[Memnoch]

Courtesy of Isidore, a sea elf scholar from Ossa. Long, but very interesting - if you want to know a bit more about those things you're summoning.


There are seven types of aasimon, six of which are actually likely to be encountered by a berk in his lifetime. The seventh, the mighty solar, are each so powerful that only the most powerful of the greater powers is able to create one, since they are without almost without question the most powerful servants of goodness and light that exist in the multiverse. Those solar that do exist serve mostly on the Chronias, the Seventh Heaven of the Holy Mount. The process to create a solar is extremely draining for deity doing the fashioning. A sole planetar, from the hordes and hordes of worshippers, is selected by the deity. The planetar is then instructed to fly into one of the suns of Chronias, at the very top of Mount Celestia. While in the center of the sun, the planetar both receives all the essence of law and goodness from the Holy Mountain while giving it out at the same time as the blinding light of the sun, acting as a living battery and replacing the sun for a brief period of time. After an hour of this, enough to drain the most powerful proxy of law and goodness, the deity infuses the planetar with a portion of its divine essence. As the planetar falls from the sun, drained of all emotion and feeling, it is shaped by the essence of the Holy Mount and its deity into a solar. After a very brief resting time, the solar is ready to serve its power with all the zeal it can muster. Because of this intense creation process, the nature of solar does not seem to include the ideas of 'disobedience' and 'free will' within them. However, chaotic solar have been known to serve the gods of the Greek Pantheon from time to time. It's unknown whether there is more than one way to create a solar, although it makes sense that different gods would have different ways to create these powerful servants. Invariably, however, these solar have either died or simply vanished from the view of mortals, passing on to the most guarded areas of Arborea in their deities' realms. It's said that only a single planetar has proven unworthy during this promotion process. As it fell from the sun of Chronias, burned by the most pure essence of the Seventh Heaven, it became a twisted mockery of the being that it once was. Upon its destruction on the sea of Lunia, it created a large crater in the middle of the sea. The Crater of the Fallen Sun remains still; it is an area of ill omen and dread to the zoveri and the fishermen of Heart's Faith, and dark creatures are said to swim near in the waters near it.

The cliché that the solar are great enough to be gods is true. Perhaps lesser and intermediate powers actually do have the ability to create these mighty servants, but choose not to for fear of being usurped by their servants in the eyes of their followers. Luckily, the solar are either incapable of disobedience or humble to the extreme in the service to their deity. In any event, the solar are not common in any sense and will most likely remain unseen to the eyes of mortals.

The deva are the 'angels' that the wide-eyed Primes often look for upon reaching the Planes, and they're a powerful force for good in the hands of their powers. For some reason, these same Primes seem to think that they'll see them drinking with fiends, but that just isn't the case. Deva are rarely seen just sitting about, and serve as proxies of their powers on missions outside of their power's realms. Those deva that are seen sitting about and not working for their power, like Ziporath the Digger of the Fated, are devas who have somehow fell from the grace of the heavens. The deva are promoted from agathinon and petitioners by endowing the promotee with a small portion of their deity's essence, nowhere near as large as the amount spent in the creation of a solar. The essence serves as a deva's "spark", if one will. The "spark" is the very essence from their power that gives them their powers and identity as a deva.

There are three variety of deva, each of which is created by a power when they have need for a particular type of servant. The movanic deva are often sent to the Prime Material plane as messengers and omens to the worshippers of their deity. They also lead petitioners that are resurrected back to the Prime Material plane. They are created from particularly worthy agathinon or light aasimon, but this is completely dependent on their power's will. Petitioners have been known to be promoted to deva status. Outside of the more lawful planes, the powers promote their followers with little regard to the way that it's done on Mount Celestia (as detailed on the back of the Mount Celestia map in Planes of Law - the editor).

The monadic deva carry out their power's will in the Elemental Planes. Since the Elemental Planes are places where only a few major events will concern the average power, they are much rarer. However, Egyptian powers that reside on the Inner Planes such as Geb and Shu are known to have far many more monadic deva than astral deva in their service. Also, powers have been known to aid the archomentals of good throughout the Inner Planes in their struggles against the Princes of Elemental Evil. The monadic deva are usually created from movanic deva in the more lawful planes, but in the more chaotic planes they are created from whatever is available as needed.

The astral deva, named so because they use the Astral Plane to travel to the Lower Planes and beyond. A few of them take up residence on the Astral itself in a place called Deva's Rock, which serves as a place for Astral travelers to relax from the horrors that the plane holds for the unread. The majority of them, however, are the emissaries of their powers in the Lower Planes, smiting the forces of evil with their powerful maces. They are horrible to behold, for they are the only members of the aasimon that actively travel to the Lower Planes to bring justice to evil. It's said that the astral deva are promoted from monadic or movanic deva on the more lawful of the Upper Planes and that astral deva are promoted from a power's followers whenever need on the more chaotic of the Upper Planes. The creation of the astral deva is one that causes anyone within thirty feet of the new deva experiences extreme emotions related to the power's sphere of influence. For example, those near a deva of Tyr might feel the need to bring justice to the undeserving. These emotions last a week for each power level of the deity (lesser gods instill the feeling for one week, intermediate for two weeks, and greater gods inspire this feeling for a full three weeks). During that time, those affected act as living ambassadors for the message of the god that created the astral deva.

The final variety of aasimon that I shall discuss, though not the most powerful, are the planetar. The planetar are far more common than solar, probably because they are not as powerful. Of course, that doesn't mean that the planetar are thick throughout the planes; they're just more common than the solar, which doesn't say much. Lesser and intermediate gods seem more willing to create the planetar than the solar, because the planetar do not have the awesome power to eclipse them in the eyes of their worshippers. However, the planetar often serves as High Proxies, being the source that followers look towards to dispense the wisdom of their power. They also have been known to lead Upper Planar armies in battle against the enemies of their power. They are created on the lawful planes from worthy astral deva. On the chaotic planes, they are created from whatever of the power's servants has been worthy to receive the form of planetar. The process of creation of a planetar is one almost as draining for a power than that of creating a solar. Of course, only the powers of Mount Celestia are said to use this method. The planetar-to-be is cast into the sea of Lunia where it stays for a hundred and one days soaking in the essence of the seas of the plane. After a hundred and one days, their power imbues them with a small portion of its divine essence, as is the key with all promotion rituals of the aasimon. When they emerge, they have been transformed by the seas of the Mount Celestia into their new forms: those of green-skinned humanoids with large golden wings and crystal-clear blue eyes. They emerge from the sea willing to serve whatever desires that their power may have.