Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Inevitables

[Music] hey there everyone AJ back again for the mighty glue stick channel I make videos about Dungeons & Dragons lawful time and have a collection of hundreds of monster ecology and strategy videos on my channel if you like what I do please consider becoming a member of the channel or backing me on patreon and subscribing to be here as I upload at least twice a week the plains of lore the forces of order the powers that govern the structure of the planes of existence in today's video I'll be talking at some length about the inevitable and the inexorable Xand the Aeons so I'll be crossing the stream and incorporating both D&D across multiple additions and settings and Pathfinder second edition and Matt Colville strongholds and followers I'll also talk about the planet Earth in our prime material plain and a strictly hypothetical fantasy sense with a little fun theory you may choose to incorporate in your games as a little bit of a mind bender after all the new land race of humans on the planet of torille we're originally from Planet Earth according to the official law so let's explore that a little bit there's a lot which I don't include in this video which I'll be covering in subsequent videos in this sort of series on the forces of law and good and stuff I must stress that a lot of the stuff I'll talk about unless I am quoting from official sources is entirely optional elements you can include in your campaigns so I'll be riffing on my own ideas about things as well as the official stuff if you're a fan of the war forged outside of Iran you'll love the stuff I include towards the end of this video one question I've been asked many times is in a multiverse where the forces of chaos and evil are so prevalent and destructive so widespread and actively seeking to expand their influence why are the forces of law order and good so passive and seemingly aloof from the pro Material Plane could they not just bring their full power to bear and deal with these planes of evil and chaos once and for all well they did sort of a large faction of the Angels did go on a massive crusade dragon magazine issued 341 which I'll be drawing from extensively published and March 2006 the ecology of the inevitable spy David Noonan talks about this event from the perspective of scholarly works in the game world and I quote by the standards of the Aeons old multiverse the rise of the inevitable z' is a relatively recent occurrence some historical text most notably accounting of the realms beyond but Gant thrust the elder and versus of the blood war by henna cloth are traced their emergence to 10,000 years ago significantly this coincides with the descent of the drow on the world of torille the first serous war which saw the aquatic empires of the sea of fallen stars thrown into chaos and ruin this whole era for the next thousand years is really the story of the fall of the elven and woven civilizations paving the way for the ascent of humanity meanwhile and the outer Plains at this time angelic creatures called F enacts resided in the plane of mechanists they were both ambitious and obsessed with justice the effing acts raised enormous armies and stormed out of McKenna's to wage a crusade across the plains bringing vast swathes of the multiverse under the rigid code of law according to the Gantt rose the elder the gods themselves put an end to the Great Crusade and according to leather it was even more widespread with an unprecedented alliance of convenience among the fiends of the lower plains and the archons angels in a ladrón of the upper Plains whatever the case the last effin act disappeared some 10,000 years ago the multiverse wasn't something of a lawless disarray in the wake of this era of conflict and then appearing amidst the spinning and gargantuan gears of McKenna's these huge fortress like crash forges were observed exactly where they came from who constructed them neither ganz Russ the elder or her necklace are can identify within a certainty most modern scholars assumed Primus has something to do with it but then why would he not just make them part of his modren race I quite like to flip over to Pathfinder here and incorporate the concept of the Aeons the best way to describe them is the body of beings of various types who serve the monad and the monad is the universal concept that all law serves all existence and in a perfect state of law everything is part of one system serving one purpose with all else being perfectly functional parts of it if I take the example of the dark power from Ravenloft over God eh oh and the cosmic powers beyond that he answers to or some of the fundamentally ancient and powerful primordial x' in the multiverse the boundary between a fundamental physical law of the multiverse and the most powerful entities of the multiverse are extremely blurry we as role players like to and Throop amorphous eyes these things because it makes them more interesting story elements the monad is law the ions are manifestations of aspects of law and the massive factories deep within mechanists thrummed with activity and remained a total mystery for a full decade before observers sought the emergence of the very first inevitable for the first century they all look the same as they marched out and they were called than my roots if I can digress here for a moment and interject a fun little concept our planet Earth is a part of D and E law it's not our reality of course this is just make-believe DM d earth