#elder evils

I don't know what happened, I just stumbled upon Elder Evils on fandom wiki and the next thing I know - I'm drawing a symbol resembling Rasalhague, the Noxious Star.

Something about a sentient star in thousand light-years away from Exandria that is reaching its end before turning into a supernova, and then turning into a black hole, shift of which sents powerful waves across the universe that cause great damage to reality... Yeah, that got me strangely excited.

DnD has a handful of eldritch horrors that are/live within stars in its lore. The most well known is probably Hadar given that there's spells named after it. But there are others and I feel like talking about them.

I feel like Cyth V'Sug would be a suitable patron for the Mi-Go, as would other archfiends related to fungus, infection, technology and expansion. Among daemons, I'd likely include Apollyon and Deceid as patrons, and devils would get Moloch and Barbatos. That said, I feel like such cults would be minorities compared to the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones. But pantheons have a way of expanding and incorporating new members. Like how there were Olympian gods but a lot of other divinities in Greek mythology.

As for the mi-go being worshiped themselves, one of two things could happen. Either the mi-go would act as a conduit for veneration to an appropriate Outer God (Sheol-Nugganoth is classically associated with them), or a new godling would be created through their efforts. Which seems like as good a backstory as any to fit the Elder Evil Ragnorra into the Pathfinder setting:

Image by Ralph Horsley, © Wizards of the Coast.

[Commissioned by @tar-baphon​. The Hulks of Zoretha are weird for Elder Evils in a number of respects. Firstly, they’re not unique creatures, instead coming as a set. They’re sexually dimorphic, which is a neat twist. They also have iterative slam attacks, which is not something commonly seen in 3.x. That last part I’ve stripped out. I’m statting the male Hulk of Zoretha separately (the commissioner wanted him to have a higher CR, for one thing). Unlike with my other Elder Evils, where I’ve typically abstracted their signs, the supernatural events that occur as they plunge the world into chaos, I’ve moved it over to the actual stat block. Because having an effect that makes people fight each other is useful in combat.]

Hulk of Zoretha (Female) CR 16 CE Outsider (native) This musclebound humanoid has vague, misshapen features seemingly carved into its stony body. Runic markings like tattoos cover its body, glowing with internal energy.

The hulks of Zoretha are alien horrors, spoken of in hushed tones and rumors by all but the most daring or mad sages. Their existence is documented in the madness inducing Zoretha Scrolls. They are five in number, quiescent in a remote part of the world, tended by violent cultists in the hopes of inducing them to awaken and cleanse the world of order and civilization. As the hulks stir in their slumber, the bonds of civility fall apart, violence breaks out en masse and even friends and lovers turn on each other in bloody rage.

The hulks of Zoretha are in fact an ancient terraforming project, designed to cleanse worlds of civilization. Different sets of five hulks have been seeded on a dozen planets, awaiting some mysterious signal or cosmic alignment to begin awakening and carry out their campaign of destruction. Four of the five hulks are female, capable of birthing an army of monsters to expand the reach of their violence. The fifth is male, whose job it is to impregnate the females and guard them from exceptionally powerful threats long enough for the next generation to be born.

The four female hulks are mechanically almost identical, differing only in their energy affinities. Each can breathe a destructive cone of energy, and their strikes carry the power of acid, electricity, fire or cold. More hazardous still is their effect on mortal minds. The very presence of a hulk of Zoretha inspires mindless violence, and the hulks can focus their alien minds on creatures that resist, inducing vivid waking nightmares. Despite their implacable affect, a hulk of Zoretha will attempt to flee a losing battle, as their ultimate goal can only be achieved by the survival and propagation of their species.

Image by James Zhang, © Wizards of the Coast.

[Commissioned by @tar-baphon. Father Llymic might be my least favorite of the Elder Evils from the book of the same name. I appreciate the Gerald Scarfe -like design (although do we really need multiple fat humanoids in the same book?), but his actual statistics leave a lot to be desired. He can inflict negative levels with his aura and all of his natural attacks, and those negative levels have special conditions for being removed. He can project an image of himself, and it’s a major plot point for the proposed campaign arc, but there is no mechanical information given about how it works. He has no means of communicating with his minions, even though that seems to be a big deal for his plot. And his light weakness as originally written means he’s automatically staggered by a 3rd level spell (daylight)--a devastating weakness in a game where action economy is everything. So this version is rather severely overhauled from a mechanical perspective.]

Father Llymic CR 22 CE Outsider This immense creature resembles a crystalline humanoid, with rocky plates growing along its back. Its head is flat and insectile, with three glaring yellow eyes above a fanged maw. Its arms end in long, mantis-like claws.

