Best Models for Eidolons in Fiction / Movies

[BretI]

The Guyver for a synthesist.

[Luthorne]

Myth and Folklore

Aladdin, of course. Despite being a creeper, he's definitely iconic...and you're probably more likely to be able to play a summoner than get a ring of djinni calling or an efreeti bottle, if you want that to be your character's theme. Just don't use your eidolon to kidnap your stalker crush. Unless you're in an evil game, I guess.

Journey to the West, with Xuanzang and Sun Wukong, is also an interesting possible take on a summoner, though you could go with Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, or Yulong if you prefer.

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. You would have to be high level to have an eidolon this big, of course...not to mention using aspect to make yourself large enough.

The Spirit in the Candle, an old Scandinavian folk tale about a soldier who gets a magical candle that can summon an iron man to do his bidding.

The Tinderbox, a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen based on The Spirit in the Candle and Aladdin, except that he gains a Tinderbox that when lit conjures three magical dogs. Seriously, though, what is up with people pulling a Bowser and it being okay? Different times, more sexism/classism, I suppose.

Tulpas are a concept from Indian Buddhism, though less of a specific tale and more of a concept, being a magical or psychic construct created through spiritual and/or mental discipline. I've often thought this would be a fine premise for a Wisdom-based summoner archetype, but it works well for a regular summoner too.

Books

In Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic and Guards! Guards!, draconis nobilis (unlike draconis vulgaris) are dragons that exist in a parasite universe and have to be brought into existence via imagination and magic.

In the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, spirits come from a plane where they have no distinct form or identity, but have one forced upon them by the magicians who conjure and bind them.

In Timothy Zahn's Dragonback series, the protagonist winds up as the host for an extradimensional draconic alien...who can only survive without a host for six hours. Thus he exists either in a two-dimensional state on the protagonist - resembling a huge and rather impressive dragon tattoo - or slides off into the three-dimensional form of a skilled alien warrior.

I believe this was mentioned already, but in David Eddings' Belgariad/Mallorean books, demon summoning involves binding the demon into a form of your choosing, which grants the summoner control over the demon...and if your concentration slips, the demon is liable to assume its own form, gaining freedom, and usually starting by eating its summoner, making demonology a fairly dangerous practice.

Comics and Manga

Hellsing is certainly a possible choice of inspiration, the protagonist, Alucard, being a powerful monster under the control of his human commander, Integra Hellsing. Of course, like many of these examples, it would be hard to make an eidolon capable of the same feats as Alucard, but it certainly works as an example, particularly since Ultimate Campaign mentions eidolons being passed down through summoner families.

Ushio and Tora is another possible inspiration, the protagonist using a magical spear that shaves away his soul as he fights monsters alongside a powerful tiger-like monster named Tora.

Natsume's Book of Friends features a spiritually powerful protagonist - the titular Natsume - who is protected by a powerful monster named Madara, who also teaches him magic on occasion, in exchange for getting the Book of Friends after Natsume dies. Normally, Madara takes the form of an animate cat statue, though most people simply think he is an odd-looking cat.

Devilman would certainly work as inspiration for a synthesist summoner, the protagonist having utilized the power of hippies and rock and roll to attract demons (for as we all know, hippies and rock and roll are the perfect bait for demons), one of which attempted to possess him, but he managed to come out on top, being able to transform into a powerful demon to combat other demons.

Similarly, Etrigan from DC Comics could also be inspiration for a synthesist summoner willing to roleplay a second personality.

Black Butler, or Kuroshitsuji, is also a possible inspiration for a summoner, the young protagonist having entered into a pact with a powerful demon to serve him in exchange for being allowed to eat his soul in the future.

Fullmetal Alchemist could also serve as fuel, given that the protagonist saves his brother's life by sealing his soul into a suit of armor, and with some alterations, this seems like a great backstory for a summoner and their eidolon; Ultimate Campaign also suggested something similar, an attempt at raising a loved one gone wrong.

In the manhwa Witch Hunter, the protagonist has a pumpkin doll who uses two magical blades to fight along with him in battle, backing up his magical gunslinging skills.

Conversely, Neuro from Neuro: Supernatural Detective could be an interesting alternate take, where the eidolon is the dominant partner, paired with a summoner who fears to go against their own dominating eidolon, who takes the lead in everything while still providing for and protecting the summoner...and perhaps pretending to be nothing but a loyal minion to their great master.

