"I am Gareth, returned from the Vortex" (PWA1)

Ever since this mysterious voice spoke to Sitara Rohini in Sind, people all over the world has started wondering who might this new Immortal be. Gareth is a deity who professes the independence of mortals from Immortal manipulation and instructs his servants to fight for freedom of thought and actions. Yet he seems to somehow manipulate mortals in the same way his Immortal fellows do (or maybe in subtler ways).

After a long research listening to the various rumors and theories, Hervé Musseau has collected a list of possible explanations for Gareth's real identity. I am now presenting them to you, dear reader, hoping that they may help you figure out who Gareth really is in your own campaign. Enjoy the reading!

This is probably the simplest idea, which is well in line with WotI.

During WotI, Benekander acts more like a mortal than as an immortal.

Which is not surprising, considering he didn't try for immortality, that just fell on him.

Plus, he even opposes the efforts of the various immortals. He never sides with any of them, or even makes himself or his efforts known to them, but acts as his councience tells him, whatever the odds, whatever the opposition.

Now, what id the philosophy of Gareth? Be careful, it's not that the Immortals are fools that shouldn't be revered. It's that the mortals shouldn't become the pawns of the Immortals. Ie, that they are not stupid immature lots that can only be used as fodder by immortals in their plots, but that they can achieve great things by themselves.

Gareth does not forbid mortals from following immortals. In fact, saying that would be stupid from him, as 1) Immortals fade away when not worshipped and he's an immortal 2) there would be an intrinsec loop in this because he's himself asking for worship. It is my opinion that the philosophy of Gareth is to say that Immortals were once mortals that through their deeds achieved a greater status (which is true); mortals should thus not fear them but look at them as models, things they should aspire to be, and that they can achieve only by being as strong and smart as the immortals were in life; that any mortal is capable of that if he tries to; that immortals thus have no resaon to consider the mortals as pawns or fodder and remember that they too were once mortal.

This seems pretty close to Benekander's attitude during WotI. During WotI, one of his main concerns is immortal interference. Also, he asks the PCs to watch for weird immortal interference, and battles it, esp. Hel's Balthac false immortal.

Besides, Benekander is a new immortal, which didn't aquire his immortality through the standard sponsor path. That would explain why no other immortal knows who Gareth is. That would also explains why this new new immortal can challenge the normal way of the immortals, just like Rad did.

What's his relationship with the NoS? It's obvious that Benekander has a deep interest in the artifact. Why doesn't Gareth? Maybe he is concentrating on his new philosophy first, either because it's more important or because he hopes once his philosophy becomes widespread the rest will follow naturally. Why didn't he start his philosophy in Glantri? Well, Sind is not that far. And Glantri has no immortal but Rad, so it is hard for a new immortal to start there. Sind is not far, there was an opportunity there, and he hoped that would spill in Darokin fast because it's an open-minded country (and it did).

Benekander, a novice immortal, could so fast get so much following and set up so big plots into motion (though they're not really plots,as it would go against his philosophy)? Probably he gained quite a few levels during WotI, esp. for his stroke at Hel. Maybe the Old One did give him more power. Maybe he got a surge from the repowering of the Nucleus when Rad was fused in it, as he's linked to it too. Maybe he doesn't need to be that high in level to do all he did, eg Al-Kalim is also quite low level (though older) and yet has followers in Ylaruam, Darokin, Sind, the SC...

Why did Loki smile when others asked who Gareth was? Well, sometimes a smile is in fact a grin.

Why did Gareth say he has returned from the Vortex? If he is Benekander, it is a lie. So what? That statement was certainly not directed at the mortals in the first place since they don't know what the Vortex is. So this was clearly directed at the immortals (using mortals as relays).

Well, Gareth's philosophy is intended to both mortals and immortals: the mortals should live by themselves, which means that the immortals should stop manipulating them. So he had to make himself heard by the immortals, and not just by stealing followers from them. That was definetely the purpose of this statement, to make the immortals ponder.

As Gareth doesn't get in touch with other immortals, he had to deliver that message to mortals, so they could report it to their patrons. Maybe Benekander has discovered about the myth of the Vortex, probably he watched the Old One's intervention. So he's using this to cause the immortals to fear and listen to him. Even if they don't believe he isn't what he says, they will at least listen to him, and that's what really matters.

In conclusion, I would say that Gareth = Benekander is a plausible explanation which, though it has some questions unanswered, hasn't any flaw, and is in coninuity with WotI.

It has been speculated several time that Rad might be Gareth, esp. between WotI and PWAs releases and MoA's release, because of one's disappearance in strange conditions and the other's appearance in as strange conditions. The fact that Ann Dupuis didn't consider this as a possibility is irrelevant to this discussion, though individual DMs may take this as a hint as to TSR's likely position. But as usual you may not care for TSR's official stuff if you think something different is cooler IYC.

First off, this explains why no Immortals knows who Gareth is. No one is aware that Rad is back (or few), and even if (or when) they did, they hardly have a reason to suspect that Rad would maintain a second identity as Gareth. Especially since most Immortals remember Rad as his older self, and would have a hard time believing he's changed into a better fellow.

Gareth being Rad works best in campaigns where MoA is played and the PCs do very well, and have Etienne return as an Immortal and better man.

