Tentacle Fan Club: Tell me about the Far Realm

[Crasical]

So. Trying to read up on the Far Realm to figure out how psionics work in a homebrew setting has left me kind of empty handed/empty headed. It's a realm of such madness and chaos that mere mortals can't really comprehend it, so alien and strange that it warps minds trying to take it in. Aberrations come from there, or are made in it's image...

But how have you used it in your games, or had it used in games you where in?

[Gorgondantess]

So. Trying to read up on the Far Realm to figure out how psionics work in a homebrew setting has left me kind of empty handed/empty headed. It's a realm of such madness and chaos that mere mortals can't really comprehend it, so alien and strange that it warps minds trying to take it in. Aberrations come from there, or are made in it's image...

There's a reason that there isn't much information on it. For the bolded section to be true, how do you expect to run it in your campaign? You are, after all, a mortal. I hope.:smalleek:

[BIGMamaSloth]

So. Trying to read up on the Far Realm to figure out how psionics work in a homebrew setting has left me kind of empty handed/empty headed. It's a realm of such madness and chaos that mere mortals can't really comprehend it, so alien and strange that it warps minds trying to take it in. Aberrations come from there, or are made in it's image...

But how have you used it in your games, or had it used in games you where in?

well, you basically have got the gist of it. it's outside the multiverse and completely incomprehensible to anyone or anything not from there. The rules and laws that govern our multiverse don't apply there. The only way I have seen it used is things that went there and came back in not so great condition (kaorti, etc.) I could never imagine it as a place to go for a campaign cause that brings up problems with the whole "incomprehensible" thing. I could see using it as a source of power for psionics like you said as being a pretty cool idea.

[Tvtyrant]

You could always make it a series of layers that are visible to each other like ghosts, but none interactive. You move through layers by picking up more corruption points, and can only leave by getting enough points to drop out of the far realm. This explains why only crazy people leave, because you can only leave if your crazy.

[Crasical]

There's a reason that there isn't much information on it. For the bolded section to be true, how do you expect to run it in your campaign? You are, after all, a mortal. I hope.:smalleek:

:smallbiggrin:


well, you basically have got the gist of it. it's outside the multiverse and completely incomprehensible to anyone or anything not from there. The rules and laws that govern our multiverse don't apply there. The only way I have seen it used is things that went there and came back in not so great condition (kaorti, etc.) I could never imagine it as a place to go for a campaign cause that brings up problems with the whole "incomprehensible" thing. I could see using it as a source of power for psionics like you said as being a pretty cool idea.

Well, obviously it's not a place for the players to explore, but that doesn't mean that it's agents and energies can't have an effect on the material plane, and the PCs that live in it.

EDIT:

Spoilered for yammering:
I'm considering using 4e lore involving the Living Gate, a huge monolith of psionic crystal, being a shield between the material plane and the far realm, that was shattered some time in the distant past. The fragments became psionicly-powered crystal and Shardminds, and are all over the world, mostly buried. The dispersion of it's powers lead to mortals being able to harness and control the new field of psionic energy that flows through the world, OR to try and use the energy of the Far Realm for power, the dichotomy being that the Living Gate is a being of absolute order, stasis, logic and law, while the far realm is madness, change, emotion and chaos.

BUT the examples of aberrations from the far realm we see (Mind flayers, aboleths) tend to be very evil, the far realm beings are explicitly hostile and hate the material plane for unknown reasons, and there are -dozens- of Punch Cthulu organizations dedicated to standing against the maddening influence of the far realm. So that makes it a little difficult to go with the idea of Psionics being a war between law and chaos the way Divine power is a war between good and evil.

[Xefas]

The thing is that we already have a plane of pure chaos. Several, actually, though Limbo being the purest of the pure. The cosmic war between chaos and law already exists, and it is still a war of divine power. Demons versus Devils in the Blood War is the clearest example, though the Slaad and the Great Modron March are also there.

