Recondites

In the ancient passageways of time and space, beyond the worlds that mortals know, and past the shattered remnants of the Living Gate, lies the Far Realm.  Little is known about this place.  What is known suggests only that it is a place of madness, a place where the laws of reality as mortals know them hold no sway, and that strange and unknowable creatures exist there.

The scattered knowledge does not come nearly to the truth.  But there are kernels of truth in it.  One such legend, perhaps inspired by a visitation hundreds or thousands of years ago, is the legend of Erikathar.

Legend has it that Erikathar was once a god; of time, earth, and knowledge.  During the Dawn War, he found himself fascinated with the Living Gate and thoughts of what lay beyond, and he could not restrain himself; when the Gate was destroyed, he surged through.  No one knows what he found there; various versions of the legend disagree on this point.  However, they all agree on one point; whatever he found there was inimical, and it was stronger than him.  He was bound and tortured, and eventually escaped into his own mind.  But that was no true escape from creatures of the Far Realm, and the siege of a god's psyche continues to this day.  And in his fight, as he throws off deific energy, strange things are created.  Are they his nightmares?  Are they things he summoned to help him in his fight?  Are they his subconscious?  No one knows what they are for sure, though theories abound.  But they are known as 'recondites' (from an ancient word for 'mysterious'), and when they spill into the mortal realm, they are terrible to behold.  However, despite the terror they inspire in onlookers, recondites do not usually leave a trail of pain and death behind when they leave; they more often seek out a specific target, destroy that target and anything that attempts to prevent them from reaching it, then disappear.

All recondites share three qualities.  Firstly, they are Unknowable:  it is impossible to focus your gaze upon a recondite fully.  Anyone attempting to do so finds their attention wavering, their gaze sliding, and even thinking about what the creature could be is difficult.  (All recondites have total concealment against all creatures.)

Secondly, recondites cannot be killed by normal means.  When they are reduced to 0 HP or fewer, they are merely knocked out, and become surrounded by a shell of divine energy (gaining immunity to all damage).  After one hour, they wake up and teleport to a random location in the world.

The third quality is their weakness.  Recondites are mysterious by their nature.  Actually finding out the truth about them harms them severely.  Recondites are legal targets for any diviniation ritual, even ones that would normally target objects only (though the recondite still must be within the range of the ritual).  Casting any divination ritual on a recondite removes its Unknowable trait for 72 hours.  (Recondites are balanced assuming that this ritual has already been cast, and that the heroes no longer find them Unknowable.)  Casting the History Revealed ritual on an unconscious recondite destroys them utterly.  Without their mystery, they cannot exist.




Recondite Earth Render Show
A Recondite Earth Render is a strange creatue.  It appears human, from a distance.  As you get closer, you see a dull, strange light shining from it.  It appears to be some sort of a damped out silvery glow.  When it turns to face you, you realize that this is no human, and indeed no creature born on this planet; for it has no eyes whatsoever, not even holes where such a thing would be, and a protruding, hard, squid-like beak fused onto an otherwise normal mouth.  Some Earth Renders even have beards or stubble, making the whole thing look even more strange.  The Recondite Earth Render is by far the most common variety of recondite.  Of the few people who have even learned any lore of the recondites at all, they almost without exception know only of the Earth Render.  All of the ancient stories that refer to recondites refer to Earth Renders; it is unknown whether the other varieties have even appeared in the world yet.

A Recondite Earth Render's actions are fueled by its unshakable compulsion for freedom, which arises from the torment of its creator.  If it sees any creature in chains, or in a harness, or any such device, it will immediately go berserk and attack everything in its way as it attempts to reach the creature in chains.  It will be very careful to not harm the creature that it believes it is saving.  When it reaches the creature, it will free it, and then disappear, teleporting to a random location in the world.  If it does not see anything that needs freeing, it will simply wander until it does find something.  It will, of course, defend itself if attacked, but there are stories of an earth render living peacefully among the peoples of a nation as it wanders between their cities and towns for years.


