Different subject, what's with the names of the Deva orders?
Movanic, Monadic, and ... Astral?
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Wed, 2006-05-10 09:28
#1
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Wed, 2006-05-10 14:10
#3
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Different subject, what's with the names of the Deva orders?
Movanic, Monadic, and ... Astral?
The following is just my guess:
Movant means, in legal terms, the person who makes a motion of application for a court's judgement. Movanic devas are sent by the gods to observe the Material Plane and observe their inhabitants. Then they report their findings to the gods, who judge their worshippers based on these findings.
Monads are elementary particles. Monadic devas watch the Elemental Planes, the most basic and elementary of the planes.
The last one I know the Planescape answer for. Astral devas war on the Lower Planes, using the Astral Plane to get there. They also guard Astral travelers of good alignment.
Thu, 2006-05-11 07:32
#4
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The last one I know the Planescape answer for. Astral devas war on the Lower Planes, using the Astral Plane to get there. They also guard Astral travelers of good alignment.
That's more or less what I was talking about. The first two have either really obscure or compleatly invented names, and the last has a purely utilitarian name, refering to the plane it defends. It seems odd that it would be like that.
Thu, 2006-05-11 14:27
#5
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It's possible the names come from real-world mysticism and Gygax only adapted them - theosophy talks a lot about devas and the Astral plane, for example.
Thu, 2006-05-11 14:30
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I may just be completely making things up here, but were Astral Devas the only deva in 1e? Because 1st edition had an excellent tradition of boring outsider names ("ice devil", "type III demon"), so it could be that the movanic and monadic devas were introduced in 2e, when they started giving outsiders interesting names (like baatezu).
Thu, 2006-05-11 16:13
#7
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I may just be completely making things up here, but were Astral Devas the only deva in 1e?
Nope. I'm 99% sure all three types appeared in the 1E MM2. (Not 100% sure, and I'm not at home where I can check the books, but 99% sure.)
Thu, 2006-05-11 17:09
#8
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All three types were in the MMII, though the movanic deva's description got cut. The stats were there, but the description was not; Gygax (as he revealed in the errata in Dragon #91) intended them to be rose-colored with coppery hair and eyes, but they ended up being ivory-white in 2e.
The deva names follow the 1e tradition of naming very well. Note their names are all "adjective deva," just like the devils were all "adjective devil," the archons are all "adjective archon" and the slaadi are all "adjective slaad." Had they been named in 2e they would have all gotten names, not just adjectives - the way the firre aren't "bardic eladrins," and the leonals aren't "lion guardinals."
Wed, 2006-05-17 13:13
#9
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The first two have either really obscure or compleatly invented names
Looks like I have to take that back, Monadic is definitly a word. Not one you see a lot, but definitly a word. I've yet to find a realy good definition for it, but it seems to basicly mean "singular" or "one" in logic, comp sci, theology, and, like rip said, physics.
The reason I asked was that I was going to start calling Astral Devas Modavic Devas if the other two names were also invented. I think I'm still going to do it, though, as circumstances being what they are I think hardly anyone will realize that I'm inventing words, and the game designers weren't.
Wed, 2006-05-17 14:47
#10
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We won't tell. 
Just so long as you and your group are enjoying playing Planescape 
Wed, 2006-05-17 15:46
#11
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Off topic, sorry, why were Astral Devas called Astral when they spend most of their time on the Upper planes? Im sure I read a reason for this back on old PW but just humour me here 
Thu, 2006-05-18 04:25
#13
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Thu, 2006-05-18 04:55
#14
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It's the Unity of Threads at work 
Not a clue - it's just what they named em.