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2015-01-01, 06:57 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2012
Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Hi playground
im spitballing ideas for a campaign setting, where one of the universal laws means creatures of enough power begin to warp the world around them. depending on what they are, the world will change in different ways.
i have a few examples of how this manifests.
a powerful ice dragon will cause cold weather, freezing wastes to form over time, and the creatures inhabiting the land will slowly gain draconic features, eventually becoming dragonspawn (warped creatures lifted from the iron kingdoms.
Lifted from another thread here, the vampire (i.e. the original one) causes the nights to become darker, the shadows to be longer, the daylight to be duller, and people begin to move around in a sluggish state, easy to be manipulated.
an angel, or divine being, resides in a city which shines in otherworldly glory, bright days that aren't too warm, and people begin to lose their faults, blemishes etc. becoming more idealistic.
These creatures are but a step below godhood, and when interacting with pcs would be the finale of the campaign. i am wondering if anyone has any ideas, re-imaginings, new descriptions of monsters so they can fit this role.
cheers
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2015-01-01, 07:08 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2009
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- Germany
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Zombie armies that poison the ground they walk on and leave all plants dead for decades to come.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2015-01-01, 09:16 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2008
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
I've for a while had an idea of a sort of reverse eldritch horror, mostly in the context of D&D. A creature so primordially Lawful that even the slightest spec of chaos is eradicated. Everything becomes an nth degree exemplar of their most prevalent characteristics, the grass will be forever greener, the brave become heroes, the petty become the purest villains etc.
Ultimately, everything would become perfect, a diamond of a trillion facets, but without anything resembling volition or happenstance, reality would become a clockwork piece, running on an invisible string, with fate as inexorably unchangeable as the direction of a train, barreling down a set of tracks.Fantastic avatar by Akrim.elf.
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2015-01-01, 11:05 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2011
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
If the intent is that powerful beings warp reality, the zombie army and poisoned ground might be symptoms of the same entity, or maybe undead in the setting can be a gestalt thing, they don't exhibit these effects on their own but when a lot of undead cluster together they form one of these metaphysical presences which causes them to become an army.
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2015-01-01, 12:30 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2009
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- Germany
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Toxic rivers of magic that have lots of undead corpses moving with the current.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2015-01-02, 07:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2012
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
im going to be honest, the river of undead is a cool idea. might have to appropriate that
How about the werewolf, or great 'were beast' in general? perhaps everything becomes a little more primal, bramble growth, forests thickening etc. and people slowly become more bestial, taking on the form / attributes of whatever beast fits their personality (someone greedy or sneaky would become a more ratlike, vain people becoming catlike etc). probably wouldnt go to actually becoming one (outside the full moon), but that seeping madness could work.
maybe the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse?
Death - nothing that dies stays dead, with varying degrees of flesh hunger (maybe going with a torchwood miracle day kind of vibe?)
War - anger / madness, the slightest provocation causes aggression, making people fight constantly
famine - food ceases to satisfy, and other cravings also can never be fulfilled (thirst, alcohol, sexual drive, greed for money, kinda taking it from the famine in supernatural here)
pestilence - people slowly become frailer, losing the ability to regenerate/heal. a farmer works in the field, his muscles dont repair overnight, leaving him weaker and weaker etc.
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2015-01-02, 11:09 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2012
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
The ancient blue dragon in my setting is slowly expanding her desert, suffocating the surround forests etc until they turn into sand, so I suppose that fits.
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2015-01-02, 11:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2013
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
A different take on the beast monster, instead of things becoming more primal, everything becomes more natural. Invasive species find themselves fleeing as the natural predators grow bigger and stronger, the natural prey becomes smaller and more elusive, the flora is more bountiful, and the fauna almost seems like it's trying to lay siege to that small mining village over there, where the citizens are slowly becoming more uneasy, worrying only about themselves and their close family/friends, and some even flee to form a hunter/gatherer tribe in the forest.
I don't think I need the padding anymore, posts seem generally longer now.
Yolo. The uneducated brother of Carpe Diem.
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2015-01-02, 11:34 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2011
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
The humble gnomes gather in a particular clearing for all of their rites, big or small. This is a place of safety, of serenity, of contentment for the small folk. As their love of magic, nature and knowledge combine as one here, so do all gnomes feel as one people here.