Video Games

As several people have already said, the Shin Megami Tensei and related Persona series are both excellent sources for summoners and synthesist summoners. Digital Devil Saga involves the protagonists transforming into demon forms, while most other Shin Megami Tensei series involve summoning various monsters, though many of them are only summoned long enough to perform an attack, though the Raidou Kuzunoha games involve the protagonist fighting alongside them. Meanwhile, the Persona series involves characters who call upon an aspect of themselves to fight, and in the more recent games (Persona 3 and 4), people other than the protagonist have a relatively static persona that battles (unlike the protagonist and people in the previous games, who regularly swap out and change their personas), which works better for a summoner concept.

In Tales of Xillia, one of the characters who joins the party is Elize Lutus, a girl who has powerful magic and a talking doll named Teepo who aids her in combat, either boosting her magic or performing powerful physical attacks. Being rather shy, Teepo tends to do more talking than she does. It is also later revealed that:

Tales of Xillia Spoiler:

Teepo is actually just a tool used to boost her magic, and has no personality of his own, but acts on its owner's desires; thus, everything it says and does is actually Elize's subconscious acting through a proxy. She was unaware of this, believing Teepo to be a real individual who was her only friend...which certainly strikes me as an interesting concept for a summoner.

In the visual novel Fate/Stay Night, magi command artificial spirits imprinted with the souls of legendary heroes, who gain powers based on their legends. Given that eidolons tend to be better at being monsters than heroes, it would probably take some significant adaptation to pull off well, but the amorphous nature of the spirit prior to imprinting along with the potential flavor in creating the imprint of something or someone from ages past is certainly potentially interesting.

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom features a thief named Tepeu who manages to find and free the mythical Majin, a large creature known as Teotl, to destroy the darkness devouring a kingdom and filling it with shadowy monsters.

Film/Television

Princess Mononoke features San, a wild child raised by large intelligent wolves, their leader a wolf goddess, and San often fights on the back of one. This could be an interesting backstory for a wild summoner with a naturalistic eidolon; in particular, the spirit summoner archetype would be particularly apt for this concept, I think.

In a similar vein, Spirited Away could easily be adapted to be backstory to a summoner with a dragon eidolon...given his nature as a river dragon, spirit summoner would also work well!

Digimon is also quite appropriate, especially the season where the protagonist designs his own digimon before it comes to life...unlike Pokemon, which tends to focus on having a stable of monsters, Digimon tends to generally have a single person and a single monster as partners.

[Cevah]

How about "Forbidden Planet" and the Monster of the Id? It is summoned by the mad scientist whenever he needs it, and goes away when not required.

/cevah

[Koujow]

There was an anime I watched a while back called Shaman King. The main character could bind spirits to him and use their abilities and eventually do some crazy stuff with them. The Shamans from the show remind me of Syntherist Summoners, but their Eidolons are just humanoid in appearance. One of the Shamans even has an Eidolon that can change from a lizard to a green skinned samurai.

[Subparhiggins]

Yuna from Final Fantasy X, and pretty much any Aeon.

Seriously I've been wanting to play a tabletop class like Summoner ever since I first saw the cutscene where Valefor is summoned for the first time.

[The Indescribable]

Artemis Moonstar wrote:

The Indescribable wrote:

Artemis Moonstar wrote:

The Indescribable wrote:

I might as well put this out here since I thought of doing it with the summoner, MINIONS!

Then I might as well respond with this.

MAOR MINIONS!

Don't care who ya are, those guys are definitely eidolon material... BANANA!

MOAR!

Not quite 'minions', but still just the right combination of invulnerable and expendable that make them perfect...

Those guys are TOTALLY minions.

Spoiler:

At least until 23 dies and 21 takes a level in badass

[ngc7293]

Dr Who's Cybermen "DELETE! DELETE! ..." or Daleks "E X T E R M I N A T E!!!"

Friend is currently using Iron Giant.

[Java Man]

The Paladin from Terrry Brook's Landover books is a great synthesist eidolon.

[Wiggz]

Falcore the Luck Dragon?

[ibayboy]

How bout Ironman and his armor, synthesist summoner maybe?

[Lord Foul II]

I say that fin from adventure time is a level ~7 gestalt paladin/summoner ("I'm super good!")
He convinced the GM to allow him to stack his mount and eldilon, and then he took leadership giving his eldilon bard levels

[Imbicatus]

ibayboy wrote:

How bout Ironman and his armor, synthesist summoner maybe?

