is applied to Facluun, turning Farcluun into a more evolved human being. His natural armor increases by +2, and he gets +4 to all ability scores. This spell uses up one of eleven possible metamorphosis spells that can be used on Farcluun.

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I love the fact that Farcluun in this version wants to bind an elemental vortex to himself.
“In universe” it makes perfect sense that the difference between “Dragon” (defiler/psionicist that started the metamorphosis) and “Sorcerer King” (able to grant templar spells) is a bit blurry, So any newly ascended athasian dragon may be disappointed by the fact that he cannot grant templar spells to his followers. And all athasian dragons seems to be quite power-hungry, So, after becoming a Dragon, I agree that Farcluun would try to do something to became a true “Sorcerer King”

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From what little we know about Farcluun I agree he must have had some sort of relationship with Abalach-Re prior to Black Flames. I always figured he’d started off as one of her Arcanamach Royal Defilers. With the Athas.org Prestige Classes II appendix he could even have been a Monarch’s Chosen - it would explain how he found out about the Defiler Metamorphosis and would give him centuries to research it himself if he’d reached level 10 in the PrC.

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I had initially thought of Monarch’s Chosen actually, but then giving an explanation about how he freed himself from magical compulsion became convoluted. Thus as in the DS PrC appendix, the Monarch’s Chosen was created to hunt down Farcluun.

In my scenario Farcluun is undergoing a dragon like metamorphosis but is not defiling to do it as his magic comes from the elemental planes.

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I’m not sure I like the idea of templars becoming advanced beings. Templars have always been limited in spell power within my own campaigns due to the imperfect nature of the elemental vortices connection. I do have a templar who is attempting to became an advanced being, but she did so by learning arcane magic and psionics much like Tithian started studying wizardry and went back to his old psionic training.

I used Farcluun as a Telepath 5/Auditor 10/Defiler 3/Cebremancer 5/Royal Defiler 5/Monarch’s Chosen 10/Dragon 2 (My SMs tend toward the 40-60 level range and Abalach-Re is a Rogue 5/Wizard 3/Nomad 3/Cebremancer 10/Unseen Seer 10/Shadowmind 10/Dragon 1)

For his backstory, he was a telepath and auditor used by the templarate to interrogate enemies of Badna. When preservers started appearing with more and more frequency in the city he began to specialize in members of the Alliance and even studied wizardry, joining the ranks of the Royal Defilers. It was Farcluun that actually discovered and killed Clennay, the founder of the Alliance. This brought him to the attention of Abalach-Re and he became another of her husbands in a ceremony that left him telepathically bound to his new wife. Farcluun had seen what happened to her other husbands so he made sure he was useful enough to her to keep around and went on long missions away from her so she did not get bored with him too quickly.

Although Abalach-Re took many husbands, Farcluun was able to survive centuries of her altering neglect and intensive desires at first using his magic to extend his life, then going through apotheosis. After centuries Farcluun discovered one of Abalach-Re’s secret libraries detailing the dragon metamorphosis process she would later use under the guise of the Forest Maker and the ritual to create the Chosen. When Abalach-Re learned her sanctum had been invaded she attempted to drain Farcluun of life but using the knowledge gained from the secret library he was able to sever the bond and escape before she could kill him.

Since that day Abalach-Re has been sending assassins after him while Farcluun has been attempting to gain enough power to displace her as the leader of Raam. To further that goal he has managed to start his own draconic transformation, beyond the path Abalach-Re started him on, by sacrificing entire tribes of halflings. He’s also been tracking down artifacts he learned of during the days he was one of Abalach-Re’s favorites. He was killed at the battle of Cool Springs but a contingent resurrection and contingent teleport returned him to life in his Forest Ridge lair. While he has heard of Abalach-Re’s death he knows one of the reasons for her many children was because she could return as a child of any of her bloodline should she die and he is not sure if that has occurred or if she has truly been destroyed.

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Interesting interpretation. Actually there are many things that we accord on, including the relationship with Abalache-Re.

In 2nd edition D&D the templates actually had excellent spellcasting abilities.

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I’m actually working to finish my version of the metamorphosis epic spell/power, along with advanced being feats that reduce the need for crazy numbers or levels.

I’m also 98% complete on my rewrite of the Templar class. Instead of a base class, its a ten level prestige class.

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For Templars, I’ve always liked the base class and the prestige classes per city. The only change I ever did really there allow the spell casting to raise any spell casting or psionic class. I need to double check but I thought Templars were the only class that had no way of progressing beyond level 20 in 2ed.

I think that’s one place we differ, from your posts you seem to enjoy the lower level characters while I’ve done a lot more in the epic levels. I think that may be due to my players having been together for 20 years though with the core group always coming back to the same place in DS.

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Actually, I am talking super epic! I view the Sorcerer Kings and advanced beings as capable of going toe to toe with a lord of the nine, a demonlord, or a demigod. I’ve modified the metamorphosis spell from Legends of Athas to reflect that, and created a number of epic feats that can only be taken by advanced beings. Tne advanced being feats are what epic feats are to non epic feats - more epic than epic.

