Sealed Knowledge: Immune to being Divined, Scryed, or magically located unless using an artifact or relic tied to his imprisonment.
Voice of the Forgotten (Charm or Frighten): His presence causes mortals to remember their deepest betrayals, their fears of abandonment. Target must succeed on a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw or fall under one of these effects for 1 minute.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day) If Carsideth fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead.
Divine Unbinding (Mythic Trait): Upon reaching 0 HP, Carsideth's sealed power erupts. He sheds his physical body, transforming into his Starborn Ascendant form, a celestial wyrm of raw radiant entropy. All debuffs are removed. He regains all legendary actions and gains access to his Mythic Actions. The environment around him becomes a swirling, gravity-defying starlit void.
Bite (Melee Weapon Attack): +17 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 7d10 piercing damage + 1d20 radiant damage.
Claw (Melee Weapon Attack): +17 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 6d10 slashing damage.
Tail (Melee Weapon Attack): +17 to hit, sweep 20 ft., multiple targets. Hit: 6d8 bludgeoning damage.
Wing (Melee Weapon Attack): +17 to hit, sweep 30 ft., multiple targets. Hit: 6d12 bludgeoning damage.
Carsideth can take up to 6 legendary actions per day, choosing from the following:
Divine Echo (Legendary Action) (1/day): Carsideth can mimic a divine intervention. This might involve reversing time in a small radius, halting gravity, or invoking a fragment of creation itself.
Void Step (Legendary Action): Teleport up to 120 ft. to an unoccupied space. Does not provoke opportunity attacks.
Rebuke of the Betrayed (Legendary Action): When struck by divine magic or radiant damage, Carsideth retaliates with a shockwave of force and necrotic energy in an 80 ft. dome. All creatures within this radius must make a DC 26 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature takes 4d10 force damage + 2d12 necrotic damage. On a success, the damage is halved.
Starflame Slash (Costs 2). Make a wing or tail attack. If it hits, deal an additional 6d8 radiant damage.
Gravity Reversal (Mythic Action) (Recharge DC: 5): Each creature within 120 ft. must succeed a DC 23 Strength saving throw or be flung upward 100 ft. for the duration of 1 round. If they are unable to find a way to the ground safely by the time the round is over, they fall, taking 10d10 force damage, and falling prone.
Ascendant Breath (Mythic Action) (Recharge DC: 5): Carsideth unleashes a focused beam of astral entropy in a 300-foot long, 10-foot wide line. Each creature in the area must make a DC 25 Dexterity saving throw or take 20d10 radiant damage + 10d10 force damage. If the creature's HP is 0, they are disintegrated.
Unshackled Mind (Mythic Action) (Recharge DC: 6) The Starborn Ascendant targets 1 creature it can see within 60 feet, overwhelming them with traumatic memories, real and fake. That creature must make a DC 23 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it takes 10d10 psychic damage and loses access to all class features until the end of its next turn (yes, that includes spellcasting, sneak attack, etc.). This action requires one full round of concentration on the creature from the Starborn Ascendant. After that, it can remove concentration and the effect lasts for 3 rounds. On a success, it takes half damage and no further effects.
Description
In the early eons of the universe, when Cathos, God of Creation, and Prothos, God of Order, were still young in their godhood, found themselves growing troubled. Their creations began to span lightyears across, and it was harder to be everywhere simultaneously. Life was evolving, civilizations were expanding, and they began to clash, alongside the growth. Violence was fresh in the universe, but it quickly became a widespread issue known to Cathos and Prothos. Prothos was assigned the task of creating a protector. A lifeform that could stand as a bulwark to safeguard the universe, and from divine intent and celestial flame, Carsideth was forged — the First Protector. The first days he spent walking alongside Prothos served as his calibration. A thorough indoctrination against war. He was soon released into the universe, using his mighty stature and intimidating presence to end wars across the realm. He was seen as an omen of peace everywhere he went, ending the pain and destruction of war, and at the same time, he slowly began to pick up the tactics he would witness. As years turned into decades, his work was never finished. He began to tire, exhaustion slowly setting in as he traveled from world to world, spreading peace in the name of his creators, desperate to please them. The day of the massacre, he began his course to another world, early to the fighting. As he approached the battle, already exhausted, a seed was planted in his mind. For the first time, Carsideth found himself resenting his creators. Although he wielded godlike powers and a growing number of followers, which had already begun to surpass some of the Gods, he was merely an asset to them. As his mighty claws pierced the ground and the earth shook beneath him as he landed, the opposing armies ceased their charge immediately. He turned his head to either side, simply doing his work as he pondered this, when suddenly his head was thrown back. For the first time, soldiers from one side had fired upon him. A commander shouted in a foreign language, and another boulder was hurled from its catapult, nearly hitting him again. Arrows began to fly as the battle continued onward, with Carsideth stuck in the middle of it. As puny swords and mortals swung at his limbs to no avail, Carsideth snapped out of his shock, staring questioningly at the sight before him. In mere moments, their yells turned to screams. Soldiers turning to bodies, war machines burning to ash. It wasn't long before Carsideth was soaring away from the now singed field, indifferent to his actions. Quite quickly, the Gods caught wind of what had happened from [God Name]. One of his favorite planets burned to ash by Carsideth, their so-called protector. Chaos fell over the pantheon