Source Bestiary 5 pg. 162
This massive, red-skinned creature surges with roiling waves of
brilliant fire.
For most creatures, the path to self-perfection ends as all mortal pursuits do: in death. For a few, however, the path to self-perfection ends with fiery rebirth in the heart of the Positive Energy Plane, where the souls of those not yet born fuse with the potential of those who’ve learned from lifetimes of reincarnation to form wholly new entities—the manasaputras. These outsiders continue their path to perfection by striving to achieve oneness with the universe, further evolving and discovering new cosmic truths, as well as guiding mortals on their paths to similar ends.
Manasaputras are benevolent and compassionate entities that follow strict practices of contemplation, introspection, and meditation. Others often view their directness and disciplined nature as inflexible, yet in truth, manasaputras are accepting when presented with new ideas and challenges—adapting to accommodate these changes can simply take hundreds or thousands of years as the manasaputras gradually evaluate and reevaluate the slightest adjustment to their personal beliefs or ideals. The patience of manasaputras is legendary, and can make action seem like inaction from a mortal’s perspective of time.
Manasaputras belong to a complex hierarchy. While immortal beings known as kumaras ostensibly lead them, each manasaputra operates as an individual, free to pursue its own contemplation of the multiverse and its inhabitants. More powerful manasaputras mentor younger and less experienced ones, particularly when their paths to perfection align. These relationships are master and apprentice structures similar to the Material Plane’s monastic hierarchies. Lesser manasaputras have deep respect and reverence for the elders of their kind and the phenomenal—often godlike—power they wield.
When not contemplating reality in isolation at the heart of the Positive Energy Plane, manasaputras can be found drifting through the Astral Plane in search of wisdom, or drawn to the Material Plane when ignorance and chaos work hand in hand with cruelty and evil. Manasaputras do not often intervene in destructive events, preferring to instead aid mortals and teach them necessary skills that they can use to confront these challenges. Greater threats of a more cosmic nature can draw the direct intervention of dozens of manasaputras, especially when these threats concern the destruction of knowledge or foment disorder in the universe. To this end, manasaputras can sometimes be found working alongside aeons and inevitables on morally compatible agendas. Manasaputras respect the precious balance aeons bring to the planes, as well as inevitables’ unfaltering dedication to their assigned tasks. They are distant toward most good-aligned outsiders, unable to fully share the passions of agathions and azatas, and put off by the zeal of angels and archons. They share a special kinship with devas, who often also oversee mortal affairs. Among outsiders, their greatest rivals are the sahkils of the Ethereal Plane, who attempt to hold back mortal development and are thus sworn enemies of all manasaputras.
Manasaputras seldom interact with wicked mortal creatures of the Material Plane. Their charge is to nurture the spiritual development of those who walk the path of enlightenment, and thus have little concern for mortal creatures outside that path, except as obstacles their students must overcome.
While usually described as humanoid in form, most manasaputras are wholly incorporeal entities forged of the raw Cosmic Fire from the heart of the Positive Energy Plane. When a manasaputra chooses to become corporeal, it usually adopts a resplendent, idealized humanoid form, often with striking features such as a third eye, multiple arms, or other compelling physical characteristics that clearly set it apart from mortals.
Occult lore suggests the enormous wisdom of the eldest manasaputras derives from their mortal existence during a previous incarnation of the multiverse itself. Certainly the manasaputras themselves favor doctrines of cycles such as reincarnation. Some mortal followers believe that manasaputras from the previous multiversal cycle were the first to inhabit the soulless husks that would ultimately become mortals, but as usual the manasaputras themselves favor riddles over straight answers on the matter.
The Seven Kumaras, the most powerful of all manasaputras, exist at the heart of all creation, each exemplifying a facet of the multiverse. These enigmatic entities rarely leave the Cosmic Fire of the Positive Energy Plane, communing with this source of all life in the multiverse and witnessing events across all creation through psychic rapport with a consciousness they (and the like-minded aeons) refer to as the Logos.
