By Master Ulthir Malik, of the Brotherhood of Knowledge Submitted for addition to the Brotherhood’s library, a treatise on the common avatars of the Gods. To Mistriss Aerith, and Headmistress Ceal C’Twan, both of the Brotherhood of Knowledge. Due to the recent increase in supernatural activity, my team has recently compiled this list of common divine beings in the hopes that it will assist the Brotherhood in more adequately dealing with both the peaceful and hostile avatars of the various gods. Overview As you both know, there are no recorded instances of the Gods themselves ever actually interacting with mortals directly. For the purpose of this treatise, the term "mortal" will be used to describe any being native to this plane and which exists naturally in it. A mortal also has a short lifespan when compared to a divine being, although for the sake of this discussion the race known as the Undead will also be counted as mortals despite their theoretical ability to live forever. Gods, although they do not interact directly with mortals, influence our world through creations known as Avatars. These Avatars range in power, ability and knowledge ranging from an almost mortal state to beings so powerful that they could almost be considered gods themselves. All avatars are linked to the God that created them, and are in fact a fragmented piece of the God themselves. Many scholars theorize that the Gods have a certain amount of energy, and as they expend it in the creation of Avatars they themselves become weaker. Furthermore, some of the more extreme scholars theorize that if a God expended all its energy on the creation of Avatars, and all of those Avatars could somehow be destroyed at the same moment, the God themself would perish. Obviously this theory is impossible to test, given our own studies in the area of alternate dimensions. All currently known Avatars have at least some link to the God who created them, most ('Shards' being the primary exception) have a portion of the God's own knowledge as well. This has been documented in other reports, where a person having some interaction with an Avatar has observed a brief pause while the Avatar is made aware of some event occurring hundreds of miles away and is considering the new information. This is most commonly noticable with the Avatars known as the Scions and Keepers, who many mistake for the Gods themselves. Another interesting aspect of the Avatars is that while they are inherently linked to the God who created them, they also possess a startling amount of individuality and most are completely self-aware. Each Avatar has a distinct personality, although this personality usually remains extremely similar to the God who created them. It has been heard of (although extremely rare) for an Avatar to actively work against his God, although once the God finds out this results in Reintegration. 'Shards' The most common type of divine being we have observed is the creature commonly referred to as a "Shard". The Shards themselves refer to themselves as "Angelics" or "Demonics" depending on their appearance (although not necessarily their religion, which confuses some of the lesser educated). Shards are the closest thing to a mortal being among all the divine beings, having previously been a mortal themselves. As such, they are something of a hybrid, giving them both more independence from their diety but also causing them to sacrifice the majority of the powers commonly associated with the other Avatars. All shards resemble mortals, but their skin tends to be tinted with either a pearlescent luster or lightly tinted with a solid color such as red or blue. Shards also have vestigal wings, although most lack the ability to actually fly. Frequently they can channel some energy into prayers similar to a Cleric, and a few have indicated they can change dimensions like their more powerful bretheren. Almost every Shard observed has said they were on a specific mission, one which seems to be connected to our growing knowledge of alternate dimensions. It is true that when Shards are seen, events around them seem to transpire in illogical ways. Shards have been observed as able to be harmed and killed just like a mortal, although this seems to be rare. Our research team only heard two accounts of a Shard dying, and only one was accompanied by an actual body. Attempts to study the body were thwarted by the locals as they felt it would be considered desecration of a holy artifact, but the limited observation seemed to indicate a similar biology to other mortals. Keepers When one thinks of an Avatar, despite the higher commonality of Shards the ones referred to as Keepers are the first thing that comes to mind. Upon using their ability to "Hell's Gate", the Keeper of the Realm is the first creature a cleric encounters. Often this Avatar is mistaken for the God the cleric seeks, as it possesses a considerable array of powers and knowledge in addition to the personality of the God itself. The most common interaction with the Keepers is during the process of attempting to recover dead souls. During negotiations with the Keepers, one must be careful with exactly what bargains are made. This is doubly true when dealing with Gods such as Veil or Rend who tend to have clauses in their bargains that weren't intended by the person making the deal with them. Killing a Keeper is currently thought to be impossible. Only two attempts have been documented, in both cases the entire party was utterly destroyed. Later attempts to recover the souls lost proved futile. Perhaps due to the extra powers and connection granted by their God, the Keepers seem to be virtually unable to go against the wishes of their God and there have been no recorded instances of them rebelling. Scions The Avatars known as Scions are one of the least documented. Like the Keepers, their presence is never found on a mortal plane. Unlike the Keepers, they seem to operate as both part of their diety and an individual at the same time. Although no one on our research team has ever encountered a Scion directly, long conversations with a friendly Shard of Orn named Cassias who passed through Toros revealed much about these Avatars. Scions have also been referred to as the "Timekeepers", and their function seems to be maintaining the separation of dimensional travel and preventing certain events which could precipitate the end of the universe. Although they are generally considered a force of "good", Cassias (neutral herself) said that there are as many evil Scions as there are good ones. Apparently the evil gods (even Rend) don't want to see the Universe destroyed as it will destroy them as well. The Scions supposedly are driven to stop any action that results in interdimensional travel, although both Cassias and Magister told me personally that the Brotherhood's own limited knowledge of Interdimensional travel seems to not be disrupting the Timeline. Cassias said that if we were a danger we would have already been stopped, and Magister said rather ominously that a contingency plan had been put in place, whatever that meant. When asked whether a Scion would be as difficult to kill as a Keeper, Cassias' eyes registered considerable shock and said that they were rarely if ever attacked, and that such an attack would likely be considered futile. Spirit Reaper After speaking with a Keeper, one of the options to pull a soul back into the mortal realm is to do battle with the Keeper itself. If the Keeper can be defeated, the