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Messages - Luctus
31
« on: July 31, 2016, 04:17:54 AM »
In the D and D sense of things, regular people can attain the positions of deity's, and deity's can be slain or forgotten, even have their powers taken or challenged by them powerful enough. So in the same token their deity's are just uber powerful characters who left this plain of existence for wanting one with greater challenge and potential for their skills, yes?
In regards to D&D's concept of godhood, that's not entirely accurate. By D&D standards, gods can definitely be slain, their powers stolen, and their worship dismantled. The Forgotten Realms setting maintains that gods will simply shrivel up and die without worship; this the decree of that pantheon's overdeity. They are more than simply ascended characters, however. Most of the pantheons listed across D&D's various core and splat books are not former mortals; they're primordial entities. A few, such as Lolth, began as a demon lord and eventually ascended to godhood through a combination of mortal worship and stolen power. What precious few of D&D's gods there are that began their existence as mortals have all but lost their original identities whilst ascending. Even a lesser deity would be considered powerful well beyond mortal reckoning. You might could kill one in an epic level campaign that has allowed the acquisition of a divine rank or two, but there's almost no chance of being able to do it using only core and splat books and 20th level characters. Between their already ridiculous stats and the further gains of possessing several divine ranks, these entities are virtually untouchable except by other gods and near-gods. The gap becomes even wider when you factor in intermediate deities, which are themselves as far above lesser deities as lesser deities are mortals. Above them are greater deities, and above those is an overdeity. All that being said, the dream doesn't stick to D&D's canon. It's kind of a melting pot. I'd kinda like to see Etla get its own religion going at some point in the future.
32
« on: July 05, 2016, 10:57:45 AM »
Basics / Biography DataFurcadia Name: Abaddon Current Alias: Zurvan Augustus Other Aliases: Abaddon, Abezethibou, Agrathon, Basileon, Berselius Species: The Fallen Subspecies/Race: Redacted Age: Unknown Apparent Age: 31 Gender: Male Height: 6'9" Weight: 294 lbs. Build: Muscular Fur/Skin Color: Ashen Hair Color/Style: White Eye Color: Blue Markings/Scars: Appendages: Variable Handedness: Ambidextrous Primary Class: Cleric Secondary Class (optional): Summoner Profession: Master of Laws, blacksmith Appearance (Furcadia Description): Strong angular features, warm beige skin, and blue eyes were this man's most immediately outstanding features. He was of fit form and impressive height; athletic but not bulky, and standing at roughly 6'6". Healthy red hair reached almost to mid-back, and a heavy goatee of like color graced a face that was otherwise completely unblemished. Even his eyebrows were red - and thick, but not in any particularly unappealing way. He wore a twin-tailed white longcoat with purple trim and cuffs over an off-black vest that, not unlike the coat above, had a few purple highlights. Black pants and similarly colored riding boots completed his attire, while fine leather belt with adamantine buckle accompanied. He wore no accessories other than the white-gold ruby pendant around his neck and a rune-covered ring on the left middle finger. PersonalityDemeanor: Magnificent Bastard Likes: Analyzing magic, designing ships, intelligent company, reading, smithing Dislikes: Anarchy, pointless sentimentality, the uneducated, weakness of most kinds Phobias (if any): Alignment: Lawful Evil (Dominator) Description: They respect the law, but have no concern for others, and tend to exploit the law to rise to power. Often they will engage in merciless, organised, planned killing. Example: Adolf Hitler.
Cribnote: It's all part of the evil plan. StatisticsStrength (STR): High Dexterity (DEX): Low Constitution (CON): Medium-High Intelligence (INT): Medium Wisdom (WIS): Medium Charisma (CHA): Medium-High Overall Evaluation: (71) Very Strong (Strengths / Resistances) / WeaknessesStrengths / Resistances- Strength / Resistance: Damage Resistance
Description: Abaddon's presence toughens the host, endowing its bodily tissues with greater density, hardening its bones, and making a few areas uncharacteristically difficult to cut or pierce. - Strength / Resistance: Elemental Resistances
Description: The cold is about fifty percent less damaging, and most acids cause only a quarter of their normal damage. Cold or caustic environments are of little consequence. - Strength / Resistance: Fire Immunity
Description: Fire is comfortable--it reminds one of home; it's harmless. - Strength / Resistance: Regeneration
Description: Possession confers a portion of Abaddon's regeneration to his vessel. Minor wounds mend almost immediately, but worse injuries could require minutes, hours, or even days, depending upon their severity. Most poisons and other foreign substances are rendered either partially or wholly ineffective as a side effect, including alcohol.
