Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Kaorti

[@benthomason3307]

Baatoran alignment: Lawful Evil. Elysiavian Alignment: Neutral Good. Far Realmer Alignment: a̷̗̖̠̬̼͚ä̻͛̿ͭd̞̫͇͍̓s̸̱̳̣̰̟̟ͩͭ̿̊ͨ̚i͖̼̥̥̝͔̎̽̑̕ͅU̲̝͉̐͌ͥ͂U̞̘͍̻͙̔̌ͮ̔ỉ͐ͧ̓̆ͤ͏̭͈̭̮l̳͎̠̫͢

[@jgr7487]

these guys are the reason why I consider Mind Flayers more as the extremely far descendents of something that once was from the Far Realm than as true Far Realm living stuff.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Yeah... 😥😰😨 I'd agree with that.

[@nvfury13]

Thing is, with the Far Realm you are dealing with things with a whole planar landscape (inner, outer, transitive and material) crammed into (to us) random clumps of a “living, organic” space; ones that might alter at any time. So you could get everything from incomprehensible *things* to things that are merely *twisted* in some way. Illithid larva might be the equivalent of leeches in some isolated pocket of it.

[@tysondennis1016]

Imagine if an illithid ancestor was stumbled upon by some players.

[@LolUGotBusted]

D&D: The Far Realm defies description. A. J.: Hold my beer

[@AJPickett]

This comment made my day.

[@cernunnos_lives]

This has been the best explanation of the Far Realm. Your take on the Planes of Existence has always been mind blowing.

[@nvfury13]

Ahh, the Far Realm. Where you might find yourself in a conversation with a coral reef made of flesh and cellphones, cymbal monkey-crabs scuttling along it to farm the rat-anemones that bud swearing fetus-fruit from their tendrils; slowly feeding them into an orifice with the sound of German death metal sang by a bubblegum J-Pop girl group coming from it, the sound of an industrial blender joining the sound as each is slipped in.

[@robertmcdonald3736]

I have an epic-level NPC who will tell my PCs: "The Far Realm, if you would call it that, is the film between our multiverse and the Void . . . separating us from other multiverses." My setting, BTW, includes the CoC mythos creatures, 3.5 Elder Evils, and an insanity component

[@DkKombo]

A monk style based of the Far Realm Like an Eldritch knight mixed with a monk. - The way of the abyss is a style that was developed by a certain individual who used to be a monk, but experienced the far realm for a full minute, and meditated off of it's presence, redefining his style as the far realm redefined him. - As a "normal" monk draws from the energies within their body, the mad monk's body was changed by the far realm, making every action produce a small side effect. - Using psychic energies, he can "recall" the Far Realm to shape shift his body and use the new appendage in a certain style. One which they'll never be able to master fully, but in their insanity be able to get creative and be extremely adept as if in a dream. - Literally anything is possible: poison, elemental, changing the environment, creating a tiny being that can permanently become your Ally and loves to hump spoons while singing fly me to the moon or desolve or explode immediately, let your body guide you. - That's all I got for now. Probably could use some side effects and actual moves but, eh, I'm lazy.

[@cheayunju]

"The infinite wet embrace of the feasting vast. "

[@jaym6996]

I've been waiting for this. The idea of "places Man was not meant to go" along with long lost empires always makes for a great adventure hook with a Lovecraftian touch.

[@iamzid]

a thought occurs to me. If the Obyrith came from another universe than they must have passed through the far realm. the true forms of the Obyrith cause similar effects to that of far realm. it wasn't entering the D&D multiverse that made the Obyrith what they are it was crossing the far realm to get there.

[@AJPickett]

Agreed

[@markusnavergard2387]

so as alien as the far realm is to us. the material plane is as alien to the far realm denizens. for them. we are the crazy ones

[@RobWhite333]

They look upon us and go mad

[@thepopulargirl1784]

It's like that fanfic of "The Thing" from the alien's perspective.

[@trajanfidelis]

@@RobWhite333 i feel that

[@tatsusama3192]

"So tell me about the Far Realm" "Yes" "Yes?" "Well, not really?" "What?!" "Right"

[@trajanfidelis]

What is my favorite second baseman!

[@HumbleMemeFarmer]

Ah, the Far realm, a lovely place to hide out if you never, ever, EVER want to be found again.

[@coreyeaston6823]

How the world of Toril survives will all the "things" and "evils" running around is a mystery. I guess its the reason why so many adventurers are needed. Fire to the flames.

