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Xeelee Sequence

2022-04-14T14:41:57Z

2A02:8108:49C0:A04:D7A:7F36:D419:13A3:

{{Grimdark}}
{{British}}
{{Awesome}}
[[File:View_of_the_xeelee_ring_by_steve_burg-d4kvuvu.jpg|770px|thumb|right|WH40K is Grimdark? And their universe is a shitty place to live in? Oh, that is just fucking '''''adorable'''''.]]

{{Topquote|Do not remember heroes. Do not speak their names.

''Remember my words, but do not speak my name.''

''I have a vision of a Galaxy overrun by mankind from Core to Rim. Of four hundred billion stars each enslaved to the rhythms of Earth’s day, Earth’s year. I have a vision of a trillion planets pulsing to the beat of a human heart.''

''And I have a vision of a child. Who will grow up knowing neither family nor comfort. Who will not be distracted by the illusion of a long life. Who will know nothing but honor and duty. Who will die joyously for the sake of mankind.''

''That is a hero. And I will never know her name.''

''Always remember: a brief life burns brightly.''|Hama Druz, de facto founder of the ICoG. Promoting the ethics of child suicide bombers. Yeah, he's [[That Guy|'''''that''''']] type of person.}}
'''Xeelee Sequence''' is a series of [[Hard Science Fiction|hard]] (ish) science fiction novels and short stories written by British author Stephen Baxter, which spans billions of years of fictional history (leaving 40k in the dust with its "mere" 10,000), with plots revolving around theoretical physics, futurology, multiple universes, artificial intelligence, faster-than-light travel, and the usual existential and social philosophical issues that tend to go with such works. If you want to believe that [[Cthulhu Mythos|Cosmic Horror]] cannot be done in [[Hard Science Fiction]], this series will prove you dead wrong.

Most relevant to /tg/'s interests, though, is that Xeelee is ''unbelievably'' [[grimdark]]. Like, holy shitballs, final word on the matter, makes 40k look like Sesame Street with butterflies and rainbows in comparison, '''grimdark'''. The Interim Coalition of Governance, just to pick one example, is arguably the most grimdark galactic government in all of fiction, even giving [[1984]] a run for its money, although the Empire of Sol and the Holy Superet Church of Light come pretty close to being a bunch of amoral dipshits. The Xeeleeverse is a place where the concept of hope and humanity has been forgotten so hard that trillions of child soldiers are sent to fight (and get slaughtered) in a war they don't have a hope in hell of winning, and the Coalition knows it and doesn't care.

Another part of the Sequence that has also interests /tg/is whenever there is a take on anything to do with discussions on Hard Sci-Fi, the Kardashev Scale, or theoretical physics, especially when it comes to the more science-laden homebrews, there is a good chance the Sequence would get brought up. '''A lot'''. Because let's be frank, some of the ideas that Baxter comes up with within the Sequence, [[Awesome|is just fucking cool.]] Do take note and be forewarned that comparisons between WH40K would be needed in terms of context given how 40k along with [[Star Wars]] is sometimes considered the 'benchmark' of Mid-tier Sci-Fi. This is done to better contextualize the sense of scale both in the applied sciences and in the harshness of the setting.

For its more fantastical and [[Soft Science Fiction|Soft Sci-Fi]] counterpart, see [[Doctor Who]].
==Plot in a Nutshell==
[[File:D8pnzvk-f1122a2a-0f2e-4853-9beb-5806147475bc.jpg|350px|right|thumb|And you thought the [[Old Ones]] were ancient. Credits to [https://www.deviantart.com/frogisis/art/Prehistory-526839392 Frogisis].]]
{{Topquote|And everywhere the humans went they found life...|The good news is extraterrestrials life does exist and the bad news is...well everything shown in [[Star Trek]] was [[Bullshit|BS]] from Vacuum Diagrams.}}
{{Topquote|That’s the trouble with happy endings. You just live on and on, until you’ve sucked all the juice out, and it turns out not to be so happy after all.|The ending is just the beginning repeating and it will only get much worse from Transcendent.}}
{{topquote|To the [[Old Ones|Xeelee]], we were little more than [[Skaven|rats]] — so that's what we became. Tenacious, relentless, swarming; fighting an [[Long War|interstellar war]] with teeth and nails.|A basic summary of how grimdark society in the ICoG is from Exultant}}

To make things short and easy, the entirety of the Xeelee Sequence is centered around the cosmic war between the Xeelee, the masters of 'baryonic' matter (AKA normal matter for us non-scientist plebeians), and the Photino [[Tzeentch|Bird]]s, the masters of dark matter. The war stretched through the entire timeline, from the split microseconds of the Big Bang to the heat death of the entire universe. The war started because the Photino Birds as creatures made from dark matter, wanted to make their home a little bit comfier, and in order to do this they decide to unintentionally [[Grimdark|exterminate all Baryonic lifeforms in the entirety of the universe by reducing all the stars into white dwarfs via accelerated cosmic heat death.]] The Xeelee understandably did not like the idea of some home invader trying to do a home deco around their turf and the battle begin. Yes, you hear us right, the entire war was due to the Photino Birds, for all intents and purposes, searching for a comfier home to live in. Essentially, the war stretched throughout all of time, since almost every major race in the Xeelee Sequence has weaponized Time Travel, and since Stephen Baxter '''KNOWS''' his science better than most sci-fi authors, FTL travel has significant effects on time dilation. Granted, his work relied a lot on speculative physics; for example, The Great Attractor has proven to be much less massive than what was thought when the novel was written and has an even larger mass concentration behind it.

But what about us [[human]]s? We got our asses kicked by two alien races; the Squeem and Qax, and the latter of the two was so traumatic that it turned humanity into one of the most xenocidal forces in all of science-fiction. Seriously, the [[Imperium of Man]] has nothing compared to these assholes, and no chapter in human history was so downright depressing and fucked up as Qax occupation. Humanity has reached the point that it wants to force the one Xeelee inhabiting the Milky Way to GTFO because they thought the giant Cosmic Ring that the Xeelee was making was a weapon designed to destroy humanity ([[Derp|when in reality the Ring was made by the Xeelee to save ''ALL'' Baryonic lifeforms, including humans, and bring them a new Universe]]). This understandably annoyed the shit out of the Xeelee, so they decided to leave the galaxy. And what did humanity do after the Xeelee left? [[Horus Heresy|It collapsed into a wide-scale civil war before being unified by another tyrannical regime,]] [[Age of Strife| and then humanity evolved into different species and fought each other in the period known as the Bifurcation, some humans losing their consciousness in the process of evolution.]] In the following millions of years, the descendants of humans have annoyed the Xeelee to the point that they got fed up with our shit and decided to lock the entire Sol System in a fourth-dimensional prison [[Grimdark|while leaving pretty much 99% of humanity to die off.]] The only humans who are actually doing OK (sort of) are the passengers of the Great Northern, a generation ship that predated all the asshole empires, wound up stuck five million years in the future, and promptly made a beeline for Xeelee-controlled space to hide.

Unfortunately for the Xeelee, dark matter outnumbers and outmasses baryonic matter 9-to-1, meaning that the war was long-decided eons ago. Desperate, the Xeelee decide to create the aforementioned Cosmic Ring to open a gateway to a new universe to escape to. The Photino Birds find this giant Cosmic Ring to be a threat and decide to destroy it, and almost succeed - but in the end, the remaining Xeelee, humans, and other baryonic lifeforms managed to escape into the new universe, leaving the old Universe to be conquered by the Photino Birds. [[Grimdark|Those unfortunate chaps who missed their chance would die a slow and painful death as their universe becomes unfit to uphold baryonic life.]]

What Baxter should be commended on is the fact that his aliens are truly ''alien'' in every sense of the word. None of them are even remotely humanoid and almost all of them (barring the Silver Ghosts) do not think like a human; with the majority of them bearing chemistry so fucking bizarre it borderlines on theoretical physics for some of them. Another thing he should be given plenty of credit for is that Baxter also understands a thing or two about ''scale''. The vast, ''vast'' majority of Sci-Fi works have no understanding of what scale is, making their respective universe feel too small or too big. [[Warhammer 40,000]], [[Star Wars]], [[Star Trek]], [[Halo]], among countless others are all guilty of this. However, because the Sequence is a setting-driven story rather than a ''character-driven'' one, Baxter manages to showcase just how motherfucking ECKBAWKS HUEG the Sequence is. It is truly fucking mindboggling ''yet'', grounded in reality due to his application, knowledge, and respect for physics.

==The Sequence and the Critique of Humanity Fuck Yeah!==
It should be ''' CLEARLY HIGHLIGHTED ''' that the Xeelee Sequence isn't a [[Humanity Fuck Yeah]] series, even if it shows one of the most overpowered factions of Humanity to ever exist in fiction. It is not trying to be a piece of HFY, if anything, the Sequence brutally subverts this trope and deconstructs this to its core. Throughout the series, Humanity has never been shown in an overall good light, if anything they are viewed as vindictive, destructive, petty, and overall ''pathetic''. All of the cliches that make HFY so appealing are rendered to paste in the Sequence. Case in point:

*Trying to show Humanity's might and achievements? Barely noticeable by the Xeelee, nothing that Humanity tries to strive for would ever register as relevant to the Xeelee. And even if Humanity shouts their loudest to be noticed, the reality is that the multiverse doesn't care about the opinions of a bunch of unga-bunga monkeys, so you all should consider yourselves grateful that the Xeelee gives the slightest two shits about your existence at the end of reality.
*Conquering entire Galaxies? Immediately falls apart the moment the primary enemy left due to Humanity's inherent nature for power, xenophobia, and wanton greed, rendering the entire point of conquering the Galaxy (which would be considered one of the greatest achievements by most Human-centric polities in Sci-Fi) worthless.
*Becoming the dominant species and trying to play God? Gets curbstomped so bad Humanity is reduced to pathetic, stone-aged savages once the ''actual'' dominant species gets sick of our shit.
*Trying to be a badass hero and save the day? Lol no, you will immediately get arrested and punished for disobeying orders by time-traveling NKVD/Gestapo hybrids. Essentially speaking, every characteristic that makes Humanity Fuck Yeah [[Awesome]] is exposed for the folly it truly is:
**Human resourcefulness: Humanity spent hundreds of thousands of years fighting multiple wars that were basically worthless and meaningless on the grand scale of the multiverse. All for what? A bruised ego and a massive inferiority complex? Basically the direct opposite of resourcefulness and showcase how our usage of resources is only utilized at its fullest extent when our hubris is threatened, '' NOT'' for the improvement of society.
**Human ingenuity: Completely butchered by Humanity's own innate fallacies of infighting and power struggles. Innovation if it is permitted, is only used for the cocksucking of the fragile Human ego than it is, for the betterment of society. But despite all this, Humanity is still a less than third-rate blowhard by Xeelee standards due to the implementation of superior closed-timelike curves.
**Human warrior prowess: Exposed for what it is in Exultant; juvenile, petty, and pathetic. Ties hand-in-hand back to the fallacy of Human resourcefulness. To something like the Xeelee, the so-called Human 'warrior spirit' is nothing more than spoilt retards fighting over what would be considered petty face-saving for the Xeelee.
**Human tenacity: Similar to Human warrior prowess and resourcefulness, the Sequence shows how the multi-millennia wars against the Xeelee, Qax, and the Silver Ghosts have reduced a positive Human trait into a degenerate showcasing. It is even quoted in-universe. By comparing ourselves to [[Skaven|rats]], all of a sudden, being tenacious doesn't sound all too appealing. As such, Humanity is nothing more than vermin and would stay ''as'' vermin.
**Human masculinity: Humanity was metaphorically cucked not once, but '' TWICE'' by two alien races. Never has a Humanity in all of literature, been this ''powerful'' yet carried so many [[FAIL|Ls]] in its existence. There is nothing 'badass' nor 'manly' about a polity that routinely used children as suicide bombers and construct what is effectively a child rape camp.

[[Tl;dr]], Humanity, in general, is nothing more than an irrelevant third wheel, a literal side character to the plot that bitterly learned their place in the hierarchy of things.

As you can imagine, Stephen Baxter ''really'' does not like the idea of glorifying what is basically Human supremacy. Most of his works aren't HFY friendly with the Sequence being the most notable example. This is made more impressive when one considers that Baxter was able to mould this into a setting that is both [[Grimdark]] yet not [[Edgy]]. How is that possible? It's probably because Baxter does this neat trick called '''Show, don't Tell'''. Baxter ''shows'' how the machinations, ideas, and processes could turn children into war machines. He ''shows'' what would happen if a regime got its hands on advanced technology. And he ''shows'' how said technology could function to an incredibly detailed scrutiny and he did it without trying to justify nor glorify it, but to present it as it is.

You compare and contrast this to 40k's attempt at [[Grimdark]] for the [[Derp|sake of marketing]] and [[Herp|flowery prose and language]]. Now flowery language is great when it comes to adding in-universe mystery. After all, many legends and fables contain flowery languages, and incorporating this into in-universe legends is good world-building. But 40k is ''too'' reliant on this form of medium, which is a serious issue when it comes to trying to comprehend the validity of said language and whether or not to take it seriously as a feat of Grimdark or as - you know - a fable. This often leads to obvious [[Dan Abnett|mixed]] [[C.S Goto|results]] and the creation of [[Grimderp]]. Flowery language is also really, ''really'' immature when handled badly. The most embarrassingly notorious example is almost ''anything'' written by C.S. Goto which is so absurdly dark for no point or reason other than for shock value, that it borderline resembles parody. [[Fail|Except it is not and written 100% seriously.]] Most [[edgy]] fan-fics written are often reliant on overly descriptive prose which sounds a lot, but in the end, means nothing. Sometimes, less is more.

Think of the Xeelee Sequence, therefore, as the Anti-STTGL. Whilst Gurren Lagann showcase the 'Humanity is Special' trope to an over-the-top degree, Baxter just puts that idea in a blender and pours out the contents in the drainage pipe.

==Notable Factions==
There are multiple factions that spanned the entirety of the Xeelee Sequence. Here are some notable examples.

===Xeelee===
[[File:XeeleeFront.jpg|300px|right|thumb|A Xeelee Nightfighter.]]
{{topquote|The ancient spacetime-chemistry creatures, having survived yet another cosmic transition, gradually found ways to accommodate themselves to the latest climate, even though to them it was cold and dark and dead. In their heyday there had been no "matter" in the normal sense. But now they found they could usefully form symbiotic relationships with creatures formed of condensate matter: extended structures locked into a single quantum state. A new kind of being ventured cautiously through the light-filled spaces, like insects with "bodies" of condensate and "wings" of spacetime defects. It was the formation of a new kind of ecology, emerging from fragments of the old and new. 

''But symbiosis and the construction of composite creatures from lesser components were eternal tactics for life, eternal ways of surviving changed conditions.'' 

''In the unimaginably far future humans would call the much-evolved descendants of these composite forms "Xeelee."'' |A small tidbit on one of the most poetically beautiful descriptions of the birth of an Eldritch race in literature history, from Exultant.}}
{{topquote|Some believe that by such interventions the Xeelee are maintaining their monopoly on power, which holds sway across the observable Universe. Others say that, like the vengeful gods of man's childhood, the Xeelee are protecting us from ourselves." "...Damn those Xeelee. I should have known they can beat anything we've got. And of course they would police this lithium beacon. It wouldn't do to let us lesser types get our hands-on stuff like this; oh no...|Despite the Xeelee barely notice mankind existence, the human race still go to war with them anyway out of spite from Vacuum Diagrams.}}
{{topquote|We are done with fighting. After all this time, perhaps we humans have learned a little wisdom – and humility." 
''"We humans took on the Xeelee. Remarkable when you think about it: savannah apes against a super galactic power. We did them some damage, we drove them out of the Galaxy. But the Xeelee are far more than we ever were; we could never defeat them. And we barely noticed the true enemy, a foe of both ourselves and the Xeelee and everything made of baryonic matter, matter like ourselves—''|A human admitted the Xeelee superior to them in every aspect, from Resplendent.}}
The main "mascot" faction of the entire series, the Xeelee are the undisputed masters of all Baryonic life. They are made from self-propagating, space-time defects that reproduce via Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and were born in 10−43 seconds after the Big Bang during the Planck Epoch, where the four fundamental universal forces (Gravity, Electromagnetism, Strong and Weak Nuclear Forces) have yet to diverge; ergo physics were still fused under the Grand Unified superforce AKA GUT (Grand Unified Theory). They eventually formed a symbiosis with Bose-Einstein Condensate creatures and allied with the Quagmites, creatures made from Quagma during the Quark Epoch approximately 1 microsecond after the Big Bang. The proto-Xeelee then went to war with the Anti-Matter aliens before winning by tweaking the universal constants so that there was more baryonic matter than anti-matter. Fun fact, that war ''accidentally'' created cosmic inflation.

The Xeelee are so far up on the technological scale that they might as well be gods. Their most notable vehicles are the Xeelee Nightfighters, and in most cases, the Nightfighters ARE the Xeelee themselves. These motherfuckers make [[The Culture|the motherfucking ''Culture'']] look shockingly pedestrian and modest in contrast. Not only do they weaponize Time Travel, but they also have the ability to use ''entire'' galaxies as ''literal'' building blocks to create megastructures, such as the Xeelee Ring (or Bolder's Ring to humans). When things get ugly, the Xeelee drop the star-busting pistols and upgrade themselves with gravitational slingshots that can launch a hyperknot of cosmic string, [[Exterminatus|''50,000 light-years in length, with the mass of a hundred billion stars, moving at the speed of light to turn weaponized galaxies into silly string'']]. They are tough enough to laugh off attacks from guns that shoot neutron stars and ''black holes'' at 99.c the speed of light, and they come in the untold trillions. Yet despite all of this, in an interesting flip/subversion of the Cosmic Horror trope, the Xeelee are non-malicious (Especially when compared to the walking insane asylum that is, Humanity) and more of a force of nature than your generic [[Grimderp|"I eat your universe because GRIMDARK!" hentai monster.]]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxTzjPaytcE| A video demonstrating a Xeelee Nightfighter engaging in Faster-Than-Light travel.]

[[Tl;dr]], these guys are one of the apex predators in all of Science Fiction. They are not to be fucked with.

===Photino Birds===
[[File:Photino_Birds.JPG|300px|right|thumb|A Flock of Photino Birds.]]
{{Topquote|I just don’t think it’s helpful to think of them in that way. They’re doing what they’re doing—wrecking our Sun—because that’s what they do. By accelerating the stars through their lifecycles they’re building a better Universe for themselves, and their own offspring, their own future.” “They’re like insects. Ants, perhaps. Do any of you know what I’m talking about? The birds are following their own species imperatives. Which just happen to cut across ours, is all.|Do take note that this comes from the fact that the Photino Birds barely noticed the Xeelee, just to show you how lopsided the war was, from Ring.}}
{{Topquote|But there are places in the universe, little pits of gravity, where they could squeeze down and find the compression they need." 
"In the hearts of stars, right! We know gravity works on dark-matter creatures; we know they are immune to heat and radiation. So the Galaxy is like a great reef, to them, full of these tight little pits, the gravity wells of stars, where they can deposit their . . ." 
''"Their eggs?"'' 
''"Which hatch out to become photino fish, as we called them, swimming around inside the stars, like the Sun. Like larvae. And when they are mature . . ."'' 
''"Ah. They hatch out. As if a star was an egg. They fly back up, out of the stars, out of the disc, up into the halo. And – open their wings.''|The Birds breeding cycle aka self-cloning, mind you these Birds were just juveniles but they were the ones that attacked the Xeelee Cosmic Ring with ''weaponised galaxies'', from Redemption.}}
{{Topquote|We’re trying to map the dark matter, for example. Its distribution around the Galaxy: it makes up most of the Galaxy’s bulk by mass but is entirely invisible to human eyes. A thin sheet of it lies within the plane of the Galaxy itself, the spiral arms. That much is well known. But now, beyond, in the halo, we are observing huge, tangled towers . . ." 
''"Towers. Structures of some kind?"'' 
''"Indeed. Not unlike tendrils, in some places, reaching down into this puddle we call the Galaxy. The dark matter constitutes the bulk of the universe’s matter; why shouldn’t it contain structure? And I know what your next question will be.''|Now these are the real adult Photino Birds, makes the [[Anime|Anti-Spirals]] feel inadequate eh? from Redemption.}}
The Photino Birds are the main adversaries to the Xeelee and the undisputed masters of all dark life, with absolute mastery over dark matter. Unfortunately for the Xeelee, dark matter just so happens to outmass Baryonic matter 9-to-1, meaning that the Xeelee are outnumbered and out-[[Dakka]]'d. First encountered somewhere between the late Planck Epoch and the early Hadron Epoch 20 microseconds after the Big Bang. They are acausal, von Neumann swarms of self-replicating dark matter entities who are not bound by the effects of temporal entropy. All Photino Birds resemble an ovoid/seed-shaped mass approximately 40 meters long and rarely interact with baryonic matter due to being made up of dark matter. The only thing that could kill them are exotic weapons with extreme - and we mean '''''EXTREME''''' - gravitational forces like monopole cannons, the singularity lasers of starbreakers, or a cosmic string to the face.

The Photino Birds attempted to destroy the Xeelee Ring, as they view it as a threat to their manifest destiny on making the universe more comfy for them, preventing the baryonic lifeforms from ever achieving a safe haven in which to live. In a nutshell, these guys are selfish dicks who can't even share the same bed with the Xeelee, and instead try to create a complete mess of the Universe instead. All because the Xeelee held most of the blanket when they try to go to sleep. When angered sufficiently, they also use Galaxies as glorified weapon systems by ''flinging the entire fucking Galaxy at whoever pissed them off''. They are responsible for creating a war (to use "war" generously; the slaughter is so one-sided that some books imply ''the Birds didn't even realize the Xeelee existed'') that would give the Last Great Time War from [[Doctor Who]] a run for its money.

===Interim Coalition of Governance===
[[File:ICoG_Flag.JPG|300px|right|thumb|The Flag of the ICoG.]]
{{topquote|I'll tell you why. Because, after twenty thousand years of the Third Expansion, the majority of mankind are soldiers—and most are still children when they die. Most people don't grow old. They don't even grow old enough to understand what is happening to them. To our soldiers war is a game, whose lethality they never grasp. This is what we are: this is what we have made ourselves. And the numbers are terrible: in a century, more people die in this war than all the human beings who ever lived on Earth before mankind first reached the stars.''|Welcome to one of the bloodiest and most cruel regimes written into fiction, from Exultant}}
{{Topquote|Breed, fight hard, die young, and stay human: you could sum up the Coalition’s philosophy in those few words. In its social engineering the Coalition set up a positive feedback process; it unleashed a swarm of fast-breeding humans across the Galaxy, until every star system had been filled." 

''"Not a noble way to do it, but it worked. And we did stay human, for twenty thousand years. Evolution postponed!''|Michael Poole observation the Xeeleeverse [[Human]] [[Skaven|Space Rats]] social behaviors in their galactic wide habitats from Resplendent.}}
{{Topquote|More indoctrination. The children must be trained to handle weapons, to deploy destructive forces – and to kill?" 
''"There are native animals – flying, bird-like creatures – which they hunt. These days the animals are raised for that purpose, of course; it has ironically saved them from extinction. Yes, they must learn to kill." 
''"And people?" 
''"The Xeelee are not like us – but they are sentient. Therefore it helps to be exposed to the moral conflict of killing a sentient creature, before it is necessary to do it to save one’s life. So, yes, people too, when appropriate." 
''"Commissary, must we commit such barbarism to wage our war?" 
''"But there is no barbarism here. Novice, what did you expect? This regime, this crude empire of mud and clubs and blood, is actually a sophisticated processing system. It turns human beings, children, into machines.''|An ICoG Commissary [[Bullshit|justifying]] their brutal treatment that makes the [[Schola Progenium]] look humane by comparison, from Resplendent.}}
What can be briefly described as the [[That Guy|Khmer Rouge on Bath Salts with its Head of State as Pol Pot on Acid and jacked up to interstellar levels.]]

The ICoG was one of the major human governing polities that emerged after the Qax occupation, which forcefully [[Grimdark|deleted most of human history and forced humanity into a multi-billion year PTSD]]. The ICoG is identifiable by two things: the first is that they are complete dicks that makes [[Eldrad]] look like a gentleman, and the second is that they are xenocidal as fuck. The ICoG is one of the most oppressive and [[grimdark]] factions in all of science fiction, which is an impressive feat all by itself. The ICoG makes you hate humanity. Seriously, these guys are just ''evil''.