Weaknesses- Weakness: Aether Depletion
Description: As a fundamentally aethereal being, Abaddon is unusually vulnerable to effects which forcibly extract the aether from sapient creatures. His overall prowess changes in accordance with how much or little remains. - Weakness: Alternate Forms
Description: Abaddon must abide by the laws of any shape he takes. A shape without fingers can't cast spells requiring gestures just as one that can't speak wouldn't be able to recite an incantation. Mortal wounds remain mortal; they may not kill the possessor, but they can kill the possessed. - Weakness: Banishment
Description: Many spells exist for banishing the likes of Abaddon from the physical world. While some are more effective than others, most will do what they were designed to. This can also be accomplished by slaying a host body while it's occupied, in which case the possessing entity will be sent away for a period of time not less than one month. - Weakness: Binding
Description: As with banishment, a wide variety of spells are available for binding the creature up. This could range from literal restraints to more metaphysical sorts of binding, mayhaps even locking him out of one or more of his inherent supernatural abilities. - Weakness: Celestial
Description: The use of celestial symbols presents an option for those without magical abilities to neutralize, imprison, or even banish Abaddon. Written properly, it could even conceal one from detection. Regardless, the effects of celestial writing are seldom permanent, although they can take a while to overcome without outside assistance. - Weakness: Control
Description: It is possible to compel Abaddon's obedience through magic, at least for a time. Enslaved as such, he must follow any orders that are not inherently self-destructive or suicidal so long as they wouldn't take more than a year and a day to complete. Spellcasters employing such methods must continually fight for dominance. - Weakness: Ejection
Description: The possessed may, through much effort and at the cost of great mental and spiritual strain, regain sufficient awareness to rescind permission and drive their possessor out. - Weakness: Free Will
Description: Abaddon must "respect" free will. He cannot use his magic or abilities to directly control any living, sapient creature under any circumstances. As a consequence, all prospective hosts must give their willing consent prior to possession occurring. - Weakness: Heavenforged Weapons
Description: Weapons forged in the upper planes or imbued with properties of the heavenly host are very effective against Abaddon, bypassing some of his host's augmented resilience and inflicting wounds that heal at half the normal speed. Silver and mithril count as this, but they're only half as effective. - Weakness: Holy Attribute
Description: Objects and harmful spells imbued with holy properties bypass a portion of the fiend's natural resilience and cause wounds that do not benefit from regeneration. - Weakness: Holy Symbols
Description: A person of sufficiently strong faith can use such objects to wound Abaddon as by silver, though the images do not repel or inspire fear as they would in some common fiend or vampire. Contact is required to make use of this effect. A holy symbol, much like holy water, is of no effect if brandished by one without faith. - Weakness: Physical Focus
Description: Abaddon's host is a focal point for his energies in the material world. Its ability to channel his power decreases accordingly as damage is accrued. Frequent or extreme misuse of of the possessor's power could permanently damage or destroy it. - Weakness: Physical Limitations
Description: Though enhanced, the host body is still human on a fundamental level. It is therefore limited to performing at the very peak of human potential under most circumstances. Pushing further beyond constitutes a blatantly supernatural act and thus makes the possessing entity detectable by those with the ability to do so. - Weakness: Psychic Presence
Description: The fallen presents with an astoundingly powerful psychic impression. Clairvoyants and other similarly endowed psychics with a penchant for detecting the preternatural perceive him strongly--a crushing, almost suffocating presence that seems to ebb and flow like the beating of a heart. This flaw remains present even while occupying a host, and no amount of effort on the possessing entity's part can suppress it. He is, for all intents and purposes, inherently terrifying to most sensitives because of this trait. Even lesser examples of Abaddon's own kind may be affected in this way. - Weakness: Sensory Feedback
Description: Part of possession is focusing one's senses through their host body, and it can certainly be exploited. Abaddon feels what his host feels, sees and hears what his host sees and hears, and will likewise suffer along with his vessel if the enhanced senses conferred to it by possession should be overloaded. - Weakness: Temporal Anomaly
Description: Abaddon exists slightly outside of normal time. This is "detectable" by those with a sense for temporal abnormalities as a curious absence. As a side effect, Abaddon's present and past are concealed from being read through most common methods, and the future is all but hidden from the fiend himself. Attempts at "skipping ahead" show a myriad of potential futures rather than anything exact, making spells or effects of this nature less than reliable. - Weakness: True Death
Description: "Mortal" wounds often mean expulsion from the material world, but death in his own home realm serves as a more permanent solution. There is no afterlife for Abaddon; as a being whose "soul", if one could even call it that, and body exist as a singular unity. What waits beyond his oblivion, and there are only a handful of ways to return from it - all of which require external assistance. - Weakness: True Faith
Description: A pious enough individual could conceivably repel or even harm Abaddon without needing access to magic, blessed items, or even holy symbols. Strong enough faith can make approach difficult, cause a simple punch feel as if it were delivered with brass knuckles, or cause normal water to burn as if by acid. - Weakness: Wings
Description: Abaddon's individual wings take the form of eight thin streams of white-blue aether that emerge from his back on demand. Viewed together, they resemble a single set of large wings. Each of these wings houses a portion of his primordial essence, making them perhaps his single greatest vulnerability. A marked decrease in overall ability occurs with each wing lost, eventually rendering him effectively mortal if all eight are stripped away. The wings do regenerate, but one week is required for each severed wing; this is cumulative. The wings cannot be destroyed through purely physical means, but spellcraft and holy weapons are effective.