[@projectfantasy1385]

Maybe these things and evils fight and consume each other as well like demons and devils in the blood wars and that's why Elminster gets his morning coffee in peace :D :P

[@ljmiller96]

They only show up in Toril when a DM needs some new thing to torment the players and their characters. They're Schroedinger's monster. That's how there can be so many dire enemies waiting to be summoned and yet Toril remains.

[@nullvoid4063]

All right! The far realm is one of my favorite part of D&D. Also, nice reference to Azathoth in the intro. I know that there is very little info about many aberrations such as the Cildabrin (Lords of Madness pg 141), Psurlon (Lords of Madness pg 162), Silthilar (LoM pg 168) Zeugalk (LoM pg 171), and others. Maybe you could do a kind of rapid fire video talking about many aberrations that just don’t have that much on them. Or, having read over this comment, just make a video on the Lords of Madness 3.5 splatbook.

[@OmusKnowsAll]

Idea: future D&D setting where technology and magic are one and the same, like a combination of Thor tech, and Destiny aesthetic (Clarke Tech!) These brave or crazy (both?) adventurers traverse the Far Realm in their sci-fi fantasy spelljammer and of course, every adventure something bizarre happens. The Navigator wails, "Captain are shields are being drained!" "By Helm! This is the third time this week!", laments Captain Boarfast.

[@cammieOsaurus]

Arcanum is an old game where a world of magic is in the middle of an industrial revolution. You can use guns or shoot fireballs. Give it a go :)

[@thedarkmaster4747]

You can try to make it. I'd go with teleporting nanites for something like that... But as creative as i am, i've never felt comfortable world building in that kind of setting. Science fantasy is the hardest genre to work with... But if done right, it has the best results. Although for a far realm adventure - wouldn't it be more: "Captain the crew are being drained. Through the shields. Litterally. Something is flaying us. In six hours we'll all be skellingtons." Cap: "I told you, not to give it any ideas!!!".

[@draxthemsklonst]

"Fear the old blood," and such. :]

[@sebbychou]

Oh hey, Chrysalids thrive even in the far realms. Truly a cursed beast.

[@nicholasjonas452]

What's that?

[@sebbychou]

xcom.fandom.com/wiki/Chryssalid

[@Im-Not-a-Dog]

So they’re basically just a living tentacle with teeth that takes a roughly human form? Ok. My theory still checks out. Everything from the Far Realm has eyestalks, tentacles, or both.

[@AJPickett]

This is what I am telling you, yes.

[@nvfury13]

Think of it as the Hentai-verse of H.P. Lovecraft.

[@DkKombo]

What would a child between the far realm and the abyss look like? You know, because technically they're both alive...

[@draxthemsklonst]

Pale Night-esque

[@joshuazane3210]

Excellent! Detailed information about the Far Realm and its inhabitants can be difficult to track down. Admittedly, that makes sense thematically, but it can be a bit frustrating at times. I'm looking forward to learning more! 😃

[@puckshriekstheim6114]

In my groups shared setting, we have this "Sea" called the Sea of Infinite Possibilities, or just the SIP. It was a direct creation of one of our gods, and acts like a net to catch any overly dangerous far realm nonsense from bleeding in. The God who made it is also a chicken, so nonsense vs nonsense I guess? XD our setting is pretty wild tbh.

[@andresmarrero8666]

Fare realm nonsense. Good one.

[@puckshriekstheim6114]

If it's not nonsense idk what else to call it xD

[@docbaker3333]

I love the reference you made to Azathoth in the video it really fits the nature of the Far Realm and it's H.P Lovecraft inspiration

[@animorph17]

... dude. The far realm is just quantum mechanics. Your introduction is literally the description of a quantum superstate, and apparently far realm entities exist as a probability shell of stuff they might be.

[@AJPickett]

Excellent, roll a sanity check

[@andresmarrero8666]

In short nightmares that never truly existed.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

AJ Pickett So in the far realm, reality is the sum of all possible combined perception? *fails sanity check and melts though both the floorboards and celling at the sametime and becomes the disembodied senses or archetectural paranoia as an fully embodied concept... For now...* 🎲😱🖐👅👃👁👂

[@jamespeterson1708]

I absolutely love far realm creatures. Great video AJ.

