Bit of Analysis: Rifts Dimensions

[Ahriman238]

Warlock Marines

"The enemies of the Imperium UWW fear many things, they fear discovery, defeat and death. But most of all they fear the wrath of the Space Marines!"

The UWW Space Marines (I'm just going to call them Warlock Marines to avoid confusion) are one of the best trained, equipped and disciplined military forces in the Three Galaxies. 75% of candidates drop out the first year of training. Those who remain receive a variety of hormonal treatments, potions, and drugs to make them faster, stronger, and tougher, with noticeably better endurance and dexterity. They are also far more resistant to poisons, drugs, fear, mind control, and magic of any kind. They also develop fanatical espirit de corps.



The day he graduates a Warlock Marine is given his armor. The armor has 400 MDC, with 3/day Armor of Ithan enchantment adding 100 MDC. There is also a special 50 MDC Armor spell that manifests around the head if the helmet is damaged. The armor is mystically linked to the Marine the first time it's put on, fitting the suit to the wearer and drastically improving response times. Suits have sometimes been known to fight on or escape when the wearer was disabled. An armored Marine can run at 70 mph/112 kph, and lift lift a ton and change. An flightpack can be worn to give a speed of 200 mph/320 kph in atmosphere, Mach 1 in space. The armor has sensors including radar, infrared, UV, lidar range-finding, sense magic, sense evil, and see invisible. More to the point, the Warlock Marines alone have power armor that doesn't interfere with spellcasting, and the "squishy wizards" are liable to rip your arms out.

The armor comes with 6 mini-missiles, allowing some massive platoon/company volley fires on occasion. It is at least an exercise they practice often. Also a wrist blaster that does 4-24 MD at a 500 foot range. Standard armament is a Volcano Plasma Rifle, which can fire unlimited rounds hooked up to the armor and fire flamethrower style for for a range of 4000 feet. It does 10-60 MD on range mode, flamethrower gives double that within 30 feet, 4-24 around the edges. They also keep a vibro-sword standard (sometimes an ax) for melee combat. More specialized weapons include a laser sniper rifle with a 6,000 ft/1800 m range and 16-46 MD, which 10% of the Corps carry. A Gravity Railgun with 20-80 MD and ammo for 50 bursts that 10% of the Corps favor. Finally, at least one member of every squad has a SAM/LAW style missile launcher with 8 missiles for AA/AT combat.



Considering the armor thing is taken care of, you'd think there'd be a ton of casters willing to sign on. Nope, just 1% of the Corps are spell-slingers, and unless they had a magic class before joinging, they're not great ones. Start with Globe of Daylight, Sense Evil, Chameleon, Detect Concealment, Simple Invisibility, Armor of Ithan and Magic Net. Gain one spell per level, healing, combat, or sensory only.




People say the Marine's Greataxe is a substandard tank, and they're half right. It's not the best tank, but that;s because it;s an IFV/drop pod. This 20x20x40 foot, 30 ton, 420 MDC vehicle is meant mostly to carry 10 Warlock Marines into combat and support them as needed. It can fly to and from orbit, albeit painfully slowly and is usually kicked out an airlock to deploy the Marines. Specifically, it can do 80 mph/128 kph at any sort of altitude, but as long as it stays a hundred feet or less above the ground or water it does 200 mph/320 kph.

The main gun is a dual-purpose cannon that can load either shells or bottled demon missiles. It carries 40 shells that do 20-80 MDC. It also has 32 bottled demon missiles for anti-ait or long range bombardment, each does 30-120 MD on detonating, then repairs itself instantly and makes for the target again and again. It also has a co-ax railgun (10-60 MD, 200 bursts) and a doubly powerful version of a Volcano gun. Finally, 32 mini-missiles.



The Warlock Marines have long been restless for lack of a worthy foe. In particular tensions have come up with the navy, who see each ship as a handcrafted, irreplaceable example of the shipwright's art. Elements within the Marines have even contacted the Naruni to make some more disposable ships available, but the interdict against outward aggression remains, so they're stuck with the Star Hive Quarantine Zone as the source of all action.

Well, most Marines are. Because Silverlight takes the threat of the Dark Covens so seriously, he assembled 47 of the most capable and out-there squads of Marines and named them his 47 Commissions to root out and destroy the Dark Covens. Each Commission was gifted their own Arcane II patrol ship, 2 Greataxes, and a letter from Silverlight pardoning them of any and all crimes committed in pursuit of their remit, then sent out to go wherever they needed to go and do whatever they need to do. Hey, it worked in Mass Effect. The Commissions have been very successful in driving the Dark Covens deeper underground, but have also had an appallingly high casualty rate.

Unbeknownst to Silverlight, Haze Pennington, commander of the most successful of all Commissions (#47) is actually a Sunaj Assassin, a Splugorth sleeper agent. Even Pennington is not consciously aware of that fact, else he'd have never married a nice Atlantean girl and had 2 kids. Sooner or later his origins will be revealed, or he'll be activated and have a choice to make.

[Ahriman238]

Space Warlock

The primary casters of the UWW, often acting in support of the Warlock Marines, but not members. The Warlocks were the first to use many of the enhancement treatments given to Marines, but there's are more limited and usually cause some kind of scarring. Anyways, because they come from Tempest, which is so rich in magic, they have all the class abilities of a ley line walker.,

The majority of Space Warlocks are like traditional Warlocks but learn a Space Magic spell every other level. The exception is Ari Warlocks, who get a Space Magic spell every level after first. Those who don't have a particular elemental affinity cast from the standard list, starting with 12 spells from levels 1-4, and 6 space magic spells.

Space Magic is like the standard spells in that any caster can learn them, but they're very hard to find outside the UWW. Many of the spells only work on a spaceship or EVA, which is okay since they're generally geared towards surviving in space.


Space Magic

I
Communications Booster- boost signal range 300x, EVA only.
Detect Leak- detect air leak
Magnetic Boots- stick to hull or object
Propulsion Blast- conjure a light puff of wind for propulsion, braking, or changing direction.
Zero G Movement and Combat- fight in zero G without penalty

II
Magic Homing Beacon- tag someone/thing with a magic homing beacon that can be traced at any range.
Sense Magic Homing Beacon- guess.
Space Walk- artificial gravity that effects only you
Vacuum Speak- convert your speech into radio

III
Recycle Air- magic filter/purify
Protection from Radiation- exactly what it says on the tin. Laugh off hard rads.
Space Swim- Swim through Zero G as though through water.

IV
Detect Teleport and Magic Breaches- sense magic teleports/portals/rifts. Can tell if one occurred in last 5 minutes.
Distress Call- magic distress beacon transmits 15 word message every 6 minutes, 2 LY/level range.
Hide in Space- magic stealth, can be applied to self or any ship but becomes PPE expensive fast.
Impervious to Vacuum- survive in space, as long as the spell lasts.
Magic Tether- conjure magically strong rope (50-190 ft) attaching you to a person or object.
Stellar Navigation- recognize where you are, be able to plot courses as though an expert navigator.

V
Seal Leak- conjure putty to temporarily seal air leaks. Lasts a few hours.
Magic Escape Bubble- in lieu of an escape pod, a 50 MDC bubble with air and protection from rads, holds 2-16 people for 2-30 hours.
Magic Hull Patch- bond a piece of metal to the hull in an airtight seal.

VI
Create Breathable Air- conjure fresh air
Create Drinkable Water- conjure water
Magic Reentry Bubble- same as magic escape bubble, but can survive reentry and homes in on nearest planet-side ley line nexus.
Shooting Star- blue bolt of magic that splinters into dozens of smaller exploding bolts in flight (2-21 MD for 10 ft around target)
Space Flight- rocket through space at Mach 1/level!

VII
Intuitive Xeno First-Aid- understand basic first aid for new aliens.
Locate Lifesigns- scan 100 miles/level for life, works only in space or in relatively barren settings. Detects only humanoid or larger life.
Magic Tug Tether- magic tether, only it links 2 spaceships, not you to whatever you target.
Space Fire Stream- mystic flamethrower (10-80 MD) that burns only in vacuum.
Space Push- target goes flying away at 35 mph/56 kph. Only works on objects less than a ton, and in space.
Vacuum Fire- ignite target with rapidly spreading fire that consumes all combustibles but burn only in vacuum.

VIII
Anti-Gravity Flight- give self, fighter or small shuttle CG flight, 70 mph/112 kph in atmosphere, 100 mph/160 kph in atmosphere.
Cosmic Ray- beam of light shines harmlessly through walls or armor, does 4-14 MD to most, 10-35 to demons. Half damage with forcefield.
Hull Regeneration- rebuild destroyed hull of frigate or smaller spacecraft, doesn't repair systems, just the hull.
Long Term Magic Escape Pod- seal yourself in a box and go into suspended animation, 6 months/level to a max of 7 years.

IX
Cosmic Armor- manifest an armored (50 MDC per level) spacesuit, flies at Mach 1, doesn't interfere with casting.
Magic Decoy Vessel- create illusion of small spacecraft, imperfect only in that it doesn't move or show lifesigns.
Micrometeorites- summon hail of small meteorites at railgun velocities (25-165 MD.) Only works in space, effective against ships.
Nova Blast- throw plasma blasts summoned form the nearest star, 100-400 MD in space, a tenth that in atmosphere.
Star Light- glow with the light of a sun, obscuring self and ship from enemies. Much fun against vampires.

X
Anti-Gravity Zone- negate gravity for a 200-300 foot radius.
Block Teleport- send teleporters back where they came from, can seal walls against mystic portal too, but can't do both at once.
Create Vacuum- evacuate the air from a space 60-90 feet across.
Sub-Light Space Flight- give self or ship sublight speed of Mach 26-31, depending on level.
Ley Line Speed Doubler- double ship's sublight and FTL speed when travelling along a ley line.
Negate Mystic Portal- instantly seal all portals within the spell's reach (200-300 ft.)

XI
Gravity Field- caster can create gravity if the ship's cuts out, but why stop there? Create up to 30 Gs to inconvenience enemies.
Cosmic Forcefield- forcefield bubble 215-245 feet across, or wall 300 feet long and 10 high. 2750-3750 MDC!
Triangulated Teleport- teleport, but only to one of those beacons from level 2, 11-15 light-years range.

XII
Meteor Swarm- create shower of car-to-house sized meterors doing Mach 1-4. 240-1200 MD, double damage to cruisers and larger ships
Space Dust- conjure 100 mile dust cloud blinding to sensors.
Summon Ion Storm- all the perils of space flight, at your command
Summon Meteor Shower- Meteor Swarm's big brother, be a wonder if anyone gets out alive.
Superluminal Speed- self and small ship (fighter or shuttle) can reach an FTL speed of 24-30 light years per hour. Shame there's no way of steering.

XIII
Asteroid Strike- summon asteroid, does 1000-6000 MD to a cruiser, larger ship or station. Cannot be turned against planetary surface.
Solar Flare- cause supercharged solar flares, messing with navigation, communications, sensors and most computers in a system.

XIV
Create Nebula- summon all loose debris to create a 5 mile/8 km nebula, that screws up sensors, shields, navigation. FTL in a nebula is... unwise.
Create Wormhole- exactly what it says, create a wormhole for a quick escape. But you have no control over where the wormhole goes.
Phoenix Light- manifest firebird around ship of any size to travel at 28-30 LY/hour, with instinctive navigation.
Summon Comet- summon comet doing 4800-7000 MD on a direct hit, 100-600 MD to anything it passes near.
Nexus Space Warp- teleport from one space nexus to the next nearest in 1-6 minutes.

XV
Create Gravity Well- slam the door on any FTL for a 100 mile radius, Interdictor cruiser style.
Metamorphosis: Creature of Light- basically APS: light with magic, and 30 LY/hour FTL. Gain 500 MDC, lasers, immunity to energy weapons.

So as you can see, a high-level space mage can kill capital ships, pin down or blind whole fleets, and make ships far, far faster. On a planet, they have less options, but Shooting Star and Cosmic Ray still work for attack spells, AG field and G field, beacon, tether, detect and block teleport, conjure water (air too, but barring cave in, it's not that useful) and a few others. Plus the Space Magic list is mostly supplemental to the standard and Elemental spell lists.

[Ahriman238]

And now, at long last the magic of Warlocks in general. Yes, there are only 8 spell levels, so higher level Warlocks fill out their spell list a bit more. Warlocks cast from one Element, Space Warlocks one Element and Space Magic. Elemental Fusionists can wield 2 Elements, the opposite ones (either Earth/Air or Fire/Water.)

Elemental Magic

Air:

I
Breathe Without Air- breathe even underwater or in a vacuum.
Thunderclap- create sound of thunder, to intimidate, for theatrics or a laugh.
Cloud of Slumber- create 20 ft/6 m cube of mist that induces instant sleep.
Cloud of Steam- 30 ft/9 m cloud of steam that blinds and scalds.
Create Light- hovering lightball, 1 candlepower per level.
Create Mild Wind- conjure 2 mph/3.2 kph breeze.
Stop Wind- stop the wind for 100 ft/33 m in all directions, only works on winds below 25 mph/40 kph.

