Being a guide to things mortals
And many immortals alike are
Not meant to know
Designed and Edited by Lars H. Löher
Welcome dear traveller. You have put your hands on a potentially dangerous tome of hidden knowledge. I know, in the planes they say, knowledge is power. Having the wrong piece of chant or darks that you should not know are a quick shortcut into the dead-book. If you think this is a tome about political high-ups, the factols or something similar, you are wrong. You might try to find a copy of the Factol's Manifesto, but be warned that this tome is outlawed in the Cage by the Harmonium.
Not so this book. There is no law, no rule, nothing to prevent you from picking it up. You may easily read its concepts, even if you are mortal and it does not corrupt you as some other books do. It is obviously not the book itself that is dangerous, its pages or its writings in itself. No runes that make your head ache, no corrupting fiendspeech whispering into unsuspecting ears. I will repeat it again. It is not the makeup or the book itself that is detrimental to your continued existence.
It is the contents that put you into danger.
See, some of the powermogers revealed in this book do not even like anyone knowing that they exist at all, even less some of their secrets revealed. The compiler of this book and most of its contributors are powerful true immortals themselves, not just paramortals. People that cannot really be put into the dead-book without excruciating efforts, that even many of those detailed within these pages cannot handle, afford, or would cost them too much energy. If you read it, dear mortal, however, it might be a minor problem for these creatures to get you.
You are still reading? Don't tell me I didn't warn you, my friend. This book as been arranged around the several types of powermongers that you cannot usually even see, because they do not want to be seen. They are out of phase of your perception. (A tricky concept that will be explained later.) Even seeing one of these beings can kill a mere mortal, not to speak about their incredible power. This book is built upon a rough categorisation of these beings into groups, that seem to make sense.
We will start with the outer planar mighty. The infernal Iandrikkar, the benign Shrykku and the Kurkirr, who try to balance it all out. As far as we know, there are five subdivisions within each of these, maybe more. Then the inner planar powermongers will be handled. You thought archomentals or greater elementals where the end all of the inner planes? Better think again. There are many incredibly powerful critters there and many of them even interact with mortals on occasion, as they are on a general note less arrogant than their companions from the outer planes.
Finally there will be a treatise of the true dreamers. Not that not all of the beings mentioned here are not fey, but these are the true, the original and ancient faerie beings, some of whom still know times from before the multiverse as we know it came into existence. Ancient mysterious powerful and incomprehensible they still play major, but subtle, roles in the wheels of the whole show up to this day.
You still insist on reading on? Don't come to me whining. You have been warned. Once has to be enough.
— The Mystical Old Bard
When I started to compile this tome, I wondered why I did so several times, but finally I decided that this lore had to be put down, in case it becomes important. The best way of dealing with anything that is detailed within these pages is avoiding to do so, but all too often you cannot avoid doing so. For instance a group of Iandrikkar lurks on a world known as Earth in suspended animation, and I fear that this magic-less world will be lost when they awaken. On the world called Abeir-Toril a group of three of the most powerful individuals defeated an Iandrikkar lord and survived. Barely. And one of them was a true sidhe, go figure.
In the deserts of Athas the sorcerer-kings achieve levels of power that might arouse the attention of the mighty, and do not even get me started on the fool Rajaat. The world of Aebrynis has their blooded nobles and the awnsheghlin, that might both see dangerous level of power. Some believe that the dragons currently plaguing Krynn are also a result of plotting from beyond average power levels. These are only a few examples that come to mind. Entire tomes could be filled listing recorded and assumed activity of the mighty.
Obviously knowledge about these creatures might become crucial to the fate of entire worlds or even clusters of worlds. Be aware that it is still time to put down this tome and leave it alone, if none of this is true for a world that you might try to save. Naturally the mighty usually handle things like those among themselves, as they did on Toril. (Elder Sidhe are among the mighty and his two companions are close enough to give everyone a pause.)
Most of the beings detailed within this tome have stats and can be slain, but it is by no means an easy thing to do. Even a Krack'Lark one of the intermediate tanar'ri is almost undefeatable by all but the best prepared and high powered mortals. Naturally they have a tendency not to come alone either, and the lords of the mighty do not need any backup to snuff the life out of near any opposition without as much as blinking an eye or wriggle a claw (or tentacle or hand, or whatever it just has).
One last word of advice. If you need to battle any of these creatures, keep your reading confined to the sections dealing with them. If you just browse, I hope that you are powerful enough to handle it. There is little else to be said here, so we can come to the following questions: What makes the mighty the mighty? Why do they hide from normal vision? Who contributed to this book and made it possible?