Creatures of Majesty, Might, and Awe

[Remedy]

I'm making a setting. Due to how I wanted the various cultures to develop, I realized that sharing territories with dragons wasn't viable for my races, so I wrote dragons out. Conveniently, this gives me an excuse to experiment with new creatures.

So what sorts of beings work to inspire terror and wonder on the same scale as (non-child) dragons, while maintaining a distinct feel from them? (Like, "extraplanar psionic shadow dragons" is not suitably different from "dragons" for me to include them.) Undead and Outsiders are highly unlikely but possible (the cosmology has been shifted around a lot) and intelligent constructs only work if they can exist despite methods of creating them dying out over a century and a half ago (only the dwarves would be able to pull that off, and said dwarves have been extinct for a while, never mind that their tech is suffering from a century and a half of acid rain with no maintenance).

Any ideas that really jump out at you?

[meschlum]

The Fair Folk are an obvious option (even outside Exalted). They tend to be fragile and illusion / enchantment heavy, but that's still plenty to overawe the commoners. And bind the more dnagerous things into service.


From that concept, you're pretty close to intermittent manifestations of Elementals. A living storm that blows through the land every decade and destroys towns that aren't burning offerings of fine incense is terrifying, but the rains and pleasant weather it brings the rest of the time means it will be respected or worshipped.


Which leads to divine meddlers, including evil forces. So long as they are rare and somewhat reliable in their interactions (never sign your name on a contract handed to you by a white haired man with blood red nails, or your soul is forfeit - but give him enough drink to sate his thirst, and your ship will always make it home), they are things people do not want to fight with, rather scary, and still fascinating.


Of course, that leads to alien entities, possibly some Aberrations. They're not human, never were, never will be, and their goals and methods do not make sense to us (and vice versa). If they're not constantly hostile but simple weird, and possible to deal with so long as strange rules are followed, you have sources for strange devices that do wonderful things - and monsters that think nothing of taking the minds, of left hands, of a dozen folk as fair payment for a flashlight. Just make then uncommon enough that their depredations are not a wide scale threat, willing enough to bargain that their treasures are known and desired, and they'll fill a niche.


Which goes back to the Fair Folk, who will make your life a (briefly) living hell if you disrespect them or break their obscure laws, and will bless you if you deal with them fairly - assuming you can figure out what that means to them!

[DrMotives]

You could definitely work the aberration angle, they have plenty of epic awesome potential, in a very H.P. Lovecraft sort of way. If you'd rather make things feel more high fantasy though, you might try kaiju though. They a big bad epic feel, you can find the template to turn almost anything into one in Dragon magazine #289.

[Remedy]

Hm. I could make the Fair Folk angle work, though they usually work best when they can live apart from people in the enchanted forests and such, which doesn't work as well in this case since the enchanted forests are already the homes of one of the main races. Then again, it might be interesting to explore it from the new angle, with characters actively sharing an environment with the Fair Folk rather than having them as curious neighbors.

Elementals don't really work, due to those vague cosmology changes I warned of but didn't explain. Good idea, though.

Aberrations... Well, I'd need an explanation for them other than "the Far Realms did it," but I could actually probably pull that off, too. They get the fear and power, but not necessarily the wonder factor, though; I feel like the lack of ability to understand or comprehend them might interfere with any sane individual thinking they're actually impressive or worthy of respect.

Thanks for the ideas so far, they're great!

[DMVerdandi]

Personally I love titans.
Not necessarily the DND version of them, but definitely the mythological ones[the gods of the golden age, nature deities rather than deities of human civilization].

DND essentially makes it into a better cloud giant with outsider levels and I kind of resent that a bit.
You could totally do something of a titanomachy in a game, and at least have the titans ruling as demiurges, and while the true gods are outside mortal reach, the titans rule as god-kings IN the mortal plane.
(titans are extraplanar, but you could make them native outsiders just for the purpose of your game.)

Personally I think it would require something of a re-write on what it means to be a titan anyway.
Because the monster manual one, while having big numbers, is nothing but that, as well as being limited to them.

