Xefas
2014-01-13, 10:46 PM
Related Threads
This is intended as supplementary material for "Mythos" classes, three of which are listed below.
The Olethrofex (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16517470)
The Teramach (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=286983)
The Kathodos (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15947087)
http://i.imgur.com/14noJuo.png
"The truth is unattainable. It will always be shrouded in fog. Though you reach through the murk and the gloom to grasp something, you have no means to know it is the truth. ...In which case, why? What sense is there in yearning for truth? Close your eyes. Lie to yourself. Live in blissful ignorance. It is a much smarter way to exist." ~Teddie, Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4
The Mythic Vestige
In the beginning, there was only that inchoate non-place of the Far Realm, brimming with its sideways non-binary dysexistence and spatially incomprehensible design. To say that it continued infinitely in this manner would be to erroneously apply conceptions of time to the Beyond, but for simplicity of understanding, let it be known that an event did occur, the first true noun, and verb, and ideas that mortals can apply their words to, which stood starkly in the madness, and separated the expanse, if only for a moment. A dysexistent pseudo-thing declared to all, with a thought, "I am.", and the concept of existence tore through the impossibility of the Far Realm, gutting a tumultuous wound that churned with chaotic pools fetid with thought and form.
The horrors of the Beyond took notice, and sought to reclaim the wound for their own, but the First stood in defiance, fighting them off by constructing concepts for which they had no basis to act upon. It acted to occupy space; space enough to cover the whole of the wound, and with this comparison, the wound multiplied infinitely in size to also occupy space. It acted to continue its existence, running forward and backward through the entire timeline of everything that it was, and is, and could be, and the wound grew infinitely again such that it always had been, and stretched to the end of all things. Then, it took the concept of being, the thought "I am." and extruded them as a second part of its existence, creating the first soul, an ember to light the wound, and a vessel through which the First could know itself.
As the residents of the Far Realm nipped violently at the burgeoning world, the First was without purpose, merely enduring, knowing nothing, and feeling nothing. Not until the cosmic blood roiling in the primordial soup of its home gave rise to more things, beings who were drawn by the pure white light of the First's soul, and the soul taught them to be permanent, and to declare that they were. It was by their existence that the First was named - they called it "Empyrean", and it was their Emperor, and its soul, their Mother.
Through the Empyrean's soul, the new creatures communicated to one another, and their communications existed, and filled the cosmic wound, stretching it even further with countless ideas and stories. This incensed the horrors of the Beyond, and they came crashing down upon the world. The new things supplicated themselves before their Emperor, and defined her as that which would protect them. She extruded this definition as a second soul, a second ember, of green light, and the emerald fire that their Father unleashed scarred the wound such that it could never be undone, and seared all those pseudo-things foolish enough to trespass.
So it was that the Titans had a home, in their terrible, unstable, non-linear maelstrom of stories and concepts. Each, in their own time, came to name themselves - Union, Mutation, Monster, Maker, Shadow, and more - and define themselves further, extruding countless souls to further be. Their King and Queen, Mother and Father, their Emperor, their Empyrean, reigned for endless epochs until the First Day and the coming of the Gods. They usurped the Titans, tore down the maelstrom, and built up the Great Wheel to fill its place, using the cosmic wound as the foundation for their empire, but ignorant of its true nature.
It was not until the time of the Gods' glory that those creatures known as Vestiges came to be. Lost or exiled, they found their way to the scarred lip of existence, not Beyond, but not quite existent; the Betwixt, a cyclopean selenite mezzanine overlooking the infinitely distant twinkling lights of the world to one side and below, and the terrifying eldritch madness of the Far Realm on the other and above. Here, the Vestiges languish for time beyond time, starving for the slightest sensation but unable to be fed.
However, it is possible, however infinitesimally, that a Vestige with the proper tools could escape. The Titans before them were able to use their legends to migrate from the Far Realm to some place Other. So, why could not a Vestige, equipped with a similar Mythos, do the same? They could - though few things are rarer that can still be said to have occurred at all.
New Feat: Trespassing The Outer Gates
Prerequisite: One Mythos, Must have become a Vestige
Benefit: While standing on the translucent vault of the Betwixt, your legend unravels and becomes a vessel by which you find your way plummeting back down towards the Great Wheel, streaking through the Outer Planes, the Astral, the Inner Planes, the Ethereal, and down into the mortal realm as an auspicious comet.
Though Binders (and other soul binding practitioners) may still call you and bind you, you now have greater control of your will. When you are called, the image that appears for the Binder is fully aware, and you may view the surrounding area and communicate with creatures there as if you truly stood before them. The image called is still an image, though, and cannot physically act, nor does it inconvenience your 'true' body to hold these interactions. Furthermore, a binding check is no longer used to gauge your cooperation. You may outright refuse to be bound, if you wish, and you may choose whether to make a 'good' or a 'poor' pact, at your whim. Once you are bound, you no longer have any say about how your granted powers are used (aside from your Influence, if any), or for how long you remain bound, though you may see and hear through anyone that is binding you at the moment, as well as you could if you were there. Being soul-bound does not inconvenience your 'true' body, no matter how many characters have you bound at a time. If a character attempts to use powers that you have granted them through soul binding in a way that is directly hostile towards you, they always fail to harm or inconvenience you in any way. If you have soul binding abilities, you may not bind yourself.
If you develop as a character to the point where your statistics as a Vestige no longer accurately represent you, they will change to accommodate your new self (potentially even increasing or decreasing in level).
When you die, you return to the Betwixt rather than going to any particular afterlife. However, you may still be returned to life as a normal character could be. Note that you no longer have a soul in the traditional sense, and non-resurrective spells and other effects that rely on a soul to be effective (such as Trap the Soul) fail against you.
Choose one Mythos-granting class that you have levels in. You may treat the following Mythos as if they belonged to that class.
Exceptional Mythos
Hollow Mind Redoubt
Prerequisite: -
You gain Iron Will and Live My Nightmare as a bonus feats (UA). The saving throw DC of that feat is calculated as if it were a Mythos possessed by your class, rather than its listed calculation.
When you succeed on a Will saving throw against a source that has an effect even on a successful save, negate the effect entirely. When you are subject to a mind-affecting effect that does not allow a saving throw, you may make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the user's character level + the user's Wisdom modifier) to negate the effect. When you succeed on a saving throw against a mind-affecting effect, the user is confused until the end of their next turn.
The above effects do not function against other Vestiges, pseudonatural creatures, or residents of the Far Realm. (Although they still function against creatures bound to Vestiges.)
Many-Faced Heretic Spirit Convocation
Prerequisite: -
The bonus you grant to characters that have you bound to them via an Aid Another action is increased by 1. If you flank with a character that has you bound to them, both of you increase the bonus on attack rolls from flanking by 1.
While you are within 100ft of a character that has you bound to them, you may communicate telepathically with each other, you are precisely aware of their exact location (but they only know that you are within 100ft and cannot pinpoint you), and you both gain Fast Healing 1.
If you are able to act in a surprise round, you may also allow characters within 100ft that have you bound to them to also act in the surprise round, even if they normally wouldn't. If a character within 100ft of you that has you bound to them acts in a surprise round, you do as well (they cannot choose to not allow you to).
