The Old Ones or the creators were an ancient people, said to hail from a time long before the coming of elves and the rise of humans.[1][2]
Description[]
Old Ones were reptilian humanoids, similar in appearance to lizardfolk, including a similar head ridge. They also had tails and scaly skin, but their snake-like scales were softer and much finer than lizardfolks' scales, but lacked the natural protection it offered. Old Ones typically stood 6‒7 ft (1.8‒2.1 m) tall.[1]
Personality[]
Old Ones were arrogant and craved supremacy over everything and everyone around them.[1]
Abilities[]
Old Ones had a natural talent for arcane magic, and magical energy always clung to them, causing an effect similar to mage armor to coat them at all times. Additionally, Old Ones could call up a swirling nexus of magic to surround them when they felt like it, creating effects similar to the spells fire shield and negative energy protection.[1]
By drawing upon such a nexus, an Old One could toss rays of cold, fire, or strength-draining necrotic magic at an enemy, or use the nexus magic to empower their spells. All Old Ones were sorcerers of at least moderate ability.[1]
Combat[]
Old Ones preferred to strike from cover with their spells and nexus rays, and typically attacked enemy spellcasters first. However, they were intelligent to change their tactics on the fly as necessary.[1]
Society[]
Old Ones valued intellectual pursuits and disdained physical activity; the learned were revered while dimwit warriors were abused. They lived in a mageocratic society where magic held sway over every aspect of their lives. Their pastimes were devoid of physical activity and instead tended to be puzzle and strategy games, often with arcane themes.[1]
Old Ones' disdain of physical labor meant that they preferred to enslave other peoples and have them do menial chores, as servants, laborers, and warriors. They saw slavery as normal and most assumed that it was only a matter of time before they enslaved all other life.[1]
Old Ones were known to live underground and in the mountains in warm and temperate regions.[1]
Old Ones did not worship any deities, believing themselves to be the only things worthy of worship. The rare Old One clerics were outcasts and oddities.[1]
History[]
Long ago, it was said, the Old Ones sought to rule the world and so challenged the only other dominant people at the time, the dragons. They fought a war whose death toll eventually rose to extraordinary numbers on both sides; the Old Ones, in desperation, devised a plan to put themselves in magical stasis, letting time defeat what they could not.[1]
Notable Old Ones[]
- Morag, the long-surviving Old One that was trapped within the Source Stone and nearly destroyed Neverwinter in the late 14th century DR.[2]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
- Video Games
- Neverwinter Nights
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Clifford Horowitz (January 2003). “Silicon Sorcery: The Lost Horrors of Neverwinter Nights”. In Jesse Decker ed. Dragon #303 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), pp. 82–84.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 BioWare (June 2002). Designed by Brent Knowles, James Ohlen. Neverwinter Nights. Atari.