Kathrepi shade

Kathrepi shade

(Creature)

Type

Outsider
(extraplanar)

CR

4

Environment

Any (Drift)

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Masters of Time and Space, pg(s). 57

Kathrepi shades are all that remains of the kathrepi, an ancient four-dimensional species of scholars and builders native to the Drift.

Appearance

Kathrepi appear to three-dimensional creatures as squat creatures with gangly arms, multi-jointed fingers, and an eyeball with multiple pupils floating inside. They can partially retrat into the fourth dimension to manipulate four-dimensional technology. Due to their frail physical form, kathrepi have developed psychic powers to help them in a fight and research.

Habitat

Kathrepi were native to the Drift, but are now all but gone from it and might be entirely dying out.

History

In ancient times, the kathrepi built many mysterious wonders across the galaxy, some of which are imperceptible to creatures without the capacity to access the fourth dimension. They were determined to counteract entropy, which they considered the most insidious force in the universe. In doing so, they created the Tesseract, a supercomputer designed to replace the tendency of creation to fall apart with a tendency to aggregate. After some successes, like the creation of paraforans, their quest ultimately failed. They eventually moved on, leaving behind only some ghostly remnants and their talrepi creations within the Tesseract.

Society

The kathrepi worked together in great scientific collectives, and never developed individual names or genders. If an individual needed to be designated, they referred to both themselves and their creations as it. Their language was called Katholbi (meaning spoken by the people), and the name kathrepi means this being is a person (from the lexemes kath, meaing person, and repi, meaning creature).

Kathrepi shades are mere faint echoes of whom they used to be, and usually cling to one scientific theory or speciality, something which drives them to hang on to life and which they consider the only subject worth discussing about. Unlike ancient kathrepi collectives, kathrepi shades are isolationist and peevish, and can enter a murderous rage if their pet theory is challenged or asked the wrong questions about.