Danava

Danava titan
(Creature)
Rare LN Gargantuan Humanoid Titan Water Level 23 Alignment LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE Images of danavas Source: Bestiary 3, pg(s). 270 Type Outsider (extraplanar, lawful, mythic) CR 24 / MR 9 Environment Any Alignment LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE Adjective Danava Images of danavas Source: Bestiary 5, pg(s). 246

Danavas are the eldest of the titans, chained for eons beneath the deepest waves of the endless seas.

Appearance

Danavas resemble thick, muscular humans reaching heights of 75 to 100 feet and weighing up to 200 tons, with red-brown skin and wheel-sized eyes that lack pupils.They wear an ornate crown and are covered in resplendent armour.

History

Danavas were originally tasked by the gods with policing the forces that shaped the cosmos, but ultimately proved too severe and unflinching. When they went to war with their younger, chaotic cousins, the gods chained the danavas in stasis beneath the waves of endless seas, at the cruxes of worlds (believed by some scholars to be the Maelstrom). Since then, danavas have seldom emerged.

Ecology

A freed danava attempts to restore balance to the world, whether by raising an elder god, stopping a dangerous discovery, or crushing the hubris of lesser titans, wielding the cold, darkness and pressure of their watery prisons. Others hunt and harvest aeons, who they see as usurpers of their duty. Danavas are single-minded towards their targets and coldly and ruthlessly lay waste to enemies attempting to thwart them, wreaking havoc that becomes the stuff of legends. Once they have accomplished their task, danavas return to the depths until they fade from living memory.

Danavas are usually lawful by nature, but good and evil danavas do exist.

Habitat and society

Most danavas are imprisoned in a handful of cities in the Astral Plane, where they observe and agonise over the chaos wrought by mortals and convene to discuss how best to restore order.

At least one danava is known to inhabit the Dimension of Time.

A nameless danava pillar ruminates over the strange artifacts and deep concentrations of energy within the Void. This danava's actions could shake the entire Great Beyond, and his destruction might speed up the End Times. Weaker danavas might be found deep in the Void as well.

The first danavas came to the Creation's Forge near the dawn of creation itself, and are reviled by the plane's jyoti natives, who view them as meddling by the gods in a task properly granted to the jyoti themselves. Danava corpses can be seen impaled on the spikes of the Titans' Prison, each slowly incinerating and being drawn back into the prison, trapped in some cycle of punishing reincarnation.

According to occult scholars, the crux that holds the Akashic Record together is a danava known as the Akashic Guru.

It is possible to reason with a danava if its fury is successfully checked or resisted. Typically, it explains its charge, purpose, and the need for its actions, without looking for pardon or expressing remorse. Danavas see the absolutes of the universe and rarely appreciate nuance.

Danava pillars

Certain danavas, called danava pillars, have merged with the cruxes of the universe they oversee. Destroying a danava pillar would be a step toward unravelling reality itself, so they are targets for dimension-destroying creatures like the hundun.