ECOLOGY

Environment any (Outer Planes)
Organization solitary
Treasure none

Lipikas—also known as the Lords of Karma—are among the highest order of aeons. Unlike other aeons, their duality springs not from opposition but from understanding that all actions and reactions are the crests and troughs of the same cosmic wave. While it may seem to a casual observer that the Lords of Karma simply wander the universe looking for random events of importance, from the momentous to the mundane, what they are actually observing is the rhythm of causality, the way that one action becomes another and affects everything in the grand scheme of reality.

Whatever they find, they inscribe in the cosmic memory of all aeons, and occult scholars believe that this cosmic memory finds its way to the Akashic Record, deep within the heart of the Astral Plane.

These powerful creatures not only observe and report; they also meddle. Lipikas consider themselves the judges of willful karma, sometimes manipulating the cycle of mortal lives and reincarnations. This often leads to friction with psychopomps, other agents of Purgatory, and those who would steal, use, or destroy souls—such as daemons and night hags. The reason for the aeons' interest is difficult to ascertain. There seems to be no overriding philosophy concerning the nature or purpose of the souls lipikas manipulate. This has led many occult scholars to theorize that the lipikas' connection to the Akashic Record is more direct, going so far as to suggest that these aeons are its agents.

Lipikas use their specialized abilities to interact with specific entities across the planes, especially ones who have been or are fated to be reincarnated—often at the lipikas' own hands. Sometimes the aeons act as guides to such creatures, while at other times they set these subjects upon a new course entirely undirected. Unlike others of their kind, a lipika uses some bits and pieces of language to convey its messages—though often in a pidgin of all known languages that have existed or will exist—and takes considerable time and care when communicating with its subject, at least compared with other aeons.

Lipikas give their subjects guidance on how to adjust their actions within their current forms to achieve some karmic imperative or progression of personal enlightenment.

Often such advice seems to contradict any sense of intuition, reason, or cultural concepts of morality. A lipika is just as likely to chastise a righteous person for her charity and goodness as it is to scold an evil creature for its misdeeds. To the lipika, the balance of alignments and morality is inconsequential beside the realities of action and the bonds of cause and effect.

When not focused on performing a specific task, lipikas deliver messages, omens, and portents to both those who seek their wisdom and those who do not. These messages are often signs of enormous events of great significance that might not occur within the recipients' lifetimes, but the lipikas maintain that the subjects' actions are nonetheless influential. At other times, lipikas appear merely to guide reincarnated souls or spirits destined to be reincarnated.

A lipika that is focused on a specific task—whether observing a significant historical event or delivering a message to another being—typically ignores other creatures unless they attempt to delay it from performing its assigned task, at which point it may become violent in its reactions. While it seems they would rather manipulate events subtly, lipikas are capable of great force when faced with those who would thwart their plans.

On rare occasions these aeons appear and create conflicts, claiming that great damage to the multiverse is being done by actions taken by a civilization—actions that are often so minute their consequences might seem arbitrary to the subjects of the aeon's attention.

Worse still, the appearance of a lipika can herald the coming of even greater displays of aeon power. Sages of occult lore theorize that the information lipikas inscribe into the Akashic Record directly informs the agenda of the concept or entity known as the Monad, and that this information is disseminated to pleromas—more powerful aeons who are direct representatives of the Monad. If this theory is correct, the information scribed by lipikas is of grave consequence to entire civilizations, as pleroma aeons are tasked with acts of creation and destruction that can sometimes impact entire worlds. Those who subscribe to more traditional theories of the multiverse see the connection between lipikas and pleromas in more direct terms. If a lipika cannot accomplish its goals, it calls in a pleroma to enact the strange and inexplicable will of the aeons, often to devastating ends. However, the goals of lipikas are typically so abstract that their intervention often seems random, and few mortals have figured out how to placate them.

Lipikas stand about 13 feet tall but rarely weigh more than 200 pounds—their bodies seem to be hollow. Little distinguishes one lipika from another except the patterns upon their forearms and the colors of their palm-eyes.