Warforged on the Planes [Archive] - Wizards Community

Warforged on the Planes [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
BlueFlames
02-25-07, 04:51 AM When Monster Manual III introduced the '[Monster] in [campaign setting]' section to creature descriptions, I was quite pleased. It's one thing to say, "This monster can be adapted to [campaign setting]," but it's quite another to do that nasty bit of work for us. The problem is my favorite campaign setting is more or less discontinued, so I was doomed to never see the line, '[Monster] in Planescape'.

As I was coming up with an NPC's background earlier today, it hit me that I was going to need at least a blurb about how the warforged race came to be on the outer planes. Here's what I came up with (including the NPC-specific bits, since there's some important details that I can't really disentangle from the NPC's story right now)....

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For a brief period, millenia ago, the modrons found themselves unable to hold back the forces of chaos. Beings from Limbo spread across the Prime, the Outlands, and Sigil like a great plague; the Tanar'ri made great advances in the Blood War, and for some inexplicable reason, angels seemed to be filling positions in the upper planes, usually reserved for archons. Primus needed to take great strides to restore the waning power of law, for though his modron armies were vast and terrifyingly efficient, they were stretched thin, fighting across all fronts on the planes.

Simply swelling the ranks of the various modron battalions was not an option. The number of modrons must be kept constant. To create more modrons would be to draw more energy from their great, communal pool of life than was available, and would diminish the whole of the modron race. Though Primus did strike upon a solution, it was not very creative. Once again, he would create a race of mechanoids, merging flesh and steel, though this race would draw from another source of life energy.

In a scant few years, massive life forges had been created on the cogs of Regulus. Within these forges, petitioners that found their way to Mechanus were bonded with new flesh and machinary to give them life and form once again. Rather than using the shells of these souls to power divine magic, they were used to power new constructs, built in similar style as the rest of the modron race. This was the birth of the warforged race.

In this new form, the purpose of these constructs was to be singular and pure: uphold the laws governing the planes, and destroy those beings that would see those laws dissolved. In the short-term, the warforged were to be used as soldiers. Long-term plans were for the disposal of the warforged corpses, as it was predicted that as the various warforged used the energy of the soul they were built around, they would eventually die off. (To a human, warforged seem immortal, but war on the planes has a habit of lasting thousands and millions of years, therefore firmly defining the warforged race as a temporary participant in the eternal battle against chaos.)

Unfortunately, the nature of the mortal soul, around which the warforged were built, brought with it an unexpected side-effect: instincts. Modrons lack what humans would consider 'basic instincts'. A human baby, barely able to crawl, will avoid sending itself over a cliff. It has an inherent knowledge of the danger of heights and an inescapable desire to avoid its own demise. A quadrone, being a creature of pure law, could receive an order, though its great chain of command, to hurl itself from the top of the Spire, and it would do so without a second thought. These leftover instincts, were a seed of corruption within the warforged. Each one was corrupted by some leftover chaos or morality, engrained in them in the form of instincts, and while this taint could be surpressed by their largely lawful nature, over time, as balance was restored in the battles between law and chaos, Primus ordered the discontinuation of warforged production.

As the life forges on Regulus were disassembled, the first of the warforged began to wane. Their souls began to die a final death, leaving behind naught but a heap of composite plates and lifeless flesh. In some, it triggered dispair. In others, it triggered a desire to serve the hierarchy to their bitter, final moments. In a rare few, the self-preservation instinct became the source of their drive.

Odcog Ostlow, a second-generation warforged, found a way to cheat death's final embrace. He had been a fierce warrior, who served as a mercenary for the Baatezu in the Blood War. To great effect, he had tapped into the power of his own soul in battle, to strengthen his prowess and overpower his foes. When considering his nature, his talents, and his inevitable demise, Odcog pondered a question: Why should he limit himself to exploiting just the soul housed in his physical form?