II
Change Wind Direction- change the direction of existing wind.
Create Air- conjure a 6 foot bubble of air, immediately disperses unless contained. Useless underwater.
Heavy Breathing- create sound of heavy breathing right behind someone.
Howling Wind- create slow wind, with creepy howling/groaning noises.
Levitate- float up to 30 ft/9 m in the air.
Mesmerism- put one person into a trance where they can only stand there.
Miasma- poison mist causes fever and vomiting, ineffectual on MDC creatures.
Northwind- 15 mph/24 kph wind drops temperature to 10 below freezing. No mention of whose degrees.
Silence- create 10 ft/level zone of absolute silence.

III
Air Bubble- create 1 MDC air bubble for protection against toxic gasses or drowning.
Call Lightning- drop a bolt from the blue on your target, 3-90 MDC.
Float in Air- hover slowly over water or obstacles, a foot off the ground.
Darkness- conjure darkness, 5 feet per level.
Fingers of Wind- conjure wind to snuff candles, open/close doors or move objects 10 lbs. or less.
Northern Lights- create dazzling and distracting light show, 48 seconds per level.
Resist Cold- no discomfort in the cold.
Walk the Wind- hover 20 feet up, walk on air at normal speed or glide on air currents 20 mph/32 kph.
Wind Rush- conjure 60 mph/97 kph wind to bowl over enemies or send small objects flying.

IV
Ball Lightning- conjure and direct 3 balls of lightning doing 8-33 MD each.
Calm Storm- halve intensity of a storm.
Dissipate Gas- a spell specifically to dissipate large clouds of gas.
Freeze Water- instantly freeze 20 gallons per level.
Invisibility- turn self and a few friends invisible, as long as no one moves or distracts you.
Leaf Rustler- summon a Leaf Rustler, the least of the Air Elementals, a trickster and thief.
Invisible Footman- summon a Footman, least of the Air Elementals, a loyal servant.
Protection from Lightning- immunity to electrocution.

V
Breath of Life- revive the recently (24 hours) dead. Doesn't heal burns, or restore limbs.
Circle of Rain- summon a localized (60 ft. per level) downpour.
Darken the Sky- summon ominous black clouds.
Detect the Invisible- see invisible under another name.
Invisible Wall- create unseen 100 MDC, regenerating wall of wind and water vapor.
Phantom- summon a Phantom, Air Elemental hunter, scout and assassin.
Whirlwind- create and control a 75 mph/120 kph whirlwind.

VI
Electrical Field- wall of electricity, anyone going through suffers 14-34 MD, and half are stunned.
Electro-Magnetism- super magnetize a 40 foot circle of ground, so all metal is pulled irresistibly to the center.
Mist of Death- red mist does 15 MD to anyone who touches or breathes it.
Snow Storm- conjure mini-blizzard over 120-450 foot area.
Vacuum- create a vacuum.
Whisper of Wind- the wind carries your words to a specific person within 160-600 miles.

VII
Atmospheric Manipulation- control air pressure, humidity, temperature, wind, and precipitation.
Hurricane- create a hurricane with 150 mph/260 kph winds.
Rainbow- create a rainbow of great size and beauty, raising moral and restoring hope.
Tornado- create and control a tornado of 180 mph/288 kph winds.

VIII
Wind Blast- hurl hurricane force wind, does 50-110 Mega Damage.
Wind Cushion- wind deflects all projectiles, even railgun rounds, and shields from explosions.
Creature of Wind- Air Warlock turns himself into a mid-level Air elemental.



Earth:

I
Chameleon- blend into your enviroment
Dowsing- sense location of nearby water, including underground.
Dust Storm- create a blinding cloud of dust.
Fool's Gold- illusion makes any object appear to be made of gold.
Identify Minerals- recognize all minerals.
Identify Plants- recognize all plants.
Rock to Mud- turn any rock or stone into soft mud.
Rot Wood- weaken and damage trees or wooden objects.

II
Create Dirt of Clay- conjure 50 lbs. per level of soil.
Dirt to Sand- turn healthy life-bearing soil to barren sand.
Grow Plants- increase fertility of soil, and double the growth of any plants that live in it.
Hopping Stones- make rocks (up to 50 lbs. Hop up and down for an attack or just a bizarre scene.
Track- gain great skill in tracking people and animals through the wilderness.
Wall of Clay- raise a wall of clay, 10 MDC per level.
Wither Plants- kill every plant within 10 feet.

III
Animate Plants- plants come to life to restrain or club people
Create Mound- raise a 10 foot high mound of earth.
Crumble Stone- make stone really brittle and flaky.
Dig- make a hole or tunnel, 50 feet per minute.
Earth Rumble- make an earthquake-like tremor. Again this is mostly for freaking people out.
Encase Object in Stone- stick an inanimate object inside a block of stone.
Locate Minerals- sense where metals and minerals are.
Wall of Stone- raise a wall of stone, 50 MDC per level.

IV
Animate Object- as long as it's wood, clay, or stone, and under 50 lbs.
Cocoon of Stone- Warlock takes shelter inside stone, semi-suspended animation.
Mend Stone- restore broken or worn stone, and pottery.
Quicksand- turn ordinary earth and stone to quicksand.
Repel Animals- animals find the area disturbing, and will avoid it.
Rust- we had Rot Wood and Crumble Stone, now here's a metal-killer.
Sand Storm- raise a mini-mini sandstorm, 20 feet across but still not fun to be in.
Wall of Thorns- create a wall of thorny vines that can be navigated only in MDC armor.

V
Chasm create a chasm 40 feet long, and 20 wide/deep for each level.
Clay to Lead
Clay to Stone
Close Fissure- seal any (non-magical) fissure or chasm.
Little Mud Mound- summon a Little Mud Mound, a very minor Earth Elemental
Travel Through Walls- ghost through wooden, stone or clay walls.

VI
Clay or Stone to Iron- my there are a lot of transformation spells in Earth.
Mend Metal
Stone to Flesh- unpetrify
Travel Through Stone- walk through any sort of rock or concrete.
Wood to Stone

VII
Metal to Clay
Petrify- turn people to stone. Seem to remember a Stone to Flesh that did that. Oh well.
River of Lava- create a river of lava, 30 feet long and 5 wide/deep per level.
Animate Clay Animals- even up to pachyderm size.
Wall of Iron- raise iron wall, 100 MDC per level.

VIII
Cap Volcano- suspend eruption for 6 hours per level.
Create Golem- exactly what it says on the tin.
Earthquake- cause a real quake with shocks and fissures, you control how bad.
Magnetism- It's the Electro-Magnetism spell repackaged for Earth.
Transference of Essence- remove soul to place in any plant life, clay, wood or metal object, which is now your body forever.
Suspended Animation- age 1 year for every 5 spent hibernating like this.



Fire:

I
Blinding Flash- like a flashbang, without the bang
Cloud of Smoke- blinding smoke cloud
Create Coal- conjure 20 lbs. per level of the black rock that burns.
Fiery Touch- charge yourself with fire energy, so anyone who touches you is burned.
Globe of Daylight- a ball of light like the sun, good against vamps. As see on the Wizard list.
Nightvision
Impervious to Fire
Stench of Hades- sulfur-flavored tear gas

II
Cloud of Ash- blinding and burning, aren't we economical?
Darkness- create darkness.
Flame Lick- a fire that burns in your palm, from which you can throw 2-12 MD firebolts.
Freeze Water- 20 gallons per level. Not what you pictured for a Fire Warlock?
Heat Object, Boil Water- by staring at it, 2 gallons per level.
Resist Cold
Spontaneous Combustion- cause naturally flammable things to go up for less PPE than Ignite Fire.
Swirling Lights- like Mesmerize, one victim is dazed, unable to move attack or defend.
Tongue of Flame- fire appears on your forehead and you can speak all languages. Hallelujah.

III
Circle of Cold- will give you frostbite in 15 minutes or less.
Circle of Fire- Warmer. Not necessarily friendlier, though.
Create Heat- raise air temperature by 10 degrees F.
Lower Temperature- by 10 degrees F. See where this is going?
Extinguish Fire- snuff it all out within 20 feet per level.
Fireball does 1-6 MD per level.
Wall of Flame- 30 feet tall, 30 feet long, and 5 feet thick per level thick.

IV
Cloud of Steam
Flame Friend- summon a Flame Friend, the littlest Fire Elemental.
Fuel Flame- make any fire 10x hotter and larger.
Heal Burns- useful skill for a Firebender Warlock.
Mini-Fireballs- 3 little fireballs doing 106 MD each, and magically guided to the target.

V
Blue Flame- magic fire that burns and spreads cold.
Breathe Fire- 2-8 MD, flamethrower like.
Eat Fire- for a Fire Warlock, a torch is as nourishing as a full meal.
Screaming Wall of Fire- Wall of Fire with more damage and an unearthly shrieking noise.
Wall of Ice- 40 MDC per level.

VI
Dancing Fires- create one 4 ft pillar of animated fire per level.
Eternal Flame- one foot flame doesn't spread, can;t be extinguished, will burn for 3,000+ years.
Flame of Life- revive the comatose and save the dying. No help for the dead.
Fire Whip- whip of fired does 4-24 MD with each hit.

VII
Wheel of Fire- create and control 10 foot wheel of fire, does 1-8 MD per level.
Melt Metal- 40 lbs. per level.
River of Lava

VIII
Burst into Flames- ignite self and gain 70 MDC. Burn everything you touch and shed light.
Drought- raise temperature by 10 degrees F for each level, and prevent rain for 1 week/level.
Plasma Bolt- 6-36 MD.



Water:

I
Cloud of Steam
Color Water- make water look murky and gross, without effecting actual quality.
Create Fog
Dowsing
Float on Water
Purple Mist- causes dizziness and lightheadedness .
Salt Water to Fresh- more transformations, useful ones, I'll grant.
Water to Wine- less useful.

II
Breathe Underwater
Fog of Fear- fog causes a fear effect.
Foul Water- turns water useless and bitter.
Liquid to Water- turn most liquids into water, poisonous ones are the hardest.
Resist Fire- ignore normal fire, half damage from magic fire, MDC flame or plasma.
Ride the Waves- conjure invisible wave to surf on, 25 mph/40 kph.
Walk the Waves- walk on water, must be relatively calm, no more than 4 ft. waves.
Water-Seal- magic waterproofing.

III
Calm Waters- slow and shrink waves.
Circle of Rain
Command Fish- control fish within radius (60 ft. per level)
Freeze Water- 30 gallons per level this time.
Resist Cold
Sheet of Ice- cover the ground or an object with an inch of ice.

IV
Create Water- conjure water, 20 gallons per level.
Hail- make it hail doing 1-4 MD per level over a wide area.
Shards of Ice- shoot ice blades from your hands, 1-4 MD.
Swim like a Dolphin- enhanced swimming skill, speed and breath-holding.
Wall of Ice- 40 MDC per level
Water Wisp- summon a Water Wisp, minor water Elemental.

V
Earth to Mud turn 100 lbs. per level of dirt to mud.
Protection from Lightning
Snow Storm
Ball of Ice- create and control 10 foot, one ton ball of ice.
Whirlpool- make a whirlpool.

VI
Heal Burns
Hurricane
Little Ice Monster- summon an LIM, a nasty little ice Elemental.
Part Waters- because you could already walk on water or turn it to wine.
Summon Sharks or Whales- 1 per level, will obey simple commands.
Encase in Ice- freeze a person or object inside a large block of ice.

VII
Rain Dance- bring the rain.
Summon Storm- bring a thunderstorm with fierce winds and hail.
Drought

VIII
Tidal Wave summon a wave that's 200 feet tall and wide per level.
Creature of the Waves- transform into mid-level water elemental.

[Ahriman238]

13 Deadly Spells

It's no secret that the Palladium Megaverse is deeply rooted in a knock-of Cthulu Mythos. As early as the second Palladium Fantasy book we are introduce to the story of how the gods, dragons and elves rose up and made the Old Ones slumber, and that only because their leader was betrayed and turned good by his fellows, to the idea that maintaining the chained sleep of the Old Ones remains a pressing responsibility of all the Pantheons. And of course, to the forces trying to restore the Old Ones.

Then came Beyond the Supernatural, essentially Call of Cthulu where you try and protect an unaware populace from the things beyond sanity, like the Goqua. Later this game was revealed to the present day of RIFTS Earth. Even the alien intelligences of RIFTS, the Splugorth and the Vampire Intelligences are of a kin to the Old Ones, though a billion Splugorth would not equal the threat of one Old One.