Advanced
Guttering Essence Transfusion: You may perform First Aid via the Heal skill as a swift action with a +5 circumstance bonus, provided the target has you bound to them. Characters that have you bound to them likewise improve their First Aid skills when using them on you.
Nyarlathotep Is My Spirit Animal: While you are riding a mount that has you bound to them, you need not make Ride checks for the Guide With Knees, Stay In Saddle, or Fight With Warhorse uses of that skill. Characters that have you bound to them likewise improve their riding skills while using you as a mount.
Unity Of Vision: If you and one or more characters, all of which are bound to you, cooperate on a use of the Craft skill to create an item or a use of the Perform skill to make money from public performances, the character making the check recieves an additional +2 bonus per other character using Aid Another to help them.
Peeling Back This Worldly Facade
Prerequisite: -
As a full-round action, you may transfigure yourself into a hideous form, tainted by the presence of the Far Realm which lurks so close to your new home. There is no uniformity to the shapes that this Mythos spawns, but words like "squamous", "be-tentacled", and "hundred-mouthed" are typically associated with them.
In this form, your type becomes Outsider (Extraplanar) if it was not already (your home plane is the Betwixt), and you gain Damage Reduction X/Magic where X is equal to your class level.
A creature that begins its turn able to see you in your transformed state must make a Will save or become Shaken until they are able to spend 5 minutes performing no actions other than vacantly sobbing and cradling themselves. If they choose, they may commit to averting their eyes from you until the beginning of their next turn, granting you concealment against them, but giving them a 50% chance to not have to make a saving throw at all. Or, they may close their eyes entirely, rendering them effectively blind until the beginning of their next turn, but releasing them from needing to make a saving throw for the round. This ability cannot progress the Shaken condition into Frightened or Panicked.
When a creature succeeds on a Knowledge (The Planes) check to discern information about your alien form, or to attain a bonus against you (such as via the Knowledge Devotion feat, or the Archivist's Dark Knowledge class feature), they must make a Will save or be confused for 1 round.
Touch of Alien Insight
Prerequisite: -
You may deliver a portion of your vestigial essence as a touch attack. On a successful attack, the target must make a Will save or be confused for 1 round. Multiple applications of this Mythos stack the duration if prior durations have not yet expired.
At your whim, a target that fails their saving throw may also have their mind opened to the scarred shores beyond the Wheel. They permanently gain the Bind Vestige feat as a bonus feat (ToM), and a +2 circumstance bonus on all Knowledge checks pertaining to Vestiges or the Betwixt. (You may even apply this benefit to yourself, if you wish to.)
Advanced
Mind-Effacing Truth Imposition: Your touch of alien insight also deals 1d6 damage on a successful hit, and an additional 1d6 damage if the Will save is failed.
Thorns of Broken Brilliance: You may project your touch of alien insight as a ranged touch attack, with a range of 20ft and five range increments. This appears as an odd, jagged spacial distortion.
Fantastic Mythos
Gift of the Outer Fayth
Prerequisite: One Other Mythos granted by the "Trespassing the Outer Gates" feat
As a full-round action, you may touch a willing creature and bless them with a portion of your power. You become instantly bound to them, granting them your full suite of Vestige powers. However, they are automatically considered to have made a poor pact, and they may only sustain these powers if they are capable of binding a Vestige of your level, or if their character level is at least twice your Vestige level. They need not meet the special requirements associated with your Vestige statistics. These powers last for 24 hours, and you may have a number of creatures blessed with this Mythos at one time equal to (9 - your vestige level). Being bound to you in this way does not count towards the maximum number of Vestiges a soul binder may have bound to them at a single time.
You can tell if a creature blessed this way is suffering a penalty from defying your Vestige Influence just by looking at them. As a free action, you may forgive these sins against you, prematurely removing this penalty from them.
Polyhedral Vestige Abnormality
Prerequisite: One Other Mythos granted by the "Trespassing the Outer Gates" feat, the ability to bind Vestiges.
As a full-round action, you gesture to a solid surface within 5ft of you, and (1d4 + 1d4 per six class levels) miniature versions of your own Vestige seal appear there. From each seal, an image like the one that appears when a Binder summons you is drawn forth. These images cluster around you, shifting and moving, completely indistinguishable from you or one another, always remaining within 5ft of another image. The images act realistically, and in unison with you, appearing to attack when you do, appearing to drink a potion when you do, appearing to be caught in an Entangle spell if you are, and so on. Unlike a normal image summoned by a Binder, they may leave the confines of the seal that created them in order to follow you.
When something targets you, it must choose which of you to target; roll randomly to determine whether they guess correctly and target you or guess incorrectly and target a fake. Images are destroyed when they would take 1 hit point of damage, automatically fail saving throws, but are otherwise unaffected by any other debilitation.
The images supply auditory components, so even blind characters are fooled. However, they do not have olfactory components; creatures with the Scent special quality can detect if a version of you is fake or real if they are within 5ft of it.
These images remain as long as they normally would when called by a Binder; 1 minute. During this time, you may not activate this Mythos again.
Advanced
Seventh-Sense Fooling Eldritch Mirage: Your images now seem real to all senses, including scent, taste, touch, blindsight, blindsense, tremorsense, and the more exotic sensory perceptions of those cthulhuoid horrors of the Far Realm.
Rapid Illusory Redeployment Technique: When it is not your turn, your threatened area extends to all spaces adjacent to and inside of your images.
Legendary Mythos
Space-Folding Anomaly
Prerequisite: Two Other Mythos granted by the "Trespassing the Outer Gates" feat.
Your body has become so invested with vestigial energy that it passively distorts the world around it. This provides you a continual 20% concealment, as space folds in constant flux around your person. Furthermore, you may passively float up to a foot above any solid or liquid matter without disturbing the surface. While falling, you may choose to slow your fall to a mere 60ft per round (slow enough to prevent fall damage).
Finally, you may focus on distorting space as a move action, teleporting up to (1/3, rounded up to the nearest 5ft increment) your base land speed without touching the intervening matter. This is not a [Teleportation] effect, as it relies on your body's unique relationship with the physics of the Great Wheel, and not magic. You may take up to one item per item slot on your person, plus a light load.
http://i.imgur.com/owNrGGQ.png
New Vestige: The Demon Dancing In The Moon
When questioned by those that call to him, the Demon Dancing In The Moon is more than happy to share a few gruesome tales of his mortal life as an unstoppable monster, an elite warrior of the Reth Dekala, mercenary princes in their day, elevated to greatness on a mountain of bloody gold and corpses. To some rare few, he will even speak of his last moments - when the champions of the Gods of Law came to destroy his people, to take from them the freedom that life provided, for the Reth's hubris in disturbing their precious status quo.
The bodies of the men and women he had known and loved all his life were falling around him, and a gate had been opened, through which nothing could be seen but avenues of basalt and brass towers that stretched onward forever. But he wouldn't be going through it. He didn't begrudge those of his fellows that did - in that moment, notions of respect or shame were beyond him. And so it was that when his kin fled behind him, thanking him for his sacrifice as he stood stalwartly against the advancing crusade, creating an opening for retreat, the significance was lost to his mind. No, the only knowledge that had penetrated his skull was that the axiomatic horde before him was the opportunity for the greatest carnage that life had ever served him. The Monster that had devoured him, and he, it, would abide no negligence in this regard.
