Jyoti
Jyotis1 are winged, bird-like creatures native to Creation's Forge. Some assume that because they reside in a place that is the source of all the life energy in the Great Beyond, that they would be good. The truth is that they are quite xenophobic and repel most visitors to their home, especially those who serve a deity.234 A derogatory term sometimes used by those who have had a bad experience of jyotis is false phoenix.4
Appearance
Jyotis resemble radiant glowing humanoid birds.24
Ecology
Jyotis spontaneously form from the raw essence of Creation's Forge. They neither reproduce nor age.2
Society
Creation's Forge is the homeland of all jyotis, one that few wish to leave. Jyotis consider all other beings to be unworthy of trust and seek only to be left alone, and are thus as unlikely to tolerate hostile intruders as those who come bearing gifts. However, they rarely attack such interlopers without provocation.4
Jyotis dwell in living cities made of towering, radiant crystals. They are xenophobic and defend their cities from all invaders, especially those that serve the gods or come from different planes.3 Jyotis claim that they were appointed to be protectors of their plane and cultivators of unborn souls; who actually appointed them is unknown, and their activities keep the River of Souls constantly flowing.2 They sometimes agree to hold dangerous artifacts for visitors, but those with religious significance disgust jyotis4 and are usually destroyed or never returned to their owners, due to the jyotis' distrust of the divine.3
Jyotis also tend to the mysterious Garden of Creation's Forge, where they venerate and tend to tree-sized crystalline structures that resemble flowers and represent mortal souls who ascended to divinity.3
Jyotis have a strange relationship with turuls, another form of avian outsiders native to the Creation's Forge. Some believe jyotis and turuls to each be incarnations of the same genesis, with others suggesting that turuls represent a higher form of reincarnation than jyotis. Neither turuls nor jyotis discuss such hypotheses. A single turul might rarely dwell at the centre of a jyoti city to serve as a protector and advisor, even though jyotis pay little attention to them, and adopt the jyotis' attitudes toward outsiders and deities.2
Manasaputras temper the instinctive xenophobia of jyotis, and both peoples respect each other, although jyotis do not actively seek out manasaputras to interact with. Jyotis despise the danavas that came to the Creation's Forge, seeing them as meddling by the gods in the jyotis' task; their presence in the Creation's Forge might have caused jyotis' hatred of the gods.2
Jyotis despise negative energy and everyone that tries to harness it.2 They likewise despise natives of the Netherworld and Void.4 Their relationship with sceaduinars is complicated; jyotis view their Void counterparts with pity and consider their destruction to be a mercy.2 However, the possibility of fulfilling their duty by battling sceaduinars is one of the few things that compels armies of jyotis to leave Creation's Forge.4
Stars
The xenophobia of jyotis is manifested in the guard duty they undertake within the Universe's stars. Most stars surround portals to Creation's Forge, and groups of jyotis choose to stand guard over these portals and prevent access from the Universe to their home plane.35
References
- ↑ Prior to the publication of Bestiary 2 for Pathfinder Second Edition, Paizo used "jyoti" for both the singular and plural forms.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 . “Chapter 3: The Great Beyond” in Planar Adventures, 119. Paizo Inc., 2018
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 . “The Inner Sphere” in The Great Beyond, A Guide to the Multiverse, 11. Paizo Inc., 2009
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 . “Monsters A-Z” in Bestiary 2, 153. Paizo Inc., 2020
- ↑ . “Distant Stars” in People of the Stars, 20. Paizo Inc., 2014