Allips were the incorporeal remnants of people driven to insanity and suicide.[3] They were a type of undead creature commonly conjured by evil spellcasters using the more advanced versions of the summon undead spell.[10]
Description[]
Allips were spectral variations of the persons they once were, with nightmarish, warped features befitting of the madness that possessed them. Their lower portions trailed away into a dark, faint fog as they floated.[3]
Behavior[]
An allip's only desire was revenge on those who supposedly pushed it over the edge to suicide. It swung wildly at any creature it detected, unaware that its incorporeal form could cause no physical harm. An allip babbled constantly in incoherent whines.[3]
Abilities[]
An allip had the ability to drain sanity from any creature it touched, growing more powerful in the process. It was as insane in death as in life; anyone detecting an allip's thoughts by magic or telepathy was driven to the same madness.[3]
Creatures who heard incessant allip babbling could fall victim to their hypnosis. An allip could hypnotize any sane creature within a 60 feet (18 meters) radius.[3]
Like many other undead, allips possessed resistance to damage caused through acid, fire, lightning, thunder, as well as non-magical weapons. They were completely unaffected by damage done via cold, necrotic energies, and poisons. They could never be charmed, exhausted, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, nor grappled or physically restrained in any way.[2]
Combat[]
A hero standing against an allip in the ruins of the Naerindyl Estate.
When an allip entered combat, it began by trying to hypnotize its foes with mesmerizing and maddening babbling, trying to neutralize as many opponents as possible. Once the creature knew who of its opponents remained unaffected, an allip went after them first, attempting to touch them and consume their sanity. An allip almost never retreated nor escaped from danger.[11]
Ecology[]
Some sages believed that allips were created when a creature uncovered some secret of a powerful being, such as a demon lord, and received a deathly curse as the result that destroyed the victim's body, leaving only a spectral allip behind, with their psyche shattered, and driven insane by the agony. The same sages speculated that the rambling and whispers of allips bore shards of the forbidden knowledge that doomed them and sought to spread it among the living, causing their madness. Some surviving victims were said to develop a compulsion to seek out the secret that created the allip that attacked them.[2]
All allips experienced an inescapable craving for sanity and consumed it from the minds of their victims,[12] leaving them alive but catatonic.[13] Despite consuming sanity, allips did not require food or other forms of sustenance to survive.[2]
Generally solitary beings,[3] allips born from places of mass deaths were known to form allip hordes that rose at night and formed a rolling cloud of mumbling, crying, and shrieking undead. These hordes usually stayed close to the mass graves their bodies were left in, not straying more than 100 feet (30 meters) away.[4]
Allips were commonly encountered in the urban areas of the Underdark,[7] the hills of the Channath Vale in south Faerûn, as well as plains in the Beastlands, Halruaa, and Dambrath.[5] In the Unapproachable East, allips are often encountered in urban areas, such as Aglarond, Altumbel, Ashanath, Thay, and the Great Dale.[6]
Beyond the Prime Material plane, allips could occasionally be found in the land of Barovia in the Domains of Dread.[8]
The summon undead IV and summon undead V spells could summon allips under the caster's control,[14][15] and nightshades could summon an allip to their aid in battle.[16] While creatures that killed themselves within 60 feet (18 meters) of a whisper demons always rose as allips, slaves to the said whisper demon.[17]
History[]
The Naerindyl Estate of the Naerindyl family that once stood north of Moranay in Impiltur, was the site of a grim mass-grave of the estate's inhabitants, nobles and servants alike, all torched before the late 14th century DR. The mass grave spawned a terrifying gargantuan horde of allips every night that indiscriminately slaughtered all living things nearby.[4]
Notable Allips[]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
Adventures
Novels & Short Stories
Video Games
Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford (May 29, 2018). Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. Edited by Kim Mohan, Michele Carter. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 116. ISBN 978-0786966240.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Wizards D&D Team (May 2022). Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 45. ISBN 978-0786967872.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook (July 2003). Monster Manual v.3.5. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 10. ISBN 0-7869-2893-X.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Jason Nelson-Brown (August 2006). “Man Forever”. Dungeon #137 (Paizo Publishing, LLC) (137)., pp. 69–70.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Thomas Reid (October 2004). Shining South. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 81–82, 86. ISBN 0-7869-3492-1.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Richard Baker, Matt Forbeck, Sean K. Reynolds (May 2003). Unapproachable East. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 88–89, 91, 93. ISBN 0-7869-2881-6.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Bruce R. Cordell, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Jeff Quick (October 2003). Underdark. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 113. ISBN 0-7869-3053-5.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Andrew Cermak, John W. Mangrum, Ryan Naylor, Chris Nichols, Andrew Wyatt (September 16, 2002). Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I. (White Wolf Publishing), p. 15. ISBN 1-58846-080-0.
- ↑ Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford (May 29, 2018). Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. Edited by Kim Mohan, Michele Carter. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 256. ISBN 978-0786966240.
- ↑ Sean K. Reynolds, Duane Maxwell, Angel McCoy (August 2001). Magic of Faerûn. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 125–126. ISBN 0-7869-1964-7.
- ↑ Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell (October 2004). Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 135. ISBN 0-7869-3433-6.
- ↑ Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell (October 2004). Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 9. ISBN 0-7869-3433-6.
- ↑ Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell (October 2004). Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 134. ISBN 0-7869-3433-6.
- ↑ James Wyatt, Ari Marmell, C.A. Suleiman (October 2005). Heroes of Horror. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 133. ISBN 0-7869-3699-1.
- ↑ Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell (October 2004). Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 72. ISBN 0-7869-3433-6.
- ↑ Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook (July 2003). Monster Manual v.3.5. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 142. ISBN 0-7869-2893-X.
- ↑ Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel (July 2006). Monster Manual IV. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 46. ISBN 0-7869-3920-6.
- ↑ Eric L. Boyd, Ed Greenwood, Christopher Lindsay, Sean K. Reynolds (June 2007). Expedition to Undermountain. Edited by Bill Slavicsek. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 95–96. ISBN 978-0-7869-4157-5.