What They Don't Tell You About Celestial Archons - D&D

the nine hells the demonic abyss the outer planes can be utterly terrifying with monsters of untenable evil who thirst for utter destruction there's also more to the outer planes than just planes of evil souls who pledge themselves to the gods of good find themselves on the upper plains utopias of green gardens beautiful harvests angelic servants and beautiful blue skies and none of these perfect worlds are as well known as the seven heavens of mount celestia a single impossibly tall mountain which holds seven different layers of lawful goodness in here you can find some of the most well-known gods like the dwarvish and the halfling pantheons and one of the most well-known dragons of all time and at the top of the mountain the greatest treasure that any soul could ever hope for but before we start i do want to plug my pdf once more for those of you who missed it on the last video so i have taken the time to write my very first pdf it's called what they don't tell you about dragon hordes a pdf focused on the sort of stuff that you just don't get to see much on traditional dungeons and dragons books see one of the biggest things that i wanted to give you guys was dragon harvesting since 5th edition hasn't really given us much in that front and it is something that i personally love and i know that you guys do as well dragons have a lot to offer their blood for example is incredibly potent it has tons of abilities like the lore is very specific about all the cool stuff that you can do with dragon's blood and so i wanted to bring that over to you guys in a format that then you could use in your games there's also tons of rituals that involve the brains of dragons the bones of dragons and of course even dragon hearts and much more and it's all in there i also added a portion of the chapter dedicated to dragon leather which always comes up in games you know when you kill dragons people always just want to skin them is it like a natural adventure behavior well we have tables that you can use to get leather out of dragons and then detailed descriptions of how much you need in order to make armor with it i've also made a bunch of magic items that relate to dragons many of which can be created using draconic parts and one of my favorite are dragon golems which has always existed in the lore but we were never given them in fifth edition which i thought personally that it was a shame you can indeed create dragon golems using their bones or imbuing their spirit onto rock or iron they are hella cool by the way we also have magic items that dragons can use and magic items exclusive for characters like dragonborn or dragon sorcerers really anyone who is draconic in nature including some legendary or even artifact level items dedicated for true dragons i've also created some subclasses i created a dragon warlock patron that i am in love with you can turn into a half dragon at the end of it using a ritual where you bathe in dragon blood it's really sick but i also and i wanted to talk about this one i created a barbarian subclass which focuses on fighting enormous creatures including of course dragons but it always bothered me how barbarians never wore hide armor how they would always just rather wear either half plate or literally just no armor at all and that did not sit right with me so i designed the barbarians that it would just not get extra benefits from height armor but also had tons of ways in which he could craft his own height armor out of the enemies that he defeated check it because i think this is really cool so the barbarian subclass can challenge a mighty beast on a one-on-one duel and there's of course a bunch of rules that have to be followed but if the barbarian wins following those rules he can craft height armor out of the leather of the beast that he just killed and get tons of benefits it's really cool there's of course a lot more i haven't even talked about the ranger subclass that i created which i think is also really cool but i just don't have the time if you're interested all you have to do is look below the video you will see the the pdf picture right there you can click that and it'll take you directly towards the shop where you can buy it and then when you do buy it they will send you a download link through the email where you can get the pdf if you don't see that picture down here the link is also in the description it'll take you also to the shop but anyways thank you guys and on to the video today we're going to talk about one of the heavens a topic that i have yet to bring up in any of my videos the first thing that you need to know is that mount silesia and many of the other heavens and other planes are very much just natural locations which conform to the nature of reality meaning god do not necessarily make the mountain and they don't really have as much power over it as you might think they have the mountain is the mountain and even the gods had to climb it when they first arrived in it now celestia comprises seven mountains which is really just a single unfathomably big mountain which holds six bluffs within it like a triangle-shaped lego piece each mountain is blocked off by a cloud of illuminated fog which grants light to the layer beneath it climbing the mountain is the whole point of the heaven and the whole reason why it is designed in the way that it is by attempting to climb the mountain you're meant to learn more about yourself to test yourself and improve yourself for if you don't you will fail every mountain is a test and every trail is an