The ICoG spent the lives of countless children, all in a gamble to get rid of the Xeelee from their galaxy and become the dominant lifeforms in the entire universe. They exterminated countless aliens who were in their way, and reduced those who surrendered to a fate worse then death. They commit countless atrocities, not because they are [[Imperial Guard|backed into a corner]], but just so they can sate their wounded and shattered egos, which never truly recovered from their occupation by the Qax. They are absolute hypocrites and liars that makes the [[High Lords of Terra]] look competent. They created such a totalitarian shithole, not because of some pseudo-philosophical [[Communism|bullshit]], but because they are a bunch of spiteful pricks who want to make their people suffer. They want to channel their suffering and hate towards the Xeelee, who are trying to save them from the Photino Birds. And what did the ICoG do once they finally drove the Xeelee out of the Milky Way? Did they usher in a new golden age or do they amend their crimes? Nope they immediately fell into civil war before being unified by another tyrannical regime, which also quickly collapses. Seriously, fuck the ICoG, just fuck 'em. When we mean the combined and concentrated [[Grimdark]] from all of WH40K still pales in comparison to just the ICoG itself, '''WE FUCKING MEAN IT.'''

Ironically if not cynically the Coalition is basically a more realistic portrayal of the [[Imperium of Man]] except superior in all aspects, more successful and yet humorously more retarded than the Imperium itself, the Coalition may not have the religious themes, Gothic architecture nor the skulls obsessives of its Imperium cousin, but their fanatical ideology of human supremacy are undeniably similar. Because of this single-minded ideocracy, the Coalition thinks it has the right to genocide anyone and anything that stands in its way because of 'Muh Doctrine' and believe that all aliens are evil, and must be purged from existence even if they're friendly or not (sounds familiar anyone?). It does not change the fact that they are also despicable monsters as well.

Despite the comparisons, the Coalition society are much closer to the [[Skaven]] than they are to the Imperium, hence their nickname of Human Space Skaven. Given the facts that their leaders repeatedly compared themselves to vermin throughout the Sequence, and their founder Hama Druz saw Humanity as an inherently rat-like species. Who is Hama Druz? [[That guy]] is the psychotic founder of the ICoG State Ideology, the 'Druz Doctrine' whose primary motto of the faith is “A brief life burns brightly” and he means it literally, which is what happens when someone takes the ideas of combining [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|HFY]] and [[1984|Ingsoc]] to its logical and retarded conclusion. To Druz, Humanity only exists to reproduce quickly and to populate every single planet, moon, asteroids, black holes, superclusters, star and space station in the galaxy, not even rogue planets are spared from the Assimilation (basically [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum Lebensraum] in space and on krokodil). To Druz, the true ideal for Humanity is to make 'miracles' out of their short, pathetic lives, and the suffering that comes along the way in their expansion would be considered as the [[grimdark|'''''BEST STATE''''' a HUMAN could ever possibly be in]]. To Druz, honour and duty is Humanity's highest calling in life. That means NO thinking of the past nor the future, only the present is important, with all other types of culture, entertainment, distractions, even love and family were either frowned upon or deleted. To Druz, innovation, ingenuity, curiosity and new discovery are absolute [[heresy]]. To Druz, Xenocide is not only justified but is also the duty of every man, woman and child to purge the ever-living shit out of every single Xenos in the galaxy, spare no one, not even the smallest bacteria or a single microorganism is allowed to survive, and if they do survive, they will be de-evolved into a fate worse than death. To Druz, heroism, individualism and egotism were discouraged and banned since such concepts are anathema to the goal of a unified Mankind. To Druz, to be a real “Human” in his way of thinking, there should be NO immortality, NO transhumanism, NO enhancement, '''NOTHING''', humanity should remain pure till the heat death of the universe. To Druz, Human suffering, Human pain and Human misery are seen as the main driving force behind everything that would be defined as [[Bullshit|“Being Human”]].

<gallery>
Xeelee_sequence_exultant_greenship_color_sketch.jpg|Artwork of an ICoG Greenship. [[MOAR DAKKA|Possessing more firepower than the entirety of Segementum Solar, ''combined''.]]
</gallery>

===Transcendence===
[[File:Transcendence.JPG|300px|right|thumb|The Voidplane of the Transcendence.]]
{{Topquote|If something is so far beyond your imagination, it’s hard even to fear it.|Even when nearly ascended to become a truly infinite being, but with human suffering in their past unredeemed, even this would cause even a God eternal pain, from Transcendent.}}
{{Topquote|Impossible. A mere human could not bargain with the Transcendence. She, he couldn’t possibly comprehend the meaning of the choice, let alone make a valid decision.” 

''“She’s right, Drea, this isn’t about rivalry, about one bunch of humans lording it over the rest. We’re dealing with the Transcendence. It genuinely is a higher life-form, a higher consciousness. You could no more debate with it than a flower, or a blade of grass, could argue with you.''|This is just the barest bone description of the Transcendence without going into the absolute insane shit they do, from Transcendent.}}
{{Topquote|It isn’t going to be like that. There are no teachers, no guides. This is the Transcendence, remember, a manifestation of the group, not of individual actions.” 

''“Like a Coalescence?”'' 

''“Like a Coalescence, yes—although a Coalescence is a mindless machine, and the Transcendence is the essence of mind. There’s nobody in charge. Alia, I called this a ‘Transcendent world,’ but that’s just a simplifying label. It isn’t a headquarters, or a capital. It’s just that many of the population here happen to be Transcendents. But there are Transcendents all over the Core—indeed all over the Galaxy. Just as individuals don’t matter, nor do places; the Transcendence is everywhere, or nowhere… Even I’m not in charge; I’m only here to point out your choices. It’s always been up to you.''|A human envious at how powerful the Transcendence really are, from Transcendent.}}
Humanity from the far, ''far'' future. Basically the [[Star Trek|Q from Star Trek,]] only on steroids and completely unhinged.

So named because of how the multiple transhuman races have 'ascended' to a literal plane of higher existence called no-space, kinda like the Matrix if it could reality warp. Oh yeah, you heard us right. '''''Reality warp'''''. As such, the Transcendence was more of a collective consciousness than an actual polity. They were also just as homicidal as the ICoG, with Transcendence Humanity going on their merry murder-spree across the entire galactic supercluster, turning entire Neutron Stars into relativistic ICBMs and even contemplating on condemning every single Human whoever lived or will live into perpetual agony, ignoring the levels of causality contradictions and paradoxes it would create. Just because ''they can''.

That last statement can '''NOT''' be understated in terms of the scale here. The ability to fold every single timeline of Humanity into one meta-reality is truly mind-bogglingly extreme. As an example, ''just'' the number of mere Human genome combinations could reach up to 1.6*102041 alternate ''universes'' with each unique genotype for just '''ONE''' Human. And that is just genome variety, never mind the various alternate actions which could create its own branch of alternate realities and sub-realities. ''Never mind'' that this is just taken without consideration of the 750,000+ history of Homo ''sapiens sapiens'' and the potential branches of different universes that would permutate from time travel abuses. What the Transcendence was doing, was their fusing of both the M-theory “bulk” and the Many Worlds Multiverse theory into one incoherent screaming nightmare. [[Chaos]] wishes it could be this nihilistic when it grows up.

If they are feeling incredibly spiteful today, they may turn a baseline Human into a Quantum Wave Function entity and force them to monitor the universe as it dies from premature heat death. Still, despite all their omniscient and neigh omnipotent power, they finally got the full attention of the Xeelee after they were finally sick of our [[bullshit]] and proceeded to Godstomp them back into the literal stone age; trapping the remnants of Humanity on Earth in a four-dimensional hypercube while letting the rest of Mankind to [[Grimdark|freeze to death.]]
{{Clear}}

===Squeem===
[[File:Squeem_Ship.JPG|300px|right|thumb|A Squeem Ship.]]
{{Topquote|Everybody walked around on permafrost, down to the equator. The Squeem controlled it, somehow. After all, humans are just big bags of water. We didn’t freeze, nor did the grasses, the animals, the birds, the moisture in the air. Of course rainfall was screwed, because nothing was evaporating from the oceans. ‘They kept it up for a full year. By then people were dying of the drought and the cold. And Earth blazed white, a symbol of the Squeem’s dominance, visible even to all the off-planet refugees and hideouts, visible light years away.|The Squeem unleashing their wrath from the Heavens upon mankind like a pack of [[Dick|dicks]] from Endurance.}}
{{Topquote|Communication with the group-mind Squeem was utterly unlike anything envisaged before their arrival. With no separation between individuals, the Squeem hadn’t evolved to count in whole numbers, for instance. But eventually common ground was found. And despite fears that mankind might be overwhelmed by a more technically advanced civilisation, trade and cultural contacts were initiated.|The Squeem are so connected that they don't count their numbers from Endurance.}}
{{Topquote|Only a few years after first contact Squeem ships burst into the Solar System, in a shower of exotic particles and lurid publicity. The Squeem were aquatic group-mind multiple creatures. They crossed the stars using a hyperdrive system beyond human understanding. They maintained an interstellar network of trading colonies. Their human label, a not very respectful rendering of the Squeem’s own sonic rendering of their title for themselves – ‘Ss-chh-eemnh’ – meant something like the Wise Folk, rather like ‘Homo sapiens’.|The Squeem are so utterly alien in both biology and psychology, that Humanity didn't even know how to spell their name during first contact, from Endurance.}}
(Pronounced as Scheme)

The oddly named Squeem were a race of eusocial hive-minded squid-fishes and were the first alien race to fully conquer Humanity. Despite starting off roughly the same as Humans chronologically with technology equal to us, the Squeem lucked out by discovering Xeelee tech of which they could reverse-engineer. [[Rape|You can imagine how ''that'' worked out when they invaded the Humans.]]

The Squeem also possessed a form of alcubierre drive in which they form a pocket of spacetime around their spaceship and propel it to FTL. Since general relativity stress that no matter could travel faster-than-light, the hyperdrive of the Squeem - unlike that of [[Star Wars]] - respects the laws of physics and just create a loophole around the concept. After all, [[Lulz|nobody states that ''spacetime itself'' can't travel faster-than-light.]] So whilst the bubble freely propels itself beyond lightspeed, the object within the pocket dimension remains fine as it is, in theory, not violating general relativity. The problem with this is that you can't see jackshit inside of the bubble, relying on precise calculations or you end up [[FATAL|going straight into the heart of a star.]] Fortunately for the Squeem, no one stated you can't ''weaponize'' them. Oh yes, [[Exterminatus|FTL-accelerated cannon-platforms that fire GUT missiles hitting with the pressure and heat of a ''Big Bang''.]]

Nevertheless, due to how unimpressive their base technology is, it didn't take long for the ICoG to completely curbstomp them to the ground and forced them to de-evolve into human-dependent symbiotes, meaning they turn the Squeem into a Galaxy-spanning telepathic communication network, they create a telepathic beacon when swallowed by a human and kept alive by consuming the human from the inside out. Still, their occupation left a nasty scar for Humanity as it led to the freezing of the Earth's oceans, starving/freezing billions in the process and the following memory-wipe of all Humans to the point that they forgot that organisms once lived in the ocean.

By far the weakest race in the Xeelee Sequence, although this is all relative in Sci-Fi as the Squeem are still powerful enough to kick [[War in Heaven|War-in-Heaven]] [[Necrons]] in the dick and assrape everyone else with their self-improving GUT-driven missiles and stolen starbreaker technology.
{{Clear}}

===Qax===
[[File:Qax.JPG|300px|right|thumb|A Hexagonal group of Qax.]]
{{Topquote|Although that’s all it is. Mike, they’ve shown me some pictures of their Earth. Cities flattened. The continents bordered by thick chlorophyll green: offshore farms. The produce from what’s left of the planet’s arable dry land is exported off-planet. The complex molecules are highly prized, apparently, and raise a good price. For the Qax. Michael, they’ve turned the planet into a damn factory.|A human reacting to the Space Capitalists turning our already shitty planet into an even shittier hellhole, from Timelike Infinity.}}
{{Topquote|Parz, turbulence is an example of the universal self-organization of matter and energy. In the ocean of my world the energy generated by the temperature difference between the vulcanism and the atmosphere is siphoned off, organized by the actions of turbulence into billions of convection cells."'' 
''“All known life is cellular in nature. We have no direct evidence, but we speculate that this must apply even to the Xeelee themselves. But there seems to be no rule about the form such cells can take.”'' 
''"You’re telling me that those convection cells are the basis of your being?''|A Qax explaining their evolutionary to a confuse Jasoft, from Timelike Infinity.}}
{{Topquote|But we are nevertheless a technological race. Parz, my awareness is very different from yours. The scales are different: I have sentience right down to the molecular level; if I wish my cells can operate as independent factories, assembling high technology of a miniaturized, biochemical nature. We traded such items among ourselves for millions of years, unaware of the existence of the rest of the universe." 
''“Then we were ‘discovered’; an alien craft landed in our ocean, and tentative contact was established—”'' 
''“Who was it?”'' 
''“Our biochemical products had enormous market value, and we were able to build a trading empire — by proxy — spanning light-years. But we must still rely on clients for larger projects—''|A Qax Governor explaining how a stranded alien gave the Qax an offer they can't refuse, from Timelike Infinity.}}
The second alien race to conquer Humanity and basically the tertiary antagonists of the Sequence after the Photino Birds and Humanity itself. The Qax weren't actually a race of militaristic conquerors, unlike other conventional Sci-Fi races. They were actually a race of merchants and traders. The reason why they conquered Humanity right after the Squeem and treated them like shit was because [[Dick|it was just '''''THAT''''' easy.]] Which kind of gives you a clue on how '''fucked''' the Xeelee Sequence is, if the fucking merchants behave like this. The Qax were truly ''alien'' in every sense of the word. They were a bunch of 90-meter wide, hyper-individualistic race of convection cells held together by a core of a micro black hole. In a sense, they were a race of [[Wat|living thunderstorms.]] Due to the fact that they are made of convection cells, they were functionally immortal in the traditional sense as they could easily replace these cells, although their complex biology meant that they had a ''very'' low population numbering in only a few thousand, meaning that they place immense value on their individual lives. Nevertheless, because they were living hurricanes that lived off the currents of wind, solar flares, virtual particles and space-time itself, they were individually quite powerful, with only three to four Qax being needed to control the entirety of Humanity on Earth.

Masters of genetic engineering since each cell of a Qax can function independently as a biological factory for biochemical products, which led to the creation of the treacherous Human Pharaohs and a respectable time-travelling military to boot, the Qax were known to utilize the Spline (Themselves a race of 1km wide living meatbags) as biological warships because its cheaper that way and were known to make their own bootleg starbreakers. They also have weaponised Grey Goo that could breakdown mountains, wipe out every biological compound right down to the bedrock and even [[What|turn waste into food.]] The Qax was finally decimated when a Human [[Just As Planned|tricked one of them into firing a bootleg Starbreaker in their home star causing it to go supernova.]] They were eventually pushed out of the galaxy by the ICoG, but the trauma of losing so many including their homeworld to their own slaves has made every Qax in the future to kill all Humans on sight as their base instincts.

===Silver Ghosts===
[[File:Silver_Ghosts.JPG|300px|right|thumb|A Lone Silver Ghost.]]
{{Topquote|I’m going to die. I haven’t done anything yet. I haven’t even had sex properly—" "Nor, as it happens, have I.|A Silver Ghost [[trolling]] a panic human explorer for [[lulz]] from Resplendent.}}
{{Topquote|In the training academies there was a joke about Ghosts that had the right of way to cross a road. But the transport drivers ignored the stop signs. So the first Ghost crossed, exerting its rights, and was creamed in the process. So did the second, the third, the fourth, each sticking to what it believed was right regardless of the cost. Then the fifth invented a teleport, changing physical law to make the road obsolete altogether…|A joke of how the Silver Ghosts will flip a bird to humanity's traffic problems, from Resplendent.}}
{{Topquote|Always protect your core heat. It is the most important thing you possess. Remember…|A Silver Ghost went full [[Star Wars|Master Yoda]] to their panic human explorer through the act of altruism and the power of...[[Wat|body heat]] from Resplendent.}}
The only race in the entirety of the Sequence that isn't a [[That Guy|homicidal jackass]]. Seriously, they actually have a dry sense of humour, which brings in much-needed levity in this absolutely depressing saga. The Silver Ghosts are a passive race of spherical aliens approximately five-foot-wide in diameter with a weight of one ton and resembling a floating spherical mirror. So-called the Silver Ghosts because of their...well...[[Derp|silvery skin]], a big misnomer is to think of the Ghosts as a single organism. They are not. Rather, like the Portuguese Man-o-War, they are actually a superorganism made out of various individual organisms all cooperating as one to better survive this ultra-Grimdark setting. Apparently, this is due to the fact that the Ghosts had a [[Dark Angels|ultra-secret and ultra-heretical past where they had a civil war which made their Star turn into a Red Giant]]. By cooperating to the extent where a Silver Ghost can literally choose which cell to die - making them functionally immortal - the Silver Ghosts became a post-scarcity society.

Inside a Silver Ghost host a nightmare ball of fleshy substance, organs, red and purple, pulsating like a [[Lovecraft|Lovecraftian]] [[Shoggoth]] with a core strangely resembling a [[Wat|Human fetus]]. Oh, but it gets weirder. Their silver skin - in itself an independent organism as aforementioned - fucks around with Planck's Constant (Ergo: it was a Planck-zero layer, a sandwich around a zone where Planck's constant was lowered), making their skin ultra-reflective to the point of being immune to ALL DEWs. In fact, it was considered normal for Silver Ghosts to ''literally'' sunbathe in the core of a star. At the start of the Third Expansion, the Silver Ghosts were unfortunate enough to be in the way of the growing ICoG despite occupying a significant chunk of the Perseus Arm in the Milky Way Galaxy. Despite being passive, the Silver Ghosts weren't slouches in combat, especially when led by the Black Ghost. During the war, the Silver Ghosts were using the gravitational energy of entire star clusters to fuck around the universal constants such as the Lightspeed Constant (Cockblocking Humanity from going FTL) and the Electromagnetic Binding Forces (Makes everything baryonic including Humans; brittle). These stars were quickly used up like giant Double-A batteries and replaced not long after. They were also doing a lot of whacky shit outside of your typical time travel shenanigans such as Planck teleporting entire planets and battlefleets as weapons and even entertaining the idea of creating a False Vacuum Collapse to destroy the entire ''fucking'' universe if need be. Yeah, and do take note that they are the ''second weakest race'' in the Sequence.

Still, being the nice guys and all, it still didn't stop Humanity from wiping out the Ghosts and farming their skin for shits and giggles. This is the Sequence, only the assholes survives.

===Spline===
[[File:Spline.jpg|300px|right|thumb|A pod of Spline warships.]]
{{Topquote|Still, that brief period of first contact had provided humanity with most of its understanding about the Qax and their dominion. For instance, it had been learned that the Spline vessels employed by the Qax were derived from immense, sea-going creatures with articulated limbs, which had once scoured the depths of some world-girdling ocean. The Spline developed spaceflight, traveled the stars for millennia. Then, perhaps a million years earlier, they had made a strategic decision." 

''"The Spline rebuilt themselves."'' 

''"They plated over their flesh, hardened their internal organs — and rose from the surface of their planet like mile-wide, studded balloons. They had become living ships, feeding on the thin substance between the stars.''|A description of the Spline origin and how these biological factory space whales remade themselves from Timelike Infinity.}}
{{Topquote|The Spline had become carriers, earning their place in the universe by hiring themselves out to any one of a hundred species." 

''"It wasn’t a bad strategy for racial survival, Parz mused. The Spline must work far beyond the bubble of space explored by humankind before the Qax Occupation — beyond, even, the larger volume worked by the Qax, within which humanity’s sad little zone was embedded.''|A human leader of the ICoG interest in using the Spline for their new conquest from Timelike Infinity.}}
{{Topquote|Then imagine a hundred violently armed GUT ships crashing through that portal, and into the future. They could do a hell of a lot of damage—” 

''“A single Spline warship could scythe them down in a moment.''|The Qax are very please with their well-spent money from Timelike Infinity.}}
The Spline were space going entities that were considered the products of convergent evolution. Their origins were traced to immense sea-going creatures with articulated limbs that had once scoured the depths of their world-girdling ocean. In time, they developed spaceflight capabilities leading to them travelling the stars for millennia by creating their own. This led them to remake themselves and we mean remade by putting plates all over their flesh and hardening their organs in order to survive the bleak conditions of star travel, which included moving through the shifting perspectives of hyperspace. Eventually, they rose from the surface of their planet as mile wide living meatballs, leading them to feed on the thin substances between the stars as fuels whilst also killing extra-solar parasites in the process. Thus, the Spline became carriers who earned their place in the universe by hiring themselves out to hundreds of different species. To better explain this, they are basically bio-cybernetics living sentient whales ships that acted as rental transportation services and part-time-mobile-mercenary-vessels in space.

They are large, ''very large'' in size with one being as long as a mile wide in bulk. A pit by its head consisted of an eye that was a gleaming ball, which was startling similar to that of a human but was three yards across and able to roll in order to fix their gaze at objects, also you can literally [[Wat|swim in their eyes without harming them,]] no seriously you can but don't forget to put on your spacesuits. The Spline had a wrinkled leathery hide, similar to the epidermis of an elephant. The various pods contained sensory organs, weapons emplacements and other equipment, while their orifices allow for the ingress and egress of smaller ships. Furthermore, they were adapted to serve the needs of their passengers that resided within the warm bellies of the creatures, which seemed cosy for races like the Qax but not us Humans (yeah this is essentially a mix of Cronenberg movies and a [[vore]] nightmare come true). They also grow their own faster-than-light hyperdrives organically within themselves. The only weakness these meatballs have are going through a wormhole, which temporarily weakens them and the other is their ocean-wide homeworld which they must return to breed.

The Qax were the Spline's biggest clients. Since the Qax are made of collective balls of cells, limited in numbers and biology, they use the Spline as transportation; living in their stomachs like first-class airline passengers. They are also partially responsible for the invasion of Earth, in which they were under the Qax contracts and the other reason is that they think the human race was [[dick|too pathetic]] to work with. This led to a series of dominoes, cascading into all the [[grimdark]] shit that happened to mankind, leading to the eventual foundation of the ICoG. Ironically after the Qax occupation, the Coalition ended up seizing control of the Spline homeworld, preventing other alien species from becoming Spline clients and gaining a monopoly on them by suppressing their conscious control. A tactic that was previously exercised by the various creatures upon mankind, an eye for an eye.

===Snowmen===
{{Topquote|What connections? Gravity?" 
''“That, and quantum wave functions, and, and – I can see it, I can’t say it! The ancients understood. If you use complex arithmetic to extend most theories of cosmology—"'' 
''“Just tell me what happened."'' 
''“The Snowmen had a defensive system. They found a way of manipulating these cosmic linkages. A way to use them as a weapon."'' 
''“How?"'' 
''“Does it matter? I guess you learn a lot in thirteen billion years.''|A group of Coalition scouts try to understand how the Snowmen technology works, from Resplendent.}}
So who are these guys? Well, they are believed to be amongst the oldest species in the Milky Way Galaxy, how old? They are older than the [[Old Ones]] but still considered a junior race when compared to the Xeelee. They developed at a time when the Galaxy itself was no more than a disc of smoke, illuminated here and there by hot-spot protostars; a time when there were scarcely any heavy elements to form planets. At some point in their evolution, they turned themselves completely towards the philosophy that to record events - and only to record - was the highest calling of life (They are similar to the Watchers from Marvel except older). Out of all the respectable titles given to an ancient race like the Precursors from [[Halo]], Xeeleeverse Humanity unlike most Sci-Fi settings, have given these poor geriatrics a very delicate name...[[Derp|The Snowmen]]...(don't expect any Frosty the Snowman reference here). The Coalition being xenophobic pricks, however, [[retcon|retconned]] the Snowmen off the face of the universe and stole all their technology to the point where nobody knows ''what'' they actually look like, nor their purpose and origin.

The structures they left behind were very important for mankind in their war against the Xeelee, the Snowmen took apart their world and rebuilt it as a monstrous storage system that was shaped like a tetrahedron. This structure was built around the remains of a black dwarf. It measured over ten million miles along the edges of its circumference or roughly 16.1 million kilometres. They used all the material at their disposal to freeze as much data as they could in an artificial structure via the near-optimal use of matter; by recording information right down to the thermodynamic limit set by the background temperature of the universe. As the universe cools down they can store more data. To better explain this, the tetrahedron structure is basically a [[Blackstone Fortress]] on steroids that are also used as a research station that can manipulate cosmic linkages, distort gravity fields as a defence whilst also having a global-manipulation weapons system. How it maintains its structure in the gravity well of the star remains unknown. While possessing about the same mass as the Earth, it has been puffed out like candy-floss; filled with struts, threads and whiskers of iron, like delicate scaffolding. The Coalition uses these structures as their Galaxy-spanning watch stations that spy on the Human population for any rebellions or warn Earth of any Xeelee attacks from the Galactic center. Of all the cool names the Coalition could have given to these ancient structures, they just so happen to give it another delicate name...[[Herp|The Snowflake]]...(yeah either Humanity in the Xeelee Sequence are so retarded they can't even think of any imaginative names or Stephen Baxter has a very dark sense of humour since he's British). Despite these remarkable feats, the Snowflake however cannot defeat the Xeelee, as it would be the equivalent of pointing a [[Lasgun]] against a Necron [[Monolith]].

