Proposal: Establish the major Evil forces at work in L4W

Fragsie

Explorer
According to the myth of creation on the wiki, shadowfell is called Herebos. It also calls the feywild 'Elysium' but I had always seen that name in reference to a more heavenly place than a wild one. In fact I had assumed that it was the astral sea when I wrote my blurb about Azathoth.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Mal Malenkirk

First Post
Okay, how does that sound:

Abyss = Tartarus
ELemental Chaos = Chaos

Feywild = Arcadia
Shadowfell = Erebus (Realm of Lauto)

Astral Sea = Elysium
Astral Realm home of most of the twelve = Olympus
7 hells = Gehenna

The greek had no separate hell/prison for the lawful and the chaotic. Tartarus was it. Since Asmodeus is such a Lucifer figure, we might take our cue from christianity so I suggest Gehenna.

Of course, these are the actual names. We could 'fantasy' up these names. i.e Herebous instead of Erebus, Gemnha instead of Gehenna etc.

EDIT: Look at that, the writer of the mythology already had Shadowfell pegged as Erebus. But I really suggest Arcadia instead of Elyisum for the fey wild.
 

ScorpiusRisk

First Post
Well I think we should continue to use Herebos, if only because that's what we've been using. The rest seems fine to me.

Do the gods each have private domains within Olympus or do they all just hang out on top of the mountain like in the movies?

Also, are we considering the creation myth hard cannon? I always took it as what was widely believed in the Imperium.
 

BenBrown

First Post
I like Arcadia for the feywild. All of these places probably have multiple names, depending on where you're from.

As far as the gods having their own space, why not? It's not as if Olympus is really bound by anything. Of course, at any given time, they're likely to be hanging out together, in attendance at the sky-father's court.
 

Dunamin

First Post
[sblock=Bolbothan the Dread]

Bolbothan is the eldest aboleth that slipped into the world from the Far Realm eons ago after the gods have began their creation. He remained and lurked in the underworld’s lakes, hunting the creatures that inhabited the place. Eventually, more of his kin came to the world, but Bolbothan being the eldest, wanted to rule over them, and he did, with a fairly big proportion of the Aboleths. His minions contructed a palace for their lord in the bottom og Tal Modan lake, one of the biggest in the underworld. The other aboleth hunted for him, brought him enthralled creatures to act as servants, and treasure. Bolbothan had a strange desire for shiny objects, which was strange due to the fact that he lived in the dark reaches of the underworld.
As the drows descended into the underworld led by th dragon Akneth, the confrontation was inevitable. As the drow empire grew, the limits of each realm clashed in war. The aboleth realm of Tal Modan sent armies composed of the large aboleth overseers with hundreds of enthralled minions, and the drows send their armies of disciplined soldiers led by the female priests. The odds were even, and each side lost and won several battles. However, after each battle lost by the drows, the aboleth gained many servants. Akneth foresaw a grim future for her children, and conceived a cunning plan to get rid of Bolbothan and his empire. She instructed her drows to poison the waters of the Tal Modan lake. Many creatures depended from that source of fresh water, so the casualties were the highest the underworld had seen.
All the aboleths’ minions were killed by the venom, and many aboleths were also slain when escaping frantically from the poison to the surface by a drow strike team.
Bolbothan was forced to emerge as well after centuries of slumber in his chambers. The huge aboleth raised over the drows and over his kin. He laid waste over the assaulting drows, but when Akneth showed up, the power of the deep dragon forced the aboleth to retreat. Bolbothan needed to escape, and enthralled the mind of one of Akneth’s most powerful priestess, and made her attack the dragon from behind. The distraction was effective, and the sluggish amphibian disappeared from sight in a blink.
After his defeat, the drow empire continued it’s expansion without any other rival to stand in their way. The remaining aboleth hide in the dark corners of the underdark alone or in small groups; but some followed Bolbothan to the surface. The elder aboleth had a plan, a plan that could take him centuries to fulfill, but he had that kind of time.
His plan was to take the surface world, to enslave the creatures of the surface to his will and then lead an attack to the underworld, and ultimately destroy the drows and their mother.
Stats: An Aboleth overseer of level 25 at least, with all that this implies. He can probably dominate other creatures apart from humanoids.