According to his new view on life, Etienne sets up a new faith as under another identity which promotes a new philosophy, while he's not very active as Etienne (only a few showings here and there, and not revealing completely that he's back) and not at all as Rad. He prefers to set up his new philosophy before everything else, as befits his new personality.

Why did he start in Sind and not Glantri? Well, starting in Glantri is no easy task. Besides, his new message is universal, so he probably doesn't want it restricted to Glantri as did the old Rad. Now, he certainly has some fondness for Glantri, as shown by his interventions as Etienne here and there, and will probably comes back to it when his other schemes are running by themselves.

The fact that Rad didn't reappear at the same time is likely due to the level loss he suffered when absorbed into the NoS. His reduced power doesn't let him conduct enough plots to have both Rad reappear and set up Gareth. He thus chose to give priority to Gareth. Besides, not having the two reappear at the same time prevents the other immortals from making the link bewteen him and Gareth.

Why did Loki smile? Well, same reason as for Benekander, he hasn't a clue and is in fact grinning.

Why did Gareth say he has returned from the Vortex? Well, maybe that's what Etienne believes happened. From MoA it appears this wouldn't be the case, but Etienne doesn't necessarily realize this. Besides, maybe he did in fact go beyond the Vortex, and the Old One later returned him so he could go through MoA. Or the Old One altered his memory (in addition to his personality) so that he would believe it. Maybe Rad believes he was right all along, was allowed for a moment among the Old Ones, but sent back to teach the immortals (and the mortals) what they should do on the Prime; however that can't be done if the immortals just use the mortals as paws, and the mortals should strive to become better; the NoS experiment was here to prove this but now he is probably convinced that this is only one way that was used by the Old Ones to show the proper way. As in case #1, the message was obviously aimed at the immortals and not the mortals, so that his philosophy would be heard by the immortals as well as by the mortals. Rad does know about Old Ones as he had a direct contact with one of them at the end of WotI, and he may have learned about the Vortex if you go by one of the theories presented above.

The only real flaw in the Gareth = Rad equation is indeed time discrepency. Rad disappears in 1009, Gareth appears in 1011 (or 1010? I think it's 1011, with the Sitara's miracle being on Kaldmont 28, AC 1011), MoA takes place in Summer 1012. Prior to MoA, right after PWA2, this was actually the coolest theory, as it seemed to fit so well, but MoA both add to it (with the personality change, and the actual return od Rad) but also makes it impossible on a temporal level. Now, we all know that immortals can travel through time, so it is possible that Rad used chronomancy. Besides, if you go by my chronomancy in Mystara supplement (hint;), immortals don't have such problems as mortals do with doubling lifeline. And in TSR's (canon) supplement to chronomancy, the entry for Mystara does list Rad as one of those few immortals who actually probably knows something about chronomancy, as he's suspected (with Rafiel) of being the one who killed the Alphatians chronomancers who tried to meddle with ancient Blackmoor and the NoS of that time.

Note that this means that he took the risk of being caught and thus his return discovered by the immortals of time who police the temporal prime. Note also that as his mortal identity of Etienne, he didn't appear before the end of MoA even though the temporal travel permits him to exist at an immortal level before his very return, but not because he cannot double the lifeline of his mortal identity probably rather because he doesn't want to arouse suspiscion.

So, to sum up, an interesting possibility, but with a flaw (time) which individual DMs can get over by careful use of chronomancy.

With the two previous option, Gareth was indeed a good guy (either young old Benekander or redeeming Rad) who really wanted to improve the mortals' life and change the immortals' way. In the case of Gareth = Loki, we obviously end up with something entirely different, way more nasty and twisted (ie interesting).

Fabrizio Paoli already mentioned the possibilities of Gareth being a sponsoree of Loki's, something he qualified as twisted and that I could have come up with (thanks - BTW I did, though I don't know if I had shared my thoughts on the matter before) and prompted my series of posts about Gareth. I'll try to come up with some really cool, if twisted, ideas, and hope it'll spark some DMs' imagination. Though I, surprinsingly enough, will probably not use this IMC - despite my love for twisted plots, behind the scene, and plots that at first appear local (sometime insignificant events) but later appear as being part of an even greater scheme (look for such in the almanacs, you can recognize my touvh here and there ;) - I for once think Gareth should indeed be a good guy.

Anyway, I prefer to have Loki himself posing as Gareth rather than a young immortal he just sponsored. There are many reasons why he would do it himself, while I can find only one he would let another one.

So, why would he use a novice immortal? Easy, if he's caught, he can deny his involvement, and let the poor novice suffer his fate. But why would the apprentice accept the deal? Sure, he ows to obey his sponsor, but that doesn't mean he's to do everything Loki wishes. It would seem obvious that Loki could easily betray him (and Entropics are not prone to trusting each other, esp. cosidering Loki's betraying nature).

Besides, starting your immortal career under another name and, worse, ethos, is quite dangerous. If you are uncovered, you may quickly lose your following, and be left with no worshippers. Which is always bad for immortals.

On the other hand, Loki could take the position himself. Sure, it means that if he's uncovered, he would have a harder time getting away with it (though he may have contingency plans if that would happen, and may be to hide his involvement some other way). But if that were to happen, the loss in worshippers wouldn't hurt him much at least, as he has many other worshippers everywhere (esp. in the Northern Reaches, and of course Hule). And as long as he's not uncovered, he gains an artificial boost in worshipping.