This clearing has no name, but is sometimes personified as Ol' Glade, the archetype and representation of their people. He (or she sometimes, doesn't matter) is always steady, wise, and calm amidst current events.
But something slumbers in that Glade. Perhaps it called to the gnomes, perhaps they, with their fey blood called to it. Whatever it is, it exudes serenity. Stillness. Slumber.
So, travelers might wonder, is the story behind the sleeping village? Who knows, but beware staying too long and sleeping forever with those gnomes...For all of your completely and utterly honest needs. Zaydos made, Tiefling approved.
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2015-01-02, 11:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2011
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- Somewhere south of Hell
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Death doesn't fit undead at all. If there is an incarnation of death in a setting as a Horseman, then everyone in the domain suffers as if under soulcutter from book of swords: their will to live and their volition whither and die. Adventurers will walk amongst children sitting across from each other with a half-deflated ball between, too listless to bother lying down. A cat pants rapidly against it's will in the hot sun as a mouse lab hours on it's tongue, both waiting for the sun'a heat to finally end them. Villages of people laying down amongst flowers which never opened from the bud, the strong willed still able to follow their movements with glassy eyes. Those whose souls finally succumb die with a silent sigh of release and their bodies instantly glass over to dust. There is no weather. Momentum stops. Inertia dies.
On a full throne of bluish glass in a dark castle where no light gutters save to gasp it's last, sits a lich, Death, who sits eternally gazing into nothing, unblinking, willing all to be as he.
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2015-01-02, 11:56 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2012
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Man, I'm stealing all kinds of things from the forums tonight.
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2015-01-03, 12:22 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2011
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- Oolitic, IN
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Take a look at the 5e D&D Monster Manual. Legendary creatures warp the world around their lairs.
Last edited by Jeraa; 2015-01-03 at 12:25 AM.
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2015-01-03, 01:02 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2006
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- Austin Tx
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
This really brings to mind an idea I saw on this board a long time ago. One that I've always wanted to put into practice as a GM.
The number one source of healing potions and incredibly high quality personal armor in the world is a single highly fortified city-state.
The walls are considered unbreakable, as they are lined with the same chitinous magic resistant leather like substance they make their armor and weapons from. Additionally, the main staple food is an odd tasting meat that supposedly comes from "goats" raised within the massive central "Forbidden Fortress".
Its rumored that the citizen sometimes spontaneously turn into trolls, or at least something very like a troll, with a thick hide, unceasing hunger, and terrifying regenerate speed.
The truth is that the city founders have found a way to trap and contain The Tarrasque indefinitely. The city's economy is built around "farming" elements of its immortal body. Its hide makes a great construction material. It's flesh is edible and in boundless supply. Its regenerative abilities extend to its blood, making an ideal healing potion ingredient.
The problem is that a steady diet of magical monster flesh and blood does weird things to a body, especially that of a growing child.
Also, endlessly vivisecting a chained animal is hideously immoral, but its impossible to put down, and releasing it would arguably be worse....with a vengeance!
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2015-01-03, 01:10 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2014
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- Vancouver, Canada
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Now I think I have to have some sort of city with a captured Tarrasque in it. Great idea!
Anyway I think it would be pretty interesting to have a extremely powerful epic level wizard that shaped the land around him. Uncontrollably casting minor enchantments on the land and giving the inhabitants around his home minor magical abilities.
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2015-01-03, 02:03 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2010
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2015-01-03, 08:44 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2012
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
siuis, your concept for the horseman death is really good, but my problem is that it is very similar to pestilence (which i guess comes down to the 2 of them being somewhat similar). thats why i went with the undead side of things. do you have any other concept to differentiate them?
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2015-01-03, 09:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2010
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2015-01-03, 11:15 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2007
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- Neither here nor there
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
I've done something similar. In fact, there's strong evidence in the campaign's history that the desert exists because of the blue dragons, and that the suzereins have created the desert as part of a diabolical plot to make the human inhabitants more dependent on them and worship the dragons as gods.
The development of human sorcery was an unforeseen side-affect.
Threads like this are why I love this forum so.