Father Llymic is an alien evil, trapped under the ice on the top of a polar mountain and working his influence subtly on the world around him. He is currently in a state of stasis, able to send an illusory avatar to interact with the world, but unable to move or battle. Father Llymic uses this avatar to lure creatures to visit his mountain, whereupon his soul chill aura can transform them into his monstrous children. He also uses this avatar to coordinate the actions of his existing minions, sending them on raids to increase their numbers. The more children of Llymic exist, the more his bonds become loosened, and eventually he will rise triumphant into the polar winter.

Sunlight is anathema to Father Llymic, and light of any kind weakens him. When Father Llymic is awake and active, he promises, the sun will never shine, and creatures of cold and darkness can take over the planet. In combat, he focuses on attacking as many creatures as possible, hoping to inflict his curse on any survivors to create more children in the coming days. Those he cannot afflict in such a way are scissored to pieces with his razor-sharp claws, or frozen solid with cold magic.

It is believed that Father Llymic was originally a creature of the Plateau of Leng, and was imprisoned on the Material Plane by ancient elven magic. Indeed, Father Llymic hates elves above other creatures, and his psychic avatar often takes the form of a ragged white-haired elf with blank eyes and teeth made of ice. In addition to the children of Llymic, creatures of the Elder Mythos such as Leng ghouls and Leng hounds may serve him, and the denizens of Leng keep a close eye on Llymic cults (although their individual goals vary). Some thematically appropriate creatures for Father Llymic to summon include child of Llymic moon giants (CR 17 each), child of Llymic ancient white dragons (CR 17 each), child of Llymic ice linnorms (CR 19) or child of Llymic Leng spiders (CR 16 each).

Image © Wizards of the Coast, by Izzy.

[Commissioned by @tar-baphon. Atropus is the most powerful of the Elder Evils in the book of the same name, an entire planet that can only by fought by going up there and beating up this headless hulk. Very video gamey--I feel like Atropus owes a lot to Final Fantasies IV and V, and Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. My version of the statistics borrows abilities from my earlier atropal conversion, and makes reference to the angel of decay I wrote up near this blog’s beginning.

Of note: Pathfinder canonically has in it a version of Atropos, one of the Three Fates, as a psychopomp usher. This may lead to confusion in your campaign. Maybe that’s intentional. The commissioner’s idea for Atropus’ origin is that it was created in Earthfall, by Avacna dying in steering the moon to absorb most of the meteorites. A bitter undead goddess who sacrificed herself and now hates those she died for is a cool concept, but I wanted to open it up to multiple possible interpretations/roles. I do assume a weird version of canon in these entries--I typically avoid references to Pathfinder’s canonical gods, but demigods like demon lords and archdevils are open season. I’m not really sure why; possibly as a relic of when I was trying to sell these in the 3pp market.]

Avatar of Atropus CR 25 NE Undead This headless giant is clearly dead, with rotting flesh and withered limbs. Its belly is swollen as with decay or pregnancy, or possibly both. Oily black fluid oozes from its surface, running down its body in rivulets.

Atropus, the Dead World, is a sapient evil planetoid. Some say that it is the castoff of creation, a force of Death to counterbalance the existence of Life. Others say that it is a fragment of a planet or moon destroyed through some magical cataclysm, infused with the mind of a dead god and forever enraged at its abandonment by the faithful. Still others claim that Atropus is a shard of the Negative Energy Plane given life and intelligence. Whatever its true origins, Atropus is a planet killer. It drifts through the space between worlds, and when it takes up orbit around a planet, it drains the life from it until all that are left on its surface are the walking dead.

Atropus itself cannot be fought, or slain, in any conventional manner. Those exploring the world find it truly lifeless. It is a low gravity, airless place with the minor negative dominant trait across its entire surface and the major negative dominant trait in fissures and cracks oozing profane ichor. This world is crawling with undead—angels of decay and atropals are the most notable, but not the only, denizens. Coordinating these monsters is the avatar of Atropus, its will concentrated into a perverse, corpse-like body.

The avatar of Atropus remains on the surface of its own planetoid, a final line of defense against anyone powerful or foolish enough to visit the Dead World. Its very presence drains life from creatures, creating an army of spectres wherever it goes. It can channel negative energy and cast deadly magic as surely as the strongest mortal necromancers and clerics, and has crushing physical force in order to pulverize creatures that resist necromantic magics. Only by slaying the avatar can Atropus be once again cast into interstellar space, but the means have not yet been discovered to forever end the threat of the Dead World.

Image by Wayne England, © Wizards of the Coast.

[Commissioned by @tar-baphon. It’s a template, and hoo boy is it a long one! It’s actually less complicated than the original, which added racial HD and stripped off the special attacks of the base creature. At that point, why make it a template?

As you’ll notice in the art, this template was originally called “brood spawn”. I’ve changed the name to embrace the “Father” theme of Father Llymic, the Elder Evil that these are associated with. I’ve got plenty of problems with Llymic, but my complaints will wait until that entry specifically.]

Child of Llymic CR +2 Template (acquired) This hulking creature appears roughly humanoid, with a stooped posture and a metallic blue exoskeleton. It has three solid black eyes overlooking a drooling, fanged maw. Instead of hands, its forelimbs end in oversized claws like those of a mantis.

The children of Llymic are monstrous mutants, warped by exposure to the alien entity known as Father Llymic. The hands of a child of Llymic are warped into large talons, rendering them incapable of wielding weapons or using anything but the most basic of tools. Although sapient children of Llymic do not lose any intelligence, and indeed become more in tune with their surroundings, they rapidly abandon material culture, although they may wear a few scraps of jewelry or clothing as reminders of their previous lives. They have no society or behavior except for pursuing their basic survival and tending to Father Llymic’s needs. Regardless of their original species, they cooperate with each other as park carnivores.

The children of Llymic despise the touch of sunlight. During the long polar summers, they hide in caves and burrows, hibernating until winter in a reversal of many other creatures. In the darker seasons, they are more active. The children of Llymic are stronger and tougher than they were as mere mortals, and gain access to a number of magical powers manipulating cold and darkness. Their freezing breath carries the chill of the void, and creatures that are exposed to it, even if they take no cold damage, begin to dwindle. If not saved through magic, these victims transform into children of Llymic themselves.

Creating a Child of Llymic “Child of Llymic” is an acquired template that can be applied to any living corporeal creature that is not immune to curses (hereafter referred to as the base creature). A child of Llymic retains all of the base creature’s statistics and special abilities, save as noted here.

CR: Same as the base creature +2 (minimum CR 3) Alignment: Chaotic evil Type: Change to outsider (native). Do not recalculate BAB, HD or saves Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +4 Special Qualities and Defenses: A child of Llymic gains the see in darkness universal monster quality as well as the following Damage Reduction: A child of Llymic has DR 5/magic. A child of Llymic with 10 or more HD has DR 10/magic. Immunities: A child of Llymic is immune to ability damage, ability drain, cold, mind-influencing effect, petrifaction and polymorph effects Resistances: A child of Llymic has electricity and fire resistance 10. A child of Llymic with 20 or more HD has electricity and fire resistance 20 Spell Resistance: A child of Llymic gains spell resistance equal to its adjusted CR +11. Weaknesses: A child of Llymic gains the following weaknesses Light Sickness (Ex) A child of Llymic is sickened in an area of normal or bright light. It takes damage as if it were undead from light based spells and abilities that deal damage, such as searing light or sunbeam Vulnerable to Sonic: A child of Llymic takes 150% damage from sonic based spells and effects. Speed: Increase the base creature’s land speed by 20 feet. A child of Llymic also has the following special ability Ice Walking (Ex) A child of Llymic ignores all difficult terrain and movement penalties from natural or magical snow and ice. Melee: A child of Llymic has no hands and loses the ability to use manufactured weapons. They gain two claw attacks and a bite attack. The bite attack deals damage as normal for a creature of the child of Llymic’s size. The claw attacks deal damage as if they were two sizes larger. A Gargantuan child of Llymic deals 3d8 points of damage with its claw attacks, and a Colossal child of Llymic deals 4d8 points of damage with its claw attacks. Special Attacks: A child of Llymic gains a breath weapon that deals 1d6 points of cold damage per 2 HD of the creature. Creatures that take damage from the breath weapon are also exposed to the curse of Llymic (see below). The save DC for the breath weapon is Constitution based. This breath weapon can be used three times per day, but the child of Llymic must wait 1d4 rounds between uses. The size of the breath weapon is as follows:

Size                                         Cone Length Tiny or smaller                          10 ft. Small                                         15 ft. Medium                                     20 ft. Large                                        30 ft. Huge                                         40 ft. Gargantuan                              50 ft. Colossal                                    60 ft.

If the base creature has a better breath weapon, it retains that breath weapon instead, but deals the curse of Llymic to creatures that take damage from it. Curse of Llymic (Su) Breath weapon—contact; save Fortitude, Charisma based DC; onset 1 hour; frequency 1/day; effect 1 temporary negative level. Negative levels dealt by the curse of Llymic can only be removed through magic, and only if the creature is in natural sunlight. A creature that has as many temporary negative levels as HD from this ability is transformed into a child of Llymic over the course of one minute. Spell-like Abilities A child of Llymic with an Intelligence or Wisdom of 8 or higher gains access to the following spell-like abilities. CL = HD.