It remains unclear if the Snowmen still exist. It is speculated that a dully-glowing globe of purple, miles wide, embedded beneath the planar skin of the Snowflake is believed to be what remains of them. As no complete exploration of the Snowflake has ever been done, other such spheres may exist in its structure. The Snowmen are basically the [[Malal]] of the Xeelee Sequence.

===Monads===
[[File:Monad.JPG|300px|right|thumb|A Monad dreaming realities into existence.]]
{{Topquote|There was no place. There was no time. A human observer would have recognized nothing here: no mass, energy, or force. There was only a rolling, random froth whose fragmented geometry constantly changed. Even causality was a foolish dream. The orderly spacetime with which humans were familiar was suffused with vacuum energy, out of which virtual particles, electrons and quarks, would fizz into existence, and then scatter or annihilate, their brief walks upon the stage governed by quantum uncertainty. In this extraordinary place whole universes bubbled out of the froth, to expand and dissipate, or to collapse in a despairing flare. This chaotic cavalcade of possibilities, this place of non-being where whole universes clustered in reefs of foamy spindrift, was suffused by a light beyond light. But even in this cauldron of strangeness there was life. Even here there was mind. Call them monads.|A great description of how the Monads came to be, better than [[Emperor|someone's]] origin story from Exultant.}}
{{Topquote|The monads considered the bubbling foam around them. They dug into a reef of spindrift, selected a tangle of possibilities, picked out one evanescent cosmic jewel. This one—yes. They closed around it, as if warmed by its glow of potentialities. And, embedding themselves in its structure, they prepared to shape it. The monads enriched the seedling universe with ineffable qualities whose existence few of its inhabitants would even guess at.|The Monads creating the universe with the power of Science from Exultant.}}
{{Topquote|The monads cared nothing for humans, of course, or for quagmites, or Xeelee, or photino birds, or any of the rest of the universe's menagerie at this or any other age. But they liked their universes to have story; and it was living things that generated the most interesting sagas.|This is how uncaring Gods should feel about weaklings, from Exultant.}}
The Monads are Gods (yes Gods with a capital G) they were the ones responsible for creating the Xeelee Sequence multiverse. They are so ''God'' damned powerful, they view both the Xeelee and Photino Birds in the same way the Xeelee and Photino Birds view humanity. The Monads are literally what [[Chaos]] [[Erebus|fanboys]] think the [[Chaos Gods]] are, except you know, the Monads ''actually'' showed concrete feats to back up their claims. So feel free to pray to them. But spoilers, they won’t be listening.

The Monads are eternal, abstract beings that live in the very fractured structure of the Multiverse or sometimes live in the 'Bulk', which is the space between universes. They enjoy selecting and shaping universes and embed them with complexity. They can create universes with a stupendous amount of dimensions, and then slumber through the lifespan of each Universe inside black holes' event horizons for hundreds of billions of years when they aren't awake, and [[what|the entire story is just part of their dreams]]. To simplify this, think of the Monads as a bunch of [[Azathoth]]s if he has an actual brain and self-awareness, or even better they are basically the Downstreamers juniors (Stephen Baxter wrote both the Xeelee Sequence and the Manifold trilogy). But above all else, they take delight in watching the history of sentient life unfold. In a sense, the Xeeleeverse and other universes are like a multiversal Netflix to them. The Monads live in an abstract realm of random geometry, in which entire universes come into existence and disappear almost instantly. They are beyond time and space and the laws of physics.

They are so above everybody that even the most godlike advanced civilizations like the Xeelee are just pitiful little ants to them, they laugh at the Photino Birds galactic frisbee discs, and they treated Mankind's Galactic murderboner like some annoying bed bugs. They may not even care if the Photino Birds win as to them, the Xeelee-Photino Birds Universal war is like watching a free epic-drama tv series, and then after all of this, they went on to create another universe for themselves to entertain when the Xeeleeverse ended.

==Shortlist of [[Grimdark]] Shit in the Sequence==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
This is just a small taste on why the Xeelee Sequence is a pants-shittingly terrifying place to live in.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
[[File:2vaeaod7lc461.jpg|400px|right|thumb|It's like the [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism] but the control panel has completely broken off.]]
[[File:Xeelee_40k.jpg|400px|right|thumb|[[Meme|As they say, there is always a bigger fish.]]]]
*It is already a foregone conclusion that the entire Universe [[Grimdark|will die a slow and painful death.]]
*Before the really bad shit starts happening, humanity was fucked up from the start. The Holy Superet Church of Light raised a girl called "Lieserl" as one of their projects, innocent enough right? Well she was infused with nanomachines which caused her to grow to the age of 90 years in 90 days. She was downloaded into a virtual copy, dropped into the sun, to monitor the Photino Bird threat and forgotten about.
*Empress Shira, a girl from a Qax-occupied future, subjugates Earth and makes them believe in a bullshit religion worshipping the sun, in an attempt to not get occupied in this timeline. Well her Empire was the most oppressive and amoral empire yet. For instance, one of her guards found an unauthorized colony of humans living out of the Solar System, and disassembled it, putting all of the inhabitants into stasis pods. Alpha Centauri, one of their colonies, didn't handle the situation any better, unleashing a data-virus on the Earth and hitting it with asteroids, causing tsunamis until Shira gave up. She still didn't prevent Earth from being occupied by the Squeem or Qax. Also, the bad shit is only getting started.
*What about the precious planet Earth? Well in Xeelee Sequence Earth is a pretty depressing place before the Qax and after it, it’s decaying due to climate change, and in Transcendent, there was the “Reef” outside of the Spanish city of Seville. The Reef was basically a ramshackle village of car parts. Also Spain is a desert and the permafrost is melting. Humanity dodges a threat as bad as the Permian Extinction where the ocean fills with hydrogen sulfide, and methane hydrates fill the atmosphere. Even during the Qax occupation and under the Coalition rule, Earth’s sorry state of disrepair makes [[Terra|Holy Terra]] seem like a nice vacation spot by comparison. It’s overbuilt 10x time, inhabited with all sorts of grimy creepy creatures, and it's incredibly polluted. It state of misery and insanity will make the High Lords of Terra have a collective heart attack.
** This is just the beginning, Earth was not only stripped of its air and water by the ICoG, but also its entire iron core was sucked dry to the point that the planet's magnetic field nearly collapsed. The only reason it didn't collapse was due to the magnetic stations in low orbit that act as an artificial replacement of the long-gone magnetic field. There is literally no more volcanoes or earthquake anymore, even mountains eroded away completely, with Earth's mass shrinking to that of [[Mars]].
*The entire Human race has its culture and history destroyed by the Qax in order to pacify and turn them into useful slaves. Literally, we mean using nanites to kill plants and destroy fossil records. Qax blow bubbles into the bedrock called [[Hive World|Conurbations]] which are basically hive cities shaped like domes and absolutely MISERABLE to live in.
**Oh did we forget to mention, Conurbations are meant as temporary structures. When the Qax left Earth, no new Conurbations could be built. This resulted in Conurbations becoming unlivable, fucking fantastic.
**Humanity was completely uprooted of everything. Historical sites, culture, history, even languages were wiped out, the Qax even [[rape|cross-bred]] humans to remove all genetic markers that could give a clue about the origins of Mankind. There are literally no memories of peace or anything else pre-occupation. Even the archetypical hero's journey stories were also erased, and all that was left were the memories of misery, pain and suffering that led to the foundation of the ICoG.
*The Qax occupation deliberately altered the Earth's biosphere, causing mass extinction and pushing the human race on the brink of catastrophe. The Squeem on the other hand, dropped bio-engineered plagues to extirpate out a large segment of humanity's population, and froze the entire fucking oceans using electricity in a process called "polar cubic ice".
**The Qax leaving did not end happily for humanity. As seen above, the Qax were the ones who made new Conurbations, and also provided food to all the humans. People were homeless and starving on a global scale. When the ICOG's Green Army were forcing people to grow food in the nanite-fucked ground, they couldn't and anyone who questioned it got a date with a club to the face. Also, the Green Army deliberately withheld rations from the people.
*Human traitors who sold out their race to the Qax are given genetic engineering to become immortal 'Pharaohs'. The immortality, however, is random especially for their children, as sometimes their kids are [[Loli|stuck being an]] [[Shota|8-year-old ''forever''.]] Or, in some cases, stopped growing in-utero, forcing the mother to commit an abortion.
*The Silver Ghosts also abducted humans to keep as samples for experiments. Alien Joseph Mengele, hurray. One of their subjects, labeled "five" was raised differently from humans. When she was extremely young, some human samples who broke into the facility had the audacity to subdue and rape her. What a warm welcome into humanity.
*When the ICoG exterminated the Silver Ghosts, they kept some of their genetic samples so they could use their skin for augmented purposes. [[Flayed Ones|Ergo, they reduced an entire race into cosmetic farm animals to be harvested and the humans wear them as skin.]] This applies the same to any aliens exterminated by humanity.
*Humanity went on a mass universal xenocide campaign before entering a 500,000-year siege in the Lanikea Galactic Supercluster. You'll be thankful when the Xeelee put an end to humanity's brutal curbstomping of every Xenos species.
*The way the Xeelee exterminated humanity was unbelievably brutal, they planted a Xeelee Flower in every star and covered it in XCM (Xeelee Construction Material). While everyone froze to death, the Xeelee provided booths for humanity to escape into (because they aren't a bunch of fucking monsters, they were trying to stop humanity's murder-rampage), and a four-dimensional prison for them to rot in.
**Going on the theme of humanity's murder-rampage, they sent a Xeelee Nightfighter back in time to interrupt Michael Poole's wormhole project, and also kill humanity by firing thousands of diamonds which weigh several thousand tons. Michael drove the single nightfighter back to the galaxy's center with its tail between its legs, but the Nightfighter made sure that humanity would never spread throughout the galaxy and cause pain and misery for themselves and any other species, which the Xeelee was honestly right for doing.
*When the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] stopped innovating, it's because of [[Fail|incompetence.]] When the ICoG stopped innovating it's because there's no point in this [[Grimdark]] future. It makes no difference if you send child soldiers or mechas against the Xeelee, because they'll kill you anyways, so they just send child soldiers because its cheaper.
**Also, the Guild of Engineers are so gung-ho on standardization throughout the galaxy. That means technology stood static for tens of thousands of years. It doesn't matter anyways, because the Xeelee are capable of fucking up even the best technology a human can make.
*Throughout the ICoG's history, the rate of interservice abuse was so extreme, that the commissaries (Their version of the Commissar) routinely [[Blam|beat their conscripts to death.]] [[Grimdark|Do take note that all these conscripts are ''children''. So expect a ''LOT'' of child abuse.]] It gets to the point of being borderline uncomfortable to read.
**In the short story "Riding the Rock," the Interim Coalition of Governance took over a world and proceeded to condition the children into child soldiers. They took a school, which honestly was like Pol Pot's S-21, and forced the children to do unspeakable things: they beat them to death, forced them to fight, and tried to "breed out their emotions" to prepare them to fight the Xeelee.
**Because the ICoG has time travel if you did an oopsie, every single variant of your past, present and future self will either be tortured to death or get a summary kicked to the jaw for a crime you have yet or have not commit.
**One of the highest honours a parent would receive is if their child were to be inducted into what is effectively a child suicide bomber corp.
**Hama Druz was a bitch to the highest degree. He organized a witch hunt on all the Jasofts and Pharaohs (human collaborators who served the Qax), even though they were the last remembers of Earth and only serving the Qax out of necessity, and most Pharaohs were TRYING TO HELP HUMANITY DURING THE RULE OF THE QAX. Hama, being the racist twat, proceeded every abhuman species which evolved in the universe. Needless to say, most human settlements were less-than-thrilled to join the Third Expansion. Also did we forget to mention, Hama Druz continued the Extirpation, which was ''deleting every bit of old data** like how the Qax did, honestly what the fuck.
*Humans in the ICoG are indoctrinated by birth about the Druz Doctrine and, unlike the half-assed attempts of the Imperium or Galactic Empire to issue autocratic control, [[1984|the ICoG goes full 1984 and have near totalitarian surveillance right down to control of your timeline.]]
**In fact, the rate of indoctrination was so extreme, that even the ''thought'' of going against Coalition doctrine convinced one of the characters to nearly commit suicide out of ''pure instinct''.
*When there is rebellious dissent, the Imperium uses the [[Adeptus Arbites]] and rarely, a small Crusade to crush them and retake the world. When there is even a ''potential'' tinge of dissent, the ICoG dump an entire moon with the population of tens of billions into a Gas Giant; [[Dick|just to make a statement.]]
*You'll be living in a barracks ball: a spherical conurbation where you live with your cadre of child soldiers, where you'll ride a Greenship straight to your death, or you'll live on a rock: a filthy and miserable environment where you'll work until you die by the hands of the Xeelee. So many children are expended, their names had to be etched on the wall via nanotechnology. Talk about literally becoming a statistic.
*If you somehow manage to avoid being conscripted into the Green Army as a child soldier, then you will be living in a coalescence, a literal human ant farm built out of faeces with a million people crammed into a space the size of a city block. They make the underhive of a [[Hiveworld]] look pristine in contrast.
**Coalescences half a million years later evolved into even more nightmarish versions, with humans preforming functions with their own bodies such as recycling air, recycling shit. Yes, we mean post-humans swimming in shit and converting it into food.
**These nightmarish environments evolve wherever there is massive overcrowding and nowhere else to go. This can happen to any society, and evolved in Rome, Mars, and on a Xeelee structure called the "Wheel" which is a smaller dollar-store knockoff of Bolder's Ring.
*Many of the ICoG's child soldiers are bred from either vats or 'breeders' from Coalescences. [[NSFW|Breeders are human Martian females that are pumped with so many hormones and genetic engineering that their stomachs balloon-up with the number of babies they are carrying.]] [[FATAL|Breeders are essentially impregnated the moment they menstruate and continue the rest of their lives shitting out <s>babies</s> child soldiers until they expire.]] Human females in the Xeelee are reduced to birthing sows. [[Grimdark|Yes, this is state-sanctioned child rape.]] [[Daemonculaba]], eat your heart out.
*The ICoG forbids ALL forms of heroism as it runs counter to the Druz Doctrine and risks splitting humanity apart due to the dangers of individualism and egotism being a potential byproduct of heroic deeds. So if you wanna be a goody-two-shoes and save someone by ignoring orders like [[Star Wars|Luke Skywalker]] or sacrifice yourself for the greater good like [[WH40K|Sanguinius]], the ICoG would go back in time to arrest you, charge you and than [[Blam|execute you]] if you're the former, or erase your existence from history if you're the latter, or do both if they are feeling particularly spiteful today. Since the ICoG wants you to die like a bitch, they’ve made it absolutely certain that you will die like a ''BITCH''.
*The ICoG's motto is "A brief life burns brightly". They mean it ''literally'', with the average lifespan of a human being measured 16 years of age at most, as the majority of humanity are child soldiers bred to die in the front lines. Combine with the mass state-sanctioned child abuse and child rape, the stripping of identity and the fact that the concept of the nuclear family is pretty much extinguished, you will die a brutal and ignoble death, a death which will be reduced to a statistic and quickly forgotten. They make even the callousness of a [[Death Korps of Krieg|Krieger]] and an [[Iron Warriors|Iron Warrior]] look like a bunch of woodland hippies in comparison.
**On average, the life of a Green Army soldier measured in just 1.7 missions before death, with 10 billion child soldiers dying each year. It was estimated that ''30 trillion'' child soldiers died in asteroid trenches surrounding the Milky Way's galactic core for over 20,000 years, just to make ''one'' Xeelee to fuck off.
*In one short story, during the Squeem Occupation (The first alien occupiers of Old Earth), a couple of human refugees decided to make a break for it. They modified an asteroid by putting a GUT-drive on it and turning it into a spaceship before escaping the Solar System. The Squeem took note of this and launched a GUT-missile that could tracked them, theoretically, '''forever'''. Since missiles have a better thrust-to-weight ratio, it would eventually catch up. In order to avoid being turned into stardust, the humans slowly increased their velocity, in which the missile would respond in kind, creating an intergalactic cat-and-mouse chase. The faster the ship travelled near light speed, the greater the G-force and inertia. Eventually, slowly but surely, [[Grimdark|the crew of that ship would experience every bit of their bones and organs slowly breaking by the crushing G-force.]] Some of the humans commit suicide whilst others uploaded their minds on a computer. Eventually, they manage to get rid of the missile via baiting it in a black hole's event horizon. Unfortunately, this is the Xeelee and Stephen Baxter knows his shit. The faster you go, the more extreme the time dilation. Ergo, once the humans finally got out of the chase, [[Grimdark|several million years have passed. By this point, the Photino Birds have won and they enter a dying Universe.]]
*In another short story, a Human crew encountered a derelict ship, whose hull is seemingly made out of [[Sons of Malice|human bones.]] Once they entered the ship, they realised that the ship was housing a community of degenerate humans that got lost in space. How did they survive for so long without any agriculture? [[NSFW|By turning their women into a literal food vending machine.]] [[FATAL|Yeah, turns out that the skeleton decoration on the ship's hull were actually ''baby bones'';]] [[Grimdark|they literally reduced infants into ration-packs and farmed meat produce.]]
**Baxter has a tendency for flesh-ships. Near the end of the novel "Raft", the main character gets exiled to the Boneys because nobody else would take him. Well, the Boneys are a fucking ''ball of flayed skins and skeletons'' floating in space. These people live in a mini world made of corpses, and eat discarded corpses from the Raft and Belt societies. The whole place smells like rotten corpses, and it's also described as absolutely filthy.
**Keeping in theme with the flesh-ships, Spline ships are massive asteroid-like meatballs a few kilometers wide. It's said to feel like being swallowed, being in a Spline ship.
*One of the ICoG's distant descendants, the Transcendence came to an endpoint, of which they concluded that humanity = suffering, and that it would instead reach into every timeline of every human that has ever existed, would exist, or could exist and just annihilate them; forcing every human who ever lived to experience all the pain and suffering of every other human who ever lived, over the course of quadrillions of relative years. They consider this as 'paradise'.
*Configuration Space from "Reality Dust" is a bunch of bacteria in the Callisto ice neurally and chemically communicating with each other to form a new universe: an island with a mountain of order, and a sea of entropy. This island seems pretty nice, but the ocean is all black and it melts whoever touches it by the power of entropy. There's a community of degenerate humans in this universe which are basically zombies.
**A character was downloaded into this space, and started doing normal shit like eating the grass. She touched the water and melted her fingers off. She saw one of the "zombies" and explored the forest. There, she found even larger, more depraved zombies in the forest.
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==Things that make the Xeelee Sequence [[Grimdark|Absurdly and Horrifyingly Overpowered]]==
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As you know by now, the Xeeleeverse is not the nicest place to live in; arguably one of the worst settings you could ever conceivably have your unfortunate sorry ass be dropped in. Yet, it is the setting's power capabilities that would truly catch the eye of most of you readers here. There is a reason why the term "Xeeleestomp" is a thing. These guys [[Rape|curbstomps]] [[The Culture]] and makes the likes of Gurren Lagan feel small and limped-dick. Here is a shortlist that showcase just how overpowered the Sequence truly is:
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[[File:LJeEPUd.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Unless you're [[/co/|Marvel/DC]], [[Doctor Who]] or the Downstreamers, this is the most appropriate fate of whoever mess with these fuckers.]]
*On the Kardashev Scale, the Imperium of Man is considered a Type 2 Civilization, which means that they control the energy output of at least one star but less than the whole galaxy. The Necrons and Ancient Eldar combined would be a Type 3, controlling the energy output of a single Galaxy. In the Xeeleeverse, factions like the ICoG and the Qax are ranked Type 4 - easily harnessing the energy output of ''Galaxy Clusters''. The Xeelee themselves would be ranked ''Type 5'', a catch-all "uncategorized" type to indicate they rule the ''observable universe''. And the Photino Birds were ''even stronger''.
**To give a better context, the Silver Ghosts, easily one of the weakest factions in the Sequence, is generally agreed among multiple versus forums to be able to utterly [[Rape|''steamroll'' the entirety of the 40k universe, ''combined''.]]
*Every A.I. and supercomputers in the Xeeleeverse use CTC (Closed Timelike Curve), essentially meaning that information goes backwards in time to achieve what is essentially negative reaction times and unlimited processing. Since the answer was already given before the question, the actual processing power needed to compute would have never existed in the first place. Yes. This is theoretically ''feasible''.
**The Xeelee themselves one-up this by having the Anti-Xeelee, an A.I. construct made of probability quantum wave functions and is a fixed point in time, meaning that it exists in the beginning, present and end of the Universe, all at the same time.
**The Xeelee' equivalent of a supercomputer is a supermassive black hole. Yes, they use the core of Galaxies as a desktop.
*Every FTL ship is effectively a timeship. Time travel is heavily militarized with ships from various factions going back in time to accelerate the civilizational progress a hundred-thousand fold or grant their ancestors effective precognition.
*The Space Marines use miniature [[Bolter|rocket launchers]] as standard equipment, whilst other factions use [[Gauss|molecular-disintegrator beams]] and [[Shuriken Catapult|monomolecular shuriken cannons]]. Compared to mainstream Sci-Fi universes, that seems over-the-topped. In the Xeeleeverse, the ICoG's equivalent of the [[Imperial Guard|dudes in T-Shirts]] carries [[Lasgun|Flashlights]] that could turn boats into slag and kill thousands of humans in seconds. Their Flamers act more like Meltas, flash-frying and carbonising people in a near-instant. Their 'Bolter' equivalents are guns that fire GUT-rounds. GUT stands for Grand Universal Theory, or in layman's terms, they are rifles that fire pellets with the mass-energy density of a ''Big Bang'' (approximately 10-36 seconds at the beginning of time) - ergo, [[Exterminatus|Big Bang Rifles.]] For anti-air purposes, the Green Army ground forces use Monopole Cannons, that fires one-dimensional, topological space-time defects at near the speed of light as their RPG equivalents. They also have reverse-engineered Xeelee Starbreakers that could rip apart anything, up to and including, entire Stars.
*The average joe in the ICoG wear skinsuits which could affectively negate the melta-level effects of their flamethrowers. Have fun imagining a couple of guys that are almost completely immune to Melta weapons.
*Basic GUT-ship and vehicle weapons from the ICoG involves firing black holes, neutron stars and monopoles at near the speed of light. These black hole cannons mind you, could disrupt the event horizon of a galactic core. The ships themselves could tank a point-blank burn from a Magnetar Eruption and are protected by a Gravastar Shield, which is a pocket dimension that defends them from FTL foreknowledge and other forms of conventional or physical attack.
*Your average tweeb in their mother's basement can make wormholes for shits and giggles.
*The Imperium considers the [[Vraks|Siege of Vraks]] as one of the largest and longest form of trench warfare in their history. The Transcendence use ''entire galactic superclusters'' as trenching material on their off days.
*The Silver Ghosts had Quantum Gravity AI that was both acausal and allows it to see the future. Unlike the [[Eldar]] [[Farseer|Farseers]], they are always proven right with flawless precognition.
**They later one-up themselves by creating a Planck Zero AI, which, as its name suggests, lowered Planck's Constant to zero via shoving it in a pocket universe. The A.I. had infinite computational power and could make these computations in zero time.
**When the Silver Ghosts got their shiny skins flayed by child soldiers and hunters, the Quantum Gravity AI was taken and implanted into weaponized humans who could see into the future. In the story "Gravity Dreams," nearly a million years in the future, a boy heard the transmission of a girl in another universe, the same universe of the book "Raft," which was reaching the end of the stelliferous era.
*The Silver Ghosts used teleportation that deliberately increases Planck’s Constant, which in turn, increased the uncertainty principle, which in turn, makes the manipulation of the probability of a given object's place absolute. This range from a single person to entire planets.
*The Silver Ghosts could rewrite the laws of physics. From weakening the electromagnetic force (Thereby increasing the lightspeed constant at the expanse of shaking matter apart) to increasing the strength of gravity by a factor of a billion.
*The Transcendence was capable of folding every single timeline of Humanity into one meta-reality. What has been said in the Transcendence's section should be re-instated again. The sheer scale of this project immediately puts the Transcendence way above even the upper echelons of the Kardashev scale. We are talking about reality warping numbers that make a Googolplex look ''small''.
**And despite all of this, they still were considered as second-rate tryhards by the Xeelee, who promptly curbstomped the Transcendence back to the stone age.
*The Xeelee are widely agreed to compete against the [[Doctor Who|Time Lords and Time War-era Daleks]] as ''peer equals''. That is a feat that should not be scoffed at.
*The Xeelee Nightfighter 'wings' are composed of space-time defects called "Domain Walls" which stretch for tens of kilometres and are constructed from one-dimensional singularities. The materials for the ship itself are called...well...Xeelee Construction Material (XCM for short)(Also called Xeelee Hull-Plate). You know those Big Bang Rifles that the ICoG's basic grunts carry around as mentioned earlier? Yeah, they do as much damage to these Nightfighers as a [[Stubber#Stub Gun|Stub Gun]] could do to Terminator Armour.
*The Xeelee lives off on the event horizons of supermassive black holes. Only extreme gravitational forces or their own Starbreakers could actually harm them. You know the XCMs? Yeah, they violate the Pauli Exclusion Principle, which means all of its atoms share the same quantum state; able to absorb energy with a 100% efficiency. Essentially meaning that using direct energy weapons or exterminatus-level bombs like a Cyclonic Torpedo would do nothing and in fact, [[Troll|may actually ''heal them''.]]
**An example of this is when a human used a literal XCM umbrella to shield himself from an exploding stellar nova.
*Their Nightfighters could stay motionless to going at near the speed of light in a blink of an eye. Their most basic and common weapon, the Starbreaker as mentioned before, are basically black hole lasers that open a wound in space-time - which are also cherry-red in colour due to electromagnetic red-shift - that could blow up a star system for the kicks.
*The Xeelee could reshape and move entire galaxies like lego set-pieces. The construction of the Xeelee Ring was a one-dimensional singularity that was turned into a cosmic string and was big enough to start pulling ''Galaxy Clusters'' into its gravitational well.
*The Xeelee have weapons that could vapourize ''weaponized galaxies''. These are essentially cosmic string anti-air missiles, thousands of light-years wide and moving at over half-light speed to ''bisect entire galaxies''.
*The Photino Birds could use said aforementioned weaponized galaxies as anti-armour weapons.
*The Photino Birds lives off the gravitational and stellar energy of stars. Ergo, they started a mass reconstruction program via the mass accelerated heat death of the Universe, turning every star into a white dwarf, whose long lifespans in the hundreds of trillions maximizes the Birds' comfort and reproduction cycle. This contradicts the Xeelee's way of life as they need the event horizon of a black hole to sustain themselves. Accelerated heat death = no supernova = no black holes. Ergo, war begins.
**The Photino Birds's reproduction is a form of self-cloning or replication. They are in effect, Dark Matter von Neumann swarms.
*The Photino Birds were creating an inertia bomb big enough to shake the Xeelee Ring - a ten million light-years wide construct - into pieces.
*The Photino Birds was making the Xeelee their whipping bitch. Take that into consideration. In other words, they made the strongest beings possibly made out of Baryonic matter flee the universe with their tails in between their legs.
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==See Also==
*[http://www.stephen-baxter.com/articles.html#xeelee The complete Xeelee timeline]
*[https://youtu.be/saWNMPL5ygk?t=2044| Now in beautiful CGI video (it's evident the designers took inspiration from XS).]

