Chapter 7: Divine Rank Power: Slaad Lord

Divine Rank Power: Slaad Lord

Slaad Lords

On the plane of Limbo, the laws stand in complete opposition to those of the singularity Primus. There, in the swirling soup of elemental matter, dwell the divine powers of the slaadi: the Lords of Chaos.

Few would consider these old ones to be true gods. From what little can be squeezed out of the slaadi, the Lords of Chaos are more like great heroes (rather than deities) to their race. Legend has it that their true forms are death slaadi who have successfully climbed another rung on the ladder of power. Children of the Chaos of Limbo, the Slaad Lords explore the pure possibilities open to them and have uncovered certain secrets that some feel would have been better left hidden.

They departed with greater abilities, but also established themselves as unique individuals—not only in their own eyes, but in the eyes of the peoples of the planes as well. Each lord seeks an expression of chaos that transcends the slaad form, and each embodies a distinct flavor of that primal force.

Only four Lords of Chaos are known to exist. The eldest among them is the Lady of Insanity, Ssendam. She is said to be a vast golden amoeba, a seething mass of chaos that drives any mortal who beholds her to madness. Ssendam has developed a psychic power that lets her shatter minds, drive mobs—and better promote chaos.

The second of the four is the Lord of Entropy, Ygorl. Some say he rules Limbo (to whatever degree anyone can claim to control that ultimate plane of chaos), and that he in fact created the slaadi's Spawning Stone. Ygorl takes the form of a charred, winged slaad skeleton, and his great scythe can pierce the flesh of any living thing. He seeks to perpetuate the race by sending forth countless slaadi to implant their eggs in hosts of every kind across the planes.

The third lord is Chourst the Unpredictable, a pure-white slaad standing twenty feet tall. He cares for nothing but himself, and his actions are as whimsical as they are ever-changing. Compared to the other lords, he is more the slave of his impulses. Some consider him the embodiment of whimsy. Now thoroughly mad, he goes about wanton, random destruction—until something else catches his fancy.

The fourth lord is the slaadi artist known as Rennbuu, the Lord of Colors. He sports a shock of white mane that contrasts sharply with his ever-shifting scales. To the slaadi race, however, he is nothing but a nuisance. It is said that by altering a slaad's hue, he can truly transform that creature into a different breed of slaad. For all practical purposes, Rennbuu can promote or demote slaadi at will.

Chaos Lord (LordsofChaos)

—Four great slaadi deities have descended upon the multiverse.

The closest thing the slaadi have to gods are the self-styled Slaad Lords. Yet these lords are neither gods nor demigods; like the Abyssal lords and the archdevils of the Nine Hells, they are mighty beings who rely on their own power.

As the opposite mirror image of Mechanus's rigid order, Limbo is a plane of unbridled chaos. Here, chaos crushes order, randomness supplants predictability, freedom usurps the tyranny of rules, and the individual triumphs over the whole. True to the nature of Limbo, the slaadi are exemplars of chaotic neutral behavior in every form. Inherently capricious, the slaadi revel in unpredictable chaos. Yet for the lesser red and blue slaadi,

true freedom does not exist, for they are frequently bullied and enslaved by stronger slaadi. True freedom exists only for the truly ultimate powerful individuals. This is more evident in the stronger green, gray, and death slaadi: precisely because their abilities have grown, they are better able to impose their will upon lesser slaadi. When a slaad can more freely fulfill its own hopes rather than those of others, it defines itself as belonging to a higher tier. But as long as a slaad still belongs to some tier, it is never truly an individual.

Some death slaadi have fled this structure, driving themselves to explore that face of chaos which they hope will grant them a unique identity and bestow upon them incredible power. During this investigation—a process that is baffling and extremely dangerous—a death slaad can leave the slaadi's uniform hierarchy and become a Slaad Lord—a unique being filled with power and the will of chaos. To this day, only four death slaadi have achieved this state. By reaching their new rank, the Slaad Lords have become the embodiment of their own particular quality of chaos; no two Slaad Lords share a similar expression of chaos.

Slaadi lifespans vary. Mysteriously and quite inexplicably, when a slaad reaches a certain age, it instinctively delves deep into Limbo. The fortunate individuals in this state will transform into a higher form of slaad, but most never return, presumably dissolved into primal essence and merged with the plane's raw power. This is not so for the Slaad Lords; their unique state also grants them immortality. Unless slain in battle, they need not fear being reduced to their essential essence. Thus, a Slaad Lord never fights to the death. In fact, it is believed that no Slaad Lord has yet been slain in combat with mortals—at least not so far.

Whether the essence of a slain Slaad Lord will reconstitute its original death slaad, or even return in any form, remains a matter of debate. Lesser and greater slaadi slain in combat are destroyed forever, but this may not apply to the case of the Slaad Lords. On this plane of ultimate possibility, nothing is impossible for the Lords of Chaos.