For my contribution, imagine what effect even something so innocuous as the fey might have on a village. A dryad in the area might make the people more reclusive and elfin, caring more for the trees than their own selves, while a nymph or satyr could... well, never mind about those two. Sprites could make the people shyer, more reclusive, and yet more good-hearted, more agile yet frailer, with a fey beauty and an uncanny knack for archery, and... well, make them elves, come to think of it.My latest homebrew: Majokko base class and Spellcaster Dilettante feats for D&D 3.5 and Races as Classes for PTU.
Currently Playing
Raiatari Eikibe - Ghostfoot's RHOD Righteous Resistance
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2015-01-04, 12:31 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2014
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
I haven't put much thought into it, but the death of an epic or mythic character would probably impact the world. I'm not talking level 21 fighter or anything, I mean epic as in the level 50 wizard that has ascended to immortality dying somehow. There could be a huge shock wave of reality altering from the release of that much arcane power in a single blast that the nature of reality is forever changed and more than a few Eldritch Horrors come to investigate. Sounds like a good campaign right thar.
Spoiler: Quotes!
Pink is Neutral Evil, because reasons.
Exalted Monk Avatar by ThePrez1776
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2015-01-04, 02:45 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2012
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- Town
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Thing is, Death isn't really about the undead- they aren't dead! It's in their name! The undead cheat Death, and so they wither and return to the grave, meeting true death in their presence. Magic and medicine that would heal the sick and wounded loose their potency. New life is stifled and the dead do not enter the cycle of decay and rebirth (at least in this interpretation). Creatures retain their vitality, but death is close by, a step away should they be made vulnerable as the world around them winds down and dies. Death will be an oppressive presence, a constant whispering and imposition upon the land to cease, a knowing that this breath may very well be the last, yet you may continue to live in defiance of this fact.
It will not save you.Avatar by Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins! Three cheers and all that.
The World's Greatest (and only) Deceiver Askblog!
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2015-01-04, 04:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2014
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
I've always rather liked the idea of a psychic hunter- a great beast that could twist the very world around them into hunting grounds that put its victims at a distinct disadvantage.
Your party's mostly melee? Well, you stumble into broken terrain, it gets rougher and less traversable as you go; all the while you're being picked off by massive, toxic spines flying from concealment.
Mostly ranged? Dense fog, dimming light, rapidly-moving shadows in the corner of your eye - nothing to draw a bead on.
Mostly magic? Magical energy becomes volatile and unpredictable, spells you try to cast can backfire, fizzle, blow up in your face.
Not to mention the whole "confronted by your greatest fears manifested" shtick. So remember, anything brighter than an animal with this power is going to recognize and harness it.
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2015-01-05, 01:05 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2011
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- Somewhere south of Hell
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Pestilence isn't sickness. Pestilence is an imbalance between human and natural things; decay rises and human enjoyed vitality suffers. Insects which swarm and devour are not locusts; there is no such animal in the world as a locust. Not as you know them. Locusts are the swarming phase of the short horned grasshopper. Locusts are grasshoppers become a pestilence.
Pestilence is a worm that walks cancer Mage. His influence is subtle. Mostly, medicine fails. Wounds get gangrenous more often, despite all but the best medicines and sterilization treatments; PCs notice when every wound basically exposes them to a weak poison (treat as poison but technically a disease, cure disease counters, immunity to poison does not, etc.,) and even the sniffles is sudden cause for panic and quarantine.
Maggots make things worth. A pestilence in their own right, they no longer stop after devouring diseased flesh, taking anyone exposed down to bones and terror before becoming a cloud of bloat flies and moving on. Rats swarm more frequently, centipedes and spiders come to feed off the flies. Any sign of wildlife is cause for alarm; how many hundreds not far behind? Thousands? Millions? Every village suddenly takes on the tones and themes of Arachnophobia. Even jackals, foxes, feral cats begin to swarm and breed beyond human acceptability, becoming pestilences. They devour whatever they can and hoard the rest. What few cows manage to survive quickly become terrifying breeding grounds, pained lowing a sound of terror, people locking their doors as the lumbering putrescent beast brings plague into the city, half mad and muscles swarming with flies and larvae beneath the skin. No one goes to deal with it; no one wants to get near, not farmer, not town guard, no one.