What this means is that a Sorcerer King can be statted with as little as 35 levels.

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The idea of a Templar becoming an advanced being never occurred to me and does open up some very interesting ideas. I personally never took any single templar that far unless, but I did expand on the concept of Monarch’s Chosen from the 3.5 fan material where a templar or royal defiler might be imbued with a portion of a SK’s essence to enhance their power and make them into quasi-draconic entities (which is the rough concept from the fanbook as well, I just took it a notch further).

The logic was that this was a perversion of the Faerunian gods’ method of creating “Chosen”. So this made Monarch’s Chosen much more dangerous than they are in the fan material, but also not really a class you can take either. That being said these “chosen” are definitely not advanced beings, merely templar or defilers that have been heavily augmented by their patron SK.

How an advanced being templar would work is quite the open question, since they are relying on borrowed power from an entity with no interest in allowing them to grow that powerful. Odds are good the templar would need to also be a defiler/psion if they want to be an advanced being. But if we’re going just with the idea of having a vortice for a high level templar to exploit so they can reign over their own city as a false god, I’ve played with the idea of powerful entities being capable of seizing an unattended vortice in the past to some extent. My initial thought was that if an advanced being that contains a living vortice dies, a nearby advanced being can seize the vortice if they are close enough at the time of death.

Otherwise there would be some high end ritual nonsense requiring the former SK’s remains. I’ll admit the idea is very unrefined, though there is a bit of appeal to me with the notion of dragons trying to highlander each other so they can become a SK. But I should also stress that I depict the older SKs as significantly more dangerous than their younger upstarts, making starscreaming a SK a herculean task for even a young dragon.

As for the power level of SKs, I play 2e where Archfiends are something lvl 18 PCs have a decent chance of beating (mind you I also buffed Archfiends and Archangels, but I’ve still had lvl 18 PCs hold their own vs Graz’zt long enough for the Lady of Pain to intervene, it’s a long story…). So I generally depict Advanced Beings as around the same “power level” as Cosmic Entities. The big difference being SKs lack a home plane they can do all kinds of extra nonsense with as well as lacking the ability to create avatars of themselves to bother people elsewhere (now there’s an epic spell to bother your PCs with…).

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While i’m usually against the idea of an advanced being templar since, as it was accurately stated above, “they are relying on borrowed power from an entity with no interest in allowing them to grow that powerful”.
That being said, the discussion here gave me an idea similar to a ur-priest for a templar who learn to leech energy from the living vortices of the sorcerer kings, so that he is no longer dependant on their good will to gain power, and eventually bond to and become one with a living vortex of the dead monarch with the aid of psionics. I don’t know what an advanced being like that will look like or what powers it would have, but I think it should be called a pontifex (latin for “bridge builder”, one who bridge heaven and earth, a member of the most prestigious college of priests in ancient rome), but maybe that is atopic for another thread…

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The pontifex concept sounds really cool. I would likely use the spirit of the land and the elemental lords that druids and clerics can ascend towards as sources of inspiration for what a pontifex would be like since those are the only sources of divine magic we’ve seen. Additionally iirc the vortices connected to the elemental planes so that could further justify some vague similarities. That being said templar do have access to the sphere of the cosmos so they have a HUGE spell selection compared to elemental clerics (not sure how much sense this makes for non 2e dark sun players, so I’d compare it to someone knowing only 1-2 of the 8 schools of magic vs knowing 7-8 schools). So they likely would definitely not be themed after one element or even nature, but rather perhaps just share a few similar traits.

In regards to imagery I would probably look towards spirits, demons, and deities from asian and african mythologies. We already see those influences in the city states and there are many deities and spirits in mythologies that translate as “gods” but don’t match western expectations of all powerful entities. As for precise looks, I don’t have anything particular quite yet, finishing the advanced beings for necromancers and shadow mages has kept me busy enough as it is.

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Here is my version of Farcluun’s story, this time as a canonical defiler psionicist. The specific details are my own, explaining the reason for Abalach-Re’s emnity.

Farcluun: The Runaway Consort

Farcluun’s rise in Raam began with a whirlwind romance. A defiler and psion of minor note, he was unexpectedly pulled into the orbit of Abalach-Re. During this brief, intense period of favor, the Queen gave birth to a daughter, presenting the child to the court as Farcluun’s own. Believing he had secured a blood legacy at the highest levels of Raam’s nobility, Farcluun’s devotion to his sovereign deepened.

Soon after, Abalach-Re held out even greater prospects, promising to make him “like her”—immortal and all-powerful. She orchestrated a ritual of epic magic, granting him what he believed was eternal life, and promised they would eventually rule Raam side by side as husband and wife, King and Queen. And for a short time, Farcluun believed her.

