Post/Author/DateTime	Post
The Livewire 03-02-07, 06:45 PM	Just curious about how people fill out the background of their Elans in the game. Do they look the same when they're 'reformatted' as they did before? -For me, they look like young adult versions of themselves, reformatted, but 'different' somehow. No one goes 'Hey you're my cousin Bob!' but they might go 'you look familiar...' Do they look like their previous age, but now follow the elan age tables? (Kind of how Gandalf can look 300 but still keep up with the young guys). -See above, for me. Do they appear to age? Will a 1500 year old Elan look like an old woman, or still as spry as one fresh out of the reformatting, but just moves a little slower? -I take the unaging aspect myself. They remember their past lives, but don't get any perks for it, how does that work in your game? -I'm still working on this. Closest thing I can think of is their memories are 'detached' like they read a book or watched a movie of their lives, but didn't live it. Resilience: How does it work? Instant healing? 'forcefield' effect blocking it? -Instant healing. The Elan can feed the energy to rebuild the tissue as it's being damaged, but cannot do it after the fact. Abberations. How do they show their nature? do you allow them (based on the Tiefling/Aasimar ruling) to be proficient in all simple weapons? -Still working on these here. I figure the 4 hours meditation they sit there, eyes open, but in deep trance.
Doomed_Penguin 03-02-07, 07:19 PM	As for knowledge of their previous lives, I like to take an idea from the novel "Brave New World", and have it work similarly to hypnopaedia. It's like listening to a tape in your sleep, you can't actually "learn" or "retain" anything more than simple knowledge of your previous life; however, you do retain your morality and personality. Basically, you're you, but with a psuedo-amnesia where you know about your previous life, but you're emotionally and mentally detached from any personal parts of it, such as family, friends, and occupation. Chances are you still make similar decisions to those you made in your previous life, like making similar (or even the same) friends and occupational choices. However, you're still meeting everyone for the first time, even your own parents. But, eventually, you fall into the same (at least similar) patterns you had before the transformation.
ssvegeta555 03-02-07, 10:20 PM	Do they look the same when they're 'reformatted' as they did before? They look like they did during their youth, as a healthy young adult. If they weren't adult yet (i.e. tranformed while being a kid) they grow up to a young adult and stay that way. Do they appear to age? Will a 1500 year old Elan look like an old woman, or still as spry as one fresh out of the reformatting, but just moves a little slower? I like the idea that their lives are eternal as well as their looks. They remember their past lives, but don't get any perks for it, how does that work in your game? Elans know their past lives, but only the most important events, like their faimly, freinds, hardships, victories etc. They know that they have become an elan to get a second chance for whatever reason, and their memories help them towards that goal (imagine a BBEG turn into an elan to fool the PCs. ;) ) Resilience: How does it work? Instant healing? 'forcefield' effect blocking it? In my campaign, the Endless Void tries to repair itself by collecting all the void shards in one central area, the Negative Energy Plane. The Multiverse is set in a vacant area in the Endless void and many void shards pass through it to reach their ultimate desitnation. These are invisible, impossible to detect, but as they pass through creatures they take away part of their life essence. So technicly all creatures would be immortal if the void shards were not around. Elans have the ability to repair their bodies the instant a void shard passes through them, allowing them to live eternally, just like the gods. In fact one of the main Elimster-esque NPCs in my world is the first elan, who is about 25,000 years old. If any of you have the Dragon Issue with the Erudite picture (the one who looks like a fanatsy version of Morpheus) that what he looks like, bad ass and in charge and cooler than Elimster. :) Abberations. How do they show their nature? do you allow them (based on the Tiefling/Aasimar ruling) to be proficient in all simple weapons? They try their best to pass off as human to hide their true nature. Psionics in my world just recently got back from a 1000 year hiatus, and the gem dragons along with it have become enraged (psionics were sealed to stop an Illithid invasion, but the Gem Dragons were not fond of the idea of losing their power). So now they are on a rampage, and many holy religions are accusing anoyone being psionic in legue with the dragons. Psionic entities are not hunted like animals however, but they are viewed with the utmost suspision, and many elans would rather not deal with that.