opportunity for you to self-improve and the idea is that as you progress higher and higher you will be a more perfect individual until you become absolutely pure and then reach the top now not everyone makes it to the top of course in fact the vast majority don't in fact in fact only an infinitesimal amount of people ever make it even past the fourth mountain the mount celestia is interesting because it is not the heaven that you might think it is this is not supposed to be the place where you lay down on a beach eating grapes as you are served drinks by an angel i mean think about it imagine a world created by that uptight lawful good paladin that just cannot seem to relax and everything is an offense against the greater good you know that paladin who refuses to drink or laugh the paladin who is always so serious about getting the quest done yeah imagine if that guy made a heaven the seventh heavens of mount celestia is not a place to relax and enjoy your afterlife it is a place of hardship and self-improvement it is a place of hard work and perseverance of course this mostly applies to the souls that travel here if you're a planner traveler you can of course just do whatever you want and we should probably talk a little bit more about that when a person dies who venerates a god which lives on the mountain you are taken into the first layer called lunia right at the bottom of the mountain every god of course has their own procedure as to what happens to you as a soul dwarves and dragons and halflings and some others have their own thing but if you venerate a human god or if you simply were you know a lawful good soul who just ended up here and then you're turned into what we call an archon specifically a lantern archon which is the first level it's just like you can have different levels of demons some being more powerful than others so too can an archon b and a lantern arkhan would be the equivalent of a larva in the lower plains and they literally just look like wisps this here is a good picture of it so that you can see it all the lantern archons look the same so you can't really even tell them apart now the the job of a lantern archon can indeed vary but all of them are inherently created with a desire to self-perfect and climb the mountain and it is with this task that they achieve the improvement necessary in order to progress into the stronger forms of archon now these guys have nothing to do with angels okay we just did a video on the abyss and i stressed it very clearly that even though they're all demons there can be multiple different races within that denotation and that also applies to celestials these two guys are not the same the term angel is simply a term used by humanoids to describe a human looking celestial with wings but in celestia and you don't even really use that term at all angels are called asimon and they're created from the very raw astral essence of a god which of course implies that there is some sacrifice that the god must do in order to create the angels which is why they are supposed to be much rarer and more powerful archons on the other hand are born from the souls of mortals who come here into the mountain now just how the abyss is filled with demons and the nine hells are filled with devils and mechanisms filled with mode runs so is alicia filled with archons in fact they are by far the most populous kind of creature in this entire realm and as a realm of law every single type of arkhan has its own job to fill lantern arkhans are considered to be sort of like the proto-archons like they're not really really archons yet and are treated like children which deserve guidance and good treatment but these archons strive to climb the mountain in order to self-improve and then evolve into the more powerful forms of archon at the end goal of every archon really is to transcend into becoming an asimon or become part of the realm itself of which most believe will happen once they reach the very top of the mountain now the shape that archons will take might surprise you a bit again because they're not really angels and so many of them don't look like angels as some of them do though the hound archons are typically the first evolution and are considered to be the first actual type of archons since lanterns are barely that these are heavily muscled with a head of canines they serve as the guardians the soldiers and the servants of the mountains their jobs vary a lot since they are one of the most populous of creatures in the realm so they kind of you know take on the bulk of the work that has to be done on the plane they greet guests that first make it into the mountain and also keep a watch over the lantern archons as they travel up the mountain a new hound arkhan would look like he had a collar made out of lead but as the archon performed good throughout his years and you know became more and more entwined with the ideals of goodness that color would change to different materials from lead to tin to brass to bronze then to silver to gold and lastly to platinum after that the arkham would be promoted into a warden archon the next iteration warden archons look like like this if they have ursine characteristics they are about the size of an ogre and are incredibly strong and their job is interesting though as they are considered to be watchers they would divine and look upon the mortal world while also being tasked to be the protectors of the gates between the different layers of the mountain similar to the hounds the wardens had colors and bracers that showcased their progression through the path of