If the Far Realm were 'just' a place of pure chaos and madness, it would be Limbo. And if it were 'just' a place of pure chaos and madness tempered by insanity and evil, then it would be Pandemonium or the Abyss.

I know that with the spread of books involving planar magic, that they've lost a bit of their mysterious flare, but the Outer Planes are perfectly spooky and mystical. The rogues gallery of the Cthulhu Mythos is something you'd expect to be spawned by the Obyrinths of the Abyss - things that exist as 10,000 bodies, all horrifying and slavering and incomprehensible.

And why are they there and not in the Far Realm? Because we have words for them. I can say "Yog-sothoth" is the Key and the Gate, The Beyond One, a mass of mouths and tentacles which is coterminous with all that exists or shall exist or has existed or does not exist or shall never be. Gazing upon it is madness for all mortals. That's Obyrinths. That's whatever crazy stuff is hidden in the imaginary depths of Limbo.

The Far Realm is beyond that. By its very nature, it can only be a narrative dead space, because to be capable of describing it or any features it may have with human language is to make it something that it is not.

[Crasical]

The Far Realm is beyond that. By its very nature, it can only be a narrative dead space, because to be capable of describing it or any features it may have with human language is to make it something that it is not.

But we have Alienists that plunge into the far realm for arcane power and knowledge.

[Xefas]

But we have Alienists that plunge into the far realm for arcane power and knowledge.

I think an "Alienist" is a perfectly viable way to interact with the Far Realm without necessarily needing to touch on it directly. A person whose mind has had a small glimpse and is irreparably broken by it.

The actual Alienist class from Complete Arcane is kind of lame, if you ask me. The deformed animals they summon aren't anything special. I mean, they even have a picture. Supposedly, this person saw stuff like that and went mad. I'm looking at the picture and not going mad. There is a disconnect.

[Tvtyrant]

I would argue that the far realm isn't that much different then the rest of the planes, except that it doesn't have a set alignment or element. Think of the prime material with the players like the Abyss.

[Jjeinn-tae]

It's quite nice in the dry season. The vast recesses of the maple pudding rivers are in high-tide so you may freely walk around on the tofu riverbanks. The shanty of Dmorphia's vibrant cicada glow casts the entire surrounding country side in its insecty light. Letting all learn of the magnificent Ops'shift-deNANANA'NA ruling all with its terrible ruler. This ruler is many centuries long and craftsquidship is of the purplest quality, bristling with penguins and apples of velvet.

Hope that helps, I'd give you a brochure, but the d'len barrier unmade it when I passed through.

[flumphy]

Soon I'll be playing the Madness in Freeport series of adventures, which as I understand are about trying to prevent things from being summoned from the Far Realm. A few years ago the same DM ran an adventure in a homebrew setting that featured Abdul Alhazred as a mad pirate captain that kidnapped the PCs and (I think) was trying to drag them into the Far Realm. I never actually got to find out because the DM had to deploy. :smallfrown:

Anyway, I don't necessarily see it as a place of madness and chaos. As others have said, that's Limbo. I think the Far Realm is a perfectly ordinary, logical place to its inhabitants, except maybe any Azathoth equivalent. It's just so alien that the mortal mind cannot possibly comprehend it, and any attempt to do so leads to a mental breakdown. Likewise, the laws of physics differ there, twisting the forms of those exposed to its energies. It's not necessarily an inherently evil place, but it's deadly to those on the Prime Material, and because of that those who try to bridge the gap between (and therefore the only residents we interact with) are evil.

[Ason]

I've not used it yet, but I've always wanted to do one particular thing with the Far Realms, assuming I could find a group that I think could roll with the punches and handle it. Basically, there'd be a string of adventures where the party fights monsters from there that have escaped into the normal universe (to get them used to fighting aberrations in our standard system), and as a quest right before the grand conclusion, the group would journey into the Far Realms.

