Elder Evils

Elder Evils can refer to either a 3.5 edition Splatbook about world ending threats the players may face or a group of powerful entities that are the closest things Aboleths have to gods.

The Book

The Elder Evils described in the book of the same name are entities with the potential to end the world. The book instructs the DM on how to base a campaign around stopping one of these beings. The book does not describe every detail of the campaigns like most books, but instead gives a general outline of the plot, plus the stats for major enemies the players will encounter, and details of the final dungeon, and what adjustments to make if the campaign is set in Faerun or Eberron. Many of them are not stated, as they are too powerful when fully unleashed for the players to stop, but instead only have stats for an aspect of them. Several of them were later adapted to 4th edition by Dragon Magazine as potential sources of power for Warlocks.

Atropus

Known as The World Born Dead, Atropus is a moon sized undead creature that is as old as creation and desires the end of all life. It destroys worlds by crashing on them and then draining them of all positive energy. Atropus cannot be destroyed, but the players can drive it away. As Atropus approaches the world necromancy spells become more powerful and the dead begin to rise as undead spontaneously. Atropus itself has no stats, but the Aspect of Atropus is a CR 23 undead. Atropus is also infested with many kinds of undead, including famine spirits, advanced deathshriekers, rage winds, angels of decay, nightcrawlers, nightwalkers, nightwings, dread wraiths, and a single dread boneyard. Atropus is also a very hostile environment with no atmosphere unless it is about to collide with the world, and has a variety of effects that harm the living and boost the undead.

In the suggested campaign, Caira Xasten (human, level 5 bard, level 5 rogue, level 10 Ur-Priest) wants to attract Atropus to destroy the world to get revenge on the gods, blaming them for the death of her husband who was killed by a falling meteorite. To do this she and her cult first seek out a book about Atropus, then try to obtain the Book of Vile Darkness in order to learn the apocalypse of the sky spell which she will attempt to cast on a large city to attract Atropus with the mass death. Meanwhile, the world is also invaded by a powerful general of Orcus who also wants to summon Atropus named Gorguth (Bodak, level 2 ranger, level 1 fighter, level 9 blackguard), who rides on a powerful construct named Skyshadow and leading his own army of the undead to cause mass death. After failing to stop either one of them, the players them must travel to Atropus and battle against a variety of undead monsters until they find and defeat the aspect of Atropus, which will cause Atropus to retreat.

Father Llymic

Father Llymic is an entity from the Far Realm that sleeps in an icy prison that melts in darkness and thickens in sunlight who wants to remake the world to be more hospitable to itself and its children, which it creates by spreading a plague that turns the infected into creatures like itself, which are known as brood spawn. The more people Father Llimic infects, the more comes out of his sleep, and as it awakes the sun starts to go out, and darkness spells grow stronger while light spells weaken. He is called Father Llymic because he often projects an illusion of a friendly old man. Its true form is a massive demon like creature with scythes for arms, three eyes, and skin covered in icy crystal, with a CR of 18. Beings converted into brood spawn gain similar features.

In the suggested campaign, the player are sent to investigate the disappearance of a caravan that was attacked by a tribe of barbarians that worship Father Llymic. After this a huge glacier and icy weather spreads down from the mountain where Father Llymic is imprisoned and strange ice monsters start attacking people. Soon whole towns and villages are transformed into brood spawn as the weather gets worse and worse while the sun gets darker and darker. The players must travel up the mountain while battling through mad cultists and many kinds of brood spawn to face and defeat Father Llymic.

The Hulks of Zoretha

The Hulks of Zoretha are five giants made of stone from another world that plan to exterminate all life on this plane to make room for them to repopulate it with their own kind. As they awaken, the moon turns red, causing people to experience uncontrollable rage. Four of the hulks are female and are each associated with a different element while the last one is male and has wings. They are also completely indestructible as long as they are asleep. All of them are CR 16.

