The 4e Modron Article

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Kobold Avenger's picture
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The 4e Modron Article

Since it's significant enough for Planescape, I'll give a short summary for those who can't access subscription material off of the WotC site.

So a lot of the old background is still there, they still come from Mechanus, they still do the Great Modron March (though the schedule is described as unknown), there's still base and hierarch Modrons. The Modrons statted out are Monodrones, Duodrones, Quadrones and a generic stat block for all Hierarch Modrons, though it's probably a Decaton. The only picture in the article is of a Quadrone with a halberd standing on a ledge in Sigil.

What's changed is that Modrons are described as being like cells of Primus, and that they're made up of multiple numbers of lesser Modrons. In fact if any of those Modrons die, they tend to split up into Monodrones (which are minions). But it's different in that they're mentioned as combining into greater Modrons or separating into lesser ones as their needed. Modrons still go rogue, but it apparently requires all the Modrons that are pieces to go Rogue too, before a higher level one goes Rogue.

It also leads to Modrons apparently being against portals which cause the entropy of the multiverse and are much like the Per in guarding them, probably because of the change in 4e's alignment fluff. Here they are described as being enemies of the Slaadi, which was never outright mentioned before but only suggested from what I remember.

With Primus they never mention its death at the hands of Orcus/Tenebrous. They've said Primus' origin is "Hard to know" but suggest that it might be a Primordial that was simply mechanical. And that the cycles of the Modron March might have to do with Primus disassembling and reassembling itself.

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Re: The 4e Modron Article

Random thoughts: if modrons are the cells of Primus, would rogue modrons correspond to "cancer" for Primus?
I'm not oncologist, would there be a plot thread or two involving outside forces trying to infect the collective modron-entity of Primus with some "virus"?
Would this imply an uber-deity hiding under the chaos-stuff of Limbo (or perhaps composed of the chaos-stuff) that is in a constant battle against Primus?

Jem
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Re: The 4e Modron Article

Interestingly, cancer would be somewhat the reverse of modrons going rogue. Normally, many of our cells die off at a regular pace after dividing; this leaves the ones there fresh and healthy. A Primus which was constantly improving and refining his component modrons would want to occasionally slough off old ones that couldn't take the update. Your virus analogy is more apt, since a virus takes over a cell in place, redirecting its functions from serving the organism to serving the virus. If there's a mechanism for going rogue to spread, then that would make it more virus-like. In 2e, it seemed pretty rare.

By the way, here's another converse to rogue modrons: something I've imagined for a while is a cult of mortal sentients dedicated to worshiping Primus, hoping to purify themselves into creatures of absolute Law perfect enough to be absorbed into the modron energy pool and become one with the living God. Primus could certainly make use of such followers for his purposes, if he has any concept of manipulating non-modrons at all. If the mortals were sometimes successful, it might increase the strength of the modron energy pool -- on the other hand, it might be impossible, or Primus might actively oppose their efforts as introducing disorder into the race. They might be accepted on the rare occasions that a modron goes rogue, or the entrance of each mortal could be a cause of a rogue.

Kobold Avenger's picture
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Re: The 4e Modron Article

I like the idea of "infecting" Primus to create Rogue Modrons. I'm certain there's a few out there who might want to do that.

Maybe it's why Rogue Modrons tend to always become Quadrones, since trying to infect higher order Modrons can do a lot of damage, so the natural immune response to the infection of a high order Modron is to instantly demote it to a Quadrone. Of course that doesn't explain much about Monodrones, Duodrones and Tridones becoming rogue.

Jem
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Re: The 4e Modron Article

I forget who it was, but someone here on the forums suggested that a previous, primitive form of modron had the race consisting all of cubes (giants, I think, though I could see different sizes denoting rank). The current, more patterned hierarchy would be a more ordered form of the race. That would mean rogues revert to a smaller version of this primitive state, which simply happens to get confused for a quadrone.

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