Deathlords far fouler and devious: The GM Deathlords!

Cthulhu_Wakes

Cthulhu_Wakes

Black Sun in a White World
As the title states, I was just curious if anyone had made any other non canonical Deathlords to complement our messed up friends presented in the Abyssals book. So far none of my friends I game with have done so and stick with the tried and true Mask of Winters or First and Forsaken (who has become terribly overused now). I was hoping some of you could enthrall us with stories of your own Deathlords and some good flavor text ^_^
 
While I haven't got anything Deathlord-wise... beyond one who was supposed to eventually be the big bad of my last game. But the game didn't last long enough for it to get to the point where the players found out about him.


"Sublime Beauty of the Void" is his name... and the scary thing? He's found his reincarnated solar shard host and managed to sweet-talk her into joining forces with him... he then used his hideously high essence arcanoi version of ride on her... and they became as one.


He is 'alive' and a solar as far as anyone could determine. Thus he had access to both Solar Circle Sorcerery, Void Citcle Necromancy and Sidereal Martial Arts... He also had a nice plan to simply and quietly erase parts of Creation, directly into Oblivion, do not pass go, do not go into the underworld... it's a straight out, good bye. ^_^


***


I also suggest you take a look at some of the custom deathlords on the Exalted Wiki. ^_^ ;;;


http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?DeathLords


You mighht also want to check out what Neph aka Mr Goodwin aka Abyssal dude has...


http://www.livejournal.com/users/lemure/555.html
 
I have found the Silver Prince is a pretty cool bad guy.  Or...Liege, as it were.  He's manipulative, but also looking into becoming a major power player in both Creation and the Underworld.  His designs and schemes differ significantly from those of, say, FFL (who is now overused, yeah) or MoW.  MoW will use any method to get into Creation and the Underworld, though the Prince is actually seen as a generally good guy in the west...whereas MoW is a name that is feared throughout the East, if not in the whole of Creation.


As far as custom DLs go...well, I'm making one.  He's a bit more Abyssal-centric and a more hands on...the idea is to make a useful Liege for PCs, though not one who is utterly overbearing.  Keep an eye out for him.  The Ivory Crow Atop a Pillar of Jade is his title...well, one of em.  It's complicated.  Anyways, that reminds me, I need to do his writeup.  Hope to drop it into the Pending Submissions rather soonish.
 
shifty said:
Haku said:
You mighht also want to check out what Neph aka Mr Goodwin aka Abyssal dude has...
http://www.livejournal.com/users/lemure/555.html
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What is it that Neph has with over twinkery and isolation?  Oh yay!  I can do anything if I could only get of this cage.  Sheesh.  The mountain folk and that guy are almost interchangeable.
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He's not twinky... he is VERY limited for a Deathlord... ^_^ ;
 
I got the name of my custom Deathlord from the old EC; within the hallowed halls of the 'Writings' section (can't recall who posted it; sorry): Blood that Flows from the Slashed Wrists.  He has been the main antagonist in my main Solar game i've been running for over a year now, but the characters (& players) are no closer to discovering any information regarding him.


His citadel is based in the Fields of Woe, and he is quite 'hands on', finding a particular amount of interest in the Haltan and Linowan war.


Sorry, can't post too much at the moment, some players do frequent this site.


And, yes, that is a plot hook, if they're interested  :twisted:


~FC.
 
I have a Deathlord setup in the Northern Mountains. He is called (translated from Danish) The Thrall of Willless Memory and he works by enslaving himself to people and thus, in turn, enslaving them. He has subverted the culture of a whole people into a kind of ancestor worship, where they every summer has to go on ritual raids on each other. These raids are a basis for much of the economy and provides the ancestors with sacrifices. The Gray Army (or the Grayfolk) demand that the warriors killed on raids are dedicated to them. The mass of ancestors are collectively known as The Gray Army and the Deathlord is unknown to the common man. The sacrifices, of course, become ghosts and soldiers in The Gray Army and that army has now grown for hundreds of years.


