Gods of Diablo 2 Fallen: Rathma - The First Necromancer

[Flix 5,233]

For more detailed info on Rathma and his Divine Gift Carrion Vine, check his SacredWiki page.

 

Lore of the Nephalem

Book 6: Rathma, the first Necromancer

Rathma, whose birth name was Linarian, is a first generation Nephalem and the progenitor of the Priests of Rathma, also known as the Necromancers.

 

Origins

Rathma is the son of the demon Lilith and the archangel Inarius. He is not on good terms with his parents, as Lilith destroyed the rebel angels and demons only to use the Nephalem's power for her own ends, while Inarius believed that the Nephalem should worship him alone or be destroyed.

 

Rathma and the other members of the first generation Nephalem, such as Bul-Kathos, retained their god-like supernatural powers, although all later generations needed to be trained or discover magic some other way. Many of the firstborn were destroyed by the archangel Inarius, who would not tolerate defiance. This prompted Rathma to feign death and flee to a mysterious nether-realm; the realm of Trang'Oul, a dragon-like being who acts as Ancaria's guardian.

 

It was there that he rejected his birth name Linarian and instead embraced the name given to him by Trang'Oul, Rathma, which means "Student." Thus Rathma became the first disciple of Trang'Oul, who taught him to preserve what Trang'Oul called the Balance. Their goal was to keep the balance between the Burning Hells and the High Heavens and prevent either from interfering too much in Ancaria's affairs. In the mind of Rathma, the angels were no better than the demons, as the angels are likely to obliterate the entire planet simply for having demons present.

Legacy

In ancient times Rathma worked together with Trang'Oul to make sure that the Creator remained oblivious to the existence of Ancaria, and to try and limit Hell's influence as much as possible. The two worked alone for quite some time until they noticed the ul-Diomed brothers Uldyssian and Mendeln, who both become pivotal in the shaping of Ancaria's future. Mendeln, they realized, had a great potential for helping them maintain the Balance, and Rathma began to test and evaluate Mendeln.

 

Though the young Mendeln remained skeptical at first, he eventually joined forces with Rathma and Trang'Oul and became the second Necromancer. Finally, Rathma explained to Mendeln that his time on the world would eventually come to an end, instructing him to train additional disciples so that the Balance would always have dedicated guardians. Mendeln then passed down the teachings of Rathma to all future generations.

 

It is unknown whether Rathma still lives in the physical sense, but if he does so he is one of the last remaining Nephalem to walk Ancaria, perhaps even the only one.

 

Traits

Rathma was described as having "too perfect features," a trait present in all Nephalem. His skin and hair are a pale white. In addition, he wears a rather peculiar cloak that shifts and moves in response to his emotional state. Mendeln theorized that the cloak might be alive.

 

Rathma is a very calm and rational being. He is not cold or uncaring, but he rarely displays emotion and thus is often perceived as such. Only through ignorant prejudices and long millennia of slow corruption have the Priests of Rathma in Ancaria become associated with darkness and evil.

 

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Divine Gift: Carrion Vine

Ethereal tendrils summoned by Rathma strangle enemies and draw their corpses into the ground, where they are rapidly decomposed, giving their life energies to the player.

• Roots all enemies in a 20m radius
• Hits per second: 0.5
• Poison Damage: 40 + 40 per level
• Leech Life from Opponents: 1%
• Duration: 12 s
• Cooldown: 400 s (~6.6 minutes)

 

I wanted to make Carrion Vine a Druid spell, as it was in Diablo 2, but there was no room. However, given a slightly different flavor, it makes a fine "shadow" divine gift. The visuals for this spell are from an unused spell I found called "skeleton root" which summons ghostly green tentacles from the ground to root enemies.

 

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Statue

 

Clicking on Rathma's statue will partially regenerate his Divine Gift, Carrion Vine.

 

Another amazing statue contribution by Silver Fox. The mask will also be available as a recreation of the D2 unique, Wormskull.

[King Angel 69]

Remember me, this mask is of Shao Kahn the boss of Mortal kombat

[King Angel 69]

I see this helm in Titan Quest game and sorry for double post

Edited February 24, 2015 by King Angel

[chattius 2,752]

The godpower has a great damage potential with life leech alone able to kill a boss at high levels. But there is a big IF...

Only at casting everything in range will be tried to put a vine on. So no damage on summons created after the cast. Or beasts running in the affect area. Could live with this.

But IF the opponent has root resistance he may resist the vine and with the vine all the damage pulses. So be warned if you fight trees and such in Hellfire Arena.

Think it is balanced as it is now, but people should know that a vine can not only be resisted with CA-block/reflect but also with root -block/reflect.

 

note to myself: if the vine is reflected, will the caster have all these nice x% life leech pulses? ;)

Think I may create a thread about the godpowers if I can force some slaves to test different priest ideas.