Rilmani

an uncomfortable-looking rilmani

If you're at all familiar with the Great Wheel multiverse of Dungeons & Dragons, you've noticed it has a tendency towards symmetry. The Lower Planes have the various types of Fiends, the Upper Planes have Angels and the various other types of celestials, Mechanus has Modrons and/or Inevitables, Limbo has Slaad; even some of the "in-between" afterlives have dedicated Outsiders, such as the Gehreleth of Carceri. So what about the Outlands? What kind of extraplanar being exemplifies the metaphysical concept of absolute neutrality?

The answer, according to Planescape, is the Rilmani. Sadly, given this was the edition in which True Neutral was synonymous with Stupid Neutral, Rilmani are basically dedicated to "preserving the Balance" by constantly fucking up things for everyone else on the other outer planes, based on their own judgment as to when someone gets too strong. Though to be fair, the alternatives would be A) completely apathetic Outsiders who have no goals and never actually do anything (who actually exist and are known as the kamerel, and who left the Outlands to the Rilmani long ago), or else B) uniquely animalistic Outsiders that aren't intelligent enough to have an alignment.

They are more numerous the closer you get to the magic-nullifying Spire, which is why no spell for summoning them exists and thus may contribute to their obscurity.

Once every hundred years, the wisest and most powerful individuals of each type of rilmani travel to the spire in the center of the Outlands to discuss the state of the Balance in an event called the Concordanach. Each of the rilmani views is represented, so the argenach delegate argues for more covert support to threatened causes, while the cuprilach and ferrumach representatives designate powerful creatures of extreme alignment who require elimination. However, since neutrality is the most apathetic and reactive of all the planar alignments, the Concordanach initiates change only in response to the direst threats.

They also seem to have a hardon for the color beige, if the pictures we managed to cobble together are anything to go by.

We recommend that all DMs give them Swedish accents. Or maybe Swiss.

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  3e

Types of Rilmani

Plumach

The least powerful variant of the rilmani and the commoners of rilmani settlements in the Outlands. Generally, if a random Outlands townsperson isn't a petitioner, planeswalker, or non-neutral Outsider (which all admittedly comprise a good majority of the plane's population), then they're a plumach. Their brand of neutrality is a simple isolationist "you leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone" mentality, as such they always try not to get involved in other people's business, and it takes the authority of an arurumach to get them off their asses.

They derive their name from "plumbum", the Latin word for lead. presumably because lead is so useless.

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Abiorach

The abiorachs are tasked with ensuring that the physical and nonphilosophical Elemental Planes stay just that (Which means that they should probably focus their efforts on getting the Princes of elemental Good into 5e). They prefer to accomplish their goals through manipulation, and trickery rather than open battle.

The metal they represent is implied from the lore to be mercury, but their name uses an archaic latin word for silver (abies) rather than "hydrargyrum", the Latin word for mercury. This confusion may have stemmed form the fact that mercury used to be known as "quicksilver" in the English-speaking world. As to what trait of mercury they exemplify, probably its changeability and fluidity.

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Ferrumach

The armed forces of the rilmani and the ones called upon when Maintaining The BalanceTM requires actually rolling for initiative.

They are named after "ferrum", the Latin word for iron. because weapons are made from iron.

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Cuprilach

The spies and assassins of the rilmani who prefer to, pardon the pun, neutralize key targets from the shadows. The most dangerous type, due being the one most likely to decide on the spot that you need to die.

They are named after "cuprum", the Latin word for copper, because...spies need to pay for things with copper money? I guess?

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Argenach

The advisors and agitators of the rilmani, they spend most of their time on the Prime Material plane, where, when not apathetically observing, they use disguises to manipulate every conflict into a tie.

They are named after "argentum", the Latin word for silver, because of the silver tongues needed to do what they do without violence.

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Aurumach

The leaders of the rilmani. It's said that even the gods don't know much about what they get up to. They rarely intervene personally, preferring to have their underlings do the work like anyone else in any sort of office. Incredibly rare, there're thought to be less than a hundred of them in all the Outlands.

They are named after "aurum", the Latin word for gold, because gold is the best metal.

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