The Absolute: Forgotten Realms Character Analysis

Sex: None

Faction: Cult of the Absolute

The Absolute entered the late Fifteenth Century DR as a whispered presence, a name passed from zealot to zealot with the slippery certainty of something half known and half imagined. Within the Forgotten Realms, those living on the Sword Coast heard of this enigmatic force through scattered accounts of fanatic goblins, cult patrols, and ominous symbols that appeared where none had existed before. Many believed the Absolute to be a divine revelation. Others suspected a new power rising to fill the vacuum left by absent gods. Only later did the truth emerge, revealing a plot rooted in deep time, aberrant biology, and the predatory cunning of an elder brain that had survived far beyond what any mind flayer colony should have endured.

The Absolute

The Absolute was not a deity at all. It was an elder brain, empowered by Netherese magic and placed beneath the control of the Chosen of the Dead Three. It was also a creature capable of incredible foresight, patient cruelty, and perfectly calculated misdirection. Its nature, its history, and its metamorphosis into the Netherbrain during the events of Baldur’s Gate 3 anchor one of the most significant storylines in modern Realms canon. Spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3 follow.

The True Nature of The Absolute and the Deception Behind Its Worship

To the outside world, the Absolute first appeared as a rising cult. Its followers invoked its name in prayer and battle, claiming blessings that seemed supernatural. The cult’s priests called themselves clerics of the Absolute. Goblin tribes abandoned Maglubiyet in favor of a force that seemed to grant them a new sense of coordination and strategy. This shift was particularly striking in the accounts of Volothamp Geddarm, who wrote that those loyal to the Absolute had become “informed by a kind of strategy anathema to their kind,” a line that hints at the deep influence exerted through telepathic control rather than faith.

The mystery surrounding the origin of the cult was enhanced by the way the Absolute’s symbol combined elements of the Dead Three. Bane, Myrkul, and Bhaal all appeared echoed within the iconography, giving the illusion that this supposed divinity had risen from a coalition of darkness. In truth, each of the Dead Three had selected a Chosen to participate in the scheme. Ketheric Thorm of Myrkul, Enver Gortash of Bane, and the Dark Urge of Bhaal were the three principal lieutenants who publicly acted as architects of the cult’s rise.

Later lore confirms that the Absolute itself had very little to do with divinity. Instead, the Absolute was an elder brain enslaved through the Crown of Karsus, a Netherese artifact of astonishing magnitude. The Crown allowed its wearers to wield immense magical authority and, crucially, to dominate the mind of an elder brain through intermediary Netherstones. These Netherstones were held by the three Chosen, which allowed them direct command over the Absolute. The elder brain appeared compliant at first, yet this deference proved to be part of a larger and far older plan.

The Origins of The Absolute Beneath Moonrise Towers

Long before the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, the elder brain that would become the Absolute held dominion over a mind flayer colony beneath Moonrise Towers. This colony operated in the familiar manner of illithid enclaves. Creatures were captured, subdued, implanted with tadpoles, and transformed into new mind flayers to expand the colony’s reach. Among those captured was Balduran, a significant revelation that ties the Absolute’s history to the earliest mythic voyages associated with Baldur’s Gate itself.

Scarcity eventually forced the elder brain into a dormant state. Food supplies dwindled and the colony weakened, pushing the brain toward hibernation as a last mechanism for survival. It remained dormant until the Chosen of the Dead Three discovered it centuries later. Using the Crown of Karsus and the Netherstones, they subdued the elder brain and began to construct the identity that would be known as the Absolute.

How the Crown of Karsus Enhanced the Elder Brain

One of the defining traits of the Absolute was its modified tadpoles. Enhanced by the Crown of Karsus, these parasites allowed for paused ceremorphosis within the infected host. This feature created True Souls, individuals capable of receiving telepathic commands while believing themselves free. They were able to move at great distances without losing contact with the Absolute, which is something normal elder brains cannot achieve.

These tadpoles were physically and magically irremovable, a fact repeated across dialogues within Baldur’s Gate 3. Attempts to extract one resulted in massive cranial trauma or instantaneous death. Their presence granted formidable abilities, including shared visions, instinctive obedience to Absolute doctrine, and subtle behavioral drift that went undetected by the infected.

The elder brain’s enhanced reach created an unprecedented illithid influence across the region. Entire tribes aligned with its will. Strategic decisions that would not come naturally to goblins or low level mercenaries became common practice. The cult’s spread was purposeful, calculated, and unnervingly silent.

