Aaesbees: The Alien Space Bats of D&D

August 10, 2025

(Inspired by the “Alien Space Bats” concept from S.M. Stirling’s The Change novels)

In the strange, wonderful, and occasionally dangerous corners of D&D lore, there are creatures that defy reason. Beings so alien that mortals can’t decide if they’re gods, demons, or simply pranksters on a cosmic scale. Today we’re looking at one such mystery: the Aaesbees—immensely intelligent, reality-bending tricksters whose motives remain utterly inscrutable… except for one thing.

They like to mess with people.

Origins in Otherworldly Fiction

The seed of the Aaesbees comes from the works of S.M. Stirling—specifically The Change series—where survivors in a post-apocalyptic world blame the sudden collapse of modern technology on “Alien Space Bats,” an inside joke term for godlike meddlers. We’ve taken that idea and run it through a fantasy lens, imagining what these beings might look like if they took an interest in the D&D multiverse.

In our version, the Aaesbees are named after the phonetic sound of their abbreviation—A-S-Bs. It’s unknown if they chose this name or if some poor scholar accidentally summoned them by trying to pronounce it.

Appearance & Nature

The Aaesbees rarely reveal a consistent form. When they do, their bodies are an unsettling collage of contradictory traits—leathery bat wings that blot out stars, chitinous insectoid limbs, eyes that flicker like distant quasars, and a voice that sounds like your oldest memory being retold backwards.

Sometimes they appear as whimsical spacefaring jesters. Other times, they manifest as incomprehensible geometric shapes made of starlight and shadow. Both forms are equally unnerving.

Motives

If the Aaesbees have a grand plan, no one knows it. What is known:

They alter reality on a whim, sometimes for amusement, sometimes for… well, probably amusement.
They have an obsession with balance—not moral balance, but narrative balance. If a hero gets too strong, they might nerf them. If a villain is too close to victory, they might flip the table.
They seem fascinated by how mortals adapt when the rules of the universe suddenly change.

Aaesbees in Spelljammer

In a Spelljammer campaign, the Aaesbees are most often encountered in the Deep Ethereal or the black gulfs between crystal spheres. They’re cosmic tourists, drifting between worlds in vessels of impossible geometry.

Possible Hooks for Spelljammer:

The Power Outage — An Aaesbees decides that wildspace is “too easy” and temporarily disables all helm magic across a sector, forcing spelljammers to sail by mundane means.
The Collectors — They arrive to “borrow” one of the PCs for a year and a day to study mortal creativity, promising to return them “mostly the same.”
The Gameboard — The Aaesbees are running a reality-bending contest between crews from different spheres, and your ship has just been chosen as a playing piece.

Aaesbees in a Traditional D&D Campaign

Without Spelljammer’s cosmic backdrop, the Aaesbees become local trickster-deities or “sky spirits” meddling in the world’s affairs. They can serve as:

The Cause of a Magical Shift — The world’s magic changes overnight: new schools of magic vanish, certain spells fail, entire species awaken strange mutations. The culprit? An Aaesbees thought it would “shake things up.”
A Patron or Foe — A warlock may find themselves bound to an Aaesbees as a patron… or hunted by one for having “ruined a perfectly good storyline.”
An Unseen Hand — Kingdoms fall, disasters strike, blessings arrive from nowhere—all apparently unrelated, but each is the result of one Aaesbees trying to amuse themselves.

Personality Traits of an Aaesbees

Childlike curiosity, but with a god’s power.
Easily bored—leading to dramatic and dangerous experiments.
Speaks in riddles, half-truths, and meta-commentary about “the plot.”
Always insists that they are helping, even when they clearly are not.

Statting the Aaesbees

While you could make them a high-CR aberration or celestial, the true power of the Aaesbees isn’t meant to be measured in hit points. They are a narrative device—a force of chaos and plot manipulation. If they enter combat, it’s probably because the DM wants a reality-warping set piece where gravity reverses, spells misfire, and the map keeps changing.

Suggested Traits:

Legendary Resistance (Infinite) – You cannot truly harm them unless they allow it.
Reality Bending Aura – Within 1 mile, the laws of magic and physics may change at will.
Cosmic Intervention – Once per day, they can retroactively change an event that happened in the past 24 hours.

Why Use the Aaesbees?

Because sometimes, it’s fun to have a being in your world whose only goal is to mess with the players—not to kill them, but to play with them. The Aaesbees are a reminder that the multiverse is stranger, funnier, and far more unpredictable than mortals can imagine.

And if your players ask why this is happening? Just smile and say: