afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VIII

[Efrate]

Were dwarves ever officially small in older editions? Seems a medium humamoid is the standard. Plus the 97% human society means something that fits in is better than something that stands out for infiltration maybe?

[Mr Adventurer]

Well, we certainly know what it is - the legend says that one day a ceremorphosis will go wrong, resulting in a being with the body and powers of an illithid, but the mind and soul of the host body. There's been at least one case of something similar happening, although the circumstances were unique - the ulitharid Redatsuul recklessly overused psionic tattoos and accidentally created a circuit that inverted the mental control in his body and allowed the human host mind to regain control. The Adversary would be a slightly different scenario in that the illithid mind would not exist at all, but the nature of their fear is basically the same - something that can move among them undetected and work to destroy them using their own powers.

Does anyone know the source of this Redatsuul stuff? Because it doesn't make sense to me: Illithid don't have "mental control" of their bodies nor "hosts" once ceremorphosis is complete: the tadpole eats and replaces the brain. The original creature is dead. There might be some memory transfer but not enough to work with to reconstitute the original creature's mind as this Redatsuul thing suggests.

The actual legend of the Adversary involves a unique alchemical potion taken before ceremorphosis, which at least sounds like it could maybe do something like lobotomising the tadpole so that it doesn't eat your brain while leaving its autonomic functions intact so that your body still transforms.

[Tzardok]

I just googled it. Redatsuul hails from an adventure in the Dungeon Magazine #81. Maybe a case of Early Installment Weirdness.

[Cieyrin]

Were dwarves ever officially small in older editions? Seems a medium humamoid is the standard. Plus the 97% human society means something that fits in is better than something that stands out for infiltration maybe?

Faerun's Wild Dwarves and Krynn's Gully Dwarves are Small but those specific subraces are the exceptions to that, in general, dwarves are Medium. I think there's another Faerun dwarf subrace that's also Small but I'd have to go looking.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Does anyone know the source of this Redatsuul stuff? Because it doesn't make sense to me: Illithid don't have "mental control" of their bodies nor "hosts" once ceremorphosis is complete: the tadpole eats and replaces the brain. The original creature is dead. There might be some memory transfer but not enough to work with to reconstitute the original creature's mind as this Redatsuul thing suggests.

The Redatsuul description doesn't actually say outright that the original host's mind survived, there's a bit of vagueness in the explanation. The specific verbiage in the sidebar is thus:

Psionic seals are analogous to psionic tattoos in form and receptacles in purpose. The psionic discipline Imprint Psionic Circuitry allows illithids to brand objects with psionic seals designed to contain psionic power. It is possible to brand a living being with a psionic seal, allowing the individual so marked to call upon the power stored within the seal.

The ulitharid Redatsuul became enamored of psionic seals and had several placed upon his person. The seals' circuitry accidentally crossed, however. The seals not only shorted out but revived the human personality that the ulitharid supposedly obliterated when he underwent ceremorphosis. (See The Illithiad for details.)

Note that if Shannotsuul suffers damage in combat exceeding half of her hit points or is reduced to below half her normal PSP total, there is a 5% chance that the psionic seals on her are damaged enough to cease functioning and restore the Redatsuul personality, eliminating all vestiges of the human wizard Shannon Canteel. If reduced to one fourth of her hit points or reduced to 0 PSPs, the chance increases to 10%.

...and wherever the adventure background talks about Shannon Canteel, it phrases things in terms of an external personality taking over Redatsuul rather than a former mind just hanging around:

It was constructed hundreds of years ago by Shannotsuul, an ulitharid whose personality was attacked by a human mind.

The personality that has surfaced and dominated the ulitharid mind is Shannon Canteel, a former human wizard and adventurer.

[T]he Shannon personality remains in charge and works towards the downfall of illithids with single-minded determination. To extend her life beyond the normal ulitharid span and to keep the ulitharid's personality at bay, Shannotsuul regularly ingests a special fluid produced by fungal growths mixed with neural tissue from strange subterranean creatures.