our planet is basically a dead magic zone in the game and the laws of physics are very dominant there is no wild space or phlogiston either so earth can't really be reached by spell jamming D&D space travel however it can be reached by our magical portals we know from the law that deity earth was plundered of people from two time periods in Earth's ancient Middle East some 5400 years ago on torille by the emissary Empire after a great plague wiped out quite a lot of their population the earth people were brought over for the next four centuries they were relatively easy pickings because no earth humans had any command of magic eventually the slave population began to enter Mary with the emissary giving rise to the Milan ethnicity on torille well the emissary Empire was ruled over by artifice of Lords it was an age of technology and magic much like the rise of lanten and its production of shield golems to smoke powder and other technological wonders the humans of Earth were no good with magic but they contributed to the wondrous late period of their muscari Empire which saw some amazing construction and feats of engineering look around our planet and the absence of magic and the influence of law it seems we're naturally inclined towards industry technology and Automation it seems very likely that we will develop artificial intelligence and ever more advanced robotics and cybernetics now look at Dungeons & Dragons and the ultimate exemplars of law the Machine entities which are the inevitable x' the Machine plane of mechanists now imagine a war forged warlock whose patron is actually an inevitable or a wolf woods cleric of the monad who views both organic and inorganic life is nothing more than different aspects of machines equally perfect but best when combined like their own life form imagine playing a human with an extra dimensional background origin being our own planet though offset as we are from the current fourth edition timeline so torille 1492 dr is actually the year 1750 ad on earth which is just prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution steam engines indoor plumbing well before interchangeable parts of manufacturing styles bicycles and the various industrial machines but still not primitive and knowledge was being condensed and widely distributed thanks to the printing press so you could easily feasibly make a character who blended in well with a fantasy world like torille it's not too big of a stretch okay back to the inevitable unfortunately fifth edition only gives one example and it's very specific to the city of sigil and yeah this should never have been called a Merritt I'll go further to say this version is certainly not going to survive if we get a sixth edition of the game because it's not founded in the rich lore of the game so it has no logical underpinning and falls apart if you try to expand on it in a campaign so yeah I treat this monster listing as an advanced clockwork of type of golem not an inevitable though inevitable czar not gods the power that is incorporated into their workings is divine not arcane though first creatures of ultimate law they can actually break the rule themselves no a far superior version of them is to be found in the Pathfinder second edition be story but I am less interested in the raw stats of these creatures and would rather focus on what they are and how they operate so here is a list of the no and inevitable x' there's a few and pathfinder that I need to cover in later videos I will touch on strongholds and followers as well with the inexorable x' afterwards merits most common look like red eyed and living giants carved from a single piece of polished pure on its stone with no discernible joints or seams though they move with the stone somehow flexing and bending smoothly at a minimum of 12 feet tall they are massive broad and heavy enchanted construction of seemingly divine origin merits where golden armor with wide plates on the shoulders and armbands they speak only in response to direct questioning except when relaying messages given to them and they understand all languages merits enforced cosmic law and ascent out with a specific target programmed into them when they emerge from the fortress crash of McKenna's they are basically memory wiped and it takes them a bit of trial and practice to learn how to interact with other beings of the multiverse but they are intelligence and they do learn and develop a unique personality based on their experiences and the performance of their duty so think of the Terminator robots they have a learning CPU so does the merit and other inevitable x' all inevitable x' share these same traits they are lawful neutral they don't have a sense of humor they are immune to any magic or effect that would alter their physical form they are also immune to any magical effect which would hamper their movement they have true sight and they can sense if a creature or phenomenon they can perceive as chaotic they are very bothered by chaos and also don't like magic they typically do not have any bonus to save versus any magic other than that which have already described they all self repair they do not require food water air or sleep and they never suffer from exhaustion nor can they be affected by poison or disease some complain shift under their own power such as the merit and corot and vera coot others must seek out natural portals and means of transport such as the gsella coot and cold yao route they absorb information like a sponge and had perfect recall plus they