The Thrall has also planted a religous dogma called The Great Battle in the culture. That is actually two things: first it is a very real battle taking place every two generations or so, when an army of ghosts and animated corpses comes out of the mountains to attack the people. Then it is custom to gather as many men from the many villages and meet the army - not to defeat them, but to provide them with sacrifices. It is, of course, very honorable to die in this battle. When The Gray Army are satisfied it retreats. Secondly, The Great Battle is a mythical future battle when The Gray Army will sweep across the whole world and grant it the final calm and rest (the shamans don't know of the concept of Oblivion, but this is what it actually is).


Basically The Thrall of Willless Remembrance has invented a religious system and pressed the go button. Now he just waits for his army to grow large enough. At some point the players will probably find his citadel in the mountains and he will present himself as his absent master's thrall and serve them untill they are thoroughly and utterly corrupted. That's the plan anyways ; )
 
These Deathlords sound ridiculous.  Yeah, they're scary (okay, really scary according to Ex: The Autocthonians), but it's hard to take someone with a name like The Black Psychopomp (a psychopomp is someone who guides the dead), promulgate (someone who makes proclamations of a legal nature) of the Cromlech (pronounced krom-lek; a pre-historic monument consisting of monoliths encircling a mound) Cinerary (a place where ashes in urns are interred) seriously; no matter how numerically frightening he is.  Though, when treating with a being such as this, I always find it refreshing to make recalcitrant players who make stupid comments address spirits/deathlords/malfeans/me by their full title whenever attempting to communicate in any way.  If you should so afflict a group, social discourse will almost ALWAYS be mercifully brief and you will only have to maintain your god-like rumble for a few moments as your players run themselves ragged trying to crunch their questions into tiny little anecdotes and make eachother flashcards of the name/s of whatever being they are addressing.  What fun!


I haven't done it yet, because my players aren't even approaching the point where they could even meddle in the affairs of a Deathlord (other than Bodhisattva Anointed By Dark Water, who is, according to the book, a social butterfly and a nice (dead) guy by the standards of his peers, but if I were to invent my own Deathlord, his name would be Bob, or Lewis.  Guys named Lewis ALWAYS have a chip on their shoulder.


No one would ever suspect him of anything, and he would keep his undead legions somewhere out of the way... like under his cloak, which would be beige, or mauve.... yeah... mauve.  And he'd have a cynical Igor-esque lackey.  Yeah...[/i]
 
You should totally make the Deathlord Lewis Black, a man who was so bitter and enraged in life his spirit lived on to torment your players. Oh...and serve the Malfeans blah blah bl-frickin'-ah.
 
riven5 said:
I guess I don't see what's so twinky about him.
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Replyin to both of ya.


Well, its like this. This Death Lord is all powerful, the best sorceror of the Deathlords!  Not a biggie.  He is sooooo powerful that he reshapes the land that he walks on at his merest whim.  And he can see or hear or know everything that goes on, too.  Ok this is getting cheesy and stupid, but hell, I have made worse characters, myself.  But wait, he hates other deathlords, heck he hates everything too.  So why is there anything dead in the area?  Oh wait they worship him.  He already lives in a manse the fuels him.  So the worship is not needed.  Furthermore, if there was REAL hate, he wouldnt care about any potential use for those ghosts, they would be sucked into oblivion by his hand.  Stupid and contradictory.The only thing that limits him is his isolation.  He is at the bottom of the labrynth in a distant part and he cannot leave. Oh great, so not only does he live in bum fuck egypt with no access to anything, making him strategically unimportant, to any canonical NPC, any players that could get to him would be blasted out of existance before they even saw his hokey pyramid due to the fact he can control the very surface they walk on.  And even if they somehow got through his starving legions of crazed ghosts and hostile terrain, he still knows MAGIC, and has time to prepare.  


Basically this is an omnipotent character that does nothing.  Any attempt to make it do something, will violate how this character is concieved.


Fair Folk Mountain Folk are similar.  Omnipotent nation.  Surrounded by enemies.  Isolated from the world.   :roll:


Hell even his work in Lunar elders are the same way.  Lunar eldar Chimera.  Alone by themselves out in the wyld.  Ultrapowerful and alone cause they are CRAZY. :roll:


In my opinion, villains are defined by their interaction with players and their weaknesses.  Not their strengths.  Because players are going to want to interact with the villain and the combat monkeys are going to want to take advantage of their weaknesses.  His characters do neither.  They are flat, two dimensional storyless pieces of crap.  


