(Illustration by Tomasz Chistowski comes
from the Paizo Blog and is © Paizo Publishing.)
Danavas may seem like a bit of a
departure on Bestiary 5’s part.
Up until now, Pathfinder’s titans have either owed their inspiration to Greek
mythology (for instance, the hundred-handed hekatonkheires) or have been
strictly fantastic creations (thanatotic titans)—with Elysian titans splitting
the difference. Danavas come from Hindu
mythology, so to see them mingling with Greek giants is a bit of a surprise at
first. But given that we mix Victorian
faeries with ancient Greek satyrs under the label of “fey” without blinking, we
shouldn’t stress about calling danavas titans…especially since the ancient
Greeks and Indians actually did semi-regularly trade and war with each other,
which the ancient Greeks and the Victorian English certainly didn’t.
Besides, danavas are properly ancient, from-the-bones-of-the-earth
kinds of monsters in the same way titans are.
In fact, Pathfinder goes one step further, making them mythic creatures
of Law, central pillars of existence itself.
(And, “pillar” is exactly the right word to use, as that is what
particularly powerful danavas who oversee aspects of existence are called.) Other titans wish they were as ur- as these ur-titans.
Fans of epic stat blocks will enjoy the
danava—how can you not like abilities like Iron Resilience (ignore the thing!)
or Devastator (bypass all the things!) or attack rolls that start at 40. But more importantly, a danava is
surprisingly easy to work into the game, despite its absurd CR 24/MR 9
challenge Rating, because of its absurdly lawful nature. You already know I’m a fan of lawful
opponents—sticklers for rules are often way more fun to play than simply evil
villains, and way trickier to eliminate or subdue without making powerful
enemies. Plus, danavas are so ancient
and powerful that humans aren’t even covered
by the laws they’re following. (Hell,
even elves and demons are just a passing fad to them.) If you think of a planet as a house with a
leaky roof, a human city is the wasp nest the danava knocks down so she has a
place to put the ladder when she climbs up to fix it.
Which makes danavas the supreme case of
the lawful cure being worse than the chaotic disease. Hundun invasion? Demonic incursion? Great Old One rising from the deep? Those things all suck, but they're nothing
compared to what will happen if a danava wakes up and decides to “help” get rid
of the problem.
Adventurers
have been foiling plots by the mysterious hunduns for years
now. Finally, at the apex of their
careers, they understand what the faceless aberrations were after: shards of
the World Egg, the primordial container of the Creation that the hunduns intend
to reverse. The adventures face their
nemesis, a supremely powerful hundun occultist/necromancer…but the echoes of
their conflict ripple across the multiverse, waking a pair of danavas who are
determined to smash every last fragment of the World Egg, as well as anyone
else in the vicinity (which they define as the entire nearest country).
The
cold-iron-fearing daoine sídhe (treat as high-level elves with the fey
creature template) speak of their aes sídhe forbears garbed
in glittering bronze. And should they be
found in their hidden lairs deep in the Otherworld, the aes sídhe (as above but with mythic ranks)
will tell you of their parents who were also gods: the Tuatha Dé. Buried, trapped, or perhaps just slumbering
in their city beneath the waves, these majestic lawful titans are so advanced
beyond their chaotic fey childer that the family resemblance is almost
unrecognizable.
An
entire layer of Hell is missing. In a time before the Lord of Morning fell
from grace to become the Archduke of Night…in a time when there were no pits of
punishing fires because no crimes had yet been committed…a danava pillar ruled
that pitiless realm. Having been woken
from his slumber, he simply marched across existence and took the lair
back—literally, as he simply dragged it away.
Now both the pillar and one-ninth of Hell are simply missing, and the
entire multiverse trembles at the implications.
—Pathfinder
Bestiary 5 246–247
We’re finally at letter D!!! Sorry it took me so long to get here. If it’s any consolation, at least I didn't
paralyze half my face with stress this winter—no, really, that’s a thing that happened last year—so as much as my more laid-back approach to posting pains
both me and you, it’s probably for the best.
Last night thanks to my old roommate I
got a tour of the new building for my old radio station, and was on the guest
list for a live show from the Great American Canyon Band to boot. After so long away, it was a nice homecoming
of sorts.
(Apparently I also met Prince’s former
art director. WUT.)
Also, I want to thank everyone who came
out to Light City last week. I figure
with 5,000 of you following this blog, at least one of you got to enjoy some of
the art or one of the performances. The
festival was definitely a success—they were expecting 300,000 and got roughly 4—so I’m crossing my fingers that a) it happens again, and b) I get to write
the advertising again.
Last Tuesday’s show! Including
the Sun Days, Frankie Cosmos, Against Me!, Sturgill Simpson covering Nirvana,
and more more. This is a good one, so if you’ve never clicked, this is an
excellent week to give into temptation. Stream/download it till Monday,
4/11, at midnight. If you have trouble with the stream or want to keep
the show forever and ever, Save As an mp3.
