Known Sages on Palladium

[Razorwing]

One of the more interesting (in my opinion at least) tidbits of information from the Yin-Sloth Jungles book (are we ever going to get an updated 2nd Edition for this book) is the information on Sages... Immortal historians that are trying to record current events in an accurate and unbiased way.

It says that there are only about a dozen or so of these individuals on all of Palladium, but only mentions one of them... Sulyott, The All Knowing. Unfortunately, finding mention of any of the other Sages on Palladium is proving difficult (so many books with so many pages to go through with little information on where to look for it).

Has anyone found any mention of any other Sages in any of the other books? Trying to find it proving to be the preverbal needle in a haystack.

[kiralon]

The Western Empire books has more mention of sages, and some of them are just scholars, but the best info on them is in yin sloth. It seems that the idea was discontinued. Bletherad has a blurb that The Sage was the one who founded nletherad (and has a wing named after him) but he would tell any mortal what he knew, which seems to be against what the sages stood for so when the Incunabula burned this might of been the reason he wasn't helped more.
One of the books in the library mention Cubular Benthee, a sage apparently from Timiro

[Razorwing]

In the Yin Sloth Jungle book, the information on Sages states that they will share their information with anyone who asks, provided they can reach the usually isolated locations where the Sages are located (such as the hostile Yin Sloth Jungle where the only stated Sage lives).

I would guess that Cubular Benthee is in a similarly isolated area of the Timiro Kingdom... possibly in the mountains (the ones with the Place of Magic).

Hmmm... maybe we could come up with ideas for Sages for other areas of the world. There are only supposed to be 12 or so, and we have the names of 2. I am guessing the Western Empire would merit a Sage of their own (3). The Land of the South Winds might fall under the area of the Yin-Sloth Jungle, but given it is a little less hostile it might get its own Sage too (4). We already know that the Yin-Sloth Jungles and the Kingdom of Timiro has their own Sages. The Old Kingdom is full of history waiting to be unearthed, so would likely draw a Sage to uncover it (5). The Eastern Territories and Wolfen Empire likely have their own Sages documenting both sides of the imminent conflict brewing there (6 & 7). The Northern Hinterlands (including Ophid's Grasslands and possibly the Kingdom of Bizantium) should probably have a Sage given the events that could see the birth of a new nation along the Shadow Coast (8). Though very hostile, it is possible that a Sage might be drawn to the Land of the Damned to chronicle the events happening there... how many world shaking events may have been narrowly thwarted from dooming the rest of the world? (9). Not sure if the Baalgor Wastelands or Mt. Nimro and Mt. Nimrod would be seen as their own areas or fall in with the Old Kingdom area... but we could have one Sage keeping an eye on events for both... especially with the emergent Kingdom of Giants (10). While technically members of the Eastern Territories, the Iles of Phi and Lopan have enough of a history to warrant a separate Sage, especially with the Western Empire possibly planning an invasion of one or both in the near future (11). Finally, there are the small islands around the continent that are not claimed by any nation that may merit the attention of a Sage... from the Isle of the Cyclops in the West, to the Floenry Iles in the south to the Iles of Y-Oda and Zy in the East (though the Wolfen Empire does lay claim to these two) (12).

Now, while all are immortal, not all of them have to be human (though the need to be eligible for both the Wizard and Mind Mage classes... which does include Dwarves as they only choose to not practice magic... and one of their last Wizards may have chosen to become a Sage to undo some of the harm s/he caused during the War).

Just some thoughts...

[Soldier of Od]

There is a sage mentioned in the city of Golfax in the Western empire:
33. Boruskus. A sage who's become quite an authority on the underground labyrinth of Kabarras. He claims to know of several secret ways in and out of the catacombs and will share them with interested parties ... for the hefty price of 500 gold.
But given the off-handed way he is mentioned he might not be a true 'Sage' in the Sulyott sense.

EDIT: just found all these sages in the Western Empire too:
Caer Itom: 22. Sage. An expert source on treasure hunting. "The Sage" appears to be an elf in his hundreds, which means he must be 500 years old or older. Nobody knows what other powers or secrets he may hold.
Epiphany: 19. Sage for hire. Knowledgeable on many subjects, but a nutcase with an armload of conspiracy theories.
Shinkasa: 10. Alskis Brage, Alchemist and Sage. He is a 9th level Alchemist of diabolic alignment, and associates with unsavoury characters.
Ophidia: 28. Wertrew of Many Lands is a freelance sage whose specialty is history, lore and foreign cultures.
Caer Glaverius: 38. Sage. This one is an expert on Western nobility.

