Quote from: SHARK on October 30, 2021, 09:48:54 PMI think I recall something about Kostchie the Deathless, from Russian mythology, keeping his soul inside an egg, that was placed inside of a special box, which was then hidden and secured. The villain would live eternally, and always return from "death" unless the magic egg was found and destroyed. That was the only way of permanently defeating the mythical villain.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

It was more like he was indestructible unless the egg (or needle in the egg) was destroyed but that was it effectively. He was more like a Lich+Deathnight and he kidnapped maidens and by all accounts was a total chad.

Drat, I liked being a lich.

Quote from: Shasarak on October 30, 2021, 08:47:23 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on October 30, 2021, 08:37:17 PM
Will this set a trend? Will other companies try to outwoke Paizo? Paradox maybe? I wonder what Paradox will do about their fictional cliques named after such things as Irish terrorists, Spanish bullfighters, random herbs, and other non-English words used in nonsensical contexts by Rein•Hagen that later writers tried to justify with questionable success. Their jargon is mostly just cringy, but some it could be argued as cultural appropriation.

It is part of a white persons culture to appropriate therefore only non-white people can be accused of cultural appropriation.

I mean there is no such thing as a non-English word, only words that have not yet entered the English lexicon.

No, I mean Rein•Hagen's choice of jargon was cringy. Taking words from various other languages and then putting them in new contexts using moon logic. Like, why are the Lestat clones called "bullfighter" in Spanish and why are the Lost Boys clones called "witch" in Spanish? The phylactery's nonsensical name is a holdover from early editions when it was an actual tefillin. Rein•Hagen picked out cringy names first and then later writers tried to justify with ridiculous fictional backstories that still didn't actually explain anything. Some of these get outright political: e.g. the token Irish werewolf clan named after the fenians, pro-independence Irish terrorists (probably unintentionally, but you never know). (For reference, the Irish name for its actual folkloric werewolf clan is "the descendants of Laignech Faelad." Or "Faoladh" in modern fantasy fiction, meaning something like "wolfish" according to internet commenters. No, I have no idea how to pronounce that. If anybody who actually speaks Irish or Scottish Gaelic is here, feel free to correct.)

Quote from: Heavy Josh on October 31, 2021, 09:25:38 AM
Drat, I liked being a lich.

Originally lich just referred to death and corpses. It was D&D that decided to arbitrarily change the meaning to "undead wizard with a horcrux." Clark Ashton Smith uses the original meaning all the time in his necromancer stories, giving them a fascinating archaic Anglo-Saxon feeling I never found elsewhere.

I'm partial to renaming the D&D monster to voldemorts. It's an actual dictionary word now. It was coined specifically to mean "an evil wizard who cheats death" and doesn't have any pre-existing linguistic baggage. Or call them koschies like in Grimm tv show. Or both

Wait, do they think the use of the term Phylactery offends Jewish people? Is that their "problematic" because if so that is misguided. Jews don't call it a Phylactery (which is a Greek word, not a Hebrew word), they call it a Tefillin. Who exactly is it they think this word offends and who told them it was offensive?

I mean, Amulets and Charms are and were used by real world religions too. Will they ban those terms now too?

Quote from: Mistwell on October 31, 2021, 10:22:07 AM
Wait, do they think the use of the term Phylactery offends Jewish people? Is that their "problematic" because if so that is misguided. Jews don't call it a Phylactery (which is a Greek word, not a Hebrew word), they call it a Tefillin. Who exactly is it they think this word offends and who told them it was offensive?

I mean, Amulets and Charms are and were used by real world religions too. Will they ban those terms now too?

The outrage by proxy mob doesn't actually care if something is truly offensive. Only if they think it is, so they can feel good.

Quote from: PsyXypher on October 31, 2021, 10:34:32 AM

Quote from: Mistwell on October 31, 2021, 10:22:07 AM
Wait, do they think the use of the term Phylactery offends Jewish people? Is that their "problematic" because if so that is misguided. Jews don't call it a Phylactery (which is a Greek word, not a Hebrew word), they call it a Tefillin. Who exactly is it they think this word offends and who told them it was offensive?

I mean, Amulets and Charms are and were used by real world religions too. Will they ban those terms now too?

The outrage by proxy mob doesn't actually care if something is truly offensive. Only if they think it is, so they can feel good.

I'm offended because I'm a grammar nazi. These should be called horcruxes because it sounds cooler than "soul cage" (even tho the meaning is identical) and actually makes sense whereas "phylactery" was a nonsensical holdover.

Quote from: Manic Modron on October 30, 2021, 08:05:08 PM
Honest question, does anybody know of a lich who actually kept their soul in a phylactery?  Not just as a bit of gaming jargon, but an actual little wearable box to keep sacred text in?

