Disciple of the Stillness (Starfinder Archetype)
(art by tukuart1 on DeviantArt)
When one looks up at space, one’s eyes are drawn to the stars, the celestial bodies, and everything that is, well, visible.
But the truth is, there is an unfathomable vastness between each of those lights. Even the closest ones like our moon are agonizingly out of reach save by the most extreme and powerful methods. And in a traditional fantasy and science fantasy setting like the Lost Omens and Pact Worlds eras of the unified setting of the two games, such vast emptiness is home to things that expand and distort mortal conception of what is possible, and more often than not is hazardously indifferent or outright cruel to “normal” life.
In Pathfinder and Starfinder’s core settings, Desna is the goddess of the stars, but many fans of the lore will also remember her dim reflection, Black Butterfly, who presides over those vast empty stretches and acts as a warrior against the depredations of great old ones, outer gods, and other horrors that shun the light and prey upon life that orbits stars.
While Black Butterfly has her own worshippers, one of her more notable organizations of devotees in the Pact Worlds are the disciples of stillness, a tradition that originated with the kasatha people, who seek to achieve ascetic emptiness and reject worldly attachments in order to hone themselves to fight against the evils between the stars as their goddess does. For their efforts, they achieve techniques and powers associated with that goal.
Now obviously, you don’t have to be a kasatha or even be a worshipper of Black Butterfly to take this path, and while many of her devotees remain at her temple aboard the Idari, others travel abroad or settle down, teaching the next generation. Additionally, many also take vows of silence, celibacy, or abstain from other pleasures in their pursuit of enlightenment. Like all paths to better self-understanding, there is no one path.
But let’s take a look at what benefits these ascetics gain from their choice!
Like the paladins of old, Black Butterfly blesses these ascetics with the ability to sense evil, a handy tool indeed when many horrors beyond the stars are difficult to see with the naked eye or wear inconspicuous shapes.
Their training also mirrors the monks of old, giving them a physique capable of greater speed with any and all traversal methods.
The prayers of these warriors are silent, and with a bit of resolve they can even use them to center themselves and recover a bit of their stamina, albeit only once a day. With even more resolve they also gain some additional reserves of vitality on top of that.
The most powerful among them though are able to achieve a supernatural state of absolute stillness, becoming as dark as the shadows between stars. Effectively, light bends around them as they slow their heart rate, breathing, and metabolic processes, making them invisible and undetectable to most senses and mechanical sensors. What’s more, their bodies become almost like inert matter despite still being able to move and act, becoming immune to frailties of the flesh for the full two minutes that this state typically lasts. (Fun fact, this ability is outright banned in Starfinder Society liveplay, and it’s easy to understand why. Getting so many blanket immunities on top of incredible stealth in a format where you only fight in like, three combats at most and then have everything fully recharged for the next scenario with the implied time passage is a bit broken. It’s actually pretty rare to see an ability that you’re not allowed to use in Society Play.)
Blending a little bit of paladin with some monk is nice, as it getting a minor stamina heal and a high level neat ability. Naturally, soldiers, solarians, and vanguards are a decent choice whether you go unarmed or not, and those classes are outright mentioned by name in the archetype’s lore blurb. However, don’t think you’re limited to just martial classes here. Imagine a mechanic seeking enlightenment alongside their AI partner, or any number of mages seeing such introspection as a good complement to their own studies of their mystical abilities. Indeed, this archetype’s mobility and healing is just as good at playing keep away with foes as it is with rushing into combat.
Truly, archetypes like this demonstrate how many different ways there are to exist and be. There are plenty of ascetic groups in Starfinder, but the fact of the matter is, the Disciples of Stillness don’t seek such enlightenment for purely their own benefit. Instead they use it to open their minds so as to not crack under the strain of the strangeness of the horrors they must face, and of course, gaining the skill and might to do just that. Some might not call it a pure journey, but I don’t think the people so elitist as to say things like that are actually seeking enlightenment themselves, not in a way that matters.
The party has come across an unusual circumstance. When they took a mission with Disciples of Stillness to raid a rogue planet for relics stolen by the dark-dwelling horrors that live there, they did not expect to find a frozen cadaver in the vault, and certainly not that it would get up and talk to them. Turns out the undead creature is Reskaagyr, a powerful necrovite that sought undead to persist long enough to hunt and destroy the very same horrors the party now faces. While grateful to be freed from imprisonment, the monks can’t help but wonder if he can truly be trusted.
As professional negotiators, the party is used to dealing with disputes, but never one quite like this. On one side, an osharu research team eagerly studying a relic found drifting in an asteroid belt, and on the other, a kasatha enclave that want the object destroyed with extreme prejudice. Both claim a religious imperative for their desires, and have compelling arguments on their side, with the osharu pointing out that studying the relic could give clues to better fighting the foes the kasatha are eager to defeat.
When the party happens upon an original version of one of many sinister books associated with the horrors of deep space, they come to realize that this original has information that copies lack because the book exists not fully in three dimensional space. However, finding the passage they need will require an expert, and luckily, the Order of the Watched Stars can help, being both knowledgeable and wise to the corruptions such foul forces work.
