I vote *illithid*, because I always do.
And so do *you*.
Vote *illithid*.
You *know* it's the right way.
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Vote for your favorite or post and tell me if I forgot to list any or if I mispell any.
- 430 reads
Thu, 2005-04-28 16:23
#3
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Thu, 2005-04-28 16:27
#4
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
I see my little missive was ignored, since the illithid have only one vote, and that vote is mine. You shall all be made into urophion compost and your sun shall be darkened.
Well, except for Krypter, because gloamings are indeed quite cool. We should thrall some.
Thu, 2005-04-28 18:00
#5
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
All Glory to the Hypno-Toad! I mean, Illithid. Myconids can mind-control too, ya know.
Fri, 2005-04-29 17:05
#6
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Yes! Glory to the hypnotoad! Anyone got stats? :twisted:
Fri, 2005-04-29 22:27
#7
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Yes! Glory to the hypnotoad! Anyone got stats? :twisted:
It would probably be a regular toad that emits a charm person effect (or similar enchantment).
In 2e there was a creature called the blindheim (Monstrous Compendium Annual #4; I think it was in the 1e Fiend Folio before that) which was an Underdark-dwelling humanoid frog whose eyes were blinding spotlights. Advanced blindheims could produce a hypnotic pattern effect instead of merely blinding people.
Sat, 2005-04-30 06:51
#8
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
...Deep Imaskari...
The Deep Imaskari would likely rank as *one* of my favorite Underdark races. And this is an opinion that was formed long before they became the "next new thing" for 3e FR.
The Imaskari were, and continue to remain, a fascinating part of the Realms and its history.
Sat, 2005-04-30 07:20
#9
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Though they are vulnerable to player disresepct as they've been nicknamed "I'm-a-scarey" by my group.
Sat, 2005-04-30 09:55
#10
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
The Imaskari were, and continue to remain, a fascinating part of the Realms and its history.
They're interesting to me because, at one time, they were a planar empire. They must have left ruins on many other planes than the Material. Who inhabits their ancient palaces now? Elementals? Their own descendents? Something else?
And who else would be most likely to want to build a city of planar portals in a place where the gods couldn't interfere?
Sat, 2005-04-30 20:26
#11
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Can anyone provide some basic general information about the Genasi?
As I understand it they once inhabited the site of the Svrifneblin settlement, Blindengstone.
Sat, 2005-04-30 20:53
#12
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Genasi - much like tieflings are humanoids touched with fiendish blood in their bloodlines - genasi are touched with the blood of elementals. So a fire genasi has - somewhere a grandmother or grandfather - who is a fire elemental.
Sat, 2005-04-30 21:14
#13
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Can anyone provide some basic general information about the Genasi?
As I understand it they once inhabited the site of the Svrifneblin settlement, Blindengstone.
Those would have been earth genasi, who might be more likely than most of their partly elemental kind to live in the Underdark. There are, of course, many other earth genasi elsewhere, especially in the Elemental Plane of Earth.
Sun, 2005-05-01 07:43
#14
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
So a fire genasi has - somewhere a grandmother or grandfather - who is a fire elemental.
I thought it was that they had Genie blood. That was what I understood from the old stuff I've bought (and from the 3e FRCS, which introduced Genasi to me)
Thus a fire genasi would be have efreet parentage.
Sun, 2005-05-01 07:54
#15
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Generally it's assumed elemental from what information we have. It's possible that something with the fire subtype (like certain genie) could produce a fire touched child as well for example. But I've not run into anythign specific regarding that.
And so on-so forth for other such species. I can't think of anything that's 'earth' touched though - so where else would an earth elemental come from if not from actual elementals?
Sun, 2005-05-01 08:18
#16
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
In the Planewalker's Handbook it says that Genasi are "the descendants of the union of a human and an elemental creature (often a djinni, hence the name genasi)" It then goes on to name some example creatures- sylphs and Djinn for air, Dao for earth, Efreet or 'fire spirits' for Fire and nereid or Marid for Water. They refer to all of these things as "elemental creatures."
