The History of the Elan and the Diamond Guard (Fluff!) [Archive] - Wizards Community

The History of the Elan and the Diamond Guard (Fluff!) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
ck2001wendt
04-17-07, 04:48 AM Here is an origin story for the Elan that I've written, either for a campaign of mine or a character I'd like to run. Additionally there's an Elan-centric organization. Obviously it draws heavily on the Green Lantern mythos, as well as a littlce Lovecraft and Spelljammer.

Hopefully some or all of it will give you ideas for dealing with the Elan in your own campaigns.

The First Elan and the Mind War

Billions of years ago, with the death of the first generation of stars, energy was released from deep in their cores that we would today recognize as psionic. Much of this energy dispersed across the galaxies, but periodically it gathered or pooled around concentrations of crystals. These crystals, themselves forged in the first stars, were attuned to the energy and became infused with it as they hurtled through infinity.

One very large concentration of crystals settled into an orbit around a young blue star. Over time, the energy in the crystals acted as its own gravity, drawing them together and fusing them. A world formed, itself a planet-sized psionic crystal.

As with other worlds, meteors would periodically strike this planet and, in doing so, temporarily release psionic energy as parts of the crystal shattered and fused once more. After one such strike the energy did not reintegrate, but remained an ethereal cloud above the planet. A purely psionic life form. A life form that evolved to multiply and create others like itself.

After an unknown number of generations, these creatures gained sentience, and then an intellect. They began to use their energy to influence their surroundings. They learned that by creating forms of astral ectoplasm and remaining in them they could accomplish basic tasks like communication or manipulating small objects with much less effort. They made love, war and art. They built homes, societies, states and finally a world civilization. They named their world Elaa and themselves the Elan.

Ever curious, the Elan reached out into the stars. They made excellent travelers, drawing on the universe’s ambient psionic energy for sustenance. They used their telekinesis to launch ships made of crystal from their home world, hoping to meet other life forms, touch their minds and understand them. Some contacts went well. One did not.

The Illithid claimed to be the spawn of a race of alien intelligences from the First Times, which they called “the Old Ones.” They moved out into space as a conquering race, destroying creature’s minds or enslaving them with own psionic knowledge.

What became known as the “Mind War” lasted generations, pitting Elan Crystal Cruisers with their ectoplasmic cannon against Illithid Dreadnoughts and their raiding parties, descending through tentacle grappling arrays. The Elan were far more powerful individually, but the Illithid had numbers and limitless slaves. To end the war, the Elan marshaled the full power of Elaa to induce a supernova from half a galaxy away, destroying the planet housing the Illithid Home Mind and scattering their fleets across the planes.

But the energy they channeled, literally draining their planet, left Elaa dull, gray and lifeless. Worse yet, the Elan found they could no longer reproduce; spawning new clouds required vast amounts of psionic energy, which Elaa could no longer provide. Fearing retribution from the Illithid, the remaining Elan abandoned their world and became a race of nomads.

The New Elan

The Exodus from Elaa fractured Elan society. With no government, and no longer subject to the constant scrutiny of a telepathic society some Elan turned to Evil, while other used their immortal existence to explore all the varied facets of hedonism.

Eventually, some unknown Elan discovered a loophole in their predicament. While they could not birth progeny, they could transform other organic humanoids with great psionic potential. The process called for a ritual replacing flesh and blood one cell at a time with astral ectoplasm, effectively “overwriting” the creature with an exact astral copy and creating something resembling an Elan. Of all the races with psionic potential, humans (plentiful throughout the Multiverse and susceptible to magical metamorphosis or inter-species breeding) survived the transformation with the fewest complications.

The originators of the transformation process spread the knowledge to their brethren (good and evil), to ensure the perpetuation of their species in some form. While evil Elan kidnap unwilling subjects, good Elan generally observe them from afar and make voluntary offers. Mentally, “overwriting” a creature’s neural network with an astral copy leaves them with general impressions of their old life, but no strong memories and a malleable personality, a chance for a fresh start.

These “New Elan”, (as opposed to the “First Elan”; “Greater” and “Lesser” are accurate, but never used socially), while less powerful, have some of the properties of their forefathers. They can draw on ambient psionic energy for sustenance or protection and generate astral ectoplasm to seal recent wounds. Like their creators, they are functionally immortal; compared to biological matter, astral ectoplasm degrades incredibly slowly. Over time, some of the most experienced learn to adopt their creator’s original form, or even rebuild themselves from astral energy after death.

