|
|
 
The Great Modron
Conspiracy
Agnossus
is a blood who's braver than most. Not only does call one
of the least hospitable Outer Planes 'home' -- that's
Pandemonium to you, cutter -- he's also got a voice
strong enough that his words are heard in Sigil when he
says 'em. Not literally of course, berk, metaphorically.
See, Agnossus is a high-up in the Dispossessed,
a loose gathering of exiles and castoffs of society
who've found their way to Pandemonium and, for their own
reasons, stay there. There's a picture of him below -- a
self-portrait no less.
 Now,
he may be bitter and twisted for his own good reasons
(the chant goes he was once a Mathematician who was
expelled from the faction when he 'proved' two and two
can sometimes make three), or he might have tumbled to
some dark he's not about to spread. Well, whatever it is,
he's fanatical about one thing: Modrons.
See, Agnossus is convinced the
Modrons are the ones pulling the strings of the
Multiverse. Some time ago, they learned the secret of
their plane and it's place in the the Great Ring. That's
how come they're always out controlling the gears and
cogs -- every time they alter the speed or angle of one
of those little things, they set Mechanus spinning into
an alternative future. By subtly controlling the working
of their own plane, they shape the destiny of the others.
What starts at one point in the Ring soon spreads right
around it, Agnossus says.
Thinking
about it, you've got to concede he's got a point. Of all
the planeborn races (baatezu, tanar'ri, archons, rilmani
and the rest), the modrons seem to be the ones most in
tune with their plane. Perhaps it's because they're the
most organised that they found the answer first, or maybe
it's just a luck thing (not that modrons believe in
luck). Agnossus admits there's probably more than one way
to control the future (and perhaps as many as one per
Outer Plane), but reckons the modrons got there
first.
He
draws this map for doubters, which shows how the planes
all lock into the central hub, which is in turn cranked
around by Mechanus. From the Plane-Machine spews the
Astral as noxious fumes which envelop the Prime with
their Psychic Winds -- again, all controlled from the
Central Machine in Mechanus. The bobbing of the Primes in
turn churns up the Ether, and the Ether Cyclones are what
cause the Inner Planes to spin on their axis. It's all a
great chain of cause and effect...
If
you needed more evidence (and I never say no to a bit of
proof myself), take the Modron March. Every 17 cycles,
Mechanus spews forth a great horde of Modrons who make
the journey all around the Great Ring. They're the only
planeborne race to leave their home plane en mass (apart
from the Blood Warring fiends), and certainly the only
ones who tramp so far for so little obvious
gain.
They're
checking up on their work; says Agnossus; making sure
every manipulation they're working on is going exactly to
plan. You might have heard the modrons don't ever need to
fear death either -- when one's destroyed it's every
somehow makes its way back to Primus, where it is
reformed into a new modron. How? That's part of their
secret.
The
modron race is also aparently the only one to have a
quasi-power leader unifying them all. Sure, the tanar'ri
have their powers, but they're hardly a unified force.
The rest of the races have high-ups, but nothing quite so
magnificent as Primus. Since modrons don't worship, or
even seem to be aware that Primus exists themselves, and
there certainly ain't priests of Primus en masse in the
planes, where does this enigmatic being get its power?
That's part of their secret.
'Course,
I'm calling it the 'secret', but in fact it's all a
Conspiracy. 'Least, that's what Agnossus says. As they
manipulate the planes, they determine when and where
folks get put in the Dead-Book, the ebb and flow of the
Blood War, the Winds of the Astral, the Tides of War on
the Prime, and even the mixing of the Elements on the
Inner Planes. Through their gears, they can lock or
unlock any portal (it's common chant they've got a
Labyrinthine Portal on Mechanus, but not many bloods know
about the portals they can open up anywhere in the
Multiverse), and even the Lady's influenced by their
machinations.
Oh
yes, cutter. If you believe the chant that Agnossus
spreads, you'd better watch out the next time you call a
modron a 'rorty cube'. it might be the last thing you
say...
Mapping the Infinite:
Index
|