People can't trust people. They squirrel away in their apocalypse bolt holes, hoarding food. Towns seem abandoned because everyone lives in their attics, basements. They clan together. They fight over anything fresh. Travelers in town are weary; like maggots to a fresh wound they swarm in quiet masses and pick apart in the dark. You awake to see Johnny is gone and Steven is nothing but leg bones, not a drop of red to be found. Half your supplies are gone, too, either taken by the rats and spiders (some now the size of dogs or rats, respectively, and god help you if you see a centipede!). Humans breeding under the influence of pestilence become a pestilence themselves, instinctive, clannish behavior seen only in parodies of redneck hillbillies suddenly the norm as they swarm, breed in the dark, and contribute to the decay of the world around them. Each clan has it's own diseases it is inured to. Each encounter briga a new host of contagion, each clan fighting against the supposedly supernatural sicknesses exposure to other clans bring.
Everything is out to consume everything else for it's own survival, and hamstringing itself in the process. The fox destroys all chickens and, full and now without food, cannot hunt and becomes a diseased breeding ground as it does in the street. The street urchin blows all possible covers grabbing meager scraps and at last is finally caught by an angry, hungry guard whose face is half tumor. All hiding spots ruined, all escape routes compromised.
E: from Wikipedia;
Locusts are edible insects and are considered a delicacy in some countries. There have been references to their consumption as food throughout history.[3] When in swarming phase, some species are known to produce a toxin that renders them inedible and causes a skin reaction in sunlight.[4]
Whaaaaaaaaaat
Man, the fey are anything but innocuous. They're ignored, because nothing good comes from catching their fancy. But in the books alone you've got alluring temptresses who will kill you for daring to be tempted and follow them, trees known to fall in love, deduce a body and spirit them away for years to be charmed lovers and slaves, tiny men who play music of such beauty that passers by will follow it to their doom as they trample some place held in regard, cutesy green women who draw you into the water and are so alluring you forget you can't breathe, and almost omnipotent seeming demon spirits that are unseen, unheard, can force you to dance until you die of exhaustion, put you to sleep indefinitely and destroy your memory, should you survive irritating them.
Fey are likely to have areas near them that are endless, infinite labyrinths that can only be truly navigated by insects who see infrared (even though the woods are only a few acres on a side), deep undersea grottos of pearl and coral and knives of ice where the nixies trade in the lightly salted water with the deeper sea sirens, giving smooth river rocks and the dresses of murdered women and children for the souls of lost sailors they will wind on spindles to make the reflections of the water on a moonlit night. Deep grottoes of gemstones and the bones of old, gone things in more and more maze-like configurations as the grigs and the brownies fiddle and mine for still deeper treasures, and lure mortals to a cannibalistic feasting to keep up moral – unless of course the strong and warlike fall away to their songs, and the slave labor is even more appealing.
This all sounds like your basic fey, actually.Last edited by SiuiS; 2015-01-05 at 01:24 AM.
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2015-01-05, 01:40 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2014
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Dude woah.... you've been reading the dark side of the fey. Some Fey are like that, sure, but the Fey as a whole are so varied and unpredictable that you can't label them all like that, unless everything you do is grimdark, which is fine in moderation.
The Fey are an extremely chaotic set of races, but they're not inclined to murder or enslave people, unless they're from Pan's Labryinth *shudders*
But your pestilence idea sounds cool, props.Spoiler: Quotes!
Pink is Neutral Evil, because reasons.
Exalted Monk Avatar by ThePrez1776
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2015-01-05, 02:12 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2011
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- Somewhere south of Hell
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Nah man. Kill you with their looks after luring you: nymph default from MM
Charm you as a lover for years: Dryad default MM
Invisible sleep inducing memory wiping force: Pixie default from MM
Accidentally drown you with loveliness: Nixie default MM
Make you dance until you can't anymore: Grig default MM
These aren't even a stretch; the dryad one has been called out as a possible behavior in every edition since 1e, even.
Fey aren't malicious, they're just off. The nixie doesn't mean to drown you, but she's also not a computer that knows when her spell wears off and she's amphibious, so she doesn't realize lungs usually need air alone, no water. A man could die simply by walking past two Grig bands fiddling competitively. Sprites are basically pillocks, but when they're not, they just don't realize the harm that could come by knocking someone out for hours or removing memories of recent events.