The Diamond Guard

One group of First Elan, remaining true to the ideals of their original society, created a pocket plane and retreated to it to consider their situation. Despite an urge for self-preservation, they realized that in addition to the Illithid, the Multiverse teemed with vast threats only poorly understood by the younger, less-traveled races. Their own numbers too small to risk casualties, these Elan imparted their mission and ideals to trusted agents.

So was born the Diamond Guard, self-appointed protectors of the Multiverse who focus on threats that span the planets or planes, particularly the Illithid, other Aberrations or psi-actives. The Guard remains a largely secret organization, as does the pocket plane housing the Crystal Citadel, the Guard’s headquarters (carved from a piece of Elaa). But individual Guardsmen’s interactions with allies and enemies means there are a few people “in the know” on every planet or plane. New Elan raised on the pocket plane are particularly likely to know of the Guard’s existence (and to become Guardians themselves).

The Guard itself is divided into two branches. The Watchers are the Guard’s eyes and ears. They integrate themselves on specific planets or planes to gain cultural and political knowledge, ferret out potential threats and try to influence domestic forces to stop them, preserving the Guard’s limited resources. The Knights are the Guard’s hands, often acting as the only authority in the spaces between worlds or planes and gathering into squads or companies to deal with larger menaces. A Knight is usually more solitary than a Watcher, but also more mobile. Both have significant autonomy; communication with the Crystal Citadel is difficult and the Multiverse is still very much a “frontier”. In battle one Watcher tends to support multiple Knights, though leadership will fall to the most experienced Guardian.

Watchers tend to come from the ranks of Seers, Telepaths or Society Minds (often with levels of Rogue or Bard) and have three (one 16+, two 14+) high mental attributes. Knights tend toward Psychic Warriors, Wilders, Ardents, Nomads and Kineticists and have at least two high physical attributes (14+) in addition to their manifesting attribute (16+). Because the Guard sees itself as a benevolent quasi-law enforcement agency, all members must be within one alignment step of Lawful Good. New Elan tend to be over-represented in the upper echelons of the Guard (though only First Elan are counted among the Founders, the Guard’s governing board), while Humans, Kalashtar, Dwarves and other psionic races can also join and achieve positions of importance.

Prospective members are observed by another Watcher or Knight and often used as unwitting agents until they prove themselves able defenders of the weak (minimum 11th level), when they are offered membership in the Guard. Guardians know each another by their Diamond Wards, which can identify one another and carries the Guard’s sigil (a symmetrical diamond). Some Guardians also choose to wear the sigil on their clothing or as a tattoo.

To ensure their agents have a fighting chance, the Founders (as the First Elan of the Guard are known), collected vast amounts of psionic crystals from across the Multiverse and imbued them with a portion of their essence. These crystals (not always diamonds), are then implanted into an item, usually a Ring, Amulet, or Bracers, to create a Diamond Ward, an Item of Legacy attuned to a specific Guardian (though it is rumored that a Founder can negate a Ward’s power and re-attune it later).

Each Diamond Ward has certain fixed properties. All protect their wearers from great falls (continuous Feather Fall), detect the supernatural (Detect Magic, psionics transparent, at will), and allow communication in all languages (continuous Comprehend Languages). Additionally, all Wards are intelligent, communicating telepathically with the wearer and warning them of immediate physical threats (Major Intelligent Weapon Legacy with Blindsense 120 ft.). Additionally, each Diamond Ward will adapt to its wearer’s personality and needs. A Kineticist might focus on increasing the potency of their energy blasts, a Nomad on surviving on other planes, underwater or outer space, and a Watcher on their diplomatic or sensory abilities. Wards are almost never found; the Guard will go to great lengths to locate and recover a captured Ward.
Runepriest
04-17-07, 10:33 AM Nice, Maybe you could write stats for the First Elans?
ck2001wendt
04-17-07, 03:34 PM Nice, Maybe you could write stats for the First Elans?

Thanks.

I haven't really thought about how I'd stat the First Elan, other than being Epic-level challenges. I just liked the idea of sentient psionic clouds and a psi-crystal planet. I figure they're a race with a massive LA, better kept in the shadows or acting as the Big Bad. Their low numbers prevent them from being overused or all-powerful ("oh, I just killed three Greater Elan!").

They're probably some mix of Unbodied and a natural extension of the Elan racial attributes, like being able to ward off even more damage for every point of PP spent, or not requiring sleep or air for 1 PP (which explains why they came up with space travel so easily and without magic...no life support necessary). Able to switch between their cloud and ectoplasmic forms with relative ease. That sort of thing.

