Hallajin

Hallajin

(Creature)

Type

Aberration

CR

17

Environment

Any

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Alien Archive, pg(s). 60

Hallajins, described from ancient legends as the lights of Hallas, are intelligent, inscrutable beings of pure energy native to the Liavaran moon Hallas.

Appearance

Hallajins combine the features of snakes, cephalopods and birds, with feathery wings, scaly coils, staring eyes or writhing tendrils. They're estimated to range from 14 to 20 feet in length and, as beings of energy, weigh next to nothing.

History

Hallajins once had material forms but developed beyond the need for them and became energy beings as part of an intentional cultural drive to reach collective godhood. It's unknown if they deliberately stopped at their current state or couldn't progress further.

Hallajins were once believed to be strange lights in the sky of Hallas until discovered to be living creatures capable of telepathy. When emissaries from Arkanen tried to communicate with hallajins, their minds seared, causing a magical cordon to be established around Hallas. It continues to be administered by Pact Worlds officials from Arkanen to protect visitors from the hallajins.

Ecology

Hallajins can use their light leap ability to teleport, but not through electrical fields, as electricity seems to cause them pain or at least forces them to recoil; it's theorised that electricity interferes in some way with the energy matrices of hallajins. However, electrical fields also seem to draw hallajins' attention, perhaps being especially visible to their senses. Large concentrations of minds, especially emotional ones, if not shielded with specialised armour or magic, can also attract hallajins.

Hallajins appear curious and unpredictable. They are almost always encountered alone, but remain in near-constant communication with other hallajins across vast distances. They appear unable to understand spoken languages, and telepathic communication with them usually results in a psychic feedback. Hallajins sometimes initiate contact, transmitting an unsettling chorus of voices, rarely intelligible. Hallajins occasionally follow visitors to their home planets, moving objects around (sometimes dangerously) with telekinesis. Sometimes, they suddenly turn hostile and attack. Hallajins seem incapable of recognising constructs, intelligent or not, as anything more than objects.

Society

Hallajins consider Hallas the centre of the universe, and leaving it is seen as heresy. It's believed that the hallajins sighted on other worlds may be descendants of an ancient schism that predated the Gap or the cordon.

Due to the hallajins' behaviour, powers and appearance, they are revered as examples of universal forces or enlightened beings by some intelligent creatures, who have established hallajin cults that believe that they hold the secrets to attain a similarly evolved state and seek to obtain such secrets, whether by asking or forcing the hallajins. These cultists tend to be obsessed with artefacts from Hallas and electrical mechanisms designed to summon, communicate with or trap hallajins, and continue to be granted access to Hallas by Pact Worlds overseers despite the fear of the consequences of such contact.