"Masters of the Ethereal-The Ethergaunts"
The Masters of the Ethereal
An examination of the Khen-Zai, called by mortals Ethergaunts
It steps out of seeping gray mists, a tall twisted and gaunt figure wearing a strange bisected mask. Vision twists and the mind rebels as everything seems horrendously wrong. Even as you try to fixate yourself on this strange thing something terrible happens.
Tendrils creep out from behind that mask and you suddenly feel them touch not your flesh, but the boundaries of your mind. They slither along the edges of being, a probing, deliberate touch that scrapes and seems to want to drive you raving and insensate. Your own mind reacts, trying to throw the tendrils away, only to find they move faster than your thoughts, and they seem to predict your every motion. Mentally you struggle to drive off that horrible probing touch, that penetrating visceral sensation that will not leave you alone.
Soon you are gasping and exhausted, your mind is unable to move, to strike, and yet those tendrils continue their examination as you struggle to make any clear thoughts form. Dimly there is the realization that the probing has been systematic, the edges of your mind have yielded a complete map of their borders.
A single instant has passed, but your muscles have forgotten the meaning of movement, all is frozen. With a silence the nevertheless rings like the loudest of all bells that mask appears in front of your consciousness, two disjointed and impossible halves merged into one single creation. Like the windy lashes of a storm those tendrils whip forth from behind the mask, endless in number. They are sharper than the cruelest thought, and they cut open all the bonds of your consciousness, merciless razors. You defenses rip and leak, sieve-like. Perceptions fade until there is only the mask and the tendrils. Beyond that- Void. True emptiness that the weakened mind cannot grasp.
You do not fight, but flee, consciousness running down the dim halls and dark corridors of this conscious existence. In terror the closed doors of the past are ripped open and sealed memories unleashed only to be blown aside by the terrible, alien, fear, which consumes them, an all-devouring gray mist that closes in forever.
Still they follow, the inescapable tendrils, even as they systematically cut apart all walls and take all crossroads in the barren mapping of the mind. Control is seized progressively in a beauteous and perfect pattern of dominance. The core of the mind, controlled by a fear that is the only thing is remembers, has only one place to run.
It leaps blindly into the dark void, abandoning body, spirit, memory, and all other aspects of the self, retaining only the basest, banal impulses and the core that it is. This it seals in the darkness with the impenetrable wall of unreasoning terror, a solidified scream that no trickery will remove or cutter will pierce.
The rest is nothing but an empty puppet now, but the tendrils probe that dark box of terror and cannot reach within. The remnants of the mind dare to hope for an eternal moment that they will be preserved.
Then the mask opens.
It splits down the middle, uneven and yet balanced, one half flowing up, and the other down. Behind that-.
Madness.
Walls of terror shatter as the mind breaks into pieces and some precious part of the consciousness shrivels up and blackens, taken by the cancer of that alien morass that defies the meaning of the word "face."
The tendrils slice in, excising the damage. They grasp the rest of the mind fully, gathering up the broken pieces and reassembling them, not releasing any pieces.
The enslavement is complete.
-Extracted from a Sensorium that recorded the process of becoming an Ethergaunt thrall. The Sensorium was banned from use due to persistent mental damage accrued by all who viewed it.
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"Basics"
A Necessary Examination
I'm certain most of our readers are familiar with the notable great planar evils, the fiends, the Efreet, the Dao, the evil Archomentals, and so on. Some of the more educated are probably aware of slightly less noticeable threats, the Illithids, the Drow, the Sarkirith, and such creatures. However, it is likely a rare soul among you who has heard of the Ethergaunts, properly called the Khen-Zai.
So, why did we write a book on such obscure creatures? Well, there are several reasons: one was to simply part the darkness of ignorance, but curiosity didn't carry us all that far with this project, a love of knowledge overcomes only so much danger. No, we did this because even if you haven't heard of Ethergaunts yet, you probably will soon. IN fact, a lot more people would no about them except that so few who encounter them actually survive to tell anyone. Finally, the multiverse has dealt with threats such as the fiends for countless ages, but the Ethergaunts for only a few centuries at best, and in truth they have only really begun to act in the past two decades. Soon the multiverse will need to know everything it can about the Ethergaunts and we are presenting this now, hoping desperately that it is not too late.
This document represents a team of skilled researchers who have spent the majority of the five years since the 'Faction War' trying to learn everything they can about Ethergaunts. It's not everything certainly, and a good deal of this information may be incomplete or untrue. It is everything we could do though, and it may be the only stopgap available for some time.
The Very Basics
Before we launch into a thorough examination I will outline what an Ethergaunt is. They are a tall, semi-humanoid species found primarily on the Ethereal Plane. Their race is organized into specialized castes, but even the least member is tremendously brilliant. They wield a mastery of magic and strange, technological devices, and combine this power with an emotionless, atheistic, and coldly reasoning philosophy that places essentially no value whatsoever on the existence of all other life. They are presently beginning a campaign of genocide focused on the Prime Material.
A Word to Arrogant Cagers
I'm quite certain that many readers immediately dismissed the Ethergaunts as "a problem for the clueless" upon reading the previous sentence. I urge you strongly to look past your shortsighted viewpoint if that is what you are thinking and read on. The emergence of the Ethergaunts is quite possibly the greatest shift in the balance of Planar power in over five hundred years. Yes, that means I rationally consider this far more important than your 'Faction War' or any number of Outer Planar calamities, and I have research to back that statement up if need be. The Ethergaunts are going to change the Ethereal in very significant ways, if they have not done so already. All planes are linked, and the Ethereal is the potential of all that can come to be. If that potential is changed the future of the multiverse will be rewritten.
Acknowledgements
This text was published by Pebbleskin Printers in Slaan (that is on the Paraelemental Plane of Smoke for the uniformed), and research and printing efforts were financed by generous grants from the Etherfarer Society, the Kreenplane nations, and the Elder Concord of Yuhnmoag (yes, we did get financial backing from the Illithids, the reason for that will become clear later). Additionally, without the generous disbursement of powerful divine magic by the priesthood of Lao Tzu there would be great gaps in the material of this text.
This work was not assembled alone, while myself and my friends among the Tome Trackers served as editors most of the actual writing was done by others. While there were a very large number of researchers the most prominent authors included: Chiret, an Etherfarer and Nathri explorer with a keen eye and cutting observations, though as a Sinker he can be distressingly morose in tone, Ehir'Siisliach, possibly the most important single source, an illithid who actually lived among Ethergaunts for several years (as an enslaved thrall). Though its honesty was compelled by magic there is the possibility that some of what the Illithid says was deliberate Ethergaunt disinformation. Alni Swirlsen, a Steam Genasi and one of my fellow Tome Trackers, was also a key research, collating and researching a tremendous amount of historical and logistical information and discovering many key connections. Finally, an Abiorach Rilmani known only as Lexillo contributed some genuinely disturbing data. The validity of this material is highly suspect, and only the barest portions of it have been corroborated, but I made the decision to include it anyway. As a reader you will have to make your own choice about those segments.
A Note about Gender Reference
Properly speaking all Ethergaunts are asexual in nature, and therefore should be referred to as 'it.' However, only Ehir'Sisliach chooses to do this, other authors have taken to calling them 'he' for convenience, and also because to many Ethergaunts seem to be irrevocably male. Lexillo does not refer to any Ethergaunts with personal pronouns at all, but repeatedly uses "a Khen-Zai" as his prototypical reference. Regardless of correctness we have chosen to leave this choice up to the authors, as it is an important revelation regarding their views on the Ethergaunts.
One Final Word of Caution
While I have already explained that much of the information in this book is suspect, I should also not that it could be dangerous to know. While the Ethergaunts are certainly aaware of this publication and have not yet reacted, they could do so at any time. It cannot be guessed what form their reaction might take. So, examine the contents of this text at your own peril. Remember though, in the Ethereal, knowing this information could mean your death, but it also could easily save you life.
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"History and Origins"
The Origin of the Khen-Zai
Alni Swirlsen
I have maintained a keen interest in the Khen-Zai (Khen-Zai is the name by which Ethergaunts refer to themselves, Swirlsen dislikes referring to them by what she calls the 'common' name-The Editors) since the days when I worked as a cataloguer for the Etherfarer society. Any report in which the Khen-Zai received mention was sad and depressing, but often also fascinating. Such a strange combination intruiged me, so I began to examine the available data on the Khen-Zai all those years ago.
Most of the data on the origination and past of the Khen-Zai, and the goals of the species in the present day come from two sources, ancient tomes and the reports of modern etherfarers. Most such data is fragmentary, but I have put together some very reasonable theories from it.
Retreat into the Mists
It is well established that the Khen-Zai are not native to the Ethereal Plane. Instead they are like the Githyanki, prime material migrants who have resided there for an extraordinary amount of time. Though, that does not mean that Khen-Zai are not considered to be Ethereal natives for magical and other purposes, their current forms are distinctively native to the Ethereal, and they may be considered natives of the plane.
The best working date for the arrival of the Khen-Zai in the Ethereal is approximately twelve thousand years ago. Both Aviaster's The Legends of the Nathri and Mecor Tsim's An Examination of the Rise and Fall of the Xill indicate great disturbances by "tall, thin terrors who wield the powers of destruction" rocked the Ethereal during this era. This seems likely to represent the arrival of the Khen-Zai, though it seems certain that they possessed a significantly different form then than they do today.
Of course, this arrival so long ago begs the questions of what the Khen-Zai were at the time, why they retreated to the Ethereal, and what they have been doing since then. A thorough examination of all available sources reveals no references to any race of the name Khen-Zai prior to the emergence of the modern 'Ethergaunts.' However, there is a tantalizing possibility.
The runes Ke and Zare, taken from the written script of a now dead prime world blame 'Ke Zare' for leaving them to die at the hands of the Clockwork Horrors (for readers unfamiliar with clockwork horrors, they are a race of mechanical quasi-spiders that exterminates and consumes entire worlds -The Editors). While the translation of that script are of necessity incomplete due to a lack of context, the word Ke Zare can be roughly translated as 'Force Lords' and may be applicable to the current Khen-Zai, though unfortunately there is no example of written text to determine if there may be a similar rune structure to the two names. While this may seem like a thin possibility there is some corroborating evidence from the same world that the Ke Zare were responsible for the creation of the Clockwork Horrors in the first place.
The period twelve thousand years ago is significant because it marks the emergence of the Clockwork Horrors as a scourge throughout the known expanse of the Prime Material, and also the emergence of the Elven Nations as a dominant power in the Prime. While legend has long asserted that the Clockwork Horrors destroyed their own creators, mechanized creatures with little or no planar knowledge could easily confuse a mass retreat to the Ethereal with abject destruction, and the possibility that the 'destroyed by their creations' legend was propagated as a cautionary tale with little grounding in fact must not be ignored. Legend does assert that the creators of the Clockwork Horrors were supposedly tall, thin humanoids that were extraordinarily talented artificers. While I must admit that this theory cannot be confirmed, the possibility that the Khen-Zai created the Clockwork Horrors and then left the material plane expecting it to be slowly annihilated behind them are quite possible, and the implications are terrifying.
With the possible exception of their relationship to the Prime Material's most terrifying mechanical scourge, whatever the Khen-Zai once where has little bearing on what they now are. For over twelve-thousand years the Khen-Zai did nothing but evolve their forms, powers, and philosophies to the their current heights, unwatched by all. At least, that must be assumed. There are no records or encounters with Khen-Zai in any form until five hundred years ago. Even the Xill and the Nathri, the two most prevalent sentient Ethereal races, can reveal nothing of the Khen-Zai's activities during this time. In fact, the rapid reemergence of the Khen-Zai has shocked these races terribly. It appears that they were able to hide themselves completely from the rest of the multiverse for thousands of years until they finally chose to emerge.
Modern Reemergence
The Earliest records of what might have been the Khen-Zai appear some five hundred years ago. These were instances of observation by Ethereal Vessels and marks of visitations by a small number of settlements. Reports are fragmentary, but it now appears that the very first Khen-Zai scouts, all of whom were Reds, began their examination of the rest of civilization at that time. There was no real response to these visits, and the Khen-Zai took no actions themselves except to observe. Their enclaves and dwellings remained obscured at this time, and other than the Reds, no other caste was seen.
Reemergence truly began about three hundred and fifty years in the past. At this time small numbers of Khen-Zai filtered into sites throughout the Inner Planes and the Ethereal. They likely appeared in the Prime Material as well, but any such sites they visited then no longer exist now, so there are no records to show what may have happened there. This was the advance guard of the Khen-Zai, a systematic examination of the state of other races, often accompanied by manipulative efforts to make later schemes easier (at least that is the presumed motive for many of their actions). Some of these individuals (and they were almost universally single operators) are still in place. Their numbers are quite small, thousands of people can easily be monitored and manipulated by a single Khen-Zai, but many consider their presence to be extensive. While additional surveys have continued up until the present, it is these permanent monitoring Khen-Zai, mostly Reds but with a few Whites, who form the majority of the Khen-Zai encountered on the Inner Planes.