One thing that I've thought of is that instead of sleeping, they regenerate 1 PP/2 minutes, or up 720/day, by drawing ambient psionic energy from their surroundings. They still couldn't go over their PP max, though, so they'd only get all 720 if they frequently used their powers.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ck2001wendt 04-17-07, 04:48 AM	Here is an origin story for the Elan that I've written, either for a campaign of mine or a character I'd like to run. Additionally there's an Elan-centric organization. Obviously it draws heavily on the Green Lantern mythos, as well as a littlce Lovecraft and Spelljammer. Hopefully some or all of it will give you ideas for dealing with the Elan in your own campaigns. The First Elan and the Mind War Billions of years ago, with the death of the first generation of stars, energy was released from deep in their cores that we would today recognize as psionic. Much of this energy dispersed across the galaxies, but periodically it gathered or pooled around concentrations of crystals. These crystals, themselves forged in the first stars, were attuned to the energy and became infused with it as they hurtled through infinity. One very large concentration of crystals settled into an orbit around a young blue star. Over time, the energy in the crystals acted as its own gravity, drawing them together and fusing them. A world formed, itself a planet-sized psionic crystal. As with other worlds, meteors would periodically strike this planet and, in doing so, temporarily release psionic energy as parts of the crystal shattered and fused once more. After one such strike the energy did not reintegrate, but remained an ethereal cloud above the planet. A purely psionic life form. A life form that evolved to multiply and create others like itself. After an unknown number of generations, these creatures gained sentience, and then an intellect. They began to use their energy to influence their surroundings. They learned that by creating forms of astral ectoplasm and remaining in them they could accomplish basic tasks like communication or manipulating small objects with much less effort. They made love, war and art. They built homes, societies, states and finally a world civilization. They named their world Elaa and themselves the Elan. Ever curious, the Elan reached out into the stars. They made excellent travelers, drawing on the universe’s ambient psionic energy for sustenance. They used their telekinesis to launch ships made of crystal from their home world, hoping to meet other life forms, touch their minds and understand them. Some contacts went well. One did not. The Illithid claimed to be the spawn of a race of alien intelligences from the First Times, which they called “the Old Ones.” They moved out into space as a conquering race, destroying creature’s minds or enslaving them with own psionic knowledge. What became known as the “Mind War” lasted generations, pitting Elan Crystal Cruisers with their ectoplasmic cannon against Illithid Dreadnoughts and their raiding parties, descending through tentacle grappling arrays. The Elan were far more powerful individually, but the Illithid had numbers and limitless slaves. To end the war, the Elan marshaled the full power of Elaa to induce a supernova from half a galaxy away, destroying the planet housing the Illithid Home Mind and scattering their fleets across the planes. But the energy they channeled, literally draining their planet, left Elaa dull, gray and lifeless. Worse yet, the Elan found they could no longer reproduce; spawning new clouds required vast amounts of psionic energy, which Elaa could no longer provide. Fearing retribution from the Illithid, the remaining Elan abandoned their world and became a race of nomads. The New Elan The Exodus from Elaa fractured Elan society. With no government, and no longer subject to the constant scrutiny of a telepathic society some Elan turned to Evil, while other used their immortal existence to explore all the varied facets of hedonism. Eventually, some unknown Elan discovered a loophole in their predicament. While they could not birth progeny, they could transform other organic humanoids with great psionic potential. The process called for a ritual replacing flesh and blood one cell at a time with astral ectoplasm, effectively “overwriting” the creature with an exact astral copy and creating something resembling an Elan. Of all the races with psionic potential, humans (plentiful throughout the Multiverse and susceptible to magical metamorphosis or inter-species breeding) survived the transformation with the fewest complications. The originators of the transformation process spread the knowledge to their brethren (good and evil), to ensure the perpetuation of their species in some form. While evil Elan kidnap unwilling subjects, good Elan generally observe them from afar and make voluntary offers. Mentally, “overwriting” a creature’s neural network with an astral copy leaves them with general impressions of their old life, but no strong memories and a malleable personality, a chance for a fresh start. These “New Elan”, (as opposed to the “First Elan”; “Greater” and “Lesser” are accurate, but never used socially), while less powerful, have some of the properties of their forefathers. They can draw on ambient psionic energy for sustenance or protection and generate astral ectoplasm to seal recent wounds. Like their creators, they are functionally immortal; compared to biological matter, astral ectoplasm degrades incredibly slowly. Over time, some of the most experienced learn to adopt their creator’s original form, or even rebuild themselves from astral