Some say the Old Ones are the source of all magic. At the very least, they are more tied to the supernatural than even faeries, dragons and gods. Even in their present state, their names (Xy, Agu. Al-vil, Ya-blik, Erva, Ya-ahk-met, and Tarm-kin-toe) have power. Even now, fragments of their essence escape bondage and leak into the corporeal Megaverse to make pacts and try to free their greater selves. The Witches made of these pacts, called Disciples of the Old Ones, are easily the most powerful and dangerous of all Witches.

The easiest way to release the Old Ones is with the Thirteen Deadly Spells. Each of these spells invokes the power of one or more Old One. When the first 8 have all been cast, at least once, the next 4 appear in that dimension. If each of these is cast at least once, then the final spell actually freeing the Old Ones will come into existence. All of these spells can be cast by any sorcerer, whatever his or her discipline or normal limits on learning magic. Each of these spells requires the permanent sacrifice of 1 point of ME, essentially a bit of your sanity. Pretty standard when dealing with the Mythos, really. But all Disciples of the Old Ones strive to find and learn these spells.

The most wanted person in the UWW, Azriel Darkling, is an extraordinarily powerful Witch. You see where this is going?



The lesser keys

Price of Power- invokes almighty Xy to let you cast any one spell, of any level or discipline, for just 10 PPE, plus 1 ME point for every 30 PPE you would have spent casting the spell. You can spend some or all of the PPE cost to defray the damage to your sanity, to a minimum of 1 point.

Harbingers of Despair- calls on Netosa (fear, darkness and the undead) to strike your enemies with a strong Fear spell. The victims of this spell, whether or not personally effected, will spread the Fear spell to everyone they come in contact with.

Diabolic Conception- with a prayer to Agu (life and death) and a touch, impregnate a woman (or any living thing that can give live birth) with a demon baby. The baby will appear to be of the same species as the mother, but will have the powers of an Incubus/Succubus, and immediately kill the mother after birth.

Covet- uses the power of Al-vil to make a targeted item or person irresistibly desirable to everyone who sees it, except the caster and the target, if the latter is alive. The victims of this enchantment will envy anyone who possesses or is closer to the target, and will gleefully murder them.

Shadow of Death- calls upon Erva (darkness and death) to make the target appear dead. This will fool even the most advanced of sensors, psychics, and magic divinations. The victim is actually both alive and aware the whole time. The simulation is so good, they even respond to necromancy as though dead. Whenever the spell wears off (it lasts 1 day per caster level) the victim returns to normal, probably inside a grave.

At All Costs- How much is survival worth to you? If you call upon Ya-ahk-met (power, light) you can survive almost any trial, because all damage dealt to you will be redirected to someone else nearby.

Hatemonger- invoke Tarm-kin-toe to make someone's friends and family turn on them. Anyone coming within 20 feet of the target will treat them, at a minimum, will contempt and barely-veiled disgust, if not fists or blades. Doesn't work on advanced supernatural creatures, gods, godlings, dragons, faeries, supernatural intelligences, etc.

Wasting- is done through the agency of Ya-blik (pestilence and pain.) Ever wonder what would happen if you hit someone with Age, Agony, and Life Drain all at once? Well, first. you're a damn sadist. Second, this spell will have that effect, for less PPE than doing all three spells sequentially, and just that trifling sanity price.


And once these spells are done, the Greater Keys each invoke 2 Old Ones and the fury of the elements! Warlocks will sense the entry of these spells into their dimension, though that won't help them locates the scrolls. Prophets will have nightmares, and every psychic on the plane will collectively wet themselves. Each of these is a Spell of Legend (Epic Magic, for you D&D players) and costs several thousand PPE and 5 ME points.



The Greater Keys

Nefarious Vacuum- Using Netosa, Erva and Air, this spell creates a vacuum for a quarter-to-half mile radius around the target, which lingers for 1 month per level. Impressive already, but everyone who dies in this vacuum becomes an undead minion to the spell's caster.

Fiery Avatar- Invoking Ya-ahk-met and Tarm-kin-toe, plus the power of Fire. This spell turns the caster into a major Fire Elemental, 40 ft. tall. Except they're more powerful, with less control, immune to water and totally berserk.

Sinkhole- thanks to Agu, Xy and the power of Earth, a circle of ground 1600 ft. in radius collapses into a sinkhole 150 feet deep.

Torrential Flood- using the powers of Al-vil, Ya-blik and Water. If this spell is cast on a body of water smaller than a sea, the water level will rise 1 foot for every hour the spell is active (3 hours per caster level, to a max of 45.)


When each of the Greater Keys is used at least one, the Disciples shall know how to perform the final spell. The last one requires so much PPE, it has to be done as a group ritual on a major ley line nexus, during a solar eclipse or major planetary alignment. Luckily, in the UWW there are many worlds that will likely be undergoing one of these soon.



The Big One

Reign of Entropy- invokes all the Old Ones and the Elements. This is essentially the Havoc spell on a mass scale. For 400 miles around the caster, everyone is hit with Fear and Confusion effects, causing panicked rioting. They are also subject to random damage that isn't effect by armor or defensive spells. Even people who save against the fear and confusion move sluggishly, and take a 50% penalty on all skills, and a more serious penalty to their resistance to things like fear, confusion and mind control effects.

The spell also summons 400 Minotaurs from the Palladium Fantasy game. They are immune to the spell's effects and make their way to the center to perform the chant that actually frees the Old Ones. At this point, the only way to save the Megaverse is to go hunting, despite all the penalties.

[Ahriman238]

Inglix the Mad

There's a handful of names you know if you live in, or have any contact with, the UWW. Consul/ High King Silverlight is one, Ikarus and some of his party, the witch Azriel Darkling, and Inglix. Inglix was one of the founding members of Dwarven Guildmaster society, making him at least 5,000 years old. He's also the inventor of the Rift Drive, Rift Projector Cannon, Deathcloud Cannon, Flare Cannon, and Bottled Demon Missiles. He's also obsessed with learning every spell in existence (apparently no one told him there's a way for PCs to do just that.)

Inglix apparently started out as an Earth Warlock Dwarf in a low-tech fantasy dimension, before seizing on his present ambition. He's old dungeon-crawling buddies with Thraxus, a godling whose also the richest man in the Three Galaxies. On their adventures, Inglix wanted the knowledge, and Thraxus just wanted the spoils. Sadly, the "mad" title isn't other people's way of appreciating his genius, Inglix is definitely manic-depressive, a touch paranoid, and his obsession with acquiring mystic knowledge and power goes well beyond reason. He hires adventures to go all around the Three Galaxies, and other dimensions, after books, artifacts and spells.

Inglix to date has mastered all Earth magic and Necromancy, all the standard spell list to level 13, plus Superior Teleport, Restoration, Impenetrable Wall of Force, and Dimensional Portal. For most purposes, he counts as a max level Earth Warlock and Techno-Wizard, 12th Level Shifter, 10th Level Necromancer/alchemist, and 6th level Runesmith. His long millennia of magic use have altered him (most visibly by giving him pointy ears) making him an MDC creature with 400 MDC and decent regen. In a fight, he has enchanted armor with 1,000 MDC. Normally, he wears a bracelet with an Armor of Ithan enchantment good for 140 MDC.

Inglix has his own Asteroid Eater, the Ironring, which he is sovreign ruler of.



UWW Fleet

I've already mentioned the UWW uses a mix of Naruni fighters and their own Shadowbolts. While Here I covered their bomber, frigate and cruiser. So I suppose that leaves just 3 ships. Pity there's only a picture for one.

Mk. XV Breacher Shuttle

The Warlock Marines have little need for a drop ship when their standard IFV can be dropped from orbit, so the Breacher is designed around two missions the Greataxe doesn't cover so well, boarding hostile ships and stealth missions. Stealth is achieved with a shadow meld spell, the hsip still shows up on some sensors like radar, but not on thermal or visual, making it easier to overlook. When standing still, like on a planetary surface, or latched to the side of a ship, it has a Chameleon spell.

Once the shuttle has latched onto a hostile ship, it can use Mystic Portal to open and maintain up to 3 portals anywhere on the ship, allowing it to empty it's troop load very quickly into strategic locations. If there's a Space Warlock onboard to stop the portals, there's still two arilocks, a rear ramp and the normal assortment of cutting and blasting tools. Stadard boarding party is 80 power-armored Warlock Marines (20 of them casters) 40 troops in standard armor, and 20 engineers. The shuttle can also carry a mechanized company with 8 Greataxes and 60 Marines. If you just cram as many unarmored people as you can in, say unarmored infantry or refugees, you get 300 souls. In a pure cargo configuration, it can move 400 tons.

The shuttle itself is 65x70x220 feet, or 20x21x69 meters, and weighs 1500 tons, very tough at 3500 MDC. It has a sepcial shielding system so air is deflected away before even touching the hull, allowing Mach 4 in atmosphere, Mach 7 in space. No FTL. The shuttle is heavily armed with a plasma gun (40-240 MD) 6 lightning rods (10-60 MD) 48 medium-range anti fighter missiles, and 160 mini-missiles.


Mk. X Nexus Battleship

Latest form the twisted mind of Inglix, the Nexus Battleship. Picture an armored brick, with a large red gem mounted at the front, with two short adjustable plane wings and a segmented flexible tail. The overall effect should recall a sperm whale, but with larger fins and a much longer and more flexible tail.

The ship is 150x850x1200 ft, or 46x259x366 m, 125,000 tons with room for 10,000 tons of cargo and 40,000 MDC. The ship has a crew of 310, and 192 Marines. It can do Mach 2 in atmosphere, Mach 10 in space. The original Nexus, built nearly a decade ago, was a testbed for all manner of new technologies, including a Mk. II Rift Drive which can only jump every 6 hours (4 jumps a day instead of 5) but has twice the normal jump range, 40 light-years normally, 80 in the intergalactic void. Another novelty is a bound major elemental providing PPE to the ship's batteries, making 6,000 PPE an hour, with a storage capacity of 40,000 PPE. Far beyond any previous magical ship. A third innovation is the 5,000 MDC Shield of Invulnerability, which takes half damage from energy weapons, as well as heat and cold effects (the second is rarely an issue.) The shield can be raised instantly and for free 3 times a day, after that is eats 2,000 PPE and a five minute activation ritual. The PPE can come from the techno-smithies or the ship's batteries, no way around the ritual.

The big red gem I mentioned above is a Flare Cannon, it creates a Rift leading to the heart of a nearby star and shoots out a jet of stellar plasma, 1 mile "high" and "wide" and 2 miles long at a leisurely 100 mph/160 kph. The flare lasts 30 minutes to 3 hours, and everything in it takes 1,000-6,000 MDC every 15 seconds. The Flare Cannon can be fired every 5 minutes, but will require some down time after shooting at maximum RoF, meaning no more than 6 shots an hour, or 24 shots in a day. Finally, in the last few seconds of building power, the Flare Cannon disperses the Shield if it's up.

Secondaries, the tail is flexible enough to arc scorpion style over, or under, the ship. Good thing, since it has twin standard cruiser lasers, 80 mile range and 1,000-4,000 MD apiece. 4 particle beams doing 300-1800 MD at 11 miles, 1 on either side of the Flare Cannon gem, and 1 on each fin. 4 long-range missile launchers, with 30 birds each and 10 full reloads in the holds. Point defense has 4 standard railguns, 40-240 MD a six mile range and ammo for 500 bursts. Then 8 of the new point-defense gun, the Meteor Cannon. This one burns PPE to conjure and luanch meteors in a shotgun spray at railgun velocities. Same range and damage as the standard railguns, unlimited ammo unless the PPE generator is taken out, and a bonus to hit.

The Nexus carries 6 fighters, any variety used by the UWW, and 1 Breacher shuttle.


Elven Brightwander MRV



These flying crystal palaces were the first exploration/colony ships sent out by the Star Elves when they decided to venture out into the universe again. Because they were meant as colony ships, they're surprisingly modular for their appearance, and are used as battleships, troop and cargo transports, even hospital ships on occasion. And one can be quickly converted to any role.

The ship is 3333x600x1111 ft, or 1016x183x339 m, and weighs 10 million tons, with 45,000 MDC. In Battleship configuration, it has 2400 crew and 4000 ground troops, with 100,000 ton cargo capacity. Atmospheric speed is Mach 2, in space it's Mach 7.4. Standard Rift Drive, 20 LY range and 5 jumps a day. The ship has impressive defenses, including maybe the strongest shield in the setting, an Armor of Ithan with 35,000 MDC that can be raised 3 times a day but takes a minute. It also has emulative shielding (based on the spell "House of Glass") which deals equal damage to it's attacker every time it (including the shields) gets hurt. Finally, the crystal hull rengerates.

