Upon perusal of Tales from the Infinite Staircase, I was introduced to the race within called the Kamarel, the scions of neutrality previous to the Rilmani. Their usage of mirror magic reminded me greatly of the Nerra and the plane of mirrors. I was wondering, has anybody done anything with this obvious connection? Are the Nerra, perhaps, enemies of the Kamarel and not pleased with these intruders into their realm of mirrors?
Of Kamarel and Nerra
Fri, 2005-07-29 22:47
#1
Of Kamarel and Nerra
Sat, 2005-07-30 16:08
#3
Of Kamarel and Nerra
I love the kamerel. IMM (In My Mythology 
) they were the first of the exemplar races to emerge after the Titanomachy; it just makes sense, y'know? They were later "defeated" by the more militant rilmani, but defeat is a relative term here since the kamerel were sufficiently xenophobic that I think they'd have ended up in the Plane of Mirrors (or something similar) regardless.
As to the nerra, it looked to be like they basically wanted to pillage Planescape without giving it credit yet again, i.e. I think the real-world answer is closest to Rip's #3. That said, I like the idea of #1 or maybe even #2, though I truthfully haven't thought about it all that much.
Sun, 2005-07-31 00:25
#4
Of Kamarel and Nerra
As to the nerra, it looked to be like they basically wanted to pillage Planescape without giving it credit yet again, i.e. I think the real-world answer is closest to Rip's #3.
Eh...actually, I very much doubt that's the case, personally. Why would they bother to change the name? It's not like they have any reason to; WotC still owns Planescape, so they have the rights to it. The compilers of the 3E monster books left the names of other Planescape creatures intact (while in some cases grotesquely distorting their flavor and abilities, but that's another matter); why would they change this one?
Personally, I think it more likely the designers of the MMII didn't even know about the kamerel. They certainly pillaged the old PS Monstrous Compendia for monsters, but the kamerel doesn't appear in any of the PSMCs or PS Monstrous Appendices--it appears only in the Tales From the Infinite Staircase adventure. And I doubt the MMII designers bothered to scour all the adventures for interesting monsters that weren't in the MCs. (There are plenty of other monsters that only appeared in a PS adventure--the hgaun, mercurial, cortelestial, Ingress, etc.--and I'm pretty sure none of them have made an appearance in 3E.) Quite likely they just independently hit on the idea of a race that lived inside mirrors--that's not all that obscure a concept, after all, and aside from that the kamerel and the nerra don't really have anything in common. (Well, they're also both neutral in alignment, of course, but there are only nine alignments to choose from--and anyway, neutral is kind of a natural alignment to choose for a creature associated with mirrors, given the mirror's reflective nature.)
None of which, of course, has any bearing whatsoever on how one chooses to define the relation of the nerra and the kamerel in their campaign (or even in Planescape as a whole), so feel free to ignore me.
Sun, 2005-07-31 00:57
#5
Of Kamarel and Nerra
Eh...actually, I very much doubt that's the case, personally. Why would they bother to change the name?
Have you seen the visilights in the MMIII? They're the monsters formally known as parai.
I mean, I agree with you generally, but there is that precedent. Also magmen ---> magmin, arcane ---> mercane, and the dropping of the "s" from asuras and manes, but those're minor and less inexplicable.
Some theorize that the klurichir demon from the Fiend Folio is intended to be the new version of the molydeus, but I'm not certain. It could be that when they completely redesign a creature, they automatically change its name, as when the shiere eladrin became the shiradi (but we can counter that argument with the water weird).
(There are plenty of other monsters that only appeared in a PS adventure--the hgaun, mercurial, cortelestial, Ingress, etc.
Not to be needlessly argumentative, but the mercurial was in the Monstrous Compendium Annual, Volume IV, with a beautiful Adam Rex illustration.
Sun, 2005-07-31 01:31
#6
Of Kamarel and Nerra
Don't forget Balaena -> Elsewhale and Nic'Epona -> Ur'Epona. There are others too but I don't remember them offhand. Check the MC thread on the Wizards' Planescape board; among its many highlights is the fact that they've tracked the renamings (all of which were completely unnecessary IMO except perhaps as rebranding).