Reaction to these observer/manipulator Khen-Zai was and is mixed. The first glimpse of them revealed both great power and great arrogance. It also quickly became apparent that given the opportunity a single one could achieve control over a whole community if it desired to do so. Anger managed to force many of these initial probes away, but the Khen-Zai were often able to cripple a town even while its citizens rebelled. Other locations have learned to live with a Khen-Zai presence, or at least regular visits. It is unclear just what the price might be for such arrangements. Lone Khen-Zai often appear to have different motives than the rest of the race, but it is believed this is primarily an affectation, and that these scouts serve some vital purpose for the rest of the race, otherwise they would not waste the resources.
Though there have been some three centuries of scattered Khen-Zai presence throughout the Ethereal and Inner planes it has only been in the past two to three decades that the true scope of the Khen-Zai became visible to others and the plan of the race was revealed. It was a this time that their pyramidal enclaves became known and were first encountered by Etherfarers and Nathri, often with great shock as they were startlingly near many long established settlements and demiplanes. Parties of Khen-Zai began to move through the Ethereal, others journeyed the Inner Planes, pursuing unknown agendas. Most strikingly, and of greatest concern to all, however, has been the beginning of the reclamation of the Prime.
Considering the mortal races and other prime residents to be like some terrible viral infection that is polluting the homeland they abandoned the Khen-Zai have taken it upon themselves to cleanse the Material Plane. The vast majority of their race has begun a genocidal campaign that lays absolute waste to anything it encounters. Their first targets are always religious devotion, something that their philosophy considers alien and unnecessarily threatening. Following that, they engage in permanent destruction. There is a slow and massive drive behind the movement, and it is assumed that the Khen-Zai did not simply act at random in beginning their campaign at this time. It is possible that the rapidly growing numbers of planewalkers in the Ethereal and Inner Planes stirred things up enough to convince them to drop their hiding, but it seems far more likely that the Etherguants highest and most intelligent members came to the conclusion that their moment had come. The almost complete inability of anyone to successfully oppose their campaign must be considered evidence of this.
At present the situation is in a state of flux (which is why we wrote the book now-The Eidtors), the Khen-Zai are well on their way to completely dismantling several Crystal Spheres. They also appear to have undertaken a campaign to rapidly increase their numbers through reproduction, which will be elaborated on later. Beyond this they continue to gather hordes of slaves and develop their destructive technologies. It is quite possible that if they are not stopped soon their position will soon become invulnerable.
Dark Goals
The Khen-Zai are very open about their goals as a race, often even taking the time to inform those they meet randomly of them. This of course doesn't make their goals any more pleasant to contemplate, or any easier to deal with. After all, even the fiends do not come forward and say that they intend complete and total genocide and the death of religious belief in every aspect of reality. The Khen-Zai are more than willing to state this clearly, in fact a common way for them to begin conversations is to remark upon the imminent demise of the one they are speaking to.
This openness about their intent to exterminate the life forms of the material plane is highly illustrative of two aspects of Khen-Zai thought. One is their complete disregard for the value and feelings of others, and the other is their great confidence in their reasoning. Again, unlike the fiends, many of who keep fighting the Blood War because they somehow must, even if they expect it is ultimately futile, the Khen-Zai have every confidence that they can and will exterminate all life on the material plane, and that the opposition of the residents will not make any difference whatsoever.
It may sound like idiotic arrogance to actually believe something like this, much less to go around telling everyone of it, but the Khen-Zai are never idiotic, indeed, they are far smarter than most humans can even comprehend. Their conclusions are reasoned out to unearthly perfection, if they believe they can accomplish this, they have good cause to believe it. You should determine quickly why we are so concerned about them.
Interestingly, the openness about their goals has not lost the Khen-Zai any allies, many members of those races they are willing to consider of some value at all (it's a short list, you'll see-The Editors) are more than willing to work with them. See, they known that the Khen-Zai will eventually try to dispose of them, but they figure that they already know the worst and that makes them less shifty than the fiends. Unfortunately, the Khen-Zai seem to always get the better of such 'allies' anyways.
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"Forms"
The Forms of the Ethergaunts
Ehir'Sisliach
Whatever you think you know is wrong, that is the first consideration to be made when dealing with these terrible creatures. All the base axioms of the multiverse seem to be willingly and willfully violated by them. The masters become the thralls and the beginning becomes the end. To all you worthless races who have forced these words from me with banal magic know that even now I fear the Etherguants more than those who this minute hold me in their power, against them, you could not terrify me anymore, not even the undead make me fear they way they do. I have stopped resisting your probes in the frail attempt that this information will allow the thrall races (No matter what we attempted, Ehir'Sisliach always referred to other races collectively as 'the thrall races' it appears to be hard wired into his illithid brain, notice that he does not ever refer to the Ethergaunts this way-The Editors) the tools they need to throw their bodies against the Ethergaunts until such a time as my race might sweep them away entirely.
There are five kinds of Ethergaunt, five and only five. This violates the multiversal rule of threes that so many thrall races swear by and even my kind acknowledges as a potent probabilistic anomaly. Yet the Ethergaunts have divided their race into five castes. This is arbitrary, they could easily have more differentiation, but they have chosen only five castes. Why they have deliberately acted against the rule of Three I dare not guess. The five-caste system likewise violates the Unity of Rings. Three of their castes have a distinct color gradient, but the other two castes do not, forming disunity that does not complete the circle. As for the third noted axiom, the Center of All, there is no center to an Ethergaunt's body neither heart nor head is their focal point, and their race has no central defining feature, but a myriad of strange characters, some unique and some not unique.
Regardless of the strange purpose behind the numbers, colors, and form of the five castes this system is absolute among the Ethergaunts. Each caste has a specific set of purposes in the society of the Ethergaunts, corresponding to their level of reasoned dispassion, and a specific place in the genocidal machine that threatens both Illithid and thrall like nothing save the undead. An Ethergaunt is assigned a caste at birth by due deliberation from the highest caste upon the achievements of its ancestors, and can never change its caste. The Black ethergaunts who make these decisions reason based on the evidence made available by gray and white ethergaunts who track the progress of each being through its life. An ethergaunt cannot have any ambition for itself, since it may never advance, but it may serve well enough that its offspring is placed in a higher caste.
The five castes of the Ethergaunts are, in order of their power in decreasing numbers, Red, Blue, White, Gray, and Black. Those outside the Ethergaunt enclaves very rarely see the Blue and Gray castes, but they are no less important than any other caste.
Red Ethergaunts
Among the thrall races it is the Red caste that is most commonly thought of as Ethergaunts. These are actually the least 'gaunt' of any caste, with limbs that appear slightly more sturdy, and a greater physical strength. Indeed, while all Ethergaunts are actually slightly stronger than a human thrall, Red Ethergaunts are significantly so. It is the duty of the Reds to interact with all other races in the sole important was for their race's purposes, as destroyers. Scientists, explorers, and soldiers, this is the lowliest and most numerous of the castes.
Lowliest and most numerous though they may be a Red Ethergaunt is still, though I disdain to admit this, significantly more intelligent and powerful than even a true illithid. Compared to the thrall races only the most brilliant and potent of your 'wizards' can match the raw power of a Red's mind. Among the fiends only the very mightiest, Pit Fiends and Balors alone, can match them. Do you understand this, thralls, the power of the mind is the greatest of powers, and even the weakest of Ethergaunts is as strong here as the strongest fiends.
For all their mental prowess, and the magical skill that follows from it, Reds are still considered only a step above worthless by their superiors (their superiors consider non-ethergaunts less relevant than we consider mites-The Editors). They retain some of the passions of life in their minds, a great weakness among the society of the Ethergaunts, which follows a progression toward perfect reason. Still vulnerable to being swept away in the force of emotion many Reds pursue their war against the thrall races and others, including my kind with a foolish relish. They view others as some barbaric viral disease that should have long ago been eliminated from the worlds they left. Now they feel they must act as cleansers and exterminators.
Despite their preoccupations the Reds are mindful of their purposes. They ruthlessly catalogue and record all that they encounter to expand their race's knowledge to reality. In science they are quite adept at refining mystic enchantments and strange devices toward perfection, and would likely be good inventors if higher castes trusted them with such things. I am thankful that they do not; the Ethergaunts need no more terrible devices. The Reds retrieve enough findings, theories, and samples for the higher castes to use to provide them with almost limitless possibilities.
Ultimately every Red seeks through its thoughts and deeds to demonstrate that it has furthered the goals of the race and may have its offspring chosen for a higher caste. While it is likely difficult for thralls to understand this, the Red's desire for the offspring's benefit is not what you would term ambition, but a clearly reasoned and rational method to continue the progression toward ultimate, objective rationality.
Blue Ethergaunts
Second least known among the castes, the Blues lie between the Red and White. This caste is less known among the thralls for a simple reason, their purpose provides for little reason to interact with others. The Blues are builders, crafters, experimenters, and harvesters of resources. Blues maintain and advance the structures of Ethergaunt society under the oversight of the Whites.
Though they have purged their minds of passions the Blue caste is still vulnerable to irrational obsessions. Their objectivity is imperfectly preserved. This weakness means that though they are more intelligent and powerful than the Reds, Blues are still servants and not masters. Though a Blue lords its station over a Red mercilessly it will rarely have the authority to actually give any orders to the lesser caste. Instead Blues function mostly with the other members of their caste.
In the presence of a White Blues are carefully deferential, though they sometimes harbor doubts about the ability of the caste above them and why they should not rule the Reds. Such doubts are extremely rare among the Blues, and even rarer are they allowed to become anything other than glimmers in the back of a Blue's mind, for if it should show the slightest deviation from obeying the order of the caste society any Ethergaunt is immediately set upon by the Blacks and utterly destroyed.
As builders and crafters Blues are responsible for most Ethergaunt enclaves, the actual making of their most common devices such as Etherblades, Doubt Bombs, and Enslavement Bands, and the construction of the strange citadels Ethergaunts leave behind in areas of the Material plane they have laid waste to. Blues rarely encounter living thralls other than slaves simply because they rarely leave the enclaves on the Ethereal and on the Material only take possession of areas where all the mortals are dead. However, foolish thralls who think they can counterattack against unprepared Blues must recognize that this caste is even more intelligent than the Reds. Blues consider all thralls to be little more than simplistic machines that happen to possess free will, but can easily be replaced. They are not weak or cowardly, and are more than willing to act directly in the genocidal campaigns of their race should it become necessary. They are neither cowardly nor inexperienced in battle; they simply dislike dealing with disturbances to their appointed tasks. As such many blues are decidedly skilled at 'extermination methods.'
White Ethergaunts have a decidedly higher opinion of Blues than Reds, and dislike risking members of the caste excessively, knowing that they can contribute more to the race's efforts when not directly involved in combat, so thralls will only likely encounter them in Ethergaunt enclaves or in large groups, at which point survival of any foolish enough not immediately submit to enslavement is a non-possibility. However, recently I have been informed that some Blue ethergaunts have taken to pursuing private projects and may be found wandering the planes alone. These researches must be of great importance to the Blue caste for them to act so openly.
Like Reds the Blue caste each hopes to further their race by accomplishing enough to have an offspring chosen for a higher caste. It is more common for a Blue to focus its efforts on technological manufacture and the balanced pursuit of different discoveries than on demonstrated dispassionate battle skill. It is apparently difficult even for creatures whose intelligence matches that of a Balor or Pit Fiend to divorce themselves from all irrational obsessions and unreasoned focuses, but this is the goal of the Blue caste.
White Ethergaunts
The bureaucratic middlemen who pass down the dictates from above onto the numerous lowly masses, and who organize the great campaigns of the race out of directives formulated by the godly minds that surpass them, these are the Whites. Scholars, philosophers, and diplomats, it is the White caste that translates the arcane and almost incomprehensible plans of the two castes above them into something for the lower castes and the legions of Ethergaunt slaves to do. It is they who organize and lead the genocide, choosing targets by the threat they present to the whole species, and attempting always to minimize the resource loss. This is partly an attempt to save as many of their race as possible, but also to conserve other resources that even one so wise as I cannot always understand. You thralls could not possibly comprehend what these creatures value.