Here is where things would get tricky. As the group explores, I'd inform them that things felt and acted very strangely here, and as part of it, I'd switch to a hex layout and different system without explicitly stating it. (ex. if the fighter uses power attack in a 3.5 game, I would depict the outcome as if he had used an appropriate 4e power instead, movement and threatened spaces would work differently, etc) After a round or two, the party would catch on and have opportunities to "comprehend their new reality," and with some successful saves, they could see their new character sheets/powers instead of just blindly doing stuff. This would not be the climax itself, as people want to use their main guys for the main fight, but it'd be a fun change-up towards the end of a campaign.

That being said, I am holding off on this until I get into a longer campaign where we build a rapport, as if something like this is handled badly, it could really piss folks off. In fact, I'd probably check in with the players (not the PCs) first no matter what, just in case.

[Chilingsworth]

I've not used it yet, but I've always wanted to do one particular thing with the Far Realms, assuming I could find a group that I think could roll with the punches and handle it. Basically, there'd be a string of adventures where the party fights monsters from there that have escaped into the normal universe (to get them used to fighting aberrations in our standard system), and as a quest right before the grand conclusion, the group would journey into the Far Realms.

Here is where things would get tricky. As the group explores, I'd inform them that things felt and acted very strangely here, and as part of it, I'd switch to a hex layout and different system without explicitly stating it. (ex. if the fighter uses power attack in a 3.5 game, I would depict the outcome as if he had used an appropriate 4e power instead, movement and threatened spaces would work differently, etc) After a round or two, the party would catch on and have opportunities to "comprehend their new reality," and with some successful saves, they could see their new character sheets/powers instead of just blindly doing stuff. This would not be the climax itself, as people want to use their main guys for the main fight, but it'd be a fun change-up towards the end of a campaign.

That being said, I am holding off on this until I get into a longer campaign where we build a rapport, as if something like this is handled badly, it could really piss folks off. In fact, I'd probably check in with the players (not the PCs) first no matter what, just in case.



Wait... so 4e is what happens when D&D gets dragged into the Far Realm? That... actually makes alot of sense! :smallbiggrin:

[Notreallyhere77]

As I see it, the Far Realm contains all of the infinite unused potential of reality, past, present, and future. It is a place where everything is happening at once, yet nothing is happening because no time passes here.
It is the discarded blueprints of existence.
It contains that which could not currently exist, but may have existed earlier or may exist later (i.e. dead gods, gods of undiscovered concepts, people and objects destroyed by spheres of annihilation, etc.).
It contains that which could exist, but by all reason shouldn't (i.e. gibbering mouthers, cool ranch flavored breakfast cereal, other monsters that have a habit of escaping into Reality, etc.).
It contains things that cannot exist due to the current constants and laws that govern Reality (creatures that take up mulitple layers, beings with no perception of time or space, non-euclidean artifacts, etc.).
If you want to walk around in it, I would describe the place like this:
"A beautiful, nearly-photographic portrait of the king is to the king himself as Pollock's paintings are to this place. If you squint, and look closely, you can distinguish depth, and see infinite realities frozen, with each moment superimposed on the next, to create a hideous tableau of uncountable inconsistencies with your own reality."
Does that help?

[TheGeckoKing]

Oh, and what ever you do, don't use the given planar stats in Manual of the Planes. For an incomprehensible plane of things beyond mortal ken, to be rendered mute by a few spells is pathetic.
In my opinion, the Far Realms is the land of no rules and no laws. This is different to Limbo, because Limbo has rules, but they just won't keep to the same rules for very long. Limbo is a churning ocean, the Far Realms is an dry ocean bed, and we mortals are the fish, too feeble in our intellect to comprehend our surroundings beyond "WHAT".

[DementedFellow]

I see the Far Realm as this place akin to the laundry chute of the universe. I'll try to explain.

We've all had an experience where we've dropped an item and watched it roll under a piece of furniture. When we look for the item, it simply vanishes. Keeping with the whole Non-Euclidean geometry, I posit that we are constantly surrounded by small "holes" that we cannot fathom/see/feel.