But Abalach-Re’s affections were fleeting. Within less than a decade, the Queen grew bored, took new lovers, and cast Farcluun into the periphery of the court. The promises of marriage and shared rule evaporated. Farcluun accepted his reduced status, living quietly as an ignored courtier on the outer edges of the palace.

As the decades passed, however, the true depth of Abalach-Re’s deception became clear. Farcluun began to notice stiffness in his joints and grey in his hair; he was aging. The ritual of immortality had merely been an epic spell utilizing the fortify seed to stretch his adult lifespan by a century. Furthermore, as he watched his supposed daughter grow and assume her place in Raam’s cutthroat hierarchy, a clear physical resemblance to another prominent man at court, combined with the fact that the girl had never taken to Farcluun, led him to a quiet realization: the child was likely not his at all. The romance, the legacy, and the false immortality had simply been a passing amusement for Raam’s ever-bored Queen.

Driven by his mortality and the ticking clock of Abalach-Re’s expiring spell, Farcluun spent his remaining decades of palace access quietly deepening his arcane and psionic abilities. He eventually breached a hidden archive deep within the Royal library, discovering the closely guarded secrets of the Sorcerer-Monarchs, the elemental vortices, and the defiler metamorphosis.

It was there that Farcluun found his escape: an inscribed stone tablet containing a metamorphosis epic spell, created and infused with a considerable amount of Abalach-Re’s own power. According to the laws of epic magic, learning an inscribed epic spell from a stone tablet destroys the tablet completely. Farcluun stole the tablet and absorbed its knowledge, adapting Abalach-Re’s work to the lower-tier Defiler Metamorphosis I. The Queen’s infused power made up the difference in the massive magical, psionic, and resource costs he could never have met on his own.

This act destroyed the priceless tablet and caused Farcluun to immediately flee Raam. After decades of virtually forgetting he existed, Abalach-Re was absolutely furious. She used her psionic and magical abilities to confirm he still lived, though she could not ascertain his location due to his extensive precautions. Knowing he had stolen the secrets of the metamorphosis to ascend, she ordered her servants to hunt him down and bring Farcluun back alive to face her personal wrath.

Farcluun spent the next half-century evading the agents of Raam, hiding across the Tablelands while preparing his own metamorphosis. Casting his own version of the metamorphosis, Farcluun successfully evolved into an advanced being, halting his aging and securing the true immortality he had originally been promised.

Once Farcluun achieved this draconic state, the dynamic of the hunt inverted; Abalach-Re’s servants became the hunted, systematically tracked and destroyed by the very man they had been sent to capture. Realizing her agents were entirely outmatched, Abalach-Re resolved to find Farcluun herself.

Only recently did Farcluun make his next major breakthrough. In his ongoing efforts to secure his independence, he began researching the nature of the elemental vortices. He discovered Sielba’s dormant, unattended vortex in the ruins of Yaramuke. Because he had already successfully evolved into an advanced being, he possessed the unique metaphysical capacity required to anchor such a conduit. Farcluun developed Farcluun’s Open the Vortex, traveling to the ruins and casting the spell to attach Sielba’s elemental vortex directly to his own advanced form.

Now operating out of Yaramuke, the vortex is permanently attached to Farcluun’s soul—making it his now as much as it was ever Sielba’s. With a functioning elemental conduit under his own control, he possesses the potential to raise his own templarate. To consolidate his power and unlock the full potential of this legacy, Farcluun bides his time in the ruins, using Farcluun’s Exacting Task to force passing adventurers to retrieve Sielba’s buried artifacts.

Once his power is consolidated, Farcluun will likely return to Raam to overthrow Abalach-Re. Alternatively, if there is a city lacking a sorcerer-monarch (like the Free City of Tyr), he will plot to take over that city once he is ready to install his own templars.

Abalach-Re continues her personal search across Athas. Her investigations have recently led her to suspect that Farcluun is hiding in the vicinity of Yaramuke, setting the stage for the direct confrontation in Black Flames.

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Another possibility for Farcluun is that he’s one of Abalach-Re’s children.

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This is awesome!

Do you have any ideas for Graytch, the other mysterious non-SK dragon?

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I know of him.

I don’t have a backstory for him.

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I wonder who these wanderers and thri kreen in the distant south are.

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It’s very weird because there’s not enough distance to the south before you hit the Dead Lands to have a 25th-level dragon not affect the politics of the Tyr Region, IMO, especially since getting to 25th takes a lot that should leave evidence…

So IMO it needs to be either more southwest than due south, maybe in map tile C6 (the Great Saffron Erg/Ochre Steppes/Brownlands sounds like environments that would be good for kreen, at least from the names), or really far south, beyond the Dead Lands entirely.

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The cards were before the dead lands were ever designed, so I don’t think that the writer of the card had any opinion on how far south it eas in relation to the dead lands. Not to mention no is accelerated metamorphosis.

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Oh, I agree the writer of the card didn’t have the Dead Lands in mind; I meant how to fit Graytch into the developed setting.

I’m not sure the metamorphosis needs to be accelerated necessarily; Graytch might have had a very long time to work on it.