[@florenmage]

bob-hey guys im going to take a trip through the far realm. Joe-ok bye bob...well...we will never see him again.........hopefully.......O_O

[@fritzvoss5263]

last time i was this early veccna was still human

[@DkKombo]

I was thinking of making a flesh golem made of Eldritch parts that had an amalgamation of wings, eyes, arms, mouths and tentacles on a humanoid frame that would be the size of a small giant, with the eyes being made from beholders of course, or at least acting as magical conduits. This flesh golem is actually a flesh mech, opening up and controlled specifically by a drow that emanated and controlled a clear slime to operate the parts, and is seated within the golem's torso. It would have the mind of an aboleth, eyes of a beholder, breathe of all the dragons (similar, but not to scale), and the self fulfilling ability of kaorti. (Or not, that's the ideal form but as long as it acts as magnifier for magic and psychic abilities and can self sustain, it's good.) The drow would move in this form as naturally as his own, and could do it indefinitely, as he naturally melds his mind with the golem's and can sustain himself through the golem. In fact, it can look like a giant, multi-armed pale elf with webbed hands and feet with tentacles for hair as well as tentacles growing near the elbows, knees, shoulders and hips, with the webbed, feathery-looking scaly wings folding across the back. So yeah, I think it would be cool.

[@victorvaldez8869]

Of course the suit MIGHT start to wear the Drow instead.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Victor Valdez I second this.

[@binturongjustice]

it's like someone crossed the mind flayers with the yuuzhan vong

[@carlborneke8641]

That’s both a horrifying and awesome idea!

[@NanoMayTry]

The Far Realm asks, *"What are you doing in my bed?"* Not sleeping anymore, that's what. Awesome Aj. So... between chaos is the undefined, folded upon itself an undefined amount of times. I think.

[@spare5808]

Loving the art in this episode.

[@jacobbarham9360]

I really like the concept of these things, arrogant mages flash cooked in the crucible of insanity. Kinda reminds me of the dark spawn in Dragon Age

[@Ashen.Elixer]

Well, Dragon Age did start off as a pitch for a DnD rpg, so I'm pretty sure that the whole "darkspawn are mages warped by the fade" is basically The Far Realms and the Astral Sea smooshed together, with the dragon gods taking the place of the Elder Evils

[@volstad44]

Ummmm...... Lormaster AJ.... I think you spilled some 40k in my DnD.... *Breathes Deep* By the gods, seems like it is time to smite the unholy. *grins*

[@TV-jn4dh]

You got me at "Far Realm".

[@jeffreyballinger133]

I'm getting a real H.R. Giger/Resident Evil vibe on these guys.

[@purplehaze2358]

The amoebic sea!? Is that a reference to _Alien Planet?_

[@jaythomas172]

In another multi-universe, beings with curiosity and the power to do so attempt to see our reality. To them we are incomprehensible, so alien they simply cannot comprehend our existence. Thus we are ourselves someone else’s or perhaps something else’s far realm. 🐲

[@sanddry738]

Jeez after hearing the description of the far realm I can understand why mortals go absolutely insane. It makes me wonder if deities would be able to withstand it enough to possibly escape alive.

[@defiantnight2668]

Well, if you can describe Tharizdun as some sort of alive...

[@matthill5426]

Excellent Lovecraftian monster for Halloween! Far Realm can be difficult to use for adventures, but I think some of the more cosmic horror-based SCPs do it well.

[@DarthRamzes]

Far Realm sounds like d&d version of Realm of Chaos from Warhammer Fantasy, or Warp from 40K.

[@AJPickett]

absolutely.

[@Greenscyth22]

As the Alienist prestige class is my favorite, I find it difficult to create a campaign where a player would be able to make peaceful contact with a denizen of the Far Realm (one of the prerequisites of the class). Much of the Far Realm is just too alien and mind-warping to come into contact with without permanent damage. I can't foresee using the Kaorti as a bridge to this requirement because they only wish to alter or pervert prime material life.

[@marthachampagne316]

try reading 3rd edition aberations, you should be able to find a few of the insane, but not totally hostile 'came from the far realm' type.

[@Mare_Man]

Flumphs?

[@HumbleMemeFarmer]

Plumphs are literally goodest boils ayylmaos. THEY ARE LITERALLY TINY FLYING SAUCERS.

[@LurkerDaBerzerker]

*Relevant and Supportive sculpting of flesh*

[@LurkerDaBerzerker]

Sounds like a more difficult to deal with necromorph invasion, but these things have singular personalities so you don't have to deal with hive minds at least. (Though I guess the trade-off is that the Kaorti can use magic, while the Necromorphs can't.)

[@BoojumFed]

*Horrifyingly orange feeling ancillary mental sputtering*

[@DCdabest]

Welp. Time to not have nightmares if i can. Great video AJ. The denizens of the Far Realm always serve as a Evil Out Of Time type threat that always serves to crete strange bedfellows out of even the worst Archdevils and the greatest Solars as Good, Evil, Law, Chaos and the vile powers of Neutrality must pool their powers to seal off the Anti-Existance of that awful, awful place.

