Caligatio

"Of old they were known as End and the Entropy of the Abyss made flesh and spirit. They rose from the depths of the land by means unknown by the powers and strode to wipe out the tanar'ri. Differently from all enemies the tanar'ri had ever vanquished, they could not be absorbed into the race by the use of breeding and chaos magic. Theirs was the power over energy. A single one could raze a tanar'ri fortress. During these dark times for the Abyss, the tanar'ri were decimated faster than they bred. Lords fell and new races evolved to try to fight off the new opponent. Some like the voodracor learned to dispatch one of them with great difficulty. They came to be known as the Caligatio, the end and final Darkness.

They gathered and threatened to take down the Lord of Balors himself, Marduk. His forces were already being attacked everywhere, but he would have none of it. In times to come, it was said that the Six of those that came to be known as the most powerful among the Lords, Lolth, Marduk, Orcus, Zuggtmoy, Demogorgon and Graz'zt discussed the matter without a meeting and came to a solution. Marduk and Juiblex joined forces briefly, but terribly, to fuel the power of the Bal'-K'lar, Firefan. When the Caligatio joined to attack Marduk, he used the artifact's power to turn their own chaos against them. Their souls collapsed under their own energy, breaking in thousands of fragments, so to never gather again."-- The Book of Red

This is the story told by the more knowledgeable, and obscure, scholars when discussing tanar'ric evolution. The anima that moved the caligatio is dispersed forever. On the Abyss, however, things come back to haunt you.

Millennia would pass before their souls would reform into fragments of a once complete being. Having nowhere to go, these souls made their way back to the cycle of rebirth and melded with existing souls or, in most cases, expulsed the existing for their own advantage.

Still, they were fragments. Those people would grow different. They feel a lack, something hollow in their lives which they cannot seem to complete, an unexplainable quest. Many became adventurers and wanderers, seeking limit situations, fighting against frustration.

Sometimes, two parts of the same powerful soul meet. The resonance emitted by the both parts can be felt or sensed by soul magic, fate-related psionics or beings with empathy, like the Mbe . Once joined, by love, friendship or such, the parts are reunited and make their way back to reincarnation. This is something Marduk was not aware of, slowly the souls are recomposing themselves, taking thousands of lifetimes, but still measurable time in an Abyssal Lord's perspective.

The bigger parts of the soul give birth to strange mortals. They have troubled lives and are even more desperate than the others that are only one piece. Their power grows, too. Magic potential starts to develop during childhood. They become harder to affect with soul magic or alignment changing effects. Their will grows stronger and passions get more wild. The dreams and visions get more intense and a state similar to madness seems to linger in the mortal's mind. Of these souls, two are worth mentioning.

Platides (Pl/male human/Psi 11/CG) has come to realize who he is. He knows about Marduk and what he did to his people and his soul. He now tries to find the other pieces of his own. His entire life was spent this way. He is now old and deluded, confused and tired. Even though he helped identify and reunite many of those souls, he won't find his. Unbeknown to him is the fact that he'll meet Larissa very soon.

A poor teenage girl suffering from terrible nightmares, Larissa (Pl/female tiefling/W 3/NG) is the probably the most developed of all souls of the Caligatio reunited. Her soul is very close to complete and she has many strange memoirs she can't understand. The power in her grows fast and may get out of hand, unless Platides manages to discover about her fast. The sheer power locked away in their existence is capable of razing entire cities.

Another figure that plays a role that he does not know is Eyes of Gold (Pl/female trumpet archon/LG). She has discovered more of the Book of Red texts and observes the unfolding of events with anticipation. She truly expects that the Caligatio will be able to destroy Marduk, but she hopes she can manipulate them to Good in their confused state. What she does not know is that her interest derives from her own portion of a soul that hides inside her feathered outlook.