The Seven KumarasSeven glory-clad kumaras lead the manasaputras on their spiritual journeys. Each occasionally acts as a personal messenger or spirit guide for mortals with profound psychic gifts or particularly promising souls. While spellings often differ depending on the esoteric source consulted, their number is thought to include the following. - Ameuritati, the First Immortal
- Ashavashitra, the Righteous Truth
- Asoshu Mana, the True Purpose
- Auramiti, the Holy Devotion
- Hourvetat, the Circle of Ages
- Ksathras, the Dominion
- Sraosha, the Cleansing Wings
Creatures in Mythic "Manasaputra" CategoryManasaputra, Solar Pitri (Agnishvatta)Mythic Solar Pitri (Agnishvatta) CR 22/MR 8Source Bestiary 5 pg. 166
XP 614,400
LG Large outsider (extraplanar, good, lawful, manasaputra, mythic)
Init +19/-1; Senses darkvision 60 ft. true seeing; Perception +35
Aura cosmic fire (60 ft., DC 35)DefenseAC 41, touch 41, flat-footed 32 (+8 deflection, +7 Dex, +2 dodge,
–1 size, +15 soul armor)
hp 404 (24d10+272)
Fort +16, Ref +21, Will +23; +2 vs. enchantment
DR 10/epic; Immune calling, disease, poison; Resist adaptive 30; SR 33OffenseSpeed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (perfect)
Melee 4 slams +35 (3d6+12/19–20)
Ranged 4 disintegration rays +30 touch (10d6)
Special Attacks disintegration rays, mythic power (8/day,
surge +1d10), radiant transformation (DC 30)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +29; Wisdom-based)
Constant—true seeing
At will—greater teleport (self only), plane shiftM (self only)
1/day—miracle (DC 28), true resurrection, wishM (DC 28)
Psychic Magic (CL 20th; concentration +29; Wisdom-based)
36 PE—awaken construct (6 PE, DC 25), divide mind
(9 PE), ego whip V (7 PE, DC 26), greater create
mindscape (6 PE, DC 25), mindscape door (5 PE, DC 24),
retrocognition (5 PE)
M mythic spell-like abilityStatisticsStr 35, Dex 25, Con 26, Int 24, Wis 28, Cha 27
Base Atk +24; CMB +37; CMD 79
Feats Blind-FightM, Blinding Critical, Combat ExpertiseM, Critical FocusM, DodgeM, Improved Critical (slam), Improved Initiative, Mobility, Power Attack, Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack, Wind Stance
Skills Acrobatics +30, Bluff +34, Diplomacy +34, Fly +39,
Intimidate +34, Knowledge (any one) +30, Knowledge
(arcana) +27, Knowledge (history, planes) +33, Knowledge
(local) +29, Knowledge (religion) +30, Perception +35, Sense
Motive +35, Use Magic Device +31
Languages Aklo, Celestial, Common, Draconic; telepathy
100 ft.
SQ formless, mythic spell-like abilities, positive energy affinity,
subjective appearance, unendingEcologyEnvironment any (Positive Energy Plane)
Organization solitary
Treasure standardSpecial AbilitiesCosmic Fire Aura (Su) Non-manasaputras that end their
turn within 60 feet of a solar pitri take 5d6 points of fire
damage and 5d6 points of positive energy damage. This
positive energy does not harm creatures not normally
damaged by positive energy, but doesn’t heal them either.
A mythic creature that succeeds at a DC 31 Will save takes
half damage. An undead creature with HD less than half
of the solar pitri’s that ends its turn within the solar pitri’s
cosmic fire aura is automatically destroyed. Mythic undead
that succeed at their Will saves are not destroyed, but must
succeed at new will saves each round they remain within
the aura. Manus, rishi manus, and maharishi manus that are
slain within the cosmic fire aura return to life as if affected
by true resurrection at the beginning of their next turns, so
long as the solar pitri remains alive and its aura remains
present at the location of the manasaputra’s death at that
time. The save DC is Wisdom-based.
Disintegration Rays (Su) A solar pitri can produce magical
rays, each with a range of 100 feet. The solar pitri can
shoot a single ray as an attack action or up to four rays as
a full-attack action. Firing a ray doesn’t provoke attacks
of opportunity. Each ray deals 10d6 points of damage.
Creatures reduced to 0 hit points by a ray are slain instantly
and reduced to ash.
Mythic Spell-Like Abilities (Ex) A solar pitri can expend uses
of mythic power to use the mythic version of plane shift or
wish as if the ability were a mythic spell.
Radiant Transformation (Su) When a solar pitri takes a move
action to become incorporeal, it explodes in a burst of
blinding light. All non-manasaputras within line of sight are
permanently blinded. Mythic creatures that succeed at a DC 31
Reflex save are not affected. The save DC is Wisdom-based.