So should a character find him/herself in the Far Realm they are likely to encounter items that have slipped between worlds, so there would be tons of socks and keys. But this also opens up the idea that powerful artifacts could also find their way to the Far Realm.

And not only that, it opens up the idea that there are creatures who have learned to slip unnoticed between the planes. Their physiology allows them to interact with these holes.

Depending on where you want to go with this theme, you could even incorporate lost children as part of some slave trade in this realm.

As for the place itself, aside from the lost items, the characters could find themselves turning around a corner just to end up in a room they didn't expect to be in. Also for kicks and giggles, I suggest a liberal peppering of random things or people popping into view just to vanish shortly after. Wilford Brimley is a must if you go this route.

[Calmar]

The thing is that we already have a plane of pure chaos. Several, actually, though Limbo being the purest of the pure. The cosmic war between chaos and law already exists, and it is still a war of divine power. Demons versus Devils in the Blood War is the clearest example, though the Slaad and the Great Modron March are also there.

If the Far Realm were 'just' a place of pure chaos and madness, it would be Limbo. And if it were 'just' a place of pure chaos and madness tempered by insanity and evil, then it would be Pandemonium or the Abyss.

I know that with the spread of books involving planar magic, that they've lost a bit of their mysterious flare, but the Outer Planes are perfectly spooky and mystical. The rogues gallery of the Cthulhu Mythos is something you'd expect to be spawned by the Obyrinths of the Abyss - things that exist as 10,000 bodies, all horrifying and slavering and incomprehensible.

And why are they there and not in the Far Realm? Because we have words for them. I can say "Yog-sothoth" is the Key and the Gate, The Beyond One, a mass of mouths and tentacles which is coterminous with all that exists or shall exist or has existed or does not exist or shall never be. Gazing upon it is madness for all mortals. That's Obyrinths. That's whatever crazy stuff is hidden in the imaginary depths of Limbo.

The Far Realm is beyond that. By its very nature, it can only be a narrative dead space, because to be capable of describing it or any features it may have with human language is to make it something that it is not.

Partly I agree with you, but in my opinion the iconic Lovecraftian themes such as the Elder Gods are better situated in the Far Realm, than in the outer planes. In fact I believe the Far Realm and all the unnatural, abberational monstrosities that inhabit it are first of all inspired by Lovecraft's works. Which, I think, is absolutely not compatible with the standard cosmology. That's why the far realm is so detached from the cosmology.

In Lovecraft's universe, there is the Earth, populated by the insignificant humanity and surrounded by hostile, nightmarish space full of incomprehensive, destructive and horrible creatures that drive dudes who encounter them full retard. Basically two planes; Material Plane and Space/Outer Realm/Far Realm. There is no room for things like slaadi or devils and demons as separate entities in separate realms, let alone the remaining good and neutral outsiders.

In a setting where you use a Far Realm with its abominations there is no room for hells and paradises and angels and modrons, and vice versa.

[Tanuki Tales]

I personally like to treat the Far Realm as something that is incomprehensible and supremely terrifying not only to the mortal ken but the ken of everything else.

It is the locked away, untouchable horror that even the Blood War would pause to flee from. It is the incalculable insanity that even the Slaad Lords would not attempt to ponder. It is the ever churning chaos that even Primus does not place up a facade concerning the concept of enforcing law upon. It is the corner of Ur-Creation that even Asmodeus wants no dominion over.

For me, the Far Realm is the one threat that all of creation would band together to repel. You would have Devil, Demon, Daemon, Archon, Angel, Azata, Celestial, Inevitable, Modron, Slaadi, Hell Lord, God, Mortal, you name it fighting side by side.

[Vknight]

For what you see but do not comprehend is what shall be.
If you see a beast of the sea flying through the night skin your within the Far Realm but what is night in a place were there is neither night nor day. For it may be black as the ocean at one moment and bright as the Astral Sea the next.
Your rules and laws apply to you so long as you hold them dear but the moment you doubt them everything and anything becomes availble and yet not.
I am an elf ranger I cannot fly so therefor I must fall. But in the Far Realms madness that will hold true till you wish it to stop and even then did it really? Or are you flying up, sliding to the left or right, maybe you continue to fall or you walk the far realm as it is solid mass.
The far realm is massive endless empty with islands of land shifting changing. Places of the material, elemental chaos, astral sea, the feywild, and the shadowfell intersecting with it fusing twisting.

