Re: [DL] They live: was Pickett in Deadlands

[Soothsprayer <hercubadger@yahoo.com>]

Does anyone remember the Bard Trilogy? I want to say
they were written by Michael Scott Card but the memory
gets all hazy on these matters. It was a fantasy
series revolving around the war between the Old
Pantheon and the New Pantheon. A war of worshippers as
without worshippers a god lost their power.

The catch phrase for the series was “faith breeds
substance.” To paraphrase, enough people strongly
believe in something/someone, they’ll bring it into
being for as long as they continue to believe. A case
in point mentioned in the books involve the Old
Pantheon god of war. He was a human general who led
his people in revolt against these Elder Creature
things who held humanity in slavery. During one of the
major battles this bloke got himself killed. His
soldiers and people prayed to him that night for
guidance and wisdom for the battles to come. Without
him, they thought, all was lost. So the next dawn
there was a new figure leading the armies and a new
god had been born. 

Perhaps this theory could explain how you could
“reinvent” historic figures for your own games. Yes,
the famous general did go down in a screaming heap
during the battle. Except enough people mention
him/her in their thoughts in deeds for them to come
back at least for the time being. They’re not
Harrowed, they’re something other. 

Perhaps there’s a psychic threshold that once reached
opens a breach in the Hunting Grounds. This breach can
be used by creatures than those who mean ill to
mankind.

A point to note however, the creature (for lack of a
better term of reference) would come back as people
remembered them, not how they actually may have been.
The eye of the beholder and all that.

Cheers,
Mr. B  


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