Sceaduinar

Sceaduinar
(Creature)
Rare NE Medium Aberration Negative Level 7 Alignment LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE Adjective Sceaduinar Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 233 Type Outsider (extraplanar) CR 7 Environment Any (Void) Alignment LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE Adjective Sceaduinar Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 239

Sceaduinars (pronounced SKAY-doo-nahr), also known as the Raptors of the Void, are the dominant intelligent native species of the Void.

Appearance

Sceaduinars resemble spindly gargoyles made of dark purple crystal. They stand about 7 feet tall and weigh around 100 pounds.

Ecology

Sceaduinars form spontaneously and fully grown from the geometrical errors in the crystalline knots in the Void, where the negative energy concentration is greatest. Unlike nearly every creature in existence, their creation has nothing to do with positive energy, and their soulstuff is made from negative energy. Due to their divorce from Creation's Forge, sceaduinars are completely incapable of creating anything. They can guide natural processes, like the growth of spheres of annihilation, but never truly invent.

Habitat

Sceaduinars shape cities of glass from the crystalline knots where they form. Lacking the ability to invent, sceaduinars have to plagiarise their architecture from the nearest non-sceaduinar settlements or ruins, and over time, their cities ironically always resemble those of their hated foes, despite their efforts to forge their own destiny.

Although they are created from pure entropy, the areas near a sceaduinar's home are among the few places stable enough to sustain outside life.

Sceaduinars can exist for extended periods outside their native Void but find this uncomfortable. On the Material Plane, sceaduinars guard the portals at the cores of black holes that lead to the Void.

Society

Sceaduinars cultivate spheres of annihilation from tree-like structures made of negative energy. These spheres are used as weapons against wraiths or sent drifting in the Void, sometimes finding their way to other planes.

Due to the difference between them and creatures driven by positive energy, sceaduinars despise nearly every other creature in existence. Undead are viewed as abominable parasites feeding on the Void's sublime entropy, and sceaduinars frequently send hunting parties to destroy them, something which they pursue with almost religious fervour. Sceaduinars despise nightshades despite their similar goals, but know that they are too powerful and avoid them if they cannot ensure victory in the inevitable battle.

Sceaduinars hold an ancestral hatred for the jyoti, their counterparts in Creation's Forge. According to their lore, the two races used to be partners, tending the movement of positive and negative energy across the multiverse, until the jyoti and the deities in league with them betrayed the sceaduinars and shut their access to the Creation's Forge, depriving them of the ability to create. The esoteric tradition rejects this story, believing that Creation's Forge and Void are still connected, and attributes this hatred to the sceaduinars' knowledge of destruction's role in the creation of souls.

Daemons are interested in sceaduinars and the Void, but all daemonic attempts to forge an alliance with sceaduinars have ended in bloodshed. Sceaduinars sometimes work alongside the equally anti-theistic asuras, and some of them have made contact with squamous things from the Dark Tapestry. While oblivions usually form near sceaduinars' homes, they exhibit neither allegiance nor antipathy toward sceaduinars. Sceaduinars often employ sceazirs, their bestial cousins, as mounts and beasts of burden, and can command them via telepathy.

Sceaduinars dream of a multiverse dominated by negative energy life akin to themselves, and many plot to turn this vision into reality.

Religion

Sceaduinars reject all deities, considering them to be the jyoti's lackeys in imprisoning them in the Void. A few worship the Void, but are only rewarded with minor clerical powers.

Variants

Sceaduinar splinter twins form from particularly bizarre crystalline aggregations that do not properly split into individual sceaduinars. They are bigger than normal sceaduinars, have two heads, many limbs, and other monstrous features.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.