As chasms of hellfire and heaven's rain of burning sulfur ignited the land and the sky all around him, he gave himself to the Untamed Apocalypse, and all bonds of family, all yearning for knowledge, motivations of perfection, all thoughts were quenched from him, and he swept across the legion of gold and black as a tide of death. Even as his arms were torn from him, his eyes put out, his jaw cleaved off, his ribs cracked, he continued to fight, and it was only through the price of thousands of lives that he finally fell.
But, as the valkyries came to abduct his soul, to carry it off to the afterlife where it could be tortured for its sins against mankind and the Gods themselves, they found something else. Without anything to feed the Monster's narrative, The Demon Dancing In The Moon had allowed it to burn out his own soul as payment, and in doing so, left nothing but rage behind, imprinted with errant thoughts and memories. For fear of what mischief such a thing could cause, the Lawgivers took the terrible rage-shadow, and exiled it beyond the Multiverse. But not as thoroughly as they might've hoped.
Special Requirement: The Demon Dancing In The Moon can only be called forth and bound while moonlight touches his seal.
Manifestation: The moonlight strewn across the seal intensifies, becoming brighter and brighter, until it ignites in seething blue-white fire. Admist the crackling of the flames, a guttural howl builds and, at its zenith, the seal cracks at its center as a dark silhouette erupts from the ground. Though its body is an insubstantial humanoid cloud of billowing shadows, its face is visible, human-like, but twisted, with feral yellow eyes and too many sharpened teeth. Its voice is curt, but even, with a confidence that does not match the bestial twitches, writhing arms, and slavering jaws of its form.
Sign: The whites of your eyes become a bright yellow, and a cross-shaped scar appears somewhere on your face.
Influence: The Demon Dancing In The Moon insists that you honor his rabid temper. If a creatures intentionally attempts to physically harm you (even something as innocent as the indignant slap of an insulted lover), you must, at the very least, beat them to within an inch of their life (into negative hit points).
Granted Abilities: While bound to The Demon Dancing In The Moon, you are invested with a portion of his legendary rage.
Building Rage: At the end of a round in which you took damage to your hit points or ability scores, you gain 1 Lunacy Charge. At the end of a round in which you dealt damage to a creature with a melee attack, you gain 1 Lunacy Charge. If you gain no Lunacy Charges for 5 minutes, all remaining charges dissipate. You may have a maximum of 6 Lunacy Charges at a time.
Berserk Release: As a free action, while you have 3 or more Lunacy Charge, you may go into a Rage (see below). While in this Rage, you gain a +4 bonus to your Strength and Dexterity scores, a +10 bonus on all movement speeds, and you are always considered to have a running start when you jump. If you are displaying the Demon Dancing In The Moon's Sign, you also gain Low-Light Vision. At the end of your turn while in this Rage, you lose 1 Lunacy Charge. If you cannot lose a Lunacy Charge in this way, your Rage ends.
(Rage Effects)
The effected character may not show any manner of restraint in their attacks (for example, they may not voluntarily deal nonlethal damage if there is a suitable lethal method available, or purposefully pull their punches to deal less damage). They may not voluntarily perform movement that would take them farther away from all of their enemies (they may switch targets, but not forsake all of them). If a foe is dropped unconscious, and there are other dangers afoot, they may focus on those other dangers, but if there are no other enemies, dangers, or pressing concerns, they must attempt to kill fallen enemies. Any creature that strikes them (even if that creature is under some kind of outside influence) is considered an enemy (and cannot be considered an ally, obviously) for the duration of the Rage.
A Raging character takes a -4 penalty on all skill checks (other than Balance, Climb, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, and Tumble checks), and ranged attack rolls (except with thrown weapons), and cannot cast spells, manifest psionic powers, or utilize Truenaming or Shadow Magic (Binding, Incarnum, and Invocations are fine).
Waxing Leap: While under the effects of Berserk Release, you may expend 1 Lunacy Charge as a swift action to make a Jump check and move the distance indicated by the check.
Crescent Massacre: While under the effects of Berserk Release, you may expend 1 Lunacy Charge as a standard action and make a single melee attack, applying it to all creatures (friend and foe) in the area that you threaten.
Gibbous Fortitude: While under the effects of Berserk Release, you may expend 1 Lunacy Charge as an immediate action to gain your choice of either Mettle or Evasion, and a bonus on all saving throws equal to the number of Lunacy Charges you have remaining, until the beginning of your next turn.
Waning Spirit: While under the effects of Berserk Release, you may expend all of your remaining Lunacy Charges to gain Fast Healing equal to the number of charges expended for 1 minute.
http://i.imgur.com/ugLqVd2.png
New Vestige: The Maiden Who Surmounted The World
In the first days of time, when the Gods and the Titans fought for supremacy, the divine host was being ravaged to near extinction by a great Monster. But, the Gods, being resourceful creatures, strongly vested in their own survival, hatched a plot to turn the Monster to their advantage, imprisoning it, and using its essence against its primordial fellows to change the tides of the war. It was a solid plan, in theory, but in practice, the challenge was a tad too front-loaded; capturing the primal force of violence was something of an impossibility. Yet, the Sun's greatest champions were stalwart in their valor, and attempted it anyway. By virtue of the fact that the multiverse is ruled by them, it can be inferred that they succeeded, some how, some way.
Among those champions was a God of wisdom, quiet confidence, and dreaming splendor, aloof by the standards of the Lawgivers, but unquestionably powerful and possessing of tremendous conviction even in the face of certain death. Though several of his kin died, and several lived, throughout the process of caging the beast, he is notable for the way in which he survived. As the Monster lashed apart their formation, and hurricanes of hateful splintered bone eviscerated the deities on his right and left, the heart of the Monster reached out a hand and grasped the God's head, leaping to one side of the cosmos and crushing the God against the burning white vault that separated the primordial maelstrom from realms Beyond. Unable to squirm free of the Monster's grip, the God could only scream in desperation as the Monster's heart made its orbit across the sky, grinding the God's skull into a shower of flaked bone and dislodged teeth that rained down on the fighting below.
What the Monster believed to be the God's corpse fell into a chasm below, only token remnants of its right half remaining, as his heart left to find more animate prey. What it did not notice were those horrific things beyond the veil, pressed against the world's vault, clawing and grasping at the wound in their tapestry. As the God's divinity was broken, piece by piece, against the firmament, those creatures of the Far Realm pressed harder, slipping through, entering the dying man, and infesting him.
When the God returned, whole, to his kin, after the Monster had been caged, they effaced him of his old name, no longer grand enough for such a hero, and they judged him to be 'Tharizdun'.
Countless years later, the alien creatures, insufferably patient, finally made themselves known as the Gods' fledgling Wheel began to take shape. Tharizdun suddenly showed himself to be more powerful than any of his fellows, endowed with unnatural might, and he called to secret imperfections implanted in the Prime Material Plane as he'd had a hand in crafting it. Seated upon the center of the new multiverse, Tharizdun erected a barrier against which none of the Gods could trespass, and began to unravel all that Was from its central thread. The aliens writhed with glee at the opportunity to finally close the cosmic wound which had reviled them for so long.
The mountains crumbled, the trees wilted to dust, the seas boiled to nothing, the skies darkened, and all living things screamed impotently into their godless void for salvation, but none came. With its connection to the afterlife severed, dead souls of the Prime were drawn into the vortex of Tharizdun's vacuous spirit and annihilated, and it would seem the world would die in its infancy.
