Malfant Knowledge

Discussion of religion and the Immortals.
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Talyn
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Malfant Knowledge

Post by Talyn »

Hello! I've been asked to throw these questions up by an anonymous player. However these are the questions they asked me to post.

1.) Does Malfant deal in memories, and secrets, as well as general knowledge, and to what level of that knowledge is considered relevant to bargain?

2.) What is his favored colors? (Better yet do immortals or adherents to immortals hold a color close to them that makes them feel closer to their god?)

3.)Can I have had a deal with him, established in my backstory?

4.)Does Malfant take full memories, can he also take memory context, or remove a piece of a memory to 'cut it off' at a critical point?
I'm Not Accepting Surrenders At This Time. I Want You To Know Failure, Utter Defeat, And That It Is I Who Delivers It Crashing Down Upon You.
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Rias
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Re: Malfant Knowledge

Post by Rias »

First, I'll preface with my typical disclaimer that when it comes to Immortals, there is no hard truth available, so anything that seems like it's being stated as fact should be taken more as "according to various accounts and records". The Immortals are in general quite mysterious and difficult to discern or communicate with, as they don't ever seem to be just popping down saying "Greetings, I am Malfant, and I'm here to make a deal with you." Most accounts of interactions with Immortals are less spoken word verbal conversations, and more exchanges of feelings and impulses, always leaving room for interpretation and even doubt. That's just the infuriating way Immortals are in this setting. A potential exception being the Ascended Immortals, who seem to have far more accounts alluding to them acting in accordance with their puny mortal origins, with all the verbal words and the talking and whatnot. And of course, there's always the instances of a mortal priest or avatar or what have you that speaks to other mortals on behalf of their patron Immortal - but then of course you can never be certain if they're the real deal either.

With that out of the way ...
Talyn wrote: Sun Mar 20, 2022 10:56 am1.) Does Malfant deal in memories, and secrets, as well as general knowledge, and to what level of that knowledge is considered relevant to bargain?
It's generally believed that Malfant isn't interested in mundane knowledge, but rather the rare and secretive stuff. Vandin can have all the boring day-to-day record-keeping minutiae. Malfant wants the juicy good stuff. It's similar with memories: Malfant isn't particularly interested in what you had for dinner last night. But moments of joy, sorrow, wonder, despair, passion, hatred, love, betrayal, discovery? Bring those to the table and Malfant just might be willing to make a trade.
2.) What is his favored colors? (Better yet do immortals or adherents to immortals hold a color close to them that makes them feel closer to their god?)
Immortals like Malfant aren't especially interested in picking favorite colors, but I could see his mortal adherents probably tending toward black or very deep blue accented with lighter hues of blue, just based on his commonly-rendered wraithlike appearance. (Aranas folks probably favor black with white accents.)
4.)Does Malfant take full memories, can he also take memory context, or remove a piece of a memory to 'cut it off' at a critical point?
Yes and yes. This can leave anything from small but critical gaps at pivotal moments, to someone not being able to recall anything about the last few years, or their entire childhood, or even their entire life like a serious case of amnesia. Sometimes he might even swap in someone else's memories to fill some holes in your own. It's not unheard of for some people to go to Malfant specifically for this purpose: to surrender some traumatic memory and replace it with a happier (or at least less traumatic) one. It gets particularly scary when you think that Malfant or one of his favored adherents might potentially be doing this kind of thing to others without their knowledge or approval. Are all your memories really yours? Are those recurring odd dreams (or nightmares) that you're having each night the remnants of some stolen memories that your mind is constantly trying and failing to reconcile?
3.)Can I have had a deal with him, established in my backstory?
Your character can believe they have. I'm not saying this to mean that it would necessarily be untrue, but only to mean that, as stated in my preface above, this kind of stuff is in the realm of "can't be verified beyond a doubt to be completely true and accurate", because mysterious hazy Immortals.
<Rias> PUT ON PANTS
<Fellborn> NO
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