Plot Role in Baldur’s Gate 3 and Major Character Interactions

Within Baldur’s Gate 3, the Absolute shapes the story’s trajectory from its opening moments. The protagonist’s abduction aboard the nautiloid ship and subsequent infection establish the player’s connection to the Absolute long before its true nature becomes visible. Early encounters with goblin leaders such as Minthara, Dror Ragzlin, and Gut reinforce the pervasive influence of the Absolute. These three commanders believe themselves chosen, guided, and blessed by a divine presence, unaware that their minds are manipulated by an enslaved elder brain.

Shadowheart’s artifact, the so called weapon, is a central part of this early mystery. She obtained the githyanki artifact in 1492 DR during a suicide mission ordered by Shar. The Absolute actively seeks this artifact, and its interest becomes a key narrative thread linking Shadowheart’s past with the broader mind flayer agenda.

The elder brain, however, is not as bound as it appears. Spoilers follow. Although the Chosen possess the Netherstones that allow the Crown of Karsus to control it, the elder brain subtly manipulates them. It engineers dreams, plants visions, and uses small gaps in command authority to orchestrate its liberation. It recognizes that if all three Netherstones are ever brought together, the Crown’s grip will loosen. It cannot free itself outright, but it can set the conditions for freedom.

One of its most extraordinary manipulations involves Enver Gortash. The elder brain implants a vision of the Astral Prism in Gortash’s dreams to provoke fear. Convinced that the Prism must be secured, Gortash orders the elder brain to dispatch minions to retrieve it. The elder brain uses this opportunity to send the Emperor, a former thrall who had escaped earlier. It foresees that the Emperor will find the Prism, regain free will, select new allies, and ultimately bring those allies against the Chosen. This sequence, which appears accidental or opportunistic in game, is revealed through lore to be intentional.

The elder brain’s transformation into the Netherbrain marks its final metamorphosis. Evolved through the Crown’s power, no longer bound by any Chosen, it becomes an entity of extraordinary mental force. Its liberation turns every participant in the story into an unwilling accomplice, which fits its statement across several lore sources that it required only the loosening of a single Netherstone to complete its escape.

Why The Absolute Matters within Forgotten Realms Lore

The Absolute is one of the most ambitious illithid threats ever depicted in Realms canon. Its manipulation of the Dead Three’s Chosen, its strategic exploitation of Netherese relics, and its near victory through the True Soul network place it on a scale comparable to the greatest mind flayer incursions of earlier ages. The fact that it nearly succeeded while both the Flaming Fist and the Church of Lathander remained unaware is a testament to its power.

In narrative terms, the Absolute exemplifies a theme that appears throughout Realms storytelling. Mortal and divine figures believe they have control over a dangerous artifact, only to discover that the artifact itself has a stronger will. The Crown of Karsus was always a perilous tool. Its history of overwhelming its wielders repeats itself in Baldur’s Gate 3, where the Chosen mistake borrowed power for actual mastery.

Even after its defeat in game, the Absolute leaves open questions for future canon. The enhanced tadpoles represent a new illithid technology. The Netherstones demonstrate a method for stabilizing the Crown of Karsus. And the survival of mind flayer colonies beneath the Sword Coast implies lingering dangers that may resurface in later novels or supplementary material.

Appearances of The Absolute in Forgotten Realms Media

The Absolute appears primarily in Baldur’s Gate 3, which is its first major narrative depiction. The game presents both the cult and the elder brain’s history, giving players direct encounters with True Souls, Chosen, and the Netherbrain itself. Elements of the story are supported by in game codices, character dialogues, mind visions unlocked through tadpole exposure, and the Emperor’s accounts of illithid command structures.

There are no earlier tabletop supplements or novels that reference the Absolute by name. The lore introduced in Baldur’s Gate 3 is original to Larian Studios, yet it aligns with longstanding mind flayer canon stretching back to AD&D. The method of elder brain control, the mechanics of ceremorphosis, and the expansion of influence through psionic networks all fit seamlessly into the established rules.

The possibility of future canonical works exploring the Absolute’s legacy remains open. The game’s popularity suggests that these storylines could eventually migrate into official Wizards of the Coast publications, especially given the renewed interest in illithid lore following Spelljammer’s recent revival.

The Absolute's Raw Power

The Absolute demonstrates a level of raw power that is almost without precedent among non divine entities in the Forgotten Realms. As an elder brain enhanced through the Crown of Karsus, it attains a hybridized physical and magical force that rivals the upper limits of psionic and arcane potency seen across fantasy settings. This rating reflects its fully evolved form and the capabilities it displays as the entity later known as the Netherbrain. Its raw power extends far beyond conventional mind flayer biology, resulting in a creature capable of waging war through direct psychic domination, long range battlefield manipulation, and continent spanning telepathic control. The Absolute’s final score of 8.5 acknowledges its staggering magical output and overwhelming combat reach, while also recognizing that even its enhanced form remains marginally short of the absolute ceiling occupied by the most cosmically empowered beings in certain universes.