The far realm is as alive as it is dead, for what can happen is limited not by your imagination but the insanity that is within you as the Far Realms tendrils pierce your very being. The longer your exposure and the greater time within the closer you come to being one with it.

The Far Realm sees no good, no evil, no chaos, no law, it merely exists. What happens is what happens the chocolate banana people may be born the next day or the Gold Dragons may grow fungus between there toes.

At any possible second the far realm may be what it is or what it is not. That lake? What lake you see it and feel it but nothing else will ever know its serene beauty or the elven maids within.

The Astral Sea is constant. The Elemental Chaos is ever changing. The Shadowfell is without light. The Feywild is light. The Abyss is evil. The Nine Hells is corruption. The Material is the middle ground.
The Far Realm? Its all of those, none of those, and each one individually. And they will become like it in its image. Why? Why Not? Or rather it will simply occur nothing in the Far Realm needs to make sense. Your Unseen Servant may be visible it may become a ghost you can never be truly aware.

[Eldan]

Actually, as for your Laundry Chute theory... that ws, at least in Planescape, the Astral Plane.

The Astral was basically defined as the backstage of the multiverse. A place people weren't really supposed to go to. It has no real time, or real space. Things don't age, and they don't move normally. But it's where extradimensional space from items happens, where a failed teleport or planeshift drops you off and where things go when they just vanish.

[dsmiles]

Dragon #330 (I think, it's the one with the mind flayer eating a dude's head on the cover) has some pretty good stuff on the Far Realm, and Cerebrosis. Most of it is more monsters and ARGHLBLARGHLAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh....

[The Glyphstone]

Statting Far Realms entities is easy. They have Purple HP, and their initiative bonus is Fish. Their attack bonus is the last digit of Pi, and they do sqrt(-1) damage per hit. Their armor class is the smell of boiling uranium, and they add Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to all saving throws.

[Sipex]

Oh damn, I've been statting all my homebrew far realm monsters with Beethoven's Seventh.

[Eldan]

Ah. Those are Close Realm monsters, actually. They also have an Elephant Initiative bonus and only do imaginary damage on every minus first hit.

[Jair Barik]

And if they roll an odd number to hit then they cause complex damage instead of regular damage. It's similar to regular damage except it isn't.

[*.*.*.*]

THIS THREAD
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSRFNv3j1GQEIAxRKasjcp8FOG3aHES9 Rz3rCZLeRnyJgEi7CrXTzXYIEhF

[flumphy]

Actually, they were errataed to only do complex damage on prime numbers and the square root of pi. They heal on odd numbers now. Unfortunately, it's still unclear what happens with prime numbers other than 2, which are technically also odd. :smallannoyed: Or how any of that interacts with the Touch of Vanilla Ice feat...

[Vknight]

It causes there toes to turn pink so they gain access to the Red Finger Feat

[Ason]

So I was sifting through some free (and legal, thank you very much) pdfs I'd picked up over the past few months, and I found one mini-module that might be relevant to this discussion. The guy over at The Alexandrian was previously in a contest to design an adventure that fit onto one page, and his creation was The Halls of the Mad Mage (http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/mad-mage.pdf) (which works in any system and edition, by the way). It basically takes a lot of the ideas found in M.C. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_World_(M._C._Escher)) Escher's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_(M._C._Escher)) paintings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascending_and_Descending) and weaves them into a single dungeon, and its surreal take on reality and perspective might be appropriate for the Far Realms.

If you think it's not enough on its own, some more orange numerators and cynic frindles may help drive home your point.