In a bid to save his life, Odcog petitioned his superiors to petition their superiors to petition their superiors, and so on, to allocate a ration of soul energy for himself and other warforged, that they might continue living. Primus was most displeased by the request. Its short-term solution to a short-term problem was now asking to have its life extended. This was absolutely unacceptable, particularly since the entire race had already demonstrated a propensity toward corruption. The decision was made that, not only would Odcog be denied his request, he and all of his kind would be banished from Mechanus to remove their taint and preempt any kind of uprising.

Odcog was now cast out of his home and short of soul energy. In what should have been his final years, he traveled, studying the nature of the mortal soul and seeking experts under whom he could learn how to extend his life. Eventually, he stumbled upon a process of extracting latent soul energy from one's surroundings. This procedure bore great similarities to techniques Odcog had used in the Blood War, but the books that Odcog now studied went further than he had ever considered before. Odcog learned how to forcibly detain the entire, intact soul of a recently slain victim. Not only could this provide Odcog with extended life, but greater power as well.

With the immediate need of survival no longer impeding him, Odcog wished to return to his place in the hierarchy of Mechanus, to demonstrate his new value. He was denied the privilege of returning to his birth plane. The modrons were not interested in his power, and truly, without malice or compassion, they wished that he would die. Though no action was taken directly against him, Odcog took great offense to this decision. Though the evidence had been there all along, Odcog was nothing more than a tool to the modrons, and now that the tool was past its use-by date, it was meant to be discarded.

It was an observant servant of Levistus who saw an opportunity to be had in Odcog's present state. This bold falxugon gave a simple, straight-forward offer to Odcog: "Continue serving the grand scheme of law in the planes, and do so in the way you were accustomed to doing, while under command of the modrons." In other words, Odcog was given the opportunity to return to the Blood War, this time to fight under more direct command of the Devils. Odcog accepted and served in the position well with his new talents, rending the soul energy away from slain Tanar'ri, before the planes could reclaim it. Eventually, this continuous display of power and prowess on the battlefield drew Levistus' attention. Levistus pulled Odcog off of the front lines to be held in reserve for participation in more important tasks and schemes in the future.

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A point to clarify: Not all warforged are on their respective last legs. Odcog is an early-model warforged, so he's running on fumes by the end of the story. The final generation of warforged are likely to be serviceable for much longer, not that that stops Primus from kicking them out of Mechanus, but Primus feels that the risk they pose to the absolute order is too great to leave them lying around.

I've not done much research on this one, so if it's total bunk compared to the canon, feel free to call me on that. My lame excuse is that it's late (5:00am), and it was late when I started (2:30am).
Millenia
02-26-07, 01:55 AM It's a nice story, but I personally prefer the idea of warforged being created by humans... Gods know that the planar races already have everything else. @_@
lord_zack
02-26-07, 08:18 PM I have a city of warforged on Mechanus, created by a human Artificer, who got the idea from Khorvaire. He created a massive dungeon complex including Warforged creation forges. Eventually said Artificer was slain and his creations built a city in and around his dungeon.

Edit: I incorrectly refered to the warforged as axiomatic. Only some of them are.
ArcTan
02-27-07, 11:31 PM 1) Warforged, in Eberron, don't have that soul-draining ability at all. Putting that in will be a major change with major implications.

2) This implies that warforged will still have lawful tendencies, as a planar race. However, warforged generally seem to be True Neutral -- if they have a tendency toward Law, it is very slight. Making them originate from the Plane of Law just because they're mechanical-looking seems to me to be a mistake.

However, it is a compelling story, and if you're not trying to accurately replicate flavor but just have a race that fits this story, I can't deny that WF are an okay choice.
BlueFlames
02-28-07, 12:50 AM 1) Warforged, in Eberron, don't have that soul-draining ability at all. Putting that in will be a major change with major implications.

This is actually a bit where you're getting into Odcog's specific abilities, not those of warforged in general. Regarding their alignment, sneak a peak at their alignment entry in MMIII. They're labeled as having a lawful slant.

