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Y'chek

Primordial Entity • Warlock Patron • God of Passion and Music

Overview​

Y'chek, called Ruthalk in Dwarvish, is one of the oldest primordial beings of the world: not a god of a domain but the spirit of music itself, dark and melancholic in the dwarven stories and, in the Eldoran Empire's research, a god of passion and music (Session 61). It is the warlock patron of Helisanna Doomfall — who, since Session 57, is one of the two personas of Leliana Goldspring, both played by Luke Neverisky. The purple eyes of the ravers trace back to its influence through Helisanna's music.

Recaps and transcripts have also spelled the name Ach'uk, Yichek, Eichek and Echek; all are the same being.

Current status (Session 63): unknown. Asked in Session 58 what had become of the being that had been possessing Helisanna, the party was told only that they would "have to wait and see".

Nature (Session 34)​

With a high Religion check boosted by Bru's Flash of Genius, Elspeth recalled the oldest stories of dwarven folklore:

  • The first dwarves feared, above all, the timeless beings deep in the earth that attacked the mind through music. Dwarves drawn by its hum were lured into the depths and never seen again. The dwarves called it Ruthalk.
  • In mythologies that describe the earliest gods as an orchestra, Y'chek is the god of percussion and drums; its music has changed with the ages and has now soaked into electronic music.
  • It has no will of its own in the mortal sense. It spreads like grass or a tree's canopy into whatever ground is fertile, and the weakening of the barriers between planes has made it stronger than before.
  • It can be pushed back by strengthening those barriers, by the Eldorans' god-killer approach, or by the ordinary things that draw people away from it: music that brings joy, work, family.

The Pact​

  • Questioned by Olivia in Session 23, Helisanna said she made her pact in a dark place with purple flames or smoke, with an androgynous, otherworldly being, and received her magic and her instrument through it. Her concerts left audiences with purple eyes from Session 1 onward.
  • The origin was revealed in Sessions 56–57. A young Leliana, who wanted desperately to be a better musician, walked through a shining gateway in a library in the Eldoran back-country and met a being of "true evil" — an "abominable eldritch being twisting you" — where she was "rendered from your body and then reformed anew". That is where Helisanna was born. In Session 57, as the World Tree took root, Leliana felt that the Dead Forest was "the other side" — the place where she had gone to her patron and where Helisanna was born.

The Crang Battle and the Split (Session 34)​

Y'chek empowered Crang, who fought the party beneath High Forge with an army of controlled ravers; sound panels powered his abilities while the ravers' psychic assaults drained the party's minds. When the last speaker fell, the music came from everywhere at once and the patron manifested behind the downed Helisanna, wrapping her in tentacles and calling her back. Offered a final choice — "to either resist the voice, to submit to it, or to try to overpower it" — she submitted.

What followed was not Y'chek's doing. Seeing what the pact had cost her, Helisanna tore at the veil around her, helped by a small dwarven spirit ("let's tip the scales"), an avatar of Tyr working through Olivia's spell. She split into two women: Helisanna, who left with her ravers, and Leliana. The party noted that the entity which had been empowering Crang had now taken over Helisanna instead.

Afterwards​

  • Session 35: the party debated what to do about Helisanna under Y'chek's influence and was warned that a straight fight against her would go badly; ideas included a rock-off with Leliana, a residency at the Lotus Casino, and, one day, a rescue.
  • Sessions 36–56: Helisanna remained apart from the party — playing the Great Hall concert (Session 36), riding the purple-eyed black dragon Duncan (Session 37), occupying the Lotus Casino (Interlude XII), and later "running things in the South" (Session 56).
  • Session 57: Leliana learned that she and Helisanna are two extremes of one person and can switch between them at will. Whether this loosened the patron's hold is unknown.

God of Passion and Music (Session 61)​

On the acoustics floor of the Eldoran research tower, the party read the Empire's notes on harmonic resonance. The researchers cite studies of Y'chek, "a god of passion and music", as the original template for their belief-powered system. Y'chek needs no explicit doctrine: people who pour themselves into passionate, aggressive music are doing its will, and so power it, without thinking of themselves as followers. The Empire learned from this that a god can be fed by practice rather than worship, and built the loop in which belief feeds a god and the god empowers the believer (see Eldoran Empire).

Open Questions​

  • What is Y'chek doing now, and does it still have a hold on Helisanna?
  • How much of the Eldoran Empire's harmonic research draws on Y'chek directly?

Session History​

  • Session 23 — Helisanna tells Olivia what little she knows of her pact: a dark place, purple flames or smoke, and an androgynous, otherworldly being.
  • Session 34 — Named as Y'chek (Ruthalk in Dwarvish), it empowers Crang, manifests behind the downed Helisanna, and offers her resist, submit, or overpower; she submits, then splits into Helisanna and Leliana.
  • Session 35 — The party weighs how to deal with Helisanna under its influence and is warned not to fight her head-on.
  • Session 56 — Leliana remembers the eldritch being she met through the library gateway, where Helisanna was born.
  • Session 57 — The memory-walk ties the Dead Forest to the place where Leliana met her patron; she learns she and Helisanna are one person.
  • Session 58 — Asked what became of the being that possessed Helisanna, the party is told to wait and see.
  • Session 61 — Research notes in the Eldoran research tower cite studies of Y'chek, a god of passion and music, as the template for the Empire's belief-powered harmonics.