usually spend a long time away from the Forge crashed on mission after mission but they eventually do return and will be reprogrammed losing their personality and memories once again which they have no problem with it is their purpose which matters not their individuality I'll just quote the 1 d 4chan wiki descriptions of the different inevitable z' that they have listed there as they do a fine job condensing the lord down the merit is tasked with hunting down those who cheat death and delivering them to the end they escaped as such the enemies of the merit are beings like liches necromancer's cult leaders extremely long-lived wizards those who restore the dead back to life over and over and this can bring them into direct conflict with those who bring adventurers back to life through resurrection and raise dead or for anyone who is using necromancy to raise the dead as minions merits our patient in their hunts biding their time until they are ready to strike because of the solitary nature of many of the targets merits have little opportunity to practice their social interactions and as such are the slowest to develop personalities what 5th edition is calling a merit is actually the role of the Chaldea roots which are designed to uphold oaths both spoken and written they appear like humanoid constructs made of black metal they often have a half-finished look with many exposed parts jutting out here and there the heads often have the back exposed and two glowing red eyes look forward from the skull Kalea roots tracked down earth breakers and used intimidation magic or outright force to browbeat someone and to upholding their bargain they will only kill if it is part of the bargain in question otherwise they use spells like suggestion or guess in order to get the job done kaalia root hold all Baggins to be equal in their importance from the repayment of a mandatory debt to the promise of an extradimensional horror to destroy the gods you can see the book elder evils for details on this one they are the most talkative kind of inevitable you could say they're almost diplomatic they often speak with people in places where Earth's are normally sworn such as courts of royalty or law temples and other such places as such they returned back to the forge crashes regularly they do not differentiate between those who have no intent on upholding their oaths those who unwillingly break their oaths or those who are not able to uphold the oaths for some reason if possible they first inform the targets of them being in breach if they are willing to uphold their oaths all parts of the earth the colder it will make sure that they to those less willing are made to uphold their bargain through force or magic but if the coal Europe discovers that both parties do not keep their ends of the bargain it treats the bargain as void and dismisses it the choir route are tasked with delivering justice to those who mental and time and relative dimensions in space causing rippling effects that distort space and all other kinds of magic babble stuff you normally see on Doctor Who or the antics of the gods it's an important note that the inevitable z' do not mess with the actions of the gods the foes of the quote are potent indeed and as such they keep their distance until their better understanding of their quarry they often engage their foes by matter of proxies interrogate associates and minions and seek weaknesses in their foes through their support networks while the queries are formidable and battle the easiest way to deal with them is to determine what they want to fix and the damage you've done this is often easier said than done it may require anything up to and including time-travel to undo some calamity quirch look like warped marionettes with slender brown frames and complex green gold plating they tend to employ magic in order to gain the upper hand in battle even spells like wish and time stop in order to seize their targets they seem to conveniently ignore the fact that the use of these spells is what they've created in the first place to combat zelich hoot are sent or shaped beings with porcelain skin golden clockwork mechanical wings and long-bladed chains that extend from their forearms quite spectacular looking they're tasked with hunting down fugitives of the law to either bring them in for their proper punishment or if deem necessary carry out the death sentence they escaped for this they employ the long chains to disarm and incapacitate foes then either use spells like mark of justice or Gish to ensure compliance failing that they simply kill their quarry they are the fastest animals as well their legs and wings allowing them superior speed to chase those who would deny justice Zelikow take a more intense approach to their search as they question passes by with impunity and will resort to violence if they think that the being that the questioning is holding out more experienced elekid observe those they've interrogated if they're being lied to because of the frequent and intense interactions with people they develop the personalities the fastest of all the inevitable z' and as such visit their crest forges very regularly and hide root or waste crawlers are from the 3.5 Edition sandstorm sourcebook they charge with the sacred duty of hunting down and killing anyone who tries to irrigate a desert and then named the unhide Hrant to make sure there's no confusion about what its purposes they're likely to be all sorts of other native balls that have similar roles for different