Nuclear Beasts

Bus Ideas

• Thalk Angels. These winged humanoid figures (four arms, four wings and two faces side by side) were Avatars of Arthalcus. When that deity vanished, most of them went to his aid an vanished as well. A few sensed that the angels who answered that call were being destroyed and held back out of cowardice.

  Those survived the apparent death of their deity. They're a major reason that the Thalks are still around... some of the remaining angels still protect and teach them. The angels, of course, are largely nuts themselves, overrun with guilt and shame and often in deep denial. They may claim that Arthalcus commanded them to wait for his return, or not seem to be aware of his fall at all.

  A few Thalk Angels have come to terms with their loss and found new lives, but not very many and the surviving cult of Arthalcus looks on them with the same hatred that any religion holds for traitorous avatars.

• Blue-skinned, long-lived humanoids with hooked horns growing out of their foreheads (think the old Barbarian Leader Woman from Heroes of Might & Magic 3). Their horns grow as long as they live. They can't grow facial hair.

  They are planesfolk created by some deity of the hunt. I still need a good name for this race... well, for all the races, really.

• Borderlands are pseudo-realms... regions that lie between two realms and are part of both and neither. A borderland is the easiest way to move large forces between realms... just walk there. It's not a portal that requires some energy to use and no actual teleportation occurs... it's just an area that's simultaneously in both realms and can be exited in either. Avatars can shift the overlapped area so that new parts of one realm are now in the borderland and the old borderland is now part of the other realm. In this way, realms can slowly eat each other, led by the avatars of warring gods. Huge wars between avatars, local planesfolk and mercenaries are fought in the borderlands, which are often miles across. Whichever side can seize control of the whole borderland, even if only briefly, can use their avatars to steal land from the foe (the ritual is easily disrupted by the presence of rival avatars or priests of an opposing god).

• Portals, on the other hand, are just teleporters. They create a sort of borderland-in-miniature, a tiny area that's simultaneously in two places at once, allowing back and forth traffic. Most portals require a bit of energy to use (it's a very simple activation spell) and may even be keyed to require a special ritual (a variant activation spell) if you know what you're doing. Menagerie seems to attract naturally occurring portals regularly, many of which are only usable for brief periods, then become dormant again.