Silence

What you have written is all essentially correct. I’m not sure whether the Voiceless Ones were actually intended to be mind-flayers in the D&D 3.0 version of Arcanis, but if I remember correctly by the time the conversion was made to 3.5 they were their own creature. There are certainly similarities, so it is possible that illithid were an inspiration for the VO. The PCs never encountered VO during the 3.0 campaign, so it is a moot point.

The VO are preternaturally psionic, which is explained (up to a certain point) in the PCI book Psionics Unbound, which was written for D&D 3.5. It is (was?) markedly different than regular psionics. The main differences under the 3.5 rules were:

1. Preternatural psionics ignored the first 10 points of Spell Resistance a creature possessed, but Power Resistance worked normally.
2. Preternatural psionics could not be detected by non-psionic forms of magic (for instance arcane or divine spell casters using detect magic). Similarly, preternatural psionics could not be used to detect non-psionic magic.
3. Preternatural psionics continued to function normally in areas of dead magic/antimagic. Areas that specifically suppress psionics also affects Preternatural psionics. Preternatural casters can suppress psionics, but not non-psionic magic.

The Silence is the name for the forces of Entropy. It has been suggested that this was what Larissa saw when she looked into the future, which caused her to go insane and become hedonistic. By and large Henry has maintained a lot of mystery surrounding the Silence. We know that the VO work for the Silence, but if I remember correctly, there is more to the Silence than just the VO.

The VO did pop up during a few combats in the old campaign, and at that point I believe most PCs were around 18th level. Like any species, there are high level and low level versions. One VO is far less dangerous than dozens or hundreds of them. There was a VO at this year’s BI, which was imprisoned in the cell block in Tultipet. While I wasn’t at that table, my understanding is that it didn’t get involved in the combat. When the PCs were rescued all of the cells had to be opened simultaneously, which released the VO. Don’t worry, I’m sure that won’t come back to bite us in the ass later

It is known that preternatural psionics can be granted to creatures. It was possible through the Mist Wanderer class for Mourners in Silence to gain preternatural psionic abilities. I don’t know that it was ever explained what the exact process was, but any race could become preternaturally psionic (not just vals).

At the end of the day, it is possible that some of this is no longer accurate, as there were certain changes in the transition from D&D to the current system. Nonetheless, if you can get your hands on a copy of Psionics Unbound, it is a good read.

Fun fact, the val’Virdan Nierites of Canceri have a tradition of Silence Hunters…in fact, one of the Nierite cities, The Vrain, is an underground complex of caves which were once a VO stronghold.

Additional Data:

The Bestiary Vol 1 expands somewhat on our knowledge of the Silence, specifically their unique psionic tradition: The Entropy Source. This arcanum source appears to use Arcanum (Meditation) as its casting skill, and presumably also uses either Insight or Charisma. It has the unique Tradition known as “Dissolution”, which includes some of the Voiceless One’s most iconic spells/abilities (ie: Mental Anguish).

The Silence makes use of many minions, from Humans to animals to crystalline constructs. The Voiceless Ones, however, appear to be the top of the food chain among ‘Servants of the Silence’ on Onara. That said, they are the SERVANTS of the Silence, and not the Silence itself. There was some talk that Umor/The Other/the 13th/Franklin is the real silence, and His servants seek to free him from his bounds, but the data to support that theory is pretty bare at present. The most direct evidence that comes to mind a single scene from the short story “The Storm” which followed the events of an attempt to breach the Lost Citadel of Nier in the 3.5 story.

No one IC or OOC really knows 100% if there even is a “Silence,” or what it wants. Smart money says there is and it wants the universe to wind down. But facts as opposed to opinions are really few and far between. There is good reason to believe that the PoM, Kas/Yig and the Song of Pyrric (what ever that is) oppose it. Vals might have the potential for Psionics just to be able to fight it.

The others have given a good summary about what we know of the alleged servants of silence. They tend to linger in the background nudging events.

The Citadel of Silence was once the Citadel of Nier. Just as the Nierite’s took Vrain away from the VO it is assumed the VO took the Citadel Away from the Nierites. Whatever’s still in there is nasty stuff. People who go there don’t return. Leonydas valVirdan may be trapped there (aka the Sword of the Heavens). A special mission went there in the last campaign looking for Leo. They got captured and imprisoned with a valinor … The Reluctance of Hurrian. Which they persuaded to sacrifice itself to nuke the Citadel and release the Wrath of Hurrian (which has certain after effects felt in Almeric at he moment). You’d think that would leave a smoking crater … but it’s still impossible to go there and come back so something is left and it’s still nasty.

(Edit: given the prophesies there is a good chance PCs will need to go there).

. . . You know you’re only making my Primary want to do it even more, right?

There was an expedition into the Citadel of Silence years ago. Didn’t end well for our (7?) characters. Hell, the Elorii didn’t live long enough to make it inside.

A couple other point of interest from the 3.5 (d20) campaign. One of the early adventures takes you to what looks to be another plane. While there you can see the the armies of a fallen valinor fighting against oblivion. And if you had some skill you could tell that they were not winning. (I believe that this adventure is part of one of PCI’s currently available print products, so I’ll avoid any spoilers, but there were items in that locale that indicate that the fight was against entropy/the silence.)

Second point is in regards to the silence granting psionics. In another d20 adventure PCs could acquire an “amulet” that was worn by one of the bad guys. Wearing the amulet gave you, IIRC, a feeling of being watched. But it also gave some boon which I don’t entirely remember. Follow-up adventures clearly allowed you to “improve” upon the powers. It was widely assumed that the amulets were conduits of power from the silence. You scratch their backs and they scratch yours. In the end, PCs could potentially gain access to preternatural psionic abilities. So there is precedent for (what we assume to be) the silence granting preternatural psionic abilities.

As far as the silence and voiceless ones go, while VOs are certainly powerful adversaries, they tend to be effective puppet masters as well. It seems pretty safe to assume that they have their fingers in many of mankind’s pies at the moment.

Scott