goodness and when they reached the platinum stage they knew soon that they would be called on to move on to the next path the path of the sword archon now this is what we're talking about the first actual angelic looking archon these guys are the leaders of the hound archons who they rule over and act as the enforcers of the laws of celestia basically they go around and protect people and make sure that the laws are being upheld these are like the police of the whole place they are the first type of arkhan who focuses on combat really and like the other archons as well the decorations of the carry are not actually physical as much as they are you know manifestations of the spirit of the archon which reflects how far they are into their path to perfection the low-ranked sore archons will go around and protect the civilization of the mountain but typically as soon as they reach you know the bronze stage or something a little bit higher they will be appointed into the role of messenger training for what was to become the next step in their evolutionary project sword archons evolve into trumpet archons which are the true emissaries of the gods see generally sword archons who become messengers will only be allowed to send messages around the upper planes perhaps as far as the outlands but never more a trumpet archons on the other hand get to go to the material plane which is a big huge huge deal remember these are not angels they are archons these are the things that the souls of the dead turn into when they reach mount silesia and arkhan being on the material plane is as much a big of a deal as devils or demons being on the material plane i mean you know how it is the meddling of godly supplicants on the material plane is considered to be a very delicate matter between gods further and get this because this is really important archons who die on the material plane they die forever which is of course the opposite from demons and devils who get to respawn back in their domains conversely though archons who die on mount silesia get to rebirth but that is why just a narcon going into the prime is a big deal anyways trumpet archons are meant to convey the messages of the gods or pretend they're coming or herald at the beginning of a war or simply bring news of the heavens onto the mortal realm further it is most likely that these are the guys that you actually get to talk to whenever you cast spells like divination though of course it depends on the spell at the spell commune for example very specifically says that you contact either a god or a proxy and you need to know this archons are not proxies the angels are proxies so you have to be careful there anyhow the main job of the trumpet archons though you will actually not believe these are the guys that escort you back into your body when your teammates resurrect you that's right when you die provided that you followed your god's tenants and you would have spawned on the lower sections of the mountain as a lantern archon but then when your teammates would resurrect you it would be the task of a trumpet archon to basically just carry you back into the mortal realm safely and presumably protecting you from anything that would want to snatch you on the way there you know sometimes divas would come in to help as well in order to protect both of you and the trumpet archon in the case that you know you're hoping to be resurrected in a wild place like the nine health now these guys do get to make it all the way over into the material plane thanks to their job but they are very explicitly told that they cannot intervene on anything that they see this is why you don't see these archons appear and help you out during your quest when you resurrect your party members in fact their restrictions are so tough that they're not even supposed to heal you doing so would break the covenant and get them punished back in heaven now the nature of the work that trump and archons do often leads them into trouble against their will whether it is because of fiendish ambushes or because they are sent to deliver messages to enemies which often result in combat those who excel in those combats are sometimes taken out of the natural evolution of the archons and instead are transformed into a full grown asimone or angels specifically into a very peculiar form of angel that did not appear on the monster manual which are the agathon which are the celestial forces of the heavens like if you ever hear about the celestial armies of the gods it's not always just going to be like planetaries or solars because those are extremely rare you know how like pid fiends and baylor's are supposed to be really rare i mean there's probably a lot of them but just not that many to make an army so instead the actual soldiers are these guys so that is an optional you know evolutionary process that can be given into a trumpet arkhan by the gods if they do a lot of combat and if they prove themselves to be great at it but the archon of course can choose to simply continue on its path of goodness throughout the eons eventually then if it does that it'll turn into a thrown archon which is considered to be the last normal step that aricons can take in their journey these guys basically get to rule the towns and cities of mount silesia as well as to be the judge of other archons now do keep in mind it's sometimes hard to gauge the size of these creatures in the pictures but please know that these guys are like 12 feet tall and way over 700 pounds they're huge their skin is golden and they carry weapons that are made out of the very spiritual essence