Nephs great at charm work, crappy at story.
 
Contrary to the First and Forsaken Lion, who is simply an unstoppable force that DOES go out and conquer people and plans to continue doing so.  He is easily the most powerful DL in terms of sheer military potency.  Every powerful war machine in the Book of Ebony and Bone belongs to him.  In the Autochthonians his stats make him into a monster so impossible to defeat that I wouldn't try to fight him with a full circle of VERY experienced PC Solars.  His army is 750,000 strong and apparently a little under a million during the Locust Crusade.  He is the greatest tactician that we know of in canon and possesses charms and spells capable of turning entire armies to mincemeat in short order.


So no, I don't think that Nephs DL is twinkish in comparison.  I agree that he is utterly unapproachable, which makes him effectively worthless (Although he does have 5 Abyssal servants, making him a possibly useful hands-off Liege for a starting circle).  Frankly, I don't think any of the DLs are twinky.  The FFL is overused, but not really twinky.  He's a First Age Solars ghost given additional power and backing by the dead primordials.  Not only that, but he's been around since the end of the First Age (Or thereabouts).  So he's an experienced First Age Solars ghost empowered by Malfean power.  Talk about a badass.
 
riven5 said:
Contrary to the First and Forsaken Lion, who is simply an unstoppable force that DOES go out and conquer people and plans to continue doing so.  He is easily the most powerful DL in terms of sheer military potency.  Every powerful war machine in the Book of Ebony and Bone belongs to him.  In the Autochthonians his stats make him into a monster so impossible to defeat that I wouldn't try to fight him with a full circle of VERY experienced PC Solars.  His army is 750,000 strong and apparently a little under a million during the Locust Crusade.  He is the greatest tactician that we know of in canon and possesses charms and spells capable of turning entire armies to mincemeat in short order.
So no, I don't think that Nephs DL is twinkish in comparison.  I agree that he is utterly unapproachable, which makes him effectively worthless (Although he does have 5 Abyssal servants, making him a possibly useful hands-off Liege for a starting circle).  Frankly, I don't think any of the DLs are twinky.  The FFL is overused, but not really twinky.  He's a First Age Solars ghost given additional power and backing by the dead primordials.  Not only that, but he's been around since the end of the First Age (Or thereabouts).  So he's an experienced First Age Solars ghost empowered by Malfean power.  Talk about a badass.
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I think we have different definitions of twinky, to be honest.   For me, the argument you are using is akin to this metaphor.


Say you are speeding down the road doing I dont know 80 in a 65.  When the police officer pulls you over, using the excuse, "well this other guy was doing 260 mph and he doesnt have a ticket," does not absolve you of the fact that you are still doing 80 in a 65.


I just happen to see Nephs character as doing 80, while in your example FFL would be doing 260.  They are still twinky.  Its all a matter of shades of twink, I guess.


Andrew:


I am sorry I cant debate with you about the Demons in GoD, as I only have the 5 main core books on the Exalts and the Players and the 2 Sorc books and the Dawn and Eclipse Splats.  Budget broke for the rest.  I will have to take your word about what you bring up, but I must still go back to my point with Riven5... just because something else is more twinky, doesnt absolve the first thing of being twinky.


But hey, I could have an excessive definition of twinky.


Nevertheless, I still find Nephs characters to be terribly monotous, formulaic, and dare I say it, twinky.
 
You level the accusation in such a fashion as to attribute what you perceive as twinkiness to be unique to Neph's work. It is not. The characteristics you find fault with Neph for are present within the entire line, not simply his works. Examine the characters in Castebook Dawn. Formula abounds. Examine Sidereals, who have perfect effects as 1st tier charms and have effects that allow no defense while Command Voice, an Essence 4 Solar charm, permits a willpower check to Essence 1 mortals, the only applicable targets.


