Spirit Anatomy of a Celestial
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| Ophanim by David Romero |
A Celestial is a Spirit, obviously. It retain most if not all traits which common Spirits have, at least on a fundamental level. However the core, the 'energy' or nature of a Celestial Spirit is notably much more powerful and, if not more powerful, then more dangerous. This is not some corrupting influence like a Demon but rather simply that they are not beings of this world. More than any other Spirits, their Formed selves are much more alien to our lowly three dimensional material world. The will, intent and power of a Celestial Spirit incarnated can be potentially dangerous. Even divine spirits, in the absurd chance they would manifest in our world, would not be as alien because gods are both individuals and archetypes whereas a Celestial Spirit isn't really a person. Not by default anyway. By themselves they have no personality, no story, no myth and no tethers. They are both more and less than commonplace Spirits.
The true form of a Celestial is likewise quite the nightmare to behold. Not necessarily horrid or disgusting, they aren't twisted with open wounds, lovecraftian tentacles or the like. In its truest sense, a Celestial's True Form is a fiery blob of raw conceptual energy and celestial will. It curls on itself and twist in endless arrays of limbs, eyes, wings and archetypal imagery. Even most, if not all Gods, fully understand what a human shape is and will project this shape and these archetypes. A Celestial on the other hand might take some time to 'get' that and, given most of them alternate between Formed and Unformed Spirits over the eons mean that even those who spent time among humanity will eventually forget as such information is deemed irrelevant. There is also the issue of personal preference and even the most 'person'-like of Celestials tend to prefer more abstract forms.
Incandescent Form and Manifestation
The True Form of a Celestial is a painful thing to behold, with forms and shapes not mean for our mortal eyes. At its core, a Celestial is a Spirit and such such appear as some glowing or ethereal being. Where it gets crazy is that Celestials are multi-dimensional beings, whereas other Spirits are still recognizable as something which mostly make sense. Assuming one doesn't have their eyes and/or soul burnt off by the initial contact, gazing upon one will reveal an implausibly complex structure of glowing orbs, flaming eyes and of course fractals: lots and lots of fractals. Fractal eyes, fractal wings, fractal arms and so on and so forth.
- Incandescent Form (Constant): The True Form of a Celestial Spirit has power. Any NPC which gaze upon it is immediately 'struck' with its effect (more on that in a bit) while Player Characters and notable NPC are allowed a Saving Throw, at which point they can gaze upon the Celestial until the end of the Scene. This power is negated if the Celestial has shapeshifted or taken some mortal form or vessel but the veil can be temporarily torn asunder. The Celestial Spirit Commit Effort for the scene to send forth a projection of its true form which has the same effect as the Constant version.
- Effect of Gazing: There are different effects depending on the Spirit and its potency. At lower levels of power, the gaze inflict temporary or permanent blindness, madness or demented devotion to minor NPC and inflicts temporary damage upon the attributes of those allowed a Saving Throw (ranging from 1d4 to 2d10). Those reduced to 0 are either dead or permanently struck by the same effect it has on weaker minds.
- A Celestial can Commit Effort for the day to restore the mind/senses of an individual who has been scarred by gazing upon the Celestial so long as it has happened within 24 hours. Many of them sadly leave the poor bastards as they are.
Fortunately for those around them, Celestials are usually able to shapeshift at will into another form, ranging from another Spirit form (including the classic, if inaccurate, blonde-androgynous-individual-with-wings-and-halo, a fireball, a golden bird or a simple glowing white shape) to looking almost completely human at the highest ranks of Manifestation.
Celestial Senses
The Celestial Spirits have many senses, most far beyond our understanding. All Spirits have many unique senses, including the abstract ability to sense their related concept but Celestials are 'plugged' in the thoughts and minds of billion of individuals across many timelines. They sense the movement of planets, the shifts of the cosmos and the various countless time and space anomalies that may occur. Most importantly, unlike most Spirits the Celestials are True Psychics and have many abilities which are similar to or emulate the mechanics and effects of the Stars Without Numbers Psychics.
- Psychic Abilities: A Celestial Spirit has ranks in the Metapsionics, Precognition and Telepathy Disciplines and is able to use any power of equal or lower rank to its skill.
- Temporal Sense (Constant): A Celestial is able to 'see' time, both past and hypothetical future at least to some extent. A Celestial is aware of the passage of time its three dimensional forms experience down to the nanosecond and is instantly aware if it is being subjected to any temporal anomaly. Finally, it is always allowed a Saving Throw against any effect which is related to temporal control or magic.
Celestial Powers
The abilities of the Celestials are simply too vast to be described in complete details. In addition to all the aforementioned abilities, they could have any variety of monster powers previously described but given a more specific, 'angelic' bent given their purpose. A Celestial whose mission involve tracking down a specific individual could showcase the same implacable qualities as a Revenant. In addition, when they need to assume human form they often have abilities quite similar to Demons, especially the ability to temporarily create a physical 'shell'.
Generally speaking the most powerful abilities which all Celestials have isn't something that is truly able to be represented with simple stats. These beings know a lot and can be disturbingly smart purely on the level of information they have processed. A Celestial, if it was somehow inclined to answer, could be asked about the atomic composition of a specific object and unless that object had somehow been altered by magic or some higher power it would be able to tell everything. It could instantly tell how many times on average, per day, the person in front of them blink. This can allow some 'cheating' on the GM part as these creatures know a lot about mundane things and if given enough motivation to use said knowledge they could get really scary.
Weaknesses
For all their powers, the Celestials are not omnipotent or invincible. As they are classified as Spirits, they can become vulnerable to any kind of power, weapon, spell or ritual which target Spirits. Powerful and difficult to enact rituals can bind, trap or use Celestials (or even part of their power). Most would rather 'self-destruct' than suffer such a fate and a Celestial gets an instant extra Saving Throw should it ever become trapped or bound. If it pass, the Celestial unravel its energy form and spiritual container, reverting to being an Unbound Spirit, unable to act directly for decades or centuries.
A less-known weakness of Celestial Spirits is they risk 'burning out' the longer they remain as formed spirits and expend their power. Each time a Celestial reduce its Effort to 0 for a day (by Committing Essence) it starts to 'burn out', losing 1 HD. Likewise, every time it is reduced to 0 HP it will also suffer such a fate. Finally for every month it spend on the material world, be it as a Spirit or inside a body/shell it will also lose 1 HD. A Celestial Spirit reduced to 0 HD unravels, become an Unformed Spirit and will not manifest again for decades or centuries, just like when it self destruct.
A less-known weakness of Celestial Spirits is they risk 'burning out' the longer they remain as formed spirits and expend their power. Each time a Celestial reduce its Effort to 0 for a day (by Committing Essence) it starts to 'burn out', losing 1 HD. Likewise, every time it is reduced to 0 HP it will also suffer such a fate. Finally for every month it spend on the material world, be it as a Spirit or inside a body/shell it will also lose 1 HD. A Celestial Spirit reduced to 0 HD unravels, become an Unformed Spirit and will not manifest again for decades or centuries, just like when it self destruct.
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