Difference between revisions of "Celestial"

a common description of a celestial is a tall, winged humanoid who emits radiant light and has a piercing, intense gaze; this varies widely, as celestials choose forms that best suit them or their forms are chosen by their deity, and many are not humanoid at all

affinity with holy elemental magic and resistance or immunity to the same; vulnerability to shadow elemental magic; ability to see in total darkness; flight (with wings or otherwise); immunity to poisons and disease

Deific celestials are created by a deity and serve that deity faithfully. They are often enforcers of a deity's will, agents designed to extend the reach of the deity or represent the deity outside of the deity's planar domain. If a celestial willingly chooses to defy its deity, that celestial "falls," sometimes resulting in a radical shift in the celestial's abilities; some fallen celestials become creatures tied to the shadow element as a result of the loss of the connection to their god. This is not always the case, but it is fairly common.

A celestial has no gender, but will usually identify itself as one gender or another depending upon how it chooses to manifest its physical body. Most celestials have one form that they manifest for the majority of the time, and changing physical forms is not an instantaneous process; most celestials cannot, for example, lengthen their limbs or increase their height spontaneously during a combat situation. Many celestials manifest clothing and weapons as part of their bodies, but those that spend a large amount of time around mortals choose instead to simply manifest a physical form and clothe or arm themselves with crafted objects. A celestial's aura and body are a single, inseparable unit; this renders celestials vulnerable to certain types of protective wards, banishing spells, and many forms of astral magic. A slain celestial cannot be resurrected by any mortal magic because their spirit is obliterated along with their physical body.

a common description of a celestial is a tall, winged humanoid who emits radiant light and has a piercing, intense gaze; this varies widely, as celestials choose forms that best suit them, and many are not humanoid at all

affinity with holy elemental magic and resistance or immunity to the same; vulnerability to shadow elemental magic; ability to see in total darkness; flight (with wings or otherwise); immunity to poisons and disease

Ideal celestials do not have an associated deity. Instead, they represent an ideal, principles such as "justice," "innocence," "truth," "happiness," etc. A celestial may represent an ideal that is the domain of a deity without necessarily being associated with that deity; ideal celestials often seem to arise spontaneously from the aether of the various higher planes simply because of devotion of mortal followers to the ideals in question. In short, they are champions of positive ideology.

Like their deific cousins, ideal celestials have no innate gender and their physical bodies are functionally what they wish them to be. Ideal celestials are more likely to produce offspring with mortals than deific celestials; this is mostly because ideal celestials are not bound by the whims of a deity but rather by the furthering of a less specific agenda. Being technically non-sexual, celestials reproduce by the mingling of essences with mortal beings, though this can occur during more "traditional" sexual contact, and it typically manifests itself as a very pleasant sensation in the recipient that is similar to feelings of arousal or orgasm. If the mortal parent is female, they become responsible for gestation and delivery of the offspring. If the mortal parent is male, the celestial carries the seeds of the offspring within its aura until it has matured and is ready to be delivered; most celestials will manifest feminine forms for the purpose.