Attempts by Shannon to return to her former human state have met with failure--the Redatsuul personality is too intimately entwined with Shannon's to allow such change.

Given that the human personality only exists and is in control while the item is intact and has a very one-dimensional personality, much like an intelligent item taking control of a host to pursue its special purpose, there's a pretty strong implication that "Shannon Canteel" in this case is more of a false overlay on Redatsuul's mind (in a Tyler-Durden-from-Fight-Club kind of way) than an actual mind that survived ceremorphosis.

I think there's another Faerun dwarf subrace that's also Small but I'd have to go looking.

That would be the Arctic dwarf, which tops out at 3 foot 4.

[Mr Adventurer]

The Redatsuul description doesn't actually say outright that the original host's mind survived, there's a bit of vagueness in the explanation. The specific verbiage in the sidebar is thus:



...and wherever the adventure background talks about Shannon Canteel, it phrases things in terms of an external personality taking over Redatsuul rather than a former mind just hanging around:





Given that the human personality only exists and is in control while the item is intact and has a very one-dimensional personality, much like an intelligent item taking control of a host to pursue its special purpose, there's a pretty strong implication that "Shannon Canteel" in this case is more of a false overlay on Redatsuul's mind (in a Tyler-Durden-from-Fight-Club kind of way) than an actual mind that survived ceremorphosis.

Fantastic, thank you. That's slightly "better", for me at least. Interesting there's a similar link to a unique alchemical potion as in The Adversary - I wonder if that's intentional.

[Bohandas]

Is there any clue as to what the source of this creature would be? Is it a failure on the tadpoles part? A particularly strong willed individual? Divine favor? Or just random chance?

The actual legend of the Adversary involves a unique alchemical potion taken before ceremorphosis, which at least sounds like it could maybe do something like lobotomising the tadpole so that it doesn't eat your brain while leaving its autonomic functions intact so that your body still transforms.

I woukd think the most plausible way to achieve the effect would be to mind switch with the tadpole as it is inserted.

[afroakuma]

I've read about Uchuulon (chuul/illithids) and Urophion (roper/illithids). Are there any other nontraditional illithid-kin?
Are there limits to what kinds of things can be tadpole implanted?

I think this was sufficiently addressed by others. Illithids keep experimenting, of course, and it's possible that one-off mutants can be produced with even "incompatible" hosts using a variety of dark and alien sciences to stabilize the attempt, but that's what the half-illithid template is for.

Question of my own: Urbanus and Zarus from Races of Destiny, the deities of the raptorans from Races of the Wild and the pantheon of the goliaths from Races of Stone do not have any homeplanes given. Does anybody have ideas or speculations where those gods have their divine realms?

I would place Urbanus on Bytopia, Zarus on Acheron. For the raptoran deities, Tuilviel Glithien is most likely ensconced on Karasuthra, third layer of the Beastlands; Duthila would fit in on Shurrock, second layer of Bytopia; Kithin is a bit hard to place, but a snowy mountain of Arborea may be fitting; Lliendil may fit on Ysgard or Limbo, or on the Elemental Plane of Air; Nilthina is most likely somewhere on Brux, second layer of the Beastlands; Ventila would fit Elysium well. For the goliath deities, Kavaki is most likely situated on the Outlands; Kuliak on Pandemonium; Manethak on the Beastlands; Naki-Uthai on Ysgard; Theleya on Elysium; Vanua on Gehenna, Limbo, or Ysgard.

Is there any clue as to what the source of this creature would be? Is it a failure on the tadpoles part? A particularly strong willed individual? Divine favor? Or just random chance?

In the documented instance that likely precipitated the legend, Strom Wakeman used a nonmagical herbal mixture called laethal to drug himself prior to ceremorphosis, which impeded the transformation.

Were dwarves ever officially small in older editions? Seems a medium humamoid is the standard. Plus the 97% human society means something that fits in is better than something that stands out for infiltration maybe?

