Talk:Familiar
Putting this here for posterity.
http://www.play.net/forums/messages.asp?forum=20&category=35&topic=8&message=7791
>>Familiars are extraplanar creatures that take animal forms. They aren't actually animals though.
Correct. The spirits of creatures from the Plane of Aether are yanked from their natural habitat (whatever that may be) and dragged into the Plane of Abiding through a conduit formed by the summoner and a talisman.
Bewildered, befuddled, and thoroughly confused, they find themselves in a physical form shaped by the talisman that summoned them.
Alternately, a warrior mage pleas urgently for assistance and a spirit from the Plane of Aether deigns to respond, thinking of this squishy being as a sort of a pet to be protected and/or researched.
The spirit's only physical link with the Plane of Abiding is the talisman, which provides a template that the familiar uses to create its body.
Lore isn't precisely clear on the actual relationship between summoner and summoned, but there are a few consistent themes. Aside from the origin of the familiar and its physical form, there is the bit about familiars having no concept of what is considered 'normal' behavior for the animal that they supposedly represent.
In theory they're just winging it most of the time, and it's a sign of their intelligence (or instinct, depending on how you spin it) that they are able to mimic their physical counterparts so well. Until they start eating random foraged items, of course, or appearing in startling shades of blue and pink.
- GM Wythor