natural environments they look like a cross between a tank and a scorpion one of the most potent and rare kinds of inevitable the Verret coat are meant to uphold the divine order all those who seek to destroy the gods or become one themselves will eventually get into conflict with these potent beings they're the most lethal of their kind employing powerful magic and physical prowess in order to destroy their enemies those were the legitimate bid for godhood eventually come to blows with the Vera cute but beings who only think they do as pre pretty much safe well a Vera coot is powerful it's likely no match for a God to be in single combat instead they aim at artifacts followers and other sources of a power or reverence for the wannabe God chipping away at them there are only a few ways to stop a very coot by destroying it or to ensure that you no longer have a bid for godhood or by actually becoming a god if one were to become a demigod or more you become part of the order the Vera coot is sworn to protect and as such are no longer a valid target Vera coot looked the most alien of the bunch their bodies have sharp geometric shapes with elongated pyramids for arms instead of legs the torso terminates in a single geometric point the head is a flat disc on top of a raised tube giving an alien and inorganic appearance and Pathfinder they're similar inevitable to those mentioned plus many more arbiters are the least of the inevitable race appearing as clockwork orbs dominated by a single eye with two small hands and a pair of metallic feathered wings that keep them aloft they serve the Neville's as scouts and diplomats spreading through the cosmos and keeping an eye on the forces of chaos also striving to do events people to adhere to the principles of order to this end they often allow themselves to serve as familiars too powerful mages lecture routes are powerful enables charged with preserving the balance of reality by enforcing the stability of the planes themselves this doesn't mean they punish every Condor or planeswalker neither summoning creatures nor visiting other plants nor even the occasional creation of a pocket plane or hijacking of a chunk of one reality to serve as a base within another this doesn't concern them these are pity infringement that ultimately make a little to the multiversal balance No the lecture which charges to keep the plane as a whole separate and distinct from other planes what concerns them as wide-scale planet integration such as the formation of a permanent link between planes or a wide-scale interplanet invasion on a must race this is by non day effort beings a typical lecture road is a six-armed construct that appears to be made of a mix of metals and stone where a human would have legs that instead possesses a complex orb of spinning rings similar in shape to an R Airy it is this whirling machine that grants the lecturer at the ability to fly for other constructs arms indan functional hands that it normally uses to carry a mix of weapons the lecture it's lower to two arms hold large flaming metal spheres in the hands it uses these spheres to generate elemental bolts of energy that it can heal great distance to damage foes caster moots are an inevitable breed of who resemble clockwork statues of dwarves who many have speculated about a deeper meaning behind us in essence they are embodiments of conservatism accustomed oats charges protecting the civilizations traditions and customs they oppose sudden radical changes in the course of the cultures traditions and work to prevent the destruction of an established belief system rights in social customs that said like lecture it's they do have the ability to prioritize a petulant child resisting his parents teachings there was no attention from this creature even fundamental shifts in the beliefs shared by a large group of people's is allowed so long as they progress along the lines of a normal cultural development this is an extremely nuanced body of law what customers do work against our immediate substantial changes such as when a new ruler outlaws and nations long-standing religion and seeks to wipe out practice of the old faith in favor of a new one especially if the new religion has no precedent turning slowly from old ways to new ones can be part of a natural order but violently rebelling against tradition practices in favor of untested systems gives rise to chaos both in the Metro Material Plane and in the upper Plains which the powers of the monad cannot abide her carry oats and empower us are two sides of the same coin both are enforced with preserving order by preventing riots revolutions and other sudden violent changes in government the difference is how they tackle both both appear as impose UNS strongly built humanoid statues of stone but the high carrier to specifically focus on putting down the riot and the imperio focuses on preventing riots by rooting out governmental and competence and corruption despite their appearance and reputation as blunt objects that exist to simply crush revolutions by force not helped by the huge hammers that they carry her carry oats are neither dumb nor as single-minded as a cherries using a sledgehammer when a scalpel will do only serves the forces of chaos as such I carry its prefer to talk first and dissuade rebels and rioters and a force to violence prefer to subdue non-lethal II rather than massacre their foes they typically take the attitude of a stern parents scolding a naughty child but if things are serious enough they're not afraid