You could go far with it, making them possibly large size human-esque creatures (rather than the ridiculous colossal), and maybe even using the age progression of dragons and porting it over to the titans.
The older they get, the stronger they get, and you could have them cast and gain caster levels as clerics (as dragons progress as sorcerers), and then give them the lists of clerics, sorcerers and druids to prepare from.

Call it a fair (not really), trade for not having dragon stats and size and weapons and such. Just progress their stats and give them cleric casting for all lists[accelerating the ages that they get caster level].


In 2e, the vampire was very much the same, gaining strength through age. It's one of the better mechanics for making a truly devastating, and interesting antagonist.

[DrMotives]

In 2e, the vampire was very much the same, gaining strength through age. It's one of the better mechanics for making a truly devastating, and interesting antagonist.

If you have access to the old Ravenloft stuff, or the farmed out to 3rd party 3.x version, they have 5 age categories for vampires as well as the other classic undead, ie mummies, liches, & ghosts.

[XionUnborn01]

I've always liked the Ocean Striders from MM2 as an alternative for an awe inspiring creature. They're only huge but when I've used them I've made them larger with colossal versions patrolling deeper waters, fluffing it as they often slumber on the ocean floor and rise up when intruders are present.

You could easily modify them for different environments like mountain versions with earth glide and meld into stone or something, I think there's a high level rock giant type thing that often falls asleep and gets mistaken for normal rocks, and using treants as their forest equivalents, maybe a plains/grassland equivalent that lays down and looks like a hill. Maybe the Terrasque is the underground equivalent (with slight modifications probably)

The ocean strider is a really cool themed monster in my opinion and I wish there were more like it. Plus you could also have groups of them fight and maybe as they travel they kinda bring their environment with them almost like a planar bubble type effect but it stays behind when they travel. So you could have these huge rock beings clashing with huge treants and as the treant walks towards the mountain saplings start to appear and grow up super fast, and as the rock being walks down the mountain pebbles grow into boulders and the grass starts to calcify and turn into stone.

[Uncle Pine]

Any ideas that really jump out at you?

The Owletariat: an expanding interplanar empire of intelligent communist owlbears.

[(Un)Inspired]

Push-me-Pull-you unicorns. EVIL Push-me-Pull-you Unicorns.

[meschlum]

Ah. So you're after things that claim territory, in some more or less arcane manner, and interact with mundanes enough to be feared and adored for what they can do. Plus, they're largely manifested in the world rather than things you might summon from the aether.


Again, the Fair Folk can work, if you view them from the perspective of their courts rather than individuals. Elves and sprites live in the wood, and you can get to know them, trade with them, even marry them. But there are Rules, and Borders, and Bargains - and while the run of the mill elf or pixie isn't going to be involved in any of these, they are more likely to be caught up in them - and drawing their attention is many things, but not safe.

The Fair Folk, here, are not the ordinary elves or even minor fey that wander the world. Instead, they are rare and powerful players in a complex and involved game, where there are only three sorts of people.

The Lords and Ladies, intent on one another and their alien conflict - or is it courtship? - laying claim to territory in each other's eyes. Only rarely will a Lord or Lady visit another's lands, and that is a sign of some imminent, drastic change. Otherwise, they are content to deal with each other through the intermediate of their Champions instead, rarely showing themselves otherwise.

Champions are chosen by a Lord or Lady, and - presumably of their own free will - dedicate themselves to service. Some were mortal, once. For the most part, they travel through the territory of their master or mistress, ensuring that the Rules are followed and clashing with their peers. Younger Champions are often more independent, and might go off on adventures without revealing their alliegeance to their companions until it becomes critical - for the most part, becoming a Champion seems to grant a century of independence and increasing power before the Boundaries and Bargains of the Fair Folk bring them back to the land.

Pawns are everyone else. They could conceivably be useful if they happen to be in the right place with the right skills, but are otherwise of no concern to the Fair Folk. Until they break the Rules, that is. The Lords and Ladies are not invincible, nor are the Champions fully aware of all that happens in the land - they have been slain and overthrown, even without the meddling of others among their kin. A burned forest, iron towers raised above a lonely hill, a lake drained and planted over... The Fair Folk can bleed and die, but the curses they leave behind mean that this is most often done by heroes, who care for vengeance and glory, than by commoners, who need to look to the coming decades and generations.