In combat, a recondite earth render is not subtle.  It maneuvers itself to blast as many enemies as possible with its Rend Earth and Volcanic Eruption abilities, trusting in its Unknowable trait to protect it from attacks as it gets close to enemies.  When neither of those are available, it will blast shards of earth under its opponents with its Earth Eruption ability.  While it is capable of striking opponents with its own body, making unarmed Slam attacks, it will never do so unless there are extenuating circumstances that prevent it from utilizing its Earth Eruption ability.



Recondite Harvester Show
A Recondite Harvester is the stuff of nightmares among those few who know they exist.  Its body is, on one side, much like you would expect from a Far Realm monster; a mass of whipping, reaching tentacles, each of which ends in a bone point sharp enough to slice through stone.  Its other side is a normal human body.  This leads to it moving with a strange, awkward gait, as the tentacular mass on one side of its body struggles to move alongside the normal human leg on the other side.  However, despite this handicap, it is still capable of moving as fast as any human; one shudders to think what its speed would be like if it were able to move as quickly as its warped side wishes.

The harvester has a very similar desire to the Earth Render and the Time Thief; the longing for freedom.  However, a harvester believes that mortality is a prison.  Souls are shackled within lumps of flesh, and in order to blossom, they must be freed.  A harvester is a pure killing machine.  While its intentions may be good, the result is that it simply indiscriminately slaughters every living thing that it sees.  A recondite harvester would be a plague almost as terrifying as a tarrasque; while it does not have the sheer size or power of the tarrasque, it is capable of beiefly becoming noncorporeal to pass through any obstacle, and is immune to any attacks which would slow or immobilize it.

In combat, a recondite harvester is indiscriminate.  It makes no attempt to protect its allies, and merely charges ahead into enemies, attempting to kill as many as it can.  It uses its Reaping Whirlwind to severely injure any creature it can focus its assaults on; and when they are injured, it pounces on them with Harvesting Strike, attempting to free their soul.  The harvester knows that neither barriers nor slowing attacks can impair it, and will chase down a wounded target regardless of the effort required.


Recondite Time Thief Show


A Recondite Time Thief, unlike an Earth Render or a Harvester, is almost entirely a horror.  If you were a great distance away, you might mistake it for a human.  But as you got closer, you would realize that it is only in the shape of a human.  If someone took a mold of a human, and filled it entirely with eyeballs, he would have a model of a Recondite Time Thief.  This monstrosity has eyes darting everywhere.  Sages theorize that it is only capable of concentrating on a few eyeballs at a time, giving it no better vision than other recondites, but that does not seem to stop the eyes moving on their own, watching everything around it of their own volition.

The time thief, like the other recondites, has an unwavering compulsion towards freedom.  The time thief's interpretation of this is more like the earth render's than the harvesters; whenever it sees anything in captivity, it will immediately take steps to end that captivity.  However, the time thief is more subtle and patient than the earth render.  Of course, with its appearance, it cannot simply negotiate for the release of the captive.  However, it may take a lateral approach; for example, if it sees a village with a number of horses in harness, it may kill the village's tax collector when it arrives to collect the taxes, thus drawing the wrath of the king down upon the village.  While the time thief will never support captivity or enslavement, it enjoys creating situations in which it will repeatedly intervene against more and more people (for example, when the king came to punish the village, he would likely have used horses in captivity; and now the time thief will find some way to punish the king and those with him.)

In combat, the time thief attempts to position itself to have at least one enemy, and as many allies as possible, within its aura.  If there are enough allies, it will then focus its aura on the hapless enemy, leeching his time away to speed up the time thief's allies.  If there are not, it will use Sieze the Moment and Glimpse the Future as often as possible, falling back on Chrono Blast when not available.  While it is capable of forming a thick rope of eyeballs into its arm and lashing opponents with it, the time thief will only do so if it finds itself in melee combat.  It will not enter melee willingly, and when there, it will use Lashing Arms to push the enemies away and reposition behind allies.


Optional Elements:
Genesis, Compulsive, Ritual-Prone