to make more dramatic points by pulverizing stubborn demagogues and parry oats are similarly flexible by inevitable standards they understand that a lack of give-and-take or an all stick approach will only worsen the problem Stern but usually fair they tend to prefer to a subtle approach a diplomatic approach a political approach to the corrupt or incompetent rulers who if it's called them forth and try to redeem them if redemption is impossible they will publicly dethrone them and see their replacement with a better candidate no vet naruse are one of the stranger inevitable models these inevitable czar charged with overseeing cultures that have developed a tradition of honor dueling whenever mortals will settle metals of dispute through honorable combat Nova narrates are subtly dispatched to protect the sanctity of these jewels though understandably they usually focus on conflicts or jewels that have higher stakes such as an honorable battle that determines the fate of a kingdom they take their appearance of silver and green suits of samurai armor overlaying a clockwork endoskeleton with their blank face save for six green gemstone like eyes Claire Roma's are a manifestation of the duality of creation and destruction their physical manifestation is a constant state of flux between these two poles they forms a shifting cloak of black where galaxies and other celestial objects flit in and out of existence as if depicting the constant life death and rebirth of a miniature self contained in universe pleura MERS see the multiverse as both eternal and cyclic all doomed and malleable ending only if these cycles ever become unbalanced they believe the current convergence of reality is necessary to obtain this essential balance that the the current multiverse earnest is in a state of pivotal flux the end of a cycle and the birth of a new one and act to ensure that the grand design of the monad is carried out to the smallest detail they are formidable opponents with the ability to generate spheres of creation and destruction a wide array of divine spells immunity to positive or negative energy and the ability to mentally communicate with any other Aeon or in inevitable in the same plane as itself so they're kind of the commanders-in-chief Val Herod's have no greater purpose they are the oldest form of inevitable serving as soldiers of the actual fighting forces of McKenna's in fighting an endless battle against the powers of chaos they appear as forearmed Blanc featured humanoid statues of marble and you will see them employed on mass if there's ever an outbreak of demons or of chaotic forces the far realm or anything like that within mechanis itself the planes of order and if it all beings lightly retired in pathfinders second edition getting folded into the Aeons who move to the lawful neutral strictly lawful neutral the state of reasons for this is that the creators disliked using a concept that was neither their creation nor drawn from mythology so the shifting away from traditional D&D which is fair enough the team that crafts their Monsters has absolutely nothing to worry about their back quite brilliant and I look forward to a showcasing more Pathfinder creatures in future videos finally met Colville's strongholds and followers and next rebels these are what the inevitable should have been for 5th edition really and while they are fairly simple they do make a lot more sense also the names are entirely descriptive of what the inexorable and question does we have space these enforce the laws of space they'll tell you that the fundamental theorem admits virtual dimension transmissions the score mental image or somesuch they're fairly formidable combatants while they may put a stop to any effects that grant teleportation or additional movement they themselves can make 3s slam attacks per round and have a movement speed of 40 feet like all the in extra balls they suffer from disadvantage on also throws against spells but they're pretty tough the death inexorable enforces entropy and the end of things but can also prevent an untimely death or end to a thing at the start of each of deaths turns Undead within 10 feet of it take 10 force damage automatically and it has a special area of effect anti-death pulse or anti undeath pulse that it can unleash as well as lots of SLAM attacks plus it has a spell like ability to cast death ward three times per day otherwise just a tough construct change has wheel feet and is a bit like a cross between a dune buggy and the center it can hold javelins and prevents medical healing at close range it fights the revenge magical alteration of the course of events that includes magical repair of wounds fate can hover and fly has a special power called the light of Destiny and exerts its power to remove chance and randomness so in game terms that removes dice rolls and instead assigns averages to everything which is actually the most interesting feature of all the inexorable z' and would probably pair well with the powers and abilities of other types if they ever work together in the same encounters which they very rarely do time looks like an hourglass surrounded by arms holding a metal loop it can haste itself take extra turns and Leisha ferocious flurry of SLAM attacks prove prevent bonus actions and reactions but still as otherwise just a tough melee opponent I think in nature the last of these inexorable is listed as the most likely to be encountered by player characters particularly spellcasters because nature essentially works directly