Nope. Dwarves are shorter than humans on average, but not "small" in the way halflings and gnomes are. Some subraces are, of course.

Given that the human personality only exists and is in control while the item is intact and has a very one-dimensional personality, much like an intelligent item taking control of a host to pursue its special purpose, there's a pretty strong implication that "Shannon Canteel" in this case is more of a false overlay on Redatsuul's mind (in a Tyler-Durden-from-Fight-Club kind of way) than an actual mind that survived ceremorphosis.

I'd dispute that for a few reasons - Shannotsuul is an accomplished arcane caster, for instance, which is rather like if Tyler Durden spoke fluent Urdu. Also, The Illithiad tells us that the tadpole "subsumes the creature's personality" (p.12), which suggests that it's in there somewhere, possibly providing the psionic fuel for the tadpole's growth and development. I do believe the writer's intent was to confirm that Shannon Canteel was the host body and is currently the dominant personality, which suggests some interesting things about illithid cognition, development, and psychology... but since we're not going to see anything authoritative on this point, I'm happy to agree to disagree.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

I'd dispute that for a few reasons - Shannotsuul is an accomplished arcane caster, for instance, which is rather like if Tyler Durden spoke fluent Urdu. Also, The Illithiad tells us that the tadpole "subsumes the creature's personality" (p.12), which suggests that it's in there somewhere, possibly providing the psionic fuel for the tadpole's growth and development. I do believe the writer's intent was to confirm that Shannon Canteel was the host body and is currently the dominant personality, which suggests some interesting things about illithid cognition, development, and psychology... but since we're not going to see anything authoritative on this point, I'm happy to agree to disagree.

I do agree that Shannotsuul's personality is based on the remnants of the actual Shannon Canteel, I just got the strong impression from the text that it was merely a reconstruction, something like a Nybor's psychic imprint and not Shannon's actual mind. The Tyler Durden comparison was more in reference to the part where Shannon was taking steps to keep Redatsuul suppressed so she could keep acting freely, not suggesting that her personality appeared out of nowhere.

---

A few Dark Sun questions:

1) There are references in a few sources to ancient gods of Athas (a temple to unknown gods in Undertyr in The Verdant Passage, pictures of godlike figures on Kalak's ziggurat on the box set map, and a few others I forget offhand). This of course contradicts the original concept of Athas having never had gods at all. Are there any other references that imply one way or another whether Athas had once had actual gods which then died/were killed/disappeared/etc. or if it's more an Eberron situation where no one has any evidence of gods ever existing but early priests got divine power somehow so people worship them anyway?

2) I know of the fanon Crimson Sphere writeup of Athas's crystal sphere and its celestial bodies, but is there any canon information squirreled away somewhere regarding the appearance/properties of Athas's moons or any other planets in the system?

3) How do Athas's elemental sorta-kinda-planes function with respect to the greater Elemental Planes of the Wheel? You've described them before as "elemental nodes" with conduits to the greater planes, but does that mean they're sort of physical extensions of those planes and if an Athasian planar traveler just walks/swims/flies long enough they could leave their sphere, or there's a big ol' vortex or gate or something somewhere in the Athasian planes that will take a traveler out of the sphere and otherwise they're basically closed off like demiplanes, or something else?
3a) Is travel possible both into and out of Athas that way, or just one way, or it's possible both ways but much easier in than out, or...?
3b) How much of this is known to the Sorcerer-Kings and other knowledgeable individuals?

[Tzardok]

I would place Urbanus on Bytopia, Zarus on Acheron. For the raptoran deities, Tuilviel Glithien is most likely ensconced on Karasuthra, third layer of the Beastlands; Duthila would fit in on Shurrock, second layer of Bytopia; Kithin is a bit hard to place, but a snowy mountain of Arborea may be fitting; Lliendil may fit on Ysgard or Limbo, or on the Elemental Plane of Air; Nilthina is most likely somewhere on Brux, second layer of the Beastlands; Ventila would fit Elysium well. For the goliath deities, Kavaki is most likely situated on the Outlands; Kuliak on Pandemonium; Manethak on the Beastlands; Naki-Uthai on Ysgard; Theleya on Elysium; Vanua on Gehenna, Limbo, or Ysgard.