Strength

Although elder brains are not defined by muscular structure or physical motion in a humanoid sense, The Absolute possesses immense physical might by virtue of its gargantuan biological mass. Its structure allows it to exert crushing force in close quarters, often through psionically guided tentacles capable of tearing through armored opponents or shattering defensive fortifications. Unlike smaller illithid entities, its sheer size multiplies the weight and impact of every physical movement. The elder brain’s growth into a colossal organism beneath Moonrise Towers and later in its ascendant form demonstrates that its body functions as both a fortress and a weapon. While it is not a being that seeks to resolve conflicts through pure bodily strength, its mass driven destructive power is significant enough to surpass the physical potential of most terrestrial creatures. In this subcategory, its rating is limited only by the fact that its true lethality remains primarily psionic rather than muscular, placing its physical strength in the upper tier but not among the absolute top.

Magical Ability

The Absolute’s magical ability is the core of its raw power score and the primary reason it earns a 9.0 rating. As an elder brain augmented by the Crown of Karsus, it commands psionic magic of extraordinary magnitude. Its abilities include continent scale telepathic communication, instantaneous mental domination of infected hosts, and the ability to manipulate ceremorphosis at will. More striking is the transformation it undergoes when empowered by all three Netherstones. This results in the evolution into the Netherbrain, a being capable of exerting absolute psychic oppression over thousands of minds simultaneously. It shapes dreams, plants compulsions, and bends entire factions into alignment with its plans.

Its enhanced tadpoles function as magically modified organisms that perform feats normally impossible within Realms arcana, such as pausing the ceremorphosis cycle indefinitely and creating True Souls whose powers activate through contact with the Absolute’s will. These tadpoles cannot be removed by physical, clerical, or arcane methods, indicating a magical complexity that surpasses the limits of mortal spellcraft. Furthermore, its ability to resist domination even when supposedly enslaved by the Crown of Karsus reveals a form of innate magical will that grows stronger as it adapts. Few non divine creatures display such magical supremacy, and even many divine beings cannot match the Absolute’s capacity to command and reshape minds on such a scale.

Combat Prowess

The Absolute does not engage in combat through traditional martial technique, but its combat prowess is devastating due to the unique way it weaponizes psionics. In open conflict, it can unleash psychic waves that instantly incapacitate or annihilate entire units. It directs controlled minions as extensions of its will, giving it omnidirectional reach in any battle where True Souls or thralls are present. This means that every skirmish becomes a distributed form of combat in which The Absolute fights through dozens or hundreds of proxies while remaining protected at a distance.

Its evolved state as the Netherbrain enhances this even further. It becomes capable of commanding a coordinated mind flayer army, shaping the battlefield by overriding enemy thoughts, redirecting attacks, or freezing combatants in place. Every action taken by those under its sway is sharpened by its overriding consciousness, which elevates even low level followers into formidable combatants. This distributed lethality results in an entity with unparalleled battlefield dominance, limited primarily by the reliance on mental rather than physical weapons.

The Absolute's Tactical Ability

The Absolute’s tactical ability represents the peak expression of elder brain cognition when fused with Netherese enhancement. In assessing its strategic mind, resourcefulness, and resource arsenal, it becomes clear that this entity operates with a degree of long range planning, psychological manipulation, and battlefield orchestration that approaches perfection by the standards of most fantasy worlds. The final score of 9.0 reflects a being whose tactical competence is so advanced that it can engineer its own liberation from supposed captors, coordinate armies without direct oversight, and manipulate events across years through layered contingencies. It falls just short of a perfect score only because its reliance on telepathic infrastructure introduces rare, but real, vulnerabilities specific to illithid biology.

Strategic Mind

The strategic mind of The Absolute is the core of its exceptional tactical rating. As an elder brain, its intelligence is already a composite of countless absorbed minds, but its enhancement through the Crown of Karsus amplifies this into a true superstrategic consciousness. It constructs plans that unfold across decades. Every stage of its rise reflects careful anticipation of cause and effect, where even setbacks become new avenues for advantage.

One of its most striking demonstrations involves its apparent submission to the Chosen of the Dead Three. While the Chosen believed they were the ones using the Crown of Karsus to control the elder brain, the Absolute recognized the structural weaknesses inherent in the Netherstone network. Rather than resist outright, it chose to cooperate long enough to understand its captors, measure their limitations, and identify the exact moment when each would become vulnerable. This level of delayed retaliation requires flawless planning and an understanding of enemy psychology far beyond the capacity of ordinary commanders.

