Here is one of my favorite heresies from a previous CF thread:
I postulate, given the canon history concerning the worship of these two among the Oeridians, namely the Great Kingdom and their pre-cataclysm ancestors, that Heironeous and Hextor may indeed be the same person. "H" is a dual-personality, diametrically opposed in alignment, that seeks to do both justice and discord, constantly fighting within himself for complete control of his godhood while playing two religions against one another in a mortal manifestation of his own psychotic behavior.
Birth/Origins:
"There is great emnity between Heironeous and his (half)brother, Hextor, who chose a different course. Each seeks to destroy each other."
"Especially does Hextor seek to overthrow those serving Heironeous. The latter is his half-brother and chief enemy."
At birth, Heironeous had his skin imbued with a secret solution, which protects him from many weapons, magical and non-magical alike."
"Always inferior to this half-brother, the Lords of Evil granted Hextor six arms instead of a mere pair."
Heironeous was bathed like Achilles to make him invulnerable and to compensate Hextor was given extra arms by the still to this day unknown Lords of Evil. It is well known they are suppose to be half brothers possibly born of Stern Alia and seperate unknown fathers. So there is already a blood connection and certainly a resemblance in the least to Alia. Stern Alia is the demigoddess of Oeridian culture and motherhood. I would expect she is the one who imbued Heironeous as a child and no doubt as any mother would she would have even spoiled Hextor. In the case of 'H' one personality (Hex) wasn't happy with the better treatment of the other (Heir) and so the fictional Lords of Evil (Alia) gave (Hex) more arms to compete with, thus spoiling him rotten.
Altering forms:
"Heironeous is tall, with coppery skin, auburn hair, and amber eyes. However, he has the power to create an illusion which makes him appear as a young boy, a mercenary soldier or an old man."
"Hextor appears as a normal, handsome man when in disguise, for he can cause four of his arms to meld with his torso whenever he so desires. His complexion is fair and his hair is jet black, as are his eyes. He is well-spoken and charming, a hale fellow and a man's man, yet irrestible to women."
"When in his true form, however, Hextor is gray of skin, lank haired, red-rimmed eyes bulging from a visage horrible to look upon."
Both brothers share the ability to appear as something else. This supports the theory. 'H' can appear as any sort of male, in either personality. (Heir) can dull down his appearance to be a common soldier while (Hex) can enhance his looks and drop the arms to appear every bit as approachable as (Heir). Mutable forms/Illusions are not an uncommon ability for deities, and in this case it not only provides the dominant personality of 'H' with a visage it permits 'H' to play both sides of the Oeridian fence, being both a paladin knight and a fearsome warlord whenever or where-ever the mood suits him.
Planes and Signature Effects:
"Heironeous often leaves the Seven Heavens in order to move around the Prime Material Plane in order to aid heroic causes and champion lawful good."
"Hextor dwells on the Plane of Acheron but can wander to those of Hell or even Nirvana. Most frequently though, Hextor treads the Prime Material Plane in search of warfare, aiding lawful evil, opposing good."
"His personal weapon is a great magical battle axe which shrinks to one-twentieth of its normal five feet of length, or back to full size upon Heironeous willing such."
"In battle Hextor draws two great bows which fire iron-barbed shafts. At close range he employs two spiked bucklers and four weapons. Typically these are a fork, a scimitar, a flail and a morning star."
"In the latter guises he (Heir) will be garbed appropriately, but he always wears a suit of fine, magical chainmail."
"Hextor wears armor consisting of iron scaleswith strips of metal at shoulder and cuff....Around his neck is the Symbol of Hate and Discord..."
Both aspects of 'H' have home planes that correspond to their alignment. The struggle between Heaven and Acheron/Hell leads 'H' in both forms to tread upon the Prime (Oerth) with frequency. Here, he does most of his work for both alignments, undoing what the other personality starts and so on. The personal effects of 'H' can likewise be explained through the mutable powers of his appearance. (Heir) can change his garb and likewise (Hex)'s garments must be mutable to accomodate the melding arms. Thus his armor is part of the personalty shift. The unique weaponry must also be able to be summoned or shifted in a similar manner. (Heir)'s sword can shrink to about three inches in height, so it isn't a stretch to assume the (Hex) personality of 'H' can do this for his items as well. Items could be left/vanished back to home planes as well depending on who is in control, this way the Trumpet of Acheron is never in the hands of (Heir).
Alignment Powers:
"Heironeous can loose a bolt of energy drawn from the Positive Material Plane...It is dangerous to creatures native to the lower planes..."
"Hextor is able to arouse discord in his surroundings. Friends will argue with friend, irks become hate and petty jealousy grows to seething rage."
The conflicting alignments of 'H' are indeed true to their nature when in control and no memory of the other alignment is detectable when in that current guise. This way, (Heir) is able to draw upon Positive power or (Hex) is able to control the undead summoned through the Trumpet of Acheron. It permits 'H' access to both the upper and lower planes but only when in the appropriate alignment personality. Interestingly (Hex)'s ability to project discord in those around him may be further evidence of the duelling minds as it mirrors the discord within 'H'.