[[category: Literature]]

Grim Hollow

2022-04-14T14:22:59Z

2A02:8108:49C0:A04:D7A:7F36:D419:13A3: /* Subclasses */

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'''Grim Hollow''' is a 3rd party [[Dark Fantasy]] setting for [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]] published by Ghostfire Gaming. Currently, only the Campaign Setting and Player's Guide exists, with the Monster Grimoire being crowdfunded for on Kickstarter.

==The World of Etharis==
[[File:Damien-mammoliti-grimhollow-worldmap2-dm.jpg|300px|thumb|Lands of Etharis]]
Etharis, as the campaign setting's world is called, is a [[grimdark]] slant on the standard D&D 5e world. It takes place on a world where a brutal humanity rose up and almost annihilated the empires of [[dwarves]], [[elves]] and [[dragonborn]], then nearly annihilated itself in pointless internecine wars, allowing the oppressed remnants of those races to rise up and forcibly carve a place for themselves out of the ruins. Civilization exists in a [[Points of Light]] format; islands of light and hope surrounded by vast tracts of hostile, monster-infected wilderness. Some regions suffer supernatural or paranatural auras that shroud them in darkness, and plagues ravage the land - especially the dreaded Weeping Pox. The gods of Etharis annihilated each other in a brutal civil war, leaving behind only their lieutenants - the Arch Seraphs and Arch Daemons - to heed the prayers of mortal followers, and work to exploit the world as it exists for their own advantage. In many portions of the world, arcane magic is feared, and there is even a crusade, the Arcanist Inquisition, dedicated to destroying all who are even accused of dabbling with magic.

But despite all this... Etharis is not a relentlessly bleak world, and there is some hope for it to get better. To quote the book itself:
::''Etharis as a campaign setting is not meant to be relentlessly bleak and depressing, or to wallow in cruelty for its own sake. Small victories become heroic when they take heroic effort to achieve. No one in Etharis is safe by default, so any safety the characters win or give to others is a true blessing. No one in Etharis is good by default, so moments of genuine grace are worth celebrating – and can come from unexpected places. Amid profound darkness, even the smallest lights have value.

There's even a chapter in the Campaign Guide that breaks down [[Dark Fantasy]] into its four major components: [[Grimdark]], Horror, Dark Fairy Tales, and [[Sword & Sorcery]], with advice to the DM on how to pick and mix these themes to make Etharis more their own.

===Realms of Etharis===
As you can see from the map, Etharis is a pretty big place. Luckily, we're here to give you an breakdown of the various places of note on the map.

The '''Bürach Empire''' is the former ruling power of Etharis. An alliance of four provinces united by a divinely chosen emperor, Bürach has begun falling into ruination ever since the last emperor, the insane Leopold I, spread his insanity into the four gods whose powers once united and supported the empire, causing them to ultimately butcher each other in the name of proving which of them was the supreme god before Leopold was assassinated. Their madness and subsequent deaths have left powerful cultural and mystical scars on the lands they once championed. The provinces of the Bürach Empire are:'
* ''Abendland:'' Literal and metaphorical center of the Bürach Empire, once devoted to Aurelia, Goddess of Healing, Hearth and Home. It was the Hearthkeepers, Aurelia's priesthood, who helped locate the god-touched individual - Indorius - who became the first Emperor of Bürach Empire, and they were the ones who decreed the Edict of Eternal Blood, which allowed only direct descendants of Emperor Indorius to rule. This included coaxing the marriage of cousins and siblings to preserve the purity of said blood, despite the misgivings of the rest of Bürachs, that ultimately led to the insanity of Emperor Leopold I. Even now, the Hearthkeepers stifle their people and try to keep them ignorant of the waning divine powers of their priests and the fading fecundity of the land itself, with hope of turning Abendland into an open [[theocracy]].
* ''Nordenland:'' Always home to planar gates and crossings, especially to the [[Feywild]], Nordenland is the traditional home of the [[mage]]s of Bürach, which made it a natural homeland for Ulmyr, God of Magic and Chaos. The fall of the empire has broken Nordenland into two halves; those of the East, who have thrown off all allegiance to the empire and returned to the old ways, and those of the West, who still consider themselves part of Bürach and eagerly adopt new technologies from their former allies. Civil war is brewing, especially as the forests become filled with monsters and evils.
* ''Rauland:'' Kingdom of the [[dwarves]] and [[gnome]]s, Rauland was dedicated to Galt, God of Order and Construction. During the dark days of the godly civil war, Galt became a brutal tyrant, [[Laduguer|demanding toil for the sake of toil and treating all lives as tools for the sake of production]]. Ironically, with their patron dead, the Raulanders have found their crafts are declining in potency, stripped of the divine blessing they enjoyed in the empire's heyday.
* ''Unterland:'' A warrior society who were devoted to Maligant, the God of War and Strategy; with their patron gone, the cult of Tormach, [[Khorne|Archdaemon of Wrath and Slaughter]], is spreading like wildfire to take his place.

The '''Ostoyan Empire''' was Bürachs' major rival, founded by people who fled from Unterland during the chaos of Bürachs' early years due to refusing to accept Emperor Indorius as their new leader. They founded their own nation, Ostoya, but when the finally stabilized Bürach came and demanded the Ostoyans swear subservience to their long-lost and little-loved kinsfolk, it led to war. That war only grew more desperate with the Darkfall; a mighty earthquake that opened chasms leading to an ancient city buried beneath the ground, one infested by the [[undead]]. So desperate were the Ostoyans to remove this "homegrown" threat that they sent an entire army down into the deep to fight a holding action, then collapsed the chasms leading to the surface, burying their own men alive in the process. But this only made things worse; a survivor found a strange shrine and prayed for vengeance, before returning to the surface as a [[vampire]] and spreading his plague through Ostoya's nobility. With the new [[necrocracy]] in place, the Ostoyans expelled the Bürach invaders. Now, Ostoya resides under a permanent shadow; the sky is forever choked with thick clouds (often pregnant with snow or heavy rain) and mist, blotting the light from the sun. Ironically, Ostoya has schismed once again, and is now divided into two provinces; ''Soma'', the [[vampire]]-ruled [[necrocracy]], and the [[magocracy]] of ''Raevo'', which refuses to bow to the undead. Even more ironically, their civil war is remarkably civil: both sides share a hatred of Bürach that outweighs their antipathy towards each other, and the two provinces will fight to aid each other in remaining independent of Bürach. Definite shades of [[Sylvania]].

The '''Charneault Kingdom''' is a magical forest realm, the last stronghold of the [[elves]] and also home to a spiritual and honorable [[human]] culture who had found peace with their elven neighbors - thanks to the enforcing might of the [[Primal Spirits|nature spirits]] that reside here. But the Pact of the Sacred Land has been soured by the Dark Elves; an anti-human cult which attempted to use black magic to subvert the relationship the elves had long enjoyed with the nature spirits from that of equals to that of master and servant - whilst a human [[knight]], the valiant Ser Guilherm le Preux, managed to prevent the rite from fully taking place, Charneault has been tainted by the Dark Elves' actions. The magical mists that have always inundated Charneault now sometimes take on a dark coloration, throwing the spirits in turmoil, whilst Dark Elf sorcerers leading monsters and bewitched dark knights have begun to launch attacks against the human population of the land from their new base in the dead city of Tol Kerdywel, the prison of an elven princess turned foul [[lich]]. In return, the humans of Charneault are falling into disarry; the farmers dare not enter their fields when the Mist approaches, leading to shortages, and the king's order to swell the ranks of the various [[knight]]ly orders for which Charneault is famed has led to increased rivalry between those orders and their followers. And all the while, anti-elf sentiment is swelling in the minds of humanity...

The '''Valikan Clans''' of '''Grarjord''' are the [[Viking]]-like inhabitants of the [[elemental]]-haunted frozen northlands of Etharis, a region said to have once been ruled by [[Archomental|godlike elementals]] that warred with each other. Of these, the most fearsome was Gormadraug, the Great Prismatic Wyrm; a [[dragon]]-shaped [[elemental]] who was the master of "coldfire" - a white-blue flame that freezes instead of burns, consumes water, and can only be extinguished with fire and heat. Although reputedly slain by a band of seven heroes well over a thousand years ago, Gormadraug still shapes Grarjord's future. Over fifty years ago, a [[druid]]ic cult arose, the Prismatic Circle, who decreed that the Valikan must feed Gormadraug's spirit with bloodshed to keep him docile. This has led to a schims in Valikan society, dividing Grarjord into two provinces; ''Thrull'', a [[druid]]ic [[theocracy]] where the Prismatic Circle rules and raiding, slavery and human sacrifice are the order of the day, and ''Kandar'', which rejects the Prismatic Circle's rules and seeks strength through alliances and trade with the more fertile lands to the south. Making things worse is the rival Cult of the Wyrm, druids who seek to use the blood sacrifice of humans and elementals to ''awaken'' Gormadraug, and the mysterious appearance of outbreaks of coldfire, which sweep in deadly anti-blazes across the northland and leave behind only frozen wastes.

The '''Castinellan Provinces''' are a harsh, windswept peninsula, split down their center by an irregular mountain spine. These three provinces - ''Toletum'', ''Faro'' and ''Therpena'' - have long warred with each other, and only recently been united by a [[theocracy]] dedicated to the worship of Empyreus. Traditional homeland of the [[dragonborn]], the new priest-kings seek to tamper the warlike and vengeful nature of their people by first redirecting their attention outward in holy wars and crusades. It is also the birthplace of the Arcanist Inquisition, which seeks to control and limit the use of magic - ostensibly because Empyreus herself had told Montego Valieda, the first priest-king and Unifier of Castinellan, that magic was a curse that endangered its wielders and their associates alike.

'''Morencia''' is a powerful mercantile city-state occupies a series of small islands in a large lagoon, which is virtually impossible thanks to the magic-spawned mists that shroud the complex maze of reefs and sandbanks surrounding the city. Ruled over by the Augustine Trading Company, which has achieved this by absorbing the Banker's Guild and thus made mere puppets of the so-called Supreme Council, Morencia desires only to prosper, and is constantly targeted by the Castinellan Provinces as their first conquest.

'''Liesech''' is a city-state that lies to the north of the Charneault Kingdom and south of the Bürach Empire, the latter which now controls it, fighting an impossible battle to stave off the consumption of the city by the sea itself. Especially because of the mysterious god-thing, possibly a [[kraken]], known as the Filth Grazer, and the dreaded Weeping Pox.

===Etharis Races===
Etharis is home to the following races:

[[Human]]s: The most numerous race, who rose up from barbarism during the age of the dwarven and elven dominance over the world into a vast conquering horde that first almost annihilated the elves and dwarves, then nearly wiped themselves out. They technically are still the "dominant" race of Etharis, but their short lives have led to their old hatred fading... whilst the other races have not forgotten what humanity did to them...

[[Elf|Elves]]: Formerly the masters of Etharis' forests, their empires were burned to ashes during humanity's rise, and they spent decades as wandering nomads who were given magic by the forest spirits who survived as a way to avenge their loss.

[[Dwarf|Dwarves]]: During humanity's expansion, the dwarves retreated to their two greatest strongholds. Grevenstein was ultimately breached and its people annihilated, but Stehlenwald dug deeper and armed its people with adamantine; although their population was halved, their superior arms and armor allowed them to push humanity back. Still, they agreed to become a vassal race of humanity in the name of survival.

[[Half-Orc]]s: Pureblooded [[orc]]s are long gone in Etharis, but they remain figures of dark legends. Only half-orcs remain, and they are largely feared and distrusted, dwelling voluntarily amidst the harsh environment of the frozen north.

[[Half-Elf|Half-Elves]]: Nomadic outcasts rejected by both sides of their parentage.

[[Dragonborn]]: The small kingdom of the dragonborn fell when caught between warring humans and elves, but its people survived. They have abandoned their original gods, and instead embraced the new religion of the Divine Seraphs with fanatical zeal, winning a place in the Castinellan theocracy.

[[Gnome]]s: Cousins of the dwarves, they retreated into Stehlenwald with their kin, and were instrumental in turning back the tides of humanity by inventing the first primitive gunpowder weapons.

[[Halfling]]s: When humanity began its bloody Era of Expansion, the halflings surrendered rather than fight, voluntarily subsuming themselves into human culture as a race of servants.

The Player's Guide added several new races to the setting:

'''Wechselkind''' are essentially a cross between [[fey]] [[changeling]]s and [[warforged]]; they're [[fey]] [[construct]]s in the shape of children which the fey leave behind to disguise when they've stolen human children. Whilst most of these unfortunate creatures are destroyed when their foster family finds the truth, the lucky ones are kept because, despite constructs, they are as aware and intelligent as any human child. Unfortunately, although their minds can age, wechselkind are stuck with a child-like body forever. Ironcially, the Weeping Pox has been a boon to these golem-kin; being immune to disease has allowed them to become very effective nurses and doctor's assistants in the plague-lands.
::+2 Constitution, +1 Charisma
::Small
::Base Speed 25 feet
::'''Artificial Form:''' Though you are considered a Humanoid for effects that key off of type, you are Immune to Disease, Resistant to Poison damage, have Advantage on saves against the Poisoned condition, and don't need to eat, drink, sleep or breathe.
::'''Faerie Glamour:''' 1/day, you can take on the form of the child you were created to replace, which other than this restriction in available forms functions as disguise self.
::'''Childish Agility:''' You can move through the space of any creature of a size larger than yours, and you have Proficiency in Acrobatics.
::'''Unaging:''' You are immune to magical aging effects.

'''Laneshi''' are a strange race with a natural affinity for necromancy who hail from a kingdom deep below the waves. Their society is caste-based; those born as twins become mystics, who have their twin sibling sacrificed and spiritually bound to them to grant them heightened necromantic powers, whilst those born as single children become the warrior caste. Mystics are responsible for all things associated with the dead - funeral rites, crafting, construction, record keeping and food preparation - and and warriors are associated with all things of the living; warfare, ruling, diplomacy, farming, raising and educating children, etc. They appear as pale bluish-white skinned, almost elf-like figures with manes of green kelp-like hair.
::+1 Strength, +1 Wisdom
::Medium
::Base Speed 30 feet, Swim 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::'''Amphibious:''' You can breathe both air and water.
::'''Beast Whisperers:''' You can cast Speak with Animals 1/day.
::'''Subrace:''' Choose either the Warrior or Mystic subrace.
:::''Warrior:'' +1 Strength, '''Skirmish Tactics '''(when you hit a hostile with a weapon attack, you may Disengage as a bonus action until the end of your turn), and '''Laneshi Weapon Training''' (Proficiency in Spears, Tridents, Javelins, Light Armor, Animal Handling).
:::''Mystic:'' +1 Wisdom, '''Duality of Spirit''' (Resistance to Psychic damage, Advantage on Int, Wis and Cha saves vs. magic, first time this trait activates per day, pass a DC 12 Wis save or be Stunned until the end of your next turn), and '''Laneshi Magic''' (you know 1 Necromancy Cantrip, and gain a second Necromancy Cantrip at 5th level, both keying off of Wisdom).

'''Ogresh''' are a strange race of possibly [[giant-kin]]; whilst they appear as tall humans, they are characterized more by their massive girth than their height - they average 6 to 7 feet and average between 200 to 800 pounds, depending on if they are in their youthful "nomadic" state or their older "sedentary" state. Despite their bulk, they are creatures of great social skill and wisdom rather than brute strength, which they use to insinuate themselves into the societies of other races in pursuit of food, typically becoming master merchants, diplomats, advisors, entertainers, and other sagely figures.
::+2 Charisma, +1 Constitution, +1 Wisdom
::Medium + Powerful Build
::Base speed 30 feet
::'''Takes One To Know One:''' Advantage on saves vs. Charmed.
::'''Gift of Gab:''' Free Proficiency in two of these skills: Persuasion, Insight, Deception, Performance.
::'''A Friendly Ear:''' Once per short rest, you can attempt to charm a non-hostile creature you are conversing with, which requires at least a minute's conversation. If the creature fails a Wisdom save (DC 8 + your Cha modifier + your Proficiency bonus), they are Charmed by you for 1 hour and you learn one piece of information related to the topic of your conversation. Regardless of if the charm fails or succeeds, your target never realizes you have charmed them.

'''The Downcast''' are all that remains of angels who found themselves depowered and cast down upon Etharis after the end of the God-War. Their numbers dwindle, as fallen angels and their lingering divine essence are of great interest in a world where divine magic is failing - even without active predation, many of the Downcast have turned bitter, or simply withered from despair and disease.
::+2 Wisdom
::Medium
::Base speed 30 feet
::'''Divine Learning:''' You have Proficiency in Religion and know the Thaumaturgy cantrip.
::'''Divine Sangromancy:''' When an allied creature within 30 feet of you regains hit points, you may spend a hit die and add the result to the amount of hit points gained.
::'''Lingering Divinity:''' You have Resistance to Necrotic damage.
::'''Subrace:''' Choose the ''Aurelian'' (+1 Charisma, cast Cure Wounds (level 1) 1/day), ''Ulmyrite'' (+1 Intelligence, cast Detect Magic 1/day), ''Maliganti'' (+1 Strength, cast Branding Smite (level 1) 1/day) or ''Galtian'' (+1 Constitution, cast Shield of Faith 1/day).

'''Dreamers''' are a bizarre race unearthed by the Stehlnewald dwarves as they dug into the depths of their mountains during their beseigement by humanity during the "Era of Expansion". They are all that remains of a race that predates elves, dwarves and humans alike, who placed themselves into magical stasis in order to escape some great calamity that wiped out the rest of their civilization. The plan worked, but as a side effect, their memories of who they were as a people before their magical slumber have been stripped away.
::+2 Intelligence, +1 Constitution
::Medium
::Base speed 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::'''Dreamwalking: After finishing a long rest in which you slept, choose one skill or tool proficiency; gain a bonus equal to your Proficiency bonus to any rolls with that skill or tool until your next long rest. Additionally, whilst sleeping, you can touch the dreams of others within 1 mile.
::'''Even in Sleep:''' Your non-sight Perception rolls suffer no penalties when you are asleep.
::'''Power Nap: You can choose to sleep for 1 hour as part of a short rest; doing so removes 1 level of Exhaustion and restores 1 hit die, in addition to the standard short rest bonuses.

'''The Disembodied''' are the tormented remnants of the lost city of Ulmyr's Gate, a wizardly academy-town that attempted to create a permanent portal to the Ethereal Plane, only for it to go disastrously wrong and swallow the entire city instead. As their name suggests, the Disembodied are now trapped permanently halfway beween the material and ethereal.
::+2 Intelligence, +1 Dexterity
::Medium or Small (your choice)
::Speed: 30 feet
::'''Fade Away:''' 1/day, you can spend an action on your turn to slip into the Ethereal Plane, which lasts for 1 minute or until you use a bonus action to return. Whilst you remain in the Ethereal, you cannot affect the Material Plane or be affected by it, but you can still see and hear into the Material, and move around. When the effect ends, you reappear in the closest unoccupied space you disappeared from.
::'''Planar Outcast:''' You can cast Feather Fall (self only) 1/day. At 3rd level, you can cast Blur 1/day. At 5h level, you can cast Blink 1/day. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
::'''Arcane Origins:''' You have Proficiency in Arcana.

===Etharis Pantheon===
As stated above, Etharis' gods have all been wiped out, leaving a handful of powerful [[Archangel|Arch Seraphs]] and [[Archdevil|Arch Daemons]] to take their place.

The Arch Seraphs consist of:
* ''Miklas:'' Arch Seraph of Mercy, who wants to do the job of her former boss, the Goddess of Protection Aurelia, but just doesn't have the power.
* ''Empyreus:'' Arch Seraph of Valor, who seeks to take the place of the fallen war-god Maligant and champion good-aligned warriors to return Etharis to its Golden Age.
* ''Zabriel:'' Arch Seraph of Truth, who has abandoned the neutrality of her patron Typharia, God of Knowledge, to instead seek to weaponize knowledge and truth.
* ''Morael:'' Arch Seraph of Sacrifice, is a former aspect of the Vetara, Goddess of Love, and acts as the patron of heroes, martyrs and diplomats.
* ''Solyma:'' Arch Seraph of Justice and silent heir to the throne of the forgotten God of Justice, whose followers are straying from her ways due to her self-imposed vow of silence.
* ''Aphaeleon:'' Arch Seraph of Temperance, who has abandoned the way of the God of Joy, Myria, to instead champion those who seek freedom from worldly desires.

The malevolent Arch Daemons, on the other hand, consist of:
* ''Venin:'' Arch Daemon of Deceit
* ''Tormach:'' Arch Daemon of Wrath, Empyreus' bitter rival, who delights in killing and bloody violence.
* ''Gorodyn:'' Arch Daemon of Avarice, who has stolen the throne of the God of Commerce, Jezra, to spread his doctrine of naked greed and consumption.
* ''Sitri:'' Arch Daemon of Hedonism, who is basically [[Slaanesh]].
* ''Beleth:'' Arch Daemon of Fear, who revels in his ability to torment mortals.
* ''Malikir:'' Arch Daemon of Pride

Other entities of cosmic significance in Etharis are the ''Primordials'', which are basically Etharis' [[Archomental]]s, and the ''Aether Kindred'', which are [[Elder Evils]]-like god-tier [[aberration]]s who slew the original gods of Etharis.

