Beldileck

Abhômaipeth Mothership - made from Beldileck

Beldileck was a primordial aberration that fought in the Dawn War. His body was a contorted orb atop eleven crab-like legs. It was dotted with many eyes and mouths and looked like a cross between a gibbering mouther and a beholder. All of his attacks and defenses were powered by the arcane, drawing power from the Web of Magic.

After being promoted to primordial lord, he was assigned control over a moon that was then simply called Orb 398. With limited Powers of Creation, he created the beholder race as a security force that would be mobile, highly alert, and unhindered by the rugged conditions of the mini-world assigned to him. Beldileck was assigned to this moon because he had been tainted with Law from an encounter with the then archangel Athena. As such, he was not completely trusted on the battlefield because his plans often forced too much Order on armies dominated by those of chaotic tendencies. When he created the beholders, they ended up having even more Law in them than their creator. After a thousand years of servitude to Beldileck, they began to rebel. A century of fighting between those loyal to him and the rebels ended when Beldileck's great mass was petrified by scores of beholders working in unison.

In the Second Epoch, Abhômaipeth military scientists began un-petrifying parts of Beldileck. They dried these parts and then used them to make the hulls of their largest void ships - the Abhômaipeth Motherships.

Polyxo

Polyxo

Polyxo was born in the God Era to Arcana and Kord. She was the first daughter of these two who were then but archangels.

In the God Era, Polyxo rose to be an astral deva. Since her skills were more suited for the lab than war, she found herself posted north of Cthorgo with the Tholanbar military unit. This was a battalion sized force of Turkûn-Khâl and auxiliaries tasked with building an outpost and then keeping watch for demon incursions. It was a dull post, one seeing little action, sometimes years would go by without demon sightings. During this time, Polyxo turned to dabbling in creation, something she lacked the skill in, but was able to make for with some life energy given to her by her mother Ioun. Her mother, also not a Creationist, wanted to figure out why some were so eager to get this stuff. Polyxo used the life energy given to her to create several new life forms. Each of these were most suited for the Underdark and intended for various duties. The most sentient of these lifeforms are the myconids. This plant-like race was made in collaboration with Silvanus. The myconid were made to spread vegetation and create fungal forests in the Underdark. Her other two notable creations were the carrion crawler and the ochre jelly, both to serve as "vultures of the underworld".

She experimented with soul energy at a place she helped design, the stronghold Quelmollendë. She intended to make a variant of the dwarves that was more accustomed to living in the deeper areas of the Underdark. Her experiments using soul energy to create new life forms were only a partial success. This was because the souls she used were destined for the Abyss. Normally, these souls would be the chattel of the plane, and rise as lemures or some other petty fiend. Polyxo re-purposed these chaotic evil souls, using them to create new life forms. For most of those created in this manner, the outcome was something degenerate, mutated, twisted, or prone to insanity. The Derro race were one of these.

After the Demon Spawn War, Polyxo became a Solar to her mother Ioun. Polyxo's skill at using life energy and soul energy is such that along with her magic items she is equivalent to a Tier 3 Creationist.

Yennog

Leptyr Marauders

Yennog was built in the Lith-Crillion Era by a gnoll shaman that had been turned into a werewolf. He was revered among the gnoll tribes as something blessed by Yeenoghu. The truth though was that the shaman was turned by the will of nature, bitten by a wolf carrying the Curse of Lyncathropy. Various gnoll tribes built Yennog in concert with frequent fighting over who would be building the most important part of the place.

Yennog is a fortress built in the shape of a howling wolf. Either by accident or design, the structure produces a natural, yet unnerving howl. This sound can be heard ten miles away and is constant; thanks to the perpetual winds generated by the Primordial Storm.

Yennog has never fallen to enemy attack. The place has spiritual significance to the gnolls with them stopping any internal fighting and joining forces to combat whatever threatens the place. Those gnolls that have a deep spiritual interest in the place become special guards called the Leptyr Marauders (Leptyr being a reference to the moon). As part of an ancient rite, subjects give up part of themselves to become werewolves. This ritual is the Pack Rite which has since its start, always been performed by gnoll shamans. Since the First Epoch, the Pack Rite has been administered by the Shamanic Conclave of Drugnod.

Yennog is also a training place for warriors. The training is savage with a high combat mortality rate. The class tactic Yennog Savage came out of the bloody training pits of this place.

Ink'ar

Ink'ar

Ink'ar was one of the first nine mortals of the Shou race. He remained alive longer than his normal lifespan thanks to magical elixirs. These were provided to him by his creator and lover Zhusalax. These two parted ways in the God Era over Zhusalax's amorous relations with other mortals and celestials she needed favors from.

In the Demon Spawn War, Ink'ar served on the command staff of Asmdoeus, and later as part of the general staff of the Quara'tun Covenant. Near the end of the God Era, Ink'ar became the god of two races he created - the githyanki and githzerai.