HD                                             Abilities 1-2                                             snowball 3/day 3-4                                             darkness 3/day 5-6                                             sleet storm 7-8                                             dispel magic 3/day 9-10                                           deeper darkness 3/day 11-12                                         wall of ice 13-14                                         enervation 15-16                                         cone of cold 17-18                                         greater dispel magic 3/day 19-20                                         polar ray

Abilities: Change from base creature as follows: Str +6, Con +6, Wis +2, Cha +4 Skills: A child of Llymic gains skill ranks from its racial HD as a creature of the outsider type (6+Int modifier). Do not change class skills for racial HD. Feats: A child of Llymic gains Improved Critical (claw) and Power Attack as bonus feats.

Image by Izzy, © Wizards of the Coast.

[Commissioned by @justicegundam82​. Sertrous is another one of the cast of Elder Evils, and the one who is the most redundant within Pathfinder RPG. This is because he was created by James Jacobs, who just rearranged some of the components and made them Pathfinder canon. Ydersius is a serpent god who was beheaded but lives on (and his name even rhymes!), whereas the heresy-snakes link got shifted onto Geryon. So when I got commissioned to write this creature, the obvious struggle was to make it fill a different campaign niche than either of these canonical villains. Inspired by the golothomas , I made it Ydersius’ sundered shadow-self. As opposed to the radically different flavor text, the mechanics of my version are almost a straight conversion instead of doing much radical. My biggest change was altering the form of madness/horrific appearance, as qlippoth lords cause physical changes with their horrific appearances instead of purely mental effects. I also toned down its complete immunity to all divine spells.]

Qlippoth Lord, Sertrous CR 22 CE Outsider (extraplanar) This being is an immense nightmare of slimy coils and shining scales. Two long serpentine arms emerge from its midsection, each ending in a three-taloned hand. Its head is that of a deformed snake, five jaws blooming radially away from each other like a monstrous flower. It is sickly green with a pale yellow belly, stripes of red running along its sides like rivers of blood.

Sertrous, The Poisoned Whisper, The Arch-Heretic, The Divine Shadow Concerns heresy, poison, resentment, serpents Domains Chaos, Evil, Scalykind, Trickery Subdomains Deception, Entropy, Hatred*, Venom Worshipers apostates, heretics, serpentfolk Minions demodands, fiendish hydras, qlippoths Unholy Symbol the shadow of a headless snake Favored Weapon spiked chain Devotion Spend an hour destroying a holy book or holy symbol, all the while reciting heresies and blasphemies specific to that faith. Gain a +2 profane bonus on all saving throws against divine spells. Boons 1: misdirection 2/day; 2: spell immunity 2/day; 3: mass suggestion 2/day *clerics of Sertrous can use the Hatred subdomain to modify the Evil domain

When the god Ydersius was slain, the violence done to him shattered his psyche and quintessence as well as his body. Although Ydersius persisted as the Sundered God, a part of his shadow was cast off, squirming into the Abyss and finding root. In time and hatred, this essence manifested itself a body. The divine shadow is Sertrous, the Arch-Heretic. Although Sertrous cultivates and spreads heresies of all kinds, his own existence is an embodiment of perhaps the greatest heresy—that the gods hate their own worshipers. After all, without the attention brought on by the serpentfolk’s schemes, Ydersius would never have been slain.

Sertrous is poison incarnate, both to the body and the mind. His venom is among the strongest in the cosmos, eating away at flesh with astonishing rapidity. Creatures that see him find their own bodies revolting, their shadows metamorphosing into deadly serpents that strike their owners as readily as their surroundings. He can implant suggestions in mortal minds and make them forget they were anything other than their own ideas. He can drain the free will from a grappled victim and turn them into an enthralled puppet. And if all of that fails, he is brutally strong.

Sertrous courts worship more openly than do most qlippoth lords, but his faith involves forsaking all divinity as a pyramid scheme. The organization of his followers is referred to as the Vanguard of Sertrous. Of all of the gods Sertrous hates, Ydersius, his creator/former self, is the most hated. Sertrous sees Ydersius’ reliance on his serpentfolk cult to be co-dependency, whereas he is happy to have abandoned all but the most depraved and apostate serpentfolk and expanded his minions. The Vanguard counts many demodands among its members, although whether they are true believers or are attempting to manipulate Sertrous’ maltheism to the benefit of the thanatoic titans is an unresolved question. Sertrous’ sanctum is the Serpent Reliquary, an extradimensional space accessible only in the depths of the Abyss. It functions as a tesseract, each of its chambers accessible to the others in seemingly impossible ways. The center of this complex holds the shadow of Ydersius’ severed head, which fell into the Abyss so many years ago and spawned Sertrous.