D&D 5E Monsters of Many Names - Wandering Monsters (Yugoloth!)

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I no longer have any idea of what the 5E Monster Manual is going to look like. These critters don't seem like MM1 candidates at all to me, and it seems weird that they'd be tackling them before many other, more basic monsters.

I mean, it's nice that they exist, I guess, but I think more recent efforts by Paizo and Green Ronin have created much more compelling neutral evil fiends. These guys seem pretty tepid in comparison.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's my point. What's so great and unique about different kind of Halflings? Why do we need goblins and kobolds? I think the point here is not what makes them unique, because we have tons of races with no much to add in D&D which are loved because somebody uses them.

No one loves xvarts. And, honestly, I suspect no one loves a lot of the humanoids and demihumans. Would anyone notice or care if bugbears were missing in the 5E MM1?

And, I'm a confirmed gnome lover, and was irritated at their exclusion from the 4E PHB1, but given what weird shape WotC twisted the halfling into, I think we'd have been better off merging gnomes, halflings and kender, calling them "gnomes" and being done with it. The game doesn't need three short tricksy, agrarian, community-oriented player races.

 

[Shemeska]

One aspect to consider is their plane of origin, and how that might influence the race as a whole. For instance:

- Daemons <-> Gray Waste: The Gray Waste has a lot in common with 4e's Shadowfell, with its malaise and dreary atmosphere. Perhaps daemons don't want to rule you, or destroy. Perhaps they want you to live in misery, sapping empathy and goodwill from the world, undermining the efforts of the charitable and selfless?

In 2e there was a very nice quote from 'Faces of Evil' that summed up the 'loths as desiring a perfect multiverse. Perfection being a multiverse devoid of mercy; one in which everyone and everything suffered. You aren't important, you don't matter, we don't hate you, but you will suffer nonetheless. That sort of uncaring malice was what they had below the surface as a racial goal.

In the leadup to 4e, before they had anything set in stone, I'd suggested some roles for the 'loths in the 4e multiverse. They didn't obviously go with any of them, and IMO they didn't give the 'loths in 4e any defined role and purpose initially, which was a shame. I might have linked the 'loths in some capacity with the 4e shadowfell. But in the following I put forward the idea of the 'loths from the Great Wheel being the source of the Shard of Evil that corrupted the 4e Elemental Chaos, playing off of their previous association with disease.

Chorazin the Thrice Damned drifted high above the metaphysical landscape, the halo of flame atop his head shedding a surreal light upon his surroundings and his sole companion. Below them the tides and currents of the elemental chaos rose and fell like a great ocean of raw physical creation. Tidal waves of flame crashed upon islands of eternal ice while living gemstones flowered and dusted the air with drifting clouds of stinging minerals. Everything was unsullied in its own way, though the model was left perfect from the standpoint of symmetry.

"What is it that you would have us do here Father/Mother?"

The question was direct and pragmatic, spoken as the baernaloth had come to expect from his handmaiden in that new cosmos. Larsdana Ap Neut stood next to him, the ruff of fur on her cheeks windblown and raw, touched with a layer of whisper-thin salt and dust from the unruly elemental maelstrom below. The exposure to the elements, the raw and actual elements, rather than just the metaphysical -idea- of those elements as expressed by a form and variety of evil was something she was unaccostumed to. Her eyes watered and her flesh was raw, though the blood that seeped from the corners of her eyes and sullied the velvet of her robes was due the agony she embraced by standing so close to her maker.

"We've done this before Larsdana." Chorazin Ibn Shartalan explained, his voice causing the arcanaloth's form to momentarily blur and twist. "As different as this conception of reality might appear, you should recognize the taste."

"Yes, Great One, I do." Her tongue flicked out like a serpent, touching the air and licking the caked minerals from her muzzle. "Are we to be your intruments this time, like the last? Or is the one below us dancing and laughing like a mad fool to play some part in this?"

The Gloom Father's dead white eyes twitched and he smiled, revealing ragged teeth stained with black, greasy blood. "Good. You see the differences."

A sly, jackal's grin crossed her face as she began to see her role and that of the idiot godling below.

Unknowing, still innocent in his own way, Tharizdun laughed and played, combining and merging the elements to make new and wonderous things to amuse his child-like mind.