as they scrambled to find Carsideth, quick to blame Prothos. He flew without intention to stop, a new feeling invigorating him as he continued his quest, now not for peace, but for justice. Cathos finally caught up to him when a particularly wartorn planet was laid to waste, not a single life spared from the "judgement" Carsideth had served. After a brief battle, Cathos had drained the celestial energy from Carsideth and banished him to the Void Beyond Ashes. A demi-plane stitched together by the forgotten screams, scorched soil, and trampled prayers Carsideth had left in his wake. In that bleak dimension, time forgot its meaning. Light had no dominion. It was a graveyard of justice. As wars began to sprout again throughout the realm, the Gods took no action, believing it to be within the nature of mortals and unstoppable. Temples in his name began to crumble, the Gods taking it upon themselves to scrub his name and actions from historical and religious archives, reveling in the victory against the being now only known in remnants as "The Forgotten One". However, for Carsideth, a new kind of torment awaited him. He wandered for eons, searching for a means to escape the plane but finding nothing as his search continued. Endless black expanse covered in the ashes of the battles he brought his false justice to surrounded him for millennia, or what felt like it to him, as he meandered forward. His brilliant white and gold scales began to fade with time, slowly blending themselves into the endless abyss. Eventually, his legs gave out, exhaustion taking over as his eyelids slowly closed, and he fell into a deep slumber. When he awoke to the same nothingness, he cried out, "Why? Why have you forsaken me, my creators? I did as you asked for millennia, I served as your protector until I could no longer! You stand not for justice. You are tyrants! You create over and over again, but fail to see your flaws and allow your empire to grow out of your reach! I was the only one who could prevent this. I AM the only one who can prevent this." his cries turned to the abyss. "If there is any force that exists out there! Give me my chance! Allow me to return to the material plane, and I will bring a new era of justice and peace to this flawed realm! The reign of the Gods will exist no longer! Justice will exist through I, Carsideth, only!" As his rage echoed through the vast expanse, the void answered back. Suddenly, a bright golden light appeared over the horizon. Carsideth forced himself to his feet, refusing to let the sight appear to him in vain. As he pushed himself forward, he was sure some divine force beyond that of the Gods had chosen him as its champion to dethrone the reign of the Gods, and as the figure inched closer and closer in his vision, Carsideth stopped in his tracks, realizing what it was. There, before him, lay an apparition of Cathos. A physical manifestation that had somehow found its way into the Void Beyond Ashes. "What is that?" he thought to himself. "Surely it cannot be.." he stepped closer and noticed a steady stream of golden light flowing its way to the surface of the black crystal beneath his feet. As his claw, beaten and raw from the journey, embraced the light, he felt a rush of his former strength surge through him as the energy of Cathos began to siphon into him. As the light poured into him, Carsideth's battered soul embraced the warmth, fully realizing that this was no illusion. The energy surging through his veins was real, a divine current of Cathos's power, pure and golden, that ebbed from what was before him. A living fragment of his creator, serving as a gateway to the raw celestial power of his creator, which had somehow slipped through the cracks of reality and fallen into the Void Beyond Ashes. The light flowed into his body, his broken and faded scales developing into the sight of a beautiful night sky, and so Carsideth laughed, teetering the stability of the Void Beyond Ashes. He laughed not out of joy, but of the realization that soon, a new era would be upon the material plane. The era of justice, where he could serve as judge, jury, and executioner, but most importantly, the era without Gods.
Lair and Lair Actions
The Voidtouched Sanctum:
Looking up at the sky reveals a complex and dazzling network of what appear to be cracks in the sky, each small fragment of what lies beyond showcases brilliant displays of stars and forgotten planes. The ground is made of an extremely transparent blackened crystal. Smoldering ash is scattered around, most of it remnants of the primordial realm he once protected. Among the ash also lie remains of his name from that time. Statues of the mighty protector that once stood on the opposite side of chaos than where he does now. Time feels extremely distorted, seconds feel like hours, minutes seem like days, yet hours can feel as though they've vanished in the blink of an eye. Ahead of you lies a towering obsidian-like cathedral, with what appears to be a glowing figure underneath it, buried deep in the crystal ground.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20, Carsiderth takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects (Carsiderth can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row):
- Gravity Collapse: The battlefield trembles. All creatures must succeed on a DC 22 Dexterity save or be knocked prone and pulled 30 ft. toward the center of the battlefield. Structures crack and terrain reshapes.
- Fractured Reality: Choose a creature. It must make a DC 19 Wisdom saving throw or be banished for 1 round to a memory of Carsideth’s past — they witness the betrayal and return stunned.
Regional Effects
Due to The Voidtouched Sanctum being within the Void Beyond Ashes, even the air is surging with entropy. To inexperienced casters within the plane, magic is unpredictable, causing one or more of the following effects:
- Reality Warps: Spells act erratically (roll on wild magic surge table at DM discretion).
- Gravity Surges: Gravity shifts randomly, pulling sideways or upward for a few seconds.
If Carsiderth dies, these effects do not fade. Only leaving the plane from the way you entered will cease the effects.
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