Manual of the Planes

4pursuit of order is particularly beneficial in some areas.Wizards, for example, find that modrons make amazinglyeffective librarians, and some merchants appreciatehaving them as bookkeepers.On rare occasions, nonmodrons can hire modrons forparticular tasks. The process is never simple, since thepotential employee can never make that decisionitself—all requests are subject to approval by superiors.Usually the request has to pass through several castesbefore an answer is forthcoming.Those who employ modrons must be constantly onguard against the creatures’ overzealousness. Sometimesa modron’s understanding of order, which is fardeeper than that of most other beings, defies humancomprehension. For example, a modron might decideto arrange all the books in one library by subject, inanother by the first letter of the first word, and in yet athird by the page where the last diagram appears. Allthree of these approaches might somehow be vital tomaintaining the overall order, as defined by the modrons.Order, after all, does not necessarily need to beunderstandable.Modrons’ attitudes toward their employers andcoworkers can vary for no apparent reason. Sometimesthese creatures are helpful, and sometimes they’recruel—but they’re never entirely predictable in theirdealings with other races. No one except other modronscan read a modron’s expression or guess at its trueagenda. Thus, nobody with any sense really trusts one,even if it has been instructed to help. After all, it mighthave additional or competing orders from above, andit’s certainly not going to think twice about obeyingthose.ROGUE MODRONSOf course, every rule has its exception, and roguemodrons are the exceptions to the rule of orderlymodron society. Rogues are modrons who, for onereason or another, suddenly find that they cannotaccept the orders of their superiors, or that they havelost the concept of the orderly modron society. Modronswho spend long periods alone, or have many superiors,or who advance in Hit Dice (thus becoming differentthan others of their rank) are the ones mostlikely to “go rogue.” Naturally, the modrons have triedto cut down on the factors that lead to this outcome,but there’s an indefinable factor in operation that theycan’t isolate or identify.The most dangerous aspect of rogue modrons is thefact that they retain the power of command over lessermodrons. Though most rogues simply go off alone toexplore the individuality they’ve discovered, it’s notunheard of for one to gather lesser modrons about itand establish its own power base. This makeshift armythen goes forth to conquer, though for what purposeonly the rogue itself could explain.Because of the possibility that such a creature couldsubvert others and wreak havoc on the order of Regulus(and even Mechanus as a whole), rogues are consideredmenaces to modron society. The hierarchs pouralmost every resource they have into hunting themdown, bringing them to trial, and destroying them. Thisis a difficult process because it’s often hard to tell whena modron goes rogue. A modron who told others oflower ranks to disobey their superiors would surelyearn the designation of rogue, for this is tantamount toblasphemy in Regulus. But it is rare for even roguemodrons to do this because of their innate respect fororder.THE ARMIES OF THEMODRONSThe modrons maintain thirty-six great armies, each apowerful fighting force in its own right. One is stationedin each of the sixteen regions of Regulus, andeach secundus maintains two armies in addition to itsregional forces. Three armies are assigned to the tertians,to aid them with law enforcement and punishment.The remaining nine armies serve Primus directly.One of these acts as the official tower guard; the othereight are available as a reserve force for dispatch asneeded.Each army is commanded by a hexton and comprisesfour corps, each commanded by forty pentadrones inconstant telepathic contact with the hexton general.Every corps has two divisions (each led by twenty pentadrones),every division has four brigades (each led byten pentadrones), and every brigade has four regiments(each led by five pentadrones).The regiment is the standard tactical unit of themodron army. It consists of two battles (each led byfour quadrones), plus a squad of winged monodronemessengers and a special squad of twelve pentadrones.A battle comprises six regular companies of monodrones,two regular companies of duodrones, a specialcompany of tridrones, a squad of quadrones, andanother squad of messengers. A company consists of