ChinchillaofDoom 03-02-07, 10:59 PM	In our campaign, Elans begin looking about 15, humanwise, and by the time they hit 400 or so, they look 30 humanwise. As for memories of past lives, we tend to look at them as reading out of a textbook. As an example, I (elan) went to the festival, I had fun, I made lots of friends... And that's about all that can be remembered; not who the friends were, or what the festival was about, or what was fun about it.
Shado 03-02-07, 11:49 PM	Just curious about how people fill out the background of their Elans in the game. Do they look the same when they're 'reformatted' as they did before? My current character looks a lot like he did in his human life, only much healthier. (His transformation was in part initiated in order to save his life from a life threatening illness.) Do they look like their previous age, but now follow the elan age tables? (Kind of how Gandalf can look 300 but still keep up with the young guys). Doesn't look a day over 16... so yes. Do they appear to age? Will a 1500 year old Elan look like an old woman, or still as spry as one fresh out of the reformatting, but just moves a little slower? Actually hadn't thought about it. The campaign won't last long enough for any age effects to come up really... though he has developed gray hairs from extreme stress already. So on some level I think maybe he would... just not fully. They remember their past lives, but don't get any perks for it, how does that work in your game? He remembers his past life... but it's like a really long dream. Details are sketchy, and there's a sense of detachment. Resilience: How does it work? Instant healing? 'forcefield' effect blocking it? Force of will prevents the damage, but not the pain. Resisting at all is painful... I think of it like temporary hit points. It still hurts, but there's no real damage done. Abberations. How do they show their nature? do you allow them (based on the Tiefling/Aasimar ruling) to be proficient in all simple weapons? The simple weapons haven't come up. Will have to check with DM for his call... I thought they were "Saged" to be proficient. As for his nature... something about him just seems... "off" to intelligent humanoids. Animals tend to either growl if he closes in, or keep their distance under non-threatening circumstances. Even normally friendly domesticated ones.
Perun 03-03-07, 02:50 AM	I view elans as the "thought incarnate". During the creation their mind is pulled from their bodies, and given physical form. Their former (human) are dead, and act as all dead bodies do. The newly created elan doesn't have any connections (emotional or otherwise). Do they look the same when they're 'reformatted' as they did before? Depends on the individual elan and the council that creates him. The council usually doesn't care how the newly created elan will look, they just create him. But, their subconsciousness usually influences the way new elan will look like (unless they activelly suppress their sunconscious to interfere). So, usually, the new elan wil be a sort of an amalgam between his human looks and the collective subconsciousness of the council. Sometimes, a human will request a specific look, or will demonstrate a strong personality and individuality, and will influence the new form. In any case, since they're incarnate thought, elan can change their looks through sheer willpower. This is nowhere near the usefullness of changing shape, but slowly, during a lonigsh period of time, the elan can change their hair colour, cause wrinkles to smoothen (or appear), change their height and weight, etc. All these changes are minor and merely cosmetic, and take (as I said) some time to manifest (maybe a month for really minor changes, over a year for complex ones). However, their general shape is constant, and anoyne familiar with an individual elan will be able to recognise him with little or no problem. Do they look like their previous age, but now follow the elan age tables? (Kind of how Gandalf can look 300 but still keep up with the young guys). Do they appear to age? Will a 1500 year old Elan look like an old woman, or still as spry as one fresh out of the reformatting, but just moves a little slower? See above. They can change their apparent age. They remember their past lives, but don't get any perks for it, how does that work in your game? I'm taking the approach almost everyone else is -- their remember the important things, but generally it's like a movie they saw long ago. However, because of the way they were created, elan sometimes get false memories or even other people's memories. These are minor, random and usually insignificant, but can be used by DMs as plot hooks :cool: Resilience: How does it work? Instant healing? 'forcefield' effect blocking it? At the exact moment of impact, an elan can convince himself he wasn't really hit. He floods his body with mental energy which acts as shield, or, perhaps it instantly repairs the damaged tissue. The issue is clouded, since even the elan don't know what really happens, and the whole thing is over in virtually the same moment it happened. There are no visible scars or wounds on elan's body, and the weapon that was used by their opponent has no traces of wounding (unless, of course, it had them before it hit the elan). The theory is that the resiliance is an active-instinctive action. The ability can be used only at the time of wounding because the elan is not yet consciously aware of the wounding. By flooding his body with psionic energy, he does something to negate the attack. But, if he does not react immediately, it's too late to do anything about it, since now he's fully aware of the wound. Abberations. How do they show their nature? Depends on the individual elan. Sages theoretise it's dependant on which kind of though was dominant at the time of individual elan's creation. Common thing is that they're somwhow off. They look human, and they act human, but since they're thought given body, aberrations, they can sometimes involuntarily play with people's minds. Sometimes, when glimpsed from the corner of one's eye, they'll appear different, sometimes people will sense them before they see them, etc. Such effects are rare, and never detrimental to either of the parties involved, thoguh, and are there for flavour purposes only. And, like you said, their trance plays a big role in making them less human. Also, elan and illumians detest each other (not so much they'd be considered racial enemies, but they still intensely dislike each other). They're different ends of the supernatural spectrum -- Words Made Flesh vs. Thought Incarnate. do you allow them (based on the Tiefling/Aasimar ruling) to be proficient in all simple weapons? No. It's not mentioned in their racial entries (same goes for aasimar and tieflings). Regards.
