The Mbe

In the more deep forests of Arborea, away from the crowd of nearby Mount Olympus or Arvandor, an ancient people live in the realms of their god. Albeit numerous, they refrain from much contact with other planars, dealing mostly with the eladrin. This people are called the m'be or "Mbe", according to the eladrin.

They resemble human children, around 6 years old, with a skin so dark brown it reflects Arborea stars in the night, usually wearing few if any clothes, preferring robes and skirts.

The Mbe are a race that may be called "plane-touched", affected by a plane's energy. Although basically humans, their legends on the other hand tell that they are as much Arborea as the eladrin. They say that they are the plane's stars brought to earth by Mbo-Ya, the Lord of Dreams.

The energy that courses their bodies makes them immune to age or maturing, but still having all the hasty behavior of the mortal races. Whether or not they are immortal is speculated, as Mbe disappear after some centuries, but they will only say that they went to live on the stars.

Other than that they bleed, eat, drink and specially dream. The Mbe die if prevented from dreaming for more than three days. They despair and weaken fast, leaving just sparkles in their departing. Cold iron is the bane of the Mbe. They're completely allergic to it, more than fiends to silver. Merely being less than three feet away from it causes purple wound marks to sprout all over their bodies until they, too, die. Reproduction comes from the fabric of the land, it's said. But it may be Mbo-Ya's will, also. One day there's more Mbe than before and everything is fine.

The Mbe don't fight or enter any conflicts, always understanding someone's point of view... unless it's made on pure cold logic. They can't or won't understand such concepts and they are shunned among themselves. It is said that their innocence is the base of their society. Those that lose it become corrupted and grow old and wicked, joining the ranks of Fia-So, the Lord of Fallen Stars.

The Mbe never speak. The shiere say it's not because they can't, but they don't need to. They are possessors of an innate emphatic communication, thus captioning emotional states and meaning as easily as a mind flayer can read a mind. Emotions, gestures and body language are all their speaking. They do, however, have a written language, composed of no more than12 symbols, that intertwine in meaning and tone, being differentiated by emotional attachments and details in their carving or painting. They value much other races' music. They do not play instruments, but will always listen even to the worst of the bards.

This strange sense is base to the Mbe concept of Twin Souls. They view other races as possessing it in various manners, mostly. The idea is that people have an inherent emotional potential that has its characteristics and compatibilities. The perfect emotional combination is that person's perfect love or partner. That, however, excludes any societal or psychological aspects. Thus, a pit fiend's true love could be a Mount paladin. Who said all relationships are bound to happen or be happy?

That is thoroughly spread among their society, which, of course, amounts for much more perfect relations, as the Mbe do not recognize the value of logic or morality. What needs to be learned is not worth bothering. Things come through emotional, intuitive impressions.

Their society do not acknowledges leaders, even though every Mbe is unique. They just go about their activities, helping each other as needed. Nor are deeds any worth when dealing with them. The past is of no value.

The Mbe mythos has six powers. All of them are named "Bao" or ancient, the sleeping beings in the stars of Arborea. Which is a very strange notion of time in such culture. The one who watches for these and the Mbe people is Mbo-Ya. Two others have important functions and remain awake, they're Urubu, the guardian of fire and the defender from evil influences in Ysgard, and Curumim of the Beastlands who maintains the society, looking after the animals and spirits, as well as innovation to their cycles.

From the evil spectrum there are the ones who left the stars willingly for more coarse desires. The mightiest of those is Fia-So, who was the first to learn logic among the Mbe and is very old, living in Baator and the brothers Nome and Baum. The brothers bring terror and pain in their wake, representing the fall of the current state of the Mbe.

The Mbe never join their ranks by will. Their purity won't let them. First it's necessary for something to happen. Those that suffer a great trauma and experience raw power join Baum in Gehenna. Those that have lost their hopes, join Nome in Acheron. These are those that experienced a great failing and crisis of belief. Finally those that come to Fia-So, come when something inside the Mbe snaps. Their joy ceases and they can't see the stars anymore and find rivers everywhere. These are the most terrible fallen. They come to perceive the power of logic and skeptical thinking, domination, discipline and, specially, time.

Fallen Mbe grow old, speak, they become ordinary humans. Their powers compensate for that with their new characteristics. Baum makes all into ants that devour and can't understand time, teenagers. Nome limits them and they grow old and die, losing every emotion until the bitter end. Fia-So makes determination be the fire to fuel life. The mighty retain their life, while others wither. Their minds do age, though. They are the adults.

But not all Mbe that fall turn to evil. Rarely, the change is more subtle and slow, making different conclusions. Some just can't accept the loss and try to regain something they never will. Such obsession risks falling into the lines of the Acheron Mbe, once he realizes it. Some may try to find a new meaning, like Sensates, seeing what they have been losing and again risking temptation of power. Others yet may find that they are stopping to care and weapons seem more and more viable an option. Regardless of the realization they come upon it's a hard conflict that waits their souls.

Fallen Mbe may be used as PCs. Their alignments may be NG, CG, CN or TN. Those that are not TN may receive priestly spells from their powers. Classes available are priest, thief (they don't recognize all those conventions), wild mage (using their own potential to fuel it) or regular mages, with the forbiddance of evocation magic. Power and weakness of the fallen ones (non-evil):

- They suffer 1 damage/turn within three feet of cold iron. Damage lessens as time passes and they become more self-aware.- Immune to all sleep or dream-affecting magic.- Well-liked among all Chaos-Good planes.- No weapon use or violence of any kind.- Can speak, but badly.- Can communicate emotions to animals and any being with regular emotions. Feeling tanar'ri emotions for long is hazardous for them in the same way that thoughts are to psionicists. Law Eaters have a confusion effect over them. Greater yugoloths are terrifying to common Mbe, like a fear spell without saving throw. - They take 1dmg/day for existing in the Gray Waste.- 6 years old and aging normally.- Not surprised by beings with emotions under normal conditions.- Attribute modifiers +2 Cha, +1 Wis, -2Str and -1 Cons.- All of the advantages or disadvantages may change over time and character evolution.- They eat no meat, just fruits and non-sentient things.