Obviously, in such a scenario, Loki's smile in PWA2 is easily explained.

Though one may wonder, why did he give himself away like that? Well, remember that Loki is a subtle, mischevious pal. So he played it second degree, loosing his fellow immortals even more. He smiled, so that the other immortals would at first believe that he knows. But upon reflecting a bit, the wiser immortals would remember Loki's tricks and assume that he was again lying, and his smile was in fact a grin because he didn't know what was going on either, but was trying to make them believe he did. Sounds complicated? Well, immortals commonly have 80 INT and WIS scores, so it's clear to them ;) You pitiful mortals with mere 10s... :)

Now to the point. Why would Loki create an alternate immortal ID as Gareth? And why in Sind, which is occupied by his own minions, the Huleans?

Well, Loki is a cunning Immortal. As I said, if his involvement was discovered, he would spend a bad time at the hand of the other immortals (and lose some levels). Striking in Hule occupied Sind is a guarantee that he can't be so easily compromised : After all, if he really was Gareth, why would he have had his two groups of followers fight each other, and why would he have losen the grip he had on Sind? The very arguments we can find against his involvement, he will use if questioned by the immortals. He was in full control of Hule, in full control of Sind, strong enough to take over the SC, why would he have undermined his own power in these territories?

So, as this undermines his power, why do it? Well, first of all, he's an immortal of mischief and betrayal, and this is definetely his most brilliant hoax. Imagine his plan is ultimately successful : mortals abandon worship of immortals, because they are only arrogant beings who only use them as pawns (this would take centuries or more, obviously).

All immortals but he lose a lot of power, some even fade away. And he reveals his hoax, plunging Mystara into its darkest age since the GRoF, with no immortals to save the day as no one worships them anymore... And of course, he would himself have kept a good part of his like minded following, either in Hule or elsewhere.. Sure, it is a long-term plan, but one that does not cost him much if it fails and could be a great victory if it succeeds. And even if it fails, he is partially successful as the uproar brought by the discovery of Gareth being fake would be a lot fun in itself. The more that goody faith is followed when it falls apart, the more chaos his hoax will have brought, and the more fun and glory he will gain from it.

As I said, Bozdogan is the first hit by Gareth, which makes him a good excuse for faking surprise if he's accused of any involvement. Of course, this a bit risky, as that faith may spread into his own backyard. However, he believes he's in full control, and even if Gareth's faith gets a good hold in Hule, this isn't so bad as, when he throws the mask away, the Huleans will recognize their true patron's way of deceiving and fall back into his fold. Then, though he's the first hit, next come his enemies: Ixion in Sind, Halav in the City States, Ixion again and Vanya in the SC, and others probably as well as the faith spreads. So he accepted to take a light blow at first, hoping that others would be hurt even more soon enough. Besides, Hule's grip on Sind was not so strong anymore, and Loki had lost interest in keeping the country by force (I remind you that he took Sind during WotI on the behalf of the BoS though he was not part of the group). Now, he wants to use a more devious strategy. So, that puts two groups of his followers at odd? Well, Entropics are not beyond that if that further their goals (even if it doesn't, just for the fun of it, in Atz's case).

Some Immortals are likely to be upset at the appearance of Gareth and his earthshaking philosophy. Especially Ixion or Vanya. So at the same time that he's spreading his alternative faith on Mystara, Loki hopes to wreak havoc among the immortal ranks, maybe even fury, as the immortals see their following dwindle and try to find the culprit, in vain. As Loki assures that it can't be him because he's the most hurt by Gareth, the Immortals may even, with a little additonal work, turn on each other...

So, a twisted, evil, fiendish scenario (I had warned you) but so intersting, so full of potential adventure. A campaign in itself, in fact.

There is basically not much difference between this possiblity and the previous one (ie Gareth = Loki). In both cases it is an Entropic Immortal setting up an alternate identity to wreak as much as possible, both on the Prime and among Immortals.

Let's see which Entropics could possibly set up such a scheme, why, how, and what the consequences are for each of them.

Well, Thanatos is definetely used to such plots. Manipulating mortals or immortals to ultimately wreak chaos and destruction is his way. And he's not beyond impersonating (like impersonating Atz in HWA* to manipulate the SE, or impersonating that Hattian leader to manipulate the Storm Soldiers). Also, he's not beyond mounting big hoaxes to put his fellow Imoortals off tracks (again, the HWA trilogy), thus the Vortex stuff.

Since the failure of his plot in HWA, Thanatos certainly can devote himself to new plots, especially since he's now back the Hierarch of Entropy. He has many plots running here and there, slowly growing until they can become useful (a Hattian here, a Nithian there, a Burrower yet somewhere else...), and thus adding a new one in a new region isn't bad at all.

Hel has lost a lot of status (Hierach) and power in the WotI. She certainly wants revenge and is setting up new plots.

During WotI, she often used the trick of creating new churches based on some lesser heroes, gaining priests and followers that were powering her, yet believed in a very different theory. She found that useful in some cases, as these dedicated followers would sometimes do tasks her regular followers wouldn't, though this has never been too successful in her attempts so far (ie, those churches were either short lived, or of minor use). This time, she added a new twist to it: she created a new immortal altogether, maybe basing its philosophy on some of those heroes she usurped the id some time ago. By adding some weird elements (the Vortex claim) and carefully bringing back from her realm a dead child on the DoD, she was successful in creating a new faith just like she was trying for so many years.