The White caste operates in the middle of the society of the whole race. It is a white's task to comprehend the castes above and govern the castes below them. They rule and command both Blues and Reds, often organizing them into large numbers to accomplish the aims of the race. Whites are consummate manipulators, who must act with as little emotion as possible, purging every last vestige of contaminating biological impulse from their minds so that every action is completely reasoned and unremittingly rational. You thralls might consider an Ethergaunt's 'rationality' madness, such as when they request that a race accept complete destruction without resisting to preserve the existence of some mindless insect within their domain. However, the Whites often successfully convince many races to accede to their demands through a combination of reason and raw power. For these are mighty Ethergaunts, who wield more magic than all but the strongest wizards among you thralls and have an intelligence matched only by the very eldest of the gold and silver dragons. A White can read minds by looking at them, and at a moment's glance learn the key truths of a beings identity. It is whispered among fiends that have been presence on worlds Ethergaunts attack that a White Ethergaunt can learn a true name from only a few sentences of conversation with another.
To a White Ethergaunt the Red and Blue castes are worthless pawns, suited only to the meager duties their fettered minds can accomplish. However, when they consider these castes so far beneath them their opinion of you thralls races cannot even be entered into your scale of contempt. Despite this contempt, whites have no difficulty addressing creatures whose demise they consider ensured, and indeed they manipulate such creatures with extreme ease even while they openly claim that they will destroy them at a whim. Accordingly, the Whites do not have whims.
Philosophically the Whites are deeply committed to the Ethergaunt doctrine of perfect reason and absolute atheism. With their intelligence so great it is a rare being who can claim to be greater is mental prowess than they, and so their contempt for the belief in 'higher beings' is extreme. Therefore they intend to insure the absolute destruction of religious faith, and recognize that any apparent 'abandonment by the gods' is a powerful weapon in the destruction of the races of the Material plane. Whites are also scholarly, cataloguing the explorations of the Reds and discoveries of the Blues, and divining explanations for them. It is from these reports that the Gray and Black castes determine the direction of the whole race.
The goals of a White are different from those of the castes beneath it. It recognizes that producing a greater offspring is a transient goal, and that only permanent philosophical victories are important. They value ideas above lives and work to see the triumph of their reasoning and the destruction of the corruption of emotion. Sometimes Whites see themselves as better suited to this task than the Grays and Blacks who stand above them, this irrational impulse is confined to only a bare few of the most ambitious Whites, usually those who have been fighting you thralls for too long and been corrupted by it. The Black caste immediately crushes all such irrationality when it is invariably detected, and has taken steps to prevent it arising from contact with the corrupting thrall races that always seem to disadvantage the intelligent.
Gray Ethergaunts
Even compared to the nearly unknown Blues the Gray caste is shrouded in mystery and secrecy. Few thralls have ever met them, fewer still have survived those meetings, as the Grays have no interest in the lesser races, considering them philosophically irrelevant. A Gray has mastered complete purity of emotion, moving beyond the skills of the Whites, but it does not possess the perfect and total clarity of reason that guides the Black caste. It is their goal to crystallize their philosophical standing and act with perfect reason. Grays obey Blacks absolutely, but only involve themselves indirectly with the lower castes, considering even the Whites to be a corrupting and distracting influence they are not prepared to withstand unless to some essential purpose. You thralls will likely be disheartened to know that your destruction (and his own race's, though he's too proud to admit it even now-The Editors) is considered an essential purpose. Normally less aggressive than the other castes, Grays do not hesitate to silence, 'irrelevant data' as they consider almost anything not an Ethergaunt.
Among the Ethergaunts Grays serve as mystical masters for their race, with a skill that almost matches the Black caste and leaves all but the greatest archmages outmatched. They also work as technologists and predictors, applying the reasoned philosophy of the race to the whole multiverse as if it were some all-powerful science. Frightfully, this method is often successful. Their work is intended to empower the race as a whole so that all Ethergaunts may eventually achieve the level of perfection personified by the Black Ethergaunts. Grays are even more devoted to their philosophy than the Blacks, and never rebel against the order and often serve as the judges of irrationality beneath them. They are particularly atheistic, for their great intelligence, which is surpassed only by Great Wyrm Gold and Silver dragons, creatures so rare as to be only legends on many worlds, leaves little possibility of gods. Indeed, even I have difficulty considering what god could have empowered creatures to such heights of intelligence as these, so far above the perfect Illithids. Even our beloved Elder Brains only barely match the intelligence of a single Gray Ethergaunt (to put this in perspective, an elder brain is the accumulated wisdom of centuries of lives by universally brilliant illithids, and yet a single Gray Ethergaunt matches such a creature from birth, and may often rise far past this-The Editors).
The Gray caste is the strongest supporter of the crusade to destroy divine power, considering that even if gods do exist they are foolish creations of the deranged minds of thrall races that do not recognize their own insanity and should be eliminated. Many Grays pursue a way to remove gods from existence (As planars we know that gods can die should all their worshippers fall. As the Ethergaunt genocide continues it is not inconceivable that they will slay several gods, another reason behind the importance of this text-The Editors). Though I doubt they will succeed so simply, these creatures, far more intelligent than I, believe it possible.
It is extremely rare for a thrall to encounter a Gray; they are few in number and almost never leave Ethergaunt enclaves. Small numbers have been dispatched to the outposts Ethergaunts have recently established on the material and Inner planes, and should one of these be threatened a Gray might emerge. Grays will brush aside most threats offhandedly, and this results in the permanent enslavement or destruction of almost all who encounter them.
Black Ethergaunts
I am hesitant to speak of the last caste of the Ethergaunts. There is little I can say about them, for they are beyond almost all measurement. Equal in might to the greatest of archmagi, brilliant beyond the scope of even great wyrms or elder brains, and considered to be the pinnacle of the ethergaunt philosophy of perfect objective rationality in reason, what can be discussed of them? I fear them, I fear what they represent, a step toward a being that even I must admit may be closer to perfection than the illithid. It is, it is, inconceivable that this should be so! (At this point Ehir'Sisliach went through the illithid equivalent of breaking down and crying, a very strange phenomenon I might add. It continued only much later and with great magical prodding, and the most powerful ward against fear the High priest of Lao Tzu could weave-The Editors).
A Black is lord of all it surveys, all other castes bow before it and it may distribute them or order their deaths as it sees fit. A Black comes the closest thing to being a god among the Ethergaunts, idolized as the pinnacle of development that has currently been reached by their race. Yet, I believe that each black knows that it is not perfect, and it yearns for greater heights of power. Indeed, few Blacks are content with the powers they are born to. They ruthlessly dominate the castes below them, and claim as thralls the most powerful of the mortal races that they can. It was they who formulated the philosophy that the mortal world must be cleansed and religion devotion must be exterminated, and it is these hyper-intelligent beings that have collectively debated and decided that it will be so.
Many mortals have claimed, assuming they have survived meeting a Black Ethergaunt, and few have, that the Blacks are not devoid of emotion, but have many selfish emotions such as greed, and hubris. This is not the case, a Black does not know emotion save as a foreign corruption, something it easily purges from itself. While their actions may seem emotional to thralls, that is because their mind cannot be contemplated from this viewpoint. A Black has ascended to perfect heights of reason, and yet it knows it can progress beyond this, and it will, through the attainment of greater material presence and the accomplishment of its goals. It does not wish, it makes so.
Any non-ethergaunt that encounters a Black and survives has been charted for some purpose for the race as a whole. The Blacks will not be defeated in battle, and even if faced with a vastly greater power they will gather together enough strength to overcome any challenge, though it is an extraordinary creature or creatures that can challenge a lack and its slaves and servants to begin with. Blacks recognize no value to a non-ethergaunt, and only the slightest use for their subordinates, but they are aware that anything can be made to serve their greater purpose.
It has been said that only a hundred Black Ethergaunts exist. Foolish thralls! Their numbers are far, far greater than this. The outposts of the Ethergaunts in the Ethereal are countless, and at least one Black rules each and every one with an absolute hand. They are legion; the one hundred falsehoods come from the decision by the Blacks that no single crystal sphere requires the attention of more than one hundred of their caste.
For the castes beneath them these philosopher scientists have only one specific duty, the decision of the caste of the young, which will be discussed in detail later. For their own part they may do whatever they wish, and the usually chose to develop devices of monstrous power or ascend to untold heights of magical potential.
Thralls
Only perhaps one third of Ethergaunt society consists of the Ethergaunts themselves, as these creatures know the grand wisdom of employing lesser races as thralls. They may claim thralls through the use of their natural enslavement power, their magic, or the use of their enslavement devices. Regardless of the method used Ethergaunts consider thralls to have essentially no value as they can be swiftly replaced, and do not hesitate to sacrifice them at any time.
Despite their limited regard for the value of their thralls, the Ethergaunts do not expend them without a purpose. Thralls are fed when it is useful to do so, and generally provided with instructions to care for themselves. In fact, Ethergaunts have developed devices that allow their thralls to function longer in the absence of normal nutrient requirements, devices that would sorely benefit we illithids. Though they have great numbers of thralls Ethergaunts never breed them as my kind do, and often simply abandon them to die when leaving for an area it is not practical to bring them. An ethergaunt who abandons its thralls usually gives them final commands designed to cause as much destruction as possible to material races.
The highest castes, the Grays and Blacks, often choose thralls with somewhat more care, preferring mortals with great magical power, whom they have specific methods to control. They consider magical power the only thing that can provide a mortal with any worth and are quick to use that power to its ultimate extent, even in a fashion that is destructive to the thrall (for instance, Black Ethergaunts often force enslaved wizards to burn through their life experience granting a succession of wishes -The Editors). Ethergaunts relish in enslaving divine spellcasters, seeing it as the triumph of reason over the foolish delusions of the material races, and often use such slaves for long-term schemes that destabilize great proportions of faith. One of my kind who was taken at the same time as I was a follower of Ilsenine, and was used to over throw the faith in the god among every settlement of my people from my homeworld without a single battle. We where then bereft of Ilsenine's power when the Ethergaunts forced me to help destroy my own kind, and only that power could have saved us.
Growth in the Absence of Ambition
Unlike fiends or even some celestials the Ethergaunts cannot change station in their lives. They belong to one caste forever, from the moment of their creation potentially until the end of time, as they are immortal. This might seem unusual, that even the oldest Red is still considered less than the new Blue, but there are reasons for this, which stem from the Ethergaunts obsession with reason and their belief that a being's reasoning capacity never truly changes no matter how long it might live. The mind cannot alter itself and yet remain the same mind.
This does not mean an Ethergaunt cannot advance, and indeed they do so, often to incredible levels of power. Ethergaunts are encouraged to further their magic by their superiors, to reach heights that no measly thrall can equal, and to increase their already stupendous intelligences. There exist Reds who are stronger in magic than new born Blacks, and so on among the other castes. Additionally many Ethergaunts on the front lines of the genocidal campaign chose to pursue martial skills. This is more difficult, but an Ethergaunt skilled in these arts is dangerous in ways that are not easily comprehended. Most frighteningly many Ethergaunts perform both paths of advancement at once (they take the Eldritch knight prestige class-The Editors); indeed they seem to have no difficultly doing this even without prior training in another field.
As for the arts of stealth or the powers of the mind that my race is heir to, these are rare among Ethergaunts. Mental powers are most common among Grays and Blacks, and even then are extremely rare, while only a few Reds or Whites who find them necessary to their war pursue the arts of stealth. The powers of these disciplines are more commonly simply duplicated through magic of greater might.
No Ethergaunt embarks upon a path that requires powers from the gods or some other irrational force; it is simply outside their capacity to reason in such a way.
Among Ethergaunts, those most likely to record the achievement necessary for their offspring to reach a higher caste have usually developed significantly down one or more methods to increase their power, as it enables them to undertake more challenging obstacles than their fellows.
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"Form and Function"
Bodily Form and Function
Chiret
Oh lucky me, I get such a great topic, talking all about how they put together Ethergaunts from skeletal toes to that damn face that projects out of their chests. Why didn't they tap an Anatomist for this job? (The answer to that question is that we did, and Chiret worked with them, but the names of those brave, dead souls who cut open a red Ethergaunt will be hidden so as to spare the rest of the sect, to which we extend our condolences-The Editors). Okay fine, Ethergaunts are put together something really weird. They look like they should fall apart at a bare touch, which is great, but unfortunately that impression is a false one that's lured many an eager Sinker to a quick doom. They ain't fragile and they don't come apart easily. In fact, the average Ethergaunt is tougher than the average human in just about every way.
First thing, there's not a whole lot of difference between caste to caste in how the Ethergaunts are structured. As was already explained that's mostly a mental thing, how much you've managed to try to immune your brain to decay (morons). Their bodies are pretty similar otherwise, oh sure, Reds are a bit stronger and buffer than the others, and Blacks are the thinnest, Whites are the tallest, and Grays the shortest, and just like intelligence they tend to get quicker and have better reflexes as you go up the castes.