[UrsielHauke]

Statting Far Realms entities is easy. They have Purple HP, and their initiative bonus is Fish. Their attack bonus is the last digit of Pi, and they do sqrt(-1) damage per hit. Their armor class is the smell of boiling uranium, and they add Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to all saving throws.

You win one internet. Please increase your power level by over nine thousand.

[Trekkin]

I always assumed that the Far Realms were, in fact, a gradient. There are the sort-of-weird Far Realms from which we get pseudonatural creatures, then the slightly farther Far Realms from whence come the really alien things, then the even farther realms that explode (i/0)d(e) heads per thought of them, until physics is incomprehensibly different and eventually there's no overlap between the Prime's concept of existence and their own. It requires a concept of distance that's a gross oversimplification at best, but it lets the Lovecraftian and printed Far Realms coexist semi-logically.

Thus, a character "going to the Far Realms" is going to one of the nearish Far Realms, where things are different but operate under comprehensible paradigms; still "farther" Realms are the source of the Lovecraftian horrors and other Elder Gods, and the farther out and deeper into the madness one goes, the worse it gets, translationally speaking. Logically, this also means that there are planes that would consider the Prime Material the Far Realms, and ones that would instantly implode into a bouyant shade of blue with savory highlights upon arriving there.

[Dross]

Lots of home-brew far realm stuff in this thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122103

[GungHo]

It's not necessarily an inherently evil place, but it's deadly to those on the Prime Material, and because of that those who try to bridge the gap between (and therefore the only residents we interact with) are evil.
Would be interesting if those from the Prime Material who try to bridge the gap over there (and make it) are seen as horrific, unfathomable, evil abominations by the "people" of the Far Realm and are hunted down mercelessly for being things that should not be.

[Acanous]

Player: I peer into the far realm.
DM: Make a SAN check.
Player: A will save? Ok, I got a 24.
DM: No, a SAN check.
Player: What's that? I don't have it anywhere on my sheet...
DM: You fail. Your character goes mad with the unexplanable horrors of the far realm revealed to him. Your alignment is now Zot. Change your mental scores to Schwifty, and you lose a body part to be replaced with alien tenticals.
*Roll* It's your nose.

[Crasical]

Lots of home-brew far realm stuff in this thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122103

I'm playing 4e and don't particularly like homebrew, but thanks.

And thanks for all the people that posted in this thread. Some of it's been useful, it's all been interesting.

[randomhero00]

If my players insisted on going there I'd have them roll each day to see how the change. I'd come up with a huge chart, 1-100. Some numbers they'd land on would change their powers (to different classes' powers) some numbers landed on would change their race, some would mutate a part of their body permanently, etc. It'd be a lot of work but it might be fun.

[Volthawk]

If my players insisted on going there I'd have them roll each day to see how the change. I'd come up with a huge chart, 1-100. Some numbers they'd land on would change their powers (to different classes' powers) some numbers landed on would change their race, some would mutate a part of their body permanently, etc. It'd be a lot of work but it might be fun.

Yay mutation tables!
I am in no way being sarcastic here

[NoldorForce]

If my players insisted on going there I'd have them roll each day to see how the change. I'd come up with a huge chart, 1-100. Some numbers they'd land on would change their powers (to different classes' powers) some numbers landed on would change their race, some would mutate a part of their body permanently, etc. It'd be a lot of work but it might be fun.A few "suggestions" (http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/tag/deadearth/):

115 – Unlucky – Use one distinguishable die in all rolls. If it rolls a 1, subtract it and your highest die from the roll, and roll it again. If you roll a 1 again, something horrible happens.

360 – Outnumbered – You will surrender whenever involved in combat where your opponents outnumber your allies. You can make no offensive actions when outnumbered.

020 – Decapitation – Radiation blows your head off. Take 10d6 damage to the head.

[Silus]

I personally like to treat the Far Realm as something that is incomprehensible and supremely terrifying not only to the mortal ken but the ken of everything else.

