Ecology of the inevitable (Dragon #341)

[Quickleaf]

I'm hunting for information on inevitables, particularly their origins, life cycle and society as detailed in David Noonan's "Ecology of the Inevitable" article. If you've got access to that issue I've got some questions!

I figure it's inevitable *someone* on the boards knows that article

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I have that magazine.

Inevitibles appeared about 10,000 years ago, come out of forges on Mechanus. No one knows who made them or why.

The Inevitables return to the forges every so often and have theim memories wiped. It appears every so often the forge creates a new Inevitable, however more often an existing one appears to return to the forge, have it's memory wiped, and it starts over, with a specific target in mind, but without much language or social skills. it needs to develop social skills, methods of asking questions, interrogating/approaching/apprehending targets, etc.

As for society, they don't seem to have any, each is an individual perusing its mission. There is no interaction between Inevitables it seems.

Five Inevitables are mentioned; the three in the MMI and two from the Fiend Folio.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6674868]RUMBLETiGER[/MENTION]
So who or what gives them the missions? Is it implied the Primus of Mechanus operates the forges and wipes the inevitable's memories?

Anything specific to maruts, or is mostly addressing inevitables as a general group rather than getting into specifics?

Btw thanks for looking that up

 

[Dandu]

Jawas.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

@RUMBLETiGER
So who or what gives them the missions? Is it implied the Primus of Mechanus operates the forges and wipes the inevitable's memories?

Anything specific to maruts, or is mostly addressing inevitables as a general group rather than getting into specifics?

Btw thanks for looking that up

The entire article leaves the "Who is behind this" question intentionally vague, no doubt so that DM's can make things up.

Some excerpts that address your question:

"Whether one god, many deities, or other powerful denizens of the outer planes created the Inevitables remains a mystery"

"When an inevitable first emerges from a creche-forge on Mechanus, it seems to possess very little knowledge beyond the identity of it's first target and a sense of how its powers work"

"When an inevitable's first mission is complete, it uses what its learned about its surroundings to identify a new target. Sometimes this identification is instantaneous." -it goes on to say that any other lawbreakers it encounters along the way it remembers, and chooses to go after another person it has encountered.

Each of the five Inevitables have some lengthy descriptive detail.

Maruts specifically:
-Almost always enforce their natural laws by killing transgressors
-Sometimes bring justice to those to participate in large-scale necromancy
-a Marut is patient, sometimes spending years or decades on a single target
-Since a Marut's target it typically secluded, the Marut has little practice interacting with other people in the process of seekinga dn destroying their target, so they develop personalities slower than other Inevitables.

 

[Quickleaf]

"When an inevitable first emerges from a creche-forge on Mechanus, it seems to possess very little knowledge beyond the identity of it's first target and a sense of how its powers work"

So the 'target' just emerges in their minds and they instinctively know what has to be done?

"When an inevitable's first mission is complete, it uses what its learned about its surroundings to identify a new target. Sometimes this identification is instantaneous." -it goes on to say that any other lawbreakers it encounters along the way it remembers, and chooses to go after another person it has encountered.

Huh. I thought inevitables weren't really interested in day-to-day lawbreakers, and only had it in for the cosmically imbalanced sorts?

Maruts specifically:
-Sometimes bring justice to those to participate in large-scale necromancy

I would think this would be a matter of course for maruts. Does the article imply they have more pressing matters than dealing with large-scale necromancy?

-Since a Marut's target it typically secluded, the Marut has little practice interacting with other people in the process of seekinga dn destroying their target, so they develop personalities slower than other Inevitables.

That's interesting! Is the assumption their targets are usually high-level mages trying to avoid death?

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I would think this would be a matter of course for maruts. Does the article imply they have more pressing matters than dealing with large-scale necromancy?


That's interesting! Is the assumption their targets are usually high-level mages trying to avoid death?

Maruts primarily pursue those who try to try to cheat death, which usually means liches and the like. Liches are the primary target of Maruts, which are high level mages trying to avoid death.
Large-scale necromancy rob those who are turned into undead from a normal death, and so the Marut pursues the necromancer.

 

[Dandu]

What about if you abuse Reincarnate in order to get a young body every time you die?

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

What about if you abuse Reincarnate in order to get a young body every time you die?

Than you, my pretty, prancing hero, may have an inevitable fate waiting for you one day....

The MMI entry on Maruts reads in part, "Those who use magic to reverse death (raise dead spell, for example) aren't worthy of a Marut's attention unless they do so repeatedly or on a massive scale." (Bolded for emphasis)

Hm... could a Druid abuse this by establishing contingency Reincarnates and committing suicide? To bad a Blighter loses Druid spells. That would be fantastic.

This is actually something to think about. I have a player in a campaign where I'm playing, who's a Psion with every intention of True Mind Switching into a Black dragon one day, and than squishing his own body afterward. His plan is to live forever, Mind Switching every time his current body gets old, and seeing that he acquires powerful bodies to inhabit, justifying it by possessing evil, powerful creatures.

He needs to make sure he's prepared to handle an Inevitable when the time comes. We never thought of that.

 

[Dandu]

Than you, my pretty, prancing hero, may have an inevitable fate waiting for you one day....

Here's the question: What if your character just happens to be death prone due to the occupational hazard of fighting balors?