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Acererak

2021-05-24T05:00:51Z

2601:203:400:CE90:7152:F5E2:F62D:B22:

[[File:Acererak S1.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Acererak's remains as shown in module S1.]]
'''Acererak''' is the name [[E. Gary Gygax]] bestowed upon THE [[Lich|LICH]] (no, not [[Vecna|that]] one) in [[Tomb of Horrors]], technically a demilich as of module S1 1978. He's called "The Devourer" after his self-portrait in that module. *erRRp*

[[Bruce R. Cordell]] two decades later, in ''Return to the Tomb of Horrors'', laid out the backstory (with Gary's blessing):

Acererak, [[cambion]] son of Tarnhem balor [[tanar'ri]] (''sic'': ''Return'' is 2e) and a human woman he'd raped, lived a long life doing dark arts. Somewhere in the Negative Material Plane, the man found Moil, "The City That Waits", which no less a horror than [[Orcus]] had ripped off planet Ranais. Later, nearing death himself, he chose to become a lich. He set up his own tomb, in that swamp which (later) separates the [[Scarlet Brotherhood]] and more civilised folk. This tomb is, in the remake, Acererak's gateway to Moil.

Acererak as a lich rediscovered Moil still floating around the Negative Material. The lich went there and recruited the local [[undead|deadites]] to build his new, ''real'' tomb of horrors: the Fortress of Conclusion. Acererak is going for an Apotheosis - to pick up where Orcus left off. (Again: 2e. But ''late'' 2e. Orcus is here going by "Tenebrous"; he's handled [[Dead Gods|in inferior work]].) Meanwhile Acererak's filled the Fortress ''and'' Moil with traps partly because he's a dick like that; also because the higher levels adventurers attain, the more potent are their souls to fuel his Apotheosis.

Over the course of ''Return'' the heroes get to foil Acererak's plan - in fact, even to destroy his phylactery. But, wait for it . . .

In the third of 3.5's ''[[Tome of Magic]]'' that's actually good, Acererak returns as a [[Vestige]] for the [[Binder]] class.

Somehow the Devourer shows up alive, or undead?, again as the [[BBEG]] of [[Tomb of Annihilation]]. His new plan is to create a god he can control instead of becoming one himself using a "soulmonger" to suck up the souls of the dead all over the world and also slowly kill those who previously died and came back and use those souls to supercharge an [[Atropal|aborted god fetus]] into a full god. *deep breath* In this adventure Acererak is depicted as a lich instead of a demilich. It is unclear if this is because he somehow came back to unlife as a lich again, or because this is actually a prequel to Tomb of Horrors, or because of WotC not caring about maintaining continuity (probably the last one considering how they treated the [[Ravenloft]] setting).

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Acererak vecna comic.jpg|Before starting on the path to lichdom.
Acererak open grave.png
Acererak ToA.jpg|From the cover of ''Tomb of Annihilation''
Acererak 5e.jpg
Acererak Atropal 5e.jpg|Him with his previously mentioned aborted god fetus.
</gallery>

[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:Undead]]
[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]]

Aboleth

2021-05-24T02:34:44Z

2601:203:400:CE90:7152:F5E2:F62D:B22:

[[File:Aboleth B1 PF.png|thumb|right|300px|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSqYeQHJbn0| Hi guys. How's it going?]]]
{{topquote|Readers will notice a thematic resemblance between the aboleths, the [[Elder Evils]], and various creatures or beings found in the stories of H. P. Lovecraft. This is, of course, completely intentional. Of all the major aberration races in the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game, the aboleths best personify the sense of cosmic horror and the ultimate insignificance of humankind expressed in Lovecraft’s writings. In fact, it’s quite easy to treat the aboleths themselves as a Lovecraftian race akin to the [[Elder Thing|elder thing]]s featured in “At the Mountains of Madness” and “The Dreams in the Witch House.”|Lords of Madness}}

'''Aboleth''' are aquatic aberrations with impressive [[Psionics|psionic]] abilities (or magic, depending on edition). Can Dominate, as well as force you to lose the ability to breath air. Creators of the [[Skum]], descendants of humanoid slaves that are enthralled to the aboleth. Also, their species is older than the world and ''the gods themselves'', and they can back up that claim thanks to their ancestral memory, meaning that they are incapable of forgetting and all their memories are passed down from parent to offspring. They can also absorb the memories of anything they eat. The only thing they don't recall is the genesis of the [[mind flayer]] species (since they're from the distant future) so of course this freaks the aboleths out a little bit since they have no idea where the fuck they came from.