Your point has a small amount of merit but makes a very grave error. It assumes that degree does not matter. There is a reason I can drive 95 or 100 kilometers per hour in a 90 zone and not be stopped by a member of the RCMP, while it is almost certain an individual travelling 180 kilometers per hour would be pursued and penalized. That I travel 95 or 100 kilometers per hour in a 90 zone is a mild infraction that poses no danger in fair road conditions. 180 kilometers per hour is a dangerous speed in any road condition. I am not familiar enough with miles to speak accurately to your metaphor, but 260 mph is FUCKING DANGEROUS NO MATTER WHAT, while 80 mph is merely excessive but likely very common.
 
Andrew02 said:
You level the accusation in such a fashion as to attribute what you perceive as twinkiness to be unique to Neph's work. It is not.
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Ahh.  For that I am sorry.  I find Nephs end characters to be twinky.  This does not mean that I dont find anyone else to be twinky either.  I feel you are focusing in on something that is a minor detail of my point.


My point being, that typically, Nephs characters evil overlord characters, not his charms, are monotonous, isolated, angry, and twinky.  All of them.  They never change.  They seem to revolve around that fact.  The reason I am focusing so much on Neph, is that I do not find other writers evil overlord characters to be monotonous, isolated, angry and twinky all the time, while Nephs, usually are.  Especially in light of the fact that in this thread someone pointed out a homebrew work of his, and I found it to be typical of his other work.  You seem to think my whole point revolves around the twinkiness.  It doesnt.  Its merely one repeated attibute.  Hence, the reason for the focus.  (Sorry if it got monotonous).


Incidentally, 1 mile = 1.6km.     For my analogy, it is the equivalent of doing 130 in a  104km zone, for Nephs made up Deathlord.  While FFL is still doing  415km.  Argue about road conditions and the like all you want, but nevertheless, the police officer has the right to ticket you, for being over the speed limit, especially  if it 25 km over the speed limit.
 
Amazing, we go from talking of non canonical Deathlords to how much people hate Neph and using speed analogies...God, I love this site.   :D
 
How can the Pharoah be twinky? Surely you'd need to see his stats to judge whether he's overpowered.


Or are you saying that if you were to write stats for him, you'd feel obliged to make him twinky? How is this a problem that can't be easily solved by writing down different numbers?


All this talk of numbers confuses me. No numbers are given. The idea that some of the most powerful beings in the storyline could be considered overpowered confuses me. The idea that having absurdly powerful beings is a bad thing confuses me. I dont' see anything wrong with having characters so powerful as to be plot devices; it's entirely in-genre for the game (a fact that some gamers see as meaning the entire setting is "unbalanced").


Power level and balance are something that's entirely up to the gaming group. The ST scales the power of their cast to the demands of the storyline and the desires of the players. The only upper limit on the power scale of Exalted is the one you choose to enforce. Your problem with the power level of the Pharaoh (whatever that turns out to be, once stats appear) is entirely self-created.
 
BurningPalm said:
How can the Pharoah be twinky? Surely you'd need to see his stats to judge whether he's overpowered.
Or are you saying that if you were to write stats for him, you'd feel obliged to make him twinky? How is this a problem that can't be easily solved by writing down different numbers?


All this talk of numbers confuses me. No numbers are given. The idea that some of the most powerful beings in the storyline could be considered overpowered confuses me. The idea that having absurdly powerful beings is a bad thing confuses me. I dont' see anything wrong with having characters so powerful as to be plot devices; it's entirely in-genre for the game (a fact that some gamers see as meaning the entire setting is "unbalanced").


Power level and balance are something that's entirely up to the gaming group. The ST scales the power of their cast to the demands of the storyline and the desires of the players. The only upper limit on the power scale of Exalted is the one you choose to enforce. Your problem with the power level of the Pharaoh (whatever that turns out to be, once stats appear) is entirely self-created.
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Please reread my points, as my answer to you would be essentially the same as what I have posted earlier.
 
As the title states' date=' I was just curious if anyone had made any other non canonical Deathlords to complement our messed up friends presented in the Abyssals book. I was hoping some of you could enthrall us with stories of your own Deathlords and some good flavor text ^_^ [/quote']
Greetings all.  Long time Exalted gamer, first time posting.  