==New Mechanics==
===Subclasses===
{{dnd-stub}}
The Campaign Guide for Grim Hollow added no new subclasses. That was left for the Player's Guide, which debuted in September 21, featuring the following new subclasses:

[[Barbarian]]:
* '''Path of the Primal Spirit:''' Want an animal companion, but think the 5e [[Ranger]] sucks? Well, congrats; this is the class for you! The Primal Spirit Path allows you to forge such a deep bond with a totemic animal spirit that it will physically manifest to adventure alongside you. Naturally, its features all revolve around your ''Primal Companion'' (3rd), which is abstracted to the choice of if it's a Primal Guardian (tanky) or Primal Striker (offense-focused), and if it's a Land, Sea or Air creature. ''Shared Rage'' (3rd) gives your Primal Companion a buff when you Rage, which combined with the solid but simple rules for controlling it is very nice. ''Kin to Beasts'' (6th) lets you cast Animal Friendship and Speak with Animals 1/short rest, both keying off of Constitution. ''Skinrider's Trance'' (10th) lets you possess your primal companion or a creature you've cast Animal Friendship on 1/day. Finally, ''Shape of the Wild'' (14th) les you use a bonus action to transform your Primal Companion into a different kind of Primal Companion 1/short rest.
* '''Path of the Fractured:''' Inspired by Jekyll and Hyde, with maybe a dash of the Hulk, the Fractured takes a more esoteric approach to rage, attaining the characteristic berserker furies by learning to divide their mind into two split personas; the Id and the Ego. This divide gives them a number of unique mental powers. Starting at 3rd level, they gain ''Face of Rage'', which causes them to turn into an unrecognizable monstrous version of themselves with suped-up unarmed strikes when raging, and ''Mask of Civility'', which gives them a bonus Int or Wis-based skill as well as either a free Artisan's Tool Kit tool proficiency or bonus language. ''Brains and Brawn'' (6th) gives the Fractured resistance to Psychic when not raging, and resistance to everything ''but'' Psychic when raging. ''[[Mork|Cunning]] and [[Gork|Brutal]]'' gives the Fractured increased interaction options when not raging, and boosted crits with unarmed strikes when raging. Finally, ''Better Half'' (14th) lets the Fractured cheat death (and fly into a rage, if it happened when they weren't raging) 1/day.

[[Bard]]:
* '''College of Adventurers:''' Taking the [[Skill Monkey]] archetype to the extreme, bards of the College of Adventurers study the tales of heroes and adventurers to the point they essentially become capable of [[multiclassing]] without actually multiclassing. Their key feature is the ''Adventurer's Talent'' (3rd), which basically lets them select any other class apart from the [[Artificer]] and gain one of their tricks in a limited format - a Barbarian's Rage, a Warlock Invocation, 2 Sorcery Points and one of the simpler [[Metamagic]]s, etc. They start with 1 Talent, and pick up another one at levels 6 and 14. Their other features are ''Party Planner'' (3rd, creatures under Bardic Inspiration can Help as a bonus action), ''Well Rounded'' (6th; gain a bonus skill, tool and language), and finally ''Improvisational Talent'' (14th, you can swap out one of your Adventurer's Talents whenever you complete a Long Rest).
* '''College of Requiems:''' ...It's the [[Necromancer]]-[[Bard]]. Were you ''really'' expecting anything else? At 3rd level, they gain ''Chilling Melody'' (two Necromancy cantrips of their choice as bonus cantrips) and ''Pluck the Heartstrings'' (allies under Bardic Inspiration can expend it to either deal bonus Necrotic damage with a weapon or avoid being dropped to 0 HP). 6th level grants ''Stir the Bones'' (gain Animated Dead as a bonus spell, can use Bardic Inspiration on their undead minions). Finally, 14th level gives them ''Dance of the Dead'' (can make a single-target Necromancy spell hit 2 targets 1/short rest).

[[Cleric]]:
* '''Eldritch Domain:''' This is the obligatory [[Cthulhu Mythos]] type "mad gods and dire cosmic forces" Cleric you'd expect in a [[Dark Fantasy]]. Most of its features revolve around an "Eldritch Effects" table of temporary insanities the cleric can inflict upon its enemies. At 1st level, it gains ''Unpredictable Inspiration'' (gain a bonus cantrip and skill of the player's choice each time they complete a long rest) and ''Eldritch Contagion'' (spend a bonus action when casting a level 1+ spell to force 1 target to Wisdom save or roll on Eldritch Effects). 2nd level lets them use Channel Divinity to invoke a ''Prophecy of Doom'' (all creatures in target area must Wisdom save or suffer an Eldritch Effect). 6th level gives them ''Otherworldly Calm'' (Resistance to Psychic damage, people who try to read the cleric's mind risk Psychic damage). 8th level gives them ''Potent Spellcasting'', and 17th level grants them the ability to ''Sing the Song that Ends the World'' (creatures take 10d10 Psychic damage if they succumb to Prophecy of Doom; survivors can't be affected by this again for 10 minutes).
* '''Inquisition Domain:''' You want to be a [[Witch Hunter]]? Well, this is a step in the right direction. You're basically pissed that [[arcanist]]s get to enjoy so much power on their own whilst divine magic is dying. These clerics gain bonus proficiencies in martial weapons and heavy armor, and a 1st level feature in ''Witch Hunter's Strike'' (add Force damage, which is more potent against targets that are casting a spell and can heal the cleric). 2nd level provides the Channel Divinity in ''Spell Shield'' (1 target gains Temporary HP and Resistance to magic). 6th level's ''Rebuke Invoker'' lets the cleric try to disrupt spellcasting attempts (causing Force damage in the bargain), 8th level gives them ''Divine Strike'' (Force), and 17th level grants them ''Supernal Safeguard'', letting them target Wisdom mod (min 2) targets with Spell Shield.

[[Druid]]
* '''Circle of Blood:''' It's all about that [[Blood Magic]], baby! Strength through sacrifice, that's the motto here. Aside from the bonus Sangromancy spells, these druids gain the features ''Blood Boon'' (2nd, gain temporary HP when a creature dies within 60 feet), ''Rite of the Blood Moon'' (6th, expend a use of Wild Shape to drive yourself or a nearby ally into a pseudo-[[Barbarian]] Rage), ''Blood Lust'' (10th, creatures under Rite of the Blood Moon can sacrifice hit dices for bonus damage), and ''Create Blood Elemental'' (14th, 1/day summon a water elemental as a reaction when a creature dies within 60 feet).
* '''Circle of Mutation:''' These druids study [[fleshcrafting]], seeking to enhance nature and accelerate its development towards perfection. Their features are ''Mutate Shape'' (2nd, when Wild Shaping, spend spell slots to add beneficial mutations to your animal form), ''Circle Forms'' (2nd, you can turn into more powerful forms than other druids), ''Unnatural and Unnerving'' (6th, free Intimidation proficiency, or else in Athletics, Acrobatics, Perception, Stealth or Survival, Advantage on Intimidation checks made in mutated beast shape), ''Endless Evolution'' (10th, gain free mutations when Wild Shaping, can touch a beast and spend spell slots to mutate it), and ''Apex Predator Aura'' (14th, animals must Wisdom save or be too scared to approach you).

[[Fighter]]
* '''The Bulwark Warrior Martial Archetype:''' Masters of the defensive fighting style, Bulwarks specialize in taking as many hits as they need in order to deliver the last blow. At 3rd level, they can issue a ''Protective Taunt'' to aggro enemies and can also use ''Weather the Storm'' to grant themselves temp HP 1/short rest. 7th level's ''Living Shield'' lets them penalize enemy attacks against their allies. 10th levels ''Aggressive Defense'' lets them spend temp HP and turn it into bonus melee damage. 15th level's ''Improved Second Wind'' causes Second Wind to grant temporary HP equal to the full health it restores. Finally, 18th level's ''Halt the Assault'' lets them burn their own temporary HP to reduce damage done to allies within 5 feet.
* '''The Crucible Martial Archetype:''' Warrior-[[alchemist]]s who use experimental drugs, tinctures and concoctions to boost themselves to superhuman limits. Their core feature is ''Compound Creator'' (3rd); this lets them select 3 Compounds, which are basically 3e-style Potions of (Insert Buff Here) - Elfsight Oil for Darkvision, Advantage on (Insert [[Ability Scores]] here), temporary [[regeneration]], etc. It takes ten minutes of work with some alchemical supplies to make a Compound, and it lasts for a day before going inert. The Crucible learns 2 more Compounds at levels 7, 10 and 15. However, they can only drink (1+Con modifier, min 1) Compounds at a time; drinking excessive Compounds imposes a level of Exhaustion per extra compound; it takes a long rest to flush the inert Compounds from their system. Only the Crucible can drink a Compound; anybody else dumb enough to try has to make a Con save or be Poisoned. 3rd level also gives them ''Student of Alchemy'' (Proficiency in Alchemist's Supplies, doubles proficiency bonus for any ability check made with them). 7th level unlocks ''Quick Creation'' (can make and consume a Compound as a bonus action). At 10th level, ''Living Cauldron'' lets the Crucible consume (3+Con mod) Compounds, which increases to (5+Con mod) at level 18. At 15th level, ''Toxin Transmutation'' lets the Crucible spend a bonus action to simultaneously end a Poisoned effect and gain temp HP. Finally, 18th level sees them become a ''Living Catalyst'', letting them swap out one of their known Compounds wen they finish a long rest.

[[Monk]]
* '''The Way of the Leaden Crown:''' Believing that humanoids need to be rid of the tyranny of supernatural beings, the Leaden Crown seek to hone their bodies and minds to unlock the powerful psionic abilities needed to do battle with otherworldly influencers like seraphs, daemons and primordials. At 3rd level, ''Subtle Hand'' lets them make telekinetic strikes, which are Monk Unarmed Strikes with 10ft reach that do Force damage, whilst ''Psionic Prowess'' lets them cast an invisible Mage Hand at will and use ki to cast detect evil/good (1 ki), protection from evil/good (1 ki), hold person (2 ki), levitate (2 ki), and shatter (2 ki). 6th level's ''Unsubtle Strike'' lets them push a foe 10 feet with an unarmed strike or monk weapon 1/turn. At 11th level, they gain the ''Psychic Crush'' feature, which lets them build up "psychic pressure points" on creatures that they hit with monk unarmed strikes; as a bonus action, they can burn a ki point to trigger these points, dealing Force damage and potentially restraining them. Finally, 17th level's ''Psionic Mastery'' lets them burn ki to cast dispel evil/good, hold monster, telekinesis and wall of force, all for 5 ki each.
* '''The Way of Self:''' Ever heard of the trope "Arrogant Kung Fu Guy"? That's these guys in a nutshell. At 3rd level, they gain ''Tall Tales'' (Proficiency in either Deception, Intimidation, Performance or Persuasion), ''Bruised Ego'' (gain temp HP whenever ki points are spent) and ''Assertive Attacker'' (Martial Arts die value goes up 1 step if the monk is at or below 50% maximum HP). 6th level gives them both ''Irrational Retaliation'' (spend 2 ki as a reaction to being damaged to gain advantage on attacks against the assailant) and ''Redoubled Efforts'' (when at or below 50% maximum HP, do +1 die of damage with Martial Arts attacks on a crit). Level 11 gives them the ''Ever Prideful'' state, which is the oh-so-anime ability to fight on out of pure stubbornness after being dropped 0 HP. Finally, at 17th level, ''Egotistical'' causes Bruised Ego and Redoubled Efforts to apply at over 50% max HP so long as the monk was damaged by an attacker within the past minute.

[[Paladin]]
* '''The Oath of Pestilence:''' It's the [[Nurgle]] subclass. No, seriously; Paladins of the Oath of Pestilence embrace disease and decay as natural, even benevolent, parts of the natural circle of life, and freely share rot and plague to winnow the weak from the strong. These Paladins get a bunch of disease-flavored spells, like stinking cloud, ray of enfeeblement and contagion. Their 3rd level Channel Divinity Options are ''Debilitating Fever'' (infect a non-undead, non-construct foe in melee with a natural disease) and ''Entropic Infection'' (remove necrotic resistance and curse the target to take +2d6 damage from necrotic effects). 7th level gives them an ''Aura of Rampant Sickness'', a 10ft aura (30ft from 18th level) that lets the paladin impose Disadvantage on an ability check, attack roll or saving throw 1/turn. 15th level's ''Disgusting Resilience'' lets the paladin spend hit dice to try and nullify an attack that would drop them to 0 HP - and if they are killed, then the paladin explodes in a shower of pus and gore for 8D6 Necrotic damage. Finally, 20th level's ''Plaguebringer'' grants the paladin immunity to poison and "reduce HP maximum value" effects, resistance to necrotic damage, and causes all enemies who get within 5 feet to take automatic necrotic damage.
** Tenets of Pestilence:
:::'''Strength in Resilience.''' Surviving hardship and plague make you stronger. Spreading these things causes strength to flourish.
:::'''All Things Must Pass.''' Death is the natural conclusion of life. There is nothing unnatural or amoral about the ending of life.
:::'''Might Makes Right.''' The laws of mortals mean nothing to poxes and plagues, they go where they wish and take what they want. So should you.
* '''The Oath of Zeal:''' Embracing the power of hate, Zealots are fanatics whose mad determination to destroy their enemies turns them into living weapons. Bonus spells for these paladins are a mixture of divination and "scourge of god" spells like Fear and Insect Plague. Their 3rd level Channel Divinity options are ''Mark of the Heretic'' (designate a target for increased crit range and a free reaction-fueled attack at the start of its turns) and ''Inquisitor's Eye'' (Advantage on Investigation, Insight and Perception, plus immunity to surprise, for 10 minutes). 7th level's ''Aura of Clarity'' gives you a 10ft aura (30ft from 18th) in whcih you and allies cannot be blinded and invisibility fails if you want it to. At 15th level, they can ''Compel Confession'', casting a Zone of Truth without burning a spell slot that also deals out psychic damage to any creature that succeeded on their save. Finally, 20th level's ''Apocalyptic Revelation'' lets the paladin gain a number of powerful buffs for 1 minute 1/day (Truesight 120ft, 5ft blinding aura, grant advantage to all attacks against a creature for 1 turn as a bonus action).
** Tenets of Zeal:
:::'''Uncover Corruption.''' Darkness cannot abide the light of day. Wickedness must be revealed before it can be destroyed.
:::'''Purge the Heretics.''' Heresy is a tumor that spread through the hearts of the innocent. Cut it out at the source.
:::'''No Mercy.''' The righteous path requires unwavering conviction and unflinching resolve.
:::'''By Any Means Necessary.''' There is no sacrifice too great when it comes to defeating the wicked.

[[Ranger]]
* '''The Green Reaper:''' [[Assassin]]s who specialize in the use of poisons. 3rd level gives them ''Envenomed Attack'' (add bonus poison damage to a weapon or 20 bits of ammo as a bonus damage, usable Proficiency bonus times per day; 11th level doubles the damage and makes it usable per short rest) and ''Toxic Tradecraft'' (Proficiency and Expertise with Poisoner's Kit, gain a free poisoner's kit you can replace with 8 hours, can burn spell slots to add extra effects to targets of Envenomed Attack; the more potent the spell slot, the nastier the effect options). 7th level's ''Poison Control'' grants Poison Resistance, Advantage on saves vs. Poisoned, and the ability to cast Protection From Poison for free Wisdom modifier times per day. 11th level's ''Variegated Vexations'' lets the ranger do Acid or Necrotic bonus damage with Envenomed Attacks instead of Poison damage. Finally, 15th level's ''Pain Tolerance'' lets the ranger spend a reaction to an attack to gain temp HP equal to the damage dealt.
* '''The Vermin Lord:''' Allies of the skittering legions of the natural world, who learn to take power from the creatures that are so small, but oh so very, ''very'' many. 3rd level's ''Verminkin'' grants the ability to speak with vermin and to summon vermin swarms by spending spell slots (2 swarms per slot level), whilst ''Septic Strikes'' lets them inflict Necrotic damage as a bonus action on any target of their own weapon attacks or their swarm's attacks. 7th level's ''Filth and Fortitude'' grants immunity to disease and proficiency in Constition saves. 11th level's ''Infectious Spread'' can be used Wisdom mod times per day to boost Septic Strikes to also poison the targets. Finally, 15th level's ''Strength of the Swarm'' lets the ranger transfer damage to adjacent swarms.

[[Rogue]]
* '''The Highway Rider Martial Archetype:''' Mounted combat specialist with a side-order in being surprisingly tanky. For a rogue. 3rd level gives them ''Hair Trigger'' (on rolling for initiative, spend a reaction to either attack with advantage, move full speed (whether on foot or mounted) without opportunity attacks, Dodge, or interact with an item), ''Trusty Mount'' (cast Find Steed (summons a Beast, not an outsider) 1/day) and ''Ride Them Down'' (can Sneak Attack after moving 20+ feet whilst mounted). 9th level's ''Horse Lord'' lets the Highway Rider spend a minute caring to their steed to give it double their level in temp HP, and also lets them Dash, Disengage or Dodge as a bonus action whilst mounted. 13th level's ''True Grit'' gives proficiency in Constitution saves and "Con save for half damage" effects are now "half damage on fail, no damage on save". Finally, 17th level's ''Desperado'' lets them use a Hair Trigger option as a Reaction to falling to 0 HP.
* '''The Misfortune Bringer Martial Archetype:''' Thieves of luck who have the ability to deliver all manner of terrible curses to those they choose to target. 3rd level gives them ''Evil Eye'', which is used to mark a target for their ''Misfortunist'' feature. They gain two "Misfortunes" (lesser curses powered by Jinx Points) and 3 Jinx points; they gain +1 Misfortune at 9th, 13th and 17th level (and can swap one out whenever they complete a long rest), and +2 jinx points at 13th level. 9th level's ''Steal Luck'' lets the rogue remove a creature's Advantage on an ability check, attack or save 1/short rest to regain an expend Jinx Point - from 17th, this can be done 3/short rest. Finally, 13th level's ''Curse Caster'' lets the rogue cast Bestow Curse for 3 Jinx Points.

[[Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)|Sorcerer]]
* '''The Haunted:''' Sorcerers who survived a brush with death and now have a ghostly companion guiding them through the spirit world. At 1st level, the Haunted gains the traits ''Haunted Spells'' (learn Unseen Servant, See Invisibility, Speak with Dead, Death Ward and Little Death as extra spells, they can be cast by substituting sorcery points for spell slots), ''Phantom Companion'' (gain a Familiar in the form of an Undead Specter, which can turn invisible and, from 3rd level, use Life Drain as one of your attacks), and ''Sixth Sense'' (add Charisma mod to Dex checks to determine initiative). 6th level's ''Strength of Spirit'' powers up the Phantom Companion so it can now channel spells like a familiar, whilst ''Deathly Pallor'' gives the Haunted Resistance to Necrotic and the ability to swap sorcerer spell damage types to Necrotic. 14th level's ''Phantom Possession'' lets the Haunted control creatures by having their Phantom Companion possess them. Finally, 18th level's ''Become Death'' lets the Haunted turn into a spectre themselves 1/day.
* '''The Wretched Bloodline:''' Inheriting an ancestral curse, this sorcerer has learned to take it apart and make it into a source of power.

[[Warlock]]
* '''The First Vampire Patron:''' Needless to say, this gives you [[vampire]]-lite abilities
* '''The Cosmic Parasite Patron:''' Agreeing to host the nascent offspring of an entity that feeds on the vitality of whole peoples and planets, these warlocks are surprisingly physically adept due to the monster lurking beneath their skin.

[[Wizard]]
* '''Plague Doctor:''' Practicing a blend of magic, alchemy and herbalism, plague doctors learn how to heal the sick... and to blight the healthy, should they desire.
* '''The School of Sangromancy:''' This is the [[Blood Magic]] tradition. Who're you trying to kid?

In addition, two [[Artificer]] subclasses were unlocked as part of the stretchgoals for the Kickstarter... unfortunately, because the Artificer was not in the SRD, Ghostfire Gaming is not legally allowed to put them in the GHPG; instead, they had to be released as "Pay What You Want" on the DM's Guild website.

[[Artificer]]
* '''Machine Cultist:''' An eldritch machine from far future whispers to the minds of suitable individuals paving way to its inevitable creation. (It's based on actual thought experiment know as Roko's basilisk.) Class is fusion of Artificer and Warlock with the ability to turn vehicles into Infernal Engines. So basically mad cart mechanic from taking instructions from unborn A.I.
* '''Reanimator:''' To those that think that Victor Frankenstein had the right idea but just did not go far enough a.k.a. Make your own Flesh Golem.

===Expanded Backgrounds===
{{dnd-stub}}
One of Grim Hollow's unique mechanics is that it takes the Backgrounds from basic 5th edition and simultaneously applies level-based features that represent increased status/proficiency in that particular field, as well as specializations to more specifically refine the basic concept. For example, instead of a generic Academic, you could be an Archivist, who keeps a personal library, or a Archaeologist.

===Transformations===
Grim Hollow's most iconic element, the ''Transformations'' mechanic is a kind of 4 level Prestige Class that allows a player to slowly become some kind of specific monster, gaining unique powers and flaws at each of the four levels. Transformations in the Campaign Guide consist of the '''Aberrant Horror''', the '''Fiend''', the '''Lich''', the '''Lycanthrope''', the '''Seraph''' and the '''Vampire'''. Yes, becoming an angel is treated as being as horrifying and dehumanizing as becoming a fiend.

The Player's Guide added the '''Primordial''', the '''Fey''' and the '''Spectre'''.

Here's how it works: each Transformation requires certain mechanical and story requirements to acquire, with at the very least each Transformation needing a certain value of [[Ability Scores]]. To progress in level, the player needs to undertake an in-game story-based progression milestone - it typically recommends keeping each Transformation Level to a certain range of class levels, so it doesn't become too weak or too powerful compared to non-Transforming characters.

When they get their first level in a Transformation, they gain two special Transformation Boons and a mandatory Transformation Flaw. On levels 2-4, they gain their choice of 1 of several Transformation Boons, which could be taken from an earlier Transformation level, and a mandatory Transformation Flaw.

Examples of Universal Transformation Milestones are:
* Undertaking an exceptional act of evil or good.
* Completing an ancient ritual.
* Performing a powerful artifact.
* Being cursed by a dark agent.
* Being exalted by a patron or god.

Can you undo a Transformation? Yes, if the DM agrees; it basically works like curing a curse, but requires a Regenerate spell rather than Remove Curse. However, a character who has reached the 4th level, or being Transformed for over a year, can only be cured with a Wish. It's up to the DM to decide if killing and resurrecting a character frees them from their transformation or not.

If a Transformation ability allows a save, the DC is always 8 + the character's Proficiency bonus + an ability score modifier, the precise modifier being determined by the precise Transformation.

====Aberrant Horror====
Aberrant Horrors are humanoids who have begun transforming into an [[aberration]], granting them grotesquely fluid anatomies and the ability to reshape their bodies in the most nightmarish, sanity-breaking ways.

Becoming an Aberrant Horror requires '''13 Constitution''' and some kind of encounter with an aberration, magical anomaly, or other phenomena to trigger the complete reshaping of your body. The following are possible level milestones for the Aberrant Horror:
* Defeating a powerful Aberration and absorbing its power.
* Undergoing a dangerous and costly experiment.
* Surviving a magical mishap.
* Acquiring the strength to give birth to a more powerful version of yourself, which then consumes your old self.
* Fulfilling an eldritch prophecy written in the stars.

An Aberrant Horror's save DC keys off of Constitution.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Aberrant Adaptions''' (use bonus actions to activate biological heavy armor and weapons) and '''Aberrant Form''' (+2 Con, +1 Str, Type changes to Aberration), and you receive the Flaw '''Unstable Mutations'''. Each time you complete a Long Rest, you have to roll on a d100 to see how your fluctuating anatomy screws you over for a time.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Efficient Killer''' (powers up your bio-weapons from Aberrant Adaptions), '''Other-Worldly Tendrils''' (spend a bonus action to activate several different tentacle attack options) or '''Situational Evolution''' (spend a bonus action to gain a climb speed, swim speed + amphibious, or regeneration), and you receive the Flaw '''Hideous Appearance'''. Acquiring this flaw means that you become a shapeshifter, with a hideously warped base form and the ability to resume your original form. You revert to your true form if you Concentrate on a spell, are knocked unconscious, enter hallowed ground, or consciously choose to do so. At the DM's discretion, events of extreme emotional or physical stress may require a Constitution save to avoid reverting. Non-evil creatures that see your true form will instantly become hostile to you, unless the DM decides otherwise.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Wings''' (bonus action gives you wings for 10 minutes), '''Additional Tendrils''' (requires Other-Worldly Tendrils, you can use 2 tentacles simultaneously, upgrades to 3 at 4th stage) or '''Enhanced Hypertrophy''' (Unarmed Strikes do d8 damage, offensive adaptations increase their damage by +1 die type), and you receive the Flaw '''Unstable Existence'''. Your Hideous Appearance is revealed whenever you roll a natural 1-3 on a save against a spell or magical ability.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Savage Predator''' (on a nat-20, do +6d6 damage and force enemies to save vs. fear), '''Master of the Deep''' (requires Additional Tendrils, 1/short rest you can make a debuffing attack against all enemies within 15 feet) or '''Extremophiliac Conditioning''' (spend a bonus action to gain Resistance to either all Physical damage, Fire+Lightning+Acid damage, or Cold+Thunder+Poison damage), and you receive the Flaw '''Entropic Abomination'''. When you fail a save vs. spell or magical ability, roll on the Unstable Mutations table and switch to the new result if it's lower than your current result.

