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Bat Lord
Timoris Ascendis Seyhrain. Planar animal lord [he/him] N
Realm: Beastlands / Karasuthra / The Bat Lord’s Roost, mainly hunts on Brux
The sound of an overhead swarm of bats is not an uncommon one for planewalkers in Brux: the Bat Lord himself leads many such flights. Hunting out in the darker parts of the Beastlands, the Bat Lord is constantly on the move. Bat will sometimes lead his colony down into the nighttime layer of Karasuthr to hunt for the Mouse Lord, even if that causes squabbles with other creatures that hunt the same prey.
Like many of his followers, the Bat Lord is blind. He has a highly developed sense of echolocation though, allowing him to hunt effectively in any kind of light condition. However, he often feigns blindness when dealing with mortals: Should they be lulled into a false sense of complacency, all the better for him if they later draw steel. He can detect sounds from 1000 feet away, and use precise echolocation within 60 feet. He’s charming when dealing with mortals, usually in his humanoid form: that of a monkish man wearing black robes.
The Bat Lord is friendly enough towards planewalkers, but he’s cold towards the Animal Lords of the ground, for reasons regarding the ulraehn and his actions in the Beastlands. In dealing with other, non-avian Animal Lords, he’s curt and often downright rude. The seyhrain of the ground still see the Bat Lord as a traitor to their kind; he’s a mammal like most of them, and yet throws his lot in with the lords of the air—most of which are nothing like him in their biology. The Bat Lord doesn’t seem to care about allegations of “betraying” his brethren, caring only for his way of life. Should that be called “wrong” by the seyhrain of the ground, then so be it—he feels more loyalty to the seyhrain of the air, who share the basic habits, freedoms and lifestyle of an avian.
Cutters looking to deal with the Bat Lord, but who don’t want to have to tromp across two layers of the plane looking for him, are better off heading for Sirrius Soundscreech (petitioner bat warden beast [he/him] / N). Sirrius can usually be found within Zhan, the Grand Forest Beyond the World, the Karasuthran realm of three formerly Krynnish gods of nature and wisdom. Sirrius is a little less friendly than the Bat Lord, but knows as much of the chant as the Bat Lord himself.
Canonical Source: Zhan is briefly mentioned described in Planes of Conflict [2e] Liber Benevolentiae p13.
Source: Dave King aka Heregul, Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: The bat lord is homebrew.
Just to let you know, bats aren’t blind and most fruit bats can’t even use echolocation. But this still works for the microbats. I do wonder why he doesn’t roost on Karasuthra instead, though?
Thanks, I’ve made some edits accordingly. Please do keep your suggestions coming! Also if you’ve got any ideas to spice up the animal lords a bit with some more lore or stories?