soul returns without being Bound to an agreement. Cassias is the only being I have found who claims to have witnessed this encounter, although Magister verified much of her account. The Keeper transformed immediately into another Avatar, this one Cassias referred to as a "Spirit Reaper", although she said "Soul Reaper" was a term some other Avatar breeds use as well. This avatar was much more frightening to behold, and Cassias said that it is rumored to always take the form of that which the observer fears most. She wouldn't say what form it took in her presence, but reliving the memory of the creature was the closest I've ever seen her come to losing her customary cold demeanor. She said the battle lasted mere fractions of a second, and the Keeper had resumed its original form before she even realized the battle had ended. Supposedly this Avatar is killable, although she said that Bargaining was definitely a superior option. Haunting Entities Often referred to as Ghosts (not to be confused with the greater Undead who often become spirits after a time), there are several classifications of Spirit Avatars that inhabit the world. These Avatars seem to be more numerous than any other type, although they are rarely seen. Spirits can take any form, and typically appear as either a loved one or something evil, although frequently they appear as other things. The Shamani have a series of legends surrounding their mythos, and although most scholars believe that they ultimately follow a different manifestation of the same Gods we do they also worship a large series of spirits. I fear I have only met a small handful of Shamani and I don't know nearly enough to say for sure, but it is suspected by some that some of the Spirits in the Shamani religion are likely minor Avatars of the Gods themselves. If this is true, it is unknown why the Shamani interact with them to such a high degree compared to other races but it can be theorized that it is because their culture acknowledges their presence and welcomes them. No known method for damaging a Spirit seems to exist, although they also seem to lack the ability to directly interact with anything in the mortal plane. They appear to be limited to spoken word and influence only and lack the ability to do anything for themselves. Some scholars debate whether the Spirits are Avatars at all, I can only theorize but it would seem to be so. Conduits I had the fortune of meeting a being known as Magister, who claims to have a counterpart in every dimension. The Avatars refer to themselves as the "Conduits" although they use the word Conduit to refer to the connection between the dimension and the universe itself as well. In the course of discussion, the Conduit would seem to be a physical object of some kind in addition to the divine being. A Conduit is both an Avatar of the God and a creature of the Dimension itself. Magister described it as being connected to everything all at once, and he seemed to have explicit knowledge of almost everything that happened in the plane to a degree that surprised even Cassias. The Conduit can be easily mistaken for a Spirit or another Haunting Entity, as it is a spectral form who is almost completely incapable to directly interact with its environment. Magister was quite verbal about his role, apparently he exists to preserve his Dimension in the same degree that the Scions are responsible for the preservation of the Universe. This allows him to act almost completely independent of his God, and he said that although he was an Avatar of Orn he was free to act against Orn or his followers if their actions would harm "his" Dimension. The Conduits themselves don't appear to be human, most of them take on a form associated with their God. Magister looks like the ghost of an owl, and Cassias said she once met a Conduit that appeared by altering the shadows of other objects (presumably the Conduit was of Veil). Conduits are supposedly mortal, although being intangible it is unknown exactly how to hurt them. Obviously Magister was reluctant to allow experiments in this area (nor would he mention specific vulnerabilities) but Cassias indicated that the destruction of a Conduit could very well trigger a Dimensional Anomaly and so she too was against the idea of anything that could potentially injure him. Godlings Most of the unidentified and uncategorized divine beings fall into the category referred to as Godlings. These creatures seem to be something higher than a Shard, but considerably weaker than Keepers. Most possess powers equivalent to the highest of clerics in addition to being very adept at combat. Few have been observed to use magic or bardic talents, although it has occured often enough that one should not rule out the possibility. Most are capable of advanced powers such as teleportation and identifying magic and holy artifacts - it is unknown whether this is magic at work or powers innately granted by their God. Like Shards, most Godlings seem to be placed in our dimension to fulfill a specific goal, and typically leave our dimension once this goal is complete. Unlike the Shards, the Godlings are acting at the direct whim of their God and tend to follow actions consistent with the philosophies of their God. For some reason Godlings tend to avoid others of their species, rarely even working with other Godlings of the same diety. Despite their higher than normal abilities, several Godlings have been slain in this dimension. While there is some debate as to whether some of these accounts were actually Shards being slain, it is reasonably safe to conclude that while powerful, a concentrated force is capable of defeating them. This is not recommended under most circumstances, as the casualty level is usually fairly high. Elementals The creatures referred to as "Elementals" are also uncommon although encountered from time to time. Most scholars disagree with their inclusion as a divine being and prefer to categorize them more with forces of nature itself, so they are only listed here as a reference point. Elementals appear as a creature of solid element, such as flame or stone. Although they range in power from quite weak (equal to an unskilled swordsman) to extremely powerful (requiring small armies to destroy), most have consistent vulnerabilities and are defeatable with enough skill. Some schools of thought place elementals as divine beings due to the connections between some of the gods (Fiera, Silveen, Isikil and Garguth in particular) and the elements, along with the fact that it is extremely rare for an elemental (intelligent anyways) to worship a god other than the one represented by their Element. However, many elementals are completely agnostic, knowing nothing of the gods at all, leaving the possibility that they are avatars as quite slim. Conclusion It is difficult to make any solid recommendations based on this report. For the most part (as one would expect) the Gods' plans are rarely able to be impacted by mortals, and the strongest recommendation I can make would be if an Avatar approaches you do the best to either cooperate or flee. While many (such as Cassias and Magister) have proven both friendly and helpful to mortals, this is not always the case. Even in the case of those two I would have been hard pressed to stop any plans they might make given the difference in power between us. Until we learn more effective means of combating them, we must do our best to cooperate with them or avoid them. Respectfully Submitted, Ulthir Malik |