Theme:

Thralls: Most of Bolbothan’s minions are thralls dominated by the aboleth Lord. The only willingly loyal servants of Bolbothan are other aboleths and Kuo Toas.

Vengance: Bolbothan wants to see every drow dead, and every surface dweller on their knees before him in order to exterminate the drows. Although he has his priorities, if there is a chance to kill drows, Bolbothan will take it.

Water please: As his army is composed mainly by amphibious creatures, Bolbothan will establish his outposts around the transitive islands where water is abundant, and will try to dominate port cities or cities with lakes and rivers close to them.

Dominate with words:
At this stage, Bolbothan will try to subdue populatins through manipulation of their leaders and with political moves. He will have secret agents bring him information and with it he’ll plan a scheme to put a puppet in the power in order to slowly control the population. Bolbothan will rarely rely on raw military power.

It’s just a thrall: Every time that a sacrifice of a thrall will rely on a benefit to an aboleth or to the general scheme planed by them, do it. It’s just a thrall after all.

Reckless combat tactics: When there comes the time to fight, the abolths will send all their minions forward, and dominate/nuke the players from safety. Kuo Toas are to be sacrificed later, if the aboleths need to withdraw from battle, they will use them as curtain.

Forces: Bolbothan has a personal army composed by several Aboleth with their respective Aboleth servitors, and hosts of Kuo Toas and Bolbothan’s Aboleth servitors which can survive well away from their master. Bolbothan prefers to exert direct control over his forces. He also have agents of several races operating underground in thieves guilds and secret organizations; these are either voluntary of dominated. [/sblock]
[sblock=Azathoth]Azathoth

In the time before mortals, Ge and Ouranos fell into an eternal slumber leaving their children; the gods, to shape the world they had created. Though apart from the world in their sleep, the great Aeons were still bound to that which they had created and in their dreams they wept as their children battled against the Titans.
When; through the allegiance of the angels and others, the gods finally won their war, they crafted a prison called Thartharus deep within creation and there chained the greatest of the Titans. Their malice corrupted all around them and made their own prison far worse than ever would it had been. For countless eons, Thartharus has grown and swelled with its own corruption as a cancer deep within the earth.
This malignant blight crept slowly into the dreams of Ge and Ouranos, turning them into nightmares. The Aeons dreamt of such twisted and demented horrors, such intense agony, hatred and malice, that they stirred in their slumber, and forced the nightmare away.
Beyond Elysium; far away from the mortal realm, in the place of Ge and Ouranos’ own creation, Azathoth was born. The nightmare given form, Azathoth was thrust into a new world, a world that was painful to him in its difference, and so he reached out his tentacles and spread his madness, reaching into the minds of any life he found and enslaving it to his own. This way he learned of creation, and he desired it.
Azathoth, though thoroughly evil in his madness, is a patient entity. It saw the power that other life could posses and so he crept slowly from star to star, twisting them to his will. He created children of his own to reach out beyond what he had claimed into Elysium and Herebos and to the Shifting Seas.
First of his children was made to Behold the world so that Azathoth could see was would one day be his, and she became known as the Great Mother for she had many offspring with Azathoth. Each of their children had many eyes so that Azathoth’s vision could spread far.
Second was Bolbothan, Azathoth’s favourite child who he sent deep under the shifting seas to raise an army in secret for the day when he finally took his rightful place as master of all. To Bolbothan first of the Aboleths, Azathoth gave some of his essence to spread his madness.
It’s most likely that Azathoth has many other children, each subtly infiltrating reality working toward his end goal of twisting everything to it’s own madness and sitting upon a throne at the centre of creation.
[/sblock]
Those both look very nice, especially in light of tying together a general Far Realm-based threat.

With regards to the aspect of mind control and establishing classic figures in this role, we might want to supplement the aboleth niche that Bolbothan fills with one for illithids. Given that mind flayers probably are the most iconic "mind control"-themed villains in D&D, we could, for instance, have another child of Azathoth be cast as some "supreme" Elder Brain. (Possibly tying in with the Xelgonne illithids of Ea to strengthen interconnectivity of the living world).