They first appeared in the ''[[Dwellers of the Forbidden City]]'' adventure module in 1980-81, and then in ''[[Monster Manual]] II'' a few years later. ''[[Dragon Magazine]] #131'' has an article called Ecology of the Aboleth. The normal aboleth are merely well... normal. There are larger and more powerful aboleth. With psychic abilities that would put [[The Emperor]] and [[/co/|Professor X]] to shame. [[/v/|Mother Brain]] aint got SHIT on the most powerful one. Sadly this article has seemed to have been ignored by everything that came after it, even though [[Advanced_Dungeons_&_Dragons#AD&D_2nd_Edition|2nd edition]] had some fantastic campaign and lore books for a lot of races. [[Lords of Madness]] introduced a few new kinds of Aboleths and also contained some great lore on them. An amphibious aboleth is an aboleth that has adapted to be able to live both in and out of water, at the cost of not being as good at swimming. Uobilyths are aboleths don't live in water at all and can fly, and also are never lawful aligned. Stygian aboleths are aboleths that have been mutated as a result of living a long time in [[Baator|Stygia]]. Most aboleths do not worship gods, but do pay respects to five beings known as the [[Elder Evils]].

Unlike the [[beholder]] and [[illithid]], aboleth are [[OGL]] content. For this reason, ''[[Pathfinder]]'' uses them as the main shadowy, manipulative aberration with innate mind control magic. In fact, Pathfinder aboleths are just the most common member of a whole family of psychic fish monsters known collectively as alghollthus (If you look at the gallery below you can see they ran out of design ideas and just started to put red eyes on random aquatic animals). Aboleths have also been renamed ''Alghollthu Masters'' in Pathfinder 2e, just in case WotC decides to copyright the name.

==Gallery==

===D&D===
<gallery>
Aboleth I1.jpg|I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Aboleth MM2 1e.jpg|1e
Aboleth Dungeon 12.png|Dungeon #12
Aboleth MCV2.jpg|2e
Savant aboleth MCAV2.jpg
Aboleth and friends Night Below.jpg
Fatty Night Below.jpg
Grand savant Night Below.jpg
Shaboath Night Below.jpg|Shaboath, an Aboleth city
Greater Aboleth Dragon 131.jpg|Dragon #131
Noble Aboleth Dragon 131.jpg
Ruler Aboleth Dragon 131.jpg
Grand Aboleth Dragon 131.jpg
Aboleth MM 2e.png
Aboleth MM 3.5e.jpg|3e
Stygian aboleth.jpg|Stygian Aboleth
Aboleth Revealed.png
Aboleth Dungeon 144.jpg|Dungeon #144
Aboleth 4e.jpg|4e
Aboleth.jpg|5e
</gallery>

===Pathfinder===
<gallery>
Aboleth Pathfinder.jpg
Aboleth rune.jpg
Aboleth RoA1.png
Aboleth RoA3.png
Aboleth RoA5.png
Aboleth RoA6.png
Aboleth PF 2e.png
Veiled master.jpg|Vidileth
Vidileth RoA1.png
Vidileth RoA6.png
Omnipath.jpg|Omnipath
Omnipath RoA6.png
Uldraaghu RoA1.png|Uldraaghu
Plizeazoth RoA5.png|Plizeazoth
Enisysian RoA4.png|Enisysian
</gallery>

[[Category:Monsters]]

Aboleth

2021-05-24T02:34:18Z

2601:203:400:CE90:7152:F5E2:F62D:B22:

[[File:Aboleth B1 PF.png|thumb|right|300px|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSqYeQHJbn0| Hi guys. How's it going?]]]
{{topquote|Readers will notice a thematic resemblance between the aboleths, the [[Elder Evils]], and various creatures or beings found in the stories of H. P. Lovecraft. This is, of course, completely intentional. Of all the major aberration races in the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game, the aboleths best personify the sense of cosmic horror and the ultimate insignificance of humankind expressed in Lovecraft’s writings. In fact, it’s quite easy to treat the aboleths themselves as a Lovecraftian race akin to the [[elder thing]]s featured in “At the Mountains of Madness” and “The Dreams in the Witch House.”|Lords of Madness}}

