Helioedes template

[DamienWilacoth]

I recently had one of my players express interest in this template. Would anyone care to shed a little light on it, seeing as how most of the rest have been addressed, at least in part?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Merry Christmas Damien!

I recently had one of my players express interest in this template. Would anyone care to shed a little light on it, seeing as how most of the rest have been addressed, at least in part?

You know its been so long ago that I have almost forgotten that idea.

As I recall, the original idea was that Far Realm beings would eventually grow/evolve into ever more massive aberrations, culminating in the Helioedes type star beings, or rather culminating with Limbus who was an entire universe, but the stage before that was the type of Azathoth/Algol form we are used to.

 

[Alzrius]

Hm, so Cthugha would be a Helioedes?

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Well, Azathoth created multiple (probably countless) universes, so I think he'd be significantly above Algol (who's listed as an Old One) in power - Azathoth is an Eternal of some sort, either a Demiurge or High Lord depending on whether you see the different 'universes' as equivalent to dimensions or separate cosmologies.

Yog-Sothoth is either a Demiurge, a First One of Time...

Lovecraftian beings at the Old One level of power would be ... Nyarlathotep possibly, if he's not higher; and the lower/mid range Outer Gods - including those other Mythos authors have created such as Daoloth, the Hydra etc..

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey guys!

Hm, so Cthugha would be a Helioedes?

Possibly. I think such beings will take many shapes until their power grows (Movie Blob like) to be so huge that it takes on its own gravitational pull. That said, they could still be spherical of any smaller size also.

Well, Azathoth created multiple (probably countless) universes, so I think he'd be significantly above Algol (who's listed as an Old One) in power - Azathoth is an Eternal of some sort, either a Demiurge or High Lord depending on whether you see the different 'universes' as equivalent to dimensions or separate cosmologies.

Yog-Sothoth is either a Demiurge, a First One of Time...

Lovecraftian beings at the Old One level of power would be ... Nyarlathotep possibly, if he's not higher; and the lower/mid range Outer Gods - including those other Mythos authors have created such as Daoloth, the Hydra etc..

In my experience I think people generally overate the Lovecraftian Gods. This may be because those beings only go up against normal humans rather than super-humans (such as epic level heroes).

To me, Azathoth is the gateway to Limbus, Yog-Sothoth may be the key to opening that gate.

The Outer Gods are sidereals of the Far Realm. I don't see any massive reason to make them more powerful than that.

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

In my experience I think people generally overate the Lovecraftian Gods. This may be because those beings only go up against normal humans rather than super-humans (such as epic level heroes).

Some of them (Cthulhu etc.) yes, definitely. Cthulhu was at least inconvenienced by getting rammed with a steamboat (though it's not clear if this actually defeated him -- it may simply have slowed him down enough, as he reconstituted his body, that he couldn't catch the fleeing ship) - I doubt he was more than a Quasi- or Demi-deity (personally I'd make him Quasi-, since he seems comparable to an Abomination; he does kill some people by the mere sight of him, but the dream larva can do this too, so even that isn't beyond abomination power levels).


Some are implied to be incredibly, ludicrously powerful though. Azathoth is stated to create universes by his mere mindless gestures, which certainly suggests a truly immense power level. There are implications that Nyarlathotep will some day destroy the Earth (not just depopulate it, but physically destroy the planet).


The 'Outer Gods/Great Old Ones' distinction isn't very useful when dealing with Lovecraft's own writings; he never used the term 'Outer Gods' - it seems to be based off Lovecraft's 'Other Gods', but these are not portrayed as universally more powerful than Cthulhu et al.

 

[DamienWilacoth]

Okay... any ideas on turning it into an actual template?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Damien!

Okay... any ideas on turning it into an actual template?

Are there players out there who want to roleplay a sun? Thinking about it retrospectively I actually wonder what the heck I was thinking when I first mentioned the Helioeides Template...maybe I didn't think it through enough.

 

[DamienWilacoth]

Hey Damien!



Are there players out there who want to roleplay a sun? Thinking about it retrospectively I actually wonder what the heck I was thinking when I first mentioned the Helioeides Template...maybe I didn't think it through enough.

Actually... yeah, there are people who want to roleplay a sun. Or something similar to it. His descriptions of the state of being he imagines his character eventually ending up as sound fairly similar.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Damien!

Actually... yeah, there are people who want to roleplay a sun. Or something similar to it. His descriptions of the state of being he imagines his character eventually ending up as sound fairly similar.

...there had to be one, didn't there.

If I get some spare time over the next few days I'll try and brainstorm a few ideas. First point of reference would perhaps be the Call of Cthulhu d20 book though.

In fact I am sure I had some psuedonatural aura progression thing worked out for 3E. Based upon the chain of spells, dammit I can't remember, there was one of fear, one of insanity. Totally gone from my head. Thats it Symbols. The Symbol chain. I was using that for like: 5th level spell = demideity, 6th = lesser or something like that. I am sure I must have given the Akishra and the Cogent in the Epic bestiary auras or some sort of powers based on these spells. Which means there must be a 9th or higher version somewhere for the Helioeides Template.