====Fiend====
Quite self-explanatory, this Transformation causes you to become a Fiend - closer to a [[devil]] than a [[demon]], what with the focus on Faustian bargains.

Becoming a Fiend requires Charisma 13 and somehow damning one's soul for power, such as by pacting with a Fiend or by undergoing an infernal ritual. The following are possible level milestones for the Fiend:
* Defeating a greater rival Fiend and taking their place in the hierarchy.
* Ensnaring a particularly powerful or influential soul with a contract.
* Establishing a cult of worshipers who offer their strength to you.
* Establishing a portal between the material plane and the Netherworld.
* Killing or corrupting a Seraph.

A Fiend's Transformation Save DC keys off of Charisma.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Gifts of Damnation''' (you can sign soul contracts with mortals to gain special powers) and '''Fiendish Form''' (+2 Charisma, +1 Intelligence, Type changes to Fiend), and you receive the Flaw '''Planar Binding'''. This flaw causes you to suffer Disadvantage on death saving throws, and if you die, you cannot be raised.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Brand of the Chainer's Gaze''' (inflict a curse that penalizes saves), '''Brand of the Tyrant's Hellfire''' (inflict a curse that adds bonus Fire damage to your attacks) or '''Brand of the Deceiver's Guile''' (inflict a curse that penalizes attack rolls), and you receive the Flaw '''Hideous Appearance'''. Acquiring this flaw means that you become a shapeshifter, with a hideously warped base form and the ability to resume your original form. You revert to your true form if you Concentrate on a spell, are knocked unconscious, enter hallowed ground, or consciously choose to do so. At the DM's discretion, events of extreme emotional or physical stress may require a Constitution save to avoid reverting. Non-evil creatures that see your true form will instantly become hostile to you, unless the DM decides otherwise. All of the Boons at this level can be used Charisma modifier times per day, and the curses they create last for 1 minute, or until the target is knocked unconscious, enters hallowed ground, or is targeted by Remove Curse.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Alluring Deceit''' (free Proficiency/Expertise in Deception and Persuasion, immunity to magic that detects lies and compels truthful speech), '''Infernal Resistance''' (burn a reaction to halve damage from non-silvered weapon attacks) or '''Nether Blade''' (spend a bonus action to summon an infernal burning blade to fight with), and you receive the Flaw '''True Name'''. This flaw causes you to manifest a talisman inscribed with your true name, which other creatures can use to control you.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Commanding Obedience''' (your spells can force your opponents to fall prone), '''Brimstone Pyrolysis''' (your fire attacks can turn slain enemies into miniature bombs) or '''Infernal Summoning''' (you can summon a squad of up to 4 imps 1/day), and you receive the Flaw '''Pull of the Netherworld'''. This causes you to take 1d6 Force damage per two character levels whenever you roll a natural 1 on a save against a magical spell or ability.

====Lich====
Self explanatory, the Lich transformation allows powerful spellcasters to assume a form that will allow them to continue to study magic for all eternity.

As such, this is the hardest Transformation to qualify for: Intelligence 16, ability to cast 7th level spells, and you must track down and successfully perform the Ritual of Dread. The following are possible level milestones for the Lich:
* Discover ancient and dark arcane knowledge.
* Consume the soul of an exceptionally powerful spellcaster.
* Build a monument to your power to serve as a giant arcane focus.
* Create an army of undead.
* Kill a god.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Harvester of Souls''' (creatures you kill become phylactery charges you can burn to recover spell slots) and '''Undead Form''' (+4 Int, +2 Wis, type changes to Undead, lowered benefit from external healing effects, immunity to aging, air, food, drink and sleep), and you receive the Flaw '''Phylactery'''. This causes you to create a talisman to bind your soul into; if it gets destroyed, you die, instantly. If you die, you will revive 1 week later so long as there is a soul charge in your phylacterty - otherwise, at the end of the week, you become a Demilich NPC.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Puppet Master''' (undead mooks you create are permanent and cannot be stolen from you), '''Lichdom of the Arcane''' (killing a creature with a spell that does fire, necrotic, or poison damage triggers a bonus effect) or '''Rift to the Dreadscapes''' (As an action, create a zone of super-killy necrotic energy), and you receive the Flaw '''Hideous Appearance'''. Acquiring this flaw means that you become a shapeshifter, with a hideously warped base form and the ability to resume your original form. You revert to your true form if you Concentrate on a spell, are knocked unconscious, enter hallowed ground, or consciously choose to do so. At the DM's discretion, events of extreme emotional or physical stress may require a Constitution save to avoid reverting. Non-evil creatures that see your true form will instantly become hostile to you, unless the DM decides otherwise.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Relentless Undead''' (undead you control can make a full move + attack before dying), '''Arcane Supremacy''' (you can suffer Exhaustion to Concentrate on two spells simultaneously) or '''Staff of the Dreadscapes''' (as an action, summon an enchanted quarterstaff), and you receive the Flaw '''Necromantic Dystrophy'''. If you go more than 24 hours without converting 4 CR worth of souls into spell slots, you suffer severe penalties.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Lord of Undeath''' (humanoids you kill auto-rise as zombies under your command), '''Arcane Omniscience''' (you know all Wizard spells and can cast Int modifier bonus Wizard spells per day) or '''Deathly Being''' (gain lich immunities and resistances), and you receive the Flaw '''Weight of Ages'''. This is the more severe form of Necromantic Dystrophy, forcing you to burn up 8 CR worth of souls per day.

====Lycanthrope====
Obviously, becoming a Lycanthrope turns you into a [[therianthrope|werebeast]]. Whilst the easiest way is to be bitten by a werebeast and survive, there's also a [[druid]]ic ritual called the Lunar Sacrament that can curse a victim with this transformation, which is obviously viewed in a holy perspective by druids.

Mechanically, taking this Transformation requires 13 Strength, and its Save DC keys off of Strength. The following are possible level milestones for the Lycanthrope:
* Establishing a pack of lycanthropes.
* Killing an alpha lycanthrope.
* Gaining control of your animalistic urges.
* Unleashing the beast within and losing your humanity.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Hybrid Transformation''' (you can change into a half-humanoid, half-beast shape) and '''Shapechanger's Form''' (+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, gain the Shapechanger type), and you receive the Flaw '''Lust for the Hunt'''. This flaw forces you to make a DC 10 Wisdom save at the start of each turn, or move towards the nearest NPC, prioritizing the helpless, so you can try to kill it; when exposed to a full moon's light, you automatically fail this save. The first time you see a full moon, you need to pass a DC 20 Wisdom save or be forcibly transformed into hybrid shape until dawn.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Iron Pelt''' (gain resistance to physical damage from non-silver and non-magical sources in hybrid form), '''Hunter's Howl''' (you can use a howl to mark a creature as prey, gaining bonuses to tracking and killing it) or '''Kindred Form''' (you can now assume animal form as well as hybrid form), and you receive the Flaw '''Silver Sensitivity'''. This makes you Vulnerable to damage done by silvered weapons when you're in hybrid or kindred form, and you cannot apply any Resistance to an attack made by a silvered weapon.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Titanic Vigor''' (+2 max HP per level, gain 5 temp HP each turn in hybrid form), '''Predatory Leap''' (double jumping distance, can make pounce attacks in hybrid form) or '''Bestial Savagery''' (hybrid form gains: attacks are damage-buffed and count as magic, +1 AC, immunity to charm & fear), and you receive the Flaw '''Fraying Memories'''. This flaw gives you Disadvantage on Intelligence ability and skill checks based on recalling information or knowledge.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Savage Instincts''' (hybrid form attacks are suped up vs. hurt targets), '''Kindred Affinity''' (requires Kindred Form, lets you speak and cast spells in kindred form) or '''Unstoppable Rage''' (you can keep fighting at 0 HP), and you receive the Flaw '''Predatory Nature'''. This flaw makes it harder to resist your urge to kill the weak and helpless, as well as making it harder to return to your original form.

====Seraph====
Seraphs are the Angels of Etharis, and consist of mortals uplifted for their devotion to a virtue or ideal; as such, they are commonly selected from noble martyrs, tireless crusaders, and other exemplary individuals.

Becoming a Seraph requires Wisdom 13 and either exaltation by an Arch-Seraph or exposure to powerful divine energies. The following are possible level milestones for the Seraph:
* Defeating a powerful force of darkness.
* Create a hallowed landmark for pilgrims.
* Establish a parish of worshipers who uphold your virtue.
* Establish a portal between the Material Plane and the Empyrium.
* Redeem a soul that was considered beyond redemption.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Celestial Form''' (+2 Wisdom, +1 Constitution, type changes to Celestial) and '''Angelic Wings''' (you've a Fly speed equal to your Normal speed, but can't wear clothes or armor that aren't tailored to fit), and you receive the Flaw '''Planar Binding'''. This is identical to the Fiend flaw of the same name, but is based on your connection to a divine plane rather than an unholy one.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Divine Retribution''' (grant a Radiance-charged bonus attack to yourself or an ally), '''Divine Clemency''' (when you or an ally is hurt, you can cast a healing spell as a reaction) or '''Divine Expedition''' (burn a reaction to move yourself or a nearby ally), and you receive the Flaw '''Divine Appearance'''. This is the same as Hideous Appearance, but obviously revolves around you looking like an obvious angel, which has its problems in a world crawling with monsters and the wicked.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Radiant Strike''' (your melee attacks do bonus Radiant damage, especially against fiends, fey and undead), '''Cleanse Affliction''' (your healing spells also remove negative conditions) or '''Bow of Celestial Judgement''' (you can summon a magic bow that shoots holy lasers), and you receive the Flaw '''Beacon to Darkness'''. This flaw means that if you or allies within close proximity commit evil acts, you pick up "corruption points" that temporarily impede your ability to fight the naturally evil.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Aura of Holy Purge''' (grant a free critical hit 1/day), '''Aura of Merciful Blessing''' (you or an ally can survive a killing attack with 1 HP 1/day) or '''Aura of Empyreal Valor''' (grant yourself or an ally increased speed and dexterity 1/day), all of which have a radius of 20 feet and are only active whilst you're conscious, and you receive the Flaw '''Pull of the Empyrean'''. This is just a name-tweaked version of the Fiend's "Pull of the Netherrealm".

====Vampire====
Simple, obvious, self-explanatory. You were bitten by another vampire, you drank a vampire's blood, you handled the wrong (or right!) cursed magical artifact, or you performed a dark rite to willingly infect yourself with the Sanguine Curse.

This Transformation requires Dexterity 13, and its save DC keys off of Dexterity. The following are possible level milestones for the Vampire:
* Establish a coven of vampire spawn.
* Drink the blood of a legendary monster.
* Learn the great secrets of vampirism from a Vampire Lord.
* Learn to embrace your Hideous Form and lose the ability to conceal it.
* Discover the lost crypts of an ancient vampire and consume its essence.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Blood Fury''' (doing damage to living creatures lets you rack up points you can use to power special attacks) and '''Undead Form''' (+2 Dex, +1 Cha, type changes to Undead, lowered benefit from external healing effects, immunity to aging, air, food, drink and sleep), and you receive the Flaw '''The Sanguine Curse'''. This gives you Darkvision 60 feet if you don't already have it, but prevents you from entering a residence unless invited, causes you to suffer Disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks when in sunlight, and requires you to feed on blood at least once per 7 days.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Dread Knight Combat Training''' (you can enter a special stance to boost offense, defense or accuracy), '''Sanguine Magic''' (you can convert non-typed spell damage into necrotic damage, gain Fury Points with spell attacks, and gain some spellcasting-related options for Blood Fury) or '''Shapechanger''' (you can turn into a bat and a cloud of mist), and you receive the Flaw '''Hideous Appearance'''. Acquiring this flaw means that you become a shapeshifter, with a hideously warped base form and the ability to resume your original form. You revert to your true form if you Concentrate on a spell, are knocked unconscious, enter hallowed ground, or consciously choose to do so. At the DM's discretion, events of extreme emotional or physical stress may require a Constitution save to avoid reverting. Non-evil creatures that see your true form will instantly become hostile to you, unless the DM decides otherwise.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Cruel Riposte''' (you gain a bonus melee attack against assailants), '''Creatures of the Night''' (you can summon swarms of bats, rats and wolves to aid you) or '''Captivating Glance''' (free proficiency in Deception + Persuasion, immunity to having your thoughts read), and you receive the Flaw '''Greater Sanguine Curse'''. This increases your Darkvision to 120 feet, causes you to take 1d10 acid damage per turn from running water, makes you suffer 1d10 radiant damage per turn when exposed to sunlight, and requires you to feed every 3 days.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Grim Executioner''' (requires Dread Knight Combat Training; a critical hit will insta-kill a foe with 50 or fewer HP), '''Beguiler's Entrancement''' (requires Captivating Glance, lets you Charm a creature 1/day) or '''Regenerate''' (lets you regenerate damage unless exposed to sunlight, radiant damage or running water), and you receive the Flaw '''Stake to the Heart'''. With this flaw, a natural 20 to hit you with a wooden or silvered weapon, if you have 50 or fewer HP left, causes you to be paralyzed for 1 hour or until the weapon is removed, whichever is greater.

====Primordial====
This upcoming Transformation turns you into an [[elemental]].

====Fey====
As its name suggests, this Transformation turns you into a [[fey]].

====Spectre====
An unlocked stretch goal for the Player's Guide, this Transformation turns you into a [[ghost]].

{{D&D-3rd-Party-Settings}}

Grim Hollow

2022-04-14T14:14:18Z

2A02:8108:49C0:A04:D7A:7F36:D419:13A3: /* Etharis Races */

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'''Grim Hollow''' is a 3rd party [[Dark Fantasy]] setting for [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]] published by Ghostfire Gaming. Currently, only the Campaign Setting and Player's Guide exists, with the Monster Grimoire being crowdfunded for on Kickstarter.

==The World of Etharis==
[[File:Damien-mammoliti-grimhollow-worldmap2-dm.jpg|300px|thumb|Lands of Etharis]]
Etharis, as the campaign setting's world is called, is a [[grimdark]] slant on the standard D&D 5e world. It takes place on a world where a brutal humanity rose up and almost annihilated the empires of [[dwarves]], [[elves]] and [[dragonborn]], then nearly annihilated itself in pointless internecine wars, allowing the oppressed remnants of those races to rise up and forcibly carve a place for themselves out of the ruins. Civilization exists in a [[Points of Light]] format; islands of light and hope surrounded by vast tracts of hostile, monster-infected wilderness. Some regions suffer supernatural or paranatural auras that shroud them in darkness, and plagues ravage the land - especially the dreaded Weeping Pox. The gods of Etharis annihilated each other in a brutal civil war, leaving behind only their lieutenants - the Arch Seraphs and Arch Daemons - to heed the prayers of mortal followers, and work to exploit the world as it exists for their own advantage. In many portions of the world, arcane magic is feared, and there is even a crusade, the Arcanist Inquisition, dedicated to destroying all who are even accused of dabbling with magic.

But despite all this... Etharis is not a relentlessly bleak world, and there is some hope for it to get better. To quote the book itself:
::''Etharis as a campaign setting is not meant to be relentlessly bleak and depressing, or to wallow in cruelty for its own sake. Small victories become heroic when they take heroic effort to achieve. No one in Etharis is safe by default, so any safety the characters win or give to others is a true blessing. No one in Etharis is good by default, so moments of genuine grace are worth celebrating – and can come from unexpected places. Amid profound darkness, even the smallest lights have value.

There's even a chapter in the Campaign Guide that breaks down [[Dark Fantasy]] into its four major components: [[Grimdark]], Horror, Dark Fairy Tales, and [[Sword & Sorcery]], with advice to the DM on how to pick and mix these themes to make Etharis more their own.

===Realms of Etharis===
As you can see from the map, Etharis is a pretty big place. Luckily, we're here to give you an breakdown of the various places of note on the map.

The '''Bürach Empire''' is the former ruling power of Etharis. An alliance of four provinces united by a divinely chosen emperor, Bürach has begun falling into ruination ever since the last emperor, the insane Leopold I, spread his insanity into the four gods whose powers once united and supported the empire, causing them to ultimately butcher each other in the name of proving which of them was the supreme god before Leopold was assassinated. Their madness and subsequent deaths have left powerful cultural and mystical scars on the lands they once championed. The provinces of the Bürach Empire are:'
* ''Abendland:'' Literal and metaphorical center of the Bürach Empire, once devoted to Aurelia, Goddess of Healing, Hearth and Home. It was the Hearthkeepers, Aurelia's priesthood, who helped locate the god-touched individual - Indorius - who became the first Emperor of Bürach Empire, and they were the ones who decreed the Edict of Eternal Blood, which allowed only direct descendants of Emperor Indorius to rule. This included coaxing the marriage of cousins and siblings to preserve the purity of said blood, despite the misgivings of the rest of Bürachs, that ultimately led to the insanity of Emperor Leopold I. Even now, the Hearthkeepers stifle their people and try to keep them ignorant of the waning divine powers of their priests and the fading fecundity of the land itself, with hope of turning Abendland into an open [[theocracy]].
* ''Nordenland:'' Always home to planar gates and crossings, especially to the [[Feywild]], Nordenland is the traditional home of the [[mage]]s of Bürach, which made it a natural homeland for Ulmyr, God of Magic and Chaos. The fall of the empire has broken Nordenland into two halves; those of the East, who have thrown off all allegiance to the empire and returned to the old ways, and those of the West, who still consider themselves part of Bürach and eagerly adopt new technologies from their former allies. Civil war is brewing, especially as the forests become filled with monsters and evils.
* ''Rauland:'' Kingdom of the [[dwarves]] and [[gnome]]s, Rauland was dedicated to Galt, God of Order and Construction. During the dark days of the godly civil war, Galt became a brutal tyrant, [[Laduguer|demanding toil for the sake of toil and treating all lives as tools for the sake of production]]. Ironically, with their patron dead, the Raulanders have found their crafts are declining in potency, stripped of the divine blessing they enjoyed in the empire's heyday.
* ''Unterland:'' A warrior society who were devoted to Maligant, the God of War and Strategy; with their patron gone, the cult of Tormach, [[Khorne|Archdaemon of Wrath and Slaughter]], is spreading like wildfire to take his place.

The '''Ostoyan Empire''' was Bürachs' major rival, founded by people who fled from Unterland during the chaos of Bürachs' early years due to refusing to accept Emperor Indorius as their new leader. They founded their own nation, Ostoya, but when the finally stabilized Bürach came and demanded the Ostoyans swear subservience to their long-lost and little-loved kinsfolk, it led to war. That war only grew more desperate with the Darkfall; a mighty earthquake that opened chasms leading to an ancient city buried beneath the ground, one infested by the [[undead]]. So desperate were the Ostoyans to remove this "homegrown" threat that they sent an entire army down into the deep to fight a holding action, then collapsed the chasms leading to the surface, burying their own men alive in the process. But this only made things worse; a survivor found a strange shrine and prayed for vengeance, before returning to the surface as a [[vampire]] and spreading his plague through Ostoya's nobility. With the new [[necrocracy]] in place, the Ostoyans expelled the Bürach invaders. Now, Ostoya resides under a permanent shadow; the sky is forever choked with thick clouds (often pregnant with snow or heavy rain) and mist, blotting the light from the sun. Ironically, Ostoya has schismed once again, and is now divided into two provinces; ''Soma'', the [[vampire]]-ruled [[necrocracy]], and the [[magocracy]] of ''Raevo'', which refuses to bow to the undead. Even more ironically, their civil war is remarkably civil: both sides share a hatred of Bürach that outweighs their antipathy towards each other, and the two provinces will fight to aid each other in remaining independent of Bürach. Definite shades of [[Sylvania]].

The '''Charneault Kingdom''' is a magical forest realm, the last stronghold of the [[elves]] and also home to a spiritual and honorable [[human]] culture who had found peace with their elven neighbors - thanks to the enforcing might of the [[Primal Spirits|nature spirits]] that reside here. But the Pact of the Sacred Land has been soured by the Dark Elves; an anti-human cult which attempted to use black magic to subvert the relationship the elves had long enjoyed with the nature spirits from that of equals to that of master and servant - whilst a human [[knight]], the valiant Ser Guilherm le Preux, managed to prevent the rite from fully taking place, Charneault has been tainted by the Dark Elves' actions. The magical mists that have always inundated Charneault now sometimes take on a dark coloration, throwing the spirits in turmoil, whilst Dark Elf sorcerers leading monsters and bewitched dark knights have begun to launch attacks against the human population of the land from their new base in the dead city of Tol Kerdywel, the prison of an elven princess turned foul [[lich]]. In return, the humans of Charneault are falling into disarry; the farmers dare not enter their fields when the Mist approaches, leading to shortages, and the king's order to swell the ranks of the various [[knight]]ly orders for which Charneault is famed has led to increased rivalry between those orders and their followers. And all the while, anti-elf sentiment is swelling in the minds of humanity...

The '''Valikan Clans''' of '''Grarjord''' are the [[Viking]]-like inhabitants of the [[elemental]]-haunted frozen northlands of Etharis, a region said to have once been ruled by [[Archomental|godlike elementals]] that warred with each other. Of these, the most fearsome was Gormadraug, the Great Prismatic Wyrm; a [[dragon]]-shaped [[elemental]] who was the master of "coldfire" - a white-blue flame that freezes instead of burns, consumes water, and can only be extinguished with fire and heat. Although reputedly slain by a band of seven heroes well over a thousand years ago, Gormadraug still shapes Grarjord's future. Over fifty years ago, a [[druid]]ic cult arose, the Prismatic Circle, who decreed that the Valikan must feed Gormadraug's spirit with bloodshed to keep him docile. This has led to a schims in Valikan society, dividing Grarjord into two provinces; ''Thrull'', a [[druid]]ic [[theocracy]] where the Prismatic Circle rules and raiding, slavery and human sacrifice are the order of the day, and ''Kandar'', which rejects the Prismatic Circle's rules and seeks strength through alliances and trade with the more fertile lands to the south. Making things worse is the rival Cult of the Wyrm, druids who seek to use the blood sacrifice of humans and elementals to ''awaken'' Gormadraug, and the mysterious appearance of outbreaks of coldfire, which sweep in deadly anti-blazes across the northland and leave behind only frozen wastes.

The '''Castinellan Provinces''' are a harsh, windswept peninsula, split down their center by an irregular mountain spine. These three provinces - ''Toletum'', ''Faro'' and ''Therpena'' - have long warred with each other, and only recently been united by a [[theocracy]] dedicated to the worship of Empyreus. Traditional homeland of the [[dragonborn]], the new priest-kings seek to tamper the warlike and vengeful nature of their people by first redirecting their attention outward in holy wars and crusades. It is also the birthplace of the Arcanist Inquisition, which seeks to control and limit the use of magic - ostensibly because Empyreus herself had told Montego Valieda, the first priest-king and Unifier of Castinellan, that magic was a curse that endangered its wielders and their associates alike.

'''Morencia''' is a powerful mercantile city-state occupies a series of small islands in a large lagoon, which is virtually impossible thanks to the magic-spawned mists that shroud the complex maze of reefs and sandbanks surrounding the city. Ruled over by the Augustine Trading Company, which has achieved this by absorbing the Banker's Guild and thus made mere puppets of the so-called Supreme Council, Morencia desires only to prosper, and is constantly targeted by the Castinellan Provinces as their first conquest.

'''Liesech''' is a city-state that lies to the north of the Charneault Kingdom and south of the Bürach Empire, the latter which now controls it, fighting an impossible battle to stave off the consumption of the city by the sea itself. Especially because of the mysterious god-thing, possibly a [[kraken]], known as the Filth Grazer, and the dreaded Weeping Pox.

===Etharis Races===
Etharis is home to the following races:

[[Human]]s: The most numerous race, who rose up from barbarism during the age of the dwarven and elven dominance over the world into a vast conquering horde that first almost annihilated the elves and dwarves, then nearly wiped themselves out. They technically are still the "dominant" race of Etharis, but their short lives have led to their old hatred fading... whilst the other races have not forgotten what humanity did to them...

[[Elf|Elves]]: Formerly the masters of Etharis' forests, their empires were burned to ashes during humanity's rise, and they spent decades as wandering nomads who were given magic by the forest spirits who survived as a way to avenge their loss.

