Inevitables are a family of living machine aeons created by axiomites in the eternal war against proteans and the forces of chaos.
A council of pleroma aeons recently revealed that axiomites were prodigal aeons that broke free from the Monad, an aeon demigod that claims to represent the underpinning of all realities, in order to pursue acts of creation. By extension, the council claimed that inevitables had always been agents of aeons in their eternal war against imbalance. Most, but not all, axiomites and inevitables have joined forces with aeons as a result.
Ecology
Inevitables are created for the purpose of enforcing the laws of reality and society. Each inevitable's existence is driven by a conceptual jurisdiction to be enforced. They have no ambition and cannot be swayed by bribery, but are sometimes willing to offer light sentences in exchange for aid against greater crimes. They have no gender and little sense of self.
Although they look like constructs, inevitables are living outsiders that nonetheless enjoy many benefits of a constructed form: they are never tired, hungry, nor sick.
The frames of inevitables are forged in the Adamantine Crucible of Axis. Petitioners in Axis that solve the riddles inscribed on their bodies are granted permission to enter the Adamantine Crucible and bond with one such frame to become inevitables. Most only retain fragmentary memories of their past life, which influence their new personality.
Unshackled
Inevitables can become corrupted as the result of chaos suffusion or possession by pelagastrs, becoming chaotic creatures known as unshackled.
Society
Inevitables are guided by an unspoken hierarchy: the more powerful an inevitable, the higher its rank. When two cross paths, they also take into account the immediacy and severity of each one's mission to determine primacy; if necessary, a powerful inevitable might defer to a lesser one. Inevitables never clash with each other. Axiomites exist outside this hierarchy, and inevitables respect and are absolutely loyal to their creators, although the two races operate more as partners instead of master and servant.[2]
Inevitables have little culture or desire to make friends, and their relationships are strictly professional. They often rely on local mortals (like local authorities, adventurers, or followers of lawful deities), unless these mortals are part of the problem or informing them could ruin the mission. Inevitables rarely compel service and might even pay those who lie outside the hierarchy of Axis.[2]
Outside of axiomites, aphorites and certain deities' servants, most outsiders do not work well with inevitables. Angels and agathions are put off by their stoic, strict adherence to the letter of the law, while psychopomps find their zeal and interference upsetting. Archons and devils are willing to work with them but disagree with how inevitables exact punishment. On missions that demand speed, inevitables often ride on mighty aekrakarshis.
Inevitables regularly teach mortals how best to honor order, but know that mortals are imperfect, and aim to improve behaviour or magically compel it, trusting that their students will never meet their standards.
Types
The best-known species of inevitables are;
- Aevarut
- arbiter
- Hykariut
- Impariut
- Kastamut
- keledon
- kolyarut
- Lhaksharut
- marut
- Novenarut
- Quarut
- Rokyamut
- Valharut
- Varakhut
- Yarahkut
- zelekhut
Primordial inevitables
The first inevitables are the demigods known as primordial inevitables. Most primordial inevitables have been destroyed in cosmic disasters, and the axiomites have lost the ability to build them, so the surviving ones are seen as living treasures by normal inevitables, to be protected at all costs.
Each unique primordial inevitable has become so powerful that they have ascended to become demigods, and have mortal worshipers.
These mortal worshipers often appreciate the meditative precision of primordial inevitables, though they rarely attract paladins due to their ambivalence between the moral spectrum of good and evil.
Bailiff sects
While mortal worshipers of monitors typically refer to themselves as proctors, worshipers of primordial inevitables refer to themselves as "bailiffs".[8][9] The primordial inevitables who foster bailiff sects of mortal worshipers do so to leverage the redundancies in having multiple active groups.[9]
Bailiff sects model the laws and order of Axis in the Material Plane, putting them in relentless opposition with anarchists, criminals, the corrupt, and radicals. They pursue these goals through the pursuit of mathematics, accounting, and legal studies, fields that often also bring them considerable wealth that many (at least, those who do not themselves succumb to corruption) re-invest into their communities. They readily work alongside local law enforcement, but take special joy in helping inevitables pursue cosmic disorder.
Known primordial inevitables
Intact
- Jerishall, the Turning Sphere
- Kerkamoth, the Waiting Void
- Otolmens, the Universal, of the Fivefold Calculus of Axis
- Valmallos, the Answering Rite
