#mt. celestia

[justavulcan]

Airmark's Guide to Planar Vegetables: Springbush

When you travel to Mt. Celestia, it is certain not to be long before you spot your first springbush. The size and rough shape of a giant goat, these large, ambulatory shrubs are found throughout the Seven Mounting Heavens, traveling in herds numbering from dozens to hundreds.

Possessed of four tough, woody trunks and a healthy growth of glossy green leaves all over their body, springbushes are easy to mistake for simple herd animals at a distance due to their tendency to travel, roam, and even apparently graze like a goat or ram. This appearance comes from the fact that their 'faces' are where their roots are located, and so to collect nutrients and water they lower their heads to the ground in a mimicry of an animal's motion.

Springbushes are highly aggressive and territorial during their flowering season, as their strongly citrus-scented flowers give way to a lemon-like fruit rivaled by few in sweetness or tartness. Fortunately, they seem docile around the plane's native celestials, many of whom seem to have or share duties of herding visitors away from the plants, promising a harvest when the time is right.

Springfruit is best eaten just before fully ripe, as the tart flavor mellows to nothing and the sweetness intensifies dramatically when the fruit ripens fully. Overripe springfruit is suitable for little but the making of sweet cooking vinegar or, should one be so inclined, an overwhelmingly saccharine and mildly alcoholic drink called Asho.

[hyliandude]

[justavulcan]

Airmark's Guide to Planar Vegetables: Provider Oak

Like oak trees all over the planes, the provider oak grows to be a strong, tall tree with many spreading branches, seed-based reproduction, and wood suitable for many uses.  Unlike many other trees, the provider oak seems to subsist solely on sunlight, water, and good feeling, growing only near settled areas of the plane.  This has led some to believe it requires some emotional content to thrive in addition to its other needs.  Interviews with Speak with Plants reveal the provider oak to have a parental mindset toward other plants and even animals, well aware of their own useful properties and actively encouraging others to take advantage.  Aside from the benefits of having a large, healthy tree nearby, the provider oak’s name comes from its tendency to enrich the soil around it, filling it with all manner of nutrients that other plants require.  Shade-loving shrubs, bushes, flowers, and even smaller trees are usually found clustered within a few meters of the oak’s base, vibrant and in the best of health from the tree’s soil-enriching presence.

[justavulcan]

The Heavens Are Empty: Celestial Herald

The being standing before you has perfect dark skin from the shoulders down; it’s clad in loose, colorful robes and bears a trumpet in one hand and a javelin in the other.  It has four feathered wings coming out of its back, but most shocking is its total lack of a head; instead, it has a white flame, which oddly casts no light; surrounding the flame are two wheels covered in eyes, of many different colors and sorts.  Its voice is majestic and smooth.

Celestial Heralds are the ambassadors of the Upper Planes.  Tied to no particular god nor court of the realms of good, heralds instead serve as their name suggests wherever they are needed.  More than capable of protecting themselves with their trumpet and javelin, Heralds only seek to deliver messages that must be sent in person, alert mortals of the coming of greater emissaries of cosmic Good, and serve as courtiers to those same greater celestial powers.

Few things motivate Heralds to true combat; as their duties usually involve delivering a message, escape is often their higher priority if their own personage is threatened.  Typically a Horn Blast will be sufficient incentive to leave them be, but their high fly speed and returning javelin mean that if they are pursued or circumstances force them to defend themselves with more than a hasty departure, they are sufficiently equipped to do so.  Like many celestials, Celestial Heralds are well-intentioned and can be convinced to aid those truly in need, although their mandate may come first depending on the urgency of the message.  They have a special affinity for couriers, messengers, and heralds, however, and may go out of their way or even delay their own delivery if they see a like-purposed mortal in distress.

Celestial Heralds can be found throughout the Upper Planes, although they are more common on the planes further from Elysium as these planes have more contact with the forces of Law, Chaos, and ultimately, Evil.

[justavulcan]

The Heavens Are Empty: Celestial Introspector

This being looks nothing like the angels you were led to expect.  It resembles a mirror, burnished to a high shine and surrounded by a ring of arms cast from light of all colors.  The whole creature appears somewhat immaterial, but as it approaches, it turns and shows you yourself in its surface- a perfect reflection.  Its mere presence is somehow meditative, and despite its odd appearance, you find yourself at ease.

Celestial Introspectors are a bit more spiritually charged than many of their kin. Equipped to make mortals literally face themselves from the outside, introspectors serve as the therapists and counselors of the Upper Planes, offering their insights on mortalkind to other celestial beings who may be more removed from such concerns.  Introspectors often claim when asked that the greatest goods come from truly understanding oneself, and say they were charged with ensuring mortals have that opportunity.  When asked who charged them thus, they are typically cryptic, leaving their true master unclear.

In combat, introspectors default to their Create Reflection ability to bring an ‘ally’ to the field.  If at all possible, they avoid combat by escaping through solid objects or targeting belligerent groups with Calm Emotions.  Failing this, they make use of their Pacifying Touch on enemy melee combatants, seeking to hit-and-run.  Introspectors can usually only be motivated to combat to defend their charges or patients, or in rare cases when their patient requires a more literal confrontation with themselves than extensive therapy can provide.

Celestial Introspectors frequent realms where the inhabitants are concerned with introspection and self-improvement, and so are most often found on Arcadia, Mt. Celestia, Elysium, and Ysgard.  However, as they are essentially heavenly psychotherapists, they can be found throughout the planes, wherever their services are needed.