All Ethergaunts appear basically humanoid, and aside from being eight feet tall with arms that reach down almost to their knees that seems to work. Well, that and the fact that their heads come out of their chests, they don't have a 'face' and where a normal person's head would be they just have a bulging sort of hunchback. So maybe they aren't really that humanoid after all, really they're about as different from your average planar as an Illithid or a Babau (I doubt our previous author appreciates the comparison-The Editors). Still, it's not like elementals or Klyndesi or something.
The whole of an Ethergaunts body is centered on its brain and 'face.' The rest is just to keep everything else functional and provide them with necessary manipulative apparatus. Now this centering does give the Ethergaunts a distorted and stooped look, but you shouldn't hold that against them, least not compared to the damn bastards attitudes. Not that it really matters much anyway, we're all going to die anyways, well maybe the Ethergaunts won't but more on that later.
Insides
A person who knows a little about what sits under the skin in most creatures, and I've cut enough bashers open to know, recognizes upon seeing one that an Ethergaunt really hasn't got all the space necessary to hold that stuff. There's just not enough room in the frame for all the organs and other apparatus that we need to function, especially when you consider how much of the torso is encased brain. So where does all that stuff go?
Well, frankly the Ethergaunts just don't have it. Stomach, intestine, bladder, all that stuff you need to eat, they don't have it. Reproductive organs, don't got those either, the brain takes over that job. They have hearts, and lungs to, which is why their torsos sometimes seem to be all ribcage, but their very different from what yours or mine do. I mean we have to breathe in gloriously entropic air, and that's not what an Ethergaunt's using his lungs for.
They don't have to breathe, Ethergaunts, that is, and since they don't have a mouth, that's probably a good thing. In fact, their lungs are actually sensory organs, not breathing devices. They use their lungs to suck in additional air and analyze it for heat, smells, and all sorts of things that don't bear thinking on. This is part of the reason they can determine so much about you so quickly, but I shouldn't get ahead of things, though I'd rather, there's no sense in this book being organized. Regardless, an Ethergaunt doesn't breathe, and its blood is a white milky substance kind of like an insect's. The heart pumps that stuff to the muscles though, and a huge fraction to the brain. In fact, the heart is tilted forward so it can pump out to the brain and the face, instead of upwards. It's also organized differently since the environment in which Ethergaunts live doesn't really depend on gravity, so their heart looks a lot more like mine than any human's.
Senses
An Ethergaunt's senses are something else, I've got sharp eyes compared to a human, but even a dragon's got nothing on one of these guys. This has a lot to do with the structure of their brain and face, and it's a messy thing. An Ethergaunt's face is practically a living model to entropy, or at least it would be if I wasn't almost certain its all perfectly organized in some way that makes sense only to them, bastards. To start, their face isn't really a face, they just wear a mask that sort of looks like one to prevent from destroying your mind, and that's only when they want to. Underneath well, its hard to describe, cause see, if I described it properly your brain couldn't take it. I've looked on an Ethergaunt's face, and I swear if I wasn't schooled by the study of entropy I wouldn't have been able to take it.
The outside is all these tendrils, long feelers that creep out from behind the mask, an ethergaunt can move them however it wants, though they aren't long enough to reach past the head or strong enough to grip anything, they still provide sensation information and creep people out. That's nothing to what's under the mask though. Organs, orifices, gaps, tentacles, eyes, pits, strange things that make no sense, endless twisting and turning like some kind of mad anemone, I can't describe it any better than that. Regardless, it's not solid, but a ton of extensions grouped together, and it provides an Ethergaunt with the kind of senses that I bet some gods wish they had.
An Ethergaunt sees in a complete sphere, right through the mask they usually wear, and it has a brain to process all that data. So don't try and sneak up on one or flank 'em it just doesn't work and you'll end up seriously messed over in return. Their vision extends perfectly, and I mean absolute image capture like a Modron or something, for 40 ft. and then gradually reduces beyond that, but they still see clearly much farther than a human, or even an elf. In the ethereal their vision ignores the mists, which means they always see farther than anything but another native, no matter how well trained you are.
Beyond sight, an Ethergaunt has one hellishly accurate sense of smell, they can sort of smell heat like a snake using their lungs, all sorts of other sensations as well, I've met the best tracking vultures the Etherfarers sell, and they've got nothing on even the worst Red. The hearing just adds to that, its super sensitive, since they talk to each other by minute shakes of the tendrils around their face, and their tendrils hear in return, along with their lungs. An Ethergaunt hasn't got ears. Course even if you silence 'em, they can still see you perfectly, even in the dark.
Finally an Ethergaunt's got a refined sense of touch, but again, using the tendrils that surround its face, it actually hasn't got a whole lot of sensation on its hands. Which always makes it weird when they examine things, bringing them up to their face and running their tendrils over them. Creepy.
Gender
I'm pretty sure it's been said before, but the Ethergaunts haven't got genders. They pulled an end run on entropy with this one and aren't male or female, or even both like some creatures. They have no gender at all, don't even have organs in that area, which is why their pelvises just look like skin and bones stretched together. It can be rather nauseating to look at but it's important to remember that an Ethergaunt isn't particularly vulnerable there, which is bad news for short types like me, since that's about as high as we can easily reach on the tall bastards.
Nourishment
Well, I told you all that Ethergaunts haven't got a stomach or anything right? With my luck you've already forgotten, glorious entropy at work and all. Well regardless, they don't have any of the stuff that allows most creatures to eat food, because, well they don't. That sets 'em apart from lots of creatures, like fiends, celestials, heck even illithids chow down on a brain every once in a while. That might be creepy, but its not quite as creepy as something that never eats. Especially when that something lives forever.
Now, most people aren't willing to accept that Ethergaunts don't eat, and they are certainly pushing something around their body with blood, and it sure isn't air. So maybe they get nourishment somehow. Now, being an ethereal native I know that if you're hungry enough you can scoop up protomatter and eat it. The stuff don't taste good and it never seems as filling as real food, but maybe the Ethergaunts are smart enough to get around these problems. That sure isn't fair if true, nobody should be able to get around that, otherwise the whole multiverse can't consume itself down into nothing. It seems a reasonable guess anyway, that they're sucking in protomatter and using it to power themselves. The only problem is that some Ethergaunts live on other planes and never seem to leave them. Maybe they can get their energy from the substance of those planes, or maybe they sneak back to the Ethereal every so often and don't need to eat very much. One thing's for sure though, I've been told you almost never find Ethergaunts out in the Outer Planes, and that would make sense this way, since there's no 'real' matter on those planes anyway.
Another thing that's for sure to, even if Ethergaunts do need protomatter or some such material as sustenance, they don't need it all that often or very much of it. Starving them isn't a viable option, see they've been found wandering matter-less demiplanes for weeks at a time, never taking a break, and never growing any more gaunt than they already are.
Rest
All living things need to rest, right? So it's said by brighter minds than I. It doesn't quite hold true for Ethergaunts though. They don't sleep, ever, and even what you might call rest for them is more like a brief pause than a true rest. Once each day an Ethergaunt has to take a few moments to flush out its brain so that it doesn't get gummed up and clogged. The amount time this takes depends on brain development, but even the most complex ethergaunt hyper-brains are more efficient than the least, so it actually takes the upper castes less time than this.
Essentially when an Ethergaunt rests it just stops moving or doing anything for a while. This is their only vulnerable period, since they have to stop interpreting sensory input at this point, and are therefore exposed to being caught surprised at this time only. Though it only takes a few moments Ethergaunts don't like being vulnerable, who does, so they usually have their thralls or fellows guard them when they rest. It only takes a Red Ethergaunt five minutes to recharge its brain for a whole new day, and each caste above takes about a minute less, so that Blacks only need one minute of rest to keep going for a whole new day. Compare that to the eldest dragons, about the only things that match their intelligence, and well, those big guys spend probably two thirds of their time asleep, a Black only spends 1/3600th of its time in rest, which beats anything this side of a Modron.
Ethergaunts that are resting can wake up instantly, I've had friends find that one out the hard way, but it does take something to wake them up. Course, they usually trigger warding spells to go off if they're disturbed, especially ones that won't harm them. Whatever, it ain't hardly fair, being able to throw entropy off so easily, and added to that the bastards don't even need to rest for weeks if the situation demands it, though it seems it gets a lot harder for them to think as time goes on, but I was told an Ethergaunt resisted the constant probing of a psionic lich for three weeks straight without a moment's let up, until the Lich finally gave up. At which point the Ethergaunt broke free and killed him.
By the way, since Ethergaunts don't sleep they don't dream either, which makes them kind of weird. I guess they think dreams aren't necessary for their perfectly reasoned philosophy. It's a damn shame, for without dreams, how does entropy inspire the multiverse to its appointed end? Just goes to show how unnatural ethergaunts really are.
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"Reproduction
Reproduction
Lexillo
Editor's Note: Though Ehir'Sisliach has witnessed Ethergaunt reproduction, he knows little about the finer points and purposes of it. Therefore, we are forced to turn to Lexillo for an explanation. I caution that aside from the asexual reproduction described here, none of this material has been corroborated.
Throughout the multiverse many creatures strive toward some form or other of immortality, though that may itself be an impossible goal, as I have yet to see the creature that was not vulnerable to destruction in some way, even the Powers may die. However, the creatures that refer to themselves as the Khen-Zai are perhaps among the closest to true immortality.
What does this have to do with reproduction, well you must understand, mortals, that a truly immortal race, one whose members could not ever die, would not need to reproduce. To an extent this is true of Modrons, but those creatures are not a race, but a single entity of uncountable parts. Therefore, all known races must reproduce or inevitably all shall be slain, even if one single individual may persist until time's end should it fail to be slain. This is of course the case for a Khen-Zai; individuals of this race have altered their bodies into forms that do not decay. Yet the swords and spells of others may still kill them normally.
As such the Khen-Zai must reproduce. A Khen-Zai can reproduce a single offspring during its lifetime, without the need of another parent. Reproduction is asexual, and performed by what might be called budding, the Khen-Zai duplicates a template of a Khen-Zai's brain and body and produces a duplicate form. This is a new individual, and is separated from the parent by force of will alone.
Khen-Zai reproduce solely in the Ethereal, where their offspring grow from a tiny mass barely large enough to see to a fully formed adult in moments deep in the heart of the enclaves. An infant Khen-Zai literally builds a Khen-Zai body out of the nascent protomatter and potential of the Ethereal. This creature is an individual, not a clone of the parent, but it adopts development of reason that was acquired by the parent during life, thus bringing the race closer to perfection of reason.
An infant Khen-Zai has the self-creation process intervened in a single time, as a group of five Black Khen-Zai surround it and determine its caste by incorporating their own protomatter marks into the growing form. This decision is made before the child even separates from the parent, based on the achievements of that parent and its other ancestors. Almost all new Khen-Zai fall into the same caste as their parents, but perhaps one in a hundred is chosen to either rise to a new caste or fall down a caste (though Reds may not fall, and so far no Black has been chosen to rise to another level). Should a Red ethergaunt fail completely enough in life it may be forbidden the right to produce offspring.
A newly grown Khen-Zai is given a mask to designate its station, the first of many Etherblades it will wield, and an immediate task. From that point on it is treated no differently from other members of its caste, and indeed it may produce its own offspring almost immediately, though this is discouraged, as the Blacks wish those of lesser castes to reach some height of reasoned potential so that the race grows in reasoning and not just in number, though they have recently taken to having many Red Ethergaunts simply produce great numbers of young rapidly, to increase their numbers for the purpose of fighting the Material races.
The Conquest of Death
The wise reader has noticed that I stated an Ethergaunt could only ever produce a single offspring, and has determined that this makes no sense. For if each Ethergaunt can only produce one offspring, and they may be slain, the race should inevitably lose all its members. This is not true, though it makes sense to believe this at first. There are two reasons why the single offspring does not limit the Khen-Zai. First is that they are immortal, their forms do not decay, so an Ethergaunt newly born will not someday outlive its parent. Still, if enough were to fall, and many Ethergaunts do indeed die in battles with the defenders of the Material plane, then the race's numbers would decrease.
This does not happen because the Khen-Zai have conquered death.
I am certain more detail is required to explain my previous statement to you mortals. Ethergaunts do not fear being killed in combat as fiends do, for Ethergaunts are not nearly so vulnerable to true death as they. Ethergaunts do not fear death because for one of their number to truly die all its ancestors must be slain.
