How does Azalin know about the Gentleman Caller?

[BigBadQDaddy]

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW***

Hey everyone.

I just started Gazeteer IV a couple days ago and I came across a tidbit that I found interesting/troubling.

Now, I have not finished the book yet so I may be asking a redundant question. How exactly does Azalin know about the Gentleman Caller and his children?

I don't know if the series answers this question as the gazetteers come to an end or what (if they do, someone say so and I will shut up and finish the books).

Also, if anyone had any theories regarding this question. I personally think it would be interesting if Azalin had in fact managed to do what Isolde couldn't and actually captured the Gentleman Caller. Imagine the adventure that would entail if a group of PCs had to join forces with the reclusive angel to retrieve the demon from Azalins clutches.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

While a fiend's reality wrinkle is treated like a "domain" in many respects, it may not qualify as enough of one to exempt a fiend in Darkon from the phenomenon that records the life story of everyone who enters. If so, Azalin probably has both the Gentleman Caller's and Isolde's life stories filling up several shelves of the library at Castle Avernus. (It's reasonable to assume the GC has been to Darkon, because Isolde and Azalin have met at least once, and she only brings the Carnival to places where the incubus has been.)

[BigBadQDaddy]

Ah, Good call.

I never thought of that. It does make absolute sense that Azalin would look up the info pertaining to Isolde due to the Carnival.
Thanks.

[Matthew L. Martin]

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW***

Hey everyone.

I just started Gazeteer IV a couple days ago and I came across a tidbit that I found interesting/troubling.

Now, I have not finished the book yet so I may be asking a redundant question. How exactly does Azalin know about the Gentleman Caller and his children?

I don't know if the series answers this question as the gazetteers come to an end or what (if they do, someone say so and I will shut up and finish the books).

Azalin learned about the Dukkars from his time spent merged with Darkon, he knows Malocchio is one, and he's almost certainly got the resources to piece together the general outline of Malocchio's origins, given that Gabrielle and Matton both know about the Caller and don't realize exactly what or how important he really is.

[Lucius]

As Matthew L. Martin said, when merged with DArkon Azalin listened to the Dark Powers. In RL 3e, he states that he learned that there are mysteries that even them don´t understand...these mysteries, I think, are the GC and his children.

Probably he listened they discussing the purpose of the GC with his children (many of whose are Dukkars), and perceived that they don´t understand the purposes of the Gc, and are unable to oppose the Dukkar´s powers. Since Gaz 4 even states that even the DPs must have difficulty to percceive the Dukkar.

[Drusilla]

He's Alazin's Daddy and I'm Azalin's mummy. Well I say so so it's gontta be try

Oh, and i do insist you visit the carnival if they ever come to your town, I had a great time visiting all the amusements, plus those Pickled Punks are really tasty with the right spices, yummy!

[BigBadQDaddy]

Oh, and i do insist you visit the carnival if they ever come to your town, I had a great time visiting all the amusements, plus those Pickled Punks are really tasty with the right spices, yummy!

Well, if the carnival does come to minnesota, I am sure the Pickled punks will be deep fried and served on a stick. Yumm yum!

[alhoon]

As far as I know, legend lore works on fiends, so it works in the case of the GC too. He's quite legendary. Also Azalin is portrayed as knowing the most about the demiplane than anyone else short of the Dark Powers.
I think he knew about the GC within a few years of his appearance in the Demiplane, and centuries before he merged with Darkon. Although the merging undouptly multiplied his knowledge about that enigmatic figure.

About GC being recorded, I don't think that the power of Darkon would work in a fiend's reality wrinkle, as wouldn't any other domain or darklord power. Also for the memories to be recorded, false memories have to be transplanted. I really don't think that the GC and Isolde remember themselves as being born and spent all their life in Darkon.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Also for the memories to be recorded, false memories have to be transplanted. I really don't think that the GC and Isolde remember themselves as being born and spent all their life in Darkon.

