Aspect of Filtiarn

Overview

An Aspect of Filtiarn is a mortal transformed and empowered through the worship and rituals of The Gauntlet of the Moon, taking on a powerful wolf-like form associated with the god Filtiarn.

The exact nature of an Aspect is not fully understood. The party witnessed a ceremony in which the members of the Gauntlet attempted to transform a man into an Aspect of their god. The completed transformation produced a massive wolf-man and apparently granted the transformed individual considerable supernatural power.

The transformation appears to involve a direct connection to Filtiarn. When questioned after his transformation, one Aspect claimed that Filtiarn himself had granted him his power and changed him into an Aspect. The man genuinely appeared not to know the identity of the person who was actually calling himself Filtiarn at the time.

The relationship between an Aspect and Filtiarn is therefore more complicated than simple lycanthropy. An Aspect is not merely a werewolf, but a mortal who has been transformed into a vessel or manifestation of Filtiarn's power.

Creation

The party first encountered the process for creating an Aspect within the Temple of the Moon.

The temple's followers, the Gauntlet of the Moon, conducted a massive religious ceremony in the lowest level of the temple. Hundreds of wolves, worgs, dire wolves, and werewolves surrounded an altar where hooded priests performed a ceremony involving incense and blood.

The ceremony was devoted to a Wolf god, later identified as Filtiarn. The party was able to determine that the purpose of the ceremony was to infuse the individual at the center of the altar with an aspect of their god.

The physical transformation was dramatic. When the ceremony was completed, the man became a Large wolf-man and threw back his head to howl. His howl was immediately echoed by the creatures throughout the temple.

The ritual's exact magical mechanism remains unknown.

The Role of the Temple

The ceremony took place within one of the step-pyramid structures known as the Temple of the Moon. These temples formed a network connected by portals located at their summits. The temples were operated by the Gauntlet of the Moon, the faction devoted to Filtiarn.

The upper portion of the temple where the ceremony occurred was specifically constructed to interact with moonlight. Elaborate gilding and openings to the sky directed moonlight down a central shaft toward the lower portions of the temple. The entire pyramid radiated magic associated with the portal at its summit.

The exact relationship between the moonlight, the temple's magical structure, the portal, and the Aspect-creation ritual has not been established.

The First Known Aspect

The first Aspect encountered by the party was created during the ceremony at the underwater Temple of the Moon.

The party was unable to stop the ceremony before the transformation was completed. They subsequently destroyed the portal at the top of the temple and escaped as the pyramid collapsed and sank beneath the water.

The newly created Aspect survived the destruction of the temple.

It pursued the party toward shore, walking along the bottom of the ocean with its head above the water and occasionally swimming. The Aspect attempted to overturn the party's raft and concentrated on killing anyone who fell into the water.

Physical Form

The Aspect appeared as a Large wolf-man, substantially larger and more powerful than a normal humanoid or werewolf.

Its appearance was distinctly associated with Filtiarn and the wolf imagery of the Gauntlet. The party recognized it as something beyond an ordinary werewolf.

The source records that the Aspect possessed damage reduction 10/silver and magic during the battle. Tashiro was able to damage it with his limited supply of silver bullets that also had the necessary magical properties.

The Aspect was extremely difficult for the party to injure and proved capable of threatening the entire group.

Defeat of the First Aspect

The party eventually defeated the Aspect after a desperate battle in the water.

As it died, the Aspect cried out in disbelief and looked toward the moon, asking why Filtiarn had forsaken him.

Cloudy, silvery light then escaped from the creature. The light swirled around the corpse and temporarily formed the image of a wolf before streaking away into the sky.

What remained was a large, muscular human man bearing a tattoo of a fist over the sun across his chest. He collapsed and died as the last of the silvery light disappeared.

The transformation therefore appears to have been reversible, at least upon death. The human identity of the individual was revealed only after the Aspect form and its connection to Filtiarn were destroyed.

Later Encounter

The party encountered another Aspect of Filtiarn during the assault on the Tower of Plinth.

During the battle, an enormous wolf-man was identified as an Aspect of Filtiarn. The Traveler determined that the creature was the focus sustaining a powerful Epic spell that had summoned the full moon. He knocked the Aspect unconscious, causing the spell to end, and the creature reverted to a naked human man.

This Aspect was subsequently interrogated.

He claimed that Filtiarn had appeared to him through visions and dreams and instructed him to attack the tower. He believed that Filtiarn himself had cast the Epic spell and had granted him the power that transformed him into an Aspect.

Importantly, the party determined that the man did not know who was actually calling himself Filtiarn. Whatever connection existed between the Aspect and Filtiarn, it did not give the Aspect knowledge of Filtiarn's mortal identity.

Relationship to the Werewolf Plague

Aspects were part of the broader activities of Gauntlet of the Moon and its efforts to spread the influence of Filtiarn.

The Gauntlet's temples housed large numbers of wolves, worgs, dire wolves, and werewolves, while its members experimented on people who were resistant to the werewolf disease. The creation of an Aspect appears to have represented a different and considerably more powerful stage of their religious work.

An Aspect should therefore not automatically be equated with an ordinary victim of the werewolf plague.

Significance

The existence of Aspects demonstrated that the Gauntlet of the Moon could apparently channel or bestow genuine supernatural power associated with Filtiarn.

More importantly, the Aspects provided evidence that the being presenting himself as Filtiarn had a means of directly empowering mortal followers while remaining personally hidden.

The party initially had no way to determine whether Filtiarn was an actual god, an ancient surviving being, a powerful Chosen, or another entity using the name. The Aspects themselves did not possess the information necessary to answer that question.

Later revelations concerning Stegner and Filtiarn provide additional context for the Aspect phenomenon, but the precise magical process by which Stegner used the Aspect connection remains unknown.

Known Characteristics

The following characteristics are established from the party's encounters:

Transformation into a Large wolf-man.
Greatly increased physical power.
Strong association with wolves and werewolves.
Connection to Filtiarn and his supernatural power.
At least one known Aspect possessed damage reduction 10/silver and magic.
An Aspect could serve as the focus of an extremely powerful magical effect.
The Aspect form could apparently revert to a mortal human form when the connection to Filtiarn was broken.
The transformation was not simply an ordinary werewolf transformation.
Aspects could apparently be created through ritual within Temple of the Moon.
The individuals transformed into Aspects did not necessarily know Filtiarn's true identity.

Uncertain Information

The surviving records do not establish:

whether every Aspect possessed the same abilities;
whether there was a fixed number of Aspects;
whether an Aspect retained its original personality and memories;
the exact magical requirements for creating an Aspect;
the precise role of moonlight in the transformation;
whether the transformation required an existing connection to the werewolf plague;
whether the transformed individual volunteered for the process;
whether the Gauntlet understood the true nature of the transformation;
whether the power came directly from Filtiarn or through another intermediary;
how Stegner ultimately learned to create or become an Aspect;
or whether the Aspect form was intended as a permanent state, an intermediate stage, or part of a larger ascension process.

These questions should remain open rather than being filled in from assumptions about lycanthropy or divine avatars.