Finally, as the Prime drew in its last gasps, one mortal stood to face the lord of elemental destruction. She was not the hero that the Gods had hoped for, before hope had been taken from them. To the hearts of the Gods, her valor was feeble, and she felt terror in her every thought. To the strength of the Gods, she was miniscule, a pebble standing against the typhoon that was the Eternal Darkness. To their minds, she was a simpleton, incapable of any greater stratagem than a direct confrontation with an overwhelmingly superior opponent.
But she was the hero they had. And she failed. Impudent, obstreperous, she stood tall before the invincible ur-nightmare gestalt, and was crushed. Tharizdun took sinful pleasure in breaking her tiny body, confident in his inability to be challenged during a few errants moments of indulgence. Rather than simply kill her, he hoisted her in one ebon hand, stood upon his throne, and placed her at the center of existence, where the First Thread began to sever, ushering in utter universal obliteration.
And she grabbed that thread. With two broken arms, she grabbed each end of the frayed yarn, and held tightly. In that moment, she became the fulcrum of the Great Wheel, upon which every belief and concept and elemental component of matter revolved, and the Omphalos was given a voice with which to speak, and a body with which to act. "No." it said, and the force of a planet's frigid, roiling, disastrous atmosphere issued from her word, cleaving Tharizdun across the face of the world. The earth cracked and sundered as he fell, the weight of mountains pressing in upon him at all sides, the volcanic blood of its molten core bleeding forth to consume him.
It was not nearly enough to kill the hateful deity, but it was enough to harm him. And as his concentration was drawn, so was his blasphemous barrier and all of his former kinsmen fell into the Prime, crashing into their hero, flaying her mortal body to nothing as She rose as their collective avatar. But Tharizdun stood without fear. He was outmatched, yes, but he had long since become more than just a God. He was something Other, something insidious, a cancer of the Far Realm, not invincible, but unkillable, a blight that would resurface again and again, his very essence having infested the most basic structures of the Wheel.
So She did not kill him. As she stood at the multiverse's center, she could see out, into all the microcosms thereof. With her a sweep of her left hand, she drew in laws to bind the creature, earth to imprison him, and water to erode his strength. With her right, she drew in chaos to grant her bindings the senseless potential to hold the unholdable, air to contain the spread of his corruption, and fire to rake him without end, so that he might know no peace or lucidity to plan his escape. Together, she molded these elements into a crystalline prison, and set it amidst the Ethereal Plane in a secret location that no mortal could find.
When the Gods exited their champion, and regained their individual forms, the power that had been channeled through her body had left no mote of physicality remaining; only a soul, shining brightly like the noon-day sun. Each God, in turn, offered her a place in their Realm, or an afterlife of her choosing. But she denied each of them. Though her time fused with them had been brief, in those seconds, she had experienced, through them, and their divine senses, divine memories, divine intuitions, and the sensations of all the threads of the Omphalos, everything that there was to experience in the multiverse. There with nothing in heaven or earth left for her. So, she looked to a place that she'd glimpsed in her divine state; a sad, lonely, impossible place, neither Beyond, nor within the boundaries of the Gods' home, and her soul ebbed away into that place, feeling its last novel experience, and never returned.
Special Requirement: All four elements must be present within the Maiden's binding circle - air, water, earth, fire - about a fist-sized portion of each is enough. She will not appear to those mad cultists who knowingly serve Tharizdun, or his primary facade, the Elder Elemental Eye.
Manifestation: The elements within the Maiden's circle stir to life, expanding and whipping around dramatically, eventually haphazardly merging together to create an androgynous humanoid figure, the components of which still writhe around one another, replacing a limb made of water with a pillar of stone while the water slithers upward to combine with fiery hair to create a halo of steam, before separating back into fire and water to replace seething cyclonic arms, as the air becomes a torso of thundering stormclouds, and so on. The only facet that never changes are the unblinking circles that serve as her eyes, shining brightly and indistinctly, like lights at the end of a dark tunnel.
Sign: You gain the Maiden's eyes; brilliant, unmoving, white orbs.
Influence: The Maiden Who Surmounted The World gains little enjoyment from reconnecting with the mortal plane. She requires her binder to seek out, confront, and attempt to defeat the greatest evil directly plaguing the world at the time (this can include opposing lesser facets of the greatest evil, such as defeating minions under the command of a dark lord pursuing world domination, but it doesn't include, say, leaving to go fight some unrelated orks guarding a sword that might tangentially make you slightly more effective at defeating the greatest evil, even if the orks are, themselves, evil). Anything less is taken as a misuse of her power; perhaps she can suggest some other Vestige whose assets you can squander until you work up the courage to put on your big-boy pants and fight something worth her time?
Granted Abilities: While bound to the Maiden Who Surmounted The World, you gain a tiny measure of her elemental power.
Resolute Eyes: If you are showing the Maiden's Sign, your eyes give off illumination as bright as a torch, and you are immune to blindness. If you were blind when you bound the Maiden, but your form is naturally intended to have seeing eyes (even if they were cut, cursed, or removed entirely), you can see while showing her Sign.
Elemental Shield: As an immediate action, you may summon an air, water, earth, or fire shield to defend you until the end of your next turn. There must be at least a fist-sized example of your chosen element within 30ft of you to summon a particular shield. You may only have one of these shields active at a time. An air shield gives you full concealment against ranged attacks, as it warps and bends their trajectories away from you. A water shield gives you Resistance 20 against Fire, Cold, Electricity, Acid, and Sonic damage as it extinguishes fire, absorbs cold, diverts electric current, dilutes acid, and dampens sound. An earth shield gives you Damage Reduction 20/Adamantine as weapons simply scape off of it. A fire shield deals 5 damage to your attacker each time you are targeted with a melee attack.
Elemental Release: As a standard action, you may unleash the power of a shield generated by the Maiden's Elemental Shield ability that is currently defending you. An air shield detonates in a forceful blast of wind, forcing all creatures within (30ft + 10ft per size category you are larger than Medium) to make a Reflex save or be knocked prone, and a Fortitude save or be thrown directly away from you, ([10ft + 5ft per 2 points the target failed their Fortitude save by] x2 if the target also failed their Reflex save). A water shield strikes all creatures within (30ft + 10ft per size category you are larger than Medium), dealing (1d6/2 binder levels, + your charisma modifier) bludgeoning damage to your enemies (Reflex save halves), and healing the same amount of hit points damage from your allies. An earth shield deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage per Binder level (Reflex halves) to all creatures within (30ft + 10ft per size category you are larger than Medium), bypassing damage reduction that can be bypassed by a particular metal or earthen material (such as Adamantine or Silver), and converting all surfaces within half that radius to Difficult Terrain. A fire shield blasts outward in a wave of flame, dealing (1d6/2 binder levels, + your charisma modifier) to everything within (30ft + 10ft per size category you are larger than Medium), with a Reflex save for half damage, and setting all flammable materials ablaze. This burning effect even strikes all flammable material equipped on creatures in the area, such as backpacks, scrolls, spellbooks, material component pouches, bags of holding, hats, gloves, quivers, hair, etc. Burning items take an additional 5 fire damage per round until they burn up, or some external circumstance puts them out.