The offensive punch is provided by the ship's ability to fcous light into a magically-charger laser, called a Prism Cannon. Prism weapons do 50% more damage if the ship is on a ley line, double damage for a nexus, and gets around most "immune to energy weapon" effects. The Main Cannon has a 90 mile range, does 3000-18000 MD, and can be fired 8 times a minute. 8 Secondary Prism Cannons do 100-600 MD at a 14 mile range. The Tertiary Cannon number 24, they;re the point-defense doing 10-60 MD at a 3 mile range.

The Brightwander is also a carrier for 220 Greataxe IFVs, 24 Breacher shuttles, and 36 Shadowbolt fighters. What's that? You expected more fighters? Well, they sort of needed the space, because the hangars also carry 12 Arcane patrol ships.

[SAMAS]

I really, really don't like the Mk X Nexus. I mean seriously, a main gun most ships can outrun?

Anyway, as promised, some Naruni stuff Ari passed over:


The Carnivore Mk I Hover Tank. Is a fast scouting and combat vehicle sold by the Naruni. It is 25 feet long, 9 feet wide, and 14 feet tall. It weighs only 22 tons fully loaded. The Carnivore has a maximum speed of 180 mph, but has a maximum hovering height of 20 feet. It's nuclear power plant has a 20 year life.

The Carnivore is armed with a particle-beam cannon that can fire in bursts. A single shot only has about the same firepower as a Plasma Mini-missile, but in burst-fire mode, the power equals that of a Glitter Boy. It has a range of 4000 feet, and a battery that provides enough of a charge to fire 30 single blasts. After that, the capacitor recharges at a rate of one shot every fifteen seconds.

The small turret in front is the Carnivore's secondary weapon, a rapid-fire laser turret. It has the same range as the main cannon, and a rapid-fire burst is actually a little more powerful than a single Particle Cannon shot. It's also connected to the main power supply for an unlimited payload, making it a good weapon to use while waiting for the main gun's capacitor to charge up. Rounding out the Carnivore's armaments is a box mini-missile launcher with eight launch tubes and two reloads each.

Also, the Juggernaut, the Carnivore's previously-mentioned (but not pictured) Big Brother.

[Ahriman238]

Alright, the CCW gets 2 new ships in Fleets, and I promised myself I'd talk more about interesting or imortant planets.


Terra Prime is the origin point for the Three Galaxies arm of humanity. They had a thousand light-year dominion, the Human Alliance before hooking up with the Noro to start the CCW. They also had a nasty robot revolution when the AI named Network seized control of computers across the Alliance, which is why the humans are the major faction against AI.

Goldielox was the first human colony. It was sort of nuked into post-apocalyptic wasteland during the War against Network (Automaton War) but is still home to the city of Ryan's Landing, and the largest shipyards in the Consortium. They can repair or build up to 800 cruisers and capital ships at once. Goldielox also has the largest IDF fleet of the CCW; 300 cruisers, 42 battleships and 2 dreadnaughts.

The Eden system is home to 3 different agri-worlds and 2 habitable moons. It provides 20% of the Consortium's food needs, including much disease-resistant seed stock.

Noro-Gar is the original homeworld of the Noro, think I've covered the details and history there already.

Hyrill is home to the Hyrill Stellar Corporation, the Three Galaxies' most successful terraformers. Terraforming is sadly a very expensive and lengthy business, while FTL is cheap and habitable worlds plentiful. Good terraforming takes 100-150 years, if you want every detail right and to eliminate every possibility of a weird virus or something. 50 years if you cut corners, which the HSC has never done, and so they have only 18 completed comissions to their name, not counting their headquarters.

Icarus (not to be confused with Ikarus) was a very prosperous mining colony that's fallen on hard times, finally being taken over by vampires.

The Nightshade Nebula is 4 light years across, site of a historic battle between the CCW and TGE, and it's still full of energy mines.

Olympia was home to two colonies, human and wulfen who regressed to a Bronze Age tech level and were warring for land and resources. Then the Greek Gods, or convincing impersonators, showed up and ruled them for a thousand years, deciding all disputes through physical contests. Which sure seems to favor the wulfen, who have lots more strength, speed, and endurance than humans. Anyways, in modern times they honor the gods by hosting the Consortium-wide Olympic Games.

Quintos is home to the Paratree Symbiotes, and a small human settlement.

The Strata come from Stratos.

Rasscallion is one of only a handful of planets run by corporation, in this cast Rascallion Stellar Technologies, a producer of communications and sensor tech.

Shandara is a quarantined world colonized 500 years ago by the CCW, then destroyed by grey goo. One of Shandara 6's moons still has a Dwarf dome colony.

Zeta Epsilon has a single planet, a gas giant with 3 habitable moons, but multiple asteroid belts teeming with mineral wealth. Unfortunately, about a dozen different factions have colonized the 3 moons (Everwinter, New Dellian and Stone Haven) and the T'zee decided to ignore everyone else's claims, triggering a brief conflict the COnsortium put an end to, but now talks are breaking down all over again.


And now ship time.


CAF Araneae-class Battlecruiser



At long last, culmination of decades of intensive study, the CAF has produced an Interdictor cruiser! Er, if you never read the Star Wars EU, that's a ship that that produces an energy field (here called an I-field) that stops other ships from using FTL, or even drags them out if they cross it. But where Star Wars Interdictors create a narrow cone, the Araneae makes a cone a whopping... 60 miles/96 km across? Wow, that could inconvenience a slow ship for a whole 30 seconds! Well, I'm sure the BC can keep up with the enemy or something to stretch that.

Ship is 2264x400x700 ft, or 690x122x213 m, 180,000 tons with 32,000 MDC and shields 6,000 MDC to a side. Cargo space for 80,000 tons. Crew is 1673, with 164 Marines, presumably not expecting boarding actions or planetary invasions. Atmospheric speed is Mach 4.5, In space Mach 10.6. FTL is a blistering 8 LY/hour.

Primary armament is 4 forward-mounted torpedo tubes. Each torpedo has a 1400 mile range and does 400-2400 MD. Each launcher has 16 torpedoes and can volley them all in 5 seconds if need be. 128 reloads in the hold. After that, it has 16 laser turrets with a 5 mile range and 20-80 MD, and 8 missile launchers each with 64 anti-fighter/missile missiles for point defense. I actually like that it's heavy on point defense, with a really long range punch and no other weapons, because that suits it's role.

Araneaes carry 36 fighters of any type used by the Consortium, but most often Black Eagles and Proctors. There are also 6 assault shuttles.



CAF Emancipation-class Dreadnought



The creation of the Kreeghor's Doomgiver Dreadnought 100 years ago changed a lot of things. It gave the Kreeghor a lot more firepower, transformed everyone's ideas on the limits of FTL, and inspired a not-so-small panic on the part of their enemies. The CCW scrambled to design a ship to match it, over the objections of the peaceniks who feared provoking the Kreeghor, and it took them 80 years to independently come up with an FTL drive that oculd move a ship that big. And, really, the Kreeghor built the Doomgiver in the first place as an escalation because the Consortium designed the Protector, which was bigger and tougher than their ship, so the peaceniks sort of had a point. The Emancipation class has yet to be seen in any more than a skirmish.

The ship is 15000x2000x2000 ft, or 4572x610x610 m and 100 million tons with 90,000 MDC and shields 15,000 MDC to a side. Cargo holds store 30 million tons worth of goods. Crew is 8668 with 18,000 marines, supported by 800 tanks and IFVs, 900 mecha, and 1200 power armor. Emancipations don't do atmosphere, and only Mach 7.5 in space. FTL is 6 light-years per hour.

Main battery is 4 80-inch high-intensity laser cannons, doing 5000-15000 MD apiece at a 120 mile range. 8 secondary guns straight from the Protector battleship, 2000-12000 MD at 100 miles. 4 long-range missile launchers with 32 missiles apiece and able to volley all of them in a couple of seconds, plus enough reloads for them 20 times over. 48 point defense turrets, holding both a railgun and a mini-missile launcher. The railgun does 40-240 MD, has a 16 mile range and ammo for 200 bursts apiece. The missiles are always plasma, for simplicity, doing 10-60 MD with a 2 mile range and 32 birds to a turret. Both railgun and missile can be reloaded inside 3 minutes.

Like the Doomgiver, the Emancipation isn't just a big menacing ship, it's a carreier and a planetary assault weapon. I covered the ground forces above. In space, an Emancipation carries 1440 fighters. Typically 66% will be Black Eagles, the rest divided evenly between Scorpions and Proctors, but individual complements do change. There will also be 1200 Silverhawk power armor and 960 Battleram mechs for fighting in space. Finally, it will also have 120 assault shuttles for landing the troops.

[Ahriman238]

Okay, review time for the Transgalactic Empire.

The Kreeghor were created in a test tube by the Splugorth as an ideal slave/janissary race. They overthrew their Splugorth masters, killed the other Minions, and conquered a decent chunk of the universe on their own as the Kreeghor Dominion. But the Dominion couldn't over come the Consortium, which organized largely to resist Kreeghor expansionism. The First Great War lasted 200 years, and ended in everyone going home and dealing with the pre-war borders. So they reformatted as the TGE, a multi-racial empire that would accept other worthy species, with the Kreeghor themselves being just a quarter of the modern population. The now racially inclusive TGE includes kreeghor, humans, wulfen, skaa, sinestrians, silhouettes, machine people, monro and qidians.

What only a handful know is that the Kreeghor aren't really their own masters, but through the Emperor serve a Supernatural Intelligence known only as the Dweller Beneath the Palace. The Dweller wishes to find and consume the Cosmic Forge, believing that will make it the most powerful entity in the Megaverse. Officially, the fervent hunt for the Forge is to offset any technological advantage of the sneaky and dishonorable Consortium.

Racism and militarism are rampant in the TGE, being an ethnocentric warrior culture. You can't walk down the street without seeing propaganda posters, the odd checkpoint and everyone is familiar with the sight of tanks and fighters. Orwellian surveillance is not unheard of, but rarer than you might think, only happening in trouble spots. Basically every crime is punishable by an extended, often life, sentence to one of dozens of hell worlds, but if you have money or family influence it's very easy to get a slap on the wrist. They even have commissars attached to their military units, identifiable by their bright red trench coats.

75 years ago the planet Axis-5, now more commonly known as the Battlefield, rebelled against the TGE. A dozen worlds joined the revolutionary government called the Free Worlds Council and they've been at war with the Empire ever since. Treaty restrictions (the Lanator Accords) prevent the Kreeghor from sending ships with mass-drivers or simply glassing the planets, and the CCW has many observers to see the Kreeghor behave. The CCW and UWW are secretly supplying weapons and funds to the FWC, well, it's sort of an open secret.

25 years ago, there was a short border war between the TGE and CCW, leading to the present very Cold War like state of affairs.

The TGE has a process that grants superpowers, but has a 50% mortality rate. All Kreeghor and alien superbeings so created serve in the Invincible Guard, the bodyguard and personal agents of the Emperor, answerable to no law but him.

Okay, review's done. First their key worlds.

Kreeghor-tet is the throne world, and general source of all light and civilization. According to the Kreeghor.

Serti Gandle is the administrative and military center of the Kreeghor territories in Anvil. Civilians are absolutely forbidden from the surface, unless foreign envoys. It is also the personal fief of the Emperor's chosen heir.

Veripin is the site of the Empire's largest and most efficient shipyards, and the most mineral-rich system under their control.

Monro-tet is home to the monro, a race of cyclopean dogs with 2 tentacles, and the million year old ruins of an advanced race.

Keblinka is a former Golgan Republik world, a Lurgess colony, conquered by the Kreeghor who force the Lurgess to mine for them. It was recently retaken by the Republik, though it remains to be seen how long that'll last.

Thiradon III is in a trinary system where 2 of the stars went nova in a freak accident, killing most of the population. Among the survivors was the local governor who went just a bit nuts and became obsessed with chance. Now every 3 months Thiradon III plays host to a great festival of gambling, and a few lucky winners get to play the governor himself in a brutal 3-day tournament featuring every game for the ultimate stakes, their lives against the governorship.

Thelag Vohann is one of several planetary facilities set aside for R&D. The scientists there get no restrictions on their research besides it needing to ultimately benefit the military, and an unlimited budget. The downside is if they don't deliver or run too long past deadlines, the scientists are executed. The facility as a whole might be liquidated if deemed insufficiently productive. There's a plot here about helping a lot of scientists defect.

Fydra Beta is where a major shipyard, and supplier to other shipyards is found. In fact, the only shipyard producing the Doombringer Dreadnought. Every rock not useful for mining or working materials is fortified here, and the CCW and FWC would love to have a peek at what's going on. You see, Fydra Beta is one of 5 systems (the others were seeded by the Kreeghor) where grow the Nuk Rek Nuss, or giant nautilus, whose incredibly tough shell forms the base hull of Kreeghor ships. It's also home to an experimental weapons facility and Invincible Guard training center, as long as it's already insanely secure.