Below are pieces of a Deathlord I created as the liege for PCs in an Abyssal campaign I ran.  I liked that he starts a little behind the other Deathlords, giving the players a chance to shape the immediate setting as they grow before jumping into a game and feeling they have to affect all of creation from the start to draw their liege's notice.


Many points harmonize with a series of solar compaigns run by another ST, so I apologize something doesn't make sense, and I apologize in general for being verbose.  Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.  I will also submit this character to the proper forum, so if you're interested there should be a little more info there for STs.


“…a lost Deathlord will one day rise again and conquer the others, ushering in an even darker age of death under one evil gauntlet before Creation’s inevitable plunge into Oblivion.â€
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It would be nice seeing an anti-Underworld, pro-Creation Deathlord; one who has forsaken his masters and decided to work on favor of the living, seeing the mistake in his actions.


Maybe his actions would have to be sutile, or maybe he's waging full all out war against some of his peers. Or perhaps he's already been defeated (not dead though, since that's virtually impossible).


It is probably a cliche already, though, as it seems like kind of an obvious ideia for a DL.
 
Crimson Lady of Eternal Pain.


I'd go into more detail on her, but for the life of me I cant find any of my notes on her, all I can remember right now is that part of my idea for her came from the WoD Lilith and her Bahari followers. ie Pain = Wisdom, and what not.


As a side note: I think Neph's Pharoh is excellent and is no more "twinky than any other deathlord and thus shouldnt be critized, unless as part of a critism of the deathlords in general. thats just my two cents, so theres no two buts about it. :roll:
 
I introduced the Ghost of Aesha Ura as a Deathlord in my game, calling herself the Lady Veiled in Golden Finery, among other such grandiosehoods. Unique among the Deathlords she was the ghost of a Siderial and not a Solar; betrayed by the fate she put her trust in and seeing her golden proteges dying around here, she fell into the underworld weeping and screaming.


When the Neverborn made her their offer, she hesitated for many years, and travelled (in keeping with her previous caste) for hundreds of years, her morale and self-image being gradually eroded by the dullness of the underworld and her insight into the growing taint of the Deathlords there. Finally, she relented.


Based in the East*, she is partnered to another Deathlord, He Whose Artifice Reflects the Final Self, and between the two of them they are gathering a ridiculous sum of Soulsteel, preparing to lord it over the other Deathlords when the real war on Creation begins.


As to herself, she is largely an underdog in Deathlord affairs. Although she has Void Circle Necromancy, she has no deathknights of her own, borrowing from the Artificer when necessary; by an inner madness of her own, she cannot taint a Solar essence, and seeks Solar servants instead to act out her wishes in Creation and the Underworld alike. She steadily negotiates, inasmuch as it can be achieved with sleeping, mad gods, for permission to introduce her Solar pets (Which she yet has none of) to the Void Circle of Necromancy, and act which will surely require the rules-breaking of a dead Primordial**.


She rescued my party from Eye and Seven Despairs, whose lawn they tried to cut across to enter the Underworld, and she offered them gifts of Soulsteel, tutelage and power. They said they'd have to come back after breaking the curse put upon them by the Eye, and unable to truly force the hand of a Solar, she had to let them go with best wishes and some Soulsteel weapons.


They never came back.


As to the Artificer? On their way to the Lady, they got a lovely tour of his massive Soulsteel mine, and he revealed to them that each vein of Soulsteel in the Underworld corresponds to a vein of Orichalchum in creation, suggesting that they help themselves. He never revealed he was a Deathlord, but conclusions were drawn, and everyone was on their best behaviour during the trip. According to the terms of his alliance with the Lady, he sent them on their way unmolested.


I had the most fun with the Eye. One of my players wanted to learn Necromancy, and sensing this he decided to teach her without asking. First lesson? You lose all your willpower in my dungeons, and I remove your lower soul and eat it. You can't regain willpower through sleep. Second lesson, a few weeks later when she's a willpowerless husk? Death is power. Have an abyssal charm that lets you harvest willpower through murder.


She never did finish her tutelage... although she still has that charm. :D


*I'd love to have based her in the West, because the west is missing the Deathlord love, but I have an eastern game, mostly.


**Look at Dukantha for some solid proof that rules can be broken. A Dragonblood with Solar Sorcery.
 
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