Art Requests

[manikus]

I always imagined the modrons to be numbered.

[Uatu]

Hmm - that does seem to match their anal-retentive personalities I would add that they probably are renumbered at very frequent intervals (due to modron death, or just because), where the modrons have to all receive new numbers at some complicated meeting/ritual.

I imagine the modrons as pedantic, brainwashed sods who continually look at what the other modron is doing, achieving happiness by imitating their peers and following their leaders; in addition, there are many meetings and rituals and such that they simply have to do - just because (they have some reasoning for everything, but the logic is really logic for logic). Ironically, you cannot have pure law - someone is (at least to some extent arbitrarily) creating the law in the first place (i.e., Primus).

I imagine the slaadi as incoherent, schizophrenic freaks who act based on momentary emotions, not concerned about the effects of what they did or what they will do (but doing whatever they feel like makes them happy). Ironically, you cannot have pure chaos - there is a hierarchy to an extent (although I don't think slaadi would follow orders very well) culminating with Ssendam and Ygorl.

I also imagine that the modrons and slaadi absolutely hate and despise each other, seeing the other as the lowliest excrement of the multiverse.

[SilentThief]

Originally Posted by Uatu And if one can summon slaadi using the cacodemon spell, etc., then why can't one summon modrons? (Wait - maybe it's because modrons don't have names? Or do they? )

They are summoned by the proper mathematical equations.

ST
ps, I made that up, but sounds interesting...

[Uatu]

Hmm... could work...

[manikus]

I've always thought modron = bureaucrat.

I do think it's possible for absolute law, though. It is conceivable to me that the laws are a priori, that they existed before the plane of lawfulness and before the whole multiverse (I'm not saying they did, I'm just saying its conceivable. I also think it's possible for complete chaos, just highly difficult and very improbable. Something to consider, is that we are using these terms to mean both the nature of the land/culture and the action of the individual. Having one lawful being on the plane of chaos doesn't change the nature of the plane, it becomes the exception which proves the rule.
The other thing is that when we are dealing with deities, is is hard for us mere mortal sages to understand the full scope of their actions. The rules of the game (or lack thereof) may be too complex to understand.

[Uatu]

Ha ha... Well, of course, that is just my own interpretation (with a nice helping of Chinese yin-yang theory)... But in any case, even in the Abyss we have non-evil Alu-demons and fallen angels in the Seven Heavens; in the Inner Planes too, there are those elemental pockets as well.

(The only truly "pure" places seem to be the Positive and Negative Material Planes.)

But yeah, lawfulness = bureaucrats, but also the sods that follow mindlessly what the bureaucrats say. (Japan is very much this way, but I am not quite sure what to think of China - China too is a very bureaucratic society, but one where the people have a sort of random streak that doesn't seem to match this very well...).

[manikus]

I contend that the "exceptions" in the various planes do nothing to effect the overall alignment of the plane. (And people thought my philosophy degree wouldn't come in handy. )

[Uatu]

I agree! It is the same as in Japan, where a few slaad (like me) don't affect the overall modronic nature of the plane, er, country. (They do like numbers to label people here, though - I've a whole bunch of them now! I have two at my company (why two?!), for example...)

[manikus]

At school, we have numbers and passwords that are assigned when we start our program, that most people never use. No one is sure what they're for...

[manikus]

I would like to request 3 large images. They don't have to be new, they could be composites or non-DC stuff. What I want are a picture to represent the three core books that anyone would need to play AD&D (player's guide, dungeon master's guide and monster manual).