"Hmm? Now what would this be?"

The godling paused and looked down at the curious purple gemstone that he'd come across. He'd never seen anything like it before, and as he stared in amazement and wonder, its cold illumination played over his face, striking thin, fine lines of age into his features.

"Hello" The gemstone spoke to him, polite and promising, hinting at so many amazing things that it could show him, all with a single word.

"Beautiful precious thing." Tharizdun said. "Who or what might you be? I've played across the shores of the elements and the depths of the astral seas, but never have I seen something like you."

"I am the Heart of Darkness" The gemstone replied, smiling into his mind and brushing delicate claws across the god's face, drawing bruises and age-spots across the flesh. "But my newfound friend, you may call me Larsdana, and I have so many things to show you.".

Smiling, Tharizdun reached forward and touched the gemstone.

Additionally, since the 4e 'loths were rather a case of also-rans, bereft of their role and history from 2e/3e when shoehorned into the 4e cosmos, that in and of itself could be played up. What if the 'loths were aware of their previous history in the Great Wheel? What if they knew they had been inserted into the World Axis cosmology but then utterly and completely abandoned by their original makers? They'd gone from the chosen children of abstract uncaring evil to being abandoned and adrift in a universe where they had no place and no grand purpose. They're evil and they're bitter, horribly so. They're going to need to take that out on someone, anyone. There's lots of plot hooks to play with there. And what if you still have a core of 'loths who remain faithful to their faithless, uncaring makers that abandoned them, still hoping to be useful, still wanting to believe in that grand design? Again they could be rather useful there as plot seeds.

They have no home, they have no obvious place in the universe, they're evil, bitter, and wanting so hard to believe in makers that seemingly betrayed and abandoned them. They're rudderless and malign. Free agents with the blackest of hearts. This isn't something that will ever end well for the new multiverse they've been inserted into like blankets seeded with plague or smallpox blisters. And in fact, that might have been the point of why their makers the baern ever did what they did by seemingly casting them adrift.

 

[jadrax]

No one loves xvarts.

Erm, Xvarts are awesome!

While Bugbears are pretty heavily used in a lot of the old school modules that MM1 is being built to support, so they are going to be a shoe-in.

 

[I'm A Banana]

All this talk of conspiracies, coupled with the Ultroloth's appearance, makes me draw a parallell between 'loths and Men in Black and Greys. A hidden race of evil immortal beings, silently orchestrating the misery of human existence to fuel their power?

Kinda my concept of them, yeah! Only instead of "to fuel their power," I imagine it being "for the lulz." They're like the wings of some wicked butterfly, causing hurricanes of despair and moral collapse half a world away, because they love a miserable world.

This brings them into conflict with PC's, who might see that all the problems they've been fixing seem, when they connect the dots, to relate to something much more destructive in total than any individual act. A demon will torture you. A devil will persuade you to do the torturing. A yugoloth might cause the breakup of the marriage of the parents of the general who, never being shown empathy in the care of the corrupt orphanage in the city, is unable to feel compassion for his prisoners, and so orders the torture of hundreds. You can be sure when you slay a yugoloth that you're doing the world a favor, but it's not usually easy to draw clear lines of cause and effect.

A'kin, as he is described in a lot of the Planescape products, is the perfect example of this. What's so bad about a friendly acanoloth selling you magical geewgaws? Man, who knows? Possibly everything? Possibly nothing? And is that rivalry with Shemeska a charade, or are they working together? It's a load of questions with no answer. This is the emotional state of a player up against a yugoloth: like every action is built on nothing.

What's wrong with a man in a black suit hanging out in the diner near where you saw those strange lights? Why should you object when he offers to buy you a slice of rhubarb pie? Why does no one else who was there seem to remember him? It's pure Paranoia Fuel.

 

[Klaus]

Kinda my concept of them, yeah! Only instead of "to fuel their power," I imagine it being "for the lulz." They're like the wings of some wicked butterfly, causing hurricanes of despair and moral collapse half a world away, because they love a miserable world.