How she will use it remains to be seen (any ideas?) but it bodes ill for those who countered her during WotI, for sure (ie, the PCs, Benekander, and others).

As an additional complication, Sitara might be the (evil) reincarnation of some past distant figure of Sind that Hel brought back to lead this church.

Why would Hel start her alternate faith in Sind, where she already has incarnations? Well, Gareth doesn't hit on her true following as much as he does on Ixion's (and others'). Besides, the fact that it worked out so well in Sind is maybe just luck; she has started many petty churches just about everywhere, it's just coincidence that this one worked out better.

Good old Atz is always present when there is mischief to do.

However, I think Atz is already quite busy with his numerous plots running wild everywhere, and he's a bit too neurotic and impetuous IMO to come up with such a plan. I prefer Loki over him.

Besides, many humanoids worship him, and Gareth's faith has spread into some orc tribes in the Black Mountains. Atz is known for letting his followers kill each other for his glory, but subverting his own followers?

Though never mentioned before, this association is worth mentioning IMO.

Masauwu is a lesser but important immortal of Entropy whose goal is to find new recruits for his sphere. So far, it was his only attribute; but diversification is always possible.

By setting up a new id and a new faith, he creates favorable conditions for his prime goal.

Some other Entropics, which are generally held subservient to their sponsors, might have gained in power and be willing to break their chains a bit. Setting up new followings is a good means of achieving this. If they want to keep that hidden from their sponsor, creating a faith under a new system of values might work. Especially if they want to erode their sponsor's base. A sponsoree of Loki, maybe? That would work especially well since they are probably themselves champions of mischief, and what better than beat Loki himself?

Other Immortals that may work: Danel Tigerstripes

These are definetely bad choices, as they don't have the patience nor the brains to set up such plots. Immortals in this category include Orcus, Alphaks, Demogorgon...

There are few left, but let's see.

Nyx: I don't see her doing that. Her interests are darkness and undead, and I can't see how this can be related. And she's not the knid of entropic to set up plots miles away from her true goals just to win (better Loki or Thanatos or Hel in that role).

When playing on the Gareth = an evil immortal paradigm, I prefer to have him be Loki, as it's the one who works best in that role. However, individual DMs may have other arch-enemies for their PCs in their campaign (I remember some have Hel being heavily infiltrated everywhere esp. in the DDC, for example; I'm sure some have Thanatos), in which case they can easily assign their favorite big bad guy as the one masquerading as Gareth, in yet another plot for these damn PCs!

Such a possibility has already been mentioned in a way in the post about Benekander (Benekander is a young Immortal) and in the posts about Loki and other Entropics. Let's take it one step further.

There are again basically two very different possibilities here: either the Initiate is true in his belief, or he's masquerading as a good Immortal. The latter possibility is the one that involves the Initiate being an Entropic, while in the earlier he's probably of one of the other spheres. Let's review the spheres:

Matter: This is certainly a good sphere for Initiate Gareth. Matter favors law and order, which are implied in Gareth's faith. Matter is also often concerned with the preservation of species (esp. Ka) which is also a consequence of Gareth's faith in the sense protecting mortals for the Immortals' petty games. Ka sponsored Gareth to protect the mortals from the Immortals themselves.

Energy: Probably not a good sphere for Gareth. Energy tends to be wild and chaotic, very unlike Gareth's teachings. Besides, Gareth's faith undermines Ixion's power base in Sind, which would be a bad move for an Initiate of Energy. Exception is made for Benekander.

Time: One of the major goals of time is to teach mortals and Immortals the lessons of history (Khoronus). After the events of the WotI, the wars that it caused for a quarrel between Immortals, and the fact that an Old One had to intervene to stop it, Immortals of Time have decided to remind both mortals and Immortals the consequences of their acts. This is why Khoronus sponsored Gareth.

Thought: The sphere's goal is to make people think (Korotiku). Gareth tries to make mortals think by themselves instead of relying on the words of Immortals. With this new faith and by declaring he's returned from the Vortex (an idea of Korotiku), he's also making Immortals ponder on many subjects (including their own actions, the importance of mortals, the Old Ones).

Entropy: Much discussed already in Loki and other Entropics posts. It is a masterpiece of lying and betrayal (unless good PCs investigate..), with the main drawback that the Initiate is not promoting his own beliefs and thus putting himself at great risk if his plot fails.

Principium: Since the four good spheres are tied to the four elemental planes and Entropy is tied to the Negative Plane, it has been theorized by many sages and Immortals that maybe there could be a forgotten 6th sphere, Principium, which would be tied to the Positive Plane and directly oppose Entropy. Could Gareth be the first Immortal of Principium? Could it be that Rad, when his mind is altered by the Old One and he returns as a better man, returns not as an Immortal of Energy but the first of Principium? Could it be that the major blow struck to Entropy by the change in source of power for the NoS is the fact that it has recreated the hated Sphere of Principium? Can you see now why Hel suffered such a major stroke and Thanatos was not so pleased with his being back Hierach of Entropy? Could it be that Synn was sent in Glantri to shut down the NoS who is now an artifact of Energy producing Immortals of Principium by tapping into the sphere of Entropy? (heck, I love that scenario. I'm sure it'll start a much heated debate. hmm, could evil Brannart now killed by Angus have thereby become the second Immortal of Principium?) In that case, we link to the post about Rad being Gareth, but with a new twist to it. And Loki has reasons to grin, just like Hel and Thanatos.

