Say, one would technically roll a Zandalari, a Zandalari priest at that, and this priest would worship Bwonsamdi, what powers would said Zandalari be able to use ?
Firstly, sounds totally plausible, Bwonsamdi quite famously likes deals…
If your talking Games mechanics-wise, then pretty much everything is on the table, Holy, Discipline, Shadow, I mean we see that Bwonsamdi -can- heal, and he can mess with people’s heads, and he certainly has no problem with his devotees killing people.
If we’re talking about Roleplay abilities, then you could do a lot worse than look at the real life faiths of Voodoo and Candomble and that sort of thing. I mean Bwonsamdi is a direct riff of Baron Samedi, the Voodoo Loa governing death, so as a source of inspiration it isn’t a bad one. He also doesn’t seem to play favourites necessarily, we hear a troll uttering pleas to Bwonsamdi after his caravan was attacked by Malfurion, so he doesn’t just deal with the high and mighty, but is a figure in all Trollish walks of life. (Said Troll was also Darkspear, so he clearly is regarded well as a Loa across the tribes, not just the Zandalari)
Voodoo is a complicated one, and a lot of people think they know about Voodoo, when they mostly are getting it from -European- perceptions of it, and Hollywood.
I mean everyone knows about ‘Voodoo Dolls’ right?
Wrong.
Whilst the Loa do have the ability to harm people, that isn’t what Voodoo dolls were used for… They are a thing, but for the opposite reason, they are used to -cure- sickness and injury, not -cause- it. Sort of like Acupuncture or Chakra points I guess. The whole reason we have this enduring myth that they were used to cause harm is actually based on European legends, where ‘Witches’ did use effigies to curse people (I mean these are legends, I’m not suggesting they actually worked), effigies were generally called Poppets, so when the white folk saw the darker skinned folk doing the thing with Dolls an instant link was made in their minds, and we end up where we are now, where everyone knows Voodoo dolls cause harm, whereas they were supposed to do the exact opposite.
A Priest of Bwonsamdi would likely be the person you went to see when sick, to try and get them to appeal to Bwonsamdi, sickness both mentally and physically, So really as a Priest it makes sense that they can heal. You might go to such a Priest for strength against your enemies, as we famously see Rastakhan does. Again, Bwonsamdi’s faithful could grant that wish…for a price…
Apart from the name, another thing both Bwonsamdi and Baron Samedi in our world seem to have in common is, as Sin’dorei merchants seem fond of saying “Everything has a price”
Play up on that as a Roleplay gimmick. “Sure, ah can heal cha sick baybeh, but Bwonsamdi asks a price, life fo’ life, ah heal cha baybeh, Chu got to go kill someone else, in Bwonsamdi’s name, to keep de balance.”
Play up on the things we see in game, I love the fact that to commune with the Loa, the Zandalari seem to have a big thing about blowing dust, which is very fitting. For Bwonsamdi this would almost inevitably be Bone Dust,
However. You wouldn’t be a grim death cultist. Both Bwonsamdi and Baron Samedi are depicted as actually quite jolly people, Bwonsamdi has a macabre sense of humour, and Baron Samedi loves rum and cigars.
Your view on the Undead would likely be a complicated one, just as in our real world the connection between Voodoo and Zombies is a complicated one. You might see them as people Bwonsamdi has made an agreement with, to let them do one last thing, or you might see them as mockeries that blaspheme by their very existence, their souls denied to your Loa.
Shadowlands expansion is going to make it a very confusing, but interesting time to Roleplay as a Priest of Bwonsamdi, until we know which side of things (if any) he comes down on…
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Zandalari are refferring to the last remnants of the fall of atlantis. The worshipper of Bwomsamdi is to be able to lower one own heartrate, in order to tap into the original knowledge that was at the source/soul of thriving community. That is but a remnant/ghost. Which is being reincarnated, in order to rewrite history, at a later date.
Because in the end, this value, has always been, is, and will always be, remaining, fully available, in its perfect, non-physical, essential, ever richness of form, in ever fulness of freedom of its fullness of expressional capability and consistency of expansion of its true original values, that can only be known, by virtue of non-physical interfacing.
Hence, the shamanic drums which match the heartrate of the worshippers, in order to collectively, lower the frequency to a more inductive state of reconnection/recollection, with the higher frequencies of the soul/essence/value of Atlantis. As the lowering of the drums and thus the matching of the heartrate to that, causes a preciseness of greater accuracy and capability of channeling the greater non-physical values which are highly integrative and high in frequency and specificity and detail expansion of value also within, as resolution of this value.
And so the worshipper of bwomsamdi serves to only leave the absolute most relevant breadcrumbs of recollection for the future civilizations. To make sure that the misunderstanding/misinterpretation of the original soul essence of value of Atlantis is kept at an as low as possible probability. And thus only manifested in physical outward servitude, if it is absolutely unequivocally of utmost relevance and benefit to do so.
It is the art of leaving breadcrumbs, for future reincarnations of Atlantis, and thus Bwomsamdi remains non-physical, and the servitude is to join Bwomsamdi in the end, but to remain physically focused, to make sure that the breadcrumbs that are going to be left behind for the future incarnations of atlantis, are perfectly in alignment for the full/greater allowed realisation of them, at a later future date, that is accesible through the non-physical essence/soul that bwomsamdi helps the physically focused souls to interface with. By virtue of taking the form/shape of a wise shaman, that is ever so fun and playful, as was atlantis aswell.
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