As most Vaasans and outsiders did not know the nature of this parasitic relationship to Telos, it was widely assumed that the Ironfell Council's role was to commune with the primordial, who was publicly venerated by the Warlock Knights similarly to a deity. The council was named in honor of ironfell, a magical metal harvested from the primordial Telos which granted the Warlock Knights many of their powers. Although each Knight-Councilor had a suite of rooms to themselves in the Citadel, they preferred to come together as little as possible, and instead spend time in the lands which they individually ruled directly. The council met five days out of every month at the Citadel of the Iron Sky in Telos City to debate and decide issues of government. The council held the power to conscript its citizens into military service, including high ranking Knights and their entire armies. The Ironfell Council was the undisputed pinnacle of Vaasa's feudal hierarchy, and one of its primary duties was to perpetuate this hierarchy by allocating land and vassals to Warlock Knights as they ascended the order's ranks. The final member of the council, and also its leader, was the mysterious and long-lived founder of the Warlock Knights known only as the Voice of Telos. As members of the Ironfell Council, these Vindicators were known as Knight-Councilors. Among them were the twelve most powerful members of the Warlock Knights who had attained the rank of Vindicator, meaning they were powerful land-owning feudal nobles with their own standing armies and to whom lesser-ranked Knights swore their allegiance. A beholder judges its own worth by its acquisitions, and it never willingly parts with its treasures.Ī beholder’s central lair is typically a large, spacious cavern with high ceilings, where it can attack without fear of closing to melee range.The council was made up of thirteen members. It festoons its chambers with trophies from the battles it has won, including petrified adventurers standing frozen in their horrified final moments, pieces of other beholders, and magic items wrested from powerful foes. When intruders do break in, the height of its open ceilings allows a beholder to float up and harry foes on the floor.Īs alien as their creator, the rooms in a beholder’s lair reflect the creature’s arrogance. Such an environment allows a beholder to move freely, even as it prevents intruders from easily creeping about. A beholder’s lair is carved out by its disintegration eye ray, emphasizing vertical passages connecting chambers stacked on top of each other. An eye tyrant sometimes carves out a domain within or under a major city, commanding networks of agents that operate on their master’s behalf.Īlien Lairs. Because they refuse to share territory with others, most beholders withdraw to frigid hills, abandoned ruins, and deep caverns to scheme. Rather than live in isolation, the aptly named eye tyrants enslave those other creatures, founding and controlling vast empires. Even slight differences of coloration in hide can turn two beholders into lifelong enemies.Įye Tyrant. Some beholders manage to channel their xenophobic tendencies into a terrible despotism. Some have eyestalks that writhe like tentacles, while others’ stalks bear crustacean-like joints. Some beholders are protected by overlapping chitinous plates. Beholders vary greatly in their physical forms, making conflict between them inevitable. Each beholder believes its form to be an ideal, and that any deviation from that form is a flaw in the racial purity of its kind. The disdain a beholder has for other creatures extends to other beholders. Beholders always suspect others of plotting against them, even when no other creatures are around. Beholders are convinced that other creatures resent them for their brilliance and magical power, even as they dismiss those lesser creatures as crude and disgusting. Xenophobic Isolationists. Enemies abound, or so every beholder believes. When a beholder sleeps, it closes its central eye but leaves its smaller eyes open and alert. Aggressive, hateful, and greedy, these aberrations dismiss all other creatures as lesser beings, toying with them or destroying them as they choose.Ī beholder’s spheroid body levitates at all times, and its great bulging eye sits above a wide, toothy maw, while the smaller eyestalks that crown its body twist and turn to keep its foes in sight. One glance at a beholder is enough to assess its foul and otherworldly nature. "Every beholder thinks it is the epitome of beholderkind, and the only thing it fears is that it might be wrong."
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