Thank you for your thoughts.
The only one I would outright disagree with is Zarus; he sounds more like a Baator guy to me, but everything else is really helpful.
Vanua as a god of avalanches sounds outright fun in Gehenna; maybe he should have a mobile divine realm, "The Great Rock-Slide", moving downwards Chamada.
Lliendil is really a difficult guy, isn't he? Bah, Air is good enough for him. His realm shall be known as "The Changing Sky".
Regarding Kithin, wasn't one of the Seven Heavens a snowy place? Venya, I think... Or do we have to go the cordant planes? K'un-Lun is supposed to be snowy mountains and fits him, doesn't it?

I'd dispute that for a few reasons - Shannotsuul is an accomplished arcane caster, for instance, which is rather like if Tyler Durden spoke fluent Urdu. Also, The Illithiad tells us that the tadpole "subsumes the creature's personality" (p.12), which suggests that it's in there somewhere, possibly providing the psionic fuel for the tadpole's growth and development. I do believe the writer's intent was to confirm that Shannon Canteel was the host body and is currently the dominant personality, which suggests some interesting things about illithid cognition, development, and psychology... but since we're not going to see anything authoritative on this point, I'm happy to agree to disagree.

If that were true, what implications would it have for the host's soul? With the "normal" understanding of ceremorphosis, the soul goes to its final reward when the host "dies", for lack of better term. Would that happen here too, leaving the consciousness as an imprint, or would the soul remain, imprisoned in the mindflayer?

[afroakuma]

1) There are references in a few sources to ancient gods of Athas (a temple to unknown gods in Undertyr in The Verdant Passage, pictures of godlike figures on Kalak's ziggurat on the box set map, and a few others I forget offhand). This of course contradicts the original concept of Athas having never had gods at all. Are there any other references that imply one way or another whether Athas had once had actual gods which then died/were killed/disappeared/etc. or if it's more an Eberron situation where no one has any evidence of gods ever existing but early priests got divine power somehow so people worship them anyway?

The second Monstrous Compendium - which is admittedly a poor source, given that it keeps referring to the Astral and Ethereal Planes, among other things, but Revised Dark Sun is problematic like that - brings us the raaig, undead wardens of places sacred to lost and forgotten gods; the Revised Campaign Setting also gives us the ruined site known as Godshold, which was supposedly the temple of a whole pantheon in the Green Age. The official word on the matter is that the creators were never formally going to confirm or deny the existence of gods in the setting's past, but what's quite certain is that from at least the Green Age forward, gods were not operating in the Crimson Sphere.

2) I know of the fanon Crimson Sphere writeup of Athas's crystal sphere and its celestial bodies, but is there any canon information squirreled away somewhere regarding the appearance/properties of Athas's moons or any other planets in the system?

Nyet. We only know the names of the two moons, Ral and Guthay, and that they meet once every 11 years to cause a fun eclipse.

3) How do Athas's elemental sorta-kinda-planes function with respect to the greater Elemental Planes of the Wheel? You've described them before as "elemental nodes" with conduits to the greater planes, but does that mean they're sort of physical extensions of those planes and if an Athasian planar traveler just walks/swims/flies long enough they could leave their sphere, or there's a big ol' vortex or gate or something somewhere in the Athasian planes that will take a traveler out of the sphere and otherwise they're basically closed off like demiplanes, or something else?

You could move through the elemental planes of Athas to reach the Inner Planes proper, yes. The contamination of the Dark Lens is powerful, but not absolute, and certainly weakest there out of any of the nearby planes.

3a) Is travel possible both into and out of Athas that way, or just one way, or it's possible both ways but much easier in than out, or...?

