Modron

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A tridrone modron

In the fictional universe of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Modrons are mechanical looking outsiders native to Mechanus/Nirvana, the Lawful neutral aligned Outer Plane. Modrons are living creatures that resemble geometric shapes with humanoid limbs. They represent a living, physical manifestation of law without regard to good or evil. Modrons follow a strict hierarchy, with each rank reporting to the rank directly above it, and issuing commands to the ones ranking beneath it. For example, a quadrone modron will report to a pentadrone, and command several tridrones.

Publication history

Modrons were created by Jeff Grubb, working from suggestions by Gary Gygax.^{[citation needed]} They first appeared in 1983, in the AD&D 1st edition Monster Manual II, which introduced the base modrons (including the monodrone, the duodrone, the tridrone, the quadrone, and the pentadrone), the hierarch modrons (including the decaton, the nonaton, the octon, the septon, the hexton, the quinton, the quarton, the tertian, and the secundus), and Primus (The One and the Prime).^[1]

In the 2nd edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the Plane of Law was renamed Mechanus (instead of Nirvana) and the depiction of Modrons introduced clockwork features (expanding on the description of Nirvana as a plane of cogwheels in the 1st edition Manual of the Planes). The monodrone, the duodrone, the tridrone, the quadrone, the pentadrone, the decaton, the nonaton, the octon, the septon, the hexton, the quinton, the quarton, the tertian, the secundus, and Primus appeared in the Planescape Campaign Setting boxed set (1994).^[2] The 2nd edition account of modrons (found primarily in the Planescape campaign setting) introduced the notion that modrons are only able to comprehend the existence of their own type, and those types immediately above and below them in the hierarchy. Other types simply do not register in its mind. Only Primus, the modron deity, is aware of all modrons but most modrons, being limited, are not aware of Primus.

Planescape also introduced rogue modrons: modrons who have left Mechanus and broken their connections to the other modrons.^[2] Modrons were made a playable character race in the Planewalker's Handbook (1996),^[3] and a rogue modron named Nordom (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) could join the player's party in the computer game Planescape: Torment.

In the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, modrons had largely faded from prominence, their place as the primary representatives of lawful neutrality taken by the antlike, expansionist formians and the robot-like, implacable Inevitables.^{[original research?]} They have received only a passing reference in the Manual of the Planes sourcebook, with a more detailed explanation in the web enhancement.^[4] In Dragon Magazine #354, an article on the recent history of the modrons, as well as detailed game statistics for the base modrons (the monodrone, the duodrone, the tridrone, the quadrone, and the pentadrone, as well as the messenger monodrone and the winged quadrone) and PC modrons such as the exiled modron, was published.^[5]

As of the fourth edition Manual of the Planes, Mechanus is no longer part of the main cosmology.

Hierarchy

The hierarchy of Modrons, ranked from lowest to highest, is as follows:

There are only limited numbers of hierarch Modrons in existence, there being only one Primus, four (two squared) Secundi, nine (three squared) Tertians, and so on. In order to keep this number stable, upon the demise of a Hierarch, one of a lower rank is promoted upwards, and the resulting void filled by another promotion, and so on. When the promotion reaches the Monodrone level, a new Monodrone is spawned from the Energy Pool in the center of Regulus to fill the void left by the promotion of a Monodrone into a Duodrone.

References