Thoughts about Vermis III and which God is responsible for The Punishment
Hey y'all, just finished my copy of Vermis III today. I definitely enjoyed this one a lot! It painted a much bleeker world, if you can belive that, than the previous 2 books in my opinion. Part of me wonders if the influence of Fear and Hunger had not found it's way to Plastiboo. Especially if the House of Red. There is some excellent TTRPG dungeon foder in this book! I definitely would love to figure out how to run The House of Red and the adjoining Hanged City as a Megadungeon using Mörk Börg as I feel this setting out of all of them lends itself best to that system, but I digress.
What has my mind hooked is how the Known Gods factor into this particular book. Dorvus the Truth seems to be the most mentioned God in this installment - with Dorvus being revered by that family in the swamp and the paladin in the locust dungeon - perhaps it parallels our POV character's refusal to except the truth of thier position. However, what I am curious about is if Dorvus was responsible for The Punishment.
Did Hyzra and his sages, turn from Dorvus' truth in their quest for forbidden knowledge, and as punishment where burned with the fires of truth?
Or perhaps Ketereth, the Wrath was responsible and instead of cursing the land with White Hives, instead decided to scorch the land with their wrath.
There is also the Company of Ash to consider, whose faces bear the visage of Murgo, the Relentless. Although we have seen Murgo often associated with deep forests and witchcraft in the previous books, Murgo does seem to have a connection to the undead as well. Perhaps the blacked bones of those killed by The Punishment persist after death through Murgo's doing.
What do y'all think?