energy after death. The Diamond Guard One group of First Elan, remaining true to the ideals of their original society, created a pocket plane and retreated to it to consider their situation. Despite an urge for self-preservation, they realized that in addition to the Illithid, the Multiverse teemed with vast threats only poorly understood by the younger, less-traveled races. Their own numbers too small to risk casualties, these Elan imparted their mission and ideals to trusted agents. So was born the Diamond Guard, self-appointed protectors of the Multiverse who focus on threats that span the planets or planes, particularly the Illithid, other Aberrations or psi-actives. The Guard remains a largely secret organization, as does the pocket plane housing the Crystal Citadel, the Guard’s headquarters (carved from a piece of Elaa). But individual Guardsmen’s interactions with allies and enemies means there are a few people “in the know” on every planet or plane. New Elan raised on the pocket plane are particularly likely to know of the Guard’s existence (and to become Guardians themselves). The Guard itself is divided into two branches. The Watchers are the Guard’s eyes and ears. They integrate themselves on specific planets or planes to gain cultural and political knowledge, ferret out potential threats and try to influence domestic forces to stop them, preserving the Guard’s limited resources. The Knights are the Guard’s hands, often acting as the only authority in the spaces between worlds or planes and gathering into squads or companies to deal with larger menaces. A Knight is usually more solitary than a Watcher, but also more mobile. Both have significant autonomy; communication with the Crystal Citadel is difficult and the Multiverse is still very much a “frontier”. In battle one Watcher tends to support multiple Knights, though leadership will fall to the most experienced Guardian. Watchers tend to come from the ranks of Seers, Telepaths or Society Minds (often with levels of Rogue or Bard) and have three (one 16+, two 14+) high mental attributes. Knights tend toward Psychic Warriors, Wilders, Ardents, Nomads and Kineticists and have at least two high physical attributes (14+) in addition to their manifesting attribute (16+). Because the Guard sees itself as a benevolent quasi-law enforcement agency, all members must be within one alignment step of Lawful Good. New Elan tend to be over-represented in the upper echelons of the Guard (though only First Elan are counted among the Founders, the Guard’s governing board), while Humans, Kalashtar, Dwarves and other psionic races can also join and achieve positions of importance. Prospective members are observed by another Watcher or Knight and often used as unwitting agents until they prove themselves able defenders of the weak (minimum 11th level), when they are offered membership in the Guard. Guardians know each another by their Diamond Wards, which can identify one another and carries the Guard’s sigil (a symmetrical diamond). Some Guardians also choose to wear the sigil on their clothing or as a tattoo. To ensure their agents have a fighting chance, the Founders (as the First Elan of the Guard are known), collected vast amounts of psionic crystals from across the Multiverse and imbued them with a portion of their essence. These crystals (not always diamonds), are then implanted into an item, usually a Ring, Amulet, or Bracers, to create a Diamond Ward, an Item of Legacy attuned to a specific Guardian (though it is rumored that a Founder can negate a Ward’s power and re-attune it later). Each Diamond Ward has certain fixed properties. All protect their wearers from great falls (continuous Feather Fall), detect the supernatural (Detect Magic, psionics transparent, at will), and allow communication in all languages (continuous Comprehend Languages). Additionally, all Wards are intelligent, communicating telepathically with the wearer and warning them of immediate physical threats (Major Intelligent Weapon Legacy with Blindsense 120 ft.). Additionally, each Diamond Ward will adapt to its wearer’s personality and needs. A Kineticist might focus on increasing the potency of their energy blasts, a Nomad on surviving on other planes, underwater or outer space, and a Watcher on their diplomatic or sensory abilities. Wards are almost never found; the Guard will go to great lengths to locate and recover a captured Ward.
Runepriest 04-17-07, 10:33 AM	Nice, Maybe you could write stats for the First Elans?
ck2001wendt 04-17-07, 03:34 PM	Nice, Maybe you could write stats for the First Elans? Thanks. I haven't really thought about how I'd stat the First Elan, other than being Epic-level challenges. I just liked the idea of sentient psionic clouds and a psi-crystal planet. I figure they're a race with a massive LA, better kept in the shadows or acting as the Big Bad. Their low numbers prevent them from being overused or all-powerful ("oh, I just killed three Greater Elan!"). They're probably some mix of Unbodied and a natural extension of the Elan racial attributes, like being able to ward off even more damage for every point of PP spent, or not requiring sleep or air for 1 PP (which explains why they came up with space travel so easily and without magic...no life support necessary). Able to switch between their cloud and ectoplasmic forms with relative ease. That sort of thing. One thing that I've thought of is that instead of sleeping, they regenerate 1 PP/2 minutes, or up 720/day, by drawing ambient psionic energy from their surroundings. They still couldn't go over their PP max, though, so they'd only get all 720 if they frequently used their powers.