afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII

[Tzardok]

Are there any Psionic Deities? If so, what's the name of the Psionic Deities?

Of course there are. And you should know at least one already. Sardior, god of gem dragons, is the draconic god of psionics, after all.

Here is a short selection of other psionic deities:

Ilsensine, deity of mind flayers, domination, knowledge and psionics.

Piscaethces the Blood Queen, deity of aboleths, domination, psionics and corruption.

Zouken, demigod of monks and mental powers.

Jazirian, deity of couatls, family, peace and learning.

There's also Auppenser, a dead deity that was worshipped on Faerûn by the psiocratic nation of Jhaamdath. His portfolio was enlightenment, psionics and serenity.

Edit: Incidentally, do we know anything about the couatl's life cycle? I mean, are they just essentially big magical snakes that are born, grow up, mate, age and die? Or is there something unearthly or unique about them? Are they immortal? Do they even have the usual two sexes or are they hermaphrodites? What happens when a couatl mates with another creature? A half-celestial or what?

[Thurbane]

50 pages! Nice!

I assume this will be locked soon, but some food for thought for the next thread, in the form of a question:

Any headcanon or lore on the the home plane or backstory of the following summoned beings:

• Blood Elemental (Summon Blood Elemental)
• Phantom bear/Phantom Wolf (Summon spells of the same names in the Spell Compendium) - I would assume maybe Beastlands or similar? Or maybe just our own plane, since they don't have the Extraplanar subtype?
• Luminous Assassin (Summon spells of the same name in PHB 2) - there's a discussion currently going on in another thread: I'm assuming Humans on a plane like the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Radiance?

[Eldan]

Blood Elementals are, for me, most connected to Ravenloft. Ravenloft had the four elements corrupted to Blood, Grave, Mist and Pyre. The Blood Elemental is just the only one that got much traction outside of Ravenloft.

[afroakuma]

50 pages! Nice!

...by all the dark powers of me, have I really been at this for 350 pages???

Any headcanon or lore on the the home plane or backstory of the following summoned beings:

• Blood Elemental (Summon Blood Elemental)
• Phantom bear/Phantom Wolf (Summon spells of the same names in the Spell Compendium) - I would assume maybe Beastlands or similar? Or maybe just our own plane, since they don't have the Extraplanar subtype?
• Luminous Assassin (Summon spells of the same name in PHB 2) - there's a discussion currently going on in another thread: I'm assuming Humans on a plane like the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Radiance?

Well, let's see. An actual blood elemental would be summoned from the Deep Ethereal conduits around Ravenloft, but that's not what that thing is - that thing is an outsider labeled "blood elemental" by a mad mage who developed a summoning spell that contacts an Outer Plane in an alternate cosmology (or possibly an unknown layer of the Abyss, which is just as plausible and, as noted, dude was crazy).

The phantom bear and phantom wolf both lack the Extraplanar subtype, which could be argued as "everything does until it gets here," and if that's where you lean, i'd suggest they might originate from the Plane of Faerie; the Beastlands much prefers its animals corporeal. If you don't believe the deserve the Extraplanar subtype, the spell may be "summoning" the essence of an animal that is already present on the Prime and giving it the power to wreck house incorporeally. Both are potent spells, after all.

Luminous assassin gives me the most trouble simply because it's so lazy; the statblock doesn't even match the description or illustration. This is clearly an entity that attacks with a dagger from above - why is it armed with a rapier? Why is it armed with potions? Why by dark Tharizdun's obex does it have 200 gp on its person? You can't have them, I can't have them, and it refuses instructions that aren't "murder that guy." What even is the point so anyway an extraplanar human could realistically be kicking around most anywhere except the Prime. The fact that they have no interesting characteristics whatsoever, outside of being odd-looking, suggests they hail from a realm or region where that's just what happens to humans. Like how carrots used to be purple. I wouldn't attribute it to any particular heritage; rather I would surmise that there's some place out there in the Planes that just has a population of humans it does that to, and they have a predilection for rapiers and useless money I mean come on. Whosoever invented the spell likely discovered these humans being hired out and realized with their skills and unique nature, they could be brought forth via summoning spell.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

...by all the dark powers of me, have I really been at this for 350 pages???