Sun, 2005-07-31 01:44
#7
Of Kamarel and Nerra
Have you seen the visilights in the MMIII? They're the monsters formally known as parai.
Actually, I haven't...don't have the MMIII yet. My recent finances have precluded my keeping up with the latest D&D books as well as I'd have liked. (The minor changes you mentioned, magman->magmin, etc., I did know about, but, as you say, they're minor.)
Not to be needlessly argumentative, but the mercurial was in the Monstrous Compendium Annual, Volume IV, with a beautiful Adam Rex illustration.
Ah, yes, you're right; okay, that I did know, but had forgotten. (And no need to worry about being needlessly argumentative...it's not as if I'm not arguing unimportant minutiae myself. )
(As for the water weird...that one really annoys and sort of baffles me. The water weird was a classic D&D monster that had been around since the days of Basic D&D, and in 3E they used the name for an entirely different monster!? Why!?)
Anyway, I retract the point about there being no reason for renaming, but I still really don't think the nerra are renamed kamerel. My other points still stand: the nerra and the kamerel have nothing in common besides the fact they live in mirrors, and since the kamerel only appeared in a single PS adventure I doubt the MSII designers were even aware of them.
Sun, 2005-07-31 09:06
#8
Of Kamarel and Nerra
Other oddnesses...
Dhour -> Ethereal Ooze
Merkhant -> Alliance Merchant
Shadowdrake -> Planar Dragon, Styx
Sunfly -> Swarm, Divine Wrath
Sword Spirit -> Ragewind
Fundamental -> Elementite Swarm
Menglis -> Unraveler
Those seem to be the bulk of them.
Sun, 2005-07-31 23:01
#9
Of Kamarel and Nerra
Dhour -> Ethereal Ooze
This one seems a bit of a stretch. Ethereal oozes are just gelatinous cubes that haunt the Border Ethereal. They lack the psionic abilities that distinguish the dhour. Dhours aren't even oozes, really - the fact that they have 3-lobed brains instead of diffuse nervous systems means they're aberrations.
However, the dhour itself seems to be a renamed and reworked version of the "devourer" from an early issue of Dragon Magazine - blob-like creatures that were intended to be the other side of bags of devouring.
Alliance Merchant
What book are they from?
Sun, 2005-07-31 23:52
#10
Of Kamarel and Nerra
Actually, if we're quibbling, I'd also say "Sunfly -> Swarm, Divine Wrath" doesn't qualify as a renaming. Sunflies are still called sunflies; they're just swarming creatures now. They haven't been renamed "divine wrath swarms"; they're just one kind of divine wrath swarm. I'm not necessarily fond of the way sunflies have been changed, but they certainly haven't been renamed.
And technically, "styx dragons" was given as an alternate name of the shadowdrake in the PSMC2, so this isn't exactly a renaming, just a different name preference.
(As for Sword Spirit -> Ragewind...this one, at least, I can actually see a very good reason for, though I doubt it's the reason the designers had in mind. There were actually two unrelated creatures called sword spirits in PS2E...the Acherontian sword spirit and a kind of undead githyanki. I doubt this is the reason the sword spirit was renamed; it's probably just coincidental; but at least in this case I can see the new name as an improvement.)
Not that any of this really matters; as I said, I concede the point that there have been some needless renamings. I just don't think everything on that list qualifies as an example.
[Edited because I realized in the first paragraph I'd typoed "divine wrath storms" instead of "divine wrath swarms"]
Oh, yes. There was quite a bit of discussion (I think in the Pits of Evil) when Fiend Folio first came out.
Some possibilities:
1. Maybe the kamarel created the nerra to be their agents outside Mirror, so that they wouldn't have to interact with unbalanced creatures directly.
2. Maybe the kamarel evolved into the nerra (at least, in some constellations).
3. Maybe the kamarel were always the nerra, retroactively.
4. Maybe the nerras created the kamarel, at the beginning of time.
5. Maybe the nerras evolved on their own, and wiped most of the kamarel out. Or maybe they're currently at war, and for the first time in their history the kamarel are considering alliances in order to survive.
6. Maybe they're two different kinds of mirror planes, and the two races have nothing to do with one another (boring option).