Dirakath is a more recent conquest, a planet roughly as close to the sun as out own Mercury, where a scientist emplaced a large number of lenses, mirrors and solar collectors to gather energy. The Kreeghor have discovered they can turn this system into a laser capable of destroying any planet in the galaxy! Except, you know, the beam will only get there at the speed of light. Anyways, they're doing trials before installing a bunch of these in strategically located systems. You might want to do something about that.

The Dark Web was formerly a pair of mining worlds, when the mines played out the retired Invincible Guardsmen running the show, Jerot the Punisher, still wanted to play tin god, and talked the local overlord into turning the mines into a prison. DW1 is a world of lava with a sulphurous atmosphere. DW2 is a frozen wasteland. Each facility has serious shields, a full company of troops and a dozen Invincible Guard protecting it. There are also 2 Smasher cruisers and 4 squadrons of fighters to prevent breakout by ship.

Ghost World is a prison planet. Every 10 years, the planet vanishes for 3 days and reappears without any of the people left there. Structures remain. The process is still being studied, mostly by attaching monitoring devices to prisoners in the vain hope of getting some data on where they go and what happens to them.

Zeihan XII or Z12 is a moon with superheavy gravity and a corrosive toxic atmosphere, a hell world run by the warden, Mr. Z. The prisoners are not allowed in pressurized chambers, but live in their environment suits. There is a suit repair facility, but they need to pay through the nose for basic maintenance, mining valuable minerals and trading them for a few more days or weeks of life. The average life-expectancy on Z12 is a year, the record is 3 years, currently held by General Diego Galveah a CCW war-hero who got busted on a black-op and disavowed.

Sirab Ona a planet with a large rural population that's been fighting an armed resistance against the Kreeghor for 200 years. The crazy thing is, the Kreeghor displaced alien conquerors who treated the locals far more harshly, and have generally improved the lot of the planet a lot, but one alien overlord is no better than another to the local's eyes.

Axis-5/Battlefield site of the original rebellion and ongoing guerilla war in the swamps, jungles and mountains. Has changed hands 9 times as one side or the other brought in serious fleet assests, but never managed to wipe out the opposition. Peace has occasionally broken out, never longer than a few weeks.

Ulterra is one of the largest contributors to the Imperial Legions, because the governor, Dekang, is a very traditional and hard Kreeghor and eager to kiss up to the Emperor. He also tolerates no dissent. After decades of effort, the FWC has only just gotten a few resistance cells set up on Ulterra.

The Dust Bowl to the Kreeghor it's just another system with a catalog number, not even rating a name. 5 rocks and a marginally life-sustaining desert planet. But this is the rebel base, the secret training facility for FWC insurrectionists.

Pomadon another trouble spot, a planet where a freak fusion accident killed 80% of the population. This flooded the ley lines with psychic energy and yep, lesser version of Rifts Earth with all manner of mystic and technological weirdness coming out of the Rifts. The Kreeghor are unwilling to cede the planet but they're having a hell of a time holding it against the chaos. Good luck with that.

The Tyr Corridor isn't a planet. Just think it's worht repeating that the only stable wormhole in the three galaxies is in Kreeghor space, with one end near the Free World's Council. It's 1300 light years long and not instant, but ships travel at 100 light years a minute inside.



Imperator



Now the general consensus among the Kreeghor is that giant mecha are really silly. But every now and then they're actually useful, and it'd be embarrassing to be shown up by people who do have them.

The Imperator mech is 40 feet tall, 20 wide and long, and weighs 35 tons. It can lift a ton and a half, and has 655 MDC and a crew of 4. It can run at 90 mph, 144 kph, and jump 20 feet high or long. The two nipple-cannons are the same GR guns their power armor has, 100 bursts doing 20-70 MD apiece. It has 16 medium-range missiles in shoulder launchers, and is armed with an energy sword or ax, and a "fang" the traditional Kreeghor 2-prong knife.



TGE Etherium Destroyer



The newest experimental warship, the Etherium was built with the assistance of 4 outcast Prometheans. It took them 20 years to come up with a starship-scaled OP field (phase cloak, for Trekkies) that lets the ship become invisible and intangible, and can be run indefinitely. But that's not all! The Kreeghor are also using it as a testbed for their new Singularity missiles, which create mini-black holes at the point of impact. They envision whole squadrons of ships decloaking to fire off a volley of serious shipkillers, a first strike capability previously undreamt of. Story-wise this single prototype ship becomes a focus for, and I'm sorry there's no better way to say this, Hunt for Red October IN SPAAACE!!!

Slight differences, the captain, a wulfen named Yarryl Aran, is actually a war veteran and an imperial patriot. He just thinks that elements of the Empire will push to use this new capability and embroil the TGE in a war they can't win. So he gives the technology to the Consortium, thus maintaining the tenuous balance of power and the current cease-fire. I'm assuming the key to playing this well will be concealing what's going on from the players as long as possible.

Anyways, the Etherium is 574x75x60 feet, or 175x23x18 meters, massing 48,000 tons. It has 38,000 MDC, no shields. Ship's complement is 200 crew, no marines but 25 security officers. Minimal cargo space. It can do Mach 5 in atmosphere, Mach 12 in space. FTL is a phase drive, 6 LY per hour.

2 primary laser cannons, 1000-4000 MD and a 100 mile range, those are cruiser or battleship lasers in a much smaller ship, presumably for cloaking ambush fighting. 40 Singularity missiles, each in it's own tube ready to launch, they are smart missiles with 1000 mile range. Damage is 1000-6000 MD to everything within 500 feet of detonation, half that for the next 500 feet. For point defense, the Etherium has 8 mini-missile turrets with 64 missiles in each. No ancillary craft.



TGE Executioner Battleship



The old Kreeghor battleship, once the mainstay of the fleet. Now that honor goes to the Doomgiver, as the Kreeghor have always liked bigger, more powerful ships. But there's still a lot of battleships floating around. The Executioner isn't quite as strong as the CAF's Protector battleship, which was a driving force behind the Doomgiver.

Anyway, the ship is 3000x600x500 ft. or 914x183x152 m. and masses 25 million tons with room for 300,000 tons of cargo. 65,000 MDC with shields 8,000 MDC to a side. Crew is 4,000 with 3,000 ground troops supported by 130 tanks, 100 Imperator mecha, and 500 suits of power armor. The ship can't really land outside specialized facilities, and can do only 250 mph in atmosphere, but mach 9 in space. FTL is contra-gravity, 6 LY per hour.

2 main laser cannons (isn't that always the way with Kreeghor?) doing 1000-4000 MD at a 100 mile range. 4 particle beam turrets as secondaries, 100-400 MD and a 4 mile range. 2 heavy anti-ship missile launchers with 100 missiles each and 400 more in storage. Point defense is covered by 8 railgun turrets, 3 mile range, 40-240 MD and ammo for 200 bursts.

The Executioner carries 60 Flying Fang fighters and 30 Rain of Death combat shuttles.

[SAMAS]

A few corrections:

Axis-5 was not the home of the Free Worlds League rebellion. That's Good Hope.

The prisoners of Zeihan 12 aren't mining valuable minerals, but rather ordinary worthless rocks. The warden pays them just enough that they have to constantly work to have the money needed to repair their suits. It should also be noted that all the mining has to be done by hand.

other interesting TE worlds:

Pomadon: An otherwise unremarkable world. a few decades ago, however, a massive fusion power complex exploded. This reactor complex provided 80% of the planet's energy, so naturally it was a huge blast, enough to kill billions of people. Even worse, the explosion happened at the worst possible time, causing basically a phenomenon/cataclysm much like the one that created Rifts' Earth. The Empire is responding in their usual manner (overwhelming force), but a planet-wide Demon/Monster invasion is no laughing matter, even with routine orbital bombardment.

Qidia: The Quidians are a race that, as you might expect, are none too happy about being absorbed into the Empire. Unfortunately for the Empire, the planet is home to a number of native martial arts schools that have been kicking the asses of the occupation forces up and down the planet.

[Ahriman238]

Correction accepted on Good Hope. I sort of already included Pomadon, but Qidia is interesting enough to more than make up for it.

And with the TGE/Kreeghor ships done, that's the last of Fleets. Except the new Temporal magic spells, which I think I'm going to put in the main thread just before I end it. Wow, there's just six Dimension Books left. The Megaverse Builder provides rules and tables for creating your own unique dimension for adventuring in, but doesn't have any plot or charaters so I'll leave off. Naruni Wave is largely a reprint of things we already know, and not at hand either. So that means, yes, another break from the Three Galaxies to cover Hades and Dyval.

[Ahriman238]

So what is a demon? What is a Devil or Deevil? Well, they're both supernatural creatures of evil, empowered by human suffering that travel the Megaverse to caus said suffering and corrupt mortals so they can have souls to torture forever. They are users of magic and psionics both, regenerating MDC creatures with nightvision, the ability to dimensional teleport back to their home realm and gnossolalia (magic ability to speak and understand all languages.) And they both hate the other's guts, preferring outright destruction to cooperation even though they have very similar natures, powers and goals. Most likely because they are, in fact, rivals for the resource of human misery.

How else are they different? Well, demons are usually more like some kind of beast-man, deevils are more like a traditional devil, you know; red skin, horns, cloven hooves etc. goatee strictly optional. Demons are usually more accomplished with magic, having more spells and powers, while deevils lean more on psionics. Demons are vulnerable to silver, deevils to cold iron, and both to weapons and wands from a Millenium Tree. The major difference, though, is that demons tend to be a lot more direct in showing off their power and causing the misery they love so much, while deevils are sneakier and much better at hiding their true nature. When demons try to corrupt someone, they tend to go for very simple levers, greed, lust and ambition. A deevil is more likely to appeal to envy, hatred and fear, their favorite trick is manipulating people into doing horrible things (like murder, or starting wars) that cause horrible suffering, for reasons that seem just, logical or even a distasteful necessity.

Demons (aside from the demons of Russia and China, and the Apocalypse Demon, which are their own things) come from Hades, a plane of mountains and deserts (often with gravel or shale instead of sand) scored with firepits and bathed in perpetual twilight. The deevil's home of Dyval consists of temperate forest and sparkling sea, with the ornate palaces of the Deevil Lords. The demons lack clear leadership, instead the 8-ish most powerful Demon Lords feud and squabble and form intricate and short-lived alliances. The deevils are treacherous as all get out, but all bend a knee to Lord Sahtalus. The Demon Lords look to short term gain, the Deevil Lords play the long game.

Mind, here's one more thing they share in common:


Demon Magic

Introduced new in these books, but applying retroactively to all demons. Like Space Magic, and I guess Blood Magic, anyone who learn from the standard spell list can learn from this one. The knowledge is usually suppressed by the forces of good, because these spells actively corrupt the user, but demons, deevils, demon worshippers and witches keep this branch of magic alive. A lot of these spells require some kind of blood sacrifice, which keeps the PPE cost really low. Not planning on going into detail, unless they involve human sacrifice or get really out there. One, for instance, requires the caster to eat a bowl of live maggots then kill a dog by ripping it's throat out with his teeth. Actually, you can just assume every spell after level 7 will involve a human sacrifice, plus Beyond Redemption.

Is it weird that I'm cool with the cruelty and animal sacrifice and related demon materials, but just a little freaked out by the Thirteen Deadly Spells and other Mythos stuff?


I

Death Trance- like the normal spell, but cheaper for the sacrifice
Demon Roar- roar like an enraged Baal-Rog, very scary.
Friend of the Serpent- snakes see you as a friend and don't attack unless you do first.
See Invisible- like the normal spell, cheaper for the sacrifice
Sense Good- detect the presence of good people, especially gods or powerful paladin types.
Spew Blood- vomit blood on someone for a distraciton or blinding attack

II

Acid Blood Spit- spit acidic blood, 1-6 MD, plus 1 MD for as long as spell lasts (1 round/level)
Blood Spatter- cover an area with smelly, slippery blood, making walking difficult.
Demon Claws of Vengeance- grow Alu claws, 1-6 MD to most, 4-24 to deevils and demons.
Impervious to Poison- same as the normal spell
Temptation- makes people more reckless/ gives impulse control issues
Track by Scent- sacrifice a dog to gain their sense of smell and tracking ability.


III

Acid Blood Sphere- grapefruit-sized blood projectile does 4-16 MD, splatters over a 2 foot radius.
Baal-Rog Fire Whip- conjure a firewhip, 4-24 MD.
Blood Armor- manifest magic armor or slippery blood, 13 MDC per level.
Blood Blade- turn mundane weapon into MDC, by coating in blood
Demon Talons- turn hands into Shedim talons, 6-15 MD.
Eyes of the Magot- grow 3 eyestalks for 360 degree sight and nightvision.
Friend of the Worm- Worms of Taut see you as a friend, and won't attack unprovoked.
Pride- curse others for 2 minutes/level with a reidiculously inflated ego
Spew Lava- puke lava doing 3-18 MD immediately, and 2-7 for the next 1-4 rounds.
Vanity- curse with overwhelming vanity, 5 minutes per caster level.