[[Dwarf|Dwarves]]: During humanity's expansion, the dwarves retreated to their two greatest strongholds. Grevenstein was ultimately breached and its people annihilated, but Stehlenwald dug deeper and armed its people with adamantine; although their population was halved, their superior arms and armor allowed them to push humanity back. Still, they agreed to become a vassal race of humanity in the name of survival.

[[Half-Orc]]s: Pureblooded [[orc]]s are long gone in Etharis, but they remain figures of dark legends. Only half-orcs remain, and they are largely feared and distrusted, dwelling voluntarily amidst the harsh environment of the frozen north.

[[Half-Elf|Half-Elves]]: Nomadic outcasts rejected by both sides of their parentage.

[[Dragonborn]]: The small kingdom of the dragonborn fell when caught between warring humans and elves, but its people survived. They have abandoned their original gods, and instead embraced the new religion of the Divine Seraphs with fanatical zeal, winning a place in the Castinellan theocracy.

[[Gnome]]s: Cousins of the dwarves, they retreated into Stehlenwald with their kin, and were instrumental in turning back the tides of humanity by inventing the first primitive gunpowder weapons.

[[Halfling]]s: When humanity began its bloody Era of Expansion, the halflings surrendered rather than fight, voluntarily subsuming themselves into human culture as a race of servants.

The Player's Guide added several new races to the setting:

'''Wechselkind''' are essentially a cross between [[fey]] [[changeling]]s and [[warforged]]; they're [[fey]] [[construct]]s in the shape of children which the fey leave behind to disguise when they've stolen human children. Whilst most of these unfortunate creatures are destroyed when their foster family finds the truth, the lucky ones are kept because, despite constructs, they are as aware and intelligent as any human child. Unfortunately, although their minds can age, wechselkind are stuck with a child-like body forever. Ironcially, the Weeping Pox has been a boon to these golem-kin; being immune to disease has allowed them to become very effective nurses and doctor's assistants in the plague-lands.
::+2 Constitution, +1 Charisma
::Small
::Base Speed 25 feet
::'''Artificial Form:''' Though you are considered a Humanoid for effects that key off of type, you are Immune to Disease, Resistant to Poison damage, have Advantage on saves against the Poisoned condition, and don't need to eat, drink, sleep or breathe.
::'''Faerie Glamour:''' 1/day, you can take on the form of the child you were created to replace, which other than this restriction in available forms functions as disguise self.
::'''Childish Agility:''' You can move through the space of any creature of a size larger than yours, and you have Proficiency in Acrobatics.
::'''Unaging:''' You are immune to magical aging effects.

'''Laneshi''' are a strange race with a natural affinity for necromancy who hail from a kingdom deep below the waves. Their society is caste-based; those born as twins become mystics, who have their twin sibling sacrificed and spiritually bound to them to grant them heightened necromantic powers, whilst those born as single children become the warrior caste. Mystics are responsible for all things associated with the dead - funeral rites, crafting, construction, record keeping and food preparation - and and warriors are associated with all things of the living; warfare, ruling, diplomacy, farming, raising and educating children, etc. They appear as pale bluish-white skinned, almost elf-like figures with manes of green kelp-like hair.
::+1 Strength, +1 Wisdom
::Medium
::Base Speed 30 feet, Swim 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::'''Amphibious:''' You can breathe both air and water.
::'''Beast Whisperers:''' You can cast Speak with Animals 1/day.
::'''Subrace:''' Choose either the Warrior or Mystic subrace.
:::''Warrior:'' +1 Strength, '''Skirmish Tactics '''(when you hit a hostile with a weapon attack, you may Disengage as a bonus action until the end of your turn), and '''Laneshi Weapon Training''' (Proficiency in Spears, Tridents, Javelins, Light Armor, Animal Handling).
:::''Mystic:'' +1 Wisdom, '''Duality of Spirit''' (Resistance to Psychic damage, Advantage on Int, Wis and Cha saves vs. magic, first time this trait activates per day, pass a DC 12 Wis save or be Stunned until the end of your next turn), and '''Laneshi Magic''' (you know 1 Necromancy Cantrip, and gain a second Necromancy Cantrip at 5th level, both keying off of Wisdom).

'''Ogresh''' are a strange race of possibly [[giant-kin]]; whilst they appear as tall humans, they are characterized more by their massive girth than their height - they average 6 to 7 feet and average between 200 to 800 pounds, depending on if they are in their youthful "nomadic" state or their older "sedentary" state. Despite their bulk, they are creatures of great social skill and wisdom rather than brute strength, which they use to insinuate themselves into the societies of other races in pursuit of food, typically becoming master merchants, diplomats, advisors, entertainers, and other sagely figures.
::+2 Charisma, +1 Constitution, +1 Wisdom
::Medium + Powerful Build
::Base speed 30 feet
::'''Takes One To Know One:''' Advantage on saves vs. Charmed.
::'''Gift of Gab:''' Free Proficiency in two of these skills: Persuasion, Insight, Deception, Performance.
::'''A Friendly Ear:''' Once per short rest, you can attempt to charm a non-hostile creature you are conversing with, which requires at least a minute's conversation. If the creature fails a Wisdom save (DC 8 + your Cha modifier + your Proficiency bonus), they are Charmed by you for 1 hour and you learn one piece of information related to the topic of your conversation. Regardless of if the charm fails or succeeds, your target never realizes you have charmed them.

'''The Downcast''' are all that remains of angels who found themselves depowered and cast down upon Etharis after the end of the God-War. Their numbers dwindle, as fallen angels and their lingering divine essence are of great interest in a world where divine magic is failing - even without active predation, many of the Downcast have turned bitter, or simply withered from despair and disease.
::+2 Wisdom
::Medium
::Base speed 30 feet
::'''Divine Learning:''' You have Proficiency in Religion and know the Thaumaturgy cantrip.
::'''Divine Sangromancy:''' When an allied creature within 30 feet of you regains hit points, you may spend a hit die and add the result to the amount of hit points gained.
::'''Lingering Divinity:''' You have Resistance to Necrotic damage.
::'''Subrace:''' Choose the ''Aurelian'' (+1 Charisma, cast Cure Wounds (level 1) 1/day), ''Ulmyrite'' (+1 Intelligence, cast Detect Magic 1/day), ''Maliganti'' (+1 Strength, cast Branding Smite (level 1) 1/day) or ''Galtian'' (+1 Constitution, cast Shield of Faith 1/day).

'''Dreamers''' are a bizarre race unearthed by the Stehlnewald dwarves as they dug into the depths of their mountains during their beseigement by humanity during the "Era of Expansion". They are all that remains of a race that predates elves, dwarves and humans alike, who placed themselves into magical stasis in order to escape some great calamity that wiped out the rest of their civilization. The plan worked, but as a side effect, their memories of who they were as a people before their magical slumber have been stripped away.
::+2 Intelligence, +1 Constitution
::Medium
::Base speed 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::'''Dreamwalking: After finishing a long rest in which you slept, choose one skill or tool proficiency; gain a bonus equal to your Proficiency bonus to any rolls with that skill or tool until your next long rest. Additionally, whilst sleeping, you can touch the dreams of others within 1 mile.
::'''Even in Sleep:''' Your non-sight Perception rolls suffer no penalties when you are asleep.
::'''Power Nap: You can choose to sleep for 1 hour as part of a short rest; doing so removes 1 level of Exhaustion and restores 1 hit die, in addition to the standard short rest bonuses.

'''The Disembodied''' are the tormented remnants of the lost city of Ulmyr's Gate, a wizardly academy-town that attempted to create a permanent portal to the Ethereal Plane, only for it to go disastrously wrong and swallow the entire city instead. As their name suggests, the Disembodied are now trapped permanently halfway beween the material and ethereal.
::+2 Intelligence, +1 Dexterity
::Medium or Small (your choice)
::Speed: 30 feet
::'''Fade Away:''' 1/day, you can spend an action on your turn to slip into the Ethereal Plane, which lasts for 1 minute or until you use a bonus action to return. Whilst you remain in the Ethereal, you cannot affect the Material Plane or be affected by it, but you can still see and hear into the Material, and move around. When the effect ends, you reappear in the closest unoccupied space you disappeared from.
::'''Planar Outcast:''' You can cast Feather Fall (self only) 1/day. At 3rd level, you can cast Blur 1/day. At 5h level, you can cast Blink 1/day. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
::'''Arcane Origins:''' You have Proficiency in Arcana.

===Etharis Pantheon===
As stated above, Etharis' gods have all been wiped out, leaving a handful of powerful [[Archangel|Arch Seraphs]] and [[Archdevil|Arch Daemons]] to take their place.

The Arch Seraphs consist of:
* ''Miklas:'' Arch Seraph of Mercy, who wants to do the job of her former boss, the Goddess of Protection Aurelia, but just doesn't have the power.
* ''Empyreus:'' Arch Seraph of Valor, who seeks to take the place of the fallen war-god Maligant and champion good-aligned warriors to return Etharis to its Golden Age.
* ''Zabriel:'' Arch Seraph of Truth, who has abandoned the neutrality of her patron Typharia, God of Knowledge, to instead seek to weaponize knowledge and truth.
* ''Morael:'' Arch Seraph of Sacrifice, is a former aspect of the Vetara, Goddess of Love, and acts as the patron of heroes, martyrs and diplomats.
* ''Solyma:'' Arch Seraph of Justice and silent heir to the throne of the forgotten God of Justice, whose followers are straying from her ways due to her self-imposed vow of silence.
* ''Aphaeleon:'' Arch Seraph of Temperance, who has abandoned the way of the God of Joy, Myria, to instead champion those who seek freedom from worldly desires.

The malevolent Arch Daemons, on the other hand, consist of:
* ''Venin:'' Arch Daemon of Deceit
* ''Tormach:'' Arch Daemon of Wrath, Empyreus' bitter rival, who delights in killing and bloody violence.
* ''Gorodyn:'' Arch Daemon of Avarice, who has stolen the throne of the God of Commerce, Jezra, to spread his doctrine of naked greed and consumption.
* ''Sitri:'' Arch Daemon of Hedonism, who is basically [[Slaanesh]].
* ''Beleth:'' Arch Daemon of Fear, who revels in his ability to torment mortals.
* ''Malikir:'' Arch Daemon of Pride

Other entities of cosmic significance in Etharis are the ''Primordials'', which are basically Etharis' [[Archomental]]s, and the ''Aether Kindred'', which are [[Elder Evils]]-like god-tier [[aberration]]s who slew the original gods of Etharis.

==New Mechanics==
===Subclasses===
{{dnd-stub}}
The Campaign Guide for Grim Hollow added no new subclasses. That was left for the Player's Guide, which debuted in September 21, featuring the following new subclasses:

[[Barbarian]]:
* '''Path of the Primal Spirit:''' Want an animal companion, but think the 5e [[Ranger]] sucks? Well, congrats; this is the class for you! The Primal Spirit Path allows you to forge such a deep bond with a totemic animal spirit that it will physically manifest to adventure alongside you. Naturally, its features all revolve around your ''Primal Companion'' (3rd), which is abstracted to the choice of if it's a Primal Guardian (tanky) or Primal Striker (offense-focused), and if it's a Land, Sea or Air creature. ''Shared Rage'' (3rd) gives your Primal Companion a buff when you Rage, which combined with the solid but simple rules for controlling it is very nice. ''Kin to Beasts'' (6th) lets you cast Animal Friendship and Speak with Animals 1/short rest, both keying off of Constitution. ''Skinrider's Trance'' (10th) lets you possess your primal companion or a creature you've cast Animal Friendship on 1/day. Finally, ''Shape of the Wild'' (14th) les you use a bonus action to transform your Primal Companion into a different kind of Primal Companion 1/short rest.
* '''Path of the Fractured:''' Inspired by Jekyll and Hyde, with maybe a dash of the Hulk, the Fractured takes a more esoteric approach to rage, attaining the characteristic berserker furies by learning to divide their mind into two split personas; the Id and the Ego. This divide gives them a number of unique mental powers. Starting at 3rd level, they gain ''Face of Rage'', which causes them to turn into an unrecognizable monstrous version of themselves with suped-up unarmed strikes when raging, and ''Mask of Civility'', which gives them a bonus Int or Wis-based skill as well as either a free Artisan's Tool Kit tool proficiency or bonus language. ''Brains and Brawn'' (6th) gives the Fractured resistance to Psychic when not raging, and resistance to everything ''but'' Psychic when raging. ''[[Mork|Cunning]] and [[Gork|Brutal]]'' gives the Fractured increased interaction options when not raging, and boosted crits with unarmed strikes when raging. Finally, ''Better Half'' (14th) lets the Fractured cheat death (and fly into a rage, if it happened when they weren't raging) 1/day.

[[Bard]]:
* '''College of Adventurers:''' Taking the [[Skill Monkey]] archetype to the extreme, bards of the College of Adventurers study the tales of heroes and adventurers to the point they essentially become capable of [[multiclassing]] without actually multiclassing. Their key feature is the ''Adventurer's Talent'' (3rd), which basically lets them select any other class apart from the [[Artificer]] and gain one of their tricks in a limited format - a Barbarian's Rage, a Warlock Invocation, 2 Sorcery Points and one of the simpler [[Metamagic]]s, etc. They start with 1 Talent, and pick up another one at levels 6 and 14. Their other features are ''Party Planner'' (3rd, creatures under Bardic Inspiration can Help as a bonus action), ''Well Rounded'' (6th; gain a bonus skill, tool and language), and finally ''Improvisational Talent'' (14th, you can swap out one of your Adventurer's Talents whenever you complete a Long Rest).
* '''College of Requiems:''' ...It's the [[Necromancer]]-[[Bard]]. Were you ''really'' expecting anything else? At 3rd level, they gain ''Chilling Melody'' (two Necromancy cantrips of their choice as bonus cantrips) and ''Pluck the Heartstrings'' (allies under Bardic Inspiration can expend it to either deal bonus Necrotic damage with a weapon or avoid being dropped to 0 HP). 6th level grants ''Stir the Bones'' (gain Animated Dead as a bonus spell, can use Bardic Inspiration on their undead minions). Finally, 14th level gives them ''Dance of the Dead'' (can make a single-target Necromancy spell hit 2 targets 1/short rest).

[[Cleric]]:
* '''Eldritch Domain:''' This is the obligatory [[Cthulhu Mythos]] type "mad gods and dire cosmic forces" Cleric you'd expect in a [[Dark Fantasy]]. Most of its features revolve around an "Eldritch Effects" table of temporary insanities the cleric can inflict upon its enemies. At 1st level, it gains ''Unpredictable Inspiration'' (gain a bonus cantrip and skill of the player's choice each time they complete a long rest) and ''Eldritch Contagion'' (spend a bonus action when casting a level 1+ spell to force 1 target to Wisdom save or roll on Eldritch Effects). 2nd level lets them use Channel Divinity to invoke a ''Prophecy of Doom'' (all creatures in target area must Wisdom save or suffer an Eldritch Effect). 6th level gives them ''Otherworldly Calm'' (Resistance to Psychic damage, people who try to read the cleric's mind risk Psychic damage). 8th level gives them ''Potent Spellcasting'', and 17th level grants them the ability to ''Sing the Song that Ends the World'' (creatures take 10d10 Psychic damage if they succumb to Prophecy of Doom; survivors can't be affected by this again for 10 minutes).
* '''Inquisition Domain:''' You want to be a [[Witch Hunter]]? Well, this is a step in the right direction. You're basically pissed that [[arcanist]]s get to enjoy so much power on their own whilst divine magic is dying. These clerics gain bonus proficiencies in martial weapons and heavy armor, and a 1st level feature in ''Witch Hunter's Strike'' (add Force damage, which is more potent against targets that are casting a spell and can heal the cleric). 2nd level provides the Channel Divinity in ''Spell Shield'' (1 target gains Temporary HP and Resistance to magic). 6th level's ''Rebuke Invoker'' lets the cleric try to disrupt spellcasting attempts (causing Force damage in the bargain), 8th level gives them ''Divine Strike'' (Force), and 17th level grants them ''Supernal Safeguard'', letting them target Wisdom mod (min 2) targets with Spell Shield.

[[Druid]]
* '''Circle of Blood:''' It's all about that [[Blood Magic]], baby! Strength through sacrifice, that's the motto here. Aside from the bonus Sangromancy spells, these druids gain the features ''Blood Boon'' (2nd, gain temporary HP when a creature dies within 60 feet), ''Rite of the Blood Moon'' (6th, expend a use of Wild Shape to drive yourself or a nearby ally into a pseudo-[[Barbarian]] Rage), ''Blood Lust'' (10th, creatures under Rite of the Blood Moon can sacrifice hit dices for bonus damage), and ''Create Blood Elemental'' (14th, 1/day summon a water elemental as a reaction when a creature dies within 60 feet).
* '''Circle of Mutation:''' These druids study [[fleshcrafting]], seeking to enhance nature and accelerate its development towards perfection. Their features are ''Mutate Shape'' (2nd, when Wild Shaping, spend spell slots to add beneficial mutations to your animal form), ''Circle Forms'' (2nd, you can turn into more powerful forms than other druids), ''Unnatural and Unnerving'' (6th, free Intimidation proficiency, or else in Athletics, Acrobatics, Perception, Stealth or Survival, Advantage on Intimidation checks made in mutated beast shape), ''Endless Evolution'' (10th, gain free mutations when Wild Shaping, can touch a beast and spend spell slots to mutate it), and ''Apex Predator Aura'' (14th, animals must Wisdom save or be too scared to approach you).

[[Fighter]]
* '''The Bulwark Warrior Martial Archetype:''' Masters of the defensive fighting style, Bulwarks specialize in taking as many hits as they need in order to deliver the last blow. At 3rd level, they can issue a ''Protective Taunt'' to aggro enemies and can also use ''Weather the Storm'' to grant themselves temp HP 1/short rest. 7th level's ''Living Shield'' lets them penalize enemy attacks against their allies. 10th levels ''Aggressive Defense'' lets them spend temp HP and turn it into bonus melee damage. 15th level's ''Improved Second Wind'' causes Second Wind to grant temporary HP equal to the full health it restores. Finally, 18th level's ''Halt the Assault'' lets them burn their own temporary HP to reduce damage done to allies within 5 feet.
* '''The Crucible Martial Archetype:''' Warrior-[[alchemist]]s who use experimental drugs, tinctures and concoctions to boost themselves to superhuman limits. Their core feature is ''Compound Creator'' (3rd); this lets them select 3 Compounds, which are basically 3e-style Potions of (Insert Buff Here) - Elfsight Oil for Darkvision, Advantage on (Insert [[Ability Scores]] here), temporary [[regeneration]], etc. It takes ten minutes of work with some alchemical supplies to make a Compound, and it lasts for a day before going inert. The Crucible learns 2 more Compounds at levels 7, 10 and 15. However, they can only drink (1+Con modifier, min 1) Compounds at a time; drinking excessive Compounds imposes a level of Exhaustion per extra compound; it takes a long rest to flush the inert Compounds from their system. Only the Crucible can drink a Compound; anybod else dumb enough to try has to make a Con save or be Poisoned. 3rd level also gives them ''Student of Alchemy'' (Proficiency in Alchemist's Supplies, doubles proficiency bonus for any ability check made with them). 7th level unlocks ''Quick Creation'' (can make and consume a Compound as a bonus action). At 10th level, ''Living Cauldron'' lets the Crucible consume (3+Con mod) Compounds, which increases to (5+Con mod) at level 18. At 15th level, ''Toxin Transmutation'' lets the Crucible spend a bonus action to simultaneously end a Poisoned effect and gain temp HP. Finally, 18th level sees them become a ''Living Catalyst'', letting them swap out one of their known Compounds wen they finish a long rest.

[[Monk]]
* '''The Way of the Leaden Crown:''' Believing that humanoids need to be rid of the tyranny of supernatural beings, the Leaden Crown seek to hone their bodies and minds to unlock the powerful psionic abilities needed to do battle with otherworldly influencers like seraphs, daemons and primordials. At 3rd level, ''Subtle Hand'' lets them make telekinetic strikes, which are Monk Unarmed Strikes with 10ft reach that do Force damage, whilst ''Psionic Prowess'' lets them cast an invisible Mage Hand at will and use ki to cast detect evil/good (1 ki), protection from evil/good (1 ki), hold person (2 ki), levitate (2 ki), and shatter (2 ki). 6th level's ''Unsubtle Strike'' lets them push a foe 10 feet with an unarmed strike or monk weapon 1/turn. At 11th level, they gain the ''Psychic Crush'' feature, which lets them build up "psychic pressure points" on creatures that they hit with monk unarmed strikes; as a bonus action, they can burn a ki point to trigger these points, dealing Force damage and potentially restraining them. Finally, 17th level's ''Psionic Mastery'' lets them burn ki to cast dispel evil/good, hold monster, telekinesis and wall of force, all for 5 ki each.
* '''The Way of Self:''' Ever heard of the trope "Arrogant Kung Fu Guy"? That's these guys in a nutshell. At 3rd level, they gain ''Tall Tales'' (Proficiency in either Deception, Intimidation, Performance or Persuasion), ''Bruised Ego'' (gain temp HP whenever ki points are spent) and ''Assertive Attacker'' (Martial Arts die value goes up 1 step if the monk is at or below 50% maximum HP). 6th level gives them both ''Irrational Retaliation'' (spend 2 ki as a reaction to being damaged to gain advantage on attacks against the assailant) and ''Redoubled Efforts'' (when at or below 50% maximum HP, do +1 die of damage with Martial Arts attacks on a crit). Level 11 gives them the ''Ever Prideful'' state, which is the oh-so-anime ability to fight on out of pure stubbornness after being dropped 0 HP. Finally, at 17th level, ''Egotistical'' causes Bruised Ego and Redoubled Efforts to apply at over 50% max HP so long as the monk was damaged by an attacker within the past minute.

[[Paladin]]
* '''The Oath of Pestilence:''' It's the [[Nurgle]] subclass. No, seriously; Paladins of the Oath of Pestilence embrace disease and decay as natural, even benevolent, parts of the natural circle of life, and freely share rot and plague to winnow the weak from the strong. These Paladins get a bunch of disease-flavored spells, like stinking cloud, ray of enfeeblement and contagion. Their 3rd level Channel Divinity Options are ''Debilitating Fever'' (infect a non-undead, non-construct foe in melee with a natural disease) and ''Entropic Infection'' (remove necrotic resistance and curse the target to take +2d6 damage from necrotic effects). 7th level gives them an ''Aura of Rampant Sickness'', a 10ft aura (30ft from 18th level) that lets the paladin impose Disadvantage on an ability check, attack roll or saving throw 1/turn. 15th level's ''Disgusting Resilience'' lets the paladin spend hit dice to try and nullify an attack that would drop them to 0 HP - and if they are killed, then the paladin explodes in a shower of pus and gore for 8D6 Necrotic damage. Finally, 20th level's ''Plaguebringer'' grants the paladin immunity to poison and "reduce HP maximum value" effects, resistance to necrotic damage, and causes all enemies who get within 5 feet to take automatic necrotic damage.
** Tenets of Pestilence:
:::'''Strength in Resilience.''' Surviving hardship and plague make you stronger. Spreading these things causes strength to flourish.
:::'''All Things Must Pass.''' Death is the natural conclusion of life. There is nothing unnatural or amoral about the ending of life.
:::'''Might Makes Right.''' The laws of mortals mean nothing to poxes and plagues, they go where they wish and take what they want. So should you.
* '''The Oath of Zeal:''' Embracing the power of hate, Zealots are fanatics whose mad determination to destroy their enemies turns them into living weapons. Bonus spells for these paladins are a mixture of divination and "scourge of god" spells like Fear and Insect Plague. Their 3rd level Channel Divinity options are ''Mark of the Heretic'' (designate a target for increased crit range and a free reaction-fueled attack at the start of its turns) and ''Inquisitor's Eye'' (Advantage on Investigation, Insight and Perception, plus immunity to surprise, for 10 minutes). 7th level's ''Aura of Clarity'' gives you a 10ft aura (30ft from 18th) in whcih you and allies cannot be blinded and invisibility fails if you want it to. At 15th level, they can ''Compel Confession'', casting a Zone of Truth without burning a spell slot that also deals out psychic damage to any creature that succeeded on their save. Finally, 20th level's ''Apocalyptic Revelation'' lets the paladin gain a number of powerful buffs for 1 minute 1/day (Truesight 120ft, 5ft blinding aura, grant advantage to all attacks against a creature for 1 turn as a bonus action).
** Tenets of Zeal:
:::'''Uncover Corruption.''' Darkness cannot abide the light of day. Wickedness must be revealed before it can be destroyed.
:::'''Purge the Heretics.''' Heresy is a tumor that spread through the hearts of the innocent. Cut it out at the source.
:::'''No Mercy.''' The righteous path requires unwavering conviction and unflinching resolve.
:::'''By Any Means Necessary.''' There is no sacrifice too great when it comes to defeating the wicked.