Why did no one answer when question arose among Immortals as to who that Gareth could be? For Energy and Principium, no one knows. For Entropy, Loki knows but doesn't tell; he just smiles. For Time, Thought and Matter, Khoronus or Korotiku or Ka doesn't tell because it would reveal their plan.

Why start in Sind? Well, as good a place as any. For Principium, there is the additional reason that it's as close to Glantri as can be, and the only Immortal of Principium certainly wants to secure the NoS from the Entropics; as Rad he already has his word there, but having an ally as a neigbhour isn't bad at all (better than having Bozdogan, anyway).

The main problem with the new Initiate theory is that, how could he get so much followers/power in such a sort time? Well, it would seem that whatever the sphere there is a powerful Immortal (or force, for Principium) behind, that may be of great help.

For any of the three spheres that would have Gareth as a regular Immortal (Time, Thought, Matter), it certainly works best in individual campaigns if you have PCs that are trying to achieve Immortality. In that case, have a PC be sponsored by one of the three old Immortals, a PC that has about the same ethics as Gareth, et voila.

For Principium, well, that is giving the world a whole new direction.

Especially interesting if your campaign is Immportal-level, or if your PCs have something to do with the Nucleus.

Another possibility hinted to by WotI and the PWAs is that Gareth may be an Old One. The tricky part is, before we can see what it implies, we must first determine WHAT is an Old One.

This was probably what was originally intended by the designers of the game. There is nothing more powerful, gamewise, than the Immortals [though you may consider the Powers of AD&D more powerful IYC], and what's beyond are the DMs - the only beings that can do more than mere Immortals, as they can alter reality, kill Immortals, or even make all reality to stop by no more playing D&D!

In that case, Old Ones are just a myth for the Immortals, with no game reality. The Old One that appears at the end of WotI is an alias of you, the DM, or of Aaron Allston.

And if Gareth is also an Old One, then it's also your alter ego directly altering the world (or Ann Dupuis's). As the DM is almighty in his campaign, then Gareth is too. Dot. And he does exactly what wish...

This is based on Marco Dalmonte's work Ravenloft and Mystara: A possible (frightening) connection. I also think someone wrote a scenario of an old war between the Dark Powers and the Immortals long, long ago, ending with the Dark Powers being imprisoned, though I can't find the original post.

So there are Dark Powers that have huge powers, maybe even greater than the Immortals', but they were banished to another dimension long ago (similar to the Carnifex). Immortals lost knowledge of this war and the Dark Powers, and have begun to suppose the existence of the Old Ones, whose powers would be to theirs what theirs are to mortals'. The Old Ones live in the Vortex Dimension, protected by the Vortex. What the Immortals do not know is that the Vortex is also called the Mists, and that the Vortex Dimension is just another name for Ravenloft... The Dark Powers are trapped inside and can normally not do much except swallow people and places into the Lands of the Mists. But one of them has somehow managed to escape, or to have a part of him (an avatar?) escape the Vortex and roam the Multiverse...

In that case you have an Entropic-like scenario, just even darker. The escaped Dark Power's goal is to complete the process of freeing himself from Ravenloft, and/or free the other Dark Powers so they can reclaim the Multiverse for their dark ends.

Why did the Dark Power appear before Ixion and Rad at the end of WotI and stopped the war, when his goal should be to bring chaos? Well, the NoS is a key to freeing the Dark Powers! When Rad activated it and caused the WWM, this Dark Power escaped. However, it was insufficient to completely free him/them all. So he arranged for the NoS to become tied to the Sphere of Entropy, because only thus can it create the gate/whatever that will free the Dark Powers from their prison.

Why did he say, as Gareth, that he had returned from the Vortex? Well, two possibilities: either he knew that the Immortals would assume he's an Old One and fear him, or he was just content to say that he had escaped from the Mists and is announcing the return of the Dark Powers (the Immortals' fault if they have lost knowlegde of what this means).

Why did he start the cult of Gareth? For two reasons: First he needs some mortals to do his bidding, especially handling/activating the NoS when it's ready; second he's making ground for the upcoming war with the Immortals by sapping their power base, i.e. mortal followers; maybe he even believes that these mortals will serve the Dark Powers when they have destroyed the Immortals, as they do in Ravenloft.

c. Old Ones are powerful beings just as in the Immortals' theory (i.e., classical theory about the Old Ones)

Then, they are very powerful, created the Multiverse as their experiment, and more. If they are so powerful, why would they (or one of them) intervene, when they could simply alter what they want?

c.1. Gareth wants to show the proper path Gareth is a good Old One, as they are all, and saw that the experiment was not going the good way. Rather than simply wash away this failed experiment, this Old One (with or without the agreement of the others) has decided to put it back on the right tracks.

He thus interevened at the end of WotI, showed Immortals how bad they were behaving, recharged the NoS, and made of Rad a new experiement to see if he could change his ways.

Then to make sure that the proper way would make ground, he created a new Immortal or assumed an Immortal identity, and preached a new way (as Gareth).

c.2. Gareth is an evil Old One

Not all Old Ones are good, there is a balance here as everywhere else.