Though they may reproduce only once in life, an Ethergaunt saves the pattern of brain and flesh it used to bud its offspring, and can duplicate that should that offspring ever die, creating another vessel to house the mind that has lost it. Even should the parent be slain, it may be recreated by its parent, and then recreate its offspring. So, all the generations that have come before may remake the fallen. The only small blessing of this ability of the Ethergaunts is that it is not instant, and it takes some time before a Khen-Zai mind that has lost its vessel can assume a new one, as much as five years for a Red caste, but only a single year for a Black. Also, those individuals who had accumulated new powers in life do not retain them when reborn this way (They lose their class levels-The Editors). Beyond even this loss is the loss of the power to reproduce, should they have not already created an offspring before they lose their bodies the first time, they will never be able to afterwards. Something in the process of losing the initial vessel makes it impossible to duplicate mind and body when they have acquired a new one. For this reason, though new Ethergaunts are encouraged to wait before increasing offspring they are not to wait forever, and the great legions of Reds that are being sent to exterminate the material plane are encouraged to produce offspring before they go, even if a Khen-Zai has had few experiences.
This last facet has resulted in a rapid increase in Ethergaunt numbers, even as they begin a great war of annihilation, and is the reason why they believe they can win against such odds; they can force their foes to kill them many times.
Are you afraid now, mortal readers? You should be.
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"Powers and Weaknesses"
Powers
Chiret
Well, I've fought against the Ethergaunts a few times, and I've seen them lay waste to Prime worlds while we tried to ferry refugees away. I'm all for entropy mind you, but it's not entropy what they do, its imposing some sort of perfect nothing over everything, hideous stuff, the complete opposite of the whole point. Regardless, I know what it's like to fight Ethergaunts, both on the Ethereal and on other planes. Well, fight might be a bit generous. I know how to run from Ethergaunts and how others get killed by them. So, I've seen all their major powers in action.
All Ethergaunts have roughly the same major powers. Some are equal between all the castes, but mostly, as you go up the castes the higher types just plain get better at doing all of these things. So while a Black's got about the same powers as a Red, its work a lot better and are a lot harder to avoid having affect you.
The first power, and one that's equal between all Ethergaunts is their sensory abilities. Complete coverage of a 40 foot sphere, and even magical silence won't stop them from seeing you. Neither will magical darkness, though if you use both at once, well then you've limited them some, but they can still smell you (Ethergaunts effectively have the blind-fighting feat even in magical darkness and silence-The Editors) and nothing stops them from communicating with others of their kind or their thralls, that works by some psychic thing with those damn tendrils of theirs.
Ethergaunts have another power that works off how their face's are set up, the power to use their face as a weapon. They can open their masks whenever they want and anyone who sees it has a chance of having their mid break apart and just not function so well. This power is more devastating for higher castes than lower, but it's terrifying either way. The one time an Ethership I was with got attacked by some Reds it apparently took one of Slaan's best psionicists days to stitch my mind back together. While if you manage to look at their face and not break down that same Ethergaunt can't do anything more to you with it that day, they can if you lose it, breaking your weakened mind down further and further. And, even if you shrug one face off, every new Ethergaunt still makes your mind hurt. We just weren't meant to look at things like that. They don't even have to look at you specifically; you just need to see the front of their bodies when the mask is open. This power goes hand in hand with the ability of an Ethergaunt to just enslave three people everyday, making them their total thralls until they manage to break free through will alone. Thankfully an Ethergaunt can only keep a few thralls with this power, which is why the cursed bastards developed Enslavement collars to allow them to keep more.
Here's a nasty thing, most people realize all Ethergaunts can cast spells like a mighty wizard. Okay, that's bad enough, but not only that, they understand magic so well they can just ignore its effects. Really, the power of the spells they can ignore goes up with the castes (2nd level for Reds, 3rd for Blues, 4th for Whites, 5th for Grays, and 6th for Blacks-The Editors) but when the do the spells just melt away totally. It makes it really hard for another spell caster to match them in spells, cause the Ethergaunts have a much shorter list of enchantments they have to counter compared to their opponents. Ethergaunts have to study their spells just like mortal wizards, but they're so smart, and they use devices called spell cubes that they can memorize them in just about ten minutes (regardless of level or caste). They usually do this right after resting.
Finally, though they can't teleport like fiends (though many of them sure can cast the spells for it) they have another way to get around. They can transport themselves into any plane the Ethereal touches, that's the material and inner planes for those who don't know, just by willing it. They can't stay very long, less than a minute for the weakest types, though they have devices that increase this, but it allows them to show up wherever they want and retreat instantly. Since this is a special power, and not a teleport or plane shift spell, few places are warded against it. They only have to stay on the Ethereal for an hour after taking their 'jaunt' before they can do it again.
Finally when on the Ethereal Ethergaunts have the power to defy entropy in perhaps the most direct way possible, the damn, damn, bastards. They can use the protomatter to heal themselves extremely quickly, recovering faster than you or I could without cleric's help (small wonder they think they don't need 'em). Praise to all entropy that this only works on the Ethereal, and not other planes (In game terms, an Ethergaunt heals one hit point per minute while on the Ethereal).
So, the real short version is that Ethergaunts have a lot of nasty powers that makes them incredibly difficult to handle. Good luck.
Weaknesses
Alni Swirlsen
I was given the task of discussing the portion of this book most clearly linked to our purpose, discerning weaknesses to the Khen-Zai. Unfortunately there aren't very many methods to it. These creatures have created their form after many periods of deliberation, and they have few weaknesses. Those weaknesses they do have they counter by developing magic or technology to counter it. Still I'll try to give you a sense of some ways to fight the Khen-Zai if you're ever faced with them, or reasoning with them. Of course, I caution that this is only a reference for dealing with one or a few Khen-Zai scouts. Warfare involving these terrible beings is something completely different.
I have put together these strategies from accounts of successful (or more often semi-successful) encounters with Khen-Zai. The most obvious recommendation is this. Whether you chose to fight or negotiate, do only one or the other. An Ethergaunt views both as the same thing, but unless you chose your weapon by choosing one method, it will pick you apart as you hesitate.
Fighting a Khen-Zai
If fighting a Khen-Zai the first rule is to get in close. Accounts show that success vastly increases when they are forced to fight in melee using their Etherblades than when they may avoid their opponents and use Etherblades from a distance or cast spells. Attack immediately from the front, using simple strategies that are difficult to counter. The intelligence of the Khen-Zai gives them the advantage to counter almost any strategic ploy, so you are better off being straightforward and taking the damage of the limited methods to counter simple strategies. Do not hesitate to attack, for a Khen-Zai will retreat behind defensive spells and then use additional spells to counter any attacks. Their ability to ignore spells makes them difficult to fight at range.
Expect to suffer from the gaze of a Khen-Zai if you close, there is no way around this, as Khen-Zai disdain fighting in close with their etherblades, despite their skill in using them. However, the stalwart may resist the gaze, or even chose to fight blind. Unfortunately resisting the gaze makes a Khen-Zai more likely to make use of its enslave power to acquire new thralls.
There are no special methods to harming the Khen-Zai, they are just as vulnerable to normal blades as most creatures, though they may use spells to counter this vulnerability, and always use them to avoid hits, usually going into physical combat only with mage armor, shield, and stoneskin (which even the Reds can cast) engaged. A Khen-Zai caught without time to prepare these spells may stall by talking, or pretending it cannot communicate. Avoid this, for it can cast spells using its facial organs without the possibility of observation by a human.
Even if you can close in and attack with powerful damaging spells (and always use your most powerful spells for the best chance of overcoming their power to ignore them) the fight will still be difficult. An Ethergaunt unable to retreat will fight to the death, since it does not fear that, and will try to kill as many opponents as possible, they will almost always target divine spellcasters first.
Reasoning with a Khen-Zai
While certain races may have more success reasoning with a Khen-Zai than others, as will be discussed later, this option remains exceedingly difficult for the vast majority of races. It is not even an option at all on the Material plane, where any negotiation on the part of the Khen-Zai is utterly in falsehood, as they will annihilate everyone regardless. On the Ethereal or the Inner Planes it is more likely to be successful. Indeed, in those areas this is recommended, especially if you believe yourself outmatched. Khen-Zai have no particular grudge against the residents of other planes, and they do not go out of their way to 'step on insects' unless they happen to be divine spellcasters.
Negotiating with the Khen-Zai is difficult, since communication presents a problem. Though they understand our words perfectly, they cannot themselves speak. If thralls are present they may speak through them, but they prefer to claim a thrall from among those they are negotiating with and use that as a proxy. Their favored targets for this are divine spellcasters. Anyone claimed in such a way is lost regardless of any other arrangements reached.
The best way to talk with a Khen-Zai is to be brief and apologetic. They care nothing for pleasantries, and indeed prattling bores them. They do not consider other races worthy of their time, and so prefer quick negotiations. Anyone speaking to the Khen-Zai must come to expect and accept claims of their imminent demise and destruction. Trying to get them to acknowledge the value of another race's life is futile. Instead the best plan is to offer apologies for anything you may have done wrong (even if nothing) and suggest that it is not worth the Khen-Zai's time to destroy you at present. Assuming you are not directly opposing them at the moment this tactic actually has a good chance of working.
Of course, the Khen-Zai usually demands recompense, either in the enslavement of a divine spellcaster, or in some task undertaken by the group (often enforced by geas). Lying to them never works, unless you can match their intelligence they will easily tell, and from a single sentence a Khen-Zai can derive an entire multi-layered plot. Don't try trickery, be honest, not wanting to die is a perfectly acceptable reason for your acquiesce to a Khen-Zai's demands from their perspective.
If you are trying to directly oppose the Khen-Zai, then don't even bother to negotiate, but fight as mentioned above. As was mentioned by our illithid author, Khen-Zai can reason in the extreme, and have been known to cause others to agree to kill themselves for no reason, and then caused magic to make that a reality. In negotiation with them your only defense if their lack of concern for you.
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"Dealing with Others"
Dealing with Others
Ehir'Sisliarch
There is no such thing as normal relations with others among the Ethergaunts, at least not as thralls reckon them. This miserable task falls to me of trying to answer your demands of how they regard and act toward other races. This much I shall say, there are indeed differences from race to race, but not such as many thralls would think. Ethergaunt relations are based on intelligence, and therefore they only deal with creatures whom have a greater intelligence than any thrall race knows. For these races there are indeed some relations with Ethergaunts, at least on the Inner Planes or the Ethereal. There they deign to conduct schemes and manipulate others, on the material plane they only destroy. They care nothing for the Inner Planes, and do not mind if thrall races pollute them, so sometimes an Ethergaunt may deign to conduct some form of relations on those who dwell there, considering this easier than trying to convert enough thralls to achieve their goals.
The province of dealing with other races falls principally to the White caste, Reds serve as enemies to those who are the Ethergaunts' foes, and as minions in schemes conducted by the Whites, but this is a minor part, and the other castes do not bother with mortals save in exceptional circumstances. Mostly the Whites deal with others in a very simplistic fashion, manipulating them and ordering them as you would order 'pets' about, or commanding like a machine they rule. They cultivate an image of power and mystery, and often seek to motivate by fear in those they encounter, and assure all they deal with that they are ultimately expendable. Of course, you poor thrall races truly are, if you have so little use even for Illithids how much can you provide these Ethergaunts, who can so easily create devices that mimic all your useful qualities? Therefore the Whites simply push forward their agendas over your objections, finding a way easily with their great intelligence to subvert or deflect any counters. If pressed they simply invoke true name magic upon those they deal with and make tem into their machine servants (It is an established fact the White and higher caste Ethergaunts can determine true names after a sufficient period of discussion, often less than a half hour, with any being this is partly do to their intelligence, and partly their ability to observe psychic impressions through their tendrils-The Editors).
There remain some few races that the Ethergaunts treat differently from thralls, sometimes only on the Inner Planes, but in some few cases everywhere. These races I will address:
Celestials: When they encounter Celestials on the Material Plane Ethergaunts immediately classifying them as opponents and spare no effort to crush them swiftly, so that they cannot gather more of their kind to oppose them. On other planes however, they are far more deferential. They will swiftly explain to Celestials that they encounter that their business is urgent and does not conflict with that of the Upper Planes, which they do not threaten, and they wish no conflicts. Ethergaunts have respect only for the mightiest celestials, but they recognize that the races react with unity to affronts and they do not wish any conflicts with the servants of the Upper Planes. This is not out of fear, but simply because the Ethergaunts see no reason or rational purpose in conflicting with such beings (Unfortunately for the rest of us, this means that the perceptions of the celestials are often quite skewed toward Ethergaunts, and they can sometimes miss the creatures true villainy and fail to act-The Editors).
