Star Spawn and The Elder Evils In 'Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'

Todd Kenreck: The Elder Evils are dark entities that live on the outskirts of the D&D multiverse and their servants are the Star Spawn. Tell me a little bit about the history of Star Spawn and what people can expect in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes?

Jeremy Crawford: So Star Spawn return to D&D in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and for someone who isn't familiar with them, the way we talk about them is that they are the servants of these beings we call the Elder Evils.

The Elder Evils are a mysterious group of entities that hail from different places in the D&D multiverse. Some of them are associated with that mysterious place called The Far Realm Beyond the Great Wheel. Others are associated with places like the Abyss, the Shadow Fell and other dark places of the multiverse.

What the Elder Evils all have in common is their horrific, their evil and also as implied by the name, they are very ancient. Possibly older than time itself and they are sort of these Lovecraftian beings that exist outside of regular space and time and the Star Spawn are their heralds. They are their servants and the cultists and warlocks who bind themselves to the Elder Evils will often be visited by Star Spawn and know that the Elder Evil that are connected to, is being to exert influence on a place in the world because of the presence of various Star Spawn.

So in the books Bestiary we provide you with the stats for different Star Spawn from very lessor ones all the way up to a Star Spawn Lava Mage or a Star Spawn Seer. Lava Mage is this horrific sort of you know spellcastry cloak and robe, but inside it is just feel with squirming worm-like creatures. A Star Spawn Seer is this powerful other worldly entity that has actually taken possession of a high ranking cultist or someone else who has offered themselves up to an Elder Evil and they begin to be transformed from the inside out into this magic wielding servant of one of these ancient powers.

In the book, in addition to giving you the stats for these strange creatures from beyond the stars that can appear in service to one of these beings, we also give you a little bit more information about different Elder Evils who have appeared in D&D's history and then we also provide some special abilities that members of their cults might have. Now this is echoing something we did earlier in the book by giving you special abilities for members of diabolical cults, as well as members of demonic cults, so the bestiary section of the book now we also give you these cult abilities for people who are devoted followers of the Elder Evils and we give suggestions for if a cultist is you know a follower of Elder Evil X, then here's ability Y for them. Some special, often magical ability that they can wield because of a dark bargain they have made within Elder Evil or because they have been warped by magic associated with that being. There are a variety of ways a dungeon master could incorporate this material into a campaign. Probably most of it associated with slime and various eldritch horrors that would drive people insane.

One of the themes of all of the Star Spawn is they're alien. They're horrific. They sort of worm their way literally and figuratively into various communities and in concert with a cult, sort of rot the community from the inside out. Certainly the kind of thing most adventurers are going to want to hunt down and free the world from.

 

 

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