Avernus’s Research and Development Team

Over the many million years of its existence, Avernus has created, kidnapped or otherwise acquired countless entities (not so unlike Trazyn in that respect) in its quest for knowledge. Combined with the resources and capabilities the planet possesses, this eclectic group has been responsible for more than a few research breakthroughs on behalf of Avernus, for a maintenance cost the Planet has deemed worthwhile. After all, an extended expenditure that would utterly boggle the mind of deity and mortal alike is little to Avernus. The World Serpent is more than able to pay the cost. What follows is a handful of examples of this initiative:

### The Protean

The Protean were originally a prototype for a species who would be able to change into anything, do anything. They were imagined into existence by the Wishmaker and then painstakingly duplicated by Avernus only to find that the end result, while more than capable of its demands, was unviable. It could not bear the crushing weight of reality, who seemed to find its existence anathema to it, nor the tempestuous tides of the warp which threatened to tear their excessively malleable form apart and dissolve it unto itself.

Resolving to make the best of the situation, Avernus placed the Protean species unto stasis while constructing a subrealm cut off from the regular warp to emplace them within. This subrealm permitted their existence. Here, they worked as researchers on behalf of Avernus, to the extent of organizing experiments to be done in realms more connected to the warp and designing various blueprints for its use. Foremost among their priorities was to complete their intended purpose, albeit in a form that was not utterly rejected by existence.

They finally met success in their long endeavor, creating their crowning achievement in the form of the modern-day Shifters. At last able to withstand both crushing reality and the mad warp both, though at cost in both power and versatility. The Protean still exist to this day in their subrealm, now a well-developed civilization continuing to contribute to Avernus’ continued research efforts. Their efforts can be seen scattershot across Avernus’ varied species, many an evolutionary advance but here and there a revolutionary advance or even rarer, an original creation entirely.

### Vorthus

Formerly a religious god of a long-extinct species, Vorthus was their conceptualization of an idealized scientist in the form of a god. Always pushing at boundaries to discover more, a master of sciences yet always holding the seed of doubt to ensure their discoveries never turned to evil. When their species began ossifying, reaching what they believed was the ultimate and true understanding of reality, Vorthus’ fellowship began to decline. Never a strong god to begin with, Vorthus saw the writing on the wall and sought a way out.

It found salvation of a sort with Avernus. Finding kinship with a fellow researcher, Avernus offered the fading god a position as a lab researcher. Given access to the Geomantic Web via an Arcane Fulcrum and all but told to go wild, Vorthus has, over the years, not disappointed. Compared to discoveries Avernus has made, its discoveries are minor at best, but they are, nonetheless, results.

### Doctor Prism

The Termites are Avernus’ most terrifying civilization, especially after that one time they nearly blew up a sector with their mad experimentation. Consequently, Avernus keeps a closer watch on those Termites that one may call a ‘Paragon’. It already keeps track of every such being as a matter of course, but such attention is redoubled for the Termites due to their sheer recklessness.

Doctor Prism was one Termite that Avernus was keeping its eye on. Having reached a mastery of light to an extent that it began to push at the boundaries of what Avernus knew was possible, the Planet decided to play it safe and remove Prism from the Termite civilization by Border Lion intervention. It wasn’t willing to give up the possibilities that Doctor Prism’s research promised, and instead emplaced the Termite Scientist within a subrealm, freed from material constraints and leaving Avernus somewhat sure that even in the worst case scenario, losses were already pre-contained.

This was more than prescient, for Avernus has had to repair catastrophic damage to said subrealm many times over already, though each time it garners results that outweigh the damages done. It helps that said realm was designed to be repairable in the face of horrific abuses of physics.

Of note is that Doctor Prism is not the only, or even the first time it has abducted promising Termite Scientists, merely the longest-lasting. Even with the safety features Avernus makes available (or rather the Termite scientists seem to take those features as license to push even further beyond), Termites seem to have a habit of pushing the boundaries to the extent that they inevitably fail and expire in a lab experiment.