Regarding their origins, I'm actually mulling over the idea of the Primes developing a line of warforged independently of the modrons. (Think Libniz and Newton both coming up with Calculus in parallel.)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
BlueFlames 02-25-07, 04:51 AM	When Monster Manual III introduced the '[Monster] in [campaign setting]' section to creature descriptions, I was quite pleased. It's one thing to say, "This monster can be adapted to [campaign setting]," but it's quite another to do that nasty bit of work for us. The problem is my favorite campaign setting is more or less discontinued, so I was doomed to never see the line, '[Monster] in Planescape'. As I was coming up with an NPC's background earlier today, it hit me that I was going to need at least a blurb about how the warforged race came to be on the outer planes. Here's what I came up with (including the NPC-specific bits, since there's some important details that I can't really disentangle from the NPC's story right now).... 秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤 For a brief period, millenia ago, the modrons found themselves unable to hold back the forces of chaos. Beings from Limbo spread across the Prime, the Outlands, and Sigil like a great plague; the Tanar'ri made great advances in the Blood War, and for some inexplicable reason, angels seemed to be filling positions in the upper planes, usually reserved for archons. Primus needed to take great strides to restore the waning power of law, for though his modron armies were vast and terrifyingly efficient, they were stretched thin, fighting across all fronts on the planes. Simply swelling the ranks of the various modron battalions was not an option. The number of modrons must be kept constant. To create more modrons would be to draw more energy from their great, communal pool of life than was available, and would diminish the whole of the modron race. Though Primus did strike upon a solution, it was not very creative. Once again, he would create a race of mechanoids, merging flesh and steel, though this race would draw from another source of life energy. In a scant few years, massive life forges had been created on the cogs of Regulus. Within these forges, petitioners that found their way to Mechanus were bonded with new flesh and machinary to give them life and form once again. Rather than using the shells of these souls to power divine magic, they were used to power new constructs, built in similar style as the rest of the modron race. This was the birth of the warforged race. In this new form, the purpose of these constructs was to be singular and pure: uphold the laws governing the planes, and destroy those beings that would see those laws dissolved. In the short-term, the warforged were to be used as soldiers. Long-term plans were for the disposal of the warforged corpses, as it was predicted that as the various warforged used the energy of the soul they were built around, they would eventually die off. (To a human, warforged seem immortal, but war on the planes has a habit of lasting thousands and millions of years, therefore firmly defining the warforged race as a temporary participant in the eternal battle against chaos.) Unfortunately, the nature of the mortal soul, around which the warforged were built, brought with it an unexpected side-effect: instincts. Modrons lack what humans would consider 'basic instincts'. A human baby, barely able to crawl, will avoid sending itself over a cliff. It has an inherent knowledge of the danger of heights and an inescapable desire to avoid its own demise. A quadrone, being a creature of pure law, could receive an order, though its great chain of command, to hurl itself from the top of the Spire, and it would do so without a second thought. These leftover instincts, were a seed of corruption within the warforged. Each one was corrupted by some leftover chaos or morality, engrained in them in the form of instincts, and while this taint could be surpressed by their largely lawful nature, over time, as balance was restored in the battles between law and chaos, Primus ordered the discontinuation of warforged production. As the life forges on Regulus were disassembled, the first of the warforged began to wane. Their souls began to die a final death, leaving behind naught but a heap of composite plates and lifeless flesh. In some, it triggered dispair. In others, it triggered a desire to serve the hierarchy to their bitter, final moments. In a rare few, the self-preservation instinct became the source of their drive. Odcog Ostlow, a second-generation warforged, found a way to cheat death's final embrace. He had been a fierce warrior, who served as a mercenary for the Baatezu in the Blood War. To great effect, he had tapped into the power of his own soul in battle, to strengthen his prowess and overpower his foes. When considering his nature, his talents, and his inevitable demise, Odcog pondered a question: Why should he limit himself to exploiting just the soul housed in his physical form? In a bid to save his life, Odcog petitioned his superiors to petition their superiors