Caveats and stuff:
Understandably, the gods, Stern Alia in the very least would know of the 'H' situation. Why would they sit by and let one god bounce back and forth recklessly? Evil would relish the irony, as lawful as both aspects of 'H' claim to be they are chaotic from a point of view. Wouldn't the gods of good, namely Pelor or Rao try and heal 'H' and certainly in favor of good? Maybe they have tried before and failed so then by bargain with the other gods, as has been seen before in matters like Tharizdun, they have allowed 'H' to operate in delusion as long as it maintains the cosmic balance that is so key to Greyhawk. Then there is the question of them appearing in the same place at the same time. It is written in canon that they seek to slay one another, but never concretely are they shown to have clashed anywhere in Oerth history. So keeping with the theory this could very well be a battle in his mind only played out in reality through the mortal chess pieces that worship 'H'. As such mortal's religious art depicting the two locked in combat with each other is still technically true but none know it is a metaphysical representation of 'H''s inner-struggle.
The first rule about MPD deity fight club is, you don't talk about MPD deity fight club.
I think you managed to get crazier than my Heironeous-Hextor as lovers split by outside influences heresy, which is one heck of an accomplishment.
I'm just seeing "them" in some grand plan to destroy each others' main cathedral, building a secret organization, Meat Loaf getting killed (Like a Bat Out of Acheron: Deific Evolution), and then in a dramatic confrontation they realize they are the same person as the catherdrals tumble down, and the integrated deity wanders off the Ysgard/Limbo/Pandemonium to embrace being a thoroughly Chaotic deity of all kinds of fighting.
Actually, just ditch Stern Alia altogether, along with any other fluff from Chainmail. Didn’t your mothers teach you not to play with dead things?
As to Hextoneous, you are pretty close Mort. On to the Heresy then...
“Once there was greater deity of war. This deity was neither good nor evil, and exemplified all aspects of war- the good that can come from defending a righteous cause, the evil that can cause war, the order with which war can be trained for and fought, and the chaos of actual conflict. This deity was invariably NEUTRAL, with varying tendencies towards law, chaos, good, and evil, and with no way to tell one way or another what that tendency(if any) would be at any given place or time.
Perhaps it was inevitable that, being so given over to war, the deity began to war with itself. The result of this internal conflict was that the deity developed two primal selves, each self embodying opposing aspects of war, that strove to dominate the other. Ultimately, the god split into two lesser deities with neither gaining the upper hand. Since their “birth” each god has sought to increase its power over the other, one allying itself with the fell powers of the Nine Hells in return for gaining multiple limbs and a terrible aspect; the other allying with the upper planes and receiving invulnerability and a glorious aspect. To this day, these two deities and their followers continue the conflict.”
And now you know where baby Heironeous’s and baby Hextor’s come from.
I like the notion of a Neutral Greater God of war that warred with itself, but Heironeous and Hextor lack diametrically opposed alignments. Also, how does Erythnul figure into these mythts?
IIRC, some posters suggested that Velnius was Heironeous's father, and Erythnul was Hextor's.
It was late/early when I wrote that so for lack of a better reason, sleep depravation caused a few mistakes there. Here is the solution/edit:
The original uber war god was LAWFUL neutral, and "spawned" the lawful good and lawful evil war deities (twin aspects of itself- one good; one evil). Erythnul was all along a separate, lesser deity. Erythnul hated the uber war god because it was more powerful than him, and he could not do much of anything to oppose it. Also, the uber war god’s idea of conflict was opposed to Erythnul's particular brand of violence. Erythnul would of course hate the uber war god's "progeny". Better yet, the lesser power of the “progeny” gives Erythnul the chance to directly oppose them. Perhaps in the origin myth, Erythnul has a hand in starting the self conflict of the uber war god in the first place. It sure fits his Hate, Envy, Malice aspects perfectly. Erythnul is no genius, but he can be cunning. In the LG write-up of Erythnul it even poses the idea that Erythnul predates Hextor and that he has lost worshipers to him, which of course would simply serve to make Erythnul even MORE pissed off.
SKR's latest Core Beliefs article now has a bit that supports my heretical theory. Yes, I am now a kooky LN monk:
The Celestial Grindwheel:
This collection of scrolls was declared a heresy a century ago when a Hextoran monk penned it after weeks of meditation....<snip>The part that outraged the church is the idea that Heironeous and Hextor are two aspects of the same being or perhaps a single entity split into two incomplete halves....
The keepers of this belief are a strange group of lawful neutral monks who worship both brothers equally.
I think you managed to get crazier than my Heironeous-Hextor as lovers split by outside influences heresy, which is one heck of an accomplishment.
Umm, wow. Coming in very, very, very late to this thread, but I had to comment anyway. I had never envisioned them as lovers, but that sure would explain a lot! :-)
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