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This is the first I’ve heard of Nerras, though it’s possible they originated in a previous edition. If they did, their lore was completely different.

The Lore

Many ages ago, a sect of mortal invokers called the Sect of Seventy came to believe that the gods had grown too detached from the middle world in the aftermath of the Dawn War. They had become incapable of defending it from the many threats and hazards that lingered from those terrible battles.

The Sect of Seventy decided to claim for themselves the role of protectors of the middle world, and set about building a grand work that would allow them to keep watch over all reality. They used their divine magic to build an astral dominion they named The Constellation of Eyes. Located far from all the other known dominions, it consisted of a central reflective crystal sphere around which orbited uncountable mirrors that reflected different parts of the universe and could be used as portals to reach those places.

In other words, the Constellation is the ultimate panopticon, capable of maintaining surveillance over the entire universe and allowing its owners to instantly deploy to places of interest. The Sect intended it to be the perfect “superhero base” from which they would keep watch over reality, but other interested parties had far more nefarious uses in mind.

The Sect was unknowingly infiltrated by a small group of priests of Asmodeus, who intended to seize it for themselves and use it to open a permanent portal to the Nine Hells that would give devils free access to the rest of the multiverse. The invokers only managed to discover this after the final ritual had already began. The ensuing battle was every bit as epic as you imagine, and the resulting flare of divine energy from both sides was strong enough for the other gods to notice and send their angels to investigate.

The angels would have been a great help, but they arrived too late. As far as they were able to determine, the invokers realized they were losing the battle, and enacted a desperate ritual of their own that would bring terrible ruin upon all that were in the Constellation of Eyes. The ritual worked. It turned both the invokers and the Asmodean priests into the creatures now known as Nerras.

These mirrored crystaline humanoids still dwell in the Constellation of Eyes. With no apparent memory of their previous lives, they spent the following eons acting as dispassionate observers of the multiverse. Their observations are recorded in specially constructed glass tablets that can only be read from a slanted angle, and their collected store of information is one of the greatest in existence.

Relatively recently, though, the nerras have changed their behavior and become more proactive. They’ve taken to crossing their mirror portals and kidnapping certain powerful and influential individuals. Back at the Constellation, the nerras use their magic to create a perfect duplicate of the subject, with a diametrically opposite moral outlook. Then they send both back home. This predictably causes a lot of problems.

Nerras target both terrible villains and virtuous heroes in equal measure. Those scholars aware of their history theorize that ancient memories of the nerras’ former lives are resurfacing and causing divisions among them, and that their new activities are an experiment to see which between good and evil is stronger.

Nerras also travel to places they consider interesting to monitor things from up close, and sometime they interfere in local events for inscrutable reasons. Sometimes their interference ends up causing wars and disasters, some times they prevent them.

Nerras despise demons, devils, and creatures of the Far Realm, but they ally with other creatures when their goals happen to align. Even their occasional allies have little insight on their true motives, which they keep to themselves.

The Numbers

Nerra are Medium Immortal Humanoids, with Speed 6 and human-standard senses. Their signature ability is Mirror Step, an at-will move action that allows them to teleport 5 squares to a space adjacent to a mirror or to another nerra. This means a group of nerras finds it very easy to maintain a cohesive formation, and that their preferred battlegrounds have lots of mirrors that they can use for extra mobility. All of the ones we see here are Unaligned, and they speak Supernal.

All of their other abilities vary per stat block, though they all tend to share a strong “mirror” theme. Their levels cover the mid-to-late Paragon tier.

Varoot Nerra

Varoots are elite scouts and spies. They’re the first to venture forth from the Constellation of Eyes to lay the groundwork for a nerra expedition. Their ability to copy the appearances of others makes them great infiltrators.

Varoot Nerras are Level 16 Lurkers with the Shapechanger keyword and 116 HP. Their main weapon is a shard blade similar to a longsword. Their Reflection Theft ability allows them to perfectly duplicate an enemy within 10 squares of it. The effect lasts until the end of the encounter, or until the varoot attacks. If the varoot is adjacent to the copying enemy, it gets to roll a save against any melee or ranged attack that targets it, with a success forcing the attack to target the copied enemy instead. It also gains a +2 bonus to attack and a +5 bonus to damage against the copied enemy.

Its last ability aside from Mirror Step is Mirrored Grasp, a minor-action power that lets the nerra teleport an unattended object of up to 20 pounds / 10kg that’s within 10 squares and line of sight to its hand.

In combat, the Varoot does it’s Lurker routine by “hiding” next to a PC it’s copying, attacking the copied PC with a damage bonus, and teleporting away using Mirror Step so it can transform and try again.

There’s no way to pierce the varoot’s disguise with a skill check, at least in the ability’s combat form. It would make sense to rule that outside of combat this works like a doppelganger’s transformation: it lasts a long time and can be contested with Insight vs. the nerra’s Bluff of +20.

Meerak Nerra

Meeraks are the rank and file of a Nerra strike force. They charge into the enemy to cut it up with their spiked, jagged bodies, softening them up for the more powerful individuals that always follow close behind them.