Once you use this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.
This is intended as supplementary material for "Mythos" classes, three of which are listed below.
The Olethrofex (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16517470)
The Teramach (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=286983)
The Kathodos (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15947087)
http://i.imgur.com/14noJuo.png
"The truth is unattainable. It will always be shrouded in fog. Though you reach through the murk and the gloom to grasp something, you have no means to know it is the truth. ...In which case, why? What sense is there in yearning for truth? Close your eyes. Lie to yourself. Live in blissful ignorance. It is a much smarter way to exist." ~Teddie, Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4
The Mythic Vestige
In the beginning, there was only that inchoate non-place of the Far Realm, brimming with its sideways non-binary dysexistence and spatially incomprehensible design. To say that it continued infinitely in this manner would be to erroneously apply conceptions of time to the Beyond, but for simplicity of understanding, let it be known that an event did occur, the first true noun, and verb, and ideas that mortals can apply their words to, which stood starkly in the madness, and separated the expanse, if only for a moment. A dysexistent pseudo-thing declared to all, with a thought, "I am.", and the concept of existence tore through the impossibility of the Far Realm, gutting a tumultuous wound that churned with chaotic pools fetid with thought and form.
The horrors of the Beyond took notice, and sought to reclaim the wound for their own, but the First stood in defiance, fighting them off by constructing concepts for which they had no basis to act upon. It acted to occupy space; space enough to cover the whole of the wound, and with this comparison, the wound multiplied infinitely in size to also occupy space. It acted to continue its existence, running forward and backward through the entire timeline of everything that it was, and is, and could be, and the wound grew infinitely again such that it always had been, and stretched to the end of all things. Then, it took the concept of being, the thought "I am." and extruded them as a second part of its existence, creating the first soul, an ember to light the wound, and a vessel through which the First could know itself.
As the residents of the Far Realm nipped violently at the burgeoning world, the First was without purpose, merely enduring, knowing nothing, and feeling nothing. Not until the cosmic blood roiling in the primordial soup of its home gave rise to more things, beings who were drawn by the pure white light of the First's soul, and the soul taught them to be permanent, and to declare that they were. It was by their existence that the First was named - they called it "Empyrean", and it was their Emperor, and its soul, their Mother.
Through the Empyrean's soul, the new creatures communicated to one another, and their communications existed, and filled the cosmic wound, stretching it even further with countless ideas and stories. This incensed the horrors of the Beyond, and they came crashing down upon the world. The new things supplicated themselves before their Emperor, and defined her as that which would protect them. She extruded this definition as a second soul, a second ember, of green light, and the emerald fire that their Father unleashed scarred the wound such that it could never be undone, and seared all those pseudo-things foolish enough to trespass.
So it was that the Titans had a home, in their terrible, unstable, non-linear maelstrom of stories and concepts. Each, in their own time, came to name themselves - Union, Mutation, Monster, Maker, Shadow, and more - and define themselves further, extruding countless souls to further be. Their King and Queen, Mother and Father, their Emperor, their Empyrean, reigned for endless epochs until the First Day and the coming of the Gods. They usurped the Titans, tore down the maelstrom, and built up the Great Wheel to fill its place, using the cosmic wound as the foundation for their empire, but ignorant of its true nature.
It was not until the time of the Gods' glory that those creatures known as Vestiges came to be. Lost or exiled, they found their way to the scarred lip of existence, not Beyond, but not quite existent; the Betwixt, a cyclopean selenite mezzanine overlooking the infinitely distant twinkling lights of the world to one side and below, and the terrifying eldritch madness of the Far Realm on the other and above. Here, the Vestiges languish for time beyond time, starving for the slightest sensation but unable to be fed.
However, it is possible, however infinitesimally, that a Vestige with the proper tools could escape. The Titans before them were able to use their legends to migrate from the Far Realm to some place Other. So, why could not a Vestige, equipped with a similar Mythos, do the same? They could - though few things are rarer that can still be said to have occurred at all.
New Feat: Trespassing The Outer Gates
Prerequisite: One Mythos, Must have become a Vestige
Benefit: While standing on the translucent vault of the Betwixt, your legend unravels and becomes a vessel by which you find your way plummeting back down towards the Great Wheel, streaking through the Outer Planes, the Astral, the Inner Planes, the Ethereal, and down into the mortal realm as an auspicious comet.
Though Binders (and other soul binding practitioners) may still call you and bind you, you now have greater control of your will. When you are called, the image that appears for the Binder is fully aware, and you may view the surrounding area and communicate with creatures there as if you truly stood before them. The image called is still an image, though, and cannot physically act, nor does it inconvenience your 'true' body to hold these interactions. Furthermore, a binding check is no longer used to gauge your cooperation. You may outright refuse to be bound, if you wish, and you may choose whether to make a 'good' or a 'poor' pact, at your whim. Once you are bound, you no longer have any say about how your granted powers are used (aside from your Influence, if any), or for how long you remain bound, though you may see and hear through anyone that is binding you at the moment, as well as you could if you were there. Being soul-bound does not inconvenience your 'true' body, no matter how many characters have you bound at a time. If a character attempts to use powers that you have granted them through soul binding in a way that is directly hostile towards you, they always fail to harm or inconvenience you in any way. If you have soul binding abilities, you may not bind yourself.
If you develop as a character to the point where your statistics as a Vestige no longer accurately represent you, they will change to accommodate your new self (potentially even increasing or decreasing in level).
When you die, you return to the Betwixt rather than going to any particular afterlife. However, you may still be returned to life as a normal character could be. Note that you no longer have a soul in the traditional sense, and non-resurrective spells and other effects that rely on a soul to be effective (such as Trap the Soul) fail against you.
Choose one Mythos-granting class that you have levels in. You may treat the following Mythos as if they belonged to that class.
Exceptional Mythos
Hollow Mind Redoubt
Prerequisite: -
You gain Iron Will and Live My Nightmare as a bonus feats (UA). The saving throw DC of that feat is calculated as if it were a Mythos possessed by your class, rather than its listed calculation.
When you succeed on a Will saving throw against a source that has an effect even on a successful save, negate the effect entirely. When you are subject to a mind-affecting effect that does not allow a saving throw, you may make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the user's character level + the user's Wisdom modifier) to negate the effect. When you succeed on a saving throw against a mind-affecting effect, the user is confused until the end of their next turn.
The above effects do not function against other Vestiges, pseudonatural creatures, or residents of the Far Realm. (Although they still function against creatures bound to Vestiges.)
Many-Faced Heretic Spirit Convocation
Prerequisite: -
The bonus you grant to characters that have you bound to them via an Aid Another action is increased by 1. If you flank with a character that has you bound to them, both of you increase the bonus on attack rolls from flanking by 1.
While you are within 100ft of a character that has you bound to them, you may communicate telepathically with each other, you are precisely aware of their exact location (but they only know that you are within 100ft and cannot pinpoint you), and you both gain Fast Healing 1.
If you are able to act in a surprise round, you may also allow characters within 100ft that have you bound to them to also act in the surprise round, even if they normally wouldn't. If a character within 100ft of you that has you bound to them acts in a surprise round, you do as well (they cannot choose to not allow you to).
Advanced
Guttering Essence Transfusion: You may perform First Aid via the Heal skill as a swift action with a +5 circumstance bonus, provided the target has you bound to them. Characters that have you bound to them likewise improve their First Aid skills when using them on you.
Nyarlathotep Is My Spirit Animal: While you are riding a mount that has you bound to them, you need not make Ride checks for the Guide With Knees, Stay In Saddle, or Fight With Warhorse uses of that skill. Characters that have you bound to them likewise improve their riding skills while using you as a mount.
Unity Of Vision: If you and one or more characters, all of which are bound to you, cooperate on a use of the Craft skill to create an item or a use of the Perform skill to make money from public performances, the character making the check recieves an additional +2 bonus per other character using Aid Another to help them.
Peeling Back This Worldly Facade
Prerequisite: -
As a full-round action, you may transfigure yourself into a hideous form, tainted by the presence of the Far Realm which lurks so close to your new home. There is no uniformity to the shapes that this Mythos spawns, but words like "squamous", "be-tentacled", and "hundred-mouthed" are typically associated with them.
In this form, your type becomes Outsider (Extraplanar) if it was not already (your home plane is the Betwixt), and you gain Damage Reduction X/Magic where X is equal to your class level.
A creature that begins its turn able to see you in your transformed state must make a Will save or become Shaken until they are able to spend 5 minutes performing no actions other than vacantly sobbing and cradling themselves. If they choose, they may commit to averting their eyes from you until the beginning of their next turn, granting you concealment against them, but giving them a 50% chance to not have to make a saving throw at all. Or, they may close their eyes entirely, rendering them effectively blind until the beginning of their next turn, but releasing them from needing to make a saving throw for the round. This ability cannot progress the Shaken condition into Frightened or Panicked.
When a creature succeeds on a Knowledge (The Planes) check to discern information about your alien form, or to attain a bonus against you (such as via the Knowledge Devotion feat, or the Archivist's Dark Knowledge class feature), they must make a Will save or be confused for 1 round.
Touch of Alien Insight
Prerequisite: -
You may deliver a portion of your vestigial essence as a touch attack. On a successful attack, the target must make a Will save or be confused for 1 round. Multiple applications of this Mythos stack the duration if prior durations have not yet expired.
At your whim, a target that fails their saving throw may also have their mind opened to the scarred shores beyond the Wheel. They permanently gain the Bind Vestige feat as a bonus feat (ToM), and a +2 circumstance bonus on all Knowledge checks pertaining to Vestiges or the Betwixt. (You may even apply this benefit to yourself, if you wish to.)
Advanced
Mind-Effacing Truth Imposition: Your touch of alien insight also deals 1d6 damage on a successful hit, and an additional 1d6 damage if the Will save is failed.
Thorns of Broken Brilliance: You may project your touch of alien insight as a ranged touch attack, with a range of 20ft and five range increments. This appears as an odd, jagged spacial distortion.
Fantastic Mythos
Gift of the Outer Fayth
Prerequisite: One Other Mythos granted by the "Trespassing the Outer Gates" feat
As a full-round action, you may touch a willing creature and bless them with a portion of your power. You become instantly bound to them, granting them your full suite of Vestige powers. However, they are automatically considered to have made a poor pact, and they may only sustain these powers if they are capable of binding a Vestige of your level, or if their character level is at least twice your Vestige level. They need not meet the special requirements associated with your Vestige statistics. These powers last for 24 hours, and you may have a number of creatures blessed with this Mythos at one time equal to (9 - your vestige level). Being bound to you in this way does not count towards the maximum number of Vestiges a soul binder may have bound to them at a single time.
You can tell if a creature blessed this way is suffering a penalty from defying your Vestige Influence just by looking at them. As a free action, you may forgive these sins against you, prematurely removing this penalty from them.
Polyhedral Vestige Abnormality
Prerequisite: One Other Mythos granted by the "Trespassing the Outer Gates" feat, the ability to bind Vestiges.
As a full-round action, you gesture to a solid surface within 5ft of you, and (1d4 + 1d4 per six class levels) miniature versions of your own Vestige seal appear there. From each seal, an image like the one that appears when a Binder summons you is drawn forth. These images cluster around you, shifting and moving, completely indistinguishable from you or one another, always remaining within 5ft of another image. The images act realistically, and in unison with you, appearing to attack when you do, appearing to drink a potion when you do, appearing to be caught in an Entangle spell if you are, and so on. Unlike a normal image summoned by a Binder, they may leave the confines of the seal that created them in order to follow you.
When something targets you, it must choose which of you to target; roll randomly to determine whether they guess correctly and target you or guess incorrectly and target a fake. Images are destroyed when they would take 1 hit point of damage, automatically fail saving throws, but are otherwise unaffected by any other debilitation.
The images supply auditory components, so even blind characters are fooled. However, they do not have olfactory components; creatures with the Scent special quality can detect if a version of you is fake or real if they are within 5ft of it.
These images remain as long as they normally would when called by a Binder; 1 minute. During this time, you may not activate this Mythos again.
Advanced
Seventh-Sense Fooling Eldritch Mirage: Your images now seem real to all senses, including scent, taste, touch, blindsight, blindsense, tremorsense, and the more exotic sensory perceptions of those cthulhuoid horrors of the Far Realm.
Rapid Illusory Redeployment Technique: When it is not your turn, your threatened area extends to all spaces adjacent to and inside of your images.
Legendary Mythos
Space-Folding Anomaly
Prerequisite: Two Other Mythos granted by the "Trespassing the Outer Gates" feat.
Your body has become so invested with vestigial energy that it passively distorts the world around it. This provides you a continual 20% concealment, as space folds in constant flux around your person. Furthermore, you may passively float up to a foot above any solid or liquid matter without disturbing the surface. While falling, you may choose to slow your fall to a mere 60ft per round (slow enough to prevent fall damage).
Finally, you may focus on distorting space as a move action, teleporting up to (1/3, rounded up to the nearest 5ft increment) your base land speed without touching the intervening matter. This is not a [Teleportation] effect, as it relies on your body's unique relationship with the physics of the Great Wheel, and not magic. You may take up to one item per item slot on your person, plus a light load.
http://i.imgur.com/owNrGGQ.png
New Vestige: The Demon Dancing In The Moon
When questioned by those that call to him, the Demon Dancing In The Moon is more than happy to share a few gruesome tales of his mortal life as an unstoppable monster, an elite warrior of the Reth Dekala, mercenary princes in their day, elevated to greatness on a mountain of bloody gold and corpses. To some rare few, he will even speak of his last moments - when the champions of the Gods of Law came to destroy his people, to take from them the freedom that life provided, for the Reth's hubris in disturbing their precious status quo.
The bodies of the men and women he had known and loved all his life were falling around him, and a gate had been opened, through which nothing could be seen but avenues of basalt and brass towers that stretched onward forever. But he wouldn't be going through it. He didn't begrudge those of his fellows that did - in that moment, notions of respect or shame were beyond him. And so it was that when his kin fled behind him, thanking him for his sacrifice as he stood stalwartly against the advancing crusade, creating an opening for retreat, the significance was lost to his mind. No, the only knowledge that had penetrated his skull was that the axiomatic horde before him was the opportunity for the greatest carnage that life had ever served him. The Monster that had devoured him, and he, it, would abide no negligence in this regard.
As chasms of hellfire and heaven's rain of burning sulfur ignited the land and the sky all around him, he gave himself to the Untamed Apocalypse, and all bonds of family, all yearning for knowledge, motivations of perfection, all thoughts were quenched from him, and he swept across the legion of gold and black as a tide of death. Even as his arms were torn from him, his eyes put out, his jaw cleaved off, his ribs cracked, he continued to fight, and it was only through the price of thousands of lives that he finally fell.
But, as the valkyries came to abduct his soul, to carry it off to the afterlife where it could be tortured for its sins against mankind and the Gods themselves, they found something else. Without anything to feed the Monster's narrative, The Demon Dancing In The Moon had allowed it to burn out his own soul as payment, and in doing so, left nothing but rage behind, imprinted with errant thoughts and memories. For fear of what mischief such a thing could cause, the Lawgivers took the terrible rage-shadow, and exiled it beyond the Multiverse. But not as thoroughly as they might've hoped.
Special Requirement: The Demon Dancing In The Moon can only be called forth and bound while moonlight touches his seal.
Manifestation: The moonlight strewn across the seal intensifies, becoming brighter and brighter, until it ignites in seething blue-white fire. Admist the crackling of the flames, a guttural howl builds and, at its zenith, the seal cracks at its center as a dark silhouette erupts from the ground. Though its body is an insubstantial humanoid cloud of billowing shadows, its face is visible, human-like, but twisted, with feral yellow eyes and too many sharpened teeth. Its voice is curt, but even, with a confidence that does not match the bestial twitches, writhing arms, and slavering jaws of its form.
Sign: The whites of your eyes become a bright yellow, and a cross-shaped scar appears somewhere on your face.
Influence: The Demon Dancing In The Moon insists that you honor his rabid temper. If a creatures intentionally attempts to physically harm you (even something as innocent as the indignant slap of an insulted lover), you must, at the very least, beat them to within an inch of their life (into negative hit points).
Granted Abilities: While bound to The Demon Dancing In The Moon, you are invested with a portion of his legendary rage.
Building Rage: At the end of a round in which you took damage to your hit points or ability scores, you gain 1 Lunacy Charge. At the end of a round in which you dealt damage to a creature with a melee attack, you gain 1 Lunacy Charge. If you gain no Lunacy Charges for 5 minutes, all remaining charges dissipate. You may have a maximum of 6 Lunacy Charges at a time.
Berserk Release: As a free action, while you have 3 or more Lunacy Charge, you may go into a Rage (see below). While in this Rage, you gain a +4 bonus to your Strength and Dexterity scores, a +10 bonus on all movement speeds, and you are always considered to have a running start when you jump. If you are displaying the Demon Dancing In The Moon's Sign, you also gain Low-Light Vision. At the end of your turn while in this Rage, you lose 1 Lunacy Charge. If you cannot lose a Lunacy Charge in this way, your Rage ends.
(Rage Effects)
The effected character may not show any manner of restraint in their attacks (for example, they may not voluntarily deal nonlethal damage if there is a suitable lethal method available, or purposefully pull their punches to deal less damage). They may not voluntarily perform movement that would take them farther away from all of their enemies (they may switch targets, but not forsake all of them). If a foe is dropped unconscious, and there are other dangers afoot, they may focus on those other dangers, but if there are no other enemies, dangers, or pressing concerns, they must attempt to kill fallen enemies. Any creature that strikes them (even if that creature is under some kind of outside influence) is considered an enemy (and cannot be considered an ally, obviously) for the duration of the Rage.
A Raging character takes a -4 penalty on all skill checks (other than Balance, Climb, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, and Tumble checks), and ranged attack rolls (except with thrown weapons), and cannot cast spells, manifest psionic powers, or utilize Truenaming or Shadow Magic (Binding, Incarnum, and Invocations are fine).
Waxing Leap: While under the effects of Berserk Release, you may expend 1 Lunacy Charge as a swift action to make a Jump check and move the distance indicated by the check.
Crescent Massacre: While under the effects of Berserk Release, you may expend 1 Lunacy Charge as a standard action and make a single melee attack, applying it to all creatures (friend and foe) in the area that you threaten.
Gibbous Fortitude: While under the effects of Berserk Release, you may expend 1 Lunacy Charge as an immediate action to gain your choice of either Mettle or Evasion, and a bonus on all saving throws equal to the number of Lunacy Charges you have remaining, until the beginning of your next turn.
Waning Spirit: While under the effects of Berserk Release, you may expend all of your remaining Lunacy Charges to gain Fast Healing equal to the number of charges expended for 1 minute.
http://i.imgur.com/ugLqVd2.png
New Vestige: The Maiden Who Surmounted The World
In the first days of time, when the Gods and the Titans fought for supremacy, the divine host was being ravaged to near extinction by a great Monster. But, the Gods, being resourceful creatures, strongly vested in their own survival, hatched a plot to turn the Monster to their advantage, imprisoning it, and using its essence against its primordial fellows to change the tides of the war. It was a solid plan, in theory, but in practice, the challenge was a tad too front-loaded; capturing the primal force of violence was something of an impossibility. Yet, the Sun's greatest champions were stalwart in their valor, and attempted it anyway. By virtue of the fact that the multiverse is ruled by them, it can be inferred that they succeeded, some how, some way.
Among those champions was a God of wisdom, quiet confidence, and dreaming splendor, aloof by the standards of the Lawgivers, but unquestionably powerful and possessing of tremendous conviction even in the face of certain death. Though several of his kin died, and several lived, throughout the process of caging the beast, he is notable for the way in which he survived. As the Monster lashed apart their formation, and hurricanes of hateful splintered bone eviscerated the deities on his right and left, the heart of the Monster reached out a hand and grasped the God's head, leaping to one side of the cosmos and crushing the God against the burning white vault that separated the primordial maelstrom from realms Beyond. Unable to squirm free of the Monster's grip, the God could only scream in desperation as the Monster's heart made its orbit across the sky, grinding the God's skull into a shower of flaked bone and dislodged teeth that rained down on the fighting below.
What the Monster believed to be the God's corpse fell into a chasm below, only token remnants of its right half remaining, as his heart left to find more animate prey. What it did not notice were those horrific things beyond the veil, pressed against the world's vault, clawing and grasping at the wound in their tapestry. As the God's divinity was broken, piece by piece, against the firmament, those creatures of the Far Realm pressed harder, slipping through, entering the dying man, and infesting him.
When the God returned, whole, to his kin, after the Monster had been caged, they effaced him of his old name, no longer grand enough for such a hero, and they judged him to be 'Tharizdun'.
Countless years later, the alien creatures, insufferably patient, finally made themselves known as the Gods' fledgling Wheel began to take shape. Tharizdun suddenly showed himself to be more powerful than any of his fellows, endowed with unnatural might, and he called to secret imperfections implanted in the Prime Material Plane as he'd had a hand in crafting it. Seated upon the center of the new multiverse, Tharizdun erected a barrier against which none of the Gods could trespass, and began to unravel all that Was from its central thread. The aliens writhed with glee at the opportunity to finally close the cosmic wound which had reviled them for so long.
The mountains crumbled, the trees wilted to dust, the seas boiled to nothing, the skies darkened, and all living things screamed impotently into their godless void for salvation, but none came. With its connection to the afterlife severed, dead souls of the Prime were drawn into the vortex of Tharizdun's vacuous spirit and annihilated, and it would seem the world would die in its infancy.
Finally, as the Prime drew in its last gasps, one mortal stood to face the lord of elemental destruction. She was not the hero that the Gods had hoped for, before hope had been taken from them. To the hearts of the Gods, her valor was feeble, and she felt terror in her every thought. To the strength of the Gods, she was miniscule, a pebble standing against the typhoon that was the Eternal Darkness. To their minds, she was a simpleton, incapable of any greater stratagem than a direct confrontation with an overwhelmingly superior opponent.
But she was the hero they had. And she failed. Impudent, obstreperous, she stood tall before the invincible ur-nightmare gestalt, and was crushed. Tharizdun took sinful pleasure in breaking her tiny body, confident in his inability to be challenged during a few errants moments of indulgence. Rather than simply kill her, he hoisted her in one ebon hand, stood upon his throne, and placed her at the center of existence, where the First Thread began to sever, ushering in utter universal obliteration.
And she grabbed that thread. With two broken arms, she grabbed each end of the frayed yarn, and held tightly. In that moment, she became the fulcrum of the Great Wheel, upon which every belief and concept and elemental component of matter revolved, and the Omphalos was given a voice with which to speak, and a body with which to act. "No." it said, and the force of a planet's frigid, roiling, disastrous atmosphere issued from her word, cleaving Tharizdun across the face of the world. The earth cracked and sundered as he fell, the weight of mountains pressing in upon him at all sides, the volcanic blood of its molten core bleeding forth to consume him.
It was not nearly enough to kill the hateful deity, but it was enough to harm him. And as his concentration was drawn, so was his blasphemous barrier and all of his former kinsmen fell into the Prime, crashing into their hero, flaying her mortal body to nothing as She rose as their collective avatar. But Tharizdun stood without fear. He was outmatched, yes, but he had long since become more than just a God. He was something Other, something insidious, a cancer of the Far Realm, not invincible, but unkillable, a blight that would resurface again and again, his very essence having infested the most basic structures of the Wheel.
So She did not kill him. As she stood at the multiverse's center, she could see out, into all the microcosms thereof. With her a sweep of her left hand, she drew in laws to bind the creature, earth to imprison him, and water to erode his strength. With her right, she drew in chaos to grant her bindings the senseless potential to hold the unholdable, air to contain the spread of his corruption, and fire to rake him without end, so that he might know no peace or lucidity to plan his escape. Together, she molded these elements into a crystalline prison, and set it amidst the Ethereal Plane in a secret location that no mortal could find.
When the Gods exited their champion, and regained their individual forms, the power that had been channeled through her body had left no mote of physicality remaining; only a soul, shining brightly like the noon-day sun. Each God, in turn, offered her a place in their Realm, or an afterlife of her choosing. But she denied each of them. Though her time fused with them had been brief, in those seconds, she had experienced, through them, and their divine senses, divine memories, divine intuitions, and the sensations of all the threads of the Omphalos, everything that there was to experience in the multiverse. There with nothing in heaven or earth left for her. So, she looked to a place that she'd glimpsed in her divine state; a sad, lonely, impossible place, neither Beyond, nor within the boundaries of the Gods' home, and her soul ebbed away into that place, feeling its last novel experience, and never returned.
Special Requirement: All four elements must be present within the Maiden's binding circle - air, water, earth, fire - about a fist-sized portion of each is enough. She will not appear to those mad cultists who knowingly serve Tharizdun, or his primary facade, the Elder Elemental Eye.
Manifestation: The elements within the Maiden's circle stir to life, expanding and whipping around dramatically, eventually haphazardly merging together to create an androgynous humanoid figure, the components of which still writhe around one another, replacing a limb made of water with a pillar of stone while the water slithers upward to combine with fiery hair to create a halo of steam, before separating back into fire and water to replace seething cyclonic arms, as the air becomes a torso of thundering stormclouds, and so on. The only facet that never changes are the unblinking circles that serve as her eyes, shining brightly and indistinctly, like lights at the end of a dark tunnel.
Sign: You gain the Maiden's eyes; brilliant, unmoving, white orbs.
Influence: The Maiden Who Surmounted The World gains little enjoyment from reconnecting with the mortal plane. She requires her binder to seek out, confront, and attempt to defeat the greatest evil directly plaguing the world at the time (this can include opposing lesser facets of the greatest evil, such as defeating minions under the command of a dark lord pursuing world domination, but it doesn't include, say, leaving to go fight some unrelated orks guarding a sword that might tangentially make you slightly more effective at defeating the greatest evil, even if the orks are, themselves, evil). Anything less is taken as a misuse of her power; perhaps she can suggest some other Vestige whose assets you can squander until you work up the courage to put on your big-boy pants and fight something worth her time?
Granted Abilities: While bound to the Maiden Who Surmounted The World, you gain a tiny measure of her elemental power.
Resolute Eyes: If you are showing the Maiden's Sign, your eyes give off illumination as bright as a torch, and you are immune to blindness. If you were blind when you bound the Maiden, but your form is naturally intended to have seeing eyes (even if they were cut, cursed, or removed entirely), you can see while showing her Sign.
Elemental Shield: As an immediate action, you may summon an air, water, earth, or fire shield to defend you until the end of your next turn. There must be at least a fist-sized example of your chosen element within 30ft of you to summon a particular shield. You may only have one of these shields active at a time. An air shield gives you full concealment against ranged attacks, as it warps and bends their trajectories away from you. A water shield gives you Resistance 20 against Fire, Cold, Electricity, Acid, and Sonic damage as it extinguishes fire, absorbs cold, diverts electric current, dilutes acid, and dampens sound. An earth shield gives you Damage Reduction 20/Adamantine as weapons simply scape off of it. A fire shield deals 5 damage to your attacker each time you are targeted with a melee attack.
Elemental Release: As a standard action, you may unleash the power of a shield generated by the Maiden's Elemental Shield ability that is currently defending you. An air shield detonates in a forceful blast of wind, forcing all creatures within (30ft + 10ft per size category you are larger than Medium) to make a Reflex save or be knocked prone, and a Fortitude save or be thrown directly away from you, ([10ft + 5ft per 2 points the target failed their Fortitude save by] x2 if the target also failed their Reflex save). A water shield strikes all creatures within (30ft + 10ft per size category you are larger than Medium), dealing (1d6/2 binder levels, + your charisma modifier) bludgeoning damage to your enemies (Reflex save halves), and healing the same amount of hit points damage from your allies. An earth shield deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage per Binder level (Reflex halves) to all creatures within (30ft + 10ft per size category you are larger than Medium), bypassing damage reduction that can be bypassed by a particular metal or earthen material (such as Adamantine or Silver), and converting all surfaces within half that radius to Difficult Terrain. A fire shield blasts outward in a wave of flame, dealing (1d6/2 binder levels, + your charisma modifier) to everything within (30ft + 10ft per size category you are larger than Medium), with a Reflex save for half damage, and setting all flammable materials ablaze. This burning effect even strikes all flammable material equipped on creatures in the area, such as backpacks, scrolls, spellbooks, material component pouches, bags of holding, hats, gloves, quivers, hair, etc. Burning items take an additional 5 fire damage per round until they burn up, or some external circumstance puts them out.
Once you use this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.