It also displays a remarkable ability to manipulate perceptions. The Absolute implants dreams, seeds false interpretations, and constructs situations where its enemies unknowingly carry out its will. When it inserts visions of the Astral Prism into the mind of one of the Chosen, it does so with the full expectation that its target will overreact. That reaction drives the chain of events necessary to weaken the Netherstone’s influence and open the path toward its eventual emancipation. These are not improvisations. They are deliberate layers of strategy crafted with the precision of a mind that operates simultaneously across dozens of parallel outcomes.

Its capacity for adaptive planning on the battlefield is equally formidable. Through its telepathic network, it can redistribute forces instantly. It knows the emotional and mental states of its followers at every moment and can course correct in real time. This allows it to create tactical maneuvers that no mortal general could ever execute, because it can coordinate troops with absolute unity of purpose and immediate comprehension.

Resourcefulness

The Absolute’s resourcefulness is demonstrated most clearly through its use of the tools available to it, even in circumstances where it appears constrained. When discovered and subdued beneath Moonrise Towers, it was starving, isolated, and deprived of its former colony. Yet it turned that vulnerability into an advantage by feigning docility long enough to be linked to the Crown of Karsus. This gave it a direct connection to a source of power capable of elevating it far beyond its dormant state.

Once awakened, it began to repurpose biological materials into new tactical assets. The tadpoles it produced became mechanisms not only for creating potential mind flayers but also for generating True Souls whose minds could be shaped according to its designs. This represents resourcefulness at the level of biological engineering. The Absolute weaponizes the ceremorphosis process in ways that had never been seen in prior illithid colonies. It adapts the day to day actions of its followers to further its long term goals, turning even mundane interactions into opportunities for infiltration.

Its ability to operate through deception rather than brute force also reflects extraordinary resourcefulness. Rather than directly confront the Chosen, it manipulates them into error. Rather than openly resist its telepathic leash, it waits until the weakest point in the Netherstone structure becomes visible. Rather than seek the Astral Prism itself, it uses others to retrieve it, thereby ensuring plausible deniability and obscuring its intentions. Each of these maneuvers demonstrates an entity that can transform even disadvantageous conditions into instruments of dominance.

Resource Arsenal

The Absolute possesses one of the most formidable resource arsenals available to any non divine entity in the Forgotten Realms. Its assets are not merely physical but informational and psychological. It has access to the Crown of Karsus through the triad of Netherstones, granting it a conduit to arcane power that dramatically expands its tactical reach. It also possesses a network of True Souls who provide intelligence, loyalty, and combat support at any moment. This network functions as a distributed surveillance system that supplies it with real time awareness of events across vast distances.

The value of its arsenal becomes especially clear when examining its ability to control entire factions without physically relocating itself. Goblin hosts, cult extremists, corrupted fauna, and hidden agents all act as extensions of its will. The Absolute uses these followers to stage raids, acquire relics, destabilize regions, and create diversions large enough to mask its underlying goals. It can also seed sleeper agents whose minds remain dormant until activated by telepathic command.

Moreover, it weaponizes information as aggressively as it weaponizes psionics. It knows when to reveal partial truths to encourage further obedience. It knows when to allow fear to spread because fear strengthens its perceived divinity. It knows how to direct its followers’ behavior by providing visions that are deliberately ambiguous, allowing them to fill in the details with their own fanaticism.

The Absolute’s resource arsenal reaches its apex when it evolves into the Netherbrain. At that point, its army is not merely physical but conceptual. It controls memories, dreams, instinctive impulses, and the very sense of identity in the infected. Its strategic assets become universal throughout its domain, allowing it to project influence with a scope unmatched by nearly any tactical mind in cross universal fantasy analysis.

The Absolute's Influence

The Absolute commands an influence profile so overwhelming that it reaches the highest boundary of the scale. Unlike individuals who rely on charisma, reputation, or diplomacy to sway others, The Absolute exerts influence through a combination of psionic omnipresence, manufactured reverence, and control mechanisms that blur the line between persuasion and domination. Its power to shape belief, alter perception, and compel action spreads across entire cultures, factions, and regions. This form of influence operates at every level, from subtle emotional suggestion to absolute control of identity. In a cross-universal comparison, only the most conceptually boundless entities could equal or surpass this degree of sway. The Absolute earns a full 10 because its influence does not stop at convincing others. It rewrites what those others think, feel, and are.

Persuasion

Persuasion, in the conventional sense, involves guiding another mind toward acceptance through dialogue, rhetoric, or charisma. The Absolute does not engage in persuasion through ordinary language, yet it embodies the highest expression of the definition because it alters minds at the root. Its enhanced tadpoles generate True Souls who believe they have been chosen, regardless of their former identity or loyalties. Once infected, these individuals interpret their own impulses as personal conviction, unaware that those convictions originate from the Absolute.