in opposition to magic with spell like abilities to cast banishment and counter spell plus the ability to take a second try it's melee at slam attacks hitting opponents just by making a wisdom saving through plus it grants nearby allies advantage on saving throws and well I think it's just one of the coolest looking of the bunch you can see the divine light of law sizzling within its perfectly constructed cogs wheels joints and internal components plated in complex highly durable polished metal alloy armor just look spectacular I would encourage you to use these stat blocks as basic concepts as a base listing that you can then enhance with further features and abilities of the enables found in early editions particularly second edition in 3.5 edition law and of course if you want to adapt the various enables which I haven't mentioned from Pathfinder okay returning to the dragon magazine article there are some additional details on the day-to-day existence of the individuals and I quote inevitable 's have no culture of their own they're too single-minded to fit well in the societies of other creatures a typical inevitable leads a lonely existence making friends only when convenient and having no enemies beyond the current target it's a creature of such singular purpose that emotions and moods are irrelevant although some inevitable z' do feel a vague brief sense of satisfaction when they carry out a mission successfully and enforce the cosmic law they were created to uphold the mind of an inevitable is a mind of a hunter willing to overcome any hardship endlessly patient and are perfectly able to put aside the self-awareness in personality to work in the service of the law in david Noonan's notes within the article he talks about the origin of the inevitable x' within the game's development and i quote when jeff grub bruce Cordell and I split up the writing duties for the 2001 manual of the plain source book I was lucky enough to get the monsters chapter at the time the only monsters anyone had were the ones in the monster manual because the third edition of D&D was less than a year old first I wanted to check for gaps in the existing supply of monsters to make sure that we had at least a starting point for adventures on every plane second I pored through the first and second edition sources looking for planar monsters that I could promote and to the new rules that said I saw a gap and the available denizens of McKenna's at the time before me an ant like race were the sole occupants of that plane they're great monsters but it strained the imagination to have for me ins and forcing laws chasing down criminals and meting out punishment from within their hives the same held true for the second edition mod roms eventually as I was at my desk flipping through the Planescape monstrous compendium appendix looking for good monsters I came across the mail route and it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine these guises and forces of the law because the inevitable czar lawful neutral I wanted them to function as enemies or allies thus their natural laws had to be laws that you could imagine player characters upholding or breaking depending on the circumstances so the laws and their associated inevitable were deliberately selected to be the ones most applicable to player characters don't try to cheat death don't break a contract don't escape justice don't mess with space and time don't mess with the gods and so on well this video got pretty huge and I have to leave out of the additional linear bills to be found in COBOL presses creature codex hopefully there's enough interested in this video to expand on that with more information I do look forward to your thoughts on incorporating DD earth into your campaigns and cosmology and the comments section down below in a future video I'd like to talk about the human connection any of you who have watched the first episode of Mandalorian I'm happy to say that there's a an entire nightly order of mortals who emulate the inevitable z' as best they can because they see them as exemplars of how to deliver justice to the multiverse so it's quite possible to be a humanoid Knight player character saying eldritch night for instance maybe who is traveling the multiverse and every now and then in the course of your duties an inevitable will show up as your ally because you just happen to be on the same mission they are so it's kind of like in Warhammer 40k when all of a sudden the Dreadnought busts out and starts helping the Imperial Guard please hit the like button if you've made it this far subscribe if you like what I do check out my patreon if there's an exclusive content all the full scripts for these videos bias and merchandise we all geek with pride in always as always thanks for listening and I'll be back with more for you very soon [Music] you [Music]

Channel: AJ Pickett

Views: 80,284

Rating: 4.9429407 out of 5

Keywords: aj pickett, dungeons and dragons, mechanus, inevitables, inexorables, aeon, marut, outer planes, construct, divine, modron, primus, angels, celestials, cosmic law, fantasy, monsters, creatures, monster ecology, regulus, kolyarut, matt colville, pathfinder, 5E, 5th edition, 3.5 editio, dungeons & dragons, the mighty gluestick, forgotten realms, d&d lore, d&d 5e, d&d multiverse, dungeon master, role playing, role playing game, wizards of the coast, dungeons and dragons secrets, roleplaying game

Id: nW3mfX1gDb4

Length: 32min 9sec (1929 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 15 2019