IV

Dark Yearning- inflames character flaws and urges people to act on them.
Envy- curse with great envy towards a designated target, 10 minutes per level.
Gluttony- curse with obsession to self-indulge, 10 minutes per level.
Lust- curse with obsessive attraction, own;t do anything too out of character, 5 min/level
Sloth- victim become lazy and careless, 10 minutes per level.
Lava Walk- walk on surface of lava unharmed by heat or gasses.
Power of the Magot- gain great strength, speed, bite attack, immunity to petrificaiton, 1 min/level
Spew- puke the most disgusting, distracting vomit onto people
Wings of the Gargoyle- grow gargoyle wings and powers of flight. 50 mph/80 kph with 40,000 ft. ceiling.


V

Blood Bath- healing and disease suppression by bathing in the blood of your victims.
Blood Mist- disorienting fog that blocks radar, motion detectors and infrared too.
Cloak of Hate- protect from telepathy, empathy & transmission, magical and psychic scrying.
Hellfire Bolt- bolt of dark fire, 5-30 MD plus 3 MD per level.


VI

Blood Bolt- fire bloody bone projectile from palm, 3-10 MD plus 1-8 per level.
Cloak of Fire- fire aura baffles advanced sensors, hurts people who touch you or are touched by you.
Demon Claw of Hate- Alu claws again, 10-35 against supernatural good, 1-6 against everything else.
Soulfire- bypasses all armor and shields, even hits mecha/vehicle drivers. 5-30 normals, 10-60 for MDC.
Streaming Energy Snakes- conjure 12 energy snakes that do kamikaze attacks, 1-6 MD apiece.


VII

Lesser Demon Skin- disguise as lesser demon/deevil, no power copying.
Summon the Bat's Disgrace- summon a winged Gargoyle.
Summon the Bat's Fool- summon a Gargoylite.
Beyond Redemption- berserker rage grants immunity to fear and pain, MDC conversion (+50% MDc if already MDC) and either impervious to magic, impervious to psionics or 10-40 MDC regen per round, whichever seems more useful to the caster. Berserker shuts out everything but his goal, cannot be talked down or reasoned with. Both caster and victim are now evil, if they weren't already.


VIII

Demon Blade- evil psi-sword of condensed shadow, 20-70 MD against good, 16-46 magic, 5-25 mortal
Greater Demon Skin- impersonate Greater Demon/Deevil, no power copying.
Summon Bat out of Hades- summon a demon bat
Summon Spawn of Pestilence- summon a demon fly
Wings of the Demon Locust- grow insect wings. Mach 1/level in atmo, 5/level in space, and dimensioal teleport.


IX

Bloodlust- mass berserker rage, speed and strength bonus.
Battlefield Blood Beast- create 18-ft beast from blood, 100 MDC per level, regen and offensive spells form this list.
Consume Soul- eat souls to gain much PPE, ISP, physical strength, MDC, and immunity to mind control, for 1 minute per level.


X

Curse: Corrupted Blood- curse someone's children (or nieces and nephews) to grow up as depraved demon worshippers.
Tormented Soul- cause incredible agony direct to one's soul, high chance of insanity after.


XI

Curse: Hellbound- disable teleport and send victim to Hades or Dyval. No magic will help them escape, they must find a Rift or have someone else open up a portal. For the spell's duration (5 years per level normally, double that for a Greater Demon/Deevil and triple for a Lord) victim cannot teleport and any form of dimension travel will dump them right back in Hades/Dyval. Even a Rift or spell cast by someone else has a 5% chance of leading back to that place.


XII

Summon Greater Demon- summon a Greater Demon who may help you if it benefits him and you grovel.
Demon Rebirth- In this ritual kill a dove, a lamb then an infant and have a succubus/incubus drain your blood almost to the point of your death. If successful, and you are later killed, you will be reborn in Hades 2-8 months later as a Greater Demonic Mortal, regarded only slightly less than Gargoyles or the Worms of Taut.

XIII

Heart of Darkness- The demon's power to permanently steal 10-40% of a caster's PPE base, and learn 5-30 of his spells by killing him and eating his still warm heart.


XIV

Death by a Thousand Cuts- protacted ritual where no less than 500 cuts are inflicted on the caster, who then transfers the damage and injuries to the victim by way of a voodoo doll made with some part of the victim's body (blood, hair, nail clippings etc.)


Demonic Spells of Legend

Fire and Brimstone- shoots 30 firebolts doing 2000-8000 MD, one bolt a round. Requires sacrifice of a dragon, sphinx or other powerful creature of magic.
Summon Demon Planet- a yearlong, very costly ritual which only works 10% of the time (but +10% for every subsequent try) to summon a demon planet.

[Ahriman238]

Guess I should get started with Hades and some sub-demons. A few familiar faces here, and a couple new ones.


Worms of Taut

The Worms of Taut occupy an ambiguous area between demon and not-demon. They are not sapient, and they have no magic or psionic powers whatsoever. They can be summoned, and it is the easiest summoning in the Megaverse (kill a snake, write the type of worm you want on the ground with the snake's blood, channel a tiny amount of PPE, hey presto!) but they cannot be banished or dismissed. They thrive in the hell-desert of Taut, but also in most any environment you drop them in and by now they have spread over a generous chunk of the Megaverse. They are not repelled by holy sites, and their bones and bodies are useless as mystic components.

Worms may not be capable of speech or reason, but they're about as intelligent as dogs and can be domesticated. Mostly.

All Worms of Taut are regenerating mega-damage monsters, resistant to heat and cold that live for centuries. They usually have incredibly sharp sense though the details vary (blow worms are blind etc.) they are usually surprisingly fast burrowers, and some are adept swimmers and/or climbers as well. Some Worms have preferred environments, but they can survive anywhere short of the vacuum of space (and I'm not 100% on that killing them.)

Tomb Worms are the runts of the set, 2.5 feet long with two small legs for climbing and digging and 2-12 MDC. They like the cool,dark and damp and their favorite food is marrow sucked straight from the bone. Care to guess where they can be found? Very good at climbing and sneaking around, can scent blood or decay from miles off and runs in packs of up to 16 Worms.

Fire Worms are also small, 3 feet long and bright red, with 4-24 MDC. They can spit small mega-damage fireballs (also 4-24 MDC) are totally immune to fire/heat damage and have a highly refined thermal sense and IR vision. They also have a pretty good sense of smell. Extremely aggressive and territorial, it least it doesn't have pack behavior like Tomb Worms.

Nippers run 10-12 feet long, with a large dorsal fin and 8 webbed 'legs' that end in suction cups, and 20-50 MDC. The worst burrower (small shallow holes only) is also the best swimmer, a good climber and easily the most trainable Worm. In the wild they have packs, at least one as large as 20, but rarely bigger than 8. Nippers can leap up to 6 feet into the air thanks to their extremely fast and powerful whip-like tails. While they can bite and tail-whip with efficacy, they are primarily constrictors who crush their prey, particularly since they can jump to throat height for most beings...

Tri-Fangs are 20 feet or so long, like three snakes joined at the midpoint so they have three heads and three tails. Yeah, I have no idea how that works either, but they have 50-100 MDC. Tri-Fangs don't really have super senses, but are fairly good at climbing (and dropping on you from trees) and swimming. The middle head can spit an incredibly potent acid, the other two are non-venomous. TRi-Fangs are likewise constrictors.

Serpent Beasts are 25 feet long, and easily the freakiest Worms. They have the same basic snake shape, but four stubby legs near the middle, and a human-like face with twitching spider legs for hair, 70-170. If the other Worms are as smart as dogs, the Serpent Beast is a wolf. It's also the only Worm of Taut to kill purely out of sadism. Serpent Beasts aren't venomous, but are immune to all drugs and poisons, their nightvision is good but their hearing and sense of smell is incredible. Serpent Beasts are known to hoard gold and magic items, specifically because humans value them so they make good bait. They can also hibernate for years if need be.

Blow Worms are 200 feet long and large enough around to swallow 2 men whole with ease, with 200-800 MDC. They have no eyes, but a good sense of smell and the apparent 'teeth' lining their maws are actually a sort of motion sensor. In point of fact, they crush their food after eating. The "Blow" part of the name comes from their ability to spit a great glob of extremely sticky mucus up to 60 feet away, trapping or at least hindering it's prey or enemies. Blow Worms are really unintelligent and placid, attacking only when provoked or hungry and can't really be trained except in the sense of starving or hurting them and then turning them loose in the direction of the enemy.



Gargoyles

Gargoyles are one of the most minor forms of demon. Despite looking reptilian they're really more like birds. Gargoyles have fine eyes, pretty good nightvision (much better than humanity) and can regenerate over time. All Gargoyles are psychics with Resist Hunger, Thirst, and Fatigue, Sense Magic, Sense Presence, Meditation, Telepathy and Mind Block. Gargoyles tend to live in large flocks, which they are fanatically loyal to, far more so then the demons who often claim to be their masters. Gargoyles usually live to be 3-500, but have sometimes lived to a thousand.

Gargoyles come in many types. The smallest are Gargoylites, about 3 feet tall and imp-like, with 100-400 MDC. Then come Gurgoyles, flightless and 8-12 feet tall, they often guards the nests of the flock, still 100-400 MDC. Gargoyles can fly, and are around 15 feet tall, on average stronger and tougher than Gurgoyles with 100-600 MDC. Gargoyle Lords make up 1% of the population, they are 20 feet tall or more, weigh 2 tons and have the power to turn invisible, breathe fire and turn to stone, gaining great strength and toughness in exchange for becoming slow and clumsy and temporarily unable to fly. They can do that 3 times a day. Normally they have 400-700 MDC, increase by 200 MDC in stone form.

One in 20,000 Gargoyles is born a Gargoyle Mage, who adds Sense Evil, Detect Psionics, Healing Touch, and Exorcism to their psychic powers while having all the abilities of a 4th level Earth Warlock. They can also take a spellcasting class to add another school of magic, and of course can do the new Demon Magic. Gargoyle Mages are the same size and MDC as normal Gargoyles, and can also fly.



Demon Mortals



Demons sure do love having mortal minions, whether they're sorcerers, cultists, other demon worshippers, witches or other. Well, a mortal who has provided good service for a Demon Lord (or anyone, if they're hungry enough for manpower) is sometimes invited into his presence to personally swear fealty and be rewarded with a touch of demonic power. They become sub-demons with some demonic powers, but lose some of the their intelligence and humanity, becoming more emotional, more primal and corrupted. Well, the other downside is they've sworn eternal service to a master who will regard them at best as cannon fodder, a court jester or some lackey.

A Demonic Mortal becomes tougher, but not MDC unless they were already in which case they become slightly more MDC. They get a boost to strength that tops out at 1200 lbs. and a speed increase, maybe as high as 17 mph, or 27 kph, and can jump 20 feet high or long. They are totally immune to disease and can live to be 1200 years old, but at a random time after 200 years they will revert to normal mortal, age a hundred years at once, and die. This state will come immediately should they ever annoy their demonic patron. Demon Mortals do regenerate 1-6 SDC a round, and take half damage from SDC weapons or radiation, and can sruvive 8-24 minutes without air, even in the vacuum of space.

Any skills a Demonic Mortal had are gone, and he must learn/roll up new ones. Any spellcasting or psionic abilities are gone forever. His recollections of previous life are emotionally detached, save a fanatical hatred for his old enemies.



Greater Demonic Mortals are a different breed, those who have really impressed a Demon Lord, or cultists high enough in power and skill to perform the Demonic Rebirth ritual. Greater Mortals keep their intelligence and skills, and get a lot more freedom and power to serve as officers or wranglers for Demonic Mortals. They even get to look like themselves, except for being bigger and stronger, with glowing red eyes and their master's mark branded on their forehead. This mark can be used to torment or kill the Greater Mortal by the Lord or any of his Greater Demons.

Greater Demonic Mortals get an MDC conversion (it's based on the orgiginating races stats, so no numbers here) with 1-6 MDC a round regen and supernatural strength. They also get nightvision, gnossolalia, are immune to disease and radiation, and can survive indefinitely without air. The Greater Mortal is a minor psychic with 3 physical and 1 super power, if he was a psychic before, just add new powers and the 3 lesser ones can come from any category. Greater Demonic Mortals live for 100-300 years more than they would have anyways.

GDMs have a special power, a berserker rage. When this is triggered, they double in size and MDC and their strength increases by a substantial amount. Their skin turns bright red, and demonic tattoos manifest, and they sprout some nasty demonic claws. The scary thing about this rage-state though, is that every time they kill someone, they heal back a third their MDC, and add 15 minutes to the rage's duration. They can trigger this state 4 times a day.