In and out, yes.

3b) How much of this is known to the Sorcerer-Kings and other knowledgeable individuals?

Almost all of the sorcerer-kings, at the very minimum, suspect this to be the case, and most of them outright know - journeying to another plane is a required part of the dragon transformation, with increasing frequency in the later stages.

Thank you for your thoughts.
The only one I would outright disagree with is Zarus; he sounds more like a Baator guy to me

I did consider that, but his writeup is extremely clear that his dogma includes militaristic subjugation of others, which is strongly in keeping with other denizens of Avalas. His own insular cube would also fit the "perfection and specialness" theme much moreso than being yet another dark lord of the Hells.

Regarding Kithin, wasn't one of the Seven Heavens a snowy place? Venya, I think... Or do we have to go the cordant planes? K'un-Lun is supposed to be snowy mountains and fits him, doesn't it?

I prefer not to use the Planes of Cordance as they're non-canonical and pretty thin in premise. I chose Arborea because I felt it more suited to the raptoran ethos overall.

If that were true, what implications would it have for the host's soul? With the "normal" understanding of ceremorphosis, the soul goes to its final reward when the host "dies", for lack of better term. Would that happen here too, leaving the consciousness as an imprint, or would the soul remain, imprisoned in the mindflayer?

In the case of the actual Adversary, the soul remained with the body, as it became mutated but did not "die." In Shannon's case, Dice and I are in accord that she herself is quite dead - the personality that pilots Shannotsuul is an imprint from the consciousness the tadpole subsumed, not the woman herself. She doesn't know or feel that, of course, but it remains the case.

[Tzardok]

A little inspiration sometimes goes a... medium way.

Urbanus' realm, Kosmopolis, is one of the few large population centers on Dothion, a city fusing the building styles of every non-evil city building civilization in the multiverse into a seamless whole. Kosmopolis serves as a trading hub for wares from all close villages and as connection to many other places in the Great Wheel; it has an above avarage number of doors to Sigil and portals to many metropoles on the Prime. Petitioners are easily recognizable by their skin like masonry; most of them spent their time constructing new and maintaining old structures. Others patroll the streets or forge plans to improve Prime cities under Urbanus' aegis. The Building God himself resides inside the Domicile, a cathedral resembling a civic hall in the center of the city.

Zarus' realm, Humanity, F*** Yeah! Crown of Creation, covers a medium sized cube on Avalas. The whole cube shines in a golden light, as if it tried to be a sun in the endless reaches of Avalas. The buildings the petitioners reside and work in are spires, resembling a crown's prongs. Zarus' petitioners appear on the pinnacle of their youth, strong and with a golden tinge to their skin. They spend most of their time with training and competition, but some prefer art and engineering. Menial work is done by nonhuman slaves, most of which are prisoners taken during the frequent skirmishes with the orks of Nishrek and the goblinoids of Clangor. The Perfect One is no distant god and oversees his petitioners' work personally, to punish slacking and honor exceptional feats.

Tuilviel Glithien's realm is called Night's Silent Wings. It is located in a mountainous forest region in Karasutra, close to where the Animal Lord of Owls resides. The sky here is alight with millions of stars, and owls and other night birds flit everywhere. Tuilviel's petitioners resemble raptorans with dark plumage, no matter what race they where in life. Besides a village on a mountain cliff there are no signs of civilisation in the Night's Silent Wings, something the fiercily independent inhabitants prefer that way. Better to hunt in the dark and contemplate the beauty of the night than to spent more time with others than necessary. The Queen of Air and Night herself can never be met, but is seen by all: The sky here is in fact her giant wings covering the whole realm.

Küwitt is the divine realm of Kithin. The Father of Snow resides in Mithardir, on a high and snowy mountain contrasting with the desert around it. Just beneath the snow lie the dead of the Raptorans, gently sleeping as if they died of hypothermia. Kithin's petitioners, who look as if the cold has frozen all color out of them, dig those dead up, guided by snow white screaching owls, and gently awake them. Afterwards they are escorted to the mountain peak, where Kithin interrogates them on their faith in life and send them on to their proper deity. Visitors that wish an audience with him need to do the hazardous climb themselves, if they can't convince one of the petitioners or owls to escort them there.