[@Mare_Man]

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

[@khnumra8080]

PROFOUND

[@marvalice3455]

@@khnumra8080 not really. Just fear of being small. Many people confuse size and importance

[@taddad2641]

Eh bullshit. there are definitely things humanity should not quarrel withs and lengths we should not go, but our minds are both capable of extreme acceptance and utter delusion. we need only acclimate to them.

[@OfficerC4]

The early description of this realm remind me of the Warp from 40K and Fantasy.

[@ljmiller96]

Almost sounds like you're saying the far realm is to the D&D multiverse what the Oort Cloud is to the Solar System. It's a hostile edge to the orderly system existing inside it that would rend and destroy everything within if it could. Someday it will have that chance.

[@AJPickett]

The Oort cloud is Belter territory. 😎

[@bayoubilly5176]

I highly doubt the Oort cloud will destroy us before the sun eats us...

[@aaronhumphrey2009]

Far Realm = Dark Matter Where the Darkness became Hunger..

[@royriley6282]

They really should have sent a hamster across the void first.

[@MrRedFoxorMrelzorrorojo]

These things look like some Clive Barker Hellraiser creatures.

[@elbentos7803]

Hellraiser is a bit more "nine hellish" (cf. kytons)

[@nbmoleminer5051]

Woohoo more Far Realm content. 🤩😍

[@paul_chandler3082]

literally the far realm is just if you got all of hp lovecraft's horrors and put it in a blender

[@GentlesirGibbles]

With the added spicing of some good ol' Cronoberg-ing

[@GlacierGhoul3793]

It needs more pepper

[@dracovoid2001]

@@GlacierGhoul3793 it is to salty

[@shamusfarmer]

More Far-Realm stuff, please!! Is... There more..?

[@AJPickett]

Always

[@andresmarrero8666]

Yet never.

[@That80sGuy1972]

Kaorti: Far Realm nightmarish monsters, most insidious. So, homebrew loving DM's, the next time someone says "That belongs in (insert horror fiction here), not AD&D". Just say "(homebrew) are creatures from the far realm."

[@DaveTh3Ninja]

That is very upsetting and I love it.

[@ExtraElliot]

OK now that I've thought about it AJ If these creatures don't like the prime material plane then could they invade the Abyss and if so what would the demons and devils who are warped by the far realm look like? now you got me thinking! thanks for the video!

[@AJPickett]

There are loads of demons that are not defined and named, so, warped and twisted engines of madness, rage and destruction is kind of the norm for demons anyway. They are a very diverse category of monsters though, so results may vary.

[@andresmarrero8666]

They probably wouldn't be affected at all, then and the celestials. Good and evil are just that.

[@ExtraElliot]

@@andresmarrero8666 Can't you see it though all of them having a team up against the far Realm

[@andresmarrero8666]

@@ExtraElliot as long as the far realm stays where it is, they probably wouldn't bother. Why should they acknowledge a pitiful nightmare?

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Elliot Rogers Yeah, demons might actually under those conditions. Too chaotic for even chaotic evil.

[@lucianosgonzalez3561]

Super excited for these far realm bois

[@markusnavergard2387]

so everything in the far realm is Yog-sothoth and Shub-Nigurath. the far realm might be Azathoth itself? " there are things beyond the skies,entities that hates and despise us"

[@DkKombo]

Jeez, this makes the aboleths look like teddy bears... I almost want to cuddle them for comfort after hearing about the far realm... Oh! Idea for a character that is weirdly immune to the aboleths and is friends with them!!! Like a favorite toy!! I'd imagine that it would have to give off some weird psychic signal that is pleasent to them but is hard on mortals. Like, she can be a little girl who was an experiment by...someone maybe the mindflayers, but stumbled upon a newborn aboleth and the aboleth kinda throws her up and down and they end up being inseperable. Imagine a little girl riding an aboleth...

[@andresmarrero8666]

Well as long as you can get the Aboleth to get over their fear of not knowing everything.

[@BigusGeekus]

...SCP-053, but in a fantasy setting?

[@DomLab-g2n]

So The Far Realm is basically a Dali Painting that's inherently dark and evil. Isn't that every lower plane? I don't see how Far Realm can be as weird and alien as Obox-Ob layer of The Abyss.

[@blakebarn8739]

Hurray, I got to see the video right as it came up!

[@Gabronthe]

You should mention the use of their resin by people as it's in high demand for Minmaxing players.

[@Gabronthe]

I'm quite serious. Player demand for Koarti resin should become a part of their ecology.