If a GDM was a psychic, he's still a psychic and slightly better at it. If he was a spellcaster, he remains a spellcaster. He remembers all skills and useful infromation from his previous life, only emotions that could distract him are purged.

[Ahriman238]

Lesser Demons



Alu

Alu are the most common demonic footsoldiers, just 12-foot tall wolf men, really. Aside from being used as cannon fodder and trackers, they serve as guards. They're actually usually pretty intelligent, and rarely seek combat, even with humans, but will fight when ordered to do so, or if challenged.

Few special powers or talents besides some enhanced senses: canine hearing, tracking with scent, see invisible, etc. 40-160 MDC with at-will invisibility, decent nightvision, gnossolalia and the odd dimensional teleport back to Hades. Standard demon powers, almost disappointing.



Aquatic

Aquatics are water-based demons, used largely for spying and sabotage. They look... hmm... a bit like like a reptillian mermaid, 12 feet from scaly head to tail, with four 9-foot tentacles where arms would normally be.

50-100 MDC, half that when they're out of the wet. Stadard demon powers (see invisible, nightvision, gnossolalia, regen, dimensional teleport) plus the ability to turn invisible, exceptional underwater hearing, and the ability to smell blood in the water over a mile away. Can survive indefinitely in water at any depth. Aqauatics can also live on land, but their senses are dull, their MDC halved, and they move terribly slowly, while their swimming speed is 26-46 mph. Aquatics have all sensitive psychic powers.



Shedim

Bird-men, not even flight-capable bird-men, but men 12 feet tall with eagle heads and talons for hands and feet. They're fearless and bloodthirsty, never giving ground, maybe not overly suited for tasks more complicated than fighting.

40-240 MDC, standard demon powers but their dimensional teleport is really unreliable. That and they take half damage from cold. Considerably more strength, speed, and endurance than humans, and naturally gifted acrobatically.



Mares

Not female horses, but short for Nightmares. These hunchbacked demonic hags are master psychics, specializing in crafting nightmares or otherwise monkeying around with helpless sleeping brains.

39-139 MDC, standard demon powers plus invisibility and teleport, and their regen is better than most lesser demons (3-18 MDC a round.) They have all physical and sensitive psychic powers, plus Bio-Manipulation, Hypnotic Suggestion, Empathic Transmission, Auto Mind Block, Group Mind Block, Mind Bolt and Mind Wipe.



Ghouls & Nasu

Ghouls and Nasu (the feminine form of ghoul) are minor demons that take the appearance of rotting corpses. They like to eat meat, particularly human and D-Bee flesh, but are more scavenger than predator, and will absolutely never attack without at least a 3 to 1 advantage in numbers, or if forced by another demon or sorcerer. Normally, they rob graves and pick battlefields clean. They're pretty much the bottom of the lesser demon pecking order, though still above gargoyles and demonic mortals.

26-56 MDC, standard demon powers, has poor daylight vision, takes half damage from cold or fire, and can tunnel twice as fast as they can run. Psionics and magic are nil. Usually run in packs of 3-8, won't use most weapons and armor even if they're available.



Lasae



These bug-men would seem like natural spies, but they're pretty determined to make up for their lack of height with sheer viciousness. They'll sneak around, poison you, and attack when you least expect, but they won't hesitate for a straight up fight if called for.

16-66 MDC, standard demonic powers, plus good vision and hearing, invisibility, and immunity to fire. They're great climbers which helps them get around, as does their ability to leap 20 feet high or long.



Banshee

The wailing ghoul of legend. They don't actually appear and wail to finish off the dying. Rather, they can sense impending death and swoop in to mooch off the PPE burst of a death. When the dying manages to linger a bit, they moan and wail in frustration and self-pity. They might, at need, linger up to six weeks if the person they're waiting on has a lot of PPE and their presence is by no means a sure sign of death, the person may recover and the Banshee leave in a huff.

A Banshees SDC adds up to just 1 MDC, but they have the advantage of being ethereal, so physical attacks do nothing to them. They have a natural empathy, and always transmit a feeling of sorrow and despair over a 60 foot radius with their own empathic transmission, which is they only way they can hurt people. They can hover and sort of float, and teleport (only themselves) up to 2000 miles away. Psychic powers include Clairvoyance, Psychic Diagnosis, and Sense Magic.

[Ahriman238]

Greater Demons

The ones who generally get to be the bosses, and answer only to Demon Lords above them. Many have unique powers, or at the very least combine being superstrong MDC tanks with high-level spellcasting.



Baal-Rog

Both personally powerful and highly intelligent, Baal-Rogs are the field commanders of the demon horde, capable of leading even groups of other Greater Demons. They tend to prefer solo or small team missions though. In appearance, a 15 foot-tall bat-winged demon, there's apparently a lot of felxibility for individual differences between Baal-Rogs, but the one picture is reminiscent of Chernabog/the Devil from Fantasia.

They're also popular for summoning, being about the most powerful demon most Shifters, Summoners, and Cultists can call easily, though controlling them is generally beyond the power of mortal spellcasters.

300-800 MDC, with the strength to lift roughly a ton to a ton. Standard demon powers, with a very impressive regen (4-24 MDC a round) plus turning invisible, tracking by scent, and impervious to fire. Can jump 50 feet high or long without wing assist, hover and fly at 50-84 mph. Their signature ability is to manifest a 4-24 MD fire whip, you can argue how special it is when there's a Demon Magic and Fire Magic spell that let you do the same thing. They know all Fire Magic to level 4, plus Animate & Control Dead, Turn Dead, Exorcism, Heal Wounds, and Remove Curse.

Baal-Rogs have no problem using advanced technology or magical items if it serves their purposes, though they consider such things unreliable compared to their innate powers.



Gallu

A Minotaur, only bigger, meaner and ever so slightly more dmonic looking with dark skin and glowing red eyes. They also let out a small puff of fire whenever they exhale. If the Baal-Rog are captains of the demonic hordes, then Gallu Bulls are the sergeants and occasional elite shock troops.

150-650 MDC, with resistance to fire. Standard demon powers plus invisibility. Able to run at 42-112 mph and jump 40 feet high and long. A ramming attack can knock over any monster or mecha less than 20 feet tall. Limited magic, with Blinding Flash, Cloud of Smoke, Globe of Daylight, Thunderclap, Fear, Repel Animals, Animate & Control Dead, Turn Dead, Remove Curse, Luck Curse, Phobia Curse, and Heal Wounds.



Jinn

The stereotypical genie is yes, a Greater Demon in Rifts. Not one that usually plays well with others or can be slotted into an organization easily, being tricksters by nature, but a demon nonetheless. Thanks to an ancient curse, any human who saves a Jinn's life, frees it from imprisonment, or otherwise does it a great service becomes the Jinn's master until he is granted three wishes. Mind, this rarely works out to the master's benefit as a.) Jinn are not omnipotent, if you ask for money they'll steal it from somewhere, if you wish for a home they'll have to build one or commandeer an existing one and b.) Jinn are still demons and the very picture of the genie that WILL interpret your wishes in such a way as to thoroughly screw you over.

Jinn value cunning, stealth and magic over brute strength. They have 400-1400 MDC, half that in daylight, plus they are invulnerable to all things but magic, magic weapons, and silver weapons (which do double the MD they would normally do SD.) Their natural state is invisible, but they can turn visible at will, turn to mist, turn into insects, and triple in size (going from 8 to 24 feet) and become very strong, plus the standard demon powers. Normally they look like a famine victim in a cloud of mist, black, white, green of yellow. These colors reflect an elemental affinity and power: black for earth, yellow for fire, green for air, and white for water. A Jinn has powers equivalent to a high-level Warlock of the same elemental affinity, with the black and yellow (earth & fire) Jinn having access to all the spells of their element, while green and white (air & water) have all but the highest (8th) level spells. Jinn further have all sensitive and physical psychic powers.



Magot



A greater demon that can turn people to stone with it's eyebeams. The effect wears off in 5-20 (though another book says 1-6) minutes, but Magots like to eat people and don't see any need to wait until they turn back into fleshy screaming creatures to get started. They can chew up stone easily enough and as long as it all turns back to meat in their bellies, it's fine. Magots serve Mictla the Devourer, and thus have literally insatiable appetites. Magots rarely leave Hades, except for the odd summons, and the unleashing of dozens or hundreds of them on a world is a major event.

1,000-4,000 MDC, standard demon powers, also impervious to fire and can turn into mist. No psychic powers or magical spellcasting, but they get summoned all the time just for their power to petrify. Also, they're 20 feet tall and weigh 2 tons, and have the rare gift of a mega-damage body-check, owing to their vast strength. They can slimb, swim and track really well, but are only as intelligent as a wolf or a smart dog.



Demon Locusts

As seen in the background of the Magot picture, The man-sized locusts with human faces and scorpion tails from the Bible (Revelations, naturally) as part of the Apocalypse.



The Locusts are the elite warriors of the Demon Lords, generals of the Demonic Legions and some of their greatest warriors. The vast majority, hundreds of thousands of them, hibernate waiting for the chance to unleash doomsday on some unsuspecting plane or war on the Deevils or Gods of Light. Less than thirty have tread the soil of Rifts Earth, most of them during the Apocalypse Demon crisis in Africa, but those who are there try to spread chaos and death to the best of their ability, and prepare the way for their countless brethren. Demon Locusts are fierce and merciless, but also smart, patient and disciplined, not a good combination for their enemies.

300-900 MDC, with all standard demon powers, invisibility, impervious to fire, and the ability to track by scent. Flight at 53-160 mph, and their sting has a nasty paralytic. Locusts are consistently smarter, stronger, faster, with better endurance than even the best performing humans, and are extremely knowledgable about magic and technology both. They have all sensitive psychic powers. They know every Level One spell, from every school and discipline of magic, and every magic relating to spoiling things and causing diseases, plus Call Lightning, Fireball, Fire Bolt, Dispel Magic Barrier, Negate Magic, Animate & Control Dead, Turn Dead, Fly as the Eagle, Exorcism, Remove Curse, Phobia Curse, Luck Curse, Spoil, Sickness, Earthquake, Id Barrier, and Sanctum. Making them casters both powerful and flexible.



Night Owl

An owl the size of a man with a human head, but keeping the bird's eyes. Generals and colonels in a crisis, but usually solo operatives, Night Owls like to build small networks of assasins, spies, and criminals with which to manipulate events from behind the scenes. They frequently serve as mentors and advisors to young tyrants and evil sorcerers too.

100-200 MDC, with the standard demon powers plus resistance to fire and invisibility. All sensitive and physical powers plus PPE Shield, Hypnotic Suggestion, Auto Mind Block, Mind Bolt, and Bio-Manipulation. Spellcasting includes Globe of Daylight, Chameleon, Repel Animals, Fear, Phobia Curse, Ignite Aire, animate & Control Dead, Turn Dead, Exorcism, Curse, Luck Curse, Remove Curse and Heal Wounds.



Rakasha



Demons of treachery and deceit, lovers of political intrigue whose idealized place in the cosmos is vizier to an evil or easily manipulated king (or lord, emir, president, prime minister, they're not picky.) Of course, not everyone wants to take advice from a demonic tiger, which is where their talent for shapeshifting and disguise comes in. Traditional shapeshifting via the Metamorphosis spell only lasts 6 hours, but a Raksasha can hold any humanoid form between 1 and 10 feet tall indefinitely, and by abusing total recall, see and alter aura, it needs very little observation time to convincingly impersonate a specific individual.

600-1100 MDC, all common demon powers, along with turning to mist, resistant to fire/cold and lesser teleport at will. Being demons of deception, they know and masterfully use all illusion spells, plus Create Scroll, Animate & Control Dead, Turn Dead, Exorcism, Healing Touch, Remove Curse and 6 more spells. They know all psychic powers and have tons of ISP to burn. They are skilled swordsmen, and favor psi-swords or magic blades.

Of course, most of their combat will focus on deception and illusion.



So that's all for this time, sorry there's only a little truly new material but I put up a bunch of these a while ago when putting up monsters making up the Phoenix Empire (and seriously, something like 20% of the Empire is demonic.) One more small thing before we get to the Demon Lords of Hades, and after that we can do the Deevils and some truly novel material.

[Ahriman238]

Four Demon Beetles

These large beetles occupy an odd place, they're unique unlike Greater Demons, and arguably powerful enough to be rated as Demon Lords, yet they have no minions, no territory in Hades or otherwise and no interest in the politics that consume so much of a Demon Lord's immortal life. They just want to wander the Megaverse randomly, causing chaos and carnage.