Cadwyn 03-03-07, 02:27 PM	I recently played an Elan, and here is my opinion on the fluff: 1. They look like they do at the time of the formation, old or young...they dont change after that (kinda cool playing a 1200 year old Elan in a 12year old body) 2. Covered in nr1 3. They dont Age, but both me and my DM said that their "age" is visible, since the body IS rotting, but the Elan is keeping it together with force of will. So we figured the Elan would start to "crack"...kinda like the Bad Guy in Kotor2 4. As others have said, They remember what is needed to remember to work in a society without suspicions 5. This was a funny idea I had, probably used elsewhere..But if say the Elan got a arrow in his arm, he would "heal" the damage, and the arrow would stay in the arm...basically, the wounds exist, they just dont hurt nor bleed 6. We didnt actually consider this, but we discussed this after he died, and we should probably have added a "aura of disharmony" or whatever...something that makes him unnatural These are only our thoughts of the issue, not a specific ruling
nobodez 03-03-07, 03:38 PM	Just curious about how people fill out the background of their Elans in the game. Do they look the same when they're 'reformatted' as they did before? -For me, they look like young adult versions of themselves, reformatted, but 'different' somehow. No one goes 'Hey you're my cousin Bob!' but they might go 'you look familiar...' Depending on if I'm doing an Eberron Campaign or not, I change how it works. For a non-Eberron campaign, I play them off as somewhat idealized versions of themselves, but since they wanted to change, that idealization is what causes their standoffishness (the -2 Charisma). For an Eberron Campaign, I put them closer to looking like Kalashtar, though still obviously looking like their former selves, sort of like a painting, it's obviously the person, but as seen through different eyes. Do they look like their previous age, but now follow the elan age tables? (Kind of how Gandalf can look 300 but still keep up with the young guys). -See above, for me. Do they appear to age? Will a 1500 year old Elan look like an old woman, or still as spry as one fresh out of the reformatting, but just moves a little slower? -I take the unaging aspect myself. Again, it's different between my campaigns. For normal campaigns, it's still based on the idealized self image, so if the person sees themselves as older, more mature, than that's what they look like, age wise. As the person gets further and further from their rebirth, the ideal shifts, hence the str/dex/con loss and the int/wis/cha gain. For Eberron, it's the same idea, but the reason they don't age is because the Quori don't age, and the quori spirit is keeping them alive. They remember their past lives, but don't get any perks for it, how does that work in your game? -I'm still working on this. Closest thing I can think of is their memories are 'detached' like they read a book or watched a movie of their lives, but didn't live it. I think it's closer to what happens when a person is raised from the dead. They still remember what happened up until their death, but somehow the connections are lost. It works the same way for my Elan, they know just as much about their past life as if they lived it, but the connections that created the experience, the link between cause and effect that lead to greater power, is lost, and the Elan must create new links. For the Eberron Elan, the quori spirit disrupts these links, casting them as if in a dream, and as the Elan grows older and more experienced, the links either rearrange or reform out of the dream. Resilience: How does it work? Instant healing? 