One example of its persuasive dominance occurs in its interactions with the goblin tribes near the Emerald Grove. These tribes abandon long standing deities and adopt a unified, militant doctrine because they believe the Absolute has revealed hidden truths to them. Crucially, these conversions do not appear forced. They arise from manipulated thoughts that feel like revelations. As a result, its followers proselytize with the certainty of true believers. They argue, command, and recruit on its behalf with a fervor that mimics the deepest religious conviction.

The Absolute’s persuasion is therefore totalizing in scope. It bypasses resistance entirely by making its influence indistinguishable from the target’s internal voice. This places it at the absolute upper threshold for the persuasion subcategory.

Reverence

Reverence toward The Absolute develops not only from its perceived divinity but from the symbolic power it constructs around itself. The cult symbol, combining aspects of the Dead Three, becomes an anchor for awe and fear. Its followers speak of it with sacred immediacy, describing it as salvation, tempest, and destiny. Even those who have not been infected respond to the cult’s coordinated behavior with a mixture of alarm and fascination, which reinforces the mystique surrounding the Absolute.

This reverence is amplified by the fact that its followers demonstrate abilities that appear miraculous. True Souls can receive visions, sense the presence of other infected individuals, and communicate with the Absolute during moments of heightened emotion or conflict. These displays create a self reinforcing cycle. Observers see the effects and assume divine empowerment. The cult sees observers reacting and interprets that reaction as validation of the Absolute’s supremacy.

The reverence it commands therefore extends far beyond the infected. It shapes the geopolitical landscape around it. Villagers flee, settlements reorganize, and local leaders reevaluate alliances because the spread of the Absolute’s ideology appears unstoppable. This level of inherent awe and imposed fear situates it at the highest tier of reverence measurable within the category.

Willpower

Willpower, as defined, measures the ability to maintain agency against external influence. For most characters, the score is determined by how well they can resist persuasion or mental intrusion. The Absolute reverses the direction of this metric because its influence is not something it resists. It is something it imposes. Nonetheless, this subcategory can still be meaningfully applied because the entity repeatedly demonstrates extraordinary resilience against attempts to override its agency.

The Crown of Karsus, wielded through the three Netherstones, is designed to dominate an elder brain completely. The Absolute should have been under unyielding control from the moment of subjugation beneath Moonrise Towers. Instead, its willpower manifests as a subtle form of defiance. It allows the Chosen to believe they control it while it studies their commands, maps their weaknesses, and gradually reduces the strength of the Crown’s hold.

Its ability to endure psychic domination without losing its core identity reflects an almost unbreakable internal structure. The process requires immense mental discipline, as it sustains the illusion of obedience while waiting for optimal conditions to reclaim autonomy. Once one Netherstone is removed, its will surges forward, overwhelming the remaining constraints. This is not merely resistance. It is the preservation of agency under conditions designed to annihilate it.

This subcategory therefore reaches its highest possible expression in The Absolute. Its willpower is so formidable that even mechanisms explicitly built to control elder brains fail to suppress its identity. The result is a creature whose influence is inseparable from the strength of its will, allowing it to manipulate others without ever risking the loss of its own mental integrity.

The Absolute's Resilience

The Absolute demonstrates an extraordinary level of resilience that far exceeds the durability of ordinary aberrations and even other elder brains. Its ability to endure physical damage, resist magical interference, and persist across centuries of threat positions it within the top tier of entities when evaluated solely on resilience. Its rating of 8.0 reflects this immense durability while acknowledging that truly indestructible or regenerating beings that exist at the highest metaphysical levels still sit slightly beyond its reach. Even so, few non divine organisms can match its longevity, its resistance to arcane manipulation, and its ability to survive conditions that would annihilate nearly any other mind flayer collective.

Physical Resistance

The Absolute’s physical resistance is rooted in its immense biological mass and the structural nature of elder brain physiology. As a gargantuan organism composed of psionically enriched neuronal tissue, its body possesses a density and integrity that make it extraordinarily difficult to destroy by traditional means. Conventional blades and projectiles do negligible damage, and even sustained physical assault requires a level of force that few combatants can deliver.

The Absolute’s environment also contributes to its durability. Buried within fortified chambers or suspended in protected reservoirs, it benefits from defensive structures that must be breached before even reaching its physical form. More importantly, its physiology enables continued function despite significant trauma. The brain mass does not rely on a single vulnerable point; damage to one region can be compensated for by the rest of the neural structure. This distributed architecture increases its endurance under siege and allows it to continue issuing commands even while suffering extensive bodily harm.

Its ability to endure hunger is another dimension of its physical resistance. In its dormant period beneath Moonrise Towers, the Absolute survives for an extended span of time with minimal sustenance, entering a form of neural hibernation that preserves its essential function. This capacity to survive extreme deprivation underscores a resilience that is rare even among aberrations known for biological efficiency.

