hmm, this is good talk. I enjoyed reading it. I have something too say on two of the matters.
The first being our lich player.
1: At this moment he is nothing to me, it may sound a little harsh, but he has crossed two very sacred lines of role playing by first god modding and second ignoring his GM. Both of these are highly punishable offenses and on the old site were worthy of a temporary ban. I will not accept any excuses from him, and will only begin to trust him again once he shows change and improvement over a series of posts and private messages. That is all I have to say about that.
2: Samuel and the Succubus Queen. First CaptainQ, I like your thoughts on how both sides of a war between good and evil can be considered 'just', however what about characters who simply do not care? Those one in a million who simply cause war and suffering because they take joy from it.
The Succubus queen is one of these. She has no allegiance to any one demon or angel, and simply acts on whim. This fact, coupled with the unholy amount of power she holds is the reason Samuel sealed her within the void. He awaits the on who will be destined to destroy her. For a creature such as that cannot be allowed to live. Or at least that is what Samuel believes.
Now, if we consider the Queens side of things we must think of the following:
1: She is an immortal being, and has existed since long before any writings that exist today. For a long period of time she was forced into dormancy, simply awaiting something exciting to kill some time with. Now if you were in this position, slowly growing more and more desperate for a challenge worthy of your power, a madness worthy of your time, what would you do?
Would you awaken an ancient and powerful demon king with the sole goal of bringing darkness into the world? Or would you find some other means of dealing with your boredom. The Queen chose the demon king route and now history will forever be stained with a black ink. She is simply bored, and while to the mortal hero's that fight against her it may seem unjust and unfair, what about to her. Their lives are but a chapter in her unending story, so why not liven up the world for a small time. She knows that it will eventually pass and that the world will return to another age of peace. To her this is just a game.
To the hero's it is their very life.
now I cannot speak for Eliphas, whether he thinks the same way or not, but in truth the Succubus Queen does not care, she is detached and is simply looking for a thrill. Now whether or not Eliphas is saving his Queen out of love or out of a sense of debt I do not know, but he has chosen to commit a hefty amount of resources to this action.
Samuel cannot allow this, he may be an immortal, but he is new to the life, he still sees the precious value mortal life holds. He chose to fight against this Succubus because he disagreed with her decision and could not stand the horror it would bring. I will go into more depth as too the exact relationship they had before the battle when Samuel is found, but for now this is all I can tell you. All that we know at this moment is that the Succubus Queen will bring a great darkness when she returns, she will be fueled by anger for the insolence of the one who imprisoned her, and she will be dieing for the taste of battle. She is a thrill seeker and refuses to live in latency and longer.
Does that help explain her role?