Eddie Brock/Venom or Carnage work better. The symbiotes are physical beings, but they can hide in their host's blood

[robert best 549]

bio booster armor guyver = Synth Summoner
Escaflowne
Alucards hellhound Baskerville.
Deathtrap Gaige's mechanical buddy

[David knott 242]

I always pictured Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie as an eidolon. The only problem with this example is that Jeannie is a spellcaster and her master isn't. In fact, that seems to be a common problem with any sort of magical pet that could be represented by an eidolon.

One of these days I need to put together a summoner archetype where it is the eidolon and not the summoner who casts the spells.

[Christopher Dudley]

Imbicatus wrote:

ibayboy wrote:

How bout Ironman and his armor, synthesist summoner maybe?

Eddie Brock/Venom or Carnage work better. The symbiotes are physical beings, but they can hide in their host's blood

Lots of alternate-form superheroes can qualify for the Synthesist type. The Hulk and Captain Marvel (the Shazam one, not the Kree captain) come to mind first, but I'm sure there's hundreds.

Rick Jones was a summoner who changed his Eidolon many times over his career (sidekicking to numerous other heroes). In fact, he wore the OTHER Captain Marvel's wrist bands for a while and swapped places with him in and out of another dimension. That's kind of like a summoning ritual.

And outside of comic books, how about Harvey?

Anyone remember Davey & Goliath?

[Cevah]

Christopher Dudley wrote:

Imbicatus wrote:

ibayboy wrote:

How bout Ironman and his armor, synthesist summoner maybe?

Eddie Brock/Venom or Carnage work better. The symbiotes are physical beings, but they can hide in their host's blood

Lots of alternate-form superheroes can qualify for the Synthesist type. The Hulk and Captain Marvel (the Shazam one, not the Kree captain) come to mind first, but I'm sure there's hundreds.

Rick Jones was a summoner who changed his Eidolon many times over his career (sidekicking to numerous other heroes). In fact, he wore the OTHER Captain Marvel's wrist bands for a while and swapped places with him in and out of another dimension. That's kind of like a summoning ritual.

And outside of comic books, how about Harvey?

Anyone remember Davey & Goliath?

From what I understand of the Ironman comic, he does get a version of nanotech armor that resides within his bones when not in use. Definitely a synthesist summoner.

As for Davey & Goliath, I barely remember it.

What about Samson & Goliath? But how does a dog change into a cat? Something wrong there. :-)

/cevah

[Durngrun Stonebreaker]

Broodmaster Little Bo Peep?

[Vod Canockers]

The game Monsters & Other Childish Things is the ultimate in Eidelon technology.

[Dilvias]

Johnny Thunder!

[hgsolo]

Lord Mhoram wrote:

Furies have been mentioned, but the Denarians from Harry Dresden are perfect Synthesists - outer planer beings that the human can call upon; they have a physical manifestation that changes how they look and grants all sorts of extra abilities.

Fetchling shadow caller Nicodemus.

[Ambrosia Slaad]

Sir Simon Milligan and Hecubus?

[Silent Saturn]

Dr. Victor Frankenstein had quite an impressive eidolon, if I recall. A pity summoners can only have one eidolon at a time. A pity for the doctor's eidolon, that is. Though he certainly made it a pity for the doctor as well, didn't he?

[Imbicatus]

Silent Saturn wrote:

Dr. Victor Frankenstein had quite an impressive eidolon, if I recall. A pity summoners can only have one eidolon at a time. A pity for the doctor's eidolon, that is. Though he certainly made it a pity for the doctor as well, didn't he?

The Dr crafted a Flesh Golem, he didn't summon an ediolon. And of course, Herbert West was an alchemist.

[CrackedOzy]

Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:

The Indescribable wrote:

Bandw2 wrote:

really? no His Dark Materials references?

See, I just thought of that before I refreshed this page. Daemons!

Nah. Daemons are pretty much straight up Familiars, not Eidolons.

Familiars are real animals that a spellcaster chooses to bond with. Daemons are part of your own soul manifested, which sounds a lot more like an Eidolon to me.

[mad_mac_hl]

A summoner in one of my games has created a Thanator from Avatar - that's the large black 6 legged cat-like beast that appears near the end of the film.

Said summoner is currently level 8 and the eidolon version is currently medium sized, soon to be upgraded to large. That terrifies me - it already kills most things in its path :s

[Gerhadt]

Subparhiggins wrote:

Yuna from Final Fantasy X, and pretty much any Aeon.