Old Ones are to Immortals what Immortals are to mortals, and they lend power to the Immortals in the form of access to the five spheres. As a Mutiverse becomes more attuned to one of the spheres, Old Ones that are aligned with that sphere gain power. Old Ones normally cannot intervene directly in the Multiverses. But this Entropic Old One has decided to bypass the directive (as some Entropic Immortals sometimes do on the Prime) in order to gain more power for himself and his sphere. That's why he turned the NoS into an Entropy artifact, and he's now posing as a good Immortal to wreak more havoc (as per Gareth = Loki).

c.3. Gareth is a rogue Old One

Old Ones vary in characters, and this one has decided to intervene himself in the experiment even though it's forbidden, because he thinks that will be fun. He does not really want to harm (although...) but just wants to meddle with the Multiverse experiment. Other Old Ones may or may not be aware of his actions.

This scenario is an analogy with Q and the Q Continuum. In an episode of ST:TNG, Q is stripped of his powers by the Q Continuum and must live as a mortal. If you push the Q analogy that far, you can have Gareth be stripped of his powers by the Old Ones after he intervenes in the Multiverse in WotI, and so he MUST assume the id of an Immortal. Maybe he was aware of the punishment he could have before he intervened, or not. Now he must redeem himself to become an Old One again, and accepting to be an Immortal (and thus creating a new faith, gaining followers etc) is part of the process.

d. Gareth is an Old One that abandoned his status

Just like Immortals can become Old Ones by dropping their status, starting back from the bottom, and then rising again, so can the Old Ones. An Old One who has mastered Hierarch Old One status may decide to give it up, and start again as a mere Initiate in the Multiverse, and when (if) he becomes an Hierarch Old One, he becomes what comes next [some people on the list have said it becomes an Very Old One, some said it's a circle an he becomes a simple mortal]. Since he claims that he returned from the Vortex (which is literally true), he must have retained some of his memory (contrary to an Immortal becoming a mortal).

This could be any immortal you wish to create, since we don't know what lies beyond the Vortex, nor who went there. You can then use the scenarios described for various immortals in the other posts, as fits the personality of your returned-from-Vortex-Immortal.

However, two Immortals are worth a special mention here: Vertandhi and Sinbad.

Vertandhi is a very old immortal whose current whereabouts are unknown.

He's from Time and has about the same portfolio that Khoronus, and reportedly was a Hierarch.

If IYC you make the assumption that Vertandhi = Khoronus, you have an interesting Immortal who sponsored himself at least once and was the reigning hierarch of Time twice. A good candidate for Old One status, no? (Which self is the oldest one does not really matter, ie which one dropped immortality and which one searched for Old One-dom, and when, are irrelevant at this point thanks to the time-traveling usual to Time Immortals.) Whether he is an Old One or just an Immortal who went through the Vortex you can decide IYC.

If an Old One, he may be the one who tampered with the NoS to stop WotI and save the Old Ones' experiment (of which he is part, but Immortals of Time are used to cope with such paradoxes), and has become Gareth to remind mortals and Immortals alike the lessons of history. This mean you can combine the possibilities described in post #6 (Old One) and post #5 (new initiate) where Khoronus is discussed.

If just an Immortal who managed to venture beyond the Vortex, Khoronus/Vertandhi is one of the most powerful and knowledgeable (and wise) Immortal ever. It may be him who stepped in at the end of WotI and posed as an Old One, using his tremendous power to force Rad and Ixion to bow before him and draw Rad into the NoS. Probably the knowledge he discovered make him more powerful than other Immortals and undetectable by the Council that watch for Immortal interference on the Prime. He decided to create the alternate identity of Gareth to both remind mortals and Immortals the lessons of history, and give them the possibility to become enlightened as he now is after his voyage beyond the Vortex by showing them the correct path (but not enforcing it, as it's self enlightment, not brainwashing).

Sinbad is a traveler. What he really is is unknown; the Immortals hypothize he may be an Old One, or one of their envoys.

If an Old One, what has been said above for Khoronus, or in post #6, could be applied with Sinbad.

If an agent of the Old Ones, then it's basically the same, except that he's not as powerful (but at that level it does not really matter, does it?)

We can consider a third possibility : that he is simply a very old Immortal who managed to go beyond the Vortex and returned (as said above for Vertandhi). That is why the other Immortals believe him to be an Old One or their agent, while he in fact is just an Immortal who managed to do what they're trying to. He decided to set up the alternate identity of Gareth to help other discover the way to enlightment as he did.

However, to achieve that you must open your mind. That is why Sinbad encourages people to leave their homes and travel (as Gareth, he encourages his followers to leave their homes and travel the world to spread his words): it is a way to opening yourself to what you don't know, going beyond your fears or your confort, and discover what's beyond. He also encourages "mental travel", ie fighting one's own preconceived ideas (like the teachings of Immortals, for the mortals; or the idea that mortals are but pawns, for Immortals) and that they should focus on enlightment (this is embodied by the meditation and fighting style of his fighting monks/mystics; you may also wish to introduce psionics here).

This is the last cathegory in my series of "Who is Gareth?". It lists the suggestions that were made either on the MML or to me in private email, and there are a lot of them. Some were meant as jokes (but i'll consider them seriously as jokes sometimes infere good questions), some were serious business, some were not very different from one another.

