[Technology and Magic] Extra-Dimensional Creatures

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Czernobog
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[Technology and Magic] Extra-Dimensional Creatures

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Extra-Dimensional Creatures

Elementals

Elementals are defined as extra-dimensional beings which are created from one of the eight elements: shadow, light, fire, water, earth, air, death and life. A ninth element, magic, has been speculated on but has not been proved to exist.

Umbra are elementals created from shadow. Creatures of living darkness, they exist as living shadows and dwell in the Elemental Realms. They can mimic the shadows of other creatures and feed on light.

Lumos are elementals created from light. They are blinding to look on, and are intangible. They have often been mistaken for angels, beings which are the stuff of urban legends and rumours and have not been definitively proven to exist.

Ifrit are creatures of fire, and will die if exposed to enough water. They delight in random, capricious destruction, killing seemingly for the fun of it.

Nymphs are creatures of water, and are often benevolent. Their very presence is soothing and calming to mortals, and they are quite intelligent. There are two kinds of nymph: ocean nymphs and river nymphs. Ocean nymphs are often moody and male, while river nymphs are female, calm and non-aggressive.

Tammuz are creatures of earth, made of living clay, and are quite unintelligent, what little personality they do have being mostly stoic. Their strength is incredibly great however, and they are as enduring as the mountain, nigh-impossible to kill.

Djinn are creatures of air, and are often capricious tricksters and pranksters, on a level together with the Fair Folk for cruelty and malice. They are quite vain, and will gaze at their own reflections for days on end, which can be used to trap or kill them.

Reapers are creatures created from the element of death - they feed by invisibly draining life from a dying person, forwarding his death to feed themselves and allow them to survive a little longer before disintegrating back into the chaos that spawned them.

Dryads are creatures created from the element of life, and are benevolent towards mortals and hate the undead. They hate them because the undead are unnatural creatures, created by magic towards a sickening aim. They also hate civilisation, and have been known to attack isolated settlements.

The Fair Folk

The Fair Folk are perhaps the most active extra-dimensional creatures in the modern age. They are natural shapeshifters, able to shift their forms naturally in ways that even the humonculi of Stygius cannot, and it is thought by some that they have forgotten their true shape, and that the constant shifting has driven them mad. Others say that they are transient beings that have no true form, and that this explains their strange state of mind. Regardless of these theories, there are thought to be three laws governing them, which are written here:

1. They cannot enter residences without invitation.
2. They cannot lie.
3. They can be controlled by one who knows their true name.

These three laws the Fair Folk always attempt to get around - sticking to the letter of what they say but not the spirit, for example. They are tricksters and pranksters without compare, although their 'tricks' are often callous and sadistic, especially to mortals. The Fair Folk have three castes: Goblin, Fae, and Sidhe, with the Eldritch Queen their ruler. As with all structures they create, these castes and organisations are transient, constantly disintegrating only to be created again and again. There is also a theory that says that the rules that bind the Fair Folk are actually lies created by them, and that they do this to trick people into thinking that they have mastery over them.

The Fair Folk also offer power to people, but for a price, and it is thought to be a great game of theirs to raise somebody to the pinnacle of power then watch him topple down again, falling into doom and darkness. They do this particularly often to people with ambition, most often mages and politicians, and it is thought by some that they do this for change in its own sake. When dealing with them, be warned: anything they can create or do is only transient and will fade away eventually, while they take from you what you most truly love.

Angels and Demons

Angels and demons are by far the most elusive extra-dimensional creatures, if they do truly exist. There are only four pieces of evidence for their existence, disregarding religious sources: the Chronicles of the Phoenix, the Hildebrandt Notes, the Liber Angelica and the elusive Berlin Photograph.

The Chronicles of the Phoenix describes the Battle of Antioch in these terms: 'and the knights did see as the Seraphim descended on wings of fire, and smote the Legions of Stygius greatly', while the Hildebrandt Notes describes the unknown writer's (whose only name is Hildebrandt) discovery of a new branch of magic, and his 'astral journeys' into Heaven, where he describes the dwellers therein, then segues into a bizarre mystical description of 'the face of God'. The Liber Angelica, a medieval tome, also describes the so-called inhabitants of Heaven, and is eerily similar to the Hildebrandt Notes.

Finally, the Berlin Photograph, said to use a prototypical emulsion technique, shows an Angel flying over Berlin. It is almost indisputably not a fake, and the 'angel' fits in perfectly with the background. Demons have also not been proved to exist, and the evidence for them is even more sketchy, coming only from the Liber Infernus, a medieval tome claiming to provide information over the inhabitants of Hell.

Other Things

The evidence for beings other than 'usual' extra-dimensional creatures is sparse, though whether this indicates their absence or the covering up of the information is unknown. One tome remains though - Al-azif or the Necronomicon, the Book of Dead Gods. This tome claims that the 'Eternal Ones' (or possibly 'Final Ones' - the translation is poor) dwell 'in the darkness, in the shadow of night, the Ultimate Abyss'. It also contains a tale about the 'Fall of Carcosa' that takes up half the book, and is quite long, telling of a civilisation based around the 'lake of Hali' that was destroyed by God for summoning a hideous being called only 'the Stranger in the Pale Mask' or 'the King in Yellow' (both titles are used interchangeably).

The Necronomicon also meanders off heavily, eventually degenerating into crazed ranting and raving about 'the Doom of Man' and 'the Shadow of Final Night'.

One report also survives, deep in the secret archives of the Ordo Sacratus, telling about a battle waged by the Ordo against a group of cultists worshipping dark, unspeakable gods. The cultists managed to summon the entity they worshipped - described as a figure in a pale mask - before being defeated, their 'god' fading away as they lost the fight. However, before it left, it drove several hardened knights of the Order insane with magic of a type unknown to the Ordo Sacratus' extensive archives.

Whether these entities are demons, the Fair Folk or something different entirely is unknown.
You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years.
You have little of account to show for your efforts.
Order. Unity. Obedience.
We taught the galaxy these things.

And we shall do so again.
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