The Hermes Seal

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GM James R

The Hermes Seal was a desperate act of intervention by the gods and rulers of the Outer Planes in their second massive battle against Tiamat, The War of Many Names.

History

Background

During the War of Many Names, the realm once again found itself as one of the major battlegrounds of the gods. The Dragon Queen Tiamat was determined to seize the realm in vengeance for her people being savaged and massacred at every turn. Even as the Dragons returned to the realm, the reaction of most major populations was to man the cannons, not to come to the table.

One tactic Tiamat had learned in her time of banishment was taught to her by her new ally, Vecna. The God of Secrets had let her in on one of his own, how to tear down the power of the other gods from the inside out. Unlike Tiamat, most of the other gods partaking in the war had domains where they lived and ruled from. These domains included The Blessed Fields of Elysium, the Golden Hills of Bytopia, and of course Solania, near the peak of Mt. Celestia.

While Tiamat could never dream of entering those domains herself, there were millions of souls in the realm that, upon death, would be greeted with open arms at whichever Heaven's Gate awaited them. By weaponizing and radicalizing creatures in life, The devils who Tiamat still kept from her time in Avernus traveled the realm, whispering in the ears of imprudent souls. They were promised riches, power, or their wildest desires, and in return they were to gather in the afterlife, forging and following secrets plans which would let them take down the gods and seize holy domains for themselves.

And so The Cult of Heaven's Gate began their work, slowly but surely infiltrating the Outer Planes even in death, forming sects of power that Tiamat could deploy at a moment's notice, which culminated in Operation Psychobomb, a failed attempt by Tiamat's allied forces to take down a number of major gods in their home planes, one of the few battles in all of Quelmar history where former mortals successfully seized the power of demigods by force alone. Despite many of Tiamat's forces gaining god-like powers themselves, ultimately all fronts were a total loss. But action needed to be taken to prevent another close call.

Olympia's Idea

Dealing with the aftermath, councils and holy commissions gathered in every good-aligned Outer Plane from Arcadia to Ysgard. Of the many plans proposed, the idea that caught the most traction was one by the gods in Olympia, one of the major aspects of Arborea. It was there that Zeus and Hera confronted Hermes and his fleet of Charonadaemons. Being the major Psychopomp of Arborea, it was Hermes' job to bring souls from the Ethereal Plane to their final resting place in the afterlife. Hermes defended his actions, believing that he could not detect any trace of evil on the deceased as he ascended them to paradise....but with so many deaths (due to The Second Holy War), there was less time to accurately judge and review every soul for nefarious underlying secrets. Hermes proposed a new idea, not just to the Olympic Gods, but also the The Seldarine, also located in Arborea.

The Seal

Hermes proposed that operations among the astral rivers that brought souls to the afterlife be waitlisted. That every soul be double checked personally by the highest and most powerful psychopomp each afterlife had to offer. Even knowing the incredible burden this would place on himself, Hermes refused to entertain other options because he righteously believed that if any more of these "Psychobombs" made it through the gates, he would hold himself personally responsible. Both the Olympic and Elven courts of Arborea were overwhelmingly in favor of the idea, and the extra security (despite keeping many souls stuck as ghosts) would ensure the safety of the deities in this ongoing holy war. Meetings continued to escalate not just in Arborea but between envoys from various planes, and Hermes' idea spread like wildfire.

Response

Thanks to the Hermes Seal (as it began to be called), souls all over the realm began to suffer from a delayed delivery to afterlife. As a result, ghosts began to appear more and more in the Material Plane. The rise of the Ghost Field among major populations was a direct result of the Hermes Seal. As the promise of paradise was kept at bay, many ghosts began to resent their status on the waitlist, and impatience soon turned into aggression as they suffered in a state of limbo. This, in turn, caused a rise in angry sprits around the realm.

Because the souls of the deceased tended to linger near their area of death, major populations such as Al'Adeaf, Ahol, and Dolmvay suffered the worst effects of the Hermes Seal. In Ahol's case, they dealt with the issue by going to war with the ghosts, forming anti-spirit shields and technology to keep the ghosts at bay.

In the case of Al'Adeaf, the people discovered a method to try to overcome the seal, in the form of beautifully ornate, well crafted, and expensive creations known as Funerary Statues.

The Dead Men Tell No Tales Curse

Some locations of intense immoral activity, such as the nefarious city of Nymphsview, fought back against the Hermes Seal with a powerful curse that, while it didn't stop the ghosts, kept them from revealing what they had witnessed in life.

Dissolution

The Hermes Seal was dissolved for good during the Fracturing of the Weave and subsequent deattuning of the planes.

Behind the Screen

The Hermes Seal functions as a bridge between traditional sword-and-sorcery game systems, and systems which rely on a supernaturally and ever-present high number of ghosts in the world, such as GM: Blades in the Dark, GM: Swords of the Serpentine, GM: Kamigakari, GM: Nekrovon, and GM: Ghosts of Albion.