[@llewelynshingler2173]

Which is worse? The Abyss or the Far Realm?

[@draxthemsklonst]

Answerable?

[@Sebasti44n]

the far realm is way worse.

[@puckshriekstheim6114]

The Abyss only wants you to be corrupted, to join its swirling mass of pure chaotic evil. It desires to corrupt all of reality. Far Realm would find that far too sane a goal. Far Realm is insanity, nonsense, or has no understandable goals. It's purely alien and beyond mortal description.

[@DkKombo]

If the abyss is living, and the far realm is also, kinda living, does that mean they can...you know...procreate? Oh God how would that end up?

[@llewelynshingler2173]

@@DkKombo Neth's mind crushing twin?

[@jorywalkinshaw9249]

I must know more of these elder evils

[@victorvaldez8869]

Sadly you can't. They are unfathomable to any human mind that is remotely sane.

[@ethantaillefer-meyn6535]

If he’s asking to know about the elder vile is he really sane

[@healersandkillers4357]

Heed them not Jory Walkinshaw, I to would hear more of these elder evils

[@chriscalvin5083]

good video AJ

[@nicozandhuis1865]

I still come back for the description of victim's dreams, cannot help but fantasise about using it in my own game

[@purplehaze2358]

Is it wrong that all I think about when I hear that name is to tuatara, a small lizard native to New Zealand? (I legitimately have no idea why)

[@AJPickett]

Well, technically, it's more like a little dinosaur.

[@purplehaze2358]

@@AJPickett Well, it's distinct from both groups. I just say "Lizard" because it's the most familiar thing to compare it to.

[@robertsimpson7424]

Could be possible for a Kaorti to become a ur-priest?

[@AJPickett]

Sure

[@justanothermaid]

Thank you for another wonderful lore video.

[@informedconsumer5293]

My thoughts have followed a similar train However, as the highest dimension is all possibility, the dimension that lies further still is the impossible

[@AJPickett]

Quite correct

[@professorsponge1554]

These are the major big bad in my pathfinder campaign. But what was that creature from dragon magazine 330? 'Chaotic hulk?' Edit: bought the PDF. "Kaortic Hulk." Oh I'm going to have fun with this. Thanks a million AJ, you just gave this DM a few more cards to play in his campaign. If you want to know how I'm playing them: rather than being from the far realm, they're from the End of time. I've even tied them to the Cynedecians and Zargon from the Lost City module.

[@Plokman040]

Here is some food for thought, this is inspired heavily by Tron but it works on all multi dimensional levels. What if those of the far realm, those we cannot understand are only that far above because we have no proper way to see them? What if from the perspective of the divine they have more substance and more true forms closer to them than those of the far realm is to us? We understand the Gods and Goddesses because they have come to our level, they have shown their power and walked among us as if a normal mortal being. But even then we have only a slight grasp of their true powers, for they have ways to govern and carry out their portfolios we can't fathom. The steps up the ladder, how far do they go? How far removed can something be when there are beings who can see what they are, like Flynn in Tron a user brought down to a electronic impulse a god among programs. But Flynn showed that he was little different to them and that there was a power above him. There is a way to see the far realm clearly and not be native, how well only those of Realmspace and their pantheons can find it since their corner of the Omniverse is so far away from ours. We the players may as well be the Far Realm where DnD is concerned. Also what of Universal Singularities beings who while being in all universes at one have but one soul and merely infinite bodies, those such as Primus (Cybertron, not Mechanus) and Unicron, the original 13 primes? Optimus exists on ever plain where Cybertron is but each Optimus is a different body, different soul.

[@draxthemsklonst]

But which is the Rickest...err umm...most Optimal Optimus?

[@Plokman040]

@@draxthemsklonst Quite simple my dear, only one Optimus has ever been Optimal the answer here is Primal.

[@kirxuvalentine4795]

Well as it's all WOTC properties beyond the Far Realm would be the blind eternities from MTG the 2 have been tied together now fairly soundly.

[@AJPickett]

Oh they have?

[@flappajack97]

I've always seen the far realm as an ocean of possibility, spec's of matter exist in a pocket which floats about the sea. each "pocket" containing its own astral plane with all it's many worlds. the fish of the far real are the ancient elder gods to big to even notice the specs floating beneath them, the smaller fish and bottom feeders are the beholders, aboleths and mind flayers too scared of the big fish to stay so they invade into the specs of matter. But yeah that' my own interpretation of the far realm, it's obviously 100% wrong and probably right to some degree, but the weirdness of the ocean and strange alien life found there is what inspires the far realm for me.