Foreigners get their memories back if they leave Darkon, though, as both of these NPC outsiders have done. Nothing says that the biographies in Azalin's library are erased when a foreigner's memories return that way.

As for whether or not an outsider's memories are recorded, that hasn't been stated one way or the other in the products IIRC. Personally, I think the fact that darklords and fiends can come into direct physical contact proves reality wrinkles aren't all that impermeable ... plus, if wrinkles cut off all ambient domain-specific influences, how could fiends acquire land-based powers which recapitulate those domains' unique traits? Some trace of domain-specific occult power must slip through, in order for power rituals to access the Land's energies. Otherwise, they might as well perform their power rituals out in the Mists, away from such land-based ambiences.

[NeoTiamat]

You know, what *would* happen if an outsider performed a Power Ritual in the Mists?

Anyway, I have a more prosaic explanation for how Azalin knows about the Gentleman Caller.

Kargat and Scrying.

Azalin runs the most elaborate and well organized spying network in the Demiplane, with access to a host of supernatural specialists. And he's been doing it for a long time. Add to that the uses of spells like Greater Scrying and Legend Lore, and problem solved.

Most likely Azalin learned of the GC through some minor report from the Kargat, or perhaps when the fiend entered Darkon and the Lich noticed the reality wrinkle. Then set a vassalich to Scrying on the GC for a while, and see what comes up.

[Matthew L. Martin]

You know, what *would* happen if an outsider performed a Power Ritual in the Mists?

Mist travelling ability, a la teleport. That was John Mangrum's thinking when writing "The Heart's Final Beat", at least, and it's the best idea I've heard of.

[alhoon]

Foreigners get their memories back if they leave Darkon, though, as both of these NPC outsiders have done. Nothing says that the biographies in Azalin's library are erased when a foreigner's memories return that way.

As for whether or not an outsider's memories are recorded, that hasn't been stated one way or the other in the products IIRC. Personally, I think the fact that darklords and fiends can come into direct physical contact proves reality wrinkles aren't all that impermeable ... plus, if wrinkles cut off all ambient domain-specific influences, how could fiends acquire land-based powers which recapitulate those domains' unique traits? Some trace of domain-specific occult power must slip through, in order for power rituals to access the Land's energies. Otherwise, they might as well perform their power rituals out in the Mists, away from such land-based ambiences.

Interesting points.

In Van Richten's Guide to the Fiends it is stated that the Dark Powers entice fiends with promises of power binding them more and more to the land. Power rituals are clever traps for the fiends. So IMO that means that the Dark Powers being the power of Deities grant these abilities. The fiend uses his power to steal some power from the Darklord himself and the land. That's why Gabrielle feinted when a power ritual took place in Invidia and Strahd has felt that helpless when the Whistling Fiend finished his.
In a way demons are suggested being more powerful than darklords not in the CR sense of course, but in terms of who's powers affect whom.

Of course the memories once returned are not erased from the library. I never suggested otherwise. I just suggested they have never been recorded at all. However the book states that they are replaced while in Darkon with memories of the person in question having been born and spent his life in Darkon. That means that while in Darkon, the fiend would remember spenting millenia there.
As for domain powers within the reality wrinkles while it is a matter of perception I believe that no, domain powers don't work at all in reallity wrinkles for the reasons I stated above.

[Sylaire]

Most likely Azalin learned of the GC through some minor report from the Kargat, or perhaps when the fiend entered Darkon and the Lich noticed the reality wrinkle. Then set a vassalich to Scrying on the GC for a while, and see what comes up.

If nothing else, the whole Malocchio business made serious headroads into the power structure in Invidia, and that's the kind of thing that Azalin--or any of the other politically-minded darklords, for that matter--wouldn't miss. Even if he somehow wasn't already looking, that would get his assorted minions on the trail...and the Gentleman Caller does kind of leave bits and pieces of evidence behind him to mark his passing.