[Dalmosh]

How common are elementite swarms on the elemental planes?

What causes immature elementals to congregate in this manner?

[Bohandas]

What is known about Anarazel the Daring Darkness, the demon prince of adventurers?

[enderlord99]

What unique demon is the least Chaotic of those who still officially are Chaotic Evil (as opposed to one which has officially fallen law-wards to Neutral Evil)

[Tzardok]

What unique demon is the least Chaotic of those who still officially are Chaotic Evil (as opposed to one which has officially fallen law-wards to Neutral Evil)

I think the typical answer about an unusually "lawful" demon is Graz'zt, isn't it?

Also, I thought we had decided that we would rename "fallen law-wards" as "codified". (At least, I decided that. )

[enderlord99]

I think the typical answer about an unusually "lawful" demon is Graz'zt, isn't it?)

Oh, right. Him. Well, that was easy.

[aj77]

Does anyone know of any write ups for the Lovecraft Mythos entities as D&D gods?

Failing that, does anyone want to posit such stats?

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Does anyone know of any write ups for the Lovecraft Mythos entities as D&D gods?

Failing that, does anyone want to posit such stats?

They showed up in 1e Deities & Demigods (before later being removed), and there are no official stat blocks for them that are more recent than that.

There is a d20 Call of Cthulhu game whose sourcebooks you might be able to mine for writeups, but I'm pretty sure those stats would be along the lines of "Cthulhu - HP: Yes; AC: You Miss; Damage: 1d6 investigators per round" and so forth, so not entirely helpful.

[Fable Wright]

There is a d20 Call of Cthulhu game whose sourcebooks you might be able to mine for writeups, but I'm pretty sure those stats would be along the lines of "Cthulhu - HP: Yes; AC: You Miss; Damage: 1d6 investigators per round" and so forth, so not entirely helpful.

I question the value of this writeup given that someone with Improvised Weapon (Boat) managed to hit Cthulhu hard enough to go back to bed. Seems a bit lore-disingenuous.

[The Insanity]

Does anyone know of any write ups for the Lovecraft Mythos entities as D&D gods?

Failing that, does anyone want to posit such stats?

Pathfindet 1st ed. has a few Old Ones stated up.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

I question the value of this writeup given that someone with Improvised Weapon (Boat) managed to hit Cthulhu hard enough to go back to bed. Seems a bit lore-disingenuous.

The Cthulhu Mythos RPG stuff has always had an unfortunate tendency towards railroading and unbeatable badguys and such because mumble mumble eldritch geometries mumble beyond human comprehension mumble. I'm not convinced that everyone who designs a published Mythos RPG necessarily reads the original Lovecraft, as opposed to merely being informed by Cthulhu's memetic invulnerable badassitude.

That being said, while you'd need to ignore most of the numbers in the stat blocks, the d20 CoC material could at least give ideas on relative strengths, ability names, and other inspiration as a starting point for something more sane.

That's why I mentioned the 1e D&DG. Yes, the Old Ones are considered gods, but they're relatively approachable stat-wise. Cthulhu, for instance, has stuff like 400 HP, AC 2, +2 or better weapons to-hit, 80% magic resistance, Str 25, Int 20, and moderate psionic ability in an edition when Asmodeus had 199 HP, AC -7, +3 or better weapons to-hit, 90% magic resistance, Str 24, Int 20, and strong psionic ability--pretty beefy compared to mid-high level characters, but not unbeatably strong and not the strongest one in his pantheon either.