Good point: A "phylactery" in D&D pretty obviously refers to any magical container. Some are boxes containing scripts, others are gemstones.

Just like lots of words in D&D mean something slightly (or drastically) other than their real-world counterparts. Like "Dwarf" for example.

Phylactery: from Greek phylacterion , which refers more generally to any protective amulet.

Quote from: Zalman on October 31, 2021, 11:19:16 AM

Just like lots of words in D&D mean something slightly (or drastically) other than their real-world counterparts. Like "Dwarf" for example.

or Gorgon.

QuotePaizo bans phylacteries, citing "the word's connotation with real‑world religious practices."

Yeah, um, because it's, you know, a real word. Yes Paizo, some nouns actually exist.

Oy vey iz mir.

Funny is they're going to re-vamp their Occultist class, changing it from limited spellcaster into something a'la Abraham van Helsing, who is not magical, but can exploit weaknesses of magical beings and so on. This is not really Occultist, but let's say it's acceptable abbreviation of Occult Detective.

But they decided to rename Occultist - THAUMATURGE - which is Greek word used in Orthodox Christianity for wondermakers. Saint being able to do real miracles. And it's like... have really nothing to do with whole concept of new class, or D&D history where thaumaturge was DEMON WORSHIPPING SPELLCASTER.

Quote from: Wrath of God on October 31, 2021, 12:04:50 PM

QuotePaizo bans phylacteries, citing "the word's connotation with real‑world religious practices."

Yeah, um, because it's, you know, a real word. Yes Paizo, some nouns actually exist.

Oy vey iz mir.

Funny is they're going to re-vamp their Occultist class, changing it from limited spellcaster into something a'la Abraham van Helsing, who is not magical, but can exploit weaknesses of magical beings and so on. This is not really Occultist, but let's say it's acceptable abbreviation of Occult Detective.

But they decided to rename Occultist - THAUMATURGE - which is Greek word used in Orthodox Christianity for wondermakers. Saint being able to do real miracles. And it's like... have really nothing to do with whole concept of new class, or D&D history where thaumaturge was DEMON WORSHIPPING SPELLCASTER.

Source on this? Occultism is one of the 4 schools of magic in Pathfinder 2nd edition. Which I always thought was a terrible and nonsense name, particularly given that "Occult" school of magic is used by Bards, Investigators, and other such classes.

Thaumaturge wouldn't be an improvement, but it's probably no worse except in the practical sense of being a more obscure word & harder to say.

QuoteSource on this?

Thaumaturge playtest for upcoming books on their forums.

QuoteOccultism is one of the 4 schools of magic in Pathfinder 2nd edition. Which I always thought was a terrible and nonsense name, particularly given that "Occult" school of magic is used by Bards, Investigators, and other such classes.

Revamping bard as occult class is MEH. He should be jack of all trades TBH with limited access to all school traditions if anything.
Occult is renamed term for PF1 psychic magic, and I honestly cannot say which one I prefer. In PF1 psychic magic was used by psychics, mesmerists, occultists, mediums and spiritualists.

Quote from: Mistwell on October 31, 2021, 10:22:07 AM
Wait, do they think the use of the term Phylactery offends Jewish people? Is that their "problematic" because if so that is misguided. Jews don't call it a Phylactery (which is a Greek word, not a Hebrew word), they call it a Tefillin. Who exactly is it they think this word offends and who told them it was offensive?

I mean, Amulets and Charms are and were used by real world religions too. Will they ban those terms now too?

If the argument is that it's a real world word, then every word in D&D is offensive and should be taken out.

If the argument is that certain words are offensive, then the offended get to dictate terms to everybody else.
Any group that wants to play by those rules can kiss my ass.

Someone please tell Paizo that the English language word "sword" is sometimes used colloquially to mean male genitalia. Please ban "swords" and other offensive and culturally Patriarchal innuendo from what is supposed to be an inclusive & safe hobby!

Soul Cage offends me because it is associated with incarceration.  Let the self-flagellation spiral commence! 

Quote from: Ratman_tf on October 31, 2021, 09:00:29 PM

Quote from: Mistwell on October 31, 2021, 10:22:07 AM
Wait, do they think the use of the term Phylactery offends Jewish people? Is that their "problematic" because if so that is misguided. Jews don't call it a Phylactery (which is a Greek word, not a Hebrew word), they call it a Tefillin. Who exactly is it they think this word offends and who told them it was offensive?

I mean, Amulets and Charms are and were used by real world religions too. Will they ban those terms now too?

If the argument is that it's a real world word, then every word in D&D is offensive and should be taken out.

If the argument is that certain words are offensive, then the offended get to dictate terms to everybody else.
Any group that wants to play by those rules can kiss my ass.

I am really curious who they thought was offended by this word?