Ink'ar was a pitiless demigod who pitted his worshipers, mainly the githyanki and githzerai, against each other. This was done more to hone his skills in diplomacy and battle than help and guide his creations. His manipulations are thought to have been a result of him being passed over in the Demon Spawn War when Asmdoeus selected Geryon instead of him as second-in-command. Ever since then, he has worked to prove himself a great strategist and tactician - even at the expense of his own people.

Incar's last great game of chess happened on the world Ghífthauk. The Impar'lex War was a near century-long war between the githyanki and githzerai. It ended when his priests, those most attuned to his spiritual presence, lost all contact with him. A year later, the githyanki and githzerai were attacked by a massive invasion force from the nearby moon Ráglauth. The illithids of the Suellk empire made quick work of peoples still suffering the effects of their last war. Decades later, githzerai servants came upon illithid documents in Qualith. These were taken to escaped slaves which had turned into a rebel force. This group spent decades more translating it, learning that it was the illithid's god Ilsensine who killed Incar.

Tail of Golruwyrm

Molten Pools Golruwyrm

The Tail of Golruwyrm is a gold vein that begins along the western cliffs of Diiv Prok. On the surface it is expended. It goes into the Underdark crossing Imgangreth, Miryeril and into Faeglor where it ends at Zarag-Gûn. The main vein has been exploited in many areas but large untapped tracts still exist. These parts are generally in hard to reach areas or falling in the territory of some one.

Some legends say that the Tail of Golruwyrm was produced when the great dragon Golruwyrm perished at Stafknir Hrerbjof - better known today as the Sands of Hell. One version of the story is that the gold vein was her treasure hoard that was fused together when she went out in a blaze of glory.

One of the holds built along the Tail of Golruwyrm and mined by its people is Sigatharkin. This citadel was built by the Mîmêk to protect the advancing mines tapping the legendary vein. This gold seam was so bountiful and consistent that the Mîmêk had been tapping it for a thousand years, leaving a string of settlements and fortresses in their wake. They followed it intermittently from Diiv Prok all the way into Zarag-Gûn where it ends.

In Chaexidor, is a area of high heat where the gold flows like liquid. This area is the Molten Pools of Golruwyrm. It is the territory of salamanders which attack anyone getting near their gold.

Battle of the Eldritch Lords

Xag-Ya

The Battle of the Eldritch Lords was one of hundreds of battles that made up the Dawn War. Over a three day period in 7700 DE, the primordial Sarseg and the archangel Arcana battled at the head of the Endless Wall. Sarseg was their on orders of the Master of Tides, seeking to bring the wall's expansion to an end. The two very powerful arcanists and their armies fought to a stalemate. Ioun sent a message to Sarseg challenging him one on one. The leaders squared off in the middle of the battlefield and unreleased a fury of magic upon each other, but neither could breach the other' defenses. Sarseg then surrounded himself with a sphere of black crackling energy and rolled towards his adversary. Ioun, did the same, but instead of negative energy, she entered a silver and fiery ball composed of positive energy with the hope of canceling out Sarseg's energy field. This did not go as planned, because the two spheres of opposing energy exploded on impact. Most of each side's army were obliterated in the explosion. The several hundred of each side that survived were fused with the blood and magical energy of the opposing factions giving birth to a truly neutral race - the Rilmani. Both Sarseg and Ioun died in the blast, but this was only temporary for each had prepared a safe place for their spirit to re-enter an awaiting clone.

Another result of the battle's explosion was the creation of hundreds of xag-ya and xeg-yi. These creatures attacked anything that moved in the area, forcing the rilmani to play dead or move out of the area as quickly as possible. When the xag-ya and xeg-yi came near each other, they became attracted to each other magnet, and where they collided they created a mini explosion similar to the one that happened when Sarseg and Ioun came together.

Melee a God

Ares using the power Battle Titan

Taking on a Higher Power is no trifling matter.  It can be done, and has been done by mortals.  One of the few known successes is when Rax traveled to the home plane of Coeus and killed him.  Normally though, it takes a god to take down a god.  Besides the potential windfall of loot and magic items, it is more beneficial for a god to do it, because they can take claim to one of the dead god's domains.  For a god though, it is a very risky undertaking and normally only done if it is a sure thing.  If a group of mortals did decide to confront a god, they will need to be in the Epic levels, otherwise they have a near zero chance of success.  This is because all the statistics of the Higher Powers are very high and they have a number of traits that make unimaginably tough.  The two traits that are uniform across all higher powers are Modulating Energy and Divine Toughness.  The first is extra energy damage that they inflict with each damaging attack. For a Cult power, this is five hit points, but for a Greater power it is 25 HPS of damage with the energy type being whatever the victim is most susceptible too.  Divine Toughness is an increase in hit points that occurs at each power level.  This tops out at +8,000 hit points for a Greater power.  Higher Powers are formidable foes indeed, but not omnipotent or invincible - though any lay person would swear otherwise.  In the Demon Spawn War, a few Higher Powers fell forever.  Callarduran died battling Jurusalax and thirteen packs of runehounds of the largest size.   It was taking so long to bring him down, that Jurusalax had his hounds knock him down and then smother him.  If this had not been done, the health pool of Callarduran would have required an entire demon army to overcome.