Ezra

[Alanik Ray]

I just finished reading JWM's article about Ezra in the Book of Secrets (very good by the way) and began to wonder if she really exists or if she's just one more creation of the Dark Powers. I am thinking of making her the only true non Dark Powers "deity" in my campaign. Just out of curiosity, I would like to know what's your take on this subject. Is she real in you game?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I've toyed with the idea of Ezra's identity a bit, even though it's not come up in my actual games. I'm rather taken with the theory that Ezra is sort of an "anti-phantasmagora" in the making: an accumulation of faith and devotion, which has taken on the first stirrings of consciousness ... and which only became "real" after her church started to spread across the Land of Mists.

We know that the DPs have created fake deities (like Zhakata) over the years, and that entirely made-up religions can give rise to clerics, in the Land of Mists. What if "Ezra" started out as just a name and concept that popped into Yakov Dilisnya's concussed brain, but once his teachings began to catch on, the same thing happened to the Church of Ezra...? And what if the resulting creed's unprecedented success, once its clerics set out to proselytize their faith, has had a consequence that even the DPs may not have anticipated?

Most such bogus belief-systems are confined to a single domain or even a lone village, but Ezra's had spread like a weed across the Land. Over the years, as new sects appeared and new congregations arose, this thriving belief-system could have built up a reserve of faith-energies that, unlike belief in genuine deities, didn't have a recipient to claim it: Ravenlofters' faith in the Lawgiver or the Morninglord might well pass beyond the demiplane to FR deities, but initially there wasn't anyplace for belief in Ezra to go ... none, that is, except the Ethereal Plane of Ravenloft itself. This faith-energy, unlike the localized resonance seen at fixed sites of strong emotion, could've permeated the ether as a whole, building up and gradually growing powerful enough to become semi-conscious: dispersed across the world, slightly protean, and not yet fully self-aware or capable of choosing its own path, but more than just a phony idea the Dark Powers found it convenient to sustain.

This Ezra-entity wouldn't be a god in the conventional sense, but it would relate to its worshippers in a comparable way. It could grant spells in the same manner as an alignment-based religion; as Ezra's believers think of her as merged with the Mists, it can bestow Mist-traveling on her greatest followers, because they have faith their goddess can surely do such things. Its nascent personality wouldn't be set in stone, but would shift between one cultural context and another, to match the prevailing preconceptions and beliefs of the mortals whose faith generates it. (Hence, the different sects' alignments and beliefs are reflected in Ezra's nature, within a given culture; there's no contradiction in Borca's Ezra being different from Nevuchar Springs' being different from Souragne's, because Ezra really is different in each region.) At the same time, the basic premises of Ezra's religion -- the Grand Scheme, that Ezra's a guardian against evil monsters, that she's female -- are what stimulates the bulk of believers' collective faith-resonance (which is what lets the anti-phantasmagora exist), so these core aspects of Ezra can't be directly repudiated by would-be followers, without losing touch with the entity. I'm not sure when the entity would've become aware enough to take over the job of being the Ezrans' patron from the DPs, but it would probably have happened shortly before the first Ezran cleric learned how to Mist-travel.

The intriguing thing about this "collective faith" model is that, in future, it's possible that mortals' evolving beliefs about Ezra could push the entity's emergant personality in many possible directions: will it/she be stringent? forgiving? zealous? inclusive? contemplative? It'd all depend on which of the existing or future sects claims the broadest and most-devout array of worshippers, as every believer's conception of their goddess affects what nature the Ezra-entity might have, should its cumulative resonance hit a critical mass and congeal into a fully-conscious, defined individual. If that happens, the resulting being might qualify as a goddess, or an anti-Dark Power, or something else entirely ... but wondering what she'll be like is far more of an intriguing question, IMHO, than merely what she'll be.

[Le Noir Faineant]

More about Ezra? --> Join my Staunton Bluffs PbP to find out my vision of her...

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Rotipher, I think you've got an interesting idea there. What you're describing sounds a lot like a Tibetan "tulpa" (or the western equivalent, an egregor). I'm featuring such creatures in a novel I'm working on, and lemme tell you, there's some fascinating aspects to them.

My take on Ezra goes all the way back to the original concept of the Dark Powers. Remember in the DoD there was list of arguments in favor of good or evil DP's, or one or many? I split the difference IMC by separating the powers into two camps: the Prisoner and the Prison.

RL is like a cosmic prison for an unspeakable evil, and the forces that jailed it made the plane somewhat sentient and charged it with keeping the Prisoner forever. The Prisoner eventually managed to draw in others, but they were little more than entertainment for it; the Prison remained strong as ever with regard to stuff going out. The prisoner was responsible for the "beneficial" aspects of power checks, while the jail created curses, punished and restricted DL's, and drew in heroes to fight against the growing evil.

Then the Grand Conjunction blew everything to bits. The Prisoner had managed to draw in enough lives that it could lose itself in the crowd, and it nearly escaped. The Prison wasn't cut out for this kind of chess game with a uber-god; it's only strength was it's machinelike singlemindedness, and that just wasn't enough anymore.

So it was that the Prison sought a greater level of consciousness, and Yakov Dilisnya's devotion gave it a beachhead. As Ezra, the Prison could add the faith of thousands to it's efforts, and it could understand the people of the demiplane better, so that the Prisoner could never hide itself among them again.

[Nathan of the FoS]

I've toyed with the idea of Ezra's identity a bit, even though it's not come up in my actual games. I'm rather taken with the theory that Ezra is sort of an "anti-phantasmagora" in the making: an accumulation of faith and devotion, which has taken on the first stirrings of consciousness ... and which only became "real" after her church started to spread across the Land of Mists.

Question...did you pick this up from the "Sorority of Shadows" thread?...If not, great minds think alike!

[Serith]

I like the idea of a paradigm inhanced "Goddess"...the anti-Phantasmagora idea is rather intruiging. From my take at looking at the various materials available, I would almost have to agree with the usage of the "Prion" and "Prisoner" model...especially if the Sect of Dementleu's studies actually do pan out.

In recent weeks I've read and re-read materials on the Dementleu sect, with its various views on numbers and mysteries andcan't help but think of the idea that the mist, itself, is trying to communicate to the Anchorites in some Fashion. If so..what is it that its trying to actually say?

[The Giamarga]

Very interesting stuff all around. I especially like the Prisoner/Prison theory. But what is your explanation for the alignment split? And where is it heading IYC? what about the fifth sect?

[Igor the Henchman]

My favorite theory is that Ezra is actually Ravenloft's first repentant Darklord.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Along with many things, I find Ezra to be a DM's perogative in lines of whether she truly existed or not. You deicde and whatever you decide is the best for you (plus you can change your mind later if necessary, hehehehe)

[Coan]

More about Ezra? --> Join my Staunton Bluffs PbP to find out my vision of her...

Lol, I'm using my own in Halfling Walks as well. Although Ezra hasn't quite come to the foreground just yet.