Abdals

Also sometimes referred to as "Pillars". The Manual says:

This category of created being is independent of wizard status but still included in it due to the sharing of various functions and qualities across species and eschatological barriers. The sobriquet "pillars" refers to the immense supportive strength inherent in these creatures wherever they appear. The physical and spiritual structure of the Universe and its contents is strengthened against the assaults of evil by the Pillars' presence, and weakened by their loss. While they may occasionally also be wizards, abdals display no unusual aptitude for the Art: their value lies elsewhere. Their status comes from direct endowment by the One. Their power is derived strictly from the incorrupt nature of their personalities. Some abdals have unusual abilities of perception reaching into other universes, while still seeing the entire physical world as mirage. Some have sufficient control over their physical natures to change their bodies at will, without recourse to normal wizardry, or travel great distances, or appear in two places at the same time.

The Pillars are rarely recognized as such by their contemporaries. Should they become conscious of their own status as abdals, the realization itself renders them ineffective in their role, which is to channel the One's power without obstruction into the strengthening of the world. Their portion of that power is then lost to the Worlds, and with its loss, the abdal dies.

It will become immediately obvious that knowing an abdal personally involves unique challenges. Not in the relationship -- which is normally one of the great pleasures of the people who know the abdal -- but in keeping one's own reactions from tipping off the abdal to the fact that there is something unusual or special about him or her. Fortunately, this is normally not too much of a problem: not that abdals cannot be the self-examining kind of person, but they are usually much more focused on the well-being of the creatures around them and the world they jointly inhabit.

It would not be too far off the mark to describe abdals as saints, or at least as saintly. But their saintliness tends to be of an extremely engaged, involved and energetic kind -- as far removed as possible from the all-too-prevalent image of haloes, upturned eyes and a faint sense of vague sanctity. Even if they knew they were saints, abdals would be far too busy getting on with the business of having fun taking care of the world to worry about how holy they were. That assessment they would (wisely) leave to the One.

Beings similar to abdals, the Lamed Wufniks, are described in Talmudic legend. (AWAL)