of the archon their armor was basically a beautifully golden suit of blade armor that radiated golden magic now as far as the lore has told us the seven heavens of mount celestia are separated into 196 provinces and a throne arkhan would basically rule over each of those provinces with each city within it having their own other throne arkhan as well who would rule over it now technically this is as far as normal archons will go because the next stage is basically limited in how many of them there can be see the next stage of evolution would have the throne arkhan turn into a tome archon but the laws of celestia dictate that there can only ever be seven tome archons in existence and unless one of those that already exist dies and then needs to be replaced no neutral marcons will ever be created so this is it this is the end place for all archons this is where they want to be so each of these guys is meant to rule over each of the seven layers of celestia and in terms of power get this they are considered to be a celestial paragon which is a whole category it basically means that they are as strong as a demon lord or a devil prince so a demon who reaches maximum power in the abyss is called a demon lord a devil that reaches maximum power in the nine hills is called the devil prince and so well a celestial that reaches you know maximum power in the upper plains it's called a celestial paragon and these guys are it and because they are in this category just how it is for devil princess and demon lords each of these guys is unique in form and because there's only always seven we actually know the name of each of them so uh the name of the seven as a unity is called the celestial hebdomad which in essence i guess could be considered to be the the name of the government of celestia if you want to put it that way but anyways here are the celestial paragons of mount celesia this is brachial the messenger he's the ruler of the first mountain lunia he is considered to be the herald of the seven the leader of all of the defenses of mount celestia since of course he rules over the first mountain which is where any kind of invasion would occur if there ever was one he's also the leader of all of the trumpet archons so his fortress is kind of like ground zero for uh all of the resurrections that happen for any lawful good soul and hence he is considered to be also the patron of basically any kind of interaction with mortals so anything that has to do with spreading goodness in the mortal realm generally barackiel is the lead celestial on that front now this here is domiel the mercy bringer ruler of mercury at the second mountain we don't know much about him and many of the other paragons of course because well they don't quite deal much with the mortal realm like barackiel does he however rules over an enormous golden tower and one of his main jobs is to protect the mausoleums of the second mountains which is where all of the records and bodies of all of the dead celestials of the realm are located here we have erytheol the seer who rules over venia the third mountain they are considered to be the patron of sears and a powerful seer itself of course and they keep track of events that unfold in a multiverse and catalogs important events on the massive celestial libraries of the mountain now this one is pistes sophia known as the ascetic she rules over solania the fourth mountain she's considered to be a patron of monks and mystics and so as you can imagine she fights with her own body and fists now her whole thing is that she spouses getting rid of all possessions and then live a life with nothing as a way to find contentment and happiness in fact she does not even rule from a keep or a tower she truly does not own anything here's razial the crusader he rules over merteon the fifth heaven now racial's main focus was opposing oppression and tyranny as well as defending the innocent see the fifth mountain is where a lot of the training happens in celestia and where a lot of the forces are mustered for all of the planner battles that happen in the multiverse so racial would be the perfect paragon to lead that layer now here we have seal teal the defender who rules over djovar the sixth heaven now he's considered to be the defender of the seven heavens and leads the biggest army of the mountains see unlike barackiel who is in charge of the front lines seal teal is the last bastion of defense for the protection of the seventh and most important mountain which is of course the tip of the mountain but further it is his job to protect the portals between the layers as he was the leader of all of the warden archons but then the last and the most powerful orken of the mall is saf kiel or safkil the the watcher who of course not just rules over cronies the tip of the mountain but also rules over the celestial heptomat over all of the seven his skin was gold and his wings were platinum he was bathed at all times in this beautiful holy radiant power now it is believed actually that just how demogorgon was the the very first soul to enter the abyss safkil was the very first lawful good soul to enter the seven heavens in fact the first seven souls to enter were automatically blessed and granted with the powers of the tome archons but out of those original seven the only one that is still alive to this day is this guy seth kill the others have of course perished throughout the eons of battles now this guy does not fight with weapons instead his very presence typically destroys fiends but when not he could project a damaging ray of holy energy from uh stick