Celestial (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, celestials are a class of
Celestial
creatures and monsters known asoutsiders who are of wholly goodalignment.
Characteristics
In the context of the Dungeons & Dragons games they represent forces of armed
Type Outsider
justice, and include iconic “good” creatures from history and myth, such as angels,
who seek out and destroy evil.

All celestials hail from theUpper Planes.

There are four published types of celestial: Aasimon (or devas or angels), Archons, Eladrins, and Guardinals, each with varying
“good” outlooks and motivations. The celestials are led by celestial paragons, unique creatures presented in Dungeons and Dragons
lore as polar opposites of thedemon princes and archdevils.

Contents
Publication history
Celestial paragons
Angels
Archons
Eladrin
Guardinals
See also

Publication history
Angels (then called Devas) first appeared in Dragon issue #63 (July 1982). Astral, Movanic and Monadic Devas appeared in issue
#63 in the article "Featured Creatures." Planetar and Solars made their first appearance in issue #64's (August 1982) "Featured
Creatures" article. "Featured Creatures" was an ongoing series of articles where Gary Gygax released information on official
creatures before their release in the upcoming "Monster Manual II" (1983).

Archons were introduced in the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes (1987). Eladrin and guardinals
debuted as several cards in the Blood Wars Card Game in 1995, and then first appeared in a D&D product in the Planescape
Monstrous Compendium Appendix II(1995).

Celestial paragons
The three groups of celestial paragons are:[1][2]

The Celestial Hebdomad, rulers of thearchons.

The Court of Stars, leaders of theeladrins.
Talisid and the Five Companions, paragons of theguardinals.

Angels
Angels can be of any good alignment, and can live in any of the Upper Planes instead of being limited to just one. Many subspecies
of angels exist, including Astral Deva, Solar,and Planetar.

Astral Deva

These angels watch over lesser beings from the heavens and, in turn, are symbols of sentry and looked upon as messengers from
Gods. Although avoiding combat whenever possible, it loves to strike down evil with a passion, preferring blunt weapons such as
maces over blades and staves.

Planetar

Planetar angels are legendary warriors and guardians, serving as captains and commanding legions of celestials to war with anything
that would threaten the destruction of the cosmos. Like all other celestials, they will attack fiends and demons before anything else,
and prefer to mix their vast array of heavenly magic with their mighty greatswords and massive char
ges.

Solar

When the mightiest of the demons, the most hell-bent destructor fiends and the evil deities themselves crawl from the pits of Baator
to challenge good, the Solar angels will always be among the defenders. Solar angels are the elite fighting force of justice in the
planes, and when not fighting evil, they are in the direct service of the good deities. Solar also featured as the only published epic stat
figurine for the lawful good faction in the Blood War set. The Solar's stat card featured extremely high attack power and speed, along
with his trademark "slaying arrow" which is able to immediately destroy any creature with 100 health points or less. He was only
rivaled by the Pit Fiend in that set.

Archons
Archons are lawful good and found on the plane of Mount Celestia. They consider fiends their sworn enemies and devote their
existence to protecting all the free peoples against the tyranny of evil.

In the 4th Edition Monster Manual, an Archon is a medium elemental humanoid, and thus is opposed to the gods, that is made up of
one or more specific elements, and is chaotic evil.

Eladrin
Eladrins are chaotic good and found on the plane of Arborea. They are the free knights of everything extraplanar, and search
endlessly throughout the planes for good men and women to lend a swordarm and to help champion the Eladrin cause.

Guardinals
Guardinals are neutral good and found on the plane of Elysium. In their home plane, they are perhaps the most peace-loving and
carefree of all Celestials, but once separated from Elysium, they become fierce crusaders and preemptive attackers who live to
destroy injustice until once again brought home.

See also
List of species in fantasy fiction
Major planar races
List of theological angels

1. Perkins, Christopher. Warriors of Heaven (TSR, 1999).

2. Wyatt, James, Darrin Drader, Christopher Perkins. Book of Exalted Deeds(Wizards of the Coast, 2003).

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