Dragons: Among the few races that Ethergaunts respect both for power and intelligence, dragons are acknowledged as being able to slowly rise to heights of reason that match the Ethergaunts themselves. While they dismiss the young among this ancient race, they acknowledge the elders as creatures that have achieved reasonable heights of reason. So far, the Ethergaunts have avoided attacking Material worlds with truly strong dragon contingents, and have encouraged migration when they encounter dragons during their genocide. They have also attempted to avoid conflict with planar wyrms, notably Ethereal dragons and the dragons of mineral.
Fiends: Ethergaunts acknowledge the mightiest of fiends as powerful beings with an intelligence that almost matches Reds. While they ignore subordinates and may destroy them out of hand, they will treat with powerful fiends, Gelugons and Pit Fiends among the Baatezu, Mariliths and Balors among the Tanar'ri, and Arcanoloths and Ultroloths as reasonable beings that have a legitimate purpose in the multiverse. Usually this takes the form of telling fiends that they have no place on the worlds that Ethergaunts are acting to cleanse, and that those who do not follow their instructions risk being summoned and confined for eternity. I have not seen this myself, but apparently the Ethergaunts made an example of several fiendish lords who attempted to question their ability in this matter. With their intelligence and vision Ethergaunts never make a mistake scribing warding circles.
Genies: Though they do not respect them, Ethergaunts do not bother with the great genie empires. However, the genies dislike being ignored, and have tried to force treaties and pacts onto the Ethergaunts. The response has been a call to tell genies to never interfere with Ethergaunts and they will not be extirpated from the Ethereal plane. What exactly interfere means is unclear, but apparently the Ethergaunts are satisfied with not having their operatives in the inner planes accosted directly. Genies, for their part, have factored them out of Inner Planar politics. A foolish mistake I am certain they will learn in time.
Githyanki/Githzerai: The hated slave cultures are treated better than other thralls by the Ethergaunts because they hunt us. If one of these races is willing to be set against we Illithids an Ethergaunt may even be so generous to let it keep its mind free so that it may better function as a slayer of Illithids. They are hideous, for they ally with such purposeless and poisoned fallen slaves.
Illithids: I cannot explain why, but the Ethergaunts hate my kind. They act against us at every turn, and when they begin an assault upon a world it is we who become the first targets. They will even ally for a time with creatures such as the drow or beholders in order to exterminate us. We should be kindred, we two brilliant races with healthy contempt for the lesser thralls, and yet they despise us and seek our ends. We have begun to awaken to the threat though, to these horrible creatures who resist all our powers and whose faces rend our minds. Yet we fear, for we cannot fight them. They are like the undead, only instead of hating all things they hate us. We fear they have been unleashed upon us as destroyers of all our civilization. The Ethergaunts are the greatest threat to the reemergence of Illithid power since the slaves rebelled and broke our empire. What has spawned them? (It should be noted that along with the Illithids, the strange alien race known as the Kaorti are the only others that seem hated by the Ethergaunts, upon consultation Ronassiac of Sigil, author of the Illithiad, hazarded that this might be somehow related to the origins of both races beyond the known multiverse-The Editors).
Liches and Nightshades: Most of the time the Ethergaunts ignore the hated undead, only bothering to destroy them should they harass their efforts to exterminate material races. Liches and Nightshades are regarded differently, these powerful and brilliant undead are perhaps creatures Ethergaunts will truly ally with. They have been known, and I have seen for myself, to make promises to allow such creatures stewardship over great portions of a world once they are done purifying it. In return, Liches and Nightshades aid the Ethergaunt genocide. At the very least they often trade in magic for agreements not to get involved, for the Ethergaunts consider these beings on their own path to the advancement of godless reason, and do not wish to destroy such philosophical affiliates.
Nerra: There is some strange relationship between the Ethergaunts and the mysterious residents of the plane of mirrors. They are not friends, but neither are they enemies, and while Ethergaunts to not respect their intelligence, they respect their outlook. Nothing more do I know, but the races never seem to conflict, though they encounter each other reasonably often, as Ethergaunts can and will utilize the plane of mirrors to reach locations blocked by other paths.
Rilmani: When the Ethergaunts were just lone operators in the Inner Planes the Rilmani treated them no differently than anything else, though many Abiorachs voiced a personal dislike of the beings. Now that the true conception of the Ethergaunts has emerged the Rilamni are seeking to re-categorize the creatures and develop a plan of action. However, the Concordanach has many tasks, and Ethergaunts are not a priority. Abiorachs however, sometimes take action on their own (Like Lexillo's contributions to this text-The Editors). They have been known to consider Ethergaunts "creatures of a balance different from the one we know" and cannot easily pin them down. The Ethergaunts themselves acknowledge the Rilmani as a moderately intelligent and well-reasoned race, and do not actively seek conflict with them, but do not avoid it either. The come perhaps the closest to what you might call 'admirable foes.'
Tsnng: Hated are the crystal men, eternal foes of the empire, and in due time they shall fall. Their association with the Ethergaunts makes them only more heretical and suitable for destruction. The men of mineral are, along with powerful liches, the only race that the Ethergaunts treat as equals. Indeed the races are sickeningly similar. Powerful spellcasters that do not belong and hate my kind while resisting our powers. Did your mortal gods create them just to vex us on the path to inevitable domination? These creatures share mastery of magic accompanied by physical power, and they both have an interest in technology. Ethergaunts will bargain with the Tsnng for magic and raw materials, and actually trade with some fairness and keep their bargains. Neither race has any interest in fighting the other. The crystal men concern themselves only with their gem filled home, and the Ethergaunts have no true interest there. A pity, it would be far better for all if they should fight and destroy each other.
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"Magic and Technology"
Ethergaunt Magic and Technology
Alni Swirlsen
The Khen-Zai are both masters of magic on a level understood by few other races, and great practitioners of the device arts, creating contraptions that would be the envy of tinker gnomes for their ingenuity, with the dangerous appellation that these devices actually work. These two paths of power function in combination to make the Khen-Zai the mighty race that they are today.
Khen-Zai Magic
Every single Ethergaunt has great magical power; even the least Red is as talented from birth as a wizard of skill and experience, a power that is further augmented by their great intelligence, that enables their minds to hold far more spells than any human of similar levels of power. Indeed the only race with so many spells available at such levels of power is the mineralogical Tsnng. At higher castes Khen-Zai cannot be matched even by the most potent of archmages, and many pursue mystical power far beyond what they are born with. It is said that Blacks exist who can create Khen-Zai enclaves with a single word, or wrack whole prime material world apart with simple motions of their tendrils. I have not met anyone who has truly witnessed such feats, but it is clear that Khen-Zai exist with great magical power, many of whom are master Eldritch Knights, proficient in two deadly fields, such as the renowned Wax Face of Slaan.
The magic of the Khen-Zai is both similar and different to that of humans and other races. While the Khen-Zai must still study their spells each day, they have developed technology to vastly hasten this process. They cast their spells without recognizable verbal or somatic components, seemingly by act of will, though this is not precisely the case. A Khen-Zai twitches his tendrils and facial appendages to focus his magic, and does not require material components or foci save for specialize (meaning valuable) cases. The race long ago developed variants to all common spells to get around this problem. Even when they do require specialized material components it is often easier for a Khen-Zai to create what he needs simply out of protomatter than actually creating the object permanently.
Most spells cast by the Khen-Zai that have been observed successfully are very similar to the ones commonly in use today. These are tried and true magics of great effectiveness, and it seems that having retained usability on the planes for eons, they have remained in use by the hyper-evolved society of the Khen-Zai as well. However, there are more unique spells than these, ten thousand years of practice has resulted in many highly varied spells, and no Khen-Zai wizard will hesitate to cast his variants if the opportunity is available. Some of these are simply specialized spells, while others are far more deadly and dangerous. Like Liches, most Khen-Zai have a spell for every possible situation, and wit their great intelligence they can often predict exactly what will be useful in any given situation. Notably, they never cast spells at a target if that target is immune, but use an elemental variant designed to hurt the target. It is believed most Khen-Zai know a variant of fireball and lightning bolt for all the known forms of energy. Acid balls, and ice bolts have not gone unnoticed in Khen-Zai attacks.
It must be remembered, however, that Khen-Zai magic is only a aspect of their power, one they supplement freely with their technological apparatus, and indeed they may prefer the sterile powers of technology over those of their incredible spellcasting power.
Khen-Zai Technology
Chiret
Ah, the lovely devices of the Ethergaunts, the creepy, entropy defying, my-stuff-never-breaks-down-rusts-or-gets-old-bitches. Ah, sorry, anyway, unlike most people's stuff, the devices of the Ethergaunts don't break down. Instead they work regularly, like clockwork really, or maybe better than most clocks. Of course, the upside is that the Ethergaunts build their stuff for warfare or to kill priests mostly, so they do cause a lot of entropy with their entropy less items, that's a bit more pleasant. Other than that though, the things are so nasty and cunning that they make gnomes drool with envy (which is not a pretty sight). Then they exterminate small cities.
The first rule of an Ethergaunt device is this: it only has one purpose. They don't build multipurpose devices, generally because the multiverse doesn't seem to like 'em. So, the Ethergaunts build extremely specialized devices that have a single purpose, which, as I said before, is mostly killing the rest of us, or weakening faith. Of course, they also have devices to protect themselves or acquire slaves, but that's all part and parcel of their drive to annihilate everyone anyway.
The second thing about Ethergaunt items is something that a lot of primes, (and planars too!) tend to forget. They aren't magical. These things aren't spell-imbued items, or mystical devices powered by elemental energy, or anything like that. It's straight up machinery, no magic involved, like the crazy gnomes build, except that these things work all the time. If you know anything about gnomes you're probably screaming in terror right about now. If you're not, you should be. See, since Ethergaunt items don't require magic they aren't affected by tricks that counter magic, like wizard mantles, the magic warping of the planes, antimagic fields, or even the dispel magic spell. That makes them nasty, especially when you consider powerful ethergaunts like to drop antimagic fields on an area to ruin everybody else's spellcasting. They've even got a device that inhibits spellcasting for everybody but them, which makes me very glad I'm not a spellslinger.
Anyway, what follows are descriptions of a bunch of Ethergaunt items, going in order of the most common to the most rare, as encountered by planewalkers anyway, the most common item in an ethergaunt enclave could be something we've never heard of. Now, since they make an awful lot of these things, I've only to space to go into those that have been documented and captured. Plenty more stuff exists, but you'll have to try and deal with those on your own.
Etherblade: The most common weapon of the ethergaunt is this two handed device. Almost every single member of the race carries one, and all the castes know how to use it and use it well. The weapon packs a nasty punch in melee combat, and also has the power to fire a nasty ray of energy that strikes like a stone from a slingshot hitting your chest. Using the ray takes charges though, and an Etherblade only has thirty. This weapon is actually one of the few devices the Ethergaunts make that a planewalker can actually pick up and use, but for you, when the ray charges are gone, they're gone. Ethergaunts make a special device to recharge their Etherblades by sucking the energy out of protomatter, but only they can manage to use it. Most Ethergaunts carry one of those too.
Etherblade Enhancements: An Etherblade is a non-magical device, and out on the planes that don't work so well for harming certain creatures, so the Ethergaunts have adapted. They've also gone further and made their Etherblades all the more deadly. Enhancements are usually little tubes that go around the haft of an Etherblade. Substance Modulators are the most common, these devices allow an Ethergaunt to adjust the Etherblade to overcome and damage immunity a creature has, though only one, and not the super-tough creatures whispered about in legend (a Substance modulator provides the ability to overcome an one form of damage reduction per round, excluding X/epic-the Editors). Other devices are called damage enhancers. These things give the Etherblade all sorts of different types of damage, making them burn, or chill, or spit acid. Thankfully it only affects the melee power, not the ray (this provides the equivalent of a flaming, frost, etc trait to an Etherblade, or the burst equivalent in more powerful versions to an Etherblade, the effect is non-magical-The Editors). There are some other enhancements to, but they haven't been documented. Substance Modulators are found on just about any Ethergaunt who's going to need one (and they know) while Damage Enhancers are only usually given to Whites and higher castes, though sometimes a crack troop of Reds could have them (especially if they have class skills). These are useable by Ethergaunts only.
Doubt Bombs: The most common method of eradicating religious devotion and softening up the enemy, doubt bombs are a favored device for White and higher castes to use while directing subordinates. They'll steal the very will to live from you, and scourge your mind. This not only reduces the effectiveness of enemy spellcasters, but it also makes enslavement easier. These things are only one use, but the Ethergaunts often carry more than enough to cripple even a group of the toughest Nathri raiders, or the most cunning Xill. Enterprising adventurers can make use of doubt bombs, but its tricky, they have a 50% chance to go off in your hand when thrown by anyone other than an Ethergaunt.