Besides, how in Elysium would an elemental breed? You wouldn't get any genasi, just drowned/crushed/burned would-be parents...
Sun, 2005-05-01 08:19
#17
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
The same way a dragon breeds I'd think. 
I'm not exactly gonna *ask*.
Sun, 2005-05-01 09:49
#18
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Besides, how in Elysium would an elemental breed? You wouldn't get any genasi, just drowned/crushed/burned would-be parents...
They don't breed, but you can still get half-elementals through unnatural magical rituals (see the description of the half-elemental template). It's notable that a half-elemental is basically just a more powerful genasi.
Sun, 2005-05-01 22:24
#19
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
The Imaskari were, and continue to remain, a fascinating part of the Realms and its history.
They're interesting to me because, at one time, they were a planar empire. They must have left ruins on many other planes than the Material. Who inhabits their ancient palaces now? Elementals? Their own descendents? Something else?
And who else would be most likely to want to build a city of planar portals in a place where the gods couldn't interfere?
The phaerimm... or at least, the Imaskari variety. We know that the Imaskari were well regarded as Artificers and were rabidly anti-deity.
Perhaps the Imaskari created their own phaerimm. In other words, they got some impregnated individuals, hatched a few of these critters and then used them as servitor creatures - until they rebelled against their masters.
These phaerimm then became the heirs of a small portion of the Imaskari planar empire.
Mon, 2005-05-02 14:35
#20
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Bah, I don't like all this "breeding" business. These are things of magic, not sex and biology. A dragon doesn't breed and it doesn't procreate. It's a thing of magic incarnate in its most powerful form, not a large lizard. I don't even want to imagine the scientific description of inter-species breeding in D&D. Far better to have a surreal or magical description for it. Medieval scholars were quite clever in that regard.
Just as a faery's kiss can make you "pregnant with wonder", so too a half-dragon is made by something far more mysterious than breeding. Perhaps magically stepping into the yolk of a bejewelled dragon's egg is how a half-dragon is created.
Mon, 2005-05-02 14:37
#21
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
... "pregnant with wonder" ? Ok - bad image. VERY bad image.... *scrubs out eyeballs*
Mon, 2005-05-02 14:42
#22
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Bah, I don't like all this "breeding" business. These are things of magic, not sex and biology. A dragon doesn't breed and it doesn't procreate. It's a thing of magic incarnate in its most powerful form, not a large lizard.
Hey!
I'm sure there are many a dragon that does not agree with you. After all it is well established that dragons lay eggs and mate. They certainly are not asexual.
Elementals I'll agree to your point but I will not agree to leaving out hot hot scally dragon sex!
After all, what DO they do with all those virgins sacrificed to them? Ok some do eat them and I have written up a dragon who kept his hoard in bards and musical perormers trapped in stasis but sometimes...
Just because a creature is magical does not mean they are not sexual. In fact sexuality is often a vital part of the magic in many traditions. From the celtic fey to greek and norse gods magic and sex are often part of one another.
Mon, 2005-05-02 14:45
#23
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Well I don't know what you were imagining, but I don't see anything wrong with that allusion. It's mystical.
Mon, 2005-05-02 14:54
#24
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Well I don't know what you were imagining, but I don't see anything wrong with that allusion. It's mystical.
Am I right you are thinking along similar lines as the idea in Cristianity that Marry was made pregnant with Jesus through the ear, in that Gabriel spoke to her and that word became flesh?
Mon, 2005-05-02 16:00
#25
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Dude. Gerz. No.
I'm a pervet - esp when recovering from work. I'm *not* saying what the image was.
Mon, 2005-05-02 16:41
#26
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Dude. Gerz. No.
I'm a pervet - esp when recovering from work. I'm *not* saying what the image was.
Sorry but impregnation through the ear is a common litterary idea.
There were pervs before us too and ear sex did occur to them!
