#ydersius

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.

Confession time: I told you the last two stories so that I could introduce you to someone special. You know how Beholders are so iconic, weird, and often downright creepy? Take a Beholder, flip it upside down, and replace each eye with serpent. Now say hello to the Emperor of Scales. 

 Heralds actually gave me fits for a while. They were in the bestiary section of the Adventure Paths, which I desperately wanted to cover, but they weren't traditional monsters. In fact, they were more individuals with they're own histories and motivations. So when I first started writing, I decided to just ignore them. Three years on, I think my writing has matured a bit and I know my ideas definitely have. Not too long ago, I was hit with a sudden, obvious realization: I was looking at the Heralds in the wrong way. Instead of treating them like monsters, I should write them the same way I do Powers... As powerful NPCs. The added benefit with Heralds is that they are a bit more mobile and a lot more approachable than the various Goddesses and Gods, giving PCs a chance to brush up with the divine while not being total out of their depths. Plus Heralds can enter Sigil, as they are just Proxies of the Powers, which is another plus. 

 So how can we use the Emperor of Scales? While, the first thing of note is that while he is an Outsider, he's a Native Outsider, so he has the extraplaner subtype on all planes except Golarion, where he spends most of his time. Given that Golarion is the Emperor's home plane, and both halves of its god, Ydersius, are found on that plane, you are only likely to encounter him on the planes with purpose. Some Heralds you could randomly run into in a bar in Sigil. The Emperor of Scales isn't really one of them. 

 The Emperor brings with it immunity to fire and acid, so it can explore the typically fire and brimstone locales of Plane with impunity. Also of not is that it's damage reduction is bypassed bot by cold iron, as most chaotic outsiders are in Pathfinder and 3.5, but by silver. Devil hunters may be the best equipped individuals to go after the Emperor, but it's tactics will be unlike any they have ever faced. Of course, if you load up this Herald with Tanar'ri as minions, you'll give players the headache of to stock up on two types of alchemical metals. In terms of special abilities, The Emperor of Scales comes pretty stocked. He can cast teleport and poison at will, spamming them as need be. The Emperor is under a constant fly effect, so it's just as at home on the Plane of Air as it is in Pandemonium. It has a maddening hiss that confuses foes and who slew of mind-control spells to get its way, including the ability to take over any snake with the animal or magical beast type as a free action. Basically, the Emperor is a master manipulator and a hell of a combatant if you ever trace its minions back to it. 

Terror reigns on the Beastlands. Ancient and destructive, Agyra the Forever Storm has fled the Lost Plateau and is now searching for a portal large enough to take it off plane. What no one has yet realized is that the Emperor of Serpents has found someway of seizing control of the Kaiju, and while this doesn't immediately Ydersius to power, it does glorify the Headless one and is an extraordinary bargaining chip. 

All for public discourse, the Sign of One are hosting a conference for reptilian sentients. Dragons, Nagas, Kobolds, and Lizardfolk descend upon Sigil to discuss their common heritage and relations. The Emperor is Scales is both one of the organizers of the conference and one of the keynote speakers, but what is its motive? Can diplomacy at the conference cause it to tone down its blunt assertion that it is the legitimate sovereign of all things with scales? 

I think the Headless King ends up as a fairly interesting character in Planescape. This is in spite of the fact (or maybe because) he is an absolute bit player who is totally focused on Golarion and no where else. Let me explain.

Ydersius would end up as an observation in contradictions. He's a total none player in Planer politics due to both his head and body being on Golarion and his planer realm being closed off. That said, a number of different factions would end up totally obsessed with him. The Athar and Fraternity of Order must have compiled dozens of papers tried to explain the mechanics why the Serpent God persists beyond his decapitation, along with speculation as to if and how it can be killed for good. The Doomguard and Harmonium team up (for once) to try and prevent the god from being restored, one for the sake of peace and the other for the sake of entropy. The Believers of the Source and the Sign of One dwell on what makes Ydersius different from other deities, and if it has access to higher reality. The Fated admire his tenacity. The Society of Sensation plots to reunite head and body so they can try and ask for a sensory stone of the whole experience. The Bleak Cabal tries to think about him and his connection to the Great Old Ones. We already know there's a campaign worth of plothooks with Ydersius because Paizo already did that, but I think this shows that there is at least a campaign more you could get out of him in the planes. 

 As faction members, Ydersius' faithful likely gravitate towards the Fated and the Chaosmen. The two big no go areas would be the Doomguard and Athar. The Guard wants to keep decay going and restoring Ydersius would contradict that. The Athar is obvious, but I'd expect few to no former priests of his amongst their number. Ydersius was beheaded but still refused to abandon his people. If anything, that may of reinforced his faithful, even if it put them in a weakened political position. 

One last note is Ydersius' domain of Sydrixus. The domain has been cut off since Ydersius's beheading, and Pathfinder canon doesn't give much in it beyond "in the Maelstrom." I'm placing it in Carceri, since that plane has plenty of jungles and the unable to get in or out nature of the domain reminds me of a prison. 

Both the Lady's Mazes and Sydrixus are supposed to be impossible to get into or out of. The Githyanki Djhek'nlarr has maps for both. For a price she'll provide them to you. For a better price she'll even give you the real ones, but the maps themselves are dangerous. It marks you as a target for the Harmonium and the Serpentfolk, both who want to recover the maps no matter what it takes. 

One of Ydersius' minions on the Planes, the Marlith Lixiriltha, is a welcome source of income for adventurers who are down on their luck. She acts as Ydersius's representative in Sigil, and is willing to pay those who accept her tasks in the purest Jade. She is well organized, and knows how to assign her jobs based both on philosophy and alignment, but one must be careful not to displease her. Those who do are prone to have her Medusean gave fall upon them, and end up as the jink that the next adventurer gets paid in.