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Darkin Question for D&D purposes

Dîo Brando·8/31/2018, 10:56:34 PM·1 votes·5,178 views

I've been working on a 5e conversion for quite some time now, and decided to make its first short story.

In short, the party will be hired by a Noxian Representative in a Noxus occupied city in Shurima. The party is told to explore the Tomb of Shraan, one of the many Darkin, and perhaps find a cause to all the recent tremors. The Crypt is designed as a Labyrinth by the Aspect of the Trickster herself. Rather odd for a Darkin to have his own reserved Crypt built by Zoe, so why is that? Is he just that dangerous?

Spoiler Alert: Shraan has had a host since he's been locked away. The host was Shraan's admirer Khol. It was a special request made by Khol to Zoey that he would lock himself with Shraan and become a host so in a safe environment, Shraan as a scholar could continue his research on the Void. Out of respect of Khol's sacrifice, Shraan manages his hunger and focuses on completing his goals. So as the party walks into his workspace, they are caught off guard by an honorable and timid Darkin. Hes willing to duel but feels no need to engage in combat.

It is later revealed Shraan was an apprentice scholar of Nasus and took Nasus' place in being part of the frontline fighting the Void. The tremors are from a void fissure crawling towards his crypt.

Anyway, wondering if this kind of behavior is possible from a Darkin. If they can calm their hunger for a cause, and they can focus on a goal. Perhaps because Shraan was indifferent during the Darkin War.

17 Comments

Fasmodey8/31/2018, 11:08:50 PM3 votes

Possible, since being a darkin doesn't mean you are evil necessarily, but no host can live for long against a darkin. Khol would die eventually (assuming Shraan already possessed him).

Elite4Runner8/31/2018, 11:58:34 PM3 votes

I don't see why not. It seems to me that Darkin are simply extremely ambitious entities. I don't know that possession is a necessity for them to survive, nor that eradication of the host is inevitable. I would actually assume that it is likely that a Darkin could identify an exceptionally intelligent human to be an ally in obtaining their ultimate goal. Immortality allows for beings to think in longer terms. In theory, Shraan could have actually chosen exile and been the one to select Khol as his host because he simply wants to use his intelligence, and this has been his way to further his plans. It is possible that Shraan is actually an outlier among Darkin, and believes that Darkin should strive to co-exist, or even nurture humans as a mantle of responsibility granted by their power. Maybe Shraan had suffered some kind of traumatic loss in the past which makes him reluctant to fully posses Khol. Maybe Khol saved him at some point so he believes he owes him a debt, or he simply doesn't want to be alone. Or if you want to go for a deep, psychological route, .. Shraan takes pity on Khol because he dedicating his short life to something that is well beyond the reach of a mortal human.

I also might be twisting my understanding of your story here, but basically, I do believe that the attitude of Darkin can widely very. I think they could even be seen as "good" but personally, I would try to hold true to the inherent ambitious attitude.

Zapzya9/1/2018, 12:30:24 AM3 votes

I think that there are a couple of elements in your plot that could be explained better. I think it is unlikely that the trickster would turn him into a weapon and lock him away just to give him a host. You could make it so that Shraan respected human life as an ascended, but the humans were so petrified of the Darkin that they would never allow him to exist, either grouping him with the others or scared he might turn bad. The trickster didn't think he deserved oblivion and neither did his apprentice, so she helped them out as you said. Alternatively, perhaps he was never trapped in a weapon. Same story, but the trickster locks him away before the humans make him a weapon to protect him. The party could arrive expecting a Darkin weapon and instead get an ascended.

Another part that doesn't make sense to me is him respecting his apprentices sacrifice. The Darkin were self-entitled pricks and would believe that the human should be honored that he got to be their host. If you want to go for a "kind of bad but good", perhaps you could make Shraan indifferent during the Darkin Wars. Then after being trapped, instead of filling with rage like Aatrox, he's filled with fear and regret. Then Khol sneaks in and sacrifices himself, rescuing Shraan in a sense, causing Shraan to take a new view on mortals. Something to that effect. If you need him to have lab equipment in his tomb, then you could make it so that Shraan is easily able to escape and gather supplies, he just returns to the tomb since most will stay away.

I don't know how you would deal with his void ptsd, but that is a thing you should keep in mind. I would say that Darkins don't necessarily have a hunger per say, just ambition. I don't think they are controlled by urges so much as by their own self importance.

Of course, I might be wrong about some of this stuff. You can fudge things a little here and there anyway. Doesn't need to be perfectly acurate so long as it's a fun campaign/ scenario.

Umbral Regent8/31/2018, 11:44:44 PM2 votes

It's definitely possible. While the majority of the Darkin focused more on warping themselves and being deified, it does stand to reason that some (like Shraan, using your example) would be more concerned with a resurgance of the Void threat. With primal, flesh-shaping, godlike powers, one could do anything - if Shraan decided preparing for another potential attack from the Void was his thing, then that'd be his thing.

Not sure how long Khol would last as a host, though, given that from what we've seen, Aatrox makes mincemeat of his hosts without even thinking about it. Though, being a scholar, I'd imagine Shraan would have insight into the blood magics the Darkin use to reshape their bodies, and may know something or other to give Khol's form some longevity - or at least not stress the body enough to demand more mass be added to sustain his form, anyway.

Either way, TL;DR, totally possible.

Critmaster Garen9/1/2018, 1:17:09 AM2 votes

i never knew how much i needed a DnD campaign in my life that takes place in runeterra, until now.