Deep Reflexions of Infinity

Per Speculum (aka. Near Infinity or the Mirror Plane) is an almost-perfect simulacrum of the Mortal Realms; anything apparent in the Mortal Realms can be seen in reflection in this region of Infiniy.  It is an ordered world, though that order is reversed from a mortal's expectation.  Duplicating creatures fill this world with a society of their own--living, working, and worshiping according to their own ideals.  They have their own kings, their own priests, and their own criminals.  They also have their own gods.

The archdaemons of Infinity are ancient doubles who have transcended from their malleable nature to become pure mirrors to the Mortal Realm.  They have become immense, amorphous humanoids who skin has transformed into a solid, polished, reflective surface.  Four in number, each is the embodiment of a different type of reflection. Collectively, they are known as the Faal'sjern (while the lesser doubles of Per Speculum are the Faal'truen)

Homebrew to the Rescue!  Warlocks who serve the Deep Reflexions have the Man in the Mirror patron.  Furthermore, they typically choose the Pact of the Mirror--and often select invocations tied to that pact.  Archfey and Fiends (Vices) have also been known to offer this pact.

NOTE:  In other settings, these beings would be powerful aberrations, akin to Great Old Ones. 

Legacies of Eternity

There are events in history so important that they continue to continue to shape reality long after their circumstances have passed.  On the Plane of Time, these histories have taken on a life of their own; they have become conscious and stared to govern the actions of that Plane.  These Legacies have become the archdaemons of Eternity.  Their influence can be seen throughout time, whether the events that define them occured in the past, the present, or the future.  Since all things occur simultaneously on this plane, the Legacies are always active.

Sometimes, Legacies are called the horsemen of the apocalypse--harbingers of the End of Time.  This is both true and preposterous.  This is true in that when all Legacies have come to pass, that the end of the known world will be nigh.  Likewise, there can be no end to time; it will ever flow onward--there can be only change.

NOTE:  Legacies are always spoken of with the definine article:  the Titanomachy, the Exodus, the Deluge, etc.  In a way, these archdaemons only have epithets, and not true names.

Warlocks with Legacy patrons may use the homebrew Horologius patron until such time as an appropriate "official" option is released.

Legacies of the Past

These Legacies' effects on the Mortal Plane were experienced and understood in history, but continue to have lasing effects.

The Titanomachy

The conflict between the HMDJVNW and the giants of Raviq lasted for centuries.  During its course, the giant races were decimated, and their remnants ultimately exiled from Orbimond; their legacy was carried on in the goliath races.  The land of Prosperity was even physically transformed into the land of Desolation, and the Taint was unleashed upon the mortal races of he world.  Had the HMDJVNW not arrived in the mortal world, however, the war of the giants would still have occurred--instead against the might of the dragons!

The Titanomachy is the archdaemon of the giants (though giants do not dwell in Eternity).

SPΩRE: Parahumans

The various SPORE settings share several common elements--though, in many cases, these elements are substantially different than their counterparts in the other "realities."  For example, each setting has a class of people who are more than human, no longer human, or some combination.  They are known by the generic term parahuman.

Parahumans in GaiaSPΩRE

The term parahuman was created in initially for the GaiaSPORE setting.  Here, parahumans are a race of people created during the Century War (another recurring theme) to serve as living weapons.  The various factions of the war each followed the same basic process: animal DNA was spliced with human DNA to create specialized super-soldiers.  Dozens of different animals were used, but only a handful of parahumans proved to be viable enough to produce offspring.

Monvesian Seekers: Muses

The Seekers of Monvesia are called Muses.  Instead of coming from the ranks of the gods, they are the archdaemons of the Dreaming, powerful egregores of knowledge:  the Trivium of humanities (Poeia, Philosophia, Theologia) and Quadrivium of sciences (Arithmetica, Astrologia, Geometria, Musica).  While the Trivium seek to understand Why the world works, the Quadrivium seek to understand How.

Unlike the other archdaemons, the Muses do not have a "standard" physical form; each person who sees them sees what they want to see.  Nearly all who have encountered these Muses agree that they are female--but each describes them as being the epitome of their own race.  The only other common attribute from all accounts is the color of each Muse's robes.

There are more Muses than those detailed  below.  These include the matriarchs--Grammatica (mother of Poeia), Logica (mother of the Quadrivium), and Rhetorica (mother of Philosophia and Theologia)--who are so ancient and powerful that their interest in mortals has diminished.  Many of the Muses below are matrons themselves, with daughters and grand-daughters; these younger generations, while powerful enough to inspire mortals in the arts and sciences, are not powerful enough to patron warlocks or sponsor saints.

Virtues of Monvesia

With angels redefined as divinities, the ranks of celestial creatures have been diminished.  What remains from the core rules has been augmented with sphinxes and a horned serpent in order to fill the Empyrean with majestic beings of law and goodness.  The greatest of these beings are the Virtues--most of which embody two or more celestial creatures.

The Virtues of the Empyrean are companions to the Vices of the Inferno.  Though goodness (Altruism) and chaos (Vitalism) are not necessarily at odds, these two groups represent represent opposing ideals.  Indeed, not even their Transitive Planes are in opposition; in fact, both planes share influence from the Aerosphere and the Pyrosphere.  For this reason, the planes are sometimes called the Fire Above (Empyrean, influenced by the Hierosphere) and the Fire Below (Inferno, influences by the Necrosphere).

 

Classifying Monvesian Creatures: Anachronisms, Doubles, Thoughtforms

Three new creature types were created for Monvesia in order to associate one creature type with each transitive plane as its daemon.  While several creatures were reclassified into these types, several more still need to be created.  In this post I will review the various creatures that can and will fill the ranks of these types.

NOTE:  Three races from the Eberron campaign setting could find their way into Monvesia through these creature types:  Warforged as mortal modrons or inevitables; changeings as doppleganger descendants; or even kalishtar as embodied thoughtforms.

Classifying Monvesian Creatures

RETCON NOTE:  Portions of this posts are sysematically being replaced by a series of posts under the heading of "Classifying Monvesian Creatures":

• Aberrations, Celestials, Fiends
• Anachromisms, Doubles, Thoughtforms
• Beasts & Monstrosities
• Divinities
• Elementals
• Fey [& Plants]
• Humanoids & Giants
• Undead

General information about creature classification in this setting will remain in this post.

As has been pointed out in previous posts, the nature of Monvesia is different from that other D&D worlds.  To accommodate these differences, there needs to be some minor shuffling of creatures.  A few new monster types have even been created.  The creature types of Monvesia are listed below, showing those both new and altered.

Beasts

Many creatures normally classified as monstrocities are included among the beasts of Monvesia. 

• Catoblepas [beast]
• Roc [beast]

Daemons (Multiple Types)

Daemons are a family of several monster types, each tied to one of the three-Sphere transitive planes. Five of these types already exist in the game, and three are new: Aberrations, Anachronisms, Doubles, Celestials, Fey, Fiends, Thoughforms, and Undead.