Seriously I've been wanting to play a tabletop class like Summoner ever since I first saw the cutscene where Valefor is summoned for the first time.

I've got an Ixion based Eidolon for one of my sheets somewhere here. Gestlat Summoner/Favoured Soul for Yuna's unplanned white magic, boom.

[Silent Saturn]

Imbicatus wrote:

Silent Saturn wrote:

Dr. Victor Frankenstein had quite an impressive eidolon, if I recall. A pity summoners can only have one eidolon at a time. A pity for the doctor's eidolon, that is. Though he certainly made it a pity for the doctor as well, didn't he?

The Dr crafted a Flesh Golem, he didn't summon an ediolon. And of course, Herbert West was an alchemist.

Okay, fine, maybe you'd rather play Buzz Conroy the Summoner and his eidolon, Frankenstein Jr.?

[ngc7293]

In the early Quasar comics from the 90's, he frequently 'armored up'. It was all yellow like everything he made. He had some interesting enemies. One that could pull weapons from its black body would have made an interesting Eidolon.

[Here4daFreeSwag]

While Summoners couldn't normally summon Kaiju, if they could do so...

[Nermal2097]

Fetchling shadowcaller whose shadow/eidolon is Slenderman

[Thymus Vulgaris]

CrackedOzy wrote:

Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:

The Indescribable wrote:

Bandw2 wrote:

really? no His Dark Materials references?

See, I just thought of that before I refreshed this page. Daemons!

Nah. Daemons are pretty much straight up Familiars, not Eidolons.

Familiars are real animals that a spellcaster chooses to bond with. Daemons are part of your own soul manifested, which sounds a lot more like an Eidolon to me.

Seems to me like a dæmon would more likely be a shaman's spirit animal.

Oh, all you poor souls who don't have the right letters on your keyboards to actually write dæmon :)

[The Indescribable]

Thymus Vulgaris wrote:

CrackedOzy wrote:

Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:

The Indescribable wrote:

Bandw2 wrote:

really? no His Dark Materials references?

See, I just thought of that before I refreshed this page. Daemons!

Nah. Daemons are pretty much straight up Familiars, not Eidolons.

Familiars are real animals that a spellcaster chooses to bond with. Daemons are part of your own soul manifested, which sounds a lot more like an Eidolon to me.

Seems to me like a dæmon would more likely be a shaman's spirit animal.

Oh, all you poor souls who don't have the right letters on your keyboards to actually write dæmon :)

*flips you off for having the right letters*

[KahnyaGnorc]

I'd say Iron Man is more an Aegis than a Synthesist Summoner.

[Just a Mort]

Nermal2097 wrote:

Fetchling shadowcaller whose shadow/eidolon is Slenderman

Someone in my region made a half elf summoner(no fetchling boon) withan eidolon named slenderman, and it has this disconcerting trait of suddenly popping out of no where and eviscerating people...

I always thought claymores were synthesists.

[Silent Saturn]

I just finished reading a book called NOS4A2 (I recommend it highly) that makes me think it would be quite interesting to have a 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith as your eidolon. You'd need the mount evolution to actually ride in it, and it'd probably only have a single slam attack, but it'd be pretty cool.

Now I sort of wish there was a Summoner archetype where your eidolon is a vehicle...

[Cevah]

Check out The Wraith. The Interceptor can be the eidolon of a synthesist. Without it he looks like a normal guy. With it, he is transformed into something else.

/cevah

[Torquar]

Lizardman Summoner Godzooky and his eidolon Godzilla ;-).

[Vod Canockers]

Automan

Automan opening

[RJGrady]

Captain Marvel/Shazam (synthesist summoner)
The video game, Summoner
The Dunwich Horror as the Whateley's family eidolon

[Wiggz]

The Darkness from the Top Cow comic book, especially for a Broodmaster.

[Laiho Vanallo]

For synthesis summoner: BioBoosted armor Guyver.

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

Kamui probably make pretty good eidolons for synthesists

[Daniel Thrace]

Lucy Pevensie and Tumnus

I was going to throw in Aslan, but he isn't really anyone's companion.

[The Indescribable]

Daniel Thrace wrote:

Lucy Pevensie and Tumnus

Took me a second to place this, the last name threw me.

[JuanAdriel]

The Day the Earth Stood Still. Both in the classic and in the remake, the big bad monster is like a protective Eidolon.

[Natan Linggod 327]

It's not from a movie but the Ogdru Hem and the horrific monsters from the BPRD /Hellboy comics make great visuals for eidolons.