Meeraks are Level 18 Minion Soldiers. Their Mirror Slash basic attacks mark on a hit, and their Mirror Defense ability is an interrupt that triggers when they’re hit by a melee attack and deals 10 damage to a different enemy within 10 squares. The meerak is still going to die from the hit, but not before reflecting some damage to a PC.

Kalareem Nerra

Kalareems are elite knights among the nerra. Unlike a lot of their crystalline relatives, they look like they’re made out of mirror-smooth liquid metal. This makes them hard to hurt, and they can also briefly solidify parts of their bodies to launch a spray of deadly metal shards.

Kalareem Nerras are Level 19 Soldiers with 175 HP. Their liquid metal construction doesn’t translate to specific abilities but it’s a nice in-character explanation for the high defenses and HP a level 19 Soldier has. Their basic attack is a Shard Blade that damages and marks on a hit, as do the Shard Blasts they can fire at-will in a Close Burst 3 pattern.

Aside from the standard nerra Mirror Step, they also have two other mirror-themed abilities that make them good bodyguards. Mirror Image is an interrupt that triggers when a marked enemy makes a melee or ranged attack that doesn’t include the nerra as a target. It makes the enemy target the nerra instead. Mirror Defense is another interrupt that triggers when the kalareem is hit by a melee attack. The creature can then make an attack against the Will of the triggering enemy, which on a hit deals the same damage inflicted by the triggering attack. This is an interrupt, so the attacker gets damaged before the nerra, and if they get reduced to 0 HP the kalareem wouldn’t suffer the damage.

Sillit Nerra

Sillits are nerra spellcasters, who often act as field agents and mystically-oriented scouts. Like other spellcasting monsters, out of combat they should have access to whatever rituals are required by the story. In combat, they use mirror-themed spells and specialize in forcibly teleporting enemies.

Sillits are Level 19 Controllers with 181 HP. Even their basic attack is a Mirror Portal that targets Will, and on a hit damages and teleports the target adjacent to one of the sillit’s allies within 10 squares. Their basic ranged attack is Warped Image, which targets Fortitude and on a hit damages and teleports the target 3 squares.

Their special attack is Captured Image (recharge 5+), a ranged power that targets Will. On a hit it removes the target from play (save ends), trapping it within the mirrors that make up the sillit’s body. While the target is captured, it takes 20 damage whenever the sillit is damaged. The effect ends when the target successfully saves, or when the sillit is reduced to 0 HP. When this happens the target appears on a square of the sillit’s choice within 5 squares of the sillit itself. Yes, it’s entirely possible that a sillit who gets lucky with its recharge rolls will manage to capture multiple targets at the same time.

Sillits have the standard Mirror Step power, and the same Mirrored Grasp power of the Varoots.

Judging from their powers, Sillits love to fight in maps containing plenty of hazardous terrain, and accompanied by bruiser allies. They’ll use Captured Image as soon and as often as they can, and then move to the front lines to dare PCs to attack them. Inconveniently strong melee PCs can be teleported next to the bruisers with Mirror Portal, and Warped Image is good for disrupting the remaining PCs if no other opportunities arise. Hazardous terrain on the battlefield makes those forced teleports more dangerous.

Delphar Nerra

Delphars are the officers and commanders of nerra forces. They’re similar to kalareems in their training, but they’re much larger and their mere presence has bolstering effects on the abilities of their allies.

Unlike other nerra, delphars are Large and have Speed 8. They’re Level 20 Soldiers with 187 HP and the Leader tag. They project a Mirrored Rampart aura (5) that extends the range of other nerras’ Mirror Step to 10. They fight with a Shard Blade and Shard Blasts that have the same effects as those of kalareems, with slightly higher numbers.

They have a different way of punishing marked enemies, though: Mirrored Grasp triggers when a marked enemy within 10 squares ignores the mark, and teleports the enemy adjacent to the delphar.

Teltarym Nerra

You would expect the strongest monster in the entry to be some sort of dread overlord, but we’re talking about topsy-turvy mirror people here. Teltarym are the nerra’s manual laborers, joining the fight either because they must defend themselves or because they were ordered to. Despite not being formal combatants they’re very strong and aggressive, charging in to smash enemies with their huge fists, and reflecting their own wounds back at their attackers.

Teltarym are Level 21 Brutes with 237 HP. Like delphars, they’re Large and have Speed 8. Their basic attack is a Hammer Fist that damages and pushes 1 square, and they can use it twice in the same action. Reflected Pain is a reaction that triggers when they’re hit by a melee attack, and which inflicts half the damage they suffered to the attacker. This recharges when they’re first bloodied. Their last ability is Mirror Step, so like most brutes they’re fairly simple to run.

These are the perfect bruiser allies for Sillits!

Final Impressions

I like the lore of the nerra quite a lot. It’s nice and epic and introduces a new and interesting location on the Astral Sea. I also like how they’re depicted as enigmatic instead of evil. A campaign against nerra is one where violence might be necessary to drive them off, but where true victory can only be achieved through unraveling their mysteries.

Mechanics wise it seems varoots are a bit too low level to hang out with their nerra buddies, so you’re going to meet them alone at the start of a nerra-focused story arc. They might be accompanied by local agents or mecernaries. The others are all of a level range where you can use them to build all-nerra encounter groups.