matters on his hands now this guy seth killed as something of an enigma as far as his motives the only thing that the lore shows is that he protects what he calls vessels of pure innocence so for example uh babies he will always go out of his way to protect babies and will care for them but whatever happens on the seventh mountain is just frankly much of an enigma to most people in fact and you might find this interesting not even tyr what are the most powerful gods that recite on mancelesia even knows what sifkil does on that last tip of the mountain in fact it is believed that his existence at sethkeels is more theoretical than anything as in the only people that have actually seen this man and have lived are the other toe markings and then you know some of the few gods that have this of course has a lot to do with what happens when you reach the pinnacle of the mountain where he's located and the fact that no one ever comes back but that is the topic of another video if you're interested in turning your characters into an archon know that you might not be able to do much as a lantern archon since well they are just floating orbs but if you found a way to make your character into any other kind we actually have stats that player characters would gain through this transformation an arcane player character would gain immunity to lightning and petrification that would gain resistance to mundane weapons and against poison they could shoot holy light out of their body that deals 1d6 points of radiant damage at a range of 30 feet they would gain the spell's aid continual flame and detect evil which they could cast at will and lastly they would get access to a select group of high-level spells like magic circle teleport and tongs which they could cast only a few times a day as an archon you would be one of the only kinds of planner petitioners who would be able to leave their plane to go out and explore an adventure though of course that is still highly frowned upon you are supposed to climb the mountain damn it the relationship between the archons and the gods is a bit mysterious to us the archons happily work for many of the gods and would share and gain much from this work but archons do so willingly they're not really servants of the gods as much as they are their very own thing which happens to align with the purposes of the gods and you should always think of archons like moderns or like demons and devils they're just the the natural occurrence of souls reaching the outer planes and then interacting with the you know philosophical power of the plane in which they land a good and evil are energies they are power law and chaos are also energies and powers when a vessel is influenced by these concepts they change their shape and become manifestations of those powers the gods have actually nothing to do with this safe perhaps for a neutral god of death which might funnel the transit of souls from place to place but yeah anyways angels are direct creations of the upper gods and so they are beholden to them in so much as they stay within the upper plains but archons are their own power they are their own individual group and so is the mountain its own individual source of power separated from the gods and the archons after all are manifestations of that mountain and will fight to protect the mountain perhaps even against the gods who might dwell within it today we talked about the basic essence of what the seven heavens are and we focused hard on the archons but in our next video we will talk about what it actually means to be in mount silesia and what would a player character do when they first arrive here we will talk about the effects of the mountain we will talk about some of the more philosophical paths that one might take in order to self-perfect and reach enlightenment and of course the main reason why everyone fails on the fourth mountain which is really interesting you won't believe who's in there stopping people from reaching enlightenment it's really cool all right guys thank you so much for watching of course before we end i would like to remind you guys of the pdf uh there was a lot of work put into it it seems like people are loving it which really makes me happy it's so crazy just like actually doing something like creating a project and uh seeing the positive results of it i am really happy that you guys are digging it in the support has been the support has been great so if you guys haven't purchased it if you haven't seen it you know i recommend you you do so it seems like people are really loving it so that's awesome now i would like to also uh thank my patreon supporters barry maskand 5v magic shop morgan johnson rusty rayne duck feeder the great hodini omega scales terry cope benjamin bosters faulky 951 or dorek sabin kurshab solarensis thomas hunt lost crusader stalia jd green trev909 tony rc famine 52 george fortland sovereign mind trevor hess naktor rashura the living guild pack brian camp chadaega john the wicked shane and sam skinner stephen streeblow describe herver johnson the wizard's vault jameson perverted shoddycast horrorbound jesse feliciano munchkin mania and barrack for supporting me on patreon at the 25 dollar level if you would like to support me as well then please please head on over to patreon.com mr rex to support thank you guys so much thank you for being here thank you for being awesome and i'll see you all next time

Channel: MrRhexx

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Id: kvh9glyJKIQ

Length: 26min 31sec (1591 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 07 2021