Aeonarid

  • Radiance: Primordial
  • Aspect: Empyrean
  • Suite: Tides

Aeonarid are alchemical creations from a forgotten court of Lawgiver gods who presided over the earliest of the Primordial realms. They are ancient beyond compare, such that their deliberate design is now eroded, smoothed at the edges by the winds of time. Although they seem intelligent, the aeonarid do not communicate deliberately with anyone except one another. When they do, it is not with words but instead with a series of flashing lights that glitter across their hulking stone frames.

These old beings seem to appear out of nowhere in order to undertake some inscrutable assignment or another, and while working towards this purpose they move inexorably, past or through any obstacle they can ignore. If they can't ignore something, they will calculate a way to invalidate it or resolve it, generally seeking peaceful options before resorting to conflicts which they almost always win.

Once their purpose has been accomplished, the aeonarid do not leave. Instead, they simply fall inert where they are, awaiting their next undertaking.

Kinds

The ancient originators of the aeonarid made several kinds of these strange alchemical beings, of which there are three notable kinds.

  • Pod aeonarid are small, sphere-like creatures with four sectioned insect-like legs. Though they use these legs to walk occasionally, their main method of movement is to roll around.
  • Winged aeonarid are variants of the pod aeronarid, except they also have wings, which they prefer to use over other forms of travel. Winged aeronarid defy
  • Walking aeonarid resemble small humanoid creatures, except stocky and broad, and with no real head or face.

Binding

Finding an aeonarid's true name is only part of its binding. The next half is, of course, invoking it while the aeonarid is awakened from its time slumber: most known aeonarid simply suspend themselves outside of time when idle, and in this state they are truly beyond contact by any known force, divine or mortal.

Once bound, the aeonarid will signal its willingness to interact with the summoner through its glittering light speech. The summoner will know they have succeeded only then, because they will comprehend the lights and what they mean.

All aeonarid have individual missions to which they have been bound, and no summoner binding dissuades them from this purpose. Like little gods from before time, the aeonarid must pursue this goal, and should the summoner attempt to intervene, the aeonarid will generally simply suspend the summoner until their task has been accomplished to their satisfaction.

Occasionally an aeonarid will spontaneously realize a new task which they've been built to serve: this is a strange moment for an outsider, as the aeonarid will suddenly change with a flicker of time and light. However, for the aeonarid, it is completely natural and such evolutions and revelations are simply part of their programming: if they knew some tasks from their nascency forward, it could potentially hinder their capacity to serve. So, they learn what they must, when they must.

Evolution

As aeonarid grow and develop, they increase in size. Nascent aeonarid are simple creatures, seeming almost primitive in construction, rocky in nature. As they grow they develop a powerful array of time alchemies, which have a tangible impact on their form as they are leveraged.

Over the life of an aeonarid, they slowly transform from a rough, craglike appearance to one that is smooth and polished like a river stone. The luminous pigment of their runed surfaces remains, though, holding its identity regardless of the alchemical processing of the aeonarid's husk.

Aeonarid also heavily customize themselves as the needs present. They can cross-develop from one kind of aeonarid to another if they choose to, though this isn't very common. Almost uniformly, aeonarid install extra eyes as they grow older, with each new sensory apparatus designed to perceive new dimensions and energies. However, other things are common as well: additional torso segments, extra wings and limbs, and so on.

The three stages of evolution canonically are as follows:

  • Kereganoi, the neonatal form of an aeonarid, describes the craglike, small-bodied youth of the spirit. These are by far the most numerous of the aeonarid, and they sit suspended across the cosm awaiting their orders.
  • Kyanoi, the adult form of the aeonarid, is the most recognizable although less common form of the spirit. These medium sized creatures have, at this stage, distinct personas and are often well-known to local historians or present in myths or legends.
  • Khyranoi, the mature, titanic ancient form of aeonarid, a smooth-formed, alien thing often with dozens of eyes and limbs. Only rarely do aeonarid reach this stage, and then only through mastery of time alchemies.
Art of a paint spill by Pavel @ Unsplash