Living Spells
Living Spells are a kind of monster which emerged from the Eberron setting of Dungeons & Dragons. Born as a result of the Day of Mourning, Living Spells are... well, the name kind of gives it away, don't it? They're self-perpetuating spells, which exist only to continually cast themselves over and over again. Since most of these are destructive battle spells... well, that basically means killing shit.
3rd edition has rules for creating custom living spells by applying a template to a spell or multiple spells in the same way that you would modify a monster by adding a template. These living spells are always classified as an Oozes.
4th edition established in Dragon Magazine #419 that there are actually some living spells that have evolved beyond this state and achieved full-fledged sapience, which are now divided into groups as they try to figure out what they actually want to do now that they're alive.
4e also established the existence of Apocalypse Spells, which are basically Living Spells created when god-tier ultra-magic gets kind of hinky. Like, the Rain of Colorless Fire spawning its own unique brand of elementals kind of hinky.
A single living spell appears in the 5th edition book Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Then three more show up in Eberron: Rising from the Last War, and even more are in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. They are now classified as constructs instead of oozes, and the template can only be applied to conjuration and evocation spells that deal damage.
Endless Spells
Endless Spells are essentially Age of Sigmar's attempt at making Living Spells, being the end result of certain spells being so powerful that they've essentially gained a crude form of sentience. Some view the existence of Endless Spells as a sort of liminal state between a deliberately cast spell and the very magic that composes the mortal realms, though they aren't stuck to merely their native realms, especially in the cases where Endless Spells are made by a specific army instead of the realm they live in.
These spells first emerged as an effect of the Necroquake, a major plot event where Death God and Asshole Supreme Nagash attempted to create a super-spell that would wipe out all life in the mortal realms, only for sneaky rodents to sabotage the whole thing and overload the realms with all sorts of magic - not only raising the ghostly undead to serve their master's whims, but also feeding some spells so much arcane energy that they effectively became self-sustaining. While most Endless Spells are the result of someone pouring too much power into a spell until it goes haywire, some wizards do have the ability to summon an Endless Spell and bind it to their will, restraining it from lashing out against its owner. However, this is a very delicate balancing act as the willpower needed to control such massive magic is taxing on the wizard, usually meaning any shock will result in the wizard losing control and the spell going wild.
Similar in form if not in origin are the Judgements, which are essentially Living Spells made by diving power rather than wild magic. That said, they pretty much behave the same and only exist for the Blades of Khorne and Fyreslayers, two armies who never had wizards to begin with.
- Aethervoid Pendulum - A giant floating pendulum that swings back and forth, cleaving through anything that comes across it without slowing even a bit. Seems to be attracted to large presences of realmstone.
- Balewind Vortex - Better known as the Arcane Fulcrums of Storm of Magic, these are giant magical tornadoes with a floating platform that wizards can ride to enhance their casting power while also gaining the elevation to avoid most attacks.
- Chronomantic Cogs - A giant intermeshing network of gears capable of altering the very flow of time.
- Burning Head - A giant meteor-sized skull made of fire.
- Emerald Lifeswarm - A massive swarm of magical insects that can rejuvenate the injured and resurrect the dead.
- Geminids of Ul-Ghyish - A pair of floating crystals, one powered by light and the other powered by darkness. Ironically, this dual nature is also what can undo it since each half will always seek to overwhelm the greatest source of its opposite.
- Horrorghast - A ghost that shows victims the thing they fear the most to scare them to death - in most cases, it's the great bonedaddy himself.
- Lauchon the Soulseeker - Magic bound to the fragment of a lost god, this ferryman can carry wizards to wherever you wish, but it requires an appropriate sacrifice as fare.
- Malevolent Maelstrom - A vortex of magic that devours all ambient magic and the souls of the dead until it explodes in fantastic fashion.
- Prismatic Palisade - A wall of crystals that emit such a bright light that it can blinds those who look at it too closely.
- Purple Sun of Shyish - The iconic Purple Sun of Xereus, returning again to eat anything in its path.
- Quicksilver Swords - A swarm of magical swords that dart from place to place, chopping and stabbing whatever they come across.
- Ravenak's Gnashing Jaws - A colossal pair of jaws that chomps at anything they see.
- Shards of Valagharr - A network of magically-bound blackstone shards that siphons the life of anyone inside them.
- Soulscream Bridge - What happens when you make a bridge out of gore, bones and magic. Can teleport passengers from one end to another.
- Soulsnare Shackles - Floating shackles that trap victims where they stand and drag them away to their base in Shyish.
- Suffocating Gravetide - What happens when the souls of the dead lash out en masse, seeking to tear apart anything they can grab.
- Umbral Spellportal - A pair of magical gates that can redirect spells from one end to another.
Gallery
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Glitterfire
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