to petition their superiors, and so on, to allocate a ration of soul energy for himself and other warforged, that they might continue living. Primus was most displeased by the request. Its short-term solution to a short-term problem was now asking to have its life extended. This was absolutely unacceptable, particularly since the entire race had already demonstrated a propensity toward corruption. The decision was made that, not only would Odcog be denied his request, he and all of his kind would be banished from Mechanus to remove their taint and preempt any kind of uprising. Odcog was now cast out of his home and short of soul energy. In what should have been his final years, he traveled, studying the nature of the mortal soul and seeking experts under whom he could learn how to extend his life. Eventually, he stumbled upon a process of extracting latent soul energy from one's surroundings. This procedure bore great similarities to techniques Odcog had used in the Blood War, but the books that Odcog now studied went further than he had ever considered before. Odcog learned how to forcibly detain the entire, intact soul of a recently slain victim. Not only could this provide Odcog with extended life, but greater power as well. With the immediate need of survival no longer impeding him, Odcog wished to return to his place in the hierarchy of Mechanus, to demonstrate his new value. He was denied the privilege of returning to his birth plane. The modrons were not interested in his power, and truly, without malice or compassion, they wished that he would die. Though no action was taken directly against him, Odcog took great offense to this decision. Though the evidence had been there all along, Odcog was nothing more than a tool to the modrons, and now that the tool was past its use-by date, it was meant to be discarded. It was an observant servant of Levistus who saw an opportunity to be had in Odcog's present state. This bold falxugon gave a simple, straight-forward offer to Odcog: "Continue serving the grand scheme of law in the planes, and do so in the way you were accustomed to doing, while under command of the modrons." In other words, Odcog was given the opportunity to return to the Blood War, this time to fight under more direct command of the Devils. Odcog accepted and served in the position well with his new talents, rending the soul energy away from slain Tanar'ri, before the planes could reclaim it. Eventually, this continuous display of power and prowess on the battlefield drew Levistus' attention. Levistus pulled Odcog off of the front lines to be held in reserve for participation in more important tasks and schemes in the future. 秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤秤 A point to clarify: Not all warforged are on their respective last legs. Odcog is an early-model warforged, so he's running on fumes by the end of the story. The final generation of warforged are likely to be serviceable for much longer, not that that stops Primus from kicking them out of Mechanus, but Primus feels that the risk they pose to the absolute order is too great to leave them lying around. I've not done much research on this one, so if it's total bunk compared to the canon, feel free to call me on that. My lame excuse is that it's late (5:00am), and it was late when I started (2:30am).
Millenia 02-26-07, 01:55 AM	It's a nice story, but I personally prefer the idea of warforged being created by humans... Gods know that the planar races already have everything else. @_@
lord_zack 02-26-07, 08:18 PM	I have a city of warforged on Mechanus, created by a human Artificer, who got the idea from Khorvaire. He created a massive dungeon complex including Warforged creation forges. Eventually said Artificer was slain and his creations built a city in and around his dungeon. Edit: I incorrectly refered to the warforged as axiomatic. Only some of them are.
ArcTan 02-27-07, 11:31 PM	1) Warforged, in Eberron, don't have that soul-draining ability at all. Putting that in will be a major change with major implications. 2) This implies that warforged will still have lawful tendencies, as a planar race. However, warforged generally seem to be True Neutral -- if they have a tendency toward Law, it is very slight. Making them originate from the Plane of Law just because they're mechanical-looking seems to me to be a mistake. However, it is a compelling story, and if you're not trying to accurately replicate flavor but just have a race that fits this story, I can't deny that WF are an okay choice.
BlueFlames 02-28-07, 12:50 AM	1) Warforged, in Eberron, don't have that soul-draining ability at all. Putting that in will be a major change with major implications. This is actually a bit where you're getting into Odcog's specific abilities, not those of warforged in general. Regarding their alignment, sneak a peak at their alignment entry in MMIII. They're labeled as having a lawful slant. Regarding their origins, I'm actually mulling over the idea of the Primes developing a line of warforged independently of the modrons. (Think Libniz and Newton both coming up with Calculus in parallel.)