Spell Cube: Every last Ethergaunt carries one of these devices in place of a spellbook. These cubes are only about four inches on a side, but they apparently can contain more spells than a whole wizards library. Heck, some people think they contain libraries inside them too, but no one can tell since only an Ethergaunt can use one. Generally immediately after resting an Ethergaunt will put the cube under its facemask for ten minutes. That's all the time it needs to memorize all its spells for the day. Now, one of these things contains hundreds of spells, and even if that's not enough, different Ethergaunts in a group will have some different spells, and thy can use each other's cubes. An Ethergaunt will sometimes place its cube under the mask at other times of day, maybe recording important data or something. Regardless, this device allows your average Ethergaunt to spells only 1/48th of the time a mortal wizard does dealing with its spells and resting.
Enslavement Collars: The enslave power of an Ethergaunt can only accumulate a limited number of thralls. Though they can easily supplement this with magic, they've chosen to make devices that do it as well. An enslavement collar is applied to any thrall already under the effects of an Ethergaunts enslave power. Thereafter that thrall must obey any Ethergaunt that gives it commands, and counts against no Ethergaunt's control limit. In all aspects the collar forces the thrall to behave as if affected by a dominate monster spell. A thrall can still attempt a will save (DC 16) to escape once each day, but the collar can immediately attempt three more enslave attempts to reestablish control, and will saves must be made to resist each (DC 16). Anyone successful escaping from the collar finds that the nearest Ethergaunt (regardless of distance) is alerted to the escape. After failing to escape for a week, a thrall becomes completely dominated by the collar and must undergo an experience of extreme crisis to regain enough identity to attempt escape again. Frankly, I think its better to throw yourself on an Etherblade when you get the chance that be stuck to one of these for eternity. I should also mention that the Ethergaunts may not bother to feed their thralls if they don't intend them for long term use, so rescuing people from collars has that additional complication if you really want to try it.
Divine Barrier: This device, which looks like a little sphere, erects a spherical barrier 20ft. in radius that prevents the use of all divine magic within it above the 2nd level. The barrier lasts for ten minutes. While this device has truly obvious uses in battle, especially for the godless Ethergaunts, it is often used in really sadistic ways. For one, they like to put up barriers over battlefield hospitals and watch the wounded die, or prevent key miracles or important holy celebrations to erode faith. Thankfully the Ethergaunts are marginally carefully when they use these, since they tend to attract deific attention and reprisals. Shows the gods are useful for something every once in a while. Thank the gods only an Ethergaunt can use one of these.
Scent Beacon: These things aren't right. They're just little tubes you stick somewhere and set off, lot a lot like un-wicked candles, frankly. There's just one problem. These beacon's have some way to call up just about every predator in the area and (all animals, vermin, magical beasts, and any aberration or dragons with int<6) and send them into a horrible frenzy. Now the area nearby isn't really very big, only about four hundred yards, which in a forest nets maybe a giant spider and a coyote, but the Ethergaunts seem to find all sorts of ways to call up huge rampaging hordes with this trick. Of course, only they can manage to make these devices work.
Divine Feedback Grenade: I had a friend who was a cleric; he met a bad end on one of these. These weapons are shot out of Etherblades to stick to a divine spellcaster. They grab onto the flesh like little spiders with metal claws and they rip out some divine power and detonate. These things act on the most powerful spell left to the poor soul, and detonate for a serious blast for each level of power that spell contains, dealing it all to the cleric (a Divine Feedback Grenade deals 1d6 divine damage per level of the highest spell left in the spellcaster's repertoire) and even if the sod survives that, he's lost his most powerful spell, which can make a huge difference in battle. So far the Ethergaunts only use these devices on the Ethereal, maybe they haven't gotten to work elsewhere yet, but I wouldn't bet my life on that. Luckily, no one but Ethergaunts can make these things work.
Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2004 11:23 am Post subject: Culture
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"Culture"
Ethergaunt Culture
Ehir Sis'Liarch
So, it seems you thralls think that because I was an Ethergaunt thrall I know something about their 'culture.' Foolish, just like all you thralls you have nothing that could even be considered culture, just the deranged ravings of insects and fools. Ah, but you press for details, facts about Ethergaunt life. Curse you! I will speak. Know that as despised as they are, most Ethergaunts have a culture far superior to the illogical and undirected pursuits of the thrall species. They are appropriately directed and have organized their culture around their goals of ultimate reasoning.
Architecture
Ethergaunts design simple, and fabulously functional structures in the Deep Ethereal. These creations are usually pyramids or obelisks, for their finely reasoned designs, and are aspects of the hated mindless technology used by their race. They build out of a material that is unknown to any other race, but that resists all damage and magic with great ease. A Giant may swing at an Ethergaunt structure and inflict only the slightest damage, while an Ethergaunt can manipulate their buildings with a touch. This superior construction and unity of design is partly for reasons of defense, since even Ethergaunts face occasional attacks on their enclaves from creatures such as Magran or Terithrans, and partly for existence on the Ethereal. These super-solid structures with no brittle outer surfaces can function easily in the midst of an Ether cyclone or vapor front. This is important for long-term viability. The Ethergaunts apparently create their buildings completely out of the Ether itself, which is how they generate their incredible alloy. They may also cover their buildings in protective glyphs and symbols.
Ethergaunt construction emphasizes absolute lines that ascend in a single direction, symbolizing the progress of reason. They usually become more confined toward the top, illustrative of the difficulty that comes from walking the road upwards, but also more refined as they ascend, and energy flows naturally upwards through the construction. They might be said to be style-less in their construction, instead attempting to achieve a perfectly reasoned building devoid of any emotional attachment, but this is still more suitable than the constructions of you thralls, with your complete misunderstanding of the nature of creation.
Art
There is no such thing as Ethergaunt art; they lavish all their creative energy on their devices of genocide. Such things are perhaps art in the way a finely crafted tentacle extension is art, a demonstration of the beauty of lethality, but this is not deliberate. Instead, the Ethergaunts simply refine their items toward perfection past the point where any 'artist' would be satisfied.
Economy
Among themselves Ethergaunts are all considered a single race, and they do not engage in anything that might reasonably be considered 'trade' with any other race. Therefore they need not bother with the pursuit of monetary gain, which I believe is one of their few oversights. However, those enclaves that regularly contact with thrall races are aware of the power of money, and may stockpile it to use as blatant bribes in the most simplistic sense. They value whatever it seems that others value. One trick of theirs is to use thrall monies to pay fiends for summoned services, since such things do not matter to the Ethergaunts at all.
Among themselves, the Whites control the disbursement of Spell Cubes, which contain the knowledge central to the race. This might be considered an economy of sorts, as you thralls reckon it, since they are distributing information, but if so it follows a pattern of what I have heard called communism, reasoned appropriations according to individual needs. Know that any single spell cube, if used to contain knowledge, holds libraries worth of information, so most Ethergaunts need at most one for their spells and one other.
Education
Ethergaunts prize the accumulation of personal knowledge and data, and the ability to use it effectively. While their only focused education comes in the instruction of lower castes by higher castes of how to improve their reasoning methods (which is indeed very focused in regular sessions of mental communication) every caste is encouraged to practice the art of reasoning by exposure to new information. The Ethergaunts make extensive use of spellcubes for this purpose, and a single Ethergaunt can assimilate the contents of one very rapidly, and remember a tremendous amount of what they were exposed to. This far surpasses thralls, and is most easily likened to the increase in knowledge my kind gain when we consume the brain of a learned being. Individual Ethergaunts with no specific mission often seek out new forms of information, and in fact this is one of their most common reasons for journeying the Inner planes. To experience new environments, and broaden their knowledge.
The most important form of education among Ethergaunts is magical, and the development of magical knowledge and power go hand in hand. It is a rare Ethergaunt that does not make some effort to advance its magical knowledge early in life, and likely this continues throughout their endless existence.
Government
Now, the system by which Ethergaunts run their society is very complex. The simplest part is their relations with others, which runs simply as manipulate, enslave, or destroy as needed to accomplish objectives. However, within their society, the castes must be organized and they must work together as a group. Mostly this happens in two castes. The Blacks develop overarching goals for all castes below them and the Ethergaunt race as a whole. They may participate in the realization of these goals, or they may not. Blacks from various different enclaves communicate together, and decide by what I must assume is equal voting among their members (though I was hardly privy to their counsels and certainly you thralls could never understand anyways). From the grand sweeping racial objectives to all Ethergaunts two different things happen. The Grays assimilate these instructions and take their own actions as a caste, not working with anyone else, unless they appropriate them, as they will. For the rest, the Whites interpret these goals and develop localized objective regimens and timetables that are to be fulfilled, and they continuously update these. Then they instruct Blues and Reds on their tasks within this scope.
In a militant setting Blacks act as generals, Whites as officers, and Blues and Reds as rank and file. Grays serve as unattached specialists. At least, this is the best reference I can provide for thralls. The truth is undoubtedly quite a bit more complex.
History
Like all their knowledge, the history of the Ethergaunts is kept within Spell Cubes, and is therefore inaccessible to all non-ethergaunts. However, though no specific aspects of their past were ever revealed to me, there are certain things most Ethergaunts did and did not know that allow some reasoning assumptions about their history.
Different castes have different levels of knowledge for one, and in particular, no caste is ever aware of past revolts among their caste against superiors, though they assuredly happened. Likewise, failures of members of higher castes are not revealed to those below, unless as some form of object lesson where the blame can be placed on religious devotion among the thralls. Therefore it is likely the Blacks have the only complete history of the Ethergaunts, and that they are the only ones who know the true origins of their race.
I suspect that Ethergaunts do not create false history; they simply leave glaring gaps in what they tell the lower castes. While even these are brilliant enough to know that certain things are being left out, they maintain confidence that those with superior reasoning capability have done so for a reason they cannot legitimately fathom.
Religion
There is obviously no religion among the Ethergaunts, they are totally divorced from their gods. I once believed this was the direction my people should take, but I now believe it is the complete opposite. This is the only weakness the Ethergaunts have that might be reasonably exploited. They lack a religion, though the lower castes often look on the Blacks in a manner similar to the way thralls look upon the divine. It should be remembered however that all Ethergaunts are far too intelligent to ever confuse the two; it is simply a comparison only.
Ethergaunts despise religion in others, considering it a decided falsity of reasoning, and a terminal waste of resources. In some ways they have made a cultural philosophy, which many might call a religion, out of being opposed to religion. However, without comprehending the brain of an Ethergaunt as fully as I understand that of a thrall, I cannot understand how this affects them.
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"Warfare"
The Warfare of Ethergaunts
Lexillo
The most important task then falls to me, to explain to the mortal mind how the Ethergaunts wage their destructive campaigns. I can say only some few things, and have little true knowledge. They are wise to observers from the Ethereal, but my skills are not without capability, and they seem to not care much that I should watch their activities. So, I have seen the Ethergaunts at war, I have not fought against them, I doubt there is anything in this multiverse that has yet fought the Ethergaunts in war and been victorious. Indeed, I know that fiendish and undead armies both have been destroyed by them. Perhaps the Clockwork Horrors, which my kind have long contained, may stop them, unless it is true that they have created them. In that case even the unbridled power of the balance may well fail against such a union of forces.
To begin, when trying to understand the warfare of the ethergaunts you must realize that their base soldier is the Red. Thralls are not considered in the equation as anything more than tools, or accessories. It is the Reds who are the true warriors. Now, imagine a force where every soldier is better than all but skilled weapons-masters, stronger in magic than all but a few of your military mages, possessed of villainous powers and technology for which you have no counter whatsoever, and more brilliant than anyone on your side. This is the Ethergaunt war machine. An eternal patient, utterly brilliant, and completely unstoppable juggernaut of death. They will determine your best tactics and counter them mercilessly, they will find a way to strike that exploits their abilities and rips your counters apart completely.
I will list some tactics they favor, taken from a campaign I observed against a mighty elven empire of the prime. These elves had many skilled swordsmen and mages, and even bladesingers who practiced both arts well. Their average soldier was far more talented than any human nation I have ever seen, and they were populous and potent. They outnumbered the Ethergaunts attacking them at least ten to one. Yet they fell completely, without leaving behind any survivors.