Probably originally meant as a joke, this suggestion was was followed by various funny ideas by other MMLers. But first, it implied the following remark "It could be the first mortal who manages to gives another mortal clerical spells...".

Indeed, the concept is interesting: Since Gareth seems to be no known Immortal, maybe it's actually a mortal (obviously a powerful one, or a very cunning one). However, how could the mortal give clerical spells? How could he communicate with his priests?

One suggestion was that "maybe Gareth is a prank of some resourceful gnomes, maybe they've created a machine capable of granting spells to clerics".

A more reasonable approach would be that some mortal has in his possession an artifact, probably made by some forgotten Immortal, or given by his patron, that allows to grant clerics their spells. We know from the rules in WotI that Immortals can (and do) make such artifacts.

It is easily assumed that this artifact may also be imbued with the power to communicate with those priests; alternatively, simple mortal magic could be used to communicate telepathically or in the dreams of the clerics.

Another artifact that may be tapped to produce such a result would be the NoS. Those who master the Radiance (either directly in Glantri, or indirectly for the SE shamans) can cast additional spells. Maybe someone did discover how to use it to grant other selected mortals clerical spells, and thus become as powerful as an Immortal. Although one immediately thinks to Rad, any Brother of the Radiance, or even a non-brother, may be tapping the NoS to that end, and not necessarily knowing where does the energy come from. Note that the NoS doesn't shut down on the DoD, unlike the above-mentioned gnome device, and thus could "grant" spells to clerics on that day. (See also Synn, later.)

Along the same lines of the gnomish device, one could imagine a wizard inventing a powerful magic item that would give clerics spells, and thus allow the wizard to pass for an Immortal without having to get through the proper Path and thus bow to a greater Immortal. One such wizard could be Gargantua, if IYC like in Marco's, he's trying to get to a higher state of existence then immortality without becoming Immortal first. Alternatively, it could be an undead wizard, possibly a powerful lich (like Brannart, a Brother, though it's not really in character) or nosferatu who is not interested in giving up his form of immortality to get another one, but still wishes to become as powerful. Please note that the reason why a wizard would want to start a religion must be tailored to your campaign.

Someone also mentioned a parallel between "Gareth is a mortal" and RW Jesus. Please refer to it in the Appendix at the end on this article.

Since we don't know much about Old One or the Vortex, it's hard to get any working plot in that direction. However, Sinbad is refered to as possibly being an Old One or one of their messengers. The plot involving Sinbad may be found in the Gareth = an Old One post, including notes if he's only a messenger.

This one was really funny (it came from Marco Dalmonte's twisted mind).

However, it actually is interesting too. First of all, it mentions the possible involvement of Korotiku, which is more detailed in another post (Gareth = a new Initiate, IIRC).

Sitara being drunk and hearing voices can actually be a great plot and the truth IYC. This may seem like a joke in a world where Immortals do exist and manifest themselves, but in RW we don't get that many proofs of the existence of a God (trying not to offend anyone) and often simple voices, apparitions, or other miracles are taken as such and a whole religion may actually spawn from such events. Joan of Arc is a good RW example of how someone hearing voices can lead to important events (though not a new religion in that case). However, contrary to RW, on Mystara you have to actually be able to cast clerical spells to prove that there's an Immortal involved (whereas in RW we need only faith). So either some Immortal picked up the idea and started to give Sitara spells (and Korituku seems like a good choice), or Gareth's philosphy is indeed a philosophy as per the CPH and the clerics of Gareth receive their spells not from an immortal but from that philosophy (if you use this rule IYC).

This is a variant of #9.

This could be used if Synn is a (the?) recurring villain IYC (just don't let her have more plots running than an actual Immortal can). Synn is a night dragon, which is a powerful creature, but that doesn't give her the powers of an Immortal. However, she certainly didn't come to Glantri for no reason; maybe she was drawn there because of the NoS, which now is an artifact of Entropy. It has never been mentioned before that she was experimenting with the NoS, but that doesn't mean she doesn't. Maybe she has finally discovered it and uses its power tocreate a new religion as described in #9, with obviously dark goals has bave been described in previous posts about Loki, Thanatos, Hel, and other Entropics. She may directly use the NoS, or use its power without knowing where it comes from. She may also have successfully used the NoS and be the first Immortal spawned by the NoS since it started to feed on Entropy (Rad is not yet back at the time to control its use). In that case, the Synn we all know is just a mortal ID, and Synn had other plots running outside Glantri at an Immortal level, in that case in Sind. In that case, the scenario for Entropic Initiate may be used with Synn.

8.5 Gareth = some powerful exalted being (like the one who controlled the whole planet of cristalline dragons in the Dragonlord series, the Overlord)

The Overlord indeed has great power and many followers in the Dragonlord trilogy. Whether he has the power to grant clerical spells like an Immortal is unknown though, but one can easily assume he does. The Overlord is defeated in the trilogy, but he may just have been dispersed and not killed, like an Immortal banished to his homeplane. Today he is returning, having formed a new body, and with a new, more subtle plot to take over Mystara. Alternatively, it might be another creature like the Overlord.