PossessionsWeapons- Weapon: Black Huntsman
Description: An ornate flintlock rifle boasting a total length of 145 cm including the 88.9 cm barrel. Rifling on the inside coupled with a series of runes running the weapon's length somewhat increase the weapon's effective range and muzzle velocity. A sentient weapon, the Black Huntsman has a love of driving users it doesn't like to turn its barrel back upon themselves. - Weapon: Vesper
Description: A simple 150 cm longsword; Vesper's plain appearance is indicative of a function over form mentality. It is, however, quite cursed. Vesper seeks to dig into the very soul of any would-be wielder, that it might seize their innermost darkness, dragging it screaming to the surface while simultaneously robbing the victim of their moral inhibitions. In battle Vesper flares with heat so intense that its actual blade seems almost invisible. The sword will shatter into 666 pieces if used to commit a purely altruistic act.
Armor- Armor: Reinforced Coat
Description: Abaddon's favorite long coat sports a thin layer of mithril mash between the fabric and the lining. The mesh offers only limited protection against stabbing, but it is rather resistant to being cut. - Armor: Reinforced Vest
Description: Not unlike the coat, Abaddon's vest boasts a thin layer of mithril mesh between the lining and fabric. This article of clothing also sports a series of rib-like mithril strips designed to give it a bit of rigidity while staying flexible.
Trinkets / Items (owned or worn):- Item: Seal of Solomon
Description: Seemingly an ordinary ring at first glance, close inspection would reveal a plethora of overlapping graven images and conjuration arrays. The ring assists in the summoning and binding of spirits. Some believe it also brings misfortune to its wearer. - Item:
Description:
AbilitiesNatural Abilities- Ability: Heōsphoros
Description: The ancient fiend yet possesses some small measure of the grace he once held; his divinity, however limited, remains partially intact. This divine spark affords its holder the innate ability to wield magics of a divine nature, albeit with certain limitations imposed; Abaddon can manipulate almost any external force he so desires, but he cannot create something from nothing or reduce what exists to a state of total non-existence. This is to say he cannot create new matter or energy, and he cannot cause absence where once had been substance. A small amount of divine energy is passively gifted to any summoned creatures; slightly increasing their overall abilities, causing an additional creature to appear in the event that the spell used would already call more than one, and slightly extending the duration of such spells. In any event, the old fiend's divine prowess most typically manifests itself in the form of a searing white-blue light channeled through one or more extremities. - Ability: Perception
Description: Manifested through the host, Abaddon's senses allow him to visually observe much of the electromagnetic spectrum, hear and comprehend a much broader range of sounds even over great distances, and see the auras of other living creatures. Such a greatly expanded perceptional range affords one the ability to perceive and interact with spirits as well -- even magic, though an in-depth analysis still requires concentration. - Ability: Telepathy
Description: While Abaddon may access the minds and memories of current and former hosts at will, he cannot freely tear into the minds of others. Surface thoughts and willing communication are readily accessible, but anything deeper than that requires direct eye contact. Thoughts may be transmitted to others either through word—in which case the recipient(s) will hear his voice in their minds—or as imagery. Alteration or erasure of existing memories requires extreme focus and may not always be perfect.
Learned Abilities:- Ability: Combat Training
Description: A proficient user of blade and polearm alike, Abaddon excels greatly at most common forms of armed combat. His employed style focuses less on individual weapons and more on the technique itself; it permits the user to wield most bladed weapons effectively, though it does not lend itself well to those--blade or polearm--devoted nigh-exclusively to piercing attacks. The drawback to this preference for versatility over focus is a frequent lack of final polish, which is to say he is not likely to know particularly advanced techniques with a given weapon. The term "jack of all trades, master of none" very much applies in all cases save European polearms, wherein the fiend is found to be exceedingly proficient in their use. The same phrase could be applied to Abaddon's unarmed approach; he is skilled and versatile, but he lacks the more advanced techniques from any particular style. - Ability: Master Craftsman
Description: The fiend is both a master smith and skilled leather worker. Armoring and bladesmithing in particular would qualify as strong suits; Abaddon's skills in these fields are much lauded in many circles, and some of his best works have gone to become the stuff of legend. He does possess some knowledge of tailoring, but that is mostly limited to what can benefit his primary pursuits.
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