I’m creating a villain for a campaign, but am having trouble determining whether it would be classified as an Outer God or a Great Old One. Here’s a summary of him/it:
The Crimson King: a malevolent, extradimensional entity from a realm where individuality (in terms of both thought and physical form) is a foreign concept; where everything exists as a singular, cohesive unit.
Due to a cataclysmic event of cosmic proportions, a small portion of said reality was severed from the whole and flung into the material plane. Upon crash landing into Faerun (as most extra-planar entities do), it quickly grew disgusted with the seemingly-inherent chaos of this new world, which it viewed as an affront to reality itself.
Essentially a living fragment of a realm beyond mortal comprehension, His Majesty’s goal is to “liberate” the material plane (as well as all planes connected to it) from the “horrors of independence” by assimilating everyone and everything into itself, thereby creating a realm of uniform order; its own Crimson Kingdom.
In the material plane, the Crimson King takes the form of an antlered figure made out of pure darkness shrouded in a red, hooded cloak. The cloak itself is near-liquid in nature, “pooling” at His Majesty’s “feet”, and has been known to “spread”.
So what’s the verdict? Outer God, Great Old One, or something else entirely?
Supposedly, Outer Gods are far more powerful and operate on a cosmic scope. The original dimension reads like the King was the whole dimension.
That's just how I interpret it anyway.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Creatures that become entities that aren't quite deities are often classified as Vestiges, like Karsus (from Karsus's Follly/Avatar) Kas and Primus can also be classified as Vestiges at certain parts of the cosmic timeline.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
The Crimson King seems like a character halfway between the King in Yellow and Jubilex, and while in seems an unlikely combination, I'd say it has the makings of a Great Old One. For the general rule going forward, I'd say the following:
An Outer God is completely alien, with a pretty horrific but standard form. While Great Old Ones can and often do have the big blob of tentacles look, there is one hard and fast rule with outer gods: They either have unknown and seemingly nonexistent motives, motives directly in line with serving Azathoth, or motives that are nothing more than primal urges. However, Great Old Ones have specific personalities, motives based around conquering and destruction, and are defeatable in some capacity. Therefore, your case is undoubtably a Great Old One
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I’m creating a villain for a campaign, but am having trouble determining whether it would be classified as an Outer God or a Great Old One. Here’s a summary of him/it:
The Crimson King: a malevolent, extradimensional entity from a realm where individuality (in terms of both thought and physical form) is a foreign concept; where everything exists as a singular, cohesive unit.
Due to a cataclysmic event of cosmic proportions, a small portion of said reality was severed from the whole and flung into the material plane. Upon crash landing into Faerun (as most extra-planar entities do), it quickly grew disgusted with the seemingly-inherent chaos of this new world, which it viewed as an affront to reality itself.
Essentially a living fragment of a realm beyond mortal comprehension, His Majesty’s goal is to “liberate” the material plane (as well as all planes connected to it) from the “horrors of independence” by assimilating everyone and everything into itself, thereby creating a realm of uniform order; its own Crimson Kingdom.
In the material plane, the Crimson King takes the form of an antlered figure made out of pure darkness shrouded in a red, hooded cloak. The cloak itself is near-liquid in nature, “pooling” at His Majesty’s “feet”, and has been known to “spread”.
So what’s the verdict? Outer God, Great Old One, or something else entirely?
The fragment? Great Old One.
The original entity? Outer God.
Supposedly, Outer Gods are far more powerful and operate on a cosmic scope. The original dimension reads like the King was the whole dimension.
That's just how I interpret it anyway.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Creatures that become entities that aren't quite deities are often classified as Vestiges, like Karsus (from Karsus's Follly/Avatar) Kas and Primus can also be classified as Vestiges at certain parts of the cosmic timeline.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
The Crimson King seems like a character halfway between the King in Yellow and Jubilex, and while in seems an unlikely combination, I'd say it has the makings of a Great Old One. For the general rule going forward, I'd say the following:
An Outer God is completely alien, with a pretty horrific but standard form. While Great Old Ones can and often do have the big blob of tentacles look, there is one hard and fast rule with outer gods: They either have unknown and seemingly nonexistent motives, motives directly in line with serving Azathoth, or motives that are nothing more than primal urges. However, Great Old Ones have specific personalities, motives based around conquering and destruction, and are defeatable in some capacity. Therefore, your case is undoubtably a Great Old One