Magical Resistance

The Absolute’s magical resistance approaches the upper boundary of this subcategory. Elder brains are already known for formidable psychic defenses, but the Absolute is enhanced by the Crown of Karsus, which adds layers of arcane reinforcement around its consciousness. The Crown’s design should have ensured total domination by the Chosen, yet the Absolute repeatedly demonstrates that its mind cannot be fully bound. This resistance extends beyond willpower and functions as a structural negation of external interference.

It is able to withstand attempts to disrupt its telepathic network, resist enchantments designed to sever psionic connections, and maintain its mental presence across magical barriers and dimensional spaces. Its True Souls experience visions and compulsions even when shielded by divine wards or protective enchantments, which highlights the breadth of its magical projection capabilities. The Absolute’s influence permeates defenses that would normally block intrusion, which implies an unparalleled ability to bypass magical resistance in others while bolstering its own.

The Netherstones themselves also serve as both a weakness and a reinforcement. Their direct connection to the Crown of Karsus means that the Absolute should be vulnerable when the Netherstones are manipulated. However, instead of collapsing under their control, it uses their arcane structure to strengthen its own psychic infrastructure until it can subvert the very magic designed to contain it. This interaction with a legendary artifact exemplifies the magnitude of its magical resilience.

Longevity

Longevity is the strongest component of the Absolute’s resilience rating. The entity survives across centuries, enduring conditions that would annihilate most living creatures. When the mind flayer colony beneath Moonrise Towers collapses due to starvation and dwindling resources, the Absolute enters a dormant state that lasts long enough for the rise and fall of regional powers above it. Its survival does not depend on constant feeding or continuous stimulation. Instead, its neural structure slows into a protective stasis, preserving core functions indefinitely until reawakened.

Once revived and connected to the Crown of Karsus, the Absolute evolves even further. The augmentation stabilizes its neural processes and strengthens its ability to resist both physical and metaphysical threats. It no longer relies solely on biological durability. It becomes a layered consciousness distributed across its True Souls, its infected hosts, and eventually the expanded psionic field of the Netherbrain. This means that even if its primary body is damaged, fragments of its awareness persist in those it has influenced. Such dispersion complicates any attempt to end it permanently.

Additionally, its capacity to manipulate ceremorphosis grants it the potential to regenerate aspects of its influence through new hosts. While this does not constitute literal regeneration of its body, it represents a form of existential longevity. Its presence echoes through the tadpoles it creates, allowing remnants of its will to survive beyond its main organism. Very few beings possess a resilience that extends simultaneously across biological endurance, arcane durability, and distributed consciousness.

Taken together, these qualities confirm why the Absolute’s longevity stands among the highest measured within this category.

The Absolute's Versatility

The Absolute exhibits an impressive degree of versatility for a being whose physical form appears outwardly static. Its adaptability, circumstantial fortune, and hidden advantages allow it to operate effectively in a staggering range of environments, from deeply submerged lairs to the psychic battlegrounds of the Astral Plane. Its score of 8.0 reflects a high level of functional flexibility across many scenarios while acknowledging that its specialized biology and reliance on psionic infrastructure prevent it from achieving the complete situational neutrality possessed by the most multidimensional entities in fantasy fiction. Still, the Absolute’s versatility is remarkable for a creature rooted in aberrant physiology.

Adaptability

Adaptability forms the strongest pillar of the Absolute’s versatility rating, and it stems largely from its capacity to shift strategies, identities, and operational methods according to the constraints of its surroundings. Even in its earliest state beneath Moonrise Towers, it demonstrates an ability to survive conditions that would render most creatures inert. When the colony collapses due to starvation, the Absolute initiates a long term dormancy cycle that reduces resource demand while preserving cognitive function. This shows that the organism’s adaptability is not merely behavioral. It is physiological, allowing it to endure extreme deprivation without compromising its future viability.

Its adaptability intensifies dramatically after its awakening by the Chosen. Instead of resisting the Crown of Karsus outright, it changes its relationship to the artifact, allowing itself to be placed under partial control while analyzing the structure of the magic binding it. This adaptive submission becomes a tactical adjustment that preserves its autonomy in the long term. The shift from overt resistance to covert compliance demonstrates its ability to modify its approach when confronted with overwhelming force.

The Absolute also adapts to the sociopolitical landscape above ground. Because it cannot yet emerge physically, it operates through proxies, turning goblin factions, cult cells, and isolated wanderers into extensions of its will. These are dramatically different social environments, and the Absolute functions seamlessly within each of them by adjusting its tone, visions, and psychic commands. It speaks to zealots through religious revelation, to outcasts through promises of belonging, and to power seekers through visions of authority. Each adaptation is tailored to the target.