[[Ranger]]
* '''The Green Reaper:''' [[Assassin]]s who specialize in the use of poisons. 3rd level gives them ''Envenomed Attack'' (add bonus poison damage to a weapon or 20 bits of ammo as a bonus damage, usable Proficiency bonus times per day; 11th level doubles the damage and makes it usable per short rest) and ''Toxic Tradecraft'' (Proficiency and Expertise with Poisoner's Kit, gain a free poisoner's kit you can replace with 8 hours, can burn spell slots to add extra effects to targets of Envenomed Attack; the more potent the spell slot, the nastier the effect options). 7th level's ''Poison Control'' grants Poison Resistance, Advantage on saves vs. Poisoned, and the ability to cast Protection From Poison for free Wisdom modifier times per day. 11th level's ''Variegated Vexations'' lets the ranger do Acid or Necrotic bonus damage with Envenomed Attacks instead of Poison damage. Finally, 15th level's ''Pain Tolerance'' lets the ranger spend a reaction to an attack to gain temp HP equal to the damage dealt.
* '''The Vermin Lord:''' Allies of the skittering legions of the natural world, who learn to take power from the creatures that are so small, but oh so very, ''very'' many. 3rd level's ''Verminkin'' grants the ability to speak with vermin and to summon vermin swarms by spending spell slots (2 swarms per slot level), whilst ''Septic Strikes'' lets them inflict Necrotic damage as a bonus action on any target of their own weapon attacks or their swarm's attacks. 7th level's ''Filth and Fortitude'' grants immunity to disease and proficiency in Constition saves. 11th level's ''Infectious Spread'' can be used Wisdom mod times per day to boost Septic Strikes to also poison the targets. Finally, 15th level's ''Strength of the Swarm'' lets the ranger transfer damage to adjacent swarms.

[[Rogue]]
* '''The Highway Rider Martial Archetype:''' Mounted combat specialist with a side-order in being surprisingly tanky. For a rogue. 3rd level gives them ''Hair Trigger'' (on rolling for initiative, spend a reaction to either attack with advantage, move full speed (whether on foot or mounted) without opportunity attacks, Dodge, or interact with an item), ''Trusty Mount'' (cast Find Steed (summons a Beast, not an outsider) 1/day) and ''Ride Them Down'' (can Sneak Attack after moving 20+ feet whilst mounted). 9th level's ''Horse Lord'' lets the Highway Rider spend a minute caring to their steed to give it double their level in temp HP, and also lets them Dash, Disengage or Dodge as a bonus action whilst mounted. 13th level's ''True Grit'' gives proficiency in Constitution saves and "Con save for half damage" effects are now "half damage on fail, no damage on save". Finally, 17th level's ''Desperado'' lets them use a Hair Trigger option as a Reaction to falling to 0 HP.
* '''The Misfortune Bringer Martial Archetype:''' Thieves of luck who have the ability to deliver all manner of terrible curses to those they choose to target. 3rd level gives them ''Evil Eye'', which is used to mark a target for their ''Misfortunist'' feature. They gain two "Misfortunes" (lesser curses powered by Jinx Points) and 3 Jinx points; they gain +1 Misfortune at 9th, 13th and 17th level (and can swap one out whenever they complete a long rest), and +2 jinx points at 13th level. 9th level's ''Steal Luck'' lets the rogue remove a creature's Advantage on an ability check, attack or save 1/short rest to regain an expend Jinx Point - from 17th, this can be done 3/short rest. Finally, 13th level's ''Curse Caster'' lets the rogue cast Bestow Curse for 3 Jinx Points.

[[Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)|Sorcerer]]
* '''The Haunted:''' Sorcerers who survived a brush with death and now have a ghostly companion guiding them through the spirit world. At 1st level, the Haunted gains the traits ''Haunted Spells'' (learn Unseen Servant, See Invisibility, Speak with Dead, Death Ward and Little Death as extra spells, they can be cast by substituting sorcery points for spell slots), ''Phantom Companion'' (gain a Familiar in the form of an Undead Specter, which can turn invisible and, from 3rd level, use Life Drain as one of your attacks), and ''Sixth Sense'' (add Charisma mod to Dex checks to determine initiative). 6th level's ''Strength of Spirit'' powers up the Phantom Companion so it can now channel spells like a familiar, whilst ''Deathly Pallor'' gives the Haunted Resistance to Necrotic and the ability to swap sorcerer spell damage types to Necrotic. 14th level's ''Phantom Possession'' lets the Haunted control creatures by having their Phantom Companion possess them. Finally, 18th level's ''Become Death'' lets the Haunted turn into a spectre themselves 1/day.
* '''The Wretched Bloodline:''' Inheriting an ancestral curse, this sorcerer has learned to take it apart and make it into a source of power.

[[Warlock]]
* '''The First Vampire Patron:''' Needless to say, this gives you [[vampire]]-lite abilities
* '''The Cosmic Parasite Patron:''' Agreeing to host the nascent offspring of an entity that feeds on the vitality of whole peoples and planets, these warlocks are surprisingly physically adept due to the monster lurking beneath their skin.

[[Wizard]]
* '''Plague Doctor:''' Practicing a blend of magic, alchemy and herbalism, plague doctors learn how to heal the sick... and to blight the healthy, should they desire.
* '''The School of Sangromancy:''' This is the [[Blood Magic]] tradition. Who're you trying to kid?

In addition, two [[Artificer]] subclasses were unlocked as part of the stretchgoals for the Kickstarter... unfortunately, because the Artificer was not in the SRD, Ghostfire Gaming is not legally allowed to put them in the GHPG; instead, they had to be released as "Pay What You Want" on the DM's Guild website.

[[Artificer]]
* '''Machine Cultist:''' An eldritch machine from far future whispers to the minds of suitable individuals paving way to its inevitable creation. (It's based on actual thought experiment know as Roko's basilisk.) Class is fusion of Artificer and Warlock with the ability to turn vehicles into Infernal Engines. So basically mad cart mechanic from taking instructions from unborn A.I.
* '''Reanimator:''' To those that think that Victor Frankenstein had the right idea but just did not go far enough a.k.a. Make your own Flesh Golem.

===Expanded Backgrounds===
{{dnd-stub}}
One of Grim Hollow's unique mechanics is that it takes the Backgrounds from basic 5th edition and simultaneously applies level-based features that represent increased status/proficiency in that particular field, as well as specializations to more specifically refine the basic concept. For example, instead of a generic Academic, you could be an Archivist, who keeps a personal library, or a Archaeologist.

===Transformations===
Grim Hollow's most iconic element, the ''Transformations'' mechanic is a kind of 4 level Prestige Class that allows a player to slowly become some kind of specific monster, gaining unique powers and flaws at each of the four levels. Transformations in the Campaign Guide consist of the '''Aberrant Horror''', the '''Fiend''', the '''Lich''', the '''Lycanthrope''', the '''Seraph''' and the '''Vampire'''. Yes, becoming an angel is treated as being as horrifying and dehumanizing as becoming a fiend.

The Player's Guide added the '''Primordial''', the '''Fey''' and the '''Spectre'''.

Here's how it works: each Transformation requires certain mechanical and story requirements to acquire, with at the very least each Transformation needing a certain value of [[Ability Scores]]. To progress in level, the player needs to undertake an in-game story-based progression milestone - it typically recommends keeping each Transformation Level to a certain range of class levels, so it doesn't become too weak or too powerful compared to non-Transforming characters.

When they get their first level in a Transformation, they gain two special Transformation Boons and a mandatory Transformation Flaw. On levels 2-4, they gain their choice of 1 of several Transformation Boons, which could be taken from an earlier Transformation level, and a mandatory Transformation Flaw.

Examples of Universal Transformation Milestones are:
* Undertaking an exceptional act of evil or good.
* Completing an ancient ritual.
* Performing a powerful artifact.
* Being cursed by a dark agent.
* Being exalted by a patron or god.

Can you undo a Transformation? Yes, if the DM agrees; it basically works like curing a curse, but requires a Regenerate spell rather than Remove Curse. However, a character who has reached the 4th level, or being Transformed for over a year, can only be cured with a Wish. It's up to the DM to decide if killing and resurrecting a character frees them from their transformation or not.

If a Transformation ability allows a save, the DC is always 8 + the character's Proficiency bonus + an ability score modifier, the precise modifier being determined by the precise Transformation.

====Aberrant Horror====
Aberrant Horrors are humanoids who have begun transforming into an [[aberration]], granting them grotesquely fluid anatomies and the ability to reshape their bodies in the most nightmarish, sanity-breaking ways.

Becoming an Aberrant Horror requires '''13 Constitution''' and some kind of encounter with an aberration, magical anomaly, or other phenomena to trigger the complete reshaping of your body. The following are possible level milestones for the Aberrant Horror:
* Defeating a powerful Aberration and absorbing its power.
* Undergoing a dangerous and costly experiment.
* Surviving a magical mishap.
* Acquiring the strength to give birth to a more powerful version of yourself, which then consumes your old self.
* Fulfilling an eldritch prophecy written in the stars.

An Aberrant Horror's save DC keys off of Constitution.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Aberrant Adaptions''' (use bonus actions to activate biological heavy armor and weapons) and '''Aberrant Form''' (+2 Con, +1 Str, Type changes to Aberration), and you receive the Flaw '''Unstable Mutations'''. Each time you complete a Long Rest, you have to roll on a d100 to see how your fluctuating anatomy screws you over for a time.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Efficient Killer''' (powers up your bio-weapons from Aberrant Adaptions), '''Other-Worldly Tendrils''' (spend a bonus action to activate several different tentacle attack options) or '''Situational Evolution''' (spend a bonus action to gain a climb speed, swim speed + amphibious, or regeneration), and you receive the Flaw '''Hideous Appearance'''. Acquiring this flaw means that you become a shapeshifter, with a hideously warped base form and the ability to resume your original form. You revert to your true form if you Concentrate on a spell, are knocked unconscious, enter hallowed ground, or consciously choose to do so. At the DM's discretion, events of extreme emotional or physical stress may require a Constitution save to avoid reverting. Non-evil creatures that see your true form will instantly become hostile to you, unless the DM decides otherwise.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Wings''' (bonus action gives you wings for 10 minutes), '''Additional Tendrils''' (requires Other-Worldly Tendrils, you can use 2 tentacles simultaneously, upgrades to 3 at 4th stage) or '''Enhanced Hypertrophy''' (Unarmed Strikes do d8 damage, offensive adaptations increase their damage by +1 die type), and you receive the Flaw '''Unstable Existence'''. Your Hideous Appearance is revealed whenever you roll a natural 1-3 on a save against a spell or magical ability.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Savage Predator''' (on a nat-20, do +6d6 damage and force enemies to save vs. fear), '''Master of the Deep''' (requires Additional Tendrils, 1/short rest you can make a debuffing attack against all enemies within 15 feet) or '''Extremophiliac Conditioning''' (spend a bonus action to gain Resistance to either all Physical damage, Fire+Lightning+Acid damage, or Cold+Thunder+Poison damage), and you receive the Flaw '''Entropic Abomination'''. When you fail a save vs. spell or magical ability, roll on the Unstable Mutations table and switch to the new result if it's lower than your current result.

====Fiend====
Quite self-explanatory, this Transformation causes you to become a Fiend - closer to a [[devil]] than a [[demon]], what with the focus on Faustian bargains.

Becoming a Fiend requires Charisma 13 and somehow damning one's soul for power, such as by pacting with a Fiend or by undergoing an infernal ritual. The following are possible level milestones for the Fiend:
* Defeating a greater rival Fiend and taking their place in the hierarchy.
* Ensnaring a particularly powerful or influential soul with a contract.
* Establishing a cult of worshipers who offer their strength to you.
* Establishing a portal between the material plane and the Netherworld.
* Killing or corrupting a Seraph.

A Fiend's Transformation Save DC keys off of Charisma.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Gifts of Damnation''' (you can sign soul contracts with mortals to gain special powers) and '''Fiendish Form''' (+2 Charisma, +1 Intelligence, Type changes to Fiend), and you receive the Flaw '''Planar Binding'''. This flaw causes you to suffer Disadvantage on death saving throws, and if you die, you cannot be raised.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Brand of the Chainer's Gaze''' (inflict a curse that penalizes saves), '''Brand of the Tyrant's Hellfire''' (inflict a curse that adds bonus Fire damage to your attacks) or '''Brand of the Deceiver's Guile''' (inflict a curse that penalizes attack rolls), and you receive the Flaw '''Hideous Appearance'''. Acquiring this flaw means that you become a shapeshifter, with a hideously warped base form and the ability to resume your original form. You revert to your true form if you Concentrate on a spell, are knocked unconscious, enter hallowed ground, or consciously choose to do so. At the DM's discretion, events of extreme emotional or physical stress may require a Constitution save to avoid reverting. Non-evil creatures that see your true form will instantly become hostile to you, unless the DM decides otherwise. All of the Boons at this level can be used Charisma modifier times per day, and the curses they create last for 1 minute, or until the target is knocked unconscious, enters hallowed ground, or is targeted by Remove Curse.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Alluring Deceit''' (free Proficiency/Expertise in Deception and Persuasion, immunity to magic that detects lies and compels truthful speech), '''Infernal Resistance''' (burn a reaction to halve damage from non-silvered weapon attacks) or '''Nether Blade''' (spend a bonus action to summon an infernal burning blade to fight with), and you receive the Flaw '''True Name'''. This flaw causes you to manifest a talisman inscribed with your true name, which other creatures can use to control you.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Commanding Obedience''' (your spells can force your opponents to fall prone), '''Brimstone Pyrolysis''' (your fire attacks can turn slain enemies into miniature bombs) or '''Infernal Summoning''' (you can summon a squad of up to 4 imps 1/day), and you receive the Flaw '''Pull of the Netherworld'''. This causes you to take 1d6 Force damage per two character levels whenever you roll a natural 1 on a save against a magical spell or ability.

====Lich====
Self explanatory, the Lich transformation allows powerful spellcasters to assume a form that will allow them to continue to study magic for all eternity.

As such, this is the hardest Transformation to qualify for: Intelligence 16, ability to cast 7th level spells, and you must track down and successfully perform the Ritual of Dread. The following are possible level milestones for the Lich:
* Discover ancient and dark arcane knowledge.
* Consume the soul of an exceptionally powerful spellcaster.
* Build a monument to your power to serve as a giant arcane focus.
* Create an army of undead.
* Kill a god.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Harvester of Souls''' (creatures you kill become phylactery charges you can burn to recover spell slots) and '''Undead Form''' (+4 Int, +2 Wis, type changes to Undead, lowered benefit from external healing effects, immunity to aging, air, food, drink and sleep), and you receive the Flaw '''Phylactery'''. This causes you to create a talisman to bind your soul into; if it gets destroyed, you die, instantly. If you die, you will revive 1 week later so long as there is a soul charge in your phylacterty - otherwise, at the end of the week, you become a Demilich NPC.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Puppet Master''' (undead mooks you create are permanent and cannot be stolen from you), '''Lichdom of the Arcane''' (killing a creature with a spell that does fire, necrotic, or poison damage triggers a bonus effect) or '''Rift to the Dreadscapes''' (As an action, create a zone of super-killy necrotic energy), and you receive the Flaw '''Hideous Appearance'''. Acquiring this flaw means that you become a shapeshifter, with a hideously warped base form and the ability to resume your original form. You revert to your true form if you Concentrate on a spell, are knocked unconscious, enter hallowed ground, or consciously choose to do so. At the DM's discretion, events of extreme emotional or physical stress may require a Constitution save to avoid reverting. Non-evil creatures that see your true form will instantly become hostile to you, unless the DM decides otherwise.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Relentless Undead''' (undead you control can make a full move + attack before dying), '''Arcane Supremacy''' (you can suffer Exhaustion to Concentrate on two spells simultaneously) or '''Staff of the Dreadscapes''' (as an action, summon an enchanted quarterstaff), and you receive the Flaw '''Necromantic Dystrophy'''. If you go more than 24 hours without converting 4 CR worth of souls into spell slots, you suffer severe penalties.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Lord of Undeath''' (humanoids you kill auto-rise as zombies under your command), '''Arcane Omniscience''' (you know all Wizard spells and can cast Int modifier bonus Wizard spells per day) or '''Deathly Being''' (gain lich immunities and resistances), and you receive the Flaw '''Weight of Ages'''. This is the more severe form of Necromantic Dystrophy, forcing you to burn up 8 CR worth of souls per day.

====Lycanthrope====
Obviously, becoming a Lycanthrope turns you into a [[therianthrope|werebeast]]. Whilst the easiest way is to be bitten by a werebeast and survive, there's also a [[druid]]ic ritual called the Lunar Sacrament that can curse a victim with this transformation, which is obviously viewed in a holy perspective by druids.

Mechanically, taking this Transformation requires 13 Strength, and its Save DC keys off of Strength. The following are possible level milestones for the Lycanthrope:
* Establishing a pack of lycanthropes.
* Killing an alpha lycanthrope.
* Gaining control of your animalistic urges.
* Unleashing the beast within and losing your humanity.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Hybrid Transformation''' (you can change into a half-humanoid, half-beast shape) and '''Shapechanger's Form''' (+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, gain the Shapechanger type), and you receive the Flaw '''Lust for the Hunt'''. This flaw forces you to make a DC 10 Wisdom save at the start of each turn, or move towards the nearest NPC, prioritizing the helpless, so you can try to kill it; when exposed to a full moon's light, you automatically fail this save. The first time you see a full moon, you need to pass a DC 20 Wisdom save or be forcibly transformed into hybrid shape until dawn.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Iron Pelt''' (gain resistance to physical damage from non-silver and non-magical sources in hybrid form), '''Hunter's Howl''' (you can use a howl to mark a creature as prey, gaining bonuses to tracking and killing it) or '''Kindred Form''' (you can now assume animal form as well as hybrid form), and you receive the Flaw '''Silver Sensitivity'''. This makes you Vulnerable to damage done by silvered weapons when you're in hybrid or kindred form, and you cannot apply any Resistance to an attack made by a silvered weapon.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Titanic Vigor''' (+2 max HP per level, gain 5 temp HP each turn in hybrid form), '''Predatory Leap''' (double jumping distance, can make pounce attacks in hybrid form) or '''Bestial Savagery''' (hybrid form gains: attacks are damage-buffed and count as magic, +1 AC, immunity to charm & fear), and you receive the Flaw '''Fraying Memories'''. This flaw gives you Disadvantage on Intelligence ability and skill checks based on recalling information or knowledge.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Savage Instincts''' (hybrid form attacks are suped up vs. hurt targets), '''Kindred Affinity''' (requires Kindred Form, lets you speak and cast spells in kindred form) or '''Unstoppable Rage''' (you can keep fighting at 0 HP), and you receive the Flaw '''Predatory Nature'''. This flaw makes it harder to resist your urge to kill the weak and helpless, as well as making it harder to return to your original form.

====Seraph====
Seraphs are the Angels of Etharis, and consist of mortals uplifted for their devotion to a virtue or ideal; as such, they are commonly selected from noble martyrs, tireless crusaders, and other exemplary individuals.

Becoming a Seraph requires Wisdom 13 and either exaltation by an Arch-Seraph or exposure to powerful divine energies. The following are possible level milestones for the Seraph:
* Defeating a powerful force of darkness.
* Create a hallowed landmark for pilgrims.
* Establish a parish of worshipers who uphold your virtue.
* Establish a portal between the Material Plane and the Empyrium.
* Redeem a soul that was considered beyond redemption.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Celestial Form''' (+2 Wisdom, +1 Constitution, type changes to Celestial) and '''Angelic Wings''' (you've a Fly speed equal to your Normal speed, but can't wear clothes or armor that aren't tailored to fit), and you receive the Flaw '''Planar Binding'''. This is identical to the Fiend flaw of the same name, but is based on your connection to a divine plane rather than an unholy one.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Divine Retribution''' (grant a Radiance-charged bonus attack to yourself or an ally), '''Divine Clemency''' (when you or an ally is hurt, you can cast a healing spell as a reaction) or '''Divine Expedition''' (burn a reaction to move yourself or a nearby ally), and you receive the Flaw '''Divine Appearance'''. This is the same as Hideous Appearance, but obviously revolves around you looking like an obvious angel, which has its problems in a world crawling with monsters and the wicked.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Radiant Strike''' (your melee attacks do bonus Radiant damage, especially against fiends, fey and undead), '''Cleanse Affliction''' (your healing spells also remove negative conditions) or '''Bow of Celestial Judgement''' (you can summon a magic bow that shoots holy lasers), and you receive the Flaw '''Beacon to Darkness'''. This flaw means that if you or allies within close proximity commit evil acts, you pick up "corruption points" that temporarily impede your ability to fight the naturally evil.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Aura of Holy Purge''' (grant a free critical hit 1/day), '''Aura of Merciful Blessing''' (you or an ally can survive a killing attack with 1 HP 1/day) or '''Aura of Empyreal Valor''' (grant yourself or an ally increased speed and dexterity 1/day), all of which have a radius of 20 feet and are only active whilst you're conscious, and you receive the Flaw '''Pull of the Empyrean'''. This is just a name-tweaked version of the Fiend's "Pull of the Netherrealm".

====Vampire====
Simple, obvious, self-explanatory. You were bitten by another vampire, you drank a vampire's blood, you handled the wrong (or right!) cursed magical artifact, or you performed a dark rite to willingly infect yourself with the Sanguine Curse.

This Transformation requires Dexterity 13, and its save DC keys off of Dexterity. The following are possible level milestones for the Vampire:
* Establish a coven of vampire spawn.
* Drink the blood of a legendary monster.
* Learn the great secrets of vampirism from a Vampire Lord.
* Learn to embrace your Hideous Form and lose the ability to conceal it.
* Discover the lost crypts of an ancient vampire and consume its essence.

At 1st level, you gain the Boons '''Blood Fury''' (doing damage to living creatures lets you rack up points you can use to power special attacks) and '''Undead Form''' (+2 Dex, +1 Cha, type changes to Undead, lowered benefit from external healing effects, immunity to aging, air, food, drink and sleep), and you receive the Flaw '''The Sanguine Curse'''. This gives you Darkvision 60 feet if you don't already have it, but prevents you from entering a residence unless invited, causes you to suffer Disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks when in sunlight, and requires you to feed on blood at least once per 7 days.

At 2nd level, you can take the Boons '''Dread Knight Combat Training''' (you can enter a special stance to boost offense, defense or accuracy), '''Sanguine Magic''' (you can convert non-typed spell damage into necrotic damage, gain Fury Points with spell attacks, and gain some spellcasting-related options for Blood Fury) or '''Shapechanger''' (you can turn into a bat and a cloud of mist), and you receive the Flaw '''Hideous Appearance'''. Acquiring this flaw means that you become a shapeshifter, with a hideously warped base form and the ability to resume your original form. You revert to your true form if you Concentrate on a spell, are knocked unconscious, enter hallowed ground, or consciously choose to do so. At the DM's discretion, events of extreme emotional or physical stress may require a Constitution save to avoid reverting. Non-evil creatures that see your true form will instantly become hostile to you, unless the DM decides otherwise.

At 3rd level, you can take the Boons '''Cruel Riposte''' (you gain a bonus melee attack against assailants), '''Creatures of the Night''' (you can summon swarms of bats, rats and wolves to aid you) or '''Captivating Glance''' (free proficiency in Deception + Persuasion, immunity to having your thoughts read), and you receive the Flaw '''Greater Sanguine Curse'''. This increases your Darkvision to 120 feet, causes you to take 1d10 acid damage per turn from running water, makes you suffer 1d10 radiant damage per turn when exposed to sunlight, and requires you to feed every 3 days.

At 4th level, you can take the Boons '''Grim Executioner''' (requires Dread Knight Combat Training; a critical hit will insta-kill a foe with 50 or fewer HP), '''Beguiler's Entrancement''' (requires Captivating Glance, lets you Charm a creature 1/day) or '''Regenerate''' (lets you regenerate damage unless exposed to sunlight, radiant damage or running water), and you receive the Flaw '''Stake to the Heart'''. With this flaw, a natural 20 to hit you with a wooden or silvered weapon, if you have 50 or fewer HP left, causes you to be paralyzed for 1 hour or until the weapon is removed, whichever is greater.

====Primordial====
This upcoming Transformation turns you into an [[elemental]].

====Fey====
As its name suggests, this Transformation turns you into a [[fey]].

====Spectre====
An unlocked stretch goal for the Player's Guide, this Transformation turns you into a [[ghost]].

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