'forcefield' effect blocking it? -Instant healing. The Elan can feed the energy to rebuild the tissue as it's being damaged, but cannot do it after the fact. Like some Aberration, Elan have powers outside the normal bounds of time and space, and this resiliency is just that, the Elan using his psionic power to readjust the flow of space and time, but because it's a natural effect, and not an actual power, it can't go too far outside the current time-space. Abberations. How do they show their nature? do you allow them (based on the Tiefling/Aasimar ruling) to be proficient in all simple weapons? -Still working on these here. I figure the 4 hours meditation they sit there, eyes open, but in deep trance. All the Elan I've played have actually had a Ring of Sustenance, so they didn't have the meditation problem, they actually slept, a way for them to keep a bit of pre-rebirth normalcy in their new life. As a DM, I'd take a page from LoM and say that the insides of an Elan are different. For a normal Elan, the organs are similar, but perform differently than human organs, thus allowing for the Repletion ability to function. Eberron Elan would have their insides look like the insides of a quori spirit, maybe even be larger inside than out. As for the Simple Weapon proficiency, I'd rule it in, as the only Aberration trait a Elan doesn't get is the darkvision, as called out in it's racial rules.
Celsun 03-03-07, 05:08 PM	Do they look the same when they're 'reformatted' as they did before? Elans generally look as they did before, subject to the whims of their sponsors. Since each new elan body is created (like an astral construct) during the elanification ritual, the new body can vary from the original one. Do they look like their previous age, but now follow the elan age tables? Elans in my campaign have no age categories and do not age at all. Daily meditation "rolls back the clock." If an elan is kept from meditating for umpteen years, he'd start to deteriorate. They remember their past lives, but don't get any perks for it, how does that work in your game? Elans have a distillation of the memories of their original bodies and those granted to them by their sponsors. The memories are "hollow" in the "textbook" sense mentioned earlier. Resilience: How does it work? Instant healing? 'forcefield' effect blocking it? Instant healing. Elans repair their ectoplasmic bodies by using a personal version of psionic repair damage. Abberations. How do they show their nature? They look human, so there's nothing about them that's unusual. They are harmed by dissolution damage (anti-ectoplasmic effects) such as dismiss ectoplasm. do you allow them (based on the Tiefling/Aasimar ruling) to be proficient in all simple weapons? No.
EternalZzyx 03-03-07, 05:19 PM	The following is how I run my elans, both as a DM and when the DM has no prior rulings and accepts these. Appearance: Elans generally look similar to they did in life, but some how they seem more alive, contrasts stronger, red hair is more red, more shiny, blue eyes are more blue, almost like jewels, they would seem more physically attractive, but it seems some how false, like they are an artistic creation rather than a real person. Age: how old an Elan appears depends on their overall mood, if happy they seem young, almost adolescent in cases, as their mood becomes worse they age, hair greys and wrinkles deepen, if an Elan ever gets to the point of becoming suicidal they run a real risk of dyeing of old age. - living through force of will has it's price, you need to want it (age category penalties decided by DM.) Elans don't really remember their past lives at first, they suffer from total amnesia, (I think a dissociative fugue is the technical term, but don't quote me on that). In time they slowly learn about their past lives, some things vaguely remembered (like a dream) others from other Elans who knew them, especially the one who sponsored them for the changing. By the time they have the title made they are considered to have near complete knowledge of their past lives, though they gain no benefits from this (it is like learning about the life of another, it doesn't give you any of their abilities) Resilience: Elans using this ability seem to be lucky, an arrow misses all major organs or simply streaks a millimetre away from their skin as they shift ever so slightly out of the way same with resistance, after using one of these abilities, they are what medics call “lucky to be alive.” I'm not familiar with the ruling you mention, but I don't give them proficiencies (they are still LA+0, unlike tieflings and aasimar). They can meditate in any position (though many choose sitting) and is basically a combination of mental exercises and manipulation of their psionic metabolism to repair damage done. As Elans do not have a maximum age I use the rules in Mongoose's Chronomancy for extreme mental age bonuses.