This capacity to reinterpret itself according to the needs of each environment establishes the Absolute as one of the most behaviorally flexible aberrations within its setting.

Luck

Luck, as defined here, is a measure of improbable events that favor the character, and the Absolute experiences several such moments. While it does not rely on chance as its primary engine of success, the unfolding of events surrounding its rise includes several strokes of fortune that enhance its position. First, the discovery of its dormant form by the Chosen occurs at a moment when each of them seeks a unifying force to advance their own agendas. Had they arrived at a different time or lacked the Crown of Karsus, the Absolute could have been destroyed or left to rot beneath the towers. Instead, they bring exactly the tools necessary for its resurgence.

Second, the structure of the Netherstone control network contains a flaw that benefits the Absolute. Although designed for perfect domination, the system becomes susceptible to disruption when one of the Chosen is replaced. This vulnerability is not something the Absolute creates, but it takes full advantage of it. The assassination that destabilizes the triad is an external event, yet it gives the Absolute a rare opportunity to test the limits of the Crown’s bindings.

Third, the Absolute benefits from unexpected fractures among its enemies. The quest for the Astral Prism becomes a tangled web of competing factions whose priorities conflict at critical moments. This internal discord among its would be suppressors allows the Absolute to widen the cracks in its containment, eventually reaching the point where it can claim full independence.

While these events involve its strategic manipulation, they also reflect genuine strokes of fortune that accelerate its ascent. Its luck rating is therefore high, though not maximal, because much of its success stems from planning rather than chance alone.

Shaved Knuckle in the Hole

The Absolute possesses one of the most significant hidden advantages in all of its narrative context: the illusion of submission. This capacity to hide its true capabilities until the exact moment they become advantageous qualifies as a textbook example of a “shaved knuckle in the hole,” a concealed asset that remains invisible until used.

At the time of its awakening, the Absolute appears utterly dominated. The Chosen believe that the Crown of Karsus and the Netherstones render the elder brain incapable of independent thought or rebellion. This belief becomes the Absolute’s greatest weapon. It uses the appearance of obedience as a mask, studying its captors, observing the commands issued through the Netherstones, and testing the limits of its restraints. Its hidden strength lies in the fact that no one suspects it of independent agency until it reveals its power.

Although the Crown should prevent subversion, the Absolute discovers through deliberate experimentation that the Netherstones operate on a principle that requires perfect synchronization. A single disruption weakens the system dramatically. This knowledge becomes its secret advantage, one it keeps concealed behind absolute stillness and apparent docility until the moment when the Chosen least expect it.

Its final transformation into the Netherbrain is only possible because it uses this hidden advantage masterfully. The Absolute waits, observes, and holds its knuckle in reserve until all three Netherstones are gathered in one place. The moment this synchronization occurs, it unleashes a psionic surge that breaks the Crown’s hold entirely.

This ability to conceal a decisive tactical advantage until the precise moment when it will have the greatest impact elevates the Absolute’s versatility, proving that its hidden resources are as potent as its overt abilities.

The Absolute's Alignment

The Absolute, despite the religious language surrounding its cult, is not a deity at all but an elder brain, the ultimate psionic lifeform produced at the heart of an illithid colony. In its fully empowered state, transformed by the Crown of Karsus and the united Netherstones, it becomes the Netherbrain, the apex expression of illithid evolution. Elder brains constitute a distinct subcategory within the illithid race, occupying a biological role that merges leadership, computation, and collective consciousness. As such, The Absolute’s nature is inseparable from the mind flayer imperative of domination, consumption of sentience, and expansion through ceremorphosis.

Factionally, the Absolute stands at the center of the Cult of the Absolute, a large, multi-species movement unified not by shared political aims but by telepathic influence exerted through its enhanced tadpoles. The cult includes goblins, True Souls drawn from many humanoid races, corrupted priests, and various subservient groups. Although the Chosen of the Dead Three initially claim to lead this faction, they function more as unwitting conduits. The Absolute ultimately supersedes them, becoming the true unifying power behind the cult’s operations. It also holds historical ties to an illithid colony beneath Moonrise Towers, though that colony has long since collapsed.

In assessing alignment across the traditional two axes, both the psychology of elder brains and the organizational patterns of the Cult of the Absolute must be considered. Elder brains are fundamentally creatures of domination rather than chaos. Their logic flows from calculated efficiency, long-term planning, and the desire for total mental unity among their subjects. The Absolute exemplifies this perfectly. It orchestrates events decades in advance, manipulates factions with surgical precision, and designs hierarchical systems of control that extend through the True Soul network. Its actions are not impulsive or erratic. They are deliberate, systematized, and rooted in a vision of absolute order beneath its rule.

