Faranth
| Faranth | |
|---|---|
 A faranth, illustrated by Mark Sasso in Deep Freeze", Dragon magazine #83 (Nov 2000). | |
| General information | |
| Size: | Large |
| Alignment: | Usually lawful evil |
| Type: | Aberration |
| First appearance: | Dungeon #83 (2000) |
The faranth (the word is both singular and plural) are a race of hideous aberrations whose empire once dominated much of the known world.
Ecology
[edit | edit source]Faranth are rare in the extreme and their existence is known to essentially no one.[1] Only two have ever been seen in the Flanaess by a living creature. Even those two were only seen by a handful of humans. Of the two, one was killed and dissected,[2] and the other most likely was killed, as well. There are still many faranth in suspended animation trapped within a glacier in the central Rakers, beyond the Theocracy of the Pale.[1][3]
Environment
[edit | edit source]The dwelling places of the faranth were bizarre cityscapes with enormously tall buildings "built from house-sized blocks of obsidian". There is only one known settlement of the faranth, a "huge and beautiful city"[1] buried deep inside a glacier, "at the bottom of a deep crevasse"[1] under "hundreds of yards of solid ice"[4], at the center of the Rakers near Wintershiven.[2][note 1]
"The city itself is a wonder of architecture, awe-inspiring and horrifying to behold. The buildings are massive almost beyond conception and exhibit a knowledge of physics and engineering far beyond that of even the most advanced cultures of humankind. The art is likewise of an extremely advanced variety and can be found throughout the city. Even the smallest and most insignificant structure is covered in intricately-wrought bas reliefs and hieroglyphics. These are beautiful works of art but extremely repellent in subject matter, depicting various blasphemous rites and noxious ceremonies."[5]
The city also has botanical conservatories in the form of hanging gardens. These hanging gardens have "thousands of pots and vessels" filled with tens of thousands of plant species in massive scaffolding made of metal harder than any iron, steel, mithral, or adamantine. They do not include any plant species known on Oerth.[6] This seems to be because the purpose of the city was to preserve faranth society, saved in a "small pocket... filled with all of the lore and art of their race."[1]
Typical physical characteristics
[edit | edit source]Faranth are lumpy toadlike creatures with slimy black hides. Instead of heads, they have masses of six-foot-long tentacles lined with scarlet suckers. They can sense their surroundings through some mysterious means of perception that does not correspond to any human sense. Their bodies appear to be soft and gelatinous.[3]
The reproductive cycle of the faranth is unknown and faranth have no known gender, similar to creatures like illithids and beholders.[note 2]
Society
[edit | edit source]The faranth were ruled by "emperors" who travelled in airships.[7] (see Technology, below) The ruling caste of the faranth included sorcerer-priests, which included the last emperor.[1]
Religion
[edit | edit source]At least one of their gods is said to be nameless.[1]
Language
[edit | edit source]Faranth communicate via movements of their tentacles or through their strangely-wrought pan flutes.[3]
Technology
[edit | edit source]The Faranth had strange, unfathomable technology capable of building gigantic buildings taller than any possible in the Flanaess, as well as paved roads, buildings made from enormous obsidian blocks and with obsidian walls, as well as magical flying vessels. They had plants of complex machinery "so advanced compared to the technology of the Flanaess as to be beyond comprehension," which "provided heat and energy for... homes and factories."[4]
The single known faranth city (trapped in a glacier) displays the civilization's technology to such a degree that it "fosters a feeling of insignificance and inferiority" in humans, from the incomprehensible level of advancement.[5]
- Airships
The faranth had a form os skyship which resemble the rare airships of Oerth, but which are "powered and navigated by a type of magic alien to [the inhabitants of the Flanaess]."[4]
They are described as "huge wooden structures suspended... below great bloated bags of some sort of fabric or leather. The structures resemble vast ships, their prows carved in the likeness of unwholesome creatures."[4]
History
[edit | edit source]The faranth may have emigrated from another plane, or another world via spelljamming ship[7]—the truth is no longer known. In the unknown past "untold millennia" ago, and thousands of years before the ancestors of current political states were even loose tribal cultures, an empire of these alien creatures stretched across the entire northern half of the Flanaess. Its southernmost extent touching the Nyr Dyv, which was subtropical wetlands in that age.[7] The empire included hundreds of miles of black basalt roads and imperial skyships which patrolled the air.[7]
The faranth ruled their lands for thousands of years, only to be brought down when a celestial object (a"great star") impacted the Oerth,[7] bringing about a time of ice and darkness. With massive crop failures, the faranth empire disintegrated into barbarism. One powerful sorcerer-priest, however, created an artifact, the Slave Stone, which forced all who touched it to become irrevocably obedient to the surviving faranth state, and thus rescued a small pocket of their society from anarchy. The sorcerer-priest then invoked the power of its nameless god and sent the faranth into magical hibernation, while the city froze within a glacier in an isolated valley in the Rakers, there to wait until the world was fertile again.[1]
References
[edit | edit source]Notes
[edit | edit source]- ↑ In the source adventure, "Deep Freeze", the main adventure areas are referred to as "two days’ ride north of the city of Wintershiven."[2] However, in all other officially published content, the edge of the Rakers is 200+ miles northeast (rather than simply north) of the city. The countryside between the two are "pleasant hills" with halfling homes and human farmlands, ruling out travel across the Troll Fens due north of Wintershiven, which are not in the adventure. The only other near edge of the Rakers is due east rather than north of Wintershiven, and are still 120+ miles away.
- ↑ Throughout the source adventure, individual faranth are always referred to with the pronoun "it".
Citations
[edit | edit source]- ↑ a b c d e f g h "Deep Freeze". Dungeon #83 (Nov/Dec 2000), p.14.
- ↑ a b c "Deep Freeze". Dungeon #83 (Nov/Dec 2000), p.15.
- ↑ a b c "Deep Freeze". Dungeon #83 (Nov/Dec 2000), p.29.
- ↑ a b c d "Deep Freeze". Dungeon #83 (Nov/Dec 2000), p.27.
- ↑ a b "Deep Freeze". Dungeon #83 (Nov/Dec 2000), p.23.
- ↑ "Deep Freeze". Dungeon #83 (Nov/Dec 2000), p.24.
- ↑ a b c d e "Deep Freeze". Dungeon #83 (Nov/Dec 2000), p.13.
Bibliography
[edit | edit source]- Widen, Cameron. "Deep Freeze." Dungeon #83. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000. p.12-29, 80.
Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index
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