[@unbreakablelag]

Honyi1 I like this.

[@briancorvello3620]

Where in the WORLD did you find these pictures??

[@AJPickett]

Google image search, Pinterest and deviant art mostly

[@briancorvello3620]

@@AJPickett Ah, figures. They did seem to fit the subject rather well.

[@victorvaldez8869]

I noticed that Mark Cooper Art was the on a few of them. It had the URL to their website at the bottom. Some of them were Magic: The Gathering artwork too. For example the picture at 22:18 is from "Strands Of Undeath" from the Ravnica City Of Guilds set, the art at 10:20 is from "Sudden Death" from the Time Spiral block, that skulking thing at 8:40 is "Blighted Agent" & the spiked beast is the art from "Razor Swine" both from New Phyrexia. There's no way one COULD accurately represent something as alien as The Far Realm in any kind of medium the human mind could remotely understand. Cause can come before or during effect, philosophies could become tangible for a few hours & hours could cease to be. A great selection, for as close as the Far Realm could possibly be conveyed via visual art.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

1:48 Poor azathoth... 🐙😵🌌🎷🎺📯🐏🐑😴

[@shamusfarmer]

Wait, so if the Kaorti invaders are in the material plane for the first time on a one-way trip how do they so easily acclimate themselves to it? They can walk into a city and understand our society enough to determine which ones of us could go missing without being noticed and why that is the case? I should think that they, being so alien, would have a hard time even understanding the difference between up and down, or object permanence, pretty much having to re-learn every single thing about reality... Is it the tiny pieces of intellect they have left over from their mortal forbears? Would other, native far-realm entities struggle more than they do in the material realm?

[@victorvaldez8869]

Use the illusions to just make themselves invisible for a while to study up before infiltrating a society, that'd be my best guess. After a few years of study they should be able to mimic a normal resident of the Plane they are on.

[@EvelynNdenial]

i agree, anything coming directly from the far realm should only really be either a larger entity poking at our reality from the far realm or something fully entered into our reality and absolutely mad from it our reality should be just as toxic to them as theirs is to us. anything not large enough to just tank the damage and think through our alien rules of existence should just recoil and retreat back to the far realm. anything that makes the mistake of fully entering would be immersed in an existence entirely inimical to them, unable to understand anything that is going on, anything about the form they've been turned into upon arrival, or have anything you could even label as thought at all. they would simply lash out in all directions flailing. and that's the best case for them. likely they would just explode into a writhing splatter of impossible pseudo-organic matter as their uncertain, fluid, extra-dimensional forms "solidify" into one state that in all probability is not one with the order and stability enough to stay in one piece under our physical rules. like imagine what would happen to you if you entered into another universe where there were more or less dimensions and all the physics constants were changed. you would just be unmade into a shower of whatever exotic energies is native to that universe.

[@AJPickett]

They scry the outer world from within the cyst.

[@taddad2641]

@@AJPickett a world they are incapable of comprehending anymore as the realms are as alien to each other as anyhting i feel that it is stupid and lazy to pretend that any eldritch could come into the material plane and NOT lose their sanity as a result. they would suddenly be affected by a myriad of forces they cannot understand and have no experienced. gravity, temprature, vacuum, progression of time. they would probably acutally die being here, like pulling a blobfish from the deep sea and throwing it in the middle of the dessert. being in a place cannot hold their forms together in would be fatal enough.

[@sypandacat7236]

Tad Dad maybe it's more like an alien invading our world that can take a form like ours sorta like the thing or some weird life that just continues doing what it was doing in the far realm just in ours maybe it has super weird habits

[@kajjak7001]

Aj do you know of any necromancer variants that focus on raising and maintaing powerful undead instead of undead hordes?

[@volstad44]

Cool question brother. Sorry to interupt. But I had the same hopes. Kinda using Dance Macabbe with a few, or single powerfull creature.

[@Mare_Man]

Use Create Undead or Dominate powerful undead that you find instead of spamming Animate Dead.

[@AJPickett]

That would be the Riskomancer.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

AJ Pickett In soviet russia, vampire lich raise you!?!? XD

[@knowdudegamingshow2962]

Is it just me, or would it be genuinely difficult to run a campaign in the Far Realm by nature of how alien it is?

[@marcperez2598]

I have a campaign currently spiraling towards the Far Realm. I've hyped it was a place in least useful sense of the word "place". Its not an area so much as a medium through which area is conceived. It is a billion planes, some only inches in size and distance. To enter the Far Realm is to invite madness into the mind, and it includes a lot of ego death. I have the Sanity Score my player use, and I rule that the only way to navigate it with any semblance is to have 3 Sanity or less, or to have the Elder Sign.