It also depends on what exactly the Overlord IYC. Someone said it was a Kryst, and I never heard of such a creature before so can't comment further. I've already seen poeple believing that he actually was an Immortal, Alphaks to be precise, who had been following the progress of Flaems from world to world, and decided to act now that they had landed on the same world that the Alphatians (hey, cool, they brought me to the place where all the factions of Alphatians live, I can crush them all at once). If Overlord = Alphaks, it's highly unlikely that Gareth = Overlord.

A Dreaden is another possible exalted creature that we don't know much about but that may be powerful enough. It should be very campaign-specific, though, but there are people out there that have very detailed histories involving the Draeden.

This is based on an idea by Rick LaRue you can find at: http://www.oocities.org/TimesSquare/5304/thoughts.html

There was an Immortal long ago that tried to harness the power of the five spheres at once. He failed at the attempt, and was thought to have been destroyed in the process. Later Immortals only harnessed the power of one sphere only ever since. However, maybe he was not destroyed.

Maybe he just went dormant for millenia until his body and mind could bear the power of all five spheres. Or maybe he didn't fail at all, but indeed got that much power but disappeared from the Immortal pantheon (either because he didn't want other Immortals to follow his path bafore he mastered his new powers, or because he wasn't interested in petty Immortals anymore). Or he attained a higher state of existence, like the Old Ones. Anyway, he finally reappeared, and decided to show mortals and immortals alike the new way, the path he had followed, the path of the 5 spheres. His teachings and his philosophy differ so much from the other Immortals' because he has a very different view on the spheres of power, not considering them as opposing each other. He mentioned his return from the Vortex either because that was the best analogy he could think of to put the Immortals on the proper path, or because he actually crossed the Vortex in his attempt to master the 5 spheres, and came back.

Note that you can add to the complexity by having him actually harness not 5, but 6 spheres of power. When he first tried to do it, there were only 5 known spheres. The equation was incomplete, and that's why he failed and became dormant. However, when the NoS was turned from Energy to Entropy, showing the existence of the sphere of Principium, he could finally try to add it to his portfolio and complete the process.

This is actually very close to Gareth = Rad. Most scenarios used for Rad can be used with the NoS directly. You have the added complexity that Rad is still out there after MoA, and that the NoS can be used to achieve Immortality. How does Rad relate to the new sentient NoS and can the NoS bestow Immortality as it wishes/deny Immortality to Brothers of the Radiance become important questions in that case.

All this thinking about Gareth made me realize something : Does anyone else see how much Gareth resembles to the Bible?

Well, that was probably intentional from Ann Dupuis. After all, many different religions are represented on Mystara, including of course ancient mythological pantheons (Norse, Greek...), Islam (Al-Kalim), and Jews (the SE). But no religious system had much in common with Christianity, though some have argue that Heldannic Knights or the Narvaez Inquisition are inspired from emantions of the Catholic Church at different eras. But there was nothing like the core of Christian faith.

It is interesting to note, however, that to not be too obvious, Gareth's faith replaces the Romans and Jews by Huleans and Sindhi, which has nothing in common.

Now, Christianity is (besides from the Old Testament) based on the life, acts and message of Jesus Christ, of course. In the case of Gareth, Sitara is then Jesus; she is the one who preaches and brings Gareth's word of wisdom. But in Mystara, we have a second character, Anand, who is more of a warrior; this to my knowledge has no equivalent in RW Jesus's life.

To see why I make this comparison, let's see the context. The Palestin was occupied by the Romans, the Jews were awaiting the Messiah that would free them like Moses freed them from the Egytians. The Jews believed the Messiah would free them by raising an army and fighting, but Jesus promoted peace. Not to mention that he said the Jews had somewhat forgotten their God's words, and the Jews were divided between different currents. In Mystara, the Huleans occupy Sind, and the Sindhi hope that they will be freed from that occupation. There comes Sitara with the word of Gareth, who promotes self-enlightment (a bit like Moses vs. the Egyptian gods). Now, the difference is that here we have anand who indeed fights for the liberation of Sind. And the divided families of Jews that don't want to recognize jesus as their Messiah are of course the Sindhi priestly caste (what's their name?) who have to cooperate with the followers of Gareth but wish to betray them ASAP. On that subject, and I don't know if that was made on purpose because I'm not the one in charge od Sind, in the 1015 almanac, one of the two leaders of the cult of Gareth is killed because of the treachery/Betrayal of the Rishayas (is that the word?) (I won't tell you which one so as not to spoil it all...)

You should also remember that Christianity was never very successful in the lands were it started. Christianity exported well though, especially in Europe, in the Roman Empire. Already the cult of Gareth has spread to Darokin and the Black Mountains, and in the 1015 almanac it continues to spread. Could that mean that it could one day become dominant in Hule? Can anyone else than me see followers of Gareth eaten by lions at the Tyatian Colosseum?

One important thing in the New Testament is the miracles that Jesus performed. In a world where magic is common, in which priests do cast spell (and thus perform miracles everyday) (and those very spells are inspired from the Bible, mostly, as pointed out in a previous discussion), Sitara did perform a miracle of her own : She raised someone from the dead during the Day of Dread, when other priests have no such power.

Now, the most important event in the Christian faith is the death and resurrection of Jesus. This obviously has not happened (unless you assume it was what happened when I say someone did die; I won't tell for now). Can you see the Rishyias give Sitara to the Huleans (maybe after she's betrayed by one other follower of Gareth) and she be crucified, and then return from the dead?

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