[justavulcan]

The Heavens Are Empty Masterpost

To provide easy access to any who would want to use the celestials I made for this project.  Please let me know how it goes if you use any of these creatures, I’d love playtest notes.

Celestial Herald; CR 7; a messenger for when Sending won’t do it.  Excels at ranged and skirmish combat with a magical returning javelin.

Apiarian Worker; CR 1; a bee-like celestial with a healing death burst ability.  Skilled at both ranged and melee combat, particularly in groups.

Apiarian Queen; CR 5; a bee-like celestial civic leader.  Ranged combatant, deadliest when her workers are with her to allow the use of her legendary actions.

Prism Heron; CR 2; a bird with a radiant tail, native to the shores of Mt. Celestia.  Skirmish attacker with a blinding tail attack.

Kinderwachter; CR 1; a child’s guardian taking the form of a stuffed animal.  Good at protecting a target, alone would rather flee than fight.

Bariaur and Bariaur Defender; CR 2 and 4; ram-centaur celestial nomads.  Both skilled charge-attackers with ranged options and many attack types.

Celestial Witness; CR 3; spy, observer, and sometime defender for the heavens.  Flying battlefield controller and debuffer.

Guiding Beetle; CR 4; beetle-like travelers who seek and aid the lost.  Slow but equipped with good defenses and many ranged attack and control spells.

Brux Lightstalker; CR 5; forest warden and hunter in the Beastlands.  Ambush and skirmish attacker with a light-blend ability.

Pax Pollinator; CR 4; conflict-averse heavenly field lurker.  Multiple ways to nonlethally discourage or end combat, a radiant pollen attack for when the enemy won’t take the hint.

Mudsinger; CR 6; salamander-like patron of the arts and mountain wanderer.  Likes to either mix it up in melee or stick to long-range combat, depending on how deadly it wants the fight to be.

Celestial Introspector; CR 7; heavenly therapist and advisor on mortal affairs.  Can actually make you fight yourself, has touch attacks that prevent movement.

Belieren Warden; CR 6; steward of the Upper Planes’ prison on Elysium.  Skirmish attackers specializing in isolating single enemies and locking down their foes.

Winterbird; CR 9; icy stormbird that rescues those in frozen reaches.  Skirmisher with a protective aura of heavy obscuring winter weather.

Tarn Steward; CR 25; elephantine guardian of the Glass Tarn and its prophetic powers.  Powerful charger and melee combatant with many options to shape the battlefield and move enemies around.

[justavulcan]

The Heavens Are Empty: Winterbird

This colossal avian figure is a study in contradictions: colored icy bluish-white underneath and a deeper, more piercing sapphire blue on top, it’s surrounded by a howling gale of snow, sleet, and wind.  However, as it draws closer, you feel warm, as it lowers itself to permit you to climb on its back.  In your mind, you hear, “Best not to die here in the mountains.  Let me take you back to your hearth.”

Winterbirds are formed from not one mortal soul after death, but many: specifically, those who perished trying to save others from the cold, be they mountain guides or sailors on a rescue mission in the icy extremes of their oceans.  This instinct drives them still, as they travel the planes seeking those trapped or in dire need of rescue from an icy death.

Winterbirds are ill-equipped to handle any foe resistant to winter’s chill, but they are more than willing to serve a support role by healing allies, bogging foes down in their Touch of the Blizzard, or providing life-saving Endure Elements at opportune times.  When these measures fail, they content themselves snatching up their prey and dropping them from a great height.  Under other circumstances, against foes not inured to the cold, they dive and shriek like the hunting birds they so resemble, skirmishing like a furious storm on the wing.

Winterbirds are most at home in the snowy upper reaches of Ysgard, Mt. Celestia, and Shurrock in Bytopia, but can be found wandering any of the planes, always in their preferred icy mountain or tundra climate.

[justavulcan]

The Heavens Are Empty: Mudsinger

This creature most strongly resembles a bluish-brown salamander the size of an ox, but there is intelligence in its eyes that insinuates it’s more than an animal; this impression is confirmed when it croaks a greeting.  Seeing your puzzlement, it hums a sonorous bass note, and the earth below your feet takes shape- a trail, and figures resembling yourselves upon it.  The creature quirks its head inquisitively, as the trail stretches into a muddy question mark.

Mudsingers are, despite their names, far more at home surrounded by earth and stone than water.  Possessed of the ability to swim but not to hold their breath indefinitely, mudsingers prefer to spend their time gliding through the mountains and caverns of the Upper Planes, sculpting crude stairwells, bridges, and surprisingly delicate stone sculptures out of the raw earth.  They can even be commissioned to supply their talents on request on occasion, with their price being paid in artistic displays- sculpture and performance arts are their favorite.

Although possessed of the ability to disappear into the earth itself and thus avoid conflict altogether, Mudsingers are quite bellicose and often go looking for trouble.  When they fight in earnest, they start combat with their Stunning Croak, preferably from the midst of their enemies, before attempting to bite and swallow one whole, preferably the most troublesome.  If their opponent proves resistant to either of these tactics, they instead reposition to attack at range by spitting rocks at their would-be targets.  Mudsingers rarely fight to the death, either theirs or their enemies’, and react with horror to killing an undeserving opponent in a fight they started.  Only the presence of actively malevolent enemies motivates these celestial creatures to fight to the death.

Mudsingers’ community-minded but bellicose nature means they are most at home on the layer of Shurrock, in Bytopia, but they can also be found wherever the Upper Planes have mountains or extensive cavern networks, from Mt. Celestia to Eronia in Elysium to Nidavellir in Ysgard.