12 Names for 13 Tyrants (and other major Characters)

[Rathnard]

On 10/24/2018 at 2:32 AM, Mason said:

The Grave Spirit is not a Tyrant.

It's more akin to "eldritch death god" and is a good magnitude stronger than the Tyrants.

At the risk of disagreeing with a Wyrd employee who has had quite a bit to do with the story of Malifaux...

The later books definitely treat the Grave Spirit as an entity separate from, and far more powerful than, the Tyrants of Malifaux. The Grave Spirit isn't mentioned in Perdita's naming of the "12 names for 13 Tyrants", it's from a completely different dimension to Malifaux, and we know Titania struck a a bargain with it to defeat the Tyrants and conclusively end the Great Tyrant War of eons past. 

HOWEVER, what got me questioning this accepted narrative are the stories in the third M1E book, Twisting Fates, and more specifically Samael's showdown with Seamus in "The Writing on the Wall". Specifically the Grave Spirit is referred to as a Tyrant twice on page 144;

It was the Grave Spirit, and ancient Tyrant Entity thought to have the least influence or desire to walk upon Malifaux again.

...
It was Death. The great Tyrant Entity, the Grave Spirit, gathered and and as it grew in strength, focusing Its will to this reality once more, Samael's will wavered as the great spirit sought dominion.

He's referred to as a Tyrant at least once more in the next page (145) too.

It's important to note the context of this story. It's stated later in Twisting Fates that the Tyrants choose a vessel with which to manifest a physical form and ascend. For December it's Rasputina, and Sonnia with Cherruffe. But if the vessel is killed during their manifestation, all the power they've poured into that vessel is lost, setting them back years, even centuries in their ambitions while they re-accumulate the power they need (to quote Molly on p265). 

In Twisting Fates, Sonnia and Rasputina both attempt to kill themselves to prevent their respective Tyrants from manifesting. Seamus, you'll notice, does the same when he lures Samael into killing him just as the Grave Spirit attempts to manifest through him. Based on all of this, you have to surmise that the Grave Spirit is indeed a Tyrant of some kind, and that it had chosen Seamus to be its vessel in Malifaux. 

 

Anyway, like I alluded in the original post, the description and treatment of the Grave Spirit in Twisting Fates (ie. as a Tyrant) seems to be at odds with it's portrayal in the later stories. This is why I think this discrepancy is most likely the result of a retcon. If it's not though, my theory (that the Grave Spirit is an ascended Tyrant from another dimension, and thus more akin to a God than the Malifaux Tyrants), makes some sense out of it . And at least IMO, it makes the Grave Spirit a much more interesting character for what it represents - an example of what will happen if any of the Malifaux Tyrants succeed in ascending.

[Mason]

7 minutes ago, Rathnard said:

HOWEVER, what got me questioning this accepted narrative are the stories in the third M1E book, Twisting Fates, and more specifically Samael's showdown with Seamus in "The Writing on the Wall". Specifically the Grave Spirit is referred to as a Tyrant twice on page 144

Samael isn't exactly an expert on Tyrants, and given the power levels involved, it's no wonder that he grouped it together with the other godlike entity that possesses people with which he is familiar.

 

8 minutes ago, Rathnard said:

Based on all of this, you have to surmise that the Grave Spirit is indeed a Tyrant of some kind, and that it had chosen Seamus to be its vessel in Malifaux. 

TTB Core Rules, Grave Servant, pg. 162.

That's what's going on there.

[retnab]

Spoilers for The Other Side's core rulebook incoming, I'm just going to write out this blurb of a paragraph so folks reading the front page post note thingy don't get accidentally spoiled on everything, but there's a lot in the book that has to do with this thread I think!  Okay, going to go ahead and assume that this is enough, I'll break down my thoughts on the three Tyrant-things I think are affected in this book.

 

Again, spoilers ahead.

 

The Burning Man

So the first thing to note here is something that I've wondered for a while, whether the Burning Man is aware of what's going on, is conscious at all, or has just become a force of nature - and this is answered in the book very clearly: "It is not conscious, and any sense of agency it may have once had has been drowned in its own madness."  So, it's a force of nature now rather than an active character.  Secondly, and I don't have any direct quotes to back this up, but the way that the worshipers basically become irreparably magically converted to the cult (when Edmonton looks at the Broken with his magic monocle he describes them as "a blistering legion of smokeless flame, linked together through a chaotic web of leaping, swirling fire") makes me think that Kitchener was successful and did actually manage to become the Tyrant Rulership, but thanks to the ascension being sabotaged and Cherufe screwing things up further he can't really benefit from that.