[enderlord99]

...why would Big A have an armor-class of negative seven‽

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Because 1e armor class is descending, where 10 is the worst AC (no protection), 2 is the best mundane AC (plate armor plus a shield), and magical enhancements can take you down as far as -10. In the 1e MM, only two creatures had an AC better than Asmodeus at -8: Demogorgon (since he was more melee-focused where Asmodeus was more magic-focused) and the Will-o'-the-Wisp (which had AC -8, magic immunity, and natural invisibility to be a "screw you" monster).

[enderlord99]

1e sounds weird.

[Caelestion]

That was 2E as well. THAC0 started at 20 and went down, so of course AC did too.

[Lapak]

1e sounds weird.

It was a weird rule implemented weirdly, but it boiled down to 'your target's AC is used a modifier to your attack roll against a static target' rather than 'the AC is the target you roll against,' which is not that silly on the face of it.

[Thurbane]

Re: D&D stats for Lovecraftian beings - to be honest, the relative power of of Great Old Ones compared to D&D gods and archfiends is massively open to interpretation.

It boils down to a similar debate to "Could a Star Destroyer beat The Enterprise" - it all depends on your PoV in regards to the relevant fandom.

My 2 coppers: if I was to stat them in my games, they would be similar in terms of power to various existing gods and archfiends, for the sake of simplicity.

CoC d20 isn't a bad starting point for using/statting them in 3.X games. I'm not familiar with the PF versions (not being a PF player myself), but that would also probably be useful.

[blackwindbears]

The Planar Binding spell begins:
"Casting this spell attempts a dangerous act: to lure a creature from another plane to a specifically prepared trap, which must lie within the spell’s range."

How does this work from the outsiders perspective? If you don't use a true name you just get a general outsider of the correct type. How is this selected? Lure seems to imply that they aren't literally proofed at random but they perhaps make a decision with a will save to avoid.

Is the fiend selected completely at random or is it predictable in some sense a fiend is selected "closest" to what is described or something

[afroakuma]

Every time I have tried to answer these questions over the past week, my computer has crashed. Let's see if I get lucky this time

How common are elementite swarms on the elemental planes?

Likely more common than we would expect based on encounter rates alone - they are tiny elementals on planes of the same matter, after all.

What causes immature elementals to congregate in this manner?

Two possibilities, not necessarily mutually exclusive:

1) Whatever force sparks an elemental animus to its inception activates a cluster all at once, and they stay congregated until they develop sufficient individuality and self-sufficiency to break away from the swarm.

2) Clustering together affords security against the strange predators of the elemental planes who would feast on immature elementals. Safety in numbers and all that.

What is known about Anarazel the Daring Darkness, the demon prince of adventurers?

Very little, though I am sketching up a loose idea for him. His layer is the 79th layer of the Abyss, the Emessu Tunnels.

What unique demon is the least Chaotic of those who still officially are Chaotic Evil (as opposed to one which has officially fallen law-wards to Neutral Evil)

Graz'zt, though he's still monumentally chaotic and in zero danger of alignment shift.

The Planar Binding spell begins:
"Casting this spell attempts a dangerous act: to lure a creature from another plane to a specifically prepared trap, which must lie within the spell’s range."

How does this work from the outsiders perspective?

They feel the draw of a tantalizing offer - a compulsion like hunger, thirst, or any other fundamental desire. Even a modron would feel pulled to rectify the chaos of the universe. If they give in and give it their attention, they are whisked into the trap.

If you don't use a true name you just get a general outsider of the correct type. How is this selected?

The construction of the spell seeks out an outsider of the appropriate type - based on the carefully-prepared parameters in the case of a wizard casting, or the sense of need projected by a sorcerer's spell. The specific individual determined isn't set by the spell unless an individual is named - rather, the spell just goes for path of least resistance. What exactly constitutes the "path" is all bizarre arcane metaphysics, but that's conjuration for you.

Is the fiend selected completely at random or is it predictable in some sense a fiend is selected "closest" to what is described or something

You can't deliberately try to nab a fiend away from a particular spot, if that's what you're asking, unless you can name the individual. No conjuring of "the fiend guarding the door to the treasure vault."