[@MySerpentine]

More like impossible.

[@The_Lag_Monster]

At least you won't have to justify crazy plot changes 😅

[@nvfury13]

It depends on how many trips you’ve taken while reading Lovecraft and/or watching a particular type of 18+ anime...or so I’ve heard...

[@fritzvoss5263]

question: are there planar creatures of the far-realm?

[@LurkerDaBerzerker]

Fritz Voss There are all kinds of dragons throughout the different planes, makes me wonder what happens when they go all dead space on us.

[@markusnavergard2387]

@@LurkerDaBerzerker oooh man. that be crazy

[@Mare_Man]

@@LurkerDaBerzerker Brainstealer Dragons would be a good place to start

[@BoojumFed]

The Planes are all part of the multiverse that the Far Realm is exterior to. Though if denizens of the Material Plane can breach that divide, I can't think of any reason why folk from the other planes can't do the same; with similarly bizarre and catastrophic -properties- _results_ . Edit; corrected last word.

[@fritzvoss5263]

@@BoojumFed that far i know but aj was talking about the elder evil and that they are kinda prayed to by the aboleth and that there was something about claiming soul through the contact of the kaotori

[@andresmarrero8666]

The far realm as I describe Lovecraft's work in general are the nightmares of a very scared and paranoid man. A concept of the horrors and uncertainty of the unknown. What truth it may have had is so muddled and warped by that fear that it is incomprehensible. How can one say that they predate creation when nothing can as there was only nothingness? How can they predate anything when they never truly existed? Is it us how cannot comprehend, or in it in reality they how cannot comprehend. They who never truly existed, and they who seek to warp, twist, and corrupt that which does exist. A pitiful nightmare of a very scared man. That is what the far realm is, a pitiful nightmare.

[@anathema1828]

*looking for teleport service to the Far Realm*

[@akrdragon1240]

AJ have you done one for owl bears

[@digunder14]

sounds like great stuff for a more eldritch flavor of horror for a Halloween game

[@dragonmaster613]

You description of the Kaorti's weakness and the Cyst reminds me of a fantasy version of the Gaiark of Engine Sentai Go-Onger. (Replace pollution with Far Realm)

[@chaunceyshearinjr5997]

I think I’ll use this to end my game in about a year. My party is in WaterDeep and are half way done with it. This is going to be fun to play around with. Little by little close friends they’ve made will go missing.Hmmmm ideas ideas

[@Dualbladedscorpion7737]

15:54 So the kaorti are making flesh golems in their own twisted image

[@kordelshorgar122]

13:35 Dr Birkin is that you ?

[@Sebasti44n]

If you want to visit the far realm yourself mix ketamine with LSD and N2O.

[@elbentos7803]

And just listen a few key mystical words in akklo. (Cf. Neonomicon).

[@danielpierce4430]

Yuuzhan Vong basically.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Nethier of them are basic, and they're very different.

[@BenMcMurray]

My only question would be how did they reproduce before finding material plane.

[@victorvaldez8869]

They might not have needed to, in the Far Realm they were probably not affected by the passage of time, so some of them may have been the very mages that participated in the experiment. Besides I don't imagine time passes the same way in the Far Realm, assuming that's a valid concept at all, they may be able to glide through time the same way we would space there, there may be more than one temporal dimension, & FAR more than 3 physical dimensions. I can picture the number of physical & temporal dimensions changing randomly, sometimes being stable for thousands of years, then changing every two minuets.

[@BenMcMurray]

@@victorvaldez8869 I could see that making sense from a far realm perspective. I could see then the Kaorti approaching reproduction by taking over the same as taking over the plane. More conversion than reproduction. I almost think agent Smith from the matrix.

[@trajanfidelis]

are the Kaorti connected to Thoon?

[@AJPickett]

Not that we know of...

[@andresmarrero8666]

Just send the evil undead there. You can't drive the dead mad.

[@digunder14]

true, but the mindlessness would still make them easy pickings, if anything likely would just be easier for them to convert with their type of reproduction

[@andresmarrero8666]

@@digunder14 not unless they have a hatred for anything living or something of the sort. You say that it would make it easier for them to twist but in honesty, there is nothing for them to twist. A corpse is a corpse. Doesn't matter what shape it is in, and there is no mind to turn mad, no perception to change. Life is life and death is death. What is dead is dead, and no amount of different rules is going to change that fact. So I would like to see them try to change the undead, but the undead will still be the undead.