 

Meridion

We actually get a LOT of information of Meridion's past and present in this book, and actually a description of what she looks like too! As far as her past goes, even before she fell with the other Tyrants it's noted that she had palaces and shrines (plural for both), indicating that her desire for the worship of her followers has been a key part of her for a long time.  The book also notes that the Gibbering Hordes who "dwell on the beaches and in the swamps of Malifaux frequently built idols to Meridion" and that "as more idols are pushed into place along the ley lines of the world, [...] the whispering voice that speaks to [the Hordes] becomes more clear."  This pretty clearly says to me that Meridion is getting stronger as her followers get back into building up her places of worship even now.  Most disturbingly, in part of Thrace's story it's noted that some jellyfish-like Hordes monster appears to have the power to basically mind control humans and force them to pray to Meridion as well, probably to strengthen her even further.  They note that an idol probably built to look like Meridion is "in the shape of a woman, but her features were all wrong.  Half of her face was a mask of range, the other a serene smile.  One leg kicked out and twisted more like a broken metal pipe than a leg, and the other stood tall.  She was cloaked in an armor of scales and, much like her face, half of her armor was torn and tattered, the other half pristine."  Now to me that reads pretty clearly like a Hel-like creature, more about duality than any one feature.  Later in the same story, she speaks to one of the Broken who, when Meridion is mentioned, says she "is an ancient thing, unable to change.  Unable to even free herself from death.  A pathetic husk, chained to the veins of a beating world by her own worshipers" which seems to imply that maybe her being worshiped is actually part of her prison rather than a potential exit from it?  I'm not sure which way it'll go in the future, but it's a lot of cool info on an otherwise barely known Tyrant.

 

Obliteration

This is just my own personal theory, but when the Burning Man and Adeodatos are mentioned there's a lot of mention of time and the "space between spaces".  Specifically, when the Burning Man came into being he teleported about a week back in time and from Malifaux to San Francisco, and when his timelines matched back up the San Fran earthquake happened (it doesn't clearly state whether the Burning Man's the cause or if it's a coincidence, but it feels causal from how it's written).  Additionally, the two Tyrants merging is said to have caused a "surge of magic [...] so great that it imprinted itself on the retina of the cosmos like a breand on seared flesh, and visions of the entity rippled backwards through time like ripples on a pond."  The Stalking Portals are described as portals that don't actually lead to anywhere else but "connect to somewhere in-between [Earth and Malifaux]."  Lastly, when Edmonton shoots Adeodatos in the head with a Soulstone bullet (which is described as being a "perfect shot") instead of dying or showing any sort of injury Adeodatos just sort of fades away and states "This is not the end, [...] In his light, I have found eternity."  So what does this all mean?  I predict the Cult messing around with huge amounts of breaches and intentionally using ones that only go part of the way is going to screw with the Void in some way, and maybe even give Obliteration a back-door back into Malifaux.  There's a lot of mention of time and space in the book, and maybe I'm just reading too much into it, but it could be a cool angle for everything.

[santaclaws01]

@retnab regarding Meridian, it was stated in the TTB2 core rules that Meridion was imprisoned in the ley lines of malifaux, which are also the source of her power. So it's likely that all her idols and such on ley lines is also serving to strengthen her cage as well as herself.

[Gnomezilla]

18 minutes ago, santaclaws01 said:

@retnab regarding Meridian, it was stated in the TTB2 core rules that Meridion was imprisoned in the ley lines of malifaux, which are also the source of her power. So it's likely that all her idols and such on ley lines is also serving to strengthen her cage as well as herself.

What, like the obsidian statue which just got imported and sentient?

I like the confirmation that she is the construct queen, at least in part.

[santaclaws01]

So with the new books coming out we've got a good amount of new information regarding the tyrants as well as some intriguing new characters. Could probably update it once all the books have their general release.

[Bazlord_Prime]

@Rathnard Awesome thread!
I've only skimmed it, but I haven't seen anyone refer to the Crossroads Seven story that I'm currently listening to on Breachside Broadcasts, "The Bold & The Desperate" (Episodes 143 & 144). In there, it's stated that:

SPOILERS!!!

SPOILERS!!!

SPOILERS!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• the tyrant Fortune is represented by a man in black and a woman in red. They tried to select Lynch as their plaything, but someone else got there first (Hungering Darkness, or whatever guides it), and they lament the loss, but settle on making do by creating the Crossroads Seven band (Episode 144, ~6m35s);
• Pandora bursts in on the Crossroads' performance, holding her box open, and recognises the man and woman as Fortune, who in turn recognise that controlling Pandora is the tyrant Despair (Ep 144, 8m20s);
• Despair tells Fortune that occupying two bodies is a neat trick, just like Dragon has done, confirming that Dragon is one Tyrant in two bodies (Shenlong and ???), (Ep144, 9m12s).

That's all!

Bazlord

P.S. Just finished the episode, and it seems that this story might be from the "Malifaux Burns" book? Sorry - I have no idea. Anyway, it certainly seems to be explaining the new Pandora Title, "Tyrant Torn", and that lovely new dress of hers...  😉

[hastur5]

Breaking news and Spoiler alert！！！！

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A human being so-called Damian Ravencroft somehow released the Witness and became her host.

[BoneHeart]

Not very well versed in the Lore myself, but I have a Lynch crew hanging around.

Can someone tell me more about the hungering darkness please? Is he a Tyrant at all?

Thanks

[Adran]

1 hour ago, BoneHeart said:

Not very well versed in the Lore myself, but I have a Lynch crew hanging around.

Can someone tell me more about the hungering darkness please? Is he a Tyrant at all?

Thanks

From memory he isn’t one of the 13 tyrants, but he was around at that time. I think he was probably the next level of power down. I'm going to try and find a link to a better resource and add it here, so look back fir an edit.

[Adran]

On 2/21/2021 at 1:17 AM, shadykx125 said:

Let me know what you think!

This might help. 

[BoneHeart]

Thank you