At the fortresses of the elves Ethergaunts would appear from the Ethereal, dispelling any protections that sought to block them. They would open their masks and use their enslave powers as quickly as possible, destroying the minds of others and setting elves against other elves. They might take strikes in return, but they would simply fade back to the Ethereal when hurt, ready to return in a short time and healed. As they did this they would identify spellcasters, and force their thralls to strike them. The thralls usually failed, but the elves always had to kill their own kindred. The Ethergaunts continued this, dividing their forces so they could materialize small groups constantly, and doing so everywhere elves were stationed. Always causing casualties, even if only the deaths of the thralls. If the elves concentrated them they could not cover the whole fortress, and the Ethergaunts simply blew portions of it apart with spells. If they dispersed and sought to counterattack a Khen-Zai would simply kill the nearest soldiers and then leave. Even attempts to trap them on the material with spells failed, for then Whites would appear and allow the Reds to leave if the Reds attempt to dispel failed. They would then enslave or kill any spellcasters of such power. This kept on consistently, slowly whittling down the elves numbers for hours, as they could get no rest. Eventually they were completely exhausted, and in the depths of night the Ethergaunts struck the final blow.
They appeared from all directions, but always behind the nearest target, blasting through spell protections meant to keep them back. Each Red carried a doubt bomb and hurled it at the nearest spellcaster once he had cut apart his immediate target. Then they bathed the fortress in attack spells. Those few left alive were targeted by flying Ethergaunts with Etherblades, while arrows were easily warded away with spells, and those few that could breach them not enough in number, and by this time few retained the wit to use such weapons. Maddened elves, their minds only partially functioning, charged back at the Ethergaunts, only to discover the Reds could easily shrug away their swordsmanship while the Whites systematically obliterated them. In less than a minute all faded back to the Ethereal. Perhaps one in five elves yet remained alive, and many of these had become thralls. Those thralls would fall killing many of the last of their friends.
When this was done, those elves that remained had holed together in a single strongpoint, all sides covered, every last approach targeted. They were no longer trying to win, but to simply strike down as many Ethergaunts as they could before they died. Yet, they still held the advantage of numbers over the Ethergaunts, even if all of their spellcasters were gone.
A single Black would emerge from the Ethereal, cast a single spell, and obliterate all the elves in that strongpoint at a stroke. That finished them to the last.
Perhaps you see something of this warfare now. The Ethergaunts are patient, they are creative, they make use of all their abilities, and when faced with strength they simply respond with more strength. In war, no Ethergaunt army is ever outgunned or outspelled. If faced with vastly superior forces they will simply harass the opponent as long as possible, and eventually whittle the numbers down so that they can obliterate their enemy as they did to these elves. If you have the gall to chase them in the Ethereal they will cast spells from beyond the normal range of vision, or simply retreat to their citadels and let the hazards of an unfamiliar plane take their toll. In the best case for a mortal army, to find and lay siege to the enclave that attacks them, all Ethergaunts will respond. One world sent fifty thousand demon-supported warriors against a single enclave that held one thousand Ethergaunts. The Khen-Zai leaders waited for the foe to envelope the complex, and then attacked from all sides with one hundred thousand ethergaunts.
There is as yet simply no way to stop them, but the attempt must always be made. The only way to oppose Ethergaunts is to concentrate efforts upon inflicting casualties with desperate urgency. All other objects are irrelevant. Terrain and tiredness mean nothing to them; wounds are healed within minutes on the Ethereal, items created again easily, thralls infinitely replaceable. Their intelligence cannot be matched, but simplicity and shear willpower may attempt to stand against the war machine of the Ethergaunts, though as yet none have had the strength to face their gazes.
In Summary
Alni Swirlsen
It is hoped that the information we have presented will prove useful, even if it is not very hopeful on the face of it. It seems there may be little that can be done against the Ethergaunts from what we have learned, but that only highlights the need for concern and information. The numbers of the Ethergaunts grow swiftly, and fall only very slowly. If concern is not raised and united action does not occur, there may be nothing left of the Prime Material plane in a few centuries. The wise will recognize just how short a time that is.
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"Obelisk in Void"
The Obelisk in Void
Site
Hearsay: Some Inner Planar travelers whisper that the Ethergaunts have placed a grand obelisk in the plane of vacuum from which to conduct experiments. They experiments have to do with the nature and manipulation of emptiness, and some whisper that the Khen-Zai are trying to determine how to properly utilize prime worlds they've cleansed, or maybe how to merge the emptiness of wildspace will the flaming phlogiston, and just burn clear all the prime worlds of the multiverse. Thankfully, the Ethergaunts here aren't hostile, heck they're even sort of approachable, if you go about it the right way.
Description: The Obelisk in Void is indeed an Ethergaunt experimental site. The actual obelisk is made of force, and has insured the absolute purity of the vacuum zone inside, which not even the Ethergaunts enter to avid contamination. The actual habitations of the resident Ethergaunts is a pyramid structure that floats next to the force creation.
The purpose of the obelisk is unclear, but is seems to be being used for strange experiments regarding emptiness. There's supposedly a Gray Ethergaunt in charge of the whole place, though it appears to outsiders that a small groups of Whites is actually running the show. All in all there are ten whites, fifty blues, and one hundred reds stationed here, though the number may fluctuate slightly in order to account for Ethergaunts currently exploring out in Vacuum or traveling to other enclaves. There are over three hundred thralls that just sit out in the vacuum around the obelisk, observing anyone who comes in and acting as a defense and labor force in need. Most of these thralls are creatures that don't need to breathe. Many are air elemental types, such as djinn or sylphs, but others like Azer and various mephitis are common as well.
The Obelisk itself is one hundred feet across at the base and over five hundred feet tall, a most impressive magical construction. There are usually about thirty ethergaunts moving about it, fastening various strange technological devices to the outside or casting spells upon it.
The mossy growth known as the Egarus cannot pass within three hundred yards of any part of the whole expanse. It is unknown how this effect is achieved.
History: The Obelisk in Void was established about ten years ago, and was created from absolutely nothing within a day. The Ethergaunt enclave just seemed to appear the next day from someplace else. Since then the Ethergaunts have been acquiring thralls and doing their strange experiments. No one is really sure what this is all for, but everybody can tell it has big implications, this is the most concentrated group of Ethergaunts anyone's ever found on the Inner Planes after all.
Five years ago a bunch of vacuum quasielementals decided they didn't like the Obelisk and tried to destroy it. The Ethergunats massacred them mercilessly, its said that five hundred elementals died that day, for the cost of four red ethergaunts and two hundred thralls. The quasielementals haven't tried since.
Special Features: The most important thing about this place is that the Ethergaunts aren't hostile, indeed, they are willing to entertain any number of travelers, especially those who bring food, which makes taking care of the thralls easier, since the Ethergaunts hate trying to bother themselves. A White Ethergaunts that allows itself to be called Blank Hand meets with outsiders. Blank Hand is more powerful than other Whites, being a very skilled wizard, but the White seems pleasant enough. It speaks through a dominated slyph. The Ethergaunts may request certain services of outsiders, and their requests are essentially demands without a probability of survival attached, but they'll entertain all sorts of babble and requests in return, so someone who needs to deal with Ethergaunts could do a lot worse than coming here.
Not everybody gets off so easily though; some who have traveled to the Obelisk in Void simply disappear, and cannot be located or restored by the most powerful of magic. No one but the Ethergaunts is aware of this, yet those people have been put inside the obelisk. Anyone inserted through the force walls is utterly obliterated and cannot be brought back by any spells, artifact or other means short of direct deific intervention (and even that's an iffy prospect since no divine pacts govern the Khen-Zai). The Ethergaunts appear to be researching the powers and potential of this absolute destruction effect.
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"Ethergaunt Devices"
http://www.planewalker.com/050406/ethergaunt-devices
Ethergaunt Devices
Submitted by Nemui on Wed, 04/06/2005 - 06:00
Members of the mysterious Khen-Zai race, better known as "ethergaunts", are never encountered without a number of devices of such technological complexity that no non-ethergaunt could ever hope to use them. Some of the devices are partially or entirely implanted into an ethergaunt’s body and do not function if removed; others can be removed but are coded so that they self-destruct if tempered with. Some of these devices duplicate the effects of magical or psionic items, but they are entirely mundane. Well, a better term would be non-magical, because there is nothing “mundane” about their effects. Note: Ethergaunts were originally mentioned in the Fiend Folio, and further developed at the Bone-Box Rattler.
Datapad: A datapad is usually an implant, but can also be seen as separate device, connected to an ethergaunt’s mask somehow. It is almost exclusively used by the white ethergaunts, granting them access to the immense databases of the ethergaunt race stored somewhere on the Ethereal. By consulting the datapad for 2d6 rounds, an ethergaunt can gain a +10 bonus on the next Craft or Knowledge check it attempts.
Deflector: Black ethergaunts are not combatants, and thus never wear etherarmor suits. They instead have small projectors attached or implanted which grant them a deflection bonus to AC equal to two times their Charisma modifier. They have the same bonus on all saving throws, as a resistance bonus. Also, a deflector’s activity can be enhanced (as a free action) so that it protects the ethergaunt with a spell turning effect; this use consumes great amounts of energy and thus can be used for up to 10 rounds per day, divided in any way.
Doubt Bomb: This small ceramic sphere contains a chemical mixture intended to over-stimulate the “doubt centers” in the brain. The bomb can be thrown as a grenade-like weapon, and it can be used with an offset of up to 1 minute. When it detonates, it creates a cloud of poisonous gas in a 10-ft. spread in the first round and a 20-ft. spread in the next (in the third round it dissipates harmlessly). Creatures in the area are exposed to a contact poison: initial and secondary damage 1d6 Wisdom, Fort DC 15 negates. Ethergaunts are immune to the effect of doubt bombs.
Etherarmor: Red and white ethergaunts are protected by a thin suit of armor, highly flexible yet highly resistant. It grants a +6 armor bonus to AC and entails no armor check penalty. Its maximum Dexterity bonus is +9. Additionally, the suit provides energy resistance 5 against all types of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic). An etherarmor is always an item of masterwork quality.
Etherblade: Resembling a short glaive topped with a hollow barrel, this favored weapon of the red and white ethergaunts can produce a ray of force as a ranged touch attack for 1d10 points of damage. The range increment is 40 ft. It can fire 50 times before the ethergaunt needs to recharge it at a special power source. Alternatively, the etherblade can be used as a melee weapon. It can be configured to deal slashing or piercing damage, and to act as a standard two-handed weapon, a reach weapon, or a double weapon, according to personal preference. An etherblade is usually connected to the ethergaunt’s mask via a thin cord, which can be attacked as a Tiny object (hardness 5, hit points 10). If the cord is severed, the ethergaunt not only loses the +4 attack roll bonus provided by the mask (see below), but also suffers a -2 penalty on attack rolls with the etherblade until the cord is repaired. An etherblade is always an item of masterwork quality.
Jaunt Cube: An ethergaunt holding this small rectangular device can activate it by making a DC 20 Knowledge (the planes) check as a standard action. When activated, it shifts the ethergaunt and all willing creatures within 15 ft. from the Ethereal Plane to the Material Plane, or back again as a free action. The jaunt cube can remain on the Material Plane for up to 10 minutes before automatically returning to the Ethereal Plane to replenish its energy supply from the ether (which takes about a minute).
Mask: This device is directly connected with the ethergaunt’s super-developed brain and countless facial sensory organs. While worn, it filters the atmosphere, altering it to suit an ethergaunt’s breathing requirements; it provides immunity to inhaled poisons, cloudkill, or similar effects. Furthermore, the mask grants a +4 enhancement bonus on ranged attack rolls with an etherblade, and the ethergaunt also has blindsight out to 60 ft. and blindsense out to 120 ft. In other words, creatures within 60 ft. of an ethergaunt with active sensors is perfectly located regardless of concealment or other visibility conditions, while between 60 and 120 ft. creatures are located but not perfectly – invisible creatures have concealment (20% miss chance). See the Monster Manual for a more precise definition of blindsight and blindsense.
Slave Controller: Ethergaunts have the natural ability to enslave lesser beings, but are unable to maintain control over many specimens at the same time. When they want to “put away” their slaves, they attach this small plastic device to their head or chest, and the enslaved creature’s mind is automatically placed in stasis. It no longer counts against the ethergaunts limit of enslaved creatures, but it can be reactivated at a later time. The creature will respond only to a predetermined command issued by an ethergaunt. During the stasis, the creature’s body needs no sustenance and ages slowly; its mind is kept well preserved and under control. It is thought that ethergaunt enclaves hold large stashes of slaves in stasis, stored away and possibly forgotten.
Transport Grid: This device appears to be a small sheet of metallic foil. To activate it, an ethergaunt must first spread it over a 10-ft. square and calibrate it properly, which requires 1 minute. Once set up, the grid can be used either to transport the creature stepping onto it to a previously designated destination (as greater plane shift, usually to a safe location within an ethergaunt compound), or to call in 1-4 previously designated creatures (as gate, usually calling a team of 4 red ethergaunts). A transport grid can be used once every 2d4 minutes. If the ethergaunt wishes to alternate between the two modes, the grid must be recalibrated, which takes another minute.