Aberrations require a different approach, since they tend to be more of a blight - or at least actively hostile rather than simply indifferent. So instead of having them in a set place where they can be hunted down, you make them move about (the alternative of them living far away from everyone else means they don't interact with people enough).

The Cloaked Ones are strange figures, usually tall and quite obviuously deformed beneath their eponymous cloaks. They travel unseen during the day, and are only seen at night if they can manage it - though enough have seen the sun to confirm that they are not vampires, though many would be reasured if they were.

Fundamentally alien beings with unknown goals, the Cloaked Ones are often revered in small communities - they can regrow other's lost limbs with ease, and do so at prices that no priest could match. Often, a Cloaked One will be satisfied to be guided through the land with a human to serve as an interpreter, will plant a strange tree in an abandonned patch, or simply bless a new generation of children. Large cities find that while a Cloaked One may benefit a few of the poor, there is often unrest and focused madness in its wake. Common folk will be largely untouched, but leaders and sages are prone to bizarre behavior.

At the level of nations, it has ben found that eliminating Cloaked Ones is costly - besides, while they often cause trouble in individual cities, they appear to value the status quo and have acted to preserve countries threatened by natural disasters, or even wars. As to what happens to solitary folks living in the wilds when a Cloaked One comes by? The wilderness is dangerous, and they have to find incubators and experimental subjects somewhere.

This version has the minflayers / aboleths / whatever more intgrated in society, as a source of weird gifts - strangely rubberly limbs, wands of magic missile that rely on bullets rather than magic, and so forth. So there is some amount of respect, but it is also known that spending too much time with them is not healthy, for the mind and possibly the body as well. Hence, you respect them a lot, and hope they'll move on quickly, but as long as they come through rarely they are appreciated.

[Ayrynthyn]

Giants? Cloud and Storm may fit this bill nicely.

[ArendK]

What I see is singular beasts, unique legends personified.

So I've got a couple ideas;

A volcano with legs (we've all seen the meme) and a mouth.

Any of the Kaiju with some light refluffing and some new abilities.

Use the mythic concept on a few regular scary beasties and build their legend through RP?

[BowStreetRunner]

Hm. I could make the Fair Folk angle work, though they usually work best when they can live apart from people in the enchanted forests and such, which doesn't work as well in this case since the enchanted forests are already the homes of one of the main races. Then again, it might be interesting to explore it from the new angle, with characters actively sharing an environment with the Fair Folk rather than having them as curious neighbors.
I think the Fey can be diverse enough to suit your needs. The Zeitgeist from Cityscape p.138 is a Huge Fey formed from the stuff of a city. Ruin Chanters from MM5 p.132 are personifications of worldly decay that guard ancient ruins. Lunar Ravagers from MM4 p.95 are described as displaced from the natural world and it says they prefer to live close to civilizations they can raid. Ragewalkers from MM3 p.132 arise in areas torn by war. The Splinterwaif from MM3 p.164 are at home in the narrow alleyways and tangled slums of large cities.

[Honest Tiefling]

Hm. I could make the Fair Folk angle work, though they usually work best when they can live apart from people in the enchanted forests and such, which doesn't work as well in this case since the enchanted forests are already the homes of one of the main races. Then again, it might be interesting to explore it from the new angle, with characters actively sharing an environment with the Fair Folk rather than having them as curious neighbors.

Underground fey. Instead of turning to the heavens, these people are in awe of fey that dwell deep beneath the earth in sparkling cities that shimmer from magic that would make the sun hide itself in shame if it were to ever gaze upon it. They occasionally come up from their deep, vast kingdoms to gift those worthy of such splendor unworked gems. Mortal hands find themselves inspired and work the gems into perfectly cut pieces that adorn the brows of emperors and kings. And one should never cross such fey, for their reach is high and they will cause crops to die from their very roots.

Also might explain why the dwarves aren't around anymore.

[NichG]

I'm making a setting. Due to how I wanted the various cultures to develop, I realized that sharing territories with dragons wasn't viable for my races, so I wrote dragons out. Conveniently, this gives me an excuse to experiment with new creatures.

