I can't remember because I know it isn't 100% that way in book-based DND - it might be for just Redcloak or something - but is his unholy symbol a prerequisite for casting most spells?

At the very least I think Meister can answer this one for me, he's got a better grapple 3.5e on rules than me (And a fresh memory of OOTS too).

Start of Darkness:

His brother lost his right eye to Paladins. Redcloak killed him to protect Xykon.

Redcloak might just remember his brother because of the injury and that's an entire bag of worms in itself. And even then, Xykon is in the middle of it. not the eye loss, but the betrayal of blood for a liege.

Iunno, I saw it as ironic more or less because of his brother and the karmic backlash that was coming up for this.

Let me reiterate. O-chul is what we call a paladin. It does my heart good to see that.

It's a component in a lot of cleric spells, yeah. I think it's called Divine Focus or something. However, I'm pretty sure you can make a crude symbol out of nearly anything in a pinch (this is why Christianity uses the cross. It's a really easy symbol for clerics to make on the fly so they aren't running around without powers).

*picks up two sticks and ties them together* Boom! Back in action!

Birds of various types are popular too, because even if you have no materials on hand, you can always whip out shadow puppetry, so long as the spell doesn't require somatic components. There'd be a lot of bunnies too, but no god who's had a bunny for his holy symbol has ever been taken seriously.

If Redcloak's holy symbol is specifically Xykon's phylactery, he's currently pretty screwed. I think that's unlikely, though - for one thing, Xykon is powerful, but definitely not a god. More likely they used a holy symbol as phylactery, and they're fairly easy to replace.

I really need to get my hands on those books...

Well whether it is or is not, he thinks its his phylactery, what I want to know is why he thinks that. I cant recall that information ever being disclosed to him

incidently, what exactly does he mean "scry-n-die tactics"

I think it has more to do with "blast anything that moves until it's dead"

And V was kinda known for being... boisterous with spells.

Hell, if you saw how Xykon handle Dorukan you can understand why he wants to hurt V.

This actually just occurred to me, but he was paralyzed in the throne room at the end of War and XPs when Soon Kim and Xykon had the discussion about how Soon can kill Xykon and then instruct the first paladin to destroy the Goblin's holy symbol he was carrying.

It isn't an exact quote but that was a very nice touch that only hit me just now.

God damn, Burlew, stop making me jealous.

EDIT: That Improved Initiative is coming in handy!