In the suggested campaign, Soelma Nilaenish (elf, level 7 wizard, level 10 loremaster, level 1 rogue) hires the party to recover a copy of the Zoretha Scrolls, then later hires them again to protect the scrolls. She then travels with the party to stop the leader of the cult of Zoretha, Janwulf the Soulbiter (ice giant, level 11 bard). But after Janwulf is defeated Soelma betrays the party and takes control of the cult herself. Soelma is in fact horribly depressed and wants the world to be destroyed, while the old leader of the cult, Janwulf actually had no interest in waking up the hulks and just wanted power. The party then stops Soelma from completing the ritual to wake up the hulks but the moon doesn't return to normal and the whole world is at war. A single cultist escapes from the players and finishes the ritual to wake up the hulks and the players must then destroy them.

The Leviathan

An immense sea monster that will destroy the world if it ever wakes up. As it gets close to awakening, the world is affected by extreme weather. The Leviathan does not have stats, as it is too big for the players to fight, but the players may battle against aspects of the leviathan, which are CR 16, or an advanced aspect, which is CR 20.

In the suggested campaign, the players save a port town from a disaster and are sent to investigate the cause of the strange weather. The party then encounters an defeats a cult that worships the leviathan, but their leader, a mysterious man named Enshaddon, escapes. Enshaddon is actually an advanced vampiric Ixitxachitl with 16 cleric levels named Axihuatl. He is a worshiper of Demogorgon and wants to partially wake up the leviathan using a shard of chaos in order to flood the world. After the players first disrupt his plans, he sends Marcus Hape (human, level 4 rogue, level 4 assassin, level 4 thrall of Demogogon) to kill them. With the help of a sage named Mytus who provides the players with magic and equipment for underwater travel, the players attack a temple located in a hollow spine on the leviathan's back and interrupt Axihuatl's ritual to wake up the leviathan, causing him to lose control of the beast. Axihuatl then allies with the players because he does not want the leviathan to completely destroy the world. They must then travel deeper into the temple and throw the shard of chaos into a pit at the bottom to put the leviathan back to sleep.

Pandorym

In ancient times, a group of wizards wanted to threaten the gods, so they summoned an intelligent superweapon from another dimension which they named Pandorym, but then betrayed and sealed Pandorym away by separating its mind from its body and imprisoning them separately. The gods didn't like being threatened so they wiped the wizards out as soon as they had finished sealing Pandorym away. Pandorym desires to get revenge of the descendants of the wizards that imprisoned it, then fulfil its contract with them by killing all the gods, and if it is unable to return home after this it will destroy the world too. As Pandorym gets close to being freed, a glyph spread across the sky that interferes with the connections between planes, making many kinds of magic more difficult to use, especially conjuration. Pandorym's mindless body resembles a larger than normal Sphere of Annihilation that always moves towards anyone that tries to control it, which is kept in an extradimensional prison. It's mind is trapped inside of a crystal. When this crystal is damaged a shard of its mind may escape, which has a CR of 25. It's fully released mind does not have stats, as it is too powerful for the players to defeat. If it does completely escape from the crystal prison then only divine intervention can stop it from returning to its body.

In the suggested campaign, Tune Majii (human, Level 2 bard, level 2 wizard) hires the player to find her missing father Lucather (quell, level 8 enchanter, level 10 loremaster), who has become enslaved to Pandorym.. Meanwhile, the gods begin sending their mortal followers warnings that somebody is trying to unleash an unimaginably powerful evil. This person turns out to be a Lawful Stupid Inevitable named Obligatum VII (kolyarut, level 3 Hexblade, level 5 Occult Slayer), who wants to release Pandorym because Pandorym's contract was violated and it must correct this regardless of the consequences. The players will have to travel to the prison where Pandorym's mind is kept and defeat Lucather and Obligatum VII as well as the prison's guardian constructs and undead. If they succeed in killing Obligatum VII, they may then have to travel to Mechanus to prevent Obligatum VIII from being made.