This brings them into conflict with PC's, who might see that all the problems they've been fixing seem, when they connect the dots, to relate to something much more destructive in total than any individual act. A demon will torture you. A devil will persuade you to do the torturing. A yugoloth might cause the breakup of the marriage of the parents of the general who, never being shown empathy in the care of the corrupt orphanage in the city, is unable to feel compassion for his prisoners, and so orders the torture of hundreds. You can be sure when you slay a yugoloth that you're doing the world a favor, but it's not usually easy to draw clear lines of cause and effect.

A'kin, as he is described in a lot of the Planescape products, is the perfect example of this. What's so bad about a friendly acanoloth selling you magical geewgaws? Man, who knows? Possibly everything? Possibly nothing? And is that rivalry with Shemeska a charade, or are they working together? It's a load of questions with no answer. This is the emotional state of a player up against a yugoloth: like every action is built on nothing.

What's wrong with a man in a black suit hanging out in the diner near where you saw those strange lights? Why should you object when he offers to buy you a slice of rhubarb pie? Why does no one else who was there seem to remember him? It's pure Paranoia Fuel.

And just like that, we have an identity for Yugoloths! Cheers!

 

[Dausuul]

This is the emotional state of a player up against a yugoloth: like every action is built on nothing.

I like this. Some elaboration on this theme:

Demons and devils are purposeful evil, each one bent on achieving an end: Destruction or control. 'Loths are purposeless evil. They may concoct elaborate schemes, all bent on spreading despair, but their schemes do not tie in to some grand design, and to mortal eyes the end often seems unworthy of the means.

With a 'loth, everything is personal. An ultraloth might spin a web of intrigue across half the world in order to darken the soul of a single child. Not an important child, not a future emperor or archmage; only a child who was happy and innocent, whose soul was exceptionally bright and who would have brightened the lives of those around her. The challenge of untangling a 'loth plot is that PCs are accustomed to plots along the lines of:

1. Do a bunch of evil stuff, causing misery and suffering.
2. ???
3. Profit!

...where the task is to figure out what step 2 is, and how to prevent it from leading to 3. But in a 'loth plot, there is no "profit." Step 1 is the objective, and when it's complete, the 'loth will simply start over somewhere else. PCs won't ever be able to figure out the 'loth's goal until they learn to think as the 'loth does... and the worst part is, that may itself be the goal: Take heroic player characters and teach them to think like the most malevolent of fiends.

While demons and devils fight over what picture to paint, 'loths just keep mixing in more black.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Erm, Xvarts are awesome!

Paint one tribe of goblins blue. Give them rat pets. Done. No need for xvarts.

While Bugbears are pretty heavily used in a lot of the old school modules that MM1 is being built to support, so they are going to be a shoe-in.

You're right. If I could go back in time, after I killed Hitler, I'd stop off in Lake Geneva and explain to them that they don't need both gnolls and bugbears, and that the gnoll concept is the superior one, no matter what they call the resultant critter.

 

[I'm A Banana]

They may concoct elaborate schemes, all bent on spreading despair, but their schemes do not tie in to some grand design, and to mortal eyes the end often seems unworthy of the means.

Part of what I like about the "conspiracy and paranoia" angle on the loths is that it enables individual DMs to judge the merits of their ultimate nefarious plots for themselves. Is there really no grand goal, or is that just what they want you to think? DMs can make a pronouncement either way if they want, or they can leave it open to interpretation. With a critter like the yugoloths, even the rulebooks might not reveal the whole truth about them.

I do like the angle that their goal is just to cause misery and suffering for the sake of misery and suffering.

The gehreleths I've got a spot for, too, but I think it's a bit more of my own manufacture and interpretation than the official one. Perhaps I should do another mythopoetry article...hm....

 

[Balesir]

Kinda my concept of them, yeah! Only instead of "to fuel their power," I imagine it being "for the lulz." They're like the wings of some wicked butterfly, causing hurricanes of despair and moral collapse half a world away, because they love a miserable world.

Nice - I like this 'touch and feel' definition of 'loths. Mixing it with what I wrote earlier, I think I just found an "overall goal" for my 'loths. As I said, they are the lesser primordials that didn't succumb to the corruption of the Abyss: they don't want to destroy the cosmos - they want to make every last one of its inhabitants wish that it had been destroyed, as their 'parents' originally intended it to be...