On Aberrations

[ycleption]

So...
I had an OOC exchange the other day that got me thinking. The class description of druids states that they hate unnatural things, like undead and aberrations... now undead is easy to understand, they are a distortion of the cycle and yadda yadda. But aberrations? What exactly are they and why are they perceived as being any worse than any other creature type? Sure, they "seem" strange, but druids don't seem to have problems with squids, Panglolins, Axolotls, giant millipedes, and tons of other perfectly natural things, especially in a fantasy universe.
So, I'm assuming that the creature type has more meaning than just the way a game system chooses to divide its bestiary up. If that assumption is correct, what exactly are they? Do they have the same origin in standard D&D as in Layo?

And, most importantly for me as a player, does/should the Druidic dislike of them carry into Layonara's setting for rational purposes, and not just because they're ugly/alien?

[Filatus]

I always believed that abberations generally have their origin in some weird experiment. Created rather than being the product of nature.

[Filatus]

While Dark druids would introduce all sorts of dark creatures and vermin alike, I think even they would shy away from anything not part of the natural order.

[Filatus]

Thirdly.. *coughs* this all might have no standing whatsoever within the next incarnation of Layonara. But for now it might work.

[Eorendil]

I believe that goblins, kobolds, orcs and gnolls are all corruptions/aberations.. given their origins.  

Anything demonic or twisted by corruption certainly counts..

As was suggested, being odd or fantastic doesn't equal corruption or aberration in a fantasy world.  So things like vegepygmys, mychonids, griffons, drakes, centaur or forest renders would not be considered aberrations to my knowledge.

[Script Wrecked]

Aberration is a specific thing in NWN. Changing/extending that meaning only causes confusion. Perhaps the class definition of druids should refer to "corruptions", rather than "aberrations", if it actually means corruption, rather than aberration.

Regards,

Script Wrecked.

[lonnarin]

Yeah, the big 3 listed there.

1) Bizarre Anatomy: could be experimental or alien, but it just so drastically different from that which we see here on earth (bilateral symmetry, adhering easily to the main kingdoms and phylums) that it doesn't appear likely that it naturally evolved here on earth.  

2) Strange abilities: basically, things that make you go "hmmm?".  Like beholders floating in the air without magic, Illithids being able to use psionics rather than magic, things that shoot rays of plasma energy out of their ears, etc.  The abilities themselves are often as strange as the anatomy behind it, and many can't even be logically explained using the anatomy as a reference for causation.

3) Alien Mindset: they way the sentient beings of aberrations think, a humanoid could never relate to without going mad.  Goblins and orcs just act like angry savages, beholders on the other hand... what does a floating eyeball do for fun?  Illithid have a complex psionic hivemind totally different from say, an insectoid hivemind.  There is little empathy between aberrations and other creatures... just think back to the HP Lovecraft tales like Mountains of Madness... simply speaking to these beings makes your mind stretch apart and madness ensue.  These things don't have base emotions simple as love, hunger or fear, but totally new emotional mindsets that we haven't even experienced on earth.

The main reason druids should dislike them is because of the territorial nature of druids and their domains, usually ruling over controlled ecosystems in balance.  If there was a spike in deer population one season, the wolves would eat happy.  But how would a druid view an illithid hivemind witht heir central terraforming obsession to block out the sun and make the world a cold dark place?  Would a druid sit idly by while some beholders turned his natural caves into pulsing, living, colony tunnels?  If aberrations went unchecked, they would almost all undoubtedly change the environment to such extremes that life would be uninhabitable for all the former occupants.  Even worse is that their minds are so alien, that they don't even care about those they displace int he least.  They see our ecosystems as pollution no matter how pristine, and out lifeforms are vermin no matter how intelligent.  Think back to War of The Worlds, the movie version with Tom Cruise.  It's not that the aliens were evil persay, just that they saw mankind as only useful for tentacle-plant mulch.  Humans ont he other hand use yeast, a technically reproducing and living organism, to make beer.  We scrape bacteria off our teeth.  What does the human mind have in common with a paramecium?  Where humans would feel lust, an ameoba would find pleasure in splitting itself in two.  Does it... feel love?  or is that sensation something we couldn't even begin to comprehend?

Aberrations aren't necessarily corruptions, just states of being that are so different, it feels wrong.  It looks wrong.  Only a madman would touch base spiritually with an aberration... but that isn't to say of course that there aren't any aberational druids out there.  They would just summon tentaclebeasts rather than wolves, would want to plant sentient fungispores rather than trees, and they would look upon your pristine forrests and see blight rather than nature.  Maybe not all of them, but there are varying degrees of severity in all things.  A human child could feasibly look upon a dog or a cat or even a dinosaur and be like "wow!  that's cool".  But you show him a rampaging shuggoth demon with 3,000 meltings eyes and a horrid shriek like a deformed squig, they're not going to really want to pet it.

The best way to understand Aberrations is to read some Lovecraft.  He pretty much wrote the book on them, literally.  Or look Czukay/pelordaes' artwork, or HR Gieger's.  Surely those don't stem from any cognition of humankind.  Czukay even got fired from a job before because he shared a cubicle with a lady who had a literal hysterical mental breakdown.  There was absolutley nothing offensive in those pictures, just that they were so disturbing because she couldn't even possibly begin to comprehend it.  But this lady was so affected by the smirking tentaclebeasts and colorless blasted wastelands that she was screaming jibberish, couldn't even breathe between sentances and fell over on herself.  The artwork of my roommate Czukay literally BROKE her mind.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Lonnarin nails it.

Types & Subtypes :: d20srd.org

This might also shed some light in a mechanics sense.