Abyss = Tartarus
ELemental Chaos = Chaos

Feywild = Arcadia
Shadowfell = Erebus (Realm of Lauto)

Astral Sea = Elysium
Astral Realm home of most of the twelve = Olympus
7 hells = Gehenna
Providing these as one of several sets of names for the same planes is fine by me, but like Ben I would also be a bit cautious about setting too much in stone. If two particular names/tales/whathaveyou are not irreconcilable, I think we should allow DMs to work with wiggle-room to some extent. I generally find that using several names and multiple versions of lore on the same mythical subject often strengthens the atmosphere and mystery surrounding it.

Aside, why 7 Hells and not 9, by the way?
 

Voda Vosa

First Post
On Topic: Yeah that's a good idea. Gather around tentacled creatures of the world! Did somebody read the other villain I've submitted? It's the last post of the first page.


Off Topic: I was thinking for some time to present the Blazing Desert as a region for the world, from where actual players can hail from. The judges have the write up I made, and I think I've put some more details on Ragaman's background history. If somebody wants to read it all (it's long, I know) perhaps could send my some advises as how to make the proposal?
 

Tenchuu

First Post
I have a related topic, for your consideration.

[sblock=No Peaking Lord Byron's Players, Dimsdale included]
I am currently working on flushing out the Brotherhood of the Bright Eon; within the context of this thread, this matters because I plan to establish them as still in existence, still plotting in their attempts to take power/do ill, though at a dimished capacity.

I would like to create it in such a way that when my adventure is done, they are established as a minor Epic/world-level threat, usable by other DMs. While the scale may not be epic enough for this category, I thought I would bring it up here.

I don't immediately see where they would fit in to the categories defined so far. At the core, I see the Brotherhood as a player-character-race type of risk (as opposed to a god/demon), made dangerous by their numbers, secrecy, plots, etc. So, the Archetype in my mind is a power-hungry organization.

I would welcome your input as I undertake the revision.

[/sblock]
 

Mal Malenkirk

First Post
I have a related topic, for your consideration.

[sblock=No Peaking Lord Byron's Players, Dimsdale included]
I am currently working on flushing out the Brotherhood of the Bright Eon; within the context of this thread, this matters because I plan to establish them as still in existence, still plotting in their attempts to take power/do ill, though at a dimished capacity.

I would like to create it in such a way that when my adventure is done, they are established as a minor Epic/world-level threat, usable by other DMs. While the scale may not be epic enough for this category, I thought I would bring it up here.

I don't immediately see where they would fit in to the categories defined so far. At the core, I see the Brotherhood as a player-character-race type of risk (as opposed to a god/demon), made dangerous by their numbers, secrecy, plots, etc. So, the Archetype in my mind is a power-hungry organization.

I would welcome your input as I undertake the revision.

[/sblock]

[sblock=OOC]Power hungry organization?

Asmodeus loves power. ;)

Right now I am running an adventure with warrior monks that are a front for one of Asmodeus cult.

Can you tie them up to Asmodeus in some way? Either they worship directly or the strings at the top are pulled by a powerful lieutenant of the lord of devils.

The later allows you great leeway to put your mark on the whole organization while still tying them in the big picture.
[/sblock]
 

Tenchuu

First Post
[sblock=OOC]Power hungry organization?

Asmodeus loves power. ;)

Right now I am running an adventure with warrior monks that are a front for one of Asmodeus cult.

Can you tie them up to Asmodeus in some way? Either they worship directly or the strings at the top are pulled by a powerful lieutenant of the lord of devils.

The later allows you great leeway to put your mark on the whole organization while still tying them in the big picture.
[/sblock]
[sblock=OOC]
I could certainly do that. I will make it so. Thanks Mal![/sblock]
 

Mal Malenkirk

First Post
Okay, so we more or less agreed to combine Azathoth and Bolbothan into one Far realm themed threats. Anyone can make a stream-lined write up?

If I am not too lazy, I will try to enter the other threats I designed into the wiki sunday.
 

Remove ads

AD6_gamerati_skyscraper

Remove ads

Recent & Upcoming Releases

Top