It is the locked away, untouchable horror that even the Blood War would pause to flee from. It is the incalculable insanity that even the Slaad Lords would not attempt to ponder. It is the ever churning chaos that even Primus does not place up a facade concerning the concept of enforcing law upon. It is the corner of Ur-Creation that even Asmodeus wants no dominion over.

For me, the Far Realm is the one threat that all of creation would band together to repel. You would have Devil, Demon, Daemon, Archon, Angel, Azata, Celestial, Inevitable, Modron, Slaadi, Hell Lord, God, Mortal, you name it fighting side by side.

This. I want to play/run this.

With an epic conclusion/climax where the PCs detonate a magic/psionic/divine Reality Bomb on/in the Far Realm Rift. But, instead of working like the Dr. Who Reality Bomb (obliterating everything through space and time), it would force reality (or the creation of reality) onto/into the Far Realm.

What would happen next would be anyone's guess.

Edit: I'd also describe the Far Realm as "A Qlippoth's (Pathfinder) insane fever dream while on amphetamines after watching Eraser Head. And then some."

[The Glyphstone]

020 – Decapitation – Radiation blows your head off. Take 10d6 damage to the head.
If this damage is unsufficient to bring you to -10, you are still alive, though sufffer from the effects of being Blinded and Deafened until your head is regrown.

[Cerlis]

I think the idea of the far realms being incomprehensible makes more sense than it being chaotic. as in the last few joking posts, about things not being what they seem and being in constant flux.

I also dont like this idea of it being horror and death and insanity only "more". A mortal mind and soul is so puny and simple it would never know the difference between the agony a pit lord gives it and that of a far realm creature, because its sense can only go so far and it can only suffer so much till its snuffed out.

however, there is an interesting issue. If it is incomprehensible then we could not comprehend it. so theoretically we should be able to even go into it and not know of it. this leads me to believe the idea of the far realm is closest to the idea of a state of existence that is outside our reality. The very nature of the far realm is beyond mortal comprehension, and i can think of only one thing that try as we pretend to comprehend it, we cant. the universe. we can pretend we know just how big the universe is by using numbers, but we really dont.

So that leads me to believe the entities of the Far realm are like the super gods. The beings of nothingness and everything in which the most powerful gods flaked off of. A Deity is to one of those as an ant is to a deity. They dont concern themselves with the fact that in one version of reality there is a "Thing" (which calls itself "existance").

And it would make sense that as entities of the "thing" became close to what it is not, that the boundaries (such as laws of physics, nature, and logic) start to replace its essence. Thus who have stuff with growth where it shouldnt be, with fractured minds, that arent affected by time. these abominations are the mutant child of what "is" and what "IS so much it isnt".


-------

PS. one of the above statements had me think "unless souls are 100% indestructible" which made me realize it would be badass for an evil god to forge armor out of souls. completely impenetrable

[Sipex]

The far realm does take a lot of influence from space, I've been preparing a far realm campaign for a bit now and a lot of themes rotate around the stars and far off space. There's even a level 30 solo which is a planet. Crazy.

[DefKab]

There is good news about using Denizens of the Far Realm:

First option: Their entrance into the multiverse is the same as your shift into the Far Realm. They are forced into your frame of reference. That's where the 'creepy' comes from. Everything incomprehensible in their body is suddenly forced to be comprehended. They take a physical, yet strange, form, and seem peculiar even to themselves for the strange way they try to act.
If it tries to move, it doesn't walk in a straight line, and it doesn't understand why. So it pops from place to place, recognizes only certain beings as existing, and interacting with things that it can view. You can place a seemingly random qualification for its actions (only attacking Divine Power Source for example) as it's shift into our reference, and it trying to relate to it.

OR

Second option: You don't have to explain them. Because you can't.
It attacks whatever you want it to, jumps from place to place, ignores attacks, or PEOPLE, and then in the middle of the fight, just leaves.
Why? Cause that's the way it rolls.
With this one, you can be less defined, but might lose it if you're not imaginitive. Make it be weird, and definitely NOT predictable, and never give an answer other than "It's an Abberation." That's all you need.