Ragnorra

Ragnorra is an entity of corrupted life that wants to remake all life to fit her own ideals of what life should be. She travels between worlds in the form of a red comet, which crashes down on the world and begins spreading her skin and nerves over the planet, warping all creatures into aberrations. As Ragnorra gets closer to landing, positive energy spells become stronger but also cause gross blemishes, Ragnorra's spores start to fall from the sky that turn things into swarms of pests, living things gain healing abilities but are slowly corrupted into aberrations, and eventually even the dead start rising as aberrations, while undead are forced to flee unless they are underground. When Ragnorra crashes onto a planet she is reduced to a fraction of her full size but is still gargantuan size and has is CR 19 in both her initial form after landing, and her True Mother form taken when she merges with the neurotangle.

In the suggested campaign, a cult that worships Ragnorra called the Malshapers attempts to attract Ragnorra to the player's world using kidnapped people an other stolen living things as bait to guide her on her path to the world. The leader of the cult is Irthicax Vane (Zenythri, level 17 monk), whose world was destroyed by Ragnorra and once fought against her, but eventually went mad and turned to worshiping her, though the players may be able to convince him to help stop her. As Ragnorra approaches, mysterious springs with healing properties start popping up everywhere that are controlled by the Malshapers. Swarms of vermin begin appearing in cities, and in response to this undead beings start showing up to fight them. As the red comet continues to get closer the undead all start leaving. While the players are investigating to see if the undead are planning anything, they get repeatedly attacked by low rogues sent the Malshapers. Then an Aboleth mage with the ability to breath air falls from the sky and enslaves the risen corpses of the Malshapers. Then Ragnorra crashes into the earth and creates an enormous crater full of aberrations and corrupt flesh. The players must travel across this crater to reach the center and confront Ragnorra. Once she has transformed into her True Mother form, the players must defeat her by breaking her connection with the planet, and thus forcing her to leave.

Sertrous

Sertrous is a powerful Obyrith that was killed in the distant past, but whose spirit clings to life in his severed skull. Sertrous was the one responsible for revealing the secret that divine magic is possible to cast without faith in a god. He is worshiped by a cult of heretical Yuan-ti who claim that he is their true creator. As he gets closer to returning to life, encounters with snakes and snake-like monsters become more and more frequent. Sertrous does not have stats because he is nothing but a immobile skull, but the players may fight against a CR 23 aspect of Sertrous.

The Worm That Walks

The Worm that Walks is an evil demigod named Kyuss that wants to conquer the world and bring about the age of worms to become a full god. As get gets closer to escaping his prison, the world becomes infested with giant centipedes and other worm-like monsters.

Zargon

Zargon is an ancient evil who once ruled over Baator as the father of the Baatorians before Baator was conquered by Asmodeus and his Baatezu. Although he was defeated by Asmodeus, he could not be killed even by the gods and was imprisoned on the material plane. His horn is nearly indestructible and he will regenerate from it if the rest of his body is destroyed. Now he has given up on reclaiming Baator and wants to conquer the mortal world. As his influence spreads the world is affected by extreme weather.

Dragon Magazine

Two more elder evils were added in Dragon Magazine. Zurguth, the Feasting Vast, is the accidental creator of the Kaorti. Shothragot is a powerful servant of Tharizdun.

Aboleth Deities

While most Aboleths do not worship gods, there are five godlike beings that they pay respects to, which are described in the book Lords of Madness

• Bolothamogg (Him Who Watches from Beyond the Stars): A primal force that keeps the multiverse separated from the outer dimensions.
• Holashner (The Hunger Below): A gigantic centipede squid thing that eats its way through the material plane, leaving behind a black substance that can be compressed into Bilestone, a substance that debilitates non-aberrations.
• Piscaethces (The Blood Queen): The origin of aboleths. She wanders throughout the multiverse spawning new aboleths. If she were to ever return aboleths would see it as proof that the multiverse isn't infinite.
• Shothotugg (Eater of Worlds): A mass of liquid that travels between worlds, poisoning and parasitizing them and slowly changing the laws of the multiverse as it does so.
• Y'chak (The Violet Flame): A pillar of violet flames concealing a form so horrifying it would destroy anyone who looked at it. It encourages mortals to worship evil gods and may be responsible for the creation of many of those gods.