Tue, 2005-05-03 00:40
#27
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
... "pregnant with wonder" ? Ok - bad image. VERY bad image.... *scrubs out eyeballs*
Hey, where do you think your namesake came from?
Tue, 2005-05-03 06:20
#28
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
An Unseelie Rusalke.
Tue, 2005-05-03 17:08
#29
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Dragons definatly are not magically bred, i think that they do have "hot steamt dragon sex" as said before, I voted for Svrifneblin, there cool, ecspasially the one who accumpanied Drizzt in Exile.
Tue, 2005-05-03 18:13
#30
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
*sigh*
D&D breeding thread - every RPG board's gotta have one ...
And to think that this was originally an innocent little topic for the illithidly-inclined among us to ego whip the rest of you into submission.
Tue, 2005-05-03 18:42
#31
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
That's what you get when you provoke psychic backlash.
Wed, 2005-05-04 05:28
#32
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
*sniggers*
...2E psionics...
*sniggers again*
Wed, 2005-05-04 08:13
#33
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Am I right you are thinking along similar lines as the idea in Cristianity that Marry was made pregnant with Jesus through the ear, in that Gabriel spoke to her and that word became flesh?
Yes, "but I think this is getting needlessly messianic."
I'm just of the opinion that a fantasy game should stress the magical and mysterious origins of creatures, rather than Grade 9 biology. It can still be sex, it just shouldn't be animal sex. Like I said, find some creative weird metaphor or process for monster reproduction, and it's more fun that way. Imagine how a chimera was first created: some godling decided to "make a new race", but hadn't figured it all out yet and simply ripped the heads of creatures and stuck them together. It was a disaster, but one that he liked and so he populated the world with them.
Another clever idea is the bolatashi that Keith Baker introduced for the Ring of Storms in Eberron (recent Dungeon article). This is a giant bloated, immobile, lizard that spews out a variety of lizardoid species continously. They in turn feed it and keep it comfortable, and worship it as their Mother-God. Much neater than simply saying "lizardoids have sex and lay eggs."
Wed, 2005-05-04 18:36
#34
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Am I right you are thinking along similar lines as the idea in Cristianity that Marry was made pregnant with Jesus through the ear, in that Gabriel spoke to her and that word became flesh?
Yes, "but I think this is getting needlessly messianic."
I'm just of the opinion that a fantasy game should stress the magical and mysterious origins of creatures, rather than Grade 9 biology. It can still be sex, it just shouldn't be animal sex. Like I said, find some creative weird metaphor or process for monster reproduction, and it's more fun that way. Imagine how a chimera was first created: some godling decided to "make a new race", but hadn't figured it all out yet and simply ripped the heads of creatures and stuck them together. It was a disaster, but one that he liked and so he populated the world with them.
Another clever idea is the bolatashi that Keith Baker introduced for the Ring of Storms in Eberron (recent Dungeon article). This is a giant bloated, immobile, lizard that spews out a variety of lizardoid species continously. They in turn feed it and keep it comfortable, and worship it as their Mother-God. Much neater than simply saying "lizardoids have sex and lay eggs."
Yeah, but that is just sometimes. For Chimera I can see that but dragons have prior history. They are known for having mates, laying eggs. They are both biological and magical creatures.
Wed, 2005-05-04 18:53
#35
Top 10 Underdark Intelligent Races!
Ok ok. I'll I'm saying is that while it is sometimes nice to have a different method of reproduction for magical beings, sex is the standard.
Sex can be a part of magic and often is an important part! It is integral in most mythologys, and as to dragons, and dragons in D&D are sexual creatures. They have male and females in the species and lay eggs, just check the MM. It is part of the setting. It doesn't make them less magical. Besides. Dragons are NOT just being of pure magic. They are creatures of magic and biology. They are powerful beings that bridge both worlds.
I vote for Gloamings (from Forgotten Realms Underdark), but they're not on the list. There are also Slyths, Deep Imaskari (very cool illustration) and Grimlocks. I don't know if kobolds, dragons and ghouls are underdark races per se.