Unending (Su) When a solar pitri is slain by a non-mythic
source, it returns to life 24 hours later at the heart of the
Positive Energy Plane.DescriptionNearly perfect in form, action, and thought, solar pitris are
revered as godlike creatures, and possess souls on fire with
the radiance of creation and reincarnation. Solar pitris are
in some ways alien to mortal reality, yet strongly in tune
with it by way of the cycle of reincarnation. Each solar
pitri is the embodiment of a soul that lived thousands—
if not millions—of incarnations in at least one other
multiverse that existed prior to the creation of the current
one. Final expressions of enlightenment, these incredibly
powerful entities have guided the development of all life
for countless eons. Solar pitris possess singular focus
on the development of the entire multiverse and all its
creatures—some say even of deities themselves—guiding
events down a course that leads like a descending spiral to
another cycle of reincarnation at the eventual end of the
current multiverse and creation of the next.
Some occult scholars contend that there are only seven
solar pitris, and that they are the seven kumaras. Others
believe that the numbers of these creatures range in
the hundreds, thousands, or even millions, but that the
majority of the solar pitris rest in still and silent meditation
at the heart of the Positive Energy Plane, never venturing
out into the vastness of the Astral Plane or other corners of
the multiverse. Such sages insist that the intensity of their
contemplation and meditation is the underlying fuel for the
progression of souls, the expansion of space, and the f low of
time. Some even go so far as to credit the solar pitris with
the creation of the Cosmic Fire in the first place, though
like all theories about the manasaputras in general and the
kumaras in particular, the details are the subjects of heated
debate and very little concrete evidence.
All the various camps of esoteric thought agree that
seven of these creatures are known as the kumaras, and
that they are the only solar pitris who have interacted
with creatures that are not other manasaputras. Scholars
generally believe that the solar pitris serve as masters to
a number of twilight pitris, and sometimes even various
manus, but the exact relationships seem to have a degree
of f luidity—as some esoteric texts insist that this
group of manasaputras serve Ksathras, the Dominion,
while others claim the same group or members of that
group serve Ameuritati, the First Immortal. Many of
these contradictions stem from transcription mistakes
in ancient texts or issues with the variety of spellings
or even names by which some kumaras are known, but
others can be explained only by shifts in the structure of
the manasaputra caste system over the eons.
The lore regarding the relationship between the solar
pitris and mortal races is less muddled. Most stories
relate that at the dawn of creation, solar pitris took pity on
misguided mortals, who were confused by the teachings and
guidance given to them by the twilight pitris. The twilight
pitris’ nurturing led to overly rational mortals who lacked the
compassion and empathy necessary for true enlightenment.
The solar pitris intervened, and granted those wayward
mortals a favored place in the cycle of cosmic reincarnation.
Scholars speculate that this act on the part of the solar pitris
was the first step that led to the evolution of samsarans
(Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4 230), though many samsarans deny
this story, instead insisting that they are early forms of what
will later become the next wave of manasaputras.
Because of their unfathomably ancient minds and farreaching
plans, solar pitris rarely interact with other creatures.
They must restrain their power, lest their very presence prove
deadly to other living beings. Solar pitris are creatures of fire,
and even witnessing a solar pitri shifting from corporeality
to incorporeality from afar can blind mortals. Creatures
that come close to a solar pitri are scorched by the outsider’s
boundless, radiant energies. Adherents of some cults attempt
such approaches regardless of the danger, believing that even
if they burn to death, their souls will be purified by the solar
pitri’s presence. Most of what is known about solar pitris
comes from the teachings handed down to mortals by lesser
manasaputras, the traditions of those samsarans who believe
that they are connected to manasaputras (or even that they
are some early form of manu), the often wild and fanciful
speculation of occult thinkers, the feverish dreams of
eccentric mystics, and the few legitimate historical accounts
of the various kumaras leaving their contemplation within
the Cosmic Fire and interacting with mortals. But even
then, only monumental events such as mass extinctions of
whole worlds, the death of gods, the eradication of an entire
intelligent species, or other reality-shaking events draw solar
pitris’ attention. Otherwise, their time is spent pondering
unknowable truths and guiding other manasaputras from
deep within the heart of the Positive Energy Plane.
|