So what sorts of beings work to inspire terror and wonder on the same scale as (non-child) dragons, while maintaining a distinct feel from them? (Like, "extraplanar psionic shadow dragons" is not suitably different from "dragons" for me to include them.) Undead and Outsiders are highly unlikely but possible (the cosmology has been shifted around a lot) and intelligent constructs only work if they can exist despite methods of creating them dying out over a century and a half ago (only the dwarves would be able to pull that off, and said dwarves have been extinct for a while, never mind that their tech is suffering from a century and a half of acid rain with no maintenance).

Any ideas that really jump out at you?

The Wardens: Ancient heroes who lost their humanity in the crucible of an old destiny and became immortal in the process. Now, with their destiny far in the past but incapable of passing on, they guard over their lands but generally remain aloof. In abandoning mortality, the Wardens have also left behind their perception of time and immediacy. Each Warden is so drowned in the accumulation of years that it is hard to get them to pay attention to the present, but things which directly threaten their lands or which violate their precepts upon their lands draw their immediate and excessive attention and retaliation. Others can live on their land without conflict so long as they do not obviously change the land's nature, and so long as they do not remind the local Warden of something traumatic from their past.

The Heralds: In the lands of the Heralds, future events are foreshadowed by manifestations in the present. Here, there lies a great shadowy city with incomprehensible inhabitants, styles, and powers. The city sleeps, merely a prognostication, until someone's actions threaten to make it fail to come to be. In such cases, the city becomes manifest, its forces corporeal to the one who has become entangled with its fate, and causes that person to be lost within its alien streets and ways. The Heralds do not actively seek to stop those who would interfere with their eventual existence, but just by the nature of their phenomenon, those who delve too much into their secrets tend to be sucked into the city and disappear.

[DrMartin]

would something along the lines of the Lion Turtles from Avatar: the last Airbender work?

[Remedy]

Underground fey. Instead of turning to the heavens, these people are in awe of fey that dwell deep beneath the earth in sparkling cities that shimmer from magic that would make the sun hide itself in shame if it were to ever gaze upon it. They occasionally come up from their deep, vast kingdoms to gift those worthy of such splendor unworked gems. Mortal hands find themselves inspired and work the gems into perfectly cut pieces that adorn the brows of emperors and kings. And one should never cross such fey, for their reach is high and they will cause crops to die from their very roots.

Also might explain why the dwarves aren't around anymore.
Dwarves being gone is explained already, justifying the state of an entire half of the world's land (poisoned and wastelandish with constant smog cloud and regular acid rain) so I can't easily change that to "fey did it." Otherwise though, great idea.


The Wardens: Ancient heroes who lost their humanity in the crucible of an old destiny and became immortal in the process. Now, with their destiny far in the past but incapable of passing on, they guard over their lands but generally remain aloof. In abandoning mortality, the Wardens have also left behind their perception of time and immediacy. Each Warden is so drowned in the accumulation of years that it is hard to get them to pay attention to the present, but things which directly threaten their lands or which violate their precepts upon their lands draw their immediate and excessive attention and retaliation. Others can live on their land without conflict so long as they do not obviously change the land's nature, and so long as they do not remind the local Warden of something traumatic from their past.

The Heralds: In the lands of the Heralds, future events are foreshadowed by manifestations in the present. Here, there lies a great shadowy city with incomprehensible inhabitants, styles, and powers. The city sleeps, merely a prognostication, until someone's actions threaten to make it fail to come to be. In such cases, the city becomes manifest, its forces corporeal to the one who has become entangled with its fate, and causes that person to be lost within its alien streets and ways. The Heralds do not actively seek to stop those who would interfere with their eventual existence, but just by the nature of their phenomenon, those who delve too much into their secrets tend to be sucked into the city and disappear.
It's interesting, and the Wardens make sense fluff-wise, but that doesn't give me a creature to work with.


would something along the lines of the Lion Turtles from Avatar: the last Airbender work?
I wouldn't know anything about that series beyond its premise, so you'll have to clarify this for me.

@BowStreetRunner: Appreciated, and helpful, though probably not in the way you expected. See, what I was saying before wasn't that there aren't cities close to natural places, but rather that anything resembling a "city" is almost certainly already in the "harmonized with nature" state. (Meaning they really don't resemble cities, but hey.) They exist within the natural areas and were mostly built with the ideal of not overtaking or damaging the natural environment at all.