[@liger04]

@@andresmarrero8666 You bring up a lot of rules that are valid on the prime material plane, but the outer realms specifically don't care about matter, life, or death. Just like with the creation of the Kaorti, the undead will be twisted as all material things are. The result just won't have a will, and is thus likely to become a cyst or nonsensical plant. Or, since I'm assuming the plane can't randomly create a soul, maybe the plane will create one or two sentient abominations just to spite common sense..

[@andresmarrero8666]

@@liger04 neither would the dead. Changes in perception, rules and all that kind of stuff, they wouldn't really care nor would it really affect them because they're dead, not to mention that they are probably insane to begin with. Like I said a corpse is a corpse, doesn't matter what shape or it is in, and a ghost is a ghost. You can't drive the dead mad because they are dead, and I don't care what the far realm and elder evils do to them as they keep them from coming back over here.

[@earthobserver1007]

Undead for the most part, aside from shit like vampires, death knights, lichs and shit are basically damned souls who were snatched up by necromantic magic to inhabit an undead form, having been alive, they hate all life. I'm not sure how undead would be effected.....quite possibly they would be glad to have arrived, about bbn to forget their misery as they turn into things that don't recall ANYTHING about living or dying.

[@carlborneke8641]

To me the Far Realm sounds like reality divided by zero. It’s undefined so any attempt at comprehending or explaining it is completely pointless.

[@earthobserver1007]

I think back to the days I DM'd 3.0 then 3.5 with so many books. And so many campaigns, If these phones existed back then, I would have done similar to you. I used to keep track of all events in campaigns, when finished they could actually be written as books of their own. So much untapped potential....I started playing with 2nd edition.

[@amberrountree269]

I never knew about these omg 😱 I wana play this game so bad !!

[@brainstormsurge154]

So if the Kaorti were able to figure out how to survive in the material plane by coating themselves in an organic resin from the far realm then perhaps someone from the material plane could do the same thing and coat themselves with something from the material plane and survive and stay sane in the far realm.

[@ultrademigod]

That would be mighty a quest all by itself, because it would not only need to protect the body from physical effects, but also the mind and shield them from detection.

[@nvfury13]

*Emerges from mud pit* Ready!

[@TheSquareOnes]

The issue with reversing the scenario is that it assumes that the far realm is "like here, but dangerous," when in reality it's more like a place where the very concept of "surviving harsh conditions" can cease to be comprehensible. How do you protect your body in a place that isn't a place and where your body is no longer a body? Even describing the sort of environment you'd be in is fundamentally impossible for us since we're bound by the concepts of our reality, it's like trying to visualize a square circle. Of course how you want to play the far realm at your own table is up to you though and it seems to be left vague enough in most settings that there isn't much canon to "contradict" if you want to go another direction with it.

[@CantripN]

@@TheSquareOnes I had a ritual I designed for players that basically creates a "bubble of reality" around them that stabilises the planar traits and utter chaos into 3d and things they can understand. The downside is that the Far Realm is very much aware of it, it's like lighting a torch in the dark when the darkness is alive and is set on fire. Basically, what the Ilmaskari wizards did :) Yes, it's basically suicide to do it.

[@waterpicker]

@@CantripN So a 40k gellar field?

[@mikehulbig7275]

Man these coyote guys are crazy

[@edendemarlo]

With enough short trips to the far realm could one learn to use it for their benefit? Asking for a bbeg

[@AJPickett]

Yes, see The Gates of Firestorm Peak adventure module

[@edendemarlo]

@@AJPickett thanks man ill take a peek

[@daheck5961]

A peek at the Peaks?@@edendemarlo

[@MySerpentine]

I love kaorti

[@martinpat94]

If they are in Eberron are they their by a different name? The only things I know of (at the moment) that might be these things are the Dreaming Dark or the Dealkyr, or are they just Kaorti and just aren't as wide spread as something you can add to the world as a faction to through at the player? Also sorry to be asking such questions after you have released these videos and understand if there isn't some canon answer.

[@AJPickett]

By all means, throw them into Eberron, imagine if some extradimensional weapon research was going on and something went tremendously wrong, causing a massive supernatural disaster, and those behind it, who somehow survived stranded in a parallel dimension for some time, are now back and warping anything they get too close to.

[@martinpat94]

@@AJPickett huh that kind of works since one of the games I am running is supposed to be like a planar collapse adventure that the players are finding out about. This now seems like the ideal BBEG which I was struggling with picking so thanks for the idea 😁

[@verticalflats2816]

I would like to see a power struggle between the Kaorti and Darklords of Ravenloft.