Number III got mercy-killed early; you were moving, I think. And number VI went a bit over. 's more like 325 pages. But hey, who's counting? (Not me -- I've been checking back threads for Spelljammer info.)

[Tzardok]

Number III got mercy-killed early; you were moving, I think. And number VI went a bit over. 's more like 325 pages. But hey, who's counting? (Not me -- I've been checking back threads for Spelljammer info.)

It was number II that died. I remember watching that thing for months and only noticing that Afro restarted it elsewhere when we were already at number IV.

Also Afro, you missed my question in the post up there. I'll repost it here:

Incidentally, do we know anything about the couatl's life cycle? I mean, are they just essentially big magical snakes that are born, grow up, mate, age and die? Or is there something unearthly or unique about them? Are they immortal? Do they even have the usual two sexes or are they hermaphrodites? What happens when a couatl mates with another creature? A half-celestial or what?

[afroakuma]

Incidentally, do we know anything about the couatl's life cycle? I mean, are they just essentially big magical snakes that are born, grow up, mate, age and die? Or is there something unearthly or unique about them?

I mean, they're big magical snakes, I'm not sure how that's neither unearthly nor unique...

Are they immortal?

In the temporal sense, unknown, but I doubt it very strongly. In the physical sense, no, obviously.

Do they even have the usual two sexes or are they hermaphrodites?

Gendered individuals exist, and it's noted that couatls form pair bonds to birth live young, so I would assume that the species as a whole has two sexes barring any evidence to the contrary.

What happens when a couatl mates with another creature? A half-celestial or what?

I don't believe anyone has come up with a template for that, but it wouldn't be a half-celestial unless the couatl mated with a celestial; couatls are not celestials themselves.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

With Planewalker down and lots of the various wikis contaminated by 4E, 5E, PF or fanon, what's the best quick reference site for Planescape stuff? Is there anything better for Spelljammer than spelljammer.org?

In the Dungeon 121 adventure The Styes, the antagonists are an aboleth dedicated to Tharizdun and its cult. I can't quite put my finger on why but I don't love it; is there a better elder evil or similar force that might feel more natural? The aboleth's goals are the corruption of the living, the creation and fostering of negative emotions and channeling them into the maturation process of a young kraken.

[afroakuma]

With Planewalker down and lots of the various wikis contaminated by 4E, 5E, PF or fanon, what's the best quick reference site for Planescape stuff?

Not really a great one, sadly. Timaresh is alright. Planewalker's wiki is still up, just rough to navigate.

Is there anything better for Spelljammer than spelljammer.org?

There's never been a great resource site for Spelljammer, unfortunately.

In the Dungeon 121 adventure The Styes, the antagonists are an aboleth dedicated to Tharizdun and its cult. I can't quite put my finger on why but I don't love it; is there a better elder evil or similar force that might feel more natural? The aboleth's goals are the corruption of the living, the creation and fostering of negative emotions and channeling them into the maturation process of a young kraken.

Y'chak the Violet Flame is one of the aboleth elder evils, and its sphere of interest is "the development of the destruction of life." I'd say it's spot on for what you're after.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Not really a great one, sadly. Timaresh is alright. Planewalker's wiki is still up, just rough to navigate.

There's never been a great resource site for Spelljammer, unfortunately.

Y'chak the Violet Flame is one of the aboleth elder evils, and its sphere of interest is "the development of the destruction of life." I'd say it's spot on for what you're after.

Great shout on Y'chak - thanks. Is the wiki the old site at mimir.planewalker.com or is there a part of planewalker.com that's still accessible other than the forums?

[afroakuma]

Well, page 50, you all know what that means. After three years, it's time to say goodbye to this thread and hello to its successor, Strahd von Zarovich VIII the new eighth thread. Hop on over if you want to continue bothering me; I'm given to understand it's a popular pastime.