'''Aboleth''' are aquatic aberrations with impressive [[Psionics|psionic]] abilities (or magic, depending on edition). Can Dominate, as well as force you to lose the ability to breath air. Creators of the [[Skum]], descendants of humanoid slaves that are enthralled to the aboleth. Also, their species is older than the world and ''the gods themselves'', and they can back up that claim thanks to their ancestral memory, meaning that they are incapable of forgetting and all their memories are passed down from parent to offspring. They can also absorb the memories of anything they eat. The only thing they don't recall is the genesis of the [[mind flayer]] species (since they're from the distant future) so of course this freaks the aboleths out a little bit since they have no idea where the fuck they came from.

They first appeared in the ''[[Dwellers of the Forbidden City]]'' adventure module in 1980-81, and then in ''[[Monster Manual]] II'' a few years later. ''[[Dragon Magazine]] #131'' has an article called Ecology of the Aboleth. The normal aboleth are merely well... normal. There are larger and more powerful aboleth. With psychic abilities that would put [[The Emperor]] and [[/co/|Professor X]] to shame. [[/v/|Mother Brain]] aint got SHIT on the most powerful one. Sadly this article has seemed to have been ignored by everything that came after it, even though [[Advanced_Dungeons_&_Dragons#AD&D_2nd_Edition|2nd edition]] had some fantastic campaign and lore books for a lot of races. [[Lords of Madness]] introduced a few new kinds of Aboleths and also contained some great lore on them. An amphibious aboleth is an aboleth that has adapted to be able to live both in and out of water, at the cost of not being as good at swimming. Uobilyths are aboleths don't live in water at all and can fly, and also are never lawful aligned. Stygian aboleths are aboleths that have been mutated as a result of living a long time in [[Baator|Stygia]]. Most aboleths do not worship gods, but do pay respects to five beings known as the [[Elder Evils]].

Unlike the [[beholder]] and [[illithid]], aboleth are [[OGL]] content. For this reason, ''[[Pathfinder]]'' uses them as the main shadowy, manipulative aberration with innate mind control magic. In fact, Pathfinder aboleths are just the most common member of a whole family of psychic fish monsters known collectively as alghollthus (If you look at the gallery below you can see they ran out of design ideas and just started to put red eyes on random aquatic animals). Aboleths have also been renamed ''Alghollthu Masters'' in Pathfinder 2e, just in case WotC decides to copyright the name.

==Gallery==

===D&D===
<gallery>
Aboleth I1.jpg|I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Aboleth MM2 1e.jpg|1e
Aboleth Dungeon 12.png|Dungeon #12
Aboleth MCV2.jpg|2e
Savant aboleth MCAV2.jpg
Aboleth and friends Night Below.jpg
Fatty Night Below.jpg
Grand savant Night Below.jpg
Shaboath Night Below.jpg|Shaboath, an Aboleth city
Greater Aboleth Dragon 131.jpg|Dragon #131
Noble Aboleth Dragon 131.jpg
Ruler Aboleth Dragon 131.jpg
Grand Aboleth Dragon 131.jpg
Aboleth MM 2e.png
Aboleth MM 3.5e.jpg|3e
Stygian aboleth.jpg|Stygian Aboleth
Aboleth Revealed.png
Aboleth Dungeon 144.jpg|Dungeon #144
Aboleth 4e.jpg|4e
Aboleth.jpg|5e
</gallery>

===Pathfinder===
<gallery>
Aboleth Pathfinder.jpg
Aboleth rune.jpg
Aboleth RoA1.png
Aboleth RoA3.png
Aboleth RoA5.png
Aboleth RoA6.png
Aboleth PF 2e.png
Veiled master.jpg|Vidileth
Vidileth RoA1.png
Vidileth RoA6.png
Omnipath.jpg|Omnipath
Omnipath RoA6.png
Uldraaghu RoA1.png|Uldraaghu
Plizeazoth RoA5.png|Plizeazoth
Enisysian RoA4.png|Enisysian
</gallery>

[[Category:Monsters]]