Like, snails. Right? When you step on a snail and it cracks you feel bad, but you don't feel bad like you kicked in someone's door, wrecked their walls with a sledgehammer and beat them senseless to leave them bleeding outside their now-rubble-once-house, even though that's exactly what you did to the snail. Sirens lurk the seas collectig the souls of fallen sailors because their paradigm doesn't regard the "immortal soul" in the same light as our human perspective does. Fey Are immortal, Sempiternal and as a rule, forgetful. They hold grudges but don't recall in detail every second of their eternity. They live in a constant Now, and neither Then nor Later truly exist for most of them.
That's not grim dark, but it is unfortunate; the man who petitions a sprite for a stone of eternal youth may find his wife eternally pregnant, his infant eternally teething, and his crops eternally budding but not flowering, because the sprite just didn't see the relevance in saying "hey, this won't make you live forever, it'll make everything around you go into stasis". The sprite doesn't see a meaningful difference between being a live forever and having this exact life forever.
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2015-01-05, 03:03 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Wyvern
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2015-01-05, 06:34 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2012
Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
that pestilence idea is fantastic, but i did laugh when you mentioned arachnophobia. isnt that an amazingly bad b-horror movie?
That outlook of the fey is also really good, but id probably just use it as a baseline. there would probably be some which are more considerate 'benevolent' fey spirits which do seek to help, as well as 'malicious' ones which enjoy tormenting people.
One idea i had a while back was a cosmic conflict on the axis of alignment, law vs chaos as well as good vs evil, in which no side could win otherwise essentially the apocalypse would occur. can take some ideas from that.
The Architect, a creature not fully understood, is said to appear as some golem, or man in angular armor, perhaps clockwork, and with him follows order. he walks into a city, all deliveries start to run on time, people are more efficient working continuously through the hours they have set, everything going 'as it should'. soon, variation leaves, as everything happens to the second every day, the same day repeats. eventually that is not enough order, as everything is not yet in its place. time slows, slowly but surely, to a stop, like the gears of a clock stopped to serve as a display piece. the world around the architect will be a perfect frozen image of the world, nothing out of line.
alternatively, The Tempest is a creature understood all too well. known as the agent of chaos, cacophony follows where it treads. it starts innocuous enough, people acting more spontaneously, taking leisure time and letting a few odd jobs slip. soon, they forget about their routine, people running around doing whatever they want, but finding they cant do certain things because people are no longer growing food, or putting on plays (if they do, they are largely interpretive, and the actor might get bored and walk out half way through, only to come back for the 'finale). where it gets dangerous is when the weather and earth itself get 'bored' and try different things, like lightning storms and earthquakes to shake things up a little. eventually, the smallest building blocks lose interest in order, and go their separate ways, entropy taking over as things simply begin to drift apart into dust.
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2015-01-05, 06:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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2015-01-05, 07:09 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2007
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
When a fey kills you, it's (usually) an accident. They don't mean to do it, and if they had the capacity for it most of them would feel sorry about it. After all, they were having fun with you.
By the standards of most monsters, who kill you on purpose, usually just for the fun of it and in horrible ways, that's downright benevolent.My latest homebrew: Majokko base class and Spellcaster Dilettante feats for D&D 3.5 and Races as Classes for PTU.
Currently Playing
Raiatari Eikibe - Ghostfoot's RHOD Righteous Resistance
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2015-01-05, 07:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2011
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Indeed, it's not necessarily a bad movie although it's no longer considered a classic as once it was.
And malice, benevolence, really the defining virtue of the fey is how... Accidental either one is. If you end up either dead, or perhaps somehow a king of a flying castle, through what is essentially setting up tea for the evening to the fey, that's neat but they didn't do it on purpose. It just occurred.
The architect and tempest remind me of Wyld spirits and clockwork stasis spiders from old world of darkness.
I was referring to the movie, hence the italics. :)
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2015-01-05, 07:27 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Monster reimagining - powerful beings warping reality
Death by nymph beats the heck out of death by angry dragon.
Just sayin'.My latest homebrew: Majokko base class and Spellcaster Dilettante feats for D&D 3.5 and Races as Classes for PTU.
Currently Playing
Raiatari Eikibe - Ghostfoot's RHOD Righteous Resistance