Lantern archon

Lantern archons were the lowest-raking of the archons, the souls of those good and lawful who had recently died. They were particularly favored as servants by the gods Cyrrollalee, Dugmaren Brightmantle, Eilistraee, Milil, and Mystra.

Description
Lantern archons appeared as spheres of soft, glowing light,  about as bright as a torch, from about one to three feet in diameter. They bore no further ornamentation. It was impossible to extinguish their light without destroying them.

Personality
Lantern archons, being relatively new to their plane, were not very intelligent or wise. While simple-minded, lantern archons exuded goodness and peace. While they desired to earn their way and advance to higher forms, their ultimate goal was primarily to help those in need.

Lantern archons were very friendly beings who were curious about mortals and the mortal world. Most lantern archons never left the heavenly realm from which they originated, always serving as custodians and guides for mortal souls that had passed into the heavens. A few found their way to the mortal world, either by being summoned forth or through a random planar gate.

Despite their "lowly" status, lantern archons were content with their existence. They loved to help those in need and worked well with others. The bravery of these creatures often led them to be promoted into other forms of archons.

Abilities
Like all archons, lanterns could speak and understand any language they desired. They could also teleport anywhere they desired without a chance of failure. Lantern archons could detect the presence of evil and also protect themselves from it. Lanterns' sole weapons were rays of intense light, which they could fire at their opponents, within a range of about 30 feet. Those of pure heart were unaffected by the rays.

A lantern archon could not only hover but was fully capable of flight.

Lantern archons were immune to paralyzation, electricity, and charming, but other types of spells could harm them. They could not be affected by mundane weapons, and if they were slain, they simply reformed again within a day.

Combat
While lantern archons&mdash;like all archons&mdash;hated combat, if forced to fight, they gave off a menacing aura of righteousness that negatively affected their foes' ability to combat them. They preferred to fight with one opponent at a time.

Society
Being the forms of lawful good souls who had died on the Material Plane, lantern archons were rather plentiful in the lawful good Outer Planes. They were usually found on first layer of Mount Celestia, Lunia, and so they often interacted with plane-traveling adventurers or newly arrived souls, happy to provide whatever assistance they could. They were limited in what help they could offer, however, since they did not have corporeal bodies, so their help was usually advice, guidance, or inspiration, often in the form of riddles or parables.

Other archons tended to treat lantern archons like children since they were so new to the celestial realms.

Lanterns were subservient to all other archons as well as to deities, solars, planetars, and devas. Sometimes, lanterns were chosen as messengers to the upper layers of Mount Celestia. If summoned by a hound archon, they teleported wherever they were required immediately.

Ecology
Lantern archons were sustained by the light and essence of the plane of Celestia and so did not need to eat or drink anything else to thrive.

Creation
Worshipers of the gods Tyr, Torm, and Ilmater became lantern archons when they died, though not all lawful good individuals who had followed other gods became lanterns. Lantern archons could also be created by an act of sacrifice from a spellcaster using sanctified magic.

Promotion
In the view of some scholars, lantern archons were not true archons but only "proto-archons", from which all other archons were ultimately derived. A lantern archon that had proven itself ready for the next station of goodness was transformed into a hound archon.

Appearances

 * The Fractured Sky
 * The Crystal Mountain