So city fey don't work currently, since people don't live in cities. But the dwarves did! So there could be a lot of lonely, disillusioned city fey living in ruins that have been eaten away by acid rain... Plot hooks galore, there.

[Honest Tiefling]

Dwarves being gone is explained already, justifying the state of an entire half of the world's land (poisoned and wastelandish with constant smog cloud and regular acid rain) so I can't easily change that to "fey did it." Otherwise though, great idea.

Unless the Fey caused the wasteland to occur. Either by making the dwarves greedy enough to bring their entire species into ruin or by using natural forces to do so already.

Personally, I love Ruin Chanters so I have to second those if that is where you are going with the fey.

[DrMartin]

I wouldn't know anything about that series beyond its premise, so you'll have to clarify this for me.



well didn't want to spoil anything for anyone so I left that vague :smallbiggrin: also, watch the show! it's great.

anyhow they are *massive* turtles with head head and paws of a lion, hence the name. And massive means something akin to al-qadim's Zaratans, "mistake them for an island" massive.

In the show, they used to live quite close to humans, and are naturally able to wield that setting's magic. They eventually made a gift of that magic to humans, drawing a possible parallel with the dragons / sorcerer dynamic in the standard d&d fluff.

Handy link to the avatar's wiki (http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Lion_turtle)

[Telonius]

Centaurs might work. Possibly Sphinxes, Cloud Giants, or Treants?

[LordOfCain]

Centaurs might work. Possibly Sphinxes, Cloud Giants, or Treants?

I second centaurs. They would make a good protector of the forest druids/ranger and bar other races from the ancient forests or whatnot.

[BowStreetRunner]

@BowStreetRunner: Appreciated, and helpful, though probably not in the way you expected. See, what I was saying before wasn't that there aren't cities close to natural places, but rather that anything resembling a "city" is almost certainly already in the "harmonized with nature" state. (Meaning they really don't resemble cities, but hey.) They exist within the natural areas and were mostly built with the ideal of not overtaking or damaging the natural environment at all.
If that is the case, check out Spirit of the Land (MM2 p.189). Between things like that and all of the other powerful, unique fey options in the books I am sure you can easily fill the void left from the absence of dragons.

[Remedy]

Centaurs might work. Possibly Sphinxes, Cloud Giants, or Treants?
Centaurs and Treants, if I decide they exist, would probably be fairly regular allies of the main race living in the forests since they themselves as a whole are strongly for the protection of nature, so I can't imagine the effect would be similar... But the idea is very interesting.


I second centaurs. They would make a good protector of the forest druids/ranger and bar other races from the ancient forests or whatnot.
See above; the race living in the forest (goblinoids, specifically, since it's getting troublesome to keep saying "the main race living in the forest") are largely rangers or ranger-likes themselves with a vested desire to keep the forest untainted, so centaurs protecting ancient forests won't be as much "mysterious agents working for and against certain actions by the goblinoids based on their own goals" and much more "active allies to the efforts of the goblinoids." Not that including them isn't a good idea, just that they don't fill the role I'm trying to fill in this thread.

[Psyren]

You should start by breaking down exactly what it is about dragons that inspire "majesty, might and awe" when you think about them. Is it their size relative to humanoid races? Their command of magic? Their long lifespans? Their position at the top of most food chains? Their physical strength? Their ability to fly? Their vast wealth? Their ability to strike fear into mortal hearts on sight? Their iridescent beauty?

Once you nail down the specific qualities that make them awe-inspiring to you, not only can you find an existing creature that captures most of those, you'll know how to modify it (if necessary) to get the remainder. Like for a Titan race, you start with something like a Storm Giant, beef up its magic, add a fear aura and a teleportation ability etc.

[Aka-chan]

See above; the race living in the forest (goblinoids, specifically, since it's getting troublesome to keep saying "the main race living in the forest") are largely rangers or ranger-likes themselves with a vested desire to keep the forest untainted

One of the monster manuals has "forestkith goblins," a woodsy goblinoid subrace. Maybe in your setting, forestkith are the vast majority of goblins?



As for awe-inspiring creatures, I think MM2 has the phoenix as an epic-level creature. Couatls could work too.