I presumed that none of these guys was necessarily a 'true' Sage, just wise guys who sell knowledge. Especially considering that one of them is explicitly stated as being a diabolic alchemist. However, then I found this one in the Verequel Woodlands:
Pallisade: 25. Vitelius Coton, Sage. Not a bona fide sage, but a very learned (13th level) scholar.

So if he's not a bona fide sage, that implies that the others are? I'd leave it for the GM to decide whether any of them are 'true' sages.


Also, as Kiralon says, the leader of the Guardians of Bletherad is called a sage, but his stats show he is not a 'proper' Sage. But the original sage mentioned in the founding of Bletherad was a true Sage (and one of Sulyott's contemporaries) - see page 26 of book 12. I don't think it says what happened to him.

[mirithol]

I have a sage residing in an island monastery/library just inside the Sea of Despair and on a ley line. Inspired by Ursla K. Le Guin's Earthsea, the monastery is the entire small island rising as towers out of the storm-wracked sea. Because of the ley line sea serpents frequent the area making the approach very dangerous. The sage is the last of his kind and a survivor of the War of Chaos. He is also a giant and his library if filled with giant sized stone tomes and the pages take great strength to turn. Finally, while the "monks" serving the library are very much alive by day, at dusk the entire place is filled with dangerous spirits until dawn. Sometimes these spirits may be negotiated with for ancient information, but the price is often high. Sometimes they just want to kill you.

[Razorwing]

I have a sage residing in an island monastery/library just inside the Sea of Despair and on a ley line. Inspired by Ursla K. Le Guin's Earthsea, the monastery is the entire small island rising as towers out of the storm-wracked sea. Because of the ley line sea serpents frequent the area making the approach very dangerous. The sage is the last of his kind and a survivor of the War of Chaos. He is also a giant and his library if filled with giant sized stone tomes and the pages take great strength to turn. Finally, while the "monks" serving the library are very much alive by day, at dusk the entire place is filled with dangerous spirits until dawn. Sometimes these spirits may be negotiated with for ancient information, but the price is often high. Sometimes they just want to kill you.

An interesting idea to be sure... though it does contradict a few things we know about sages.

1) The oldest sage is only about 8,000 years old... while a Sage may have studied and pieced together information on the Chaos War, they were not witnesses to that even... or most events of history.

2) it is unlikely that the Library he is in is that old... especially with the Great Library of Bletherad being the greatest repository of knowledge in the modern era of Palladium. If this library is older than Bletherad... or its predecessor, then like Bletherad's predecessor it should have been attacked by the Zealotry in their attempts to destroy all knowledge (and while it is in a dangerous location, it isn't unassailable).

Still... I do like the idea of an island monastery with a Sage Giant (and giant-sized books) guarded by ancient spirits. Just saying that neither the monastery nor the Sage who lives there will be as old as you claim. Perhaps he is one of the last Titans who came here after the Elf/Dwarf war to forget about the atrocities s/he witnessed (participated in?) and built this place to record the history that would unfold afterwards (or to preserve the knowledge that was being destroyed by the Purges that followed the war). Maybe hidden within are lost magical secrets that could restore the glories that were lost... or cause the same suffering if the wrong people (Western Empire, Wolfen or Eastern Territory zealots) were to find them.

So many possibilities...

[mirithol]

The monastery is on the far side of the Sea of Despair, well hidden and protected by magic. It is actually a watch tower for "something" that I won't disclose here. Edge of the world kind of stuff and a difficult journey.

This was created after the War of the Gods - so much older than 8,000 years. This is not the Sage you are looking for...

You're close with the Titan idea and this one, the last of his kind, has 10,000 eyes. Many of the "tomes" are the size of small rooms and made of stone. Turning a page is like moving a thin, but heavy wall and must be done with care in order not to break the page. I'm sure the forum has the talent to figure out what the thickness of a 10'x20' stone page would need to be in order to make it structurally sound, the stone type, and its weight, but my group was fine with 8.88" thick and magical. Think of an open book in a 20'x20' room - seam in the middle. The place is giant sized and each room has a balcony around it 20' feet up - sometimes with a throne like chair with full view of the room.

Fun to confuse the player characters with the size distortions.

In play, they just assumed they were walking on an engraved stone floor rather than a magical overlarge stone book. The rogue discovered a crack along the edges of the room, and they figured it out. They ruined a few pages and inadvertently squished a few player characters on the first attempt to turn a page. A large banner was really a bookmark. And a 14' pole was a wand of page turning. Of course, they thought it was a stripper pole. Geez.