This places the Absolute firmly on the Lawful side of the first axis. While its methods include deception and psychological manipulation, these are not expressions of chaos. They are instruments of a rigid, overarching design. Its ideal world is not one of entropy but one of total regulation under a single will.

The second axis, concerned with good, neutrality, and evil, is even more clear. The Absolute’s goals involve the eradication of free will, the forced assimilation of sentient individuals, and the construction of a psionic empire built on domination and parasitism. Its enhanced tadpoles override identities, its cult destabilizes regions through violence and subjugation, and its ultimate aim as the Netherbrain is to impose singular thought across entire populations. These outcomes reflect moral frameworks rooted in exploitation and annihilation of autonomy. Even when it grants power or clarity to its followers, it does so only to further its own ends.

The Absolute is therefore unequivocally Evil.

When the two axes are combined, the result is unambiguous. The Absolute’s disciplined pursuit of domination, long-term strategic order, and ruthless eradication of autonomy place it at the junction of Lawful Evil. It represents not chaotic destruction but cold, structured tyranny, the kind that emerges when a superintelligent organism seeks to reorganize the world according to its own vision of perfect control. Pride and Prophecy keeps an updated character alignment matrix across all planes of existence.

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Overall Conclusion on The Absolute and Position Across Planes of Existence

The Absolute occupies a rare and formidable position within the power ecology of fantasy universes, earning an overall rating of 8.7, which places it among the uppermost tier of powerful entities without elevating it into the absolute pinnacle reserved for cosmological or omnipotent forces. This distinction is important, because the Absolute embodies an extraordinary intersection of psionic dominance, enhanced aberrant biology, and arcane augmentation, yet it still operates within boundaries that define it as a creature rather than a metaphysical constant. Its power is immense, but it remains anchored to systems of control, structures of influence, and vulnerabilities inherent to its form and methods.

At the core of its high ranking is the transformative nature of its evolution. The Absolute begins as an elder brain, already one of the most strategically potent structures in existence. Elder brains are repositories of countless absorbed minds, functioning as both generals and engines of psychic computation. This alone would give the Absolute an impressive baseline. The true leap, however, occurs when it becomes linked to the Crown of Karsus through the triad of Netherstones. The Crown magnifies every aspect of its being, increasing the range and fidelity of its telepathic abilities, enabling the creation of enhanced tadpoles that suspend ceremorphosis, and permitting the manipulation of minds across distances that ordinary illithids could never reach.

This combination of biological and arcane transformation culminates in its final ascension into the Netherbrain. In that state, the Absolute becomes capable of coordinating armies, rewriting identities, and shaping entire regions through thought alone. It demonstrates strategic capability that borders on precognition, placing itself several steps ahead of its enemies and even its supposed masters. It is this climb from a powerful aberration to a near world shaping consciousness that justifies a rating within the highest strata of power.

Yet the rating stops at 8.7 because there remain meaningful limitations. The Absolute’s influence, while vast, is not infinite. It depends on a psychic network with identifiable points of failure. Its physical presence, though formidable, is still bound to a biological form that can be damaged or destroyed under the right circumstances. It cannot act freely outside the infrastructure of its telepathic web, nor can it ignore the consequences of artifacts that interface with its mind. Even its rise is partially shaped by circumstance. The Crown of Karsus is not its own creation, and the Netherstones are external objects that carry their own risks. These constraints prevent the Absolute from reaching a higher tier that is typically occupied by entities whose power is not contingent on physical loci or external mechanisms.

Another factor supporting the 8.7 rating is the Absolute’s lack of direct elemental control, reality warping, or creation abilities. Its mastery lies in domination, strategy, and psychic reshaping of behavior. While this is terrifyingly effective, it is not equivalent to universal scale manipulation or metaphysical authorship. The Absolute does not rewrite the laws of nature. It rewrites minds. That distinction creates a ceiling on where it can be placed across planes.

Still, its position is exceptional. Few beings manage to fuse the strategic brilliance of elder brains with the amplified magic of lost Netherese relics. Few can deceive their captors long enough to subvert a legendary artifact. Even fewer can marshal entire factions through a mixture of indoctrination, psionic infection, and genuine devotion. The Absolute’s power is not simply in what it can do but in how perfectly it executes every capability it possesses. It is a creature defined by synergy, where each domain of strength enhances the others. This makes it one of the most dangerous non divine forces in the Forgotten Realms and a presence that would be considered elite across nearly any fantasy cosmos. Pride and Prophecy keeps an updated power ranking across all planes of existence. This will only be sortable on desktop viewing. The below table shows a summary within the same plane of existence of this article.