PF Eidolon Character roleplay ideas

[Sheogoroth]

So we had a bit of existential terror in my game the other day and DM ruled that it works via RoC.
My character, a summoner, was struck with permanent feeblemindedness when his Eidolon was active. The Eidolon has an int score, and my summoner uses Cha, so the DM ruled that the Eidolon is now essentially sort of alive, kinda like Moriarty from TNG, his continued existence is depending upon true human magic battery now strapped to his back. The party is horrified, but they didn’t much like my character, and they’re mostly content to let this go on at least for a little while.

How should I roleplay it? The lore is extremely scant about what an eidolon is, with some sources implying that they are cognitive magical constructs(imaginary friends) that gain substance based on the summoner’s will, with other places implying that they are bodiless spirits of the planes that form a pact with the summoner in exchange for a body. I was leaning towards the former for half naive half ultra paranoid animal, exploring this new world while being extremely protective of his freedom, sort of like Ex Machina.

I’m super excited anyway, what do you guys think?

[Eldonauran]

Hmm, so the trauma of the terror caused this to happen? Interesting.

I'd probably roll with it like this: Instead of the Eidolon being this separate entity, I'd say that your character, in an attempt to preserve any shred of its sanity, thrust their intelligence 'beyond' reality and instead found a safe haven within the form of the Eidolon. Since this was a trauma reaction, anytime they manifest their Eidolon, the same dissociation of the intelligence occurs again and again. Perhaps a Greater Restoration (or similar) spell is needed to repair the mechanics, similar to curing Insanity?

This might have the effect of the Eidolon not having the same sense of self that your character does (does not understand your character is 'it' but still feeling that same protective instinct we all do for ourselves). It could grow and develop more do to the increased intelligence, as its own individual being. This being a trauma response, it could warp that kind of perception in many different ways.

[Ramza00]

How should I roleplay it? The lore is extremely scant about what an eidolon is, with some sources implying that they are cognitive magical constructs(imaginary friends) that gain substance based on the summoner’s will, with other places implying that they are bodiless spirits of the planes that form a pact with the summoner in exchange for a body. I was leaning towards the former for half naive half ultra paranoid animal, exploring this new world while being extremely protective of his freedom, sort of like Ex Machina.

I’m super excited anyway, what do you guys think?

The lore is purposefully extremely scant to give the player and DM freedom, much like there is sorcerers with a dozen different bloodlines saying oh your magic comes from dragons, from fey, from religious study, from a wizard ancestor, etc etc.

So think of what you want the Eidolon to be, perhaps it is a repressed and manifested part of your personality, a long lost sibling’s soul, a guardian angel magical girl helper, a demonic influence, so on and so on.

Eidolons in the Greek origin word merel means spirit image, from the Greek words for to see, sight, and possessing form (which one can see)

It in turn becomes Idolum in Latin and from Idolum we gain 2 English words of Idea, and Idol.

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I bring up language origins to underline the pathfinder concept is dealing with the world of forms in Plato, so anything that is a Platonic concept that can be made manifest, this too is Eidolon, so what makes your Summoner different from another Summoner is what you bring into this world from the imaginary world of Plato. The theory of forms / theory of idea of Plato is literally called the theory of eidos with eidos being one of the word roots of eidolon.

It is X Mark the Spot concept where Plato sees the world of matter and the world of ideas(the unseen world) intersecting to make this current world in time (the soul of the world), in Tiameus Plato said these intersection of the two different places then form the letter X which in the Greek language is called Chi. Religious people after Plato then adopted the letter X as significant images and icons including the actual name of specific religious figures (not going in more deep due to board rules, you can google it with Wikipedia.)