Each appears as a black beetle a foot (30 cm) long. They have the standard suite of demonic powers plus invisibility but "only" 190 MDC, which is really quite impressive for such small creatures. I say only because they have really good regeneration, and a special power that allows them to be reborn after 72 hours. Normally, they return where they fell, but if you perform an exorcism on the corpse or apply enough overkill (knocking them to -190 MDC in the same round you kill them) they will instead be reborn in Hades and banished from your plane for a hundred years. One trick, known only to a few is if you burn then grind the beetle's remains to a fine powder, or mangle them into a paste, and seal the resulting paste/powder in a jar of holy water, the beetle will not be reborn until the jar is broken or opened.

The beetles have lots of PPE, but only a handful of spells. These include Animate & Control Dead, Fear, Turn Dead, Exorcism, Heal Wounds, Death Trance, Mental Blast, Life Drain, Spoil, and Lesser Teleport. Each of the beetles has a Mega Damage bite, and can deliver through it or a ray of light a bizarre transformation effect, with no defense against it. This is the only way to distinguish between the Four.

Phoe the Fire Beetle's bite will change the victim into a minor fire demon, 10 feet tall with 40-240 MDC. The demon will be impervious to fire, can project flamethrower-like jets from his hands and can use the spells Ignite Fire, Circle of Flame, and Wall of Flames. The demon is a pyromaniac that will charge around setting everything it sees alight. The transformation typically lasts 1-4 hours, but Phoe can make it as many days if he expends half his PPE. Basically, if Phoe thinks it would be funny enough.

Kmm the Stone Beetle turns people to stone with his bite or a yellow beam from his eyes. This petrifying effect will wear off approximately never. Only a mage casting Flesh to Stone, or a God casting Remove Curse can restore the victims of Kmm.

Ti, Beetle of Fear has a fear effect that will make even Cosmo-Knights wet themselves. The victim is completely terrified of everything and everyone, especially his friends, for about 3-18 minutes. 50-50 the victim picks up a lifelong phobia of beetles along the way to becoming a functional human being again.

Dra of the Green Mold must bite his victims to infect them with his special festering mold. The mold will spread and hurt the person each day, regen, magic or psychic healing or whatever else you try can only slow it down. The victim is increasingly debilitated, and becomes hideous as the mold covers his skin and he starts leaving bits of it everywhere he touches (they can't spread it, but it panics the locals) only a god or a handful of special healing effects can save the victim from his eventual end.

[Ahriman238]

Bit more about Hades, the new book even has some reasonably detailed maps. What I didn't know is that Hades was created 100,000 or so years ago as a dark mirror to the Palladium fantasy world. There are some differences owing to time, alteration of the landscape by inhabitants and the perpetual twilight removing most plants. The biggest difference is "the elements of fire and water were switched" all the oceans, rivers and lakes of Palladium are substituted with magma, while water (which the demons have no use for) can be found only in lakes inside the caldera of mountains that are volcanoes in Palladium.

So there's one smaller northen desert continent, Taut, nominally ruled by the Gargoyle Clans and generally home to most of the subdemon set. Across a magma channel (which doesn't exist in Palladium, one of those differences I mentioned) is the large Southern continent where the Demon Lords make their homes. There's also a Western sub-continent, seperated from the Southern by impressive mountain ranges, to which the Demon Lords banish annoying and useless minions.





Well, my apologies, I did say I'd get to the Demon Lords this time out. Yet, there are more of them then there were Yama Kings, too many for me to cover in one sitting. And as long as I'm breaking it up, it seems prudent to first discuss what a Demon Lord is. In theory, any Greater Demon with some followers could carve out a bubble kingdom in Hades, get some cults started on other planes and be acclaimed a Lord by his followers, but that would be a meaningless title. A true Demon or Deevil Lord is, for all intents and purposes, an evil god as defined in the Palladium system. So what does that mean, besides having lots of cultists? Well, I'm glad you asked, here's what it takes to be a God (good, bad, or indifferent) in the Megaverse.


A God (or Demon/Deevil Lord) is far more than a supernatural creature, a living thing infused with generous amounts of magic. A god is made of magical energy, in much the same way you are made of cells. They do form a physical body to anchor their energy and keep it from dispersing, this is called their Primal Manifestation and is their sole vulnerability. Destroy their Primal Manifestation, (which will have thousands or tens of thousands of MDC) and the God will discorporate, effectively die. They can be resurrected, after 2-8 years of near constant prayer and sacrifice by their cultists, or in a week tops of effort by their fellows, which is why most gods run with a Pantheon. Demon Lords, as a rule, can't rely on their peers and rivals choosing to revive them. Whatever deals or arrangements are made are still subject to betrayal when one of the parties is at their weakest, and there's all sorts of advantage to be had in one of the 14 Demon Lords being absent for several years. Gods are technically immortal in that they don't age, aren't subject to disease or death by natural causes, but as you can see can be destroyed by violence and will stay dead if all their worshippers/cultists are destroyed or fail to perform the appropriate intensive rituals.

Gods' ability to sense magic is an order of magnitude more powerful and sensitive than lesser beings, it is simply impossible for any mage, psychic, supernatural being, magic item, PPE battery, active worshipper or fellow god (barring this one power) to conceal their true nature from a God, no matter what spell, power or trick they employ. Likewise they can sense rifts, portals and dimensional disturbances at a range of 6 miles. God's can see through the senses of their minions and worshippers/cultists, even simuletaneously through the senses of all their minions of a single planet or plane, though in that case they consciously take in very little, instead looking for obvious signs of trouble or a particular person or thing. They also have a power called Dimension Hole, where they create a portal that lasts only an instant and will allow passage only to them. Effectively, it's a dimensional teleport except with zero chance of failure (even the best dimensional teleport power has a 2% chance, like every skill) and one that cannot be blocked, redirected or futzed with in any way.

Because Gods (and Demon and Deevil Lords, look, is it okay if I just use Gods as a shorthand from here on out?) are magic with a small portion of flesh, they can change the size of their Primal Manifestation without apparent limit to how small or big they can get. They do this instantly and automatically when dimension traveling to appear on the same scale as the locals (whn in Jotunheim, be giant-sized or be ignored and squashed.) Doing it normally takes several seconds to a couple of minutes.

Gods mooch PPE off of their worshippers, and when animal or human sacrifices are done in that God's name he gets the burst of PPE from their death. The weakest God regains 160 PPE an hour. They usually delegate to priests, who conduct services and act as the God's primary agents on a given world, receiving spells and a tiny bit of PPE from their patron, who might also sometimes lend them a Deific Power or provide a miracle. If a God becomes desperate, he can rescind those powers and tap all his worshippers and minions for PPE, yieldings hundreds or thousands. Or order special vigils and sacrifices for tens of thousands of PPE.

Gods tend to high stats, and particularly profit from high charisma. One effect of divinity is that people are going to be more easily impressed by a God, especially if he demonstrates a feat of considerable strength, speed, skill, or intellect. It's an effect all of it's own, you can watch a hulking alien lift a huge rock, and you may be mildly impressed. A moment later a God lifts that same rock and, in spite of all reason, you are left with a lifelong impression of "geez, that one's strong. Better not piss him off." Same thing if a God does something reasonably clever, and becomes recognized by everyone as the greatest genius of all time, nay, the very source of all wisdom.

Gods also get to choose 6 divine attributes, from the same list as demigods and godlings (who get 1 and 3, respectively.) They can take the same thing multiple times, particularly the stat-boosting ones, but also things that give you a choice of powers. Here's a refresher.

Turn Invisible at-will.

Super Strong

Super Tough

Super Swift

Shapeshifting- to animal, once per day per level. No monsters or magical creatures.

Energy Blast

Energy Aura- personal forcefield, not much improvement on Armor of Ithan, for a god.

Fly

Impervious to one of the following: fire, cold, lightning, energy weapons, poison/disease and mind control/possesion.

Super Psionics- character has all powers from any two lesser disciplines (healing, sensitive, physical) or all powers from one lesser discipline and 5 super powers, OR is a Burster.

Magic- character knows all level appropriate spells and has all powers from: the standard (LLW) list. a Warlock list (just of the elements) Shifter, Mystic, or Necromancer. The last is only available to evil Gods and Godlings.

In case this wasn't broken enough we have Deific Powers, the true power of a God. Now the vast majority of Gods, Demon & Deevil Lords will have all of these powers, a small majority will only have most. Even so, it's going to be easier for me to just explain which of these powers a given Demon Lord doesn't have. Now all of these abilities require at least a hundred PPE, some run into the thousands, but since Gods have tons of PPE to throw around, some require a bit more, a Body Investment, essentially cast from hitpoints. There are four levels of Investment: Token (10% of MDC) Severe (50%) Consumed (all but 10-60 MDC) and Anihilated (total sacrifice of Primal Manifestation.) Gods as a rule aren't big into self-sacrifice, Demon Lords less so, so the most costly of Deific Powers are usually saved for most dire need.

Demon & Deevil Lords, with a few exceptions, have to use double the PPE for these powers and their Body Investment comes in two flavors: Severe and Anihilated, each category consuming the one preceding it. At least Powers that don't involve an Investment still don't. Anyways, the Lords have long-since devised a workaround, sacrificing minions! Is there any problem it can't solve? That said, only Greater Demons work as sacrifices for this, and never less than 3 of them for one power, so the Demon Lords will lose minions that are actually somewhat valuable, and all the PPE still has to come from them. So Demon & Deevil Lords as a rule bother less with Deific Powers, as they're just more costly in effort, time, and frequently in minions than they are for the Gods of Light.



But enough about that, you want to know what powers might be worth such a price. Observe. Body Investment where relevant summarized as a T, S, C, or A. EDIT: added N/A for clarity.


Alter Primal Manifestation- C. Permanently change Primal Manifestation, add functional wings or tentacles, or molten blood, acid spit, etc. Become a God of surpassing beauty or Lovecraftian horror.

Banish- N/A. Cast a sentient being of any kind out of this plane (unless their native one) and keep them out for 1-6 centuries, or until you decide to give them a break.

Deific Regeneration- N/A. Cure all diseases, mend broken bones, wounds and burns without scarring, heal up to 1,000 MDC. Also takes care of hunger and fatigue. Doesn't regenerate limbs or restore the dead.

Primal Deific Regeneration- N/A. Heals ALL hitpoints/MDC, restores half normal PPE and ISP, regenerates limbs.

Call Angel/Demon- N/A. Instantly summon any specific demon or angel that serves that God, or a random member of any specified type.

Consume PPE- S. Drain up to 10% of the God's normal PPE capacity from a ley line or nexus. This can be used by the God normally, or infused into a different place. The Demon Lords of Hades do this as a matter of routine, siphoning off PPE from their rivals' ley lines to reinforce their own.

Control Tectonics- S. Seize control of the great tectonic plates for a day to ease geologic instability, or cause it. Create or mitigate earthquakes and volcanoes.

Localized Control Weather- N/A. Control weather for a 40 mile, 64 km, radius. Create fog almost instantly, thunderstorms with lightning that strikes where you want in 5 minutes, tornadoes in 10 minutes, 15 for torrential, flooding rain. Only one effect per use of this power.

Deific Portal- S. Create a permanent portal between two dimensions. Can only be closed by another God, who must use twice the PPE it took to make the portal and a Severe Investment of his own.

Create Minion- S. The power to create life, with a form of your imagining and any natural abilities that would result. E.g. If you give something eyes modeled on a cat's it will have good nightvision, or an MDC armored shell will make it tough. You can also give it exceptional ability with 2 stats of your choosing, 2 of your own natural abilities or divine attributes, any 2 spells you know as magic abilities it can use twice a day, and if you're a psychic kind of god, you can give it up to 4 of your psychic powers. Of course, you'll have to do this at least twice to get a breeding pair, more for a sustainable population.

Deific Curse: Immortality- N/A. Make someone immortal. "But Ahriman," you say "How's that a curse?" Simple. You can never die, no matter how old you get, no matter how injured, how hungry or thirsty. How long until you can't even move? How long until you're thrown in a shallow grave, or vivesected in a lab for the secret of your continued existence? How long until age takes your mind til you can't recall your own name, only that you are cursed, that X God did it, and what you did to deserve it. Who wants to live forever?

Deific Curse: God-Blind- T. Strike someone blind, so all they can see, at all times, is the image of the God they've offended. Lasts until death, the God taking pity, or some other God trying to remove it.

Deific Curse: Pox- T. The power of a God (or Lord, they use it more often) to create a customized disease with symptoms, incubation period, vectors, and mortality rate of their choosing. They can even make it bacterial or viral, requiring a host to survive or capable of coming back years or decades down the line. The Pox can instantly bel ifted by the God whenever they want, and will harm no one they choose to spare.

Deific Curse: Pestilence- T. Blight the land so no crops will grow, the animals will be sickly and all their young stillborn. Line-of-sight effect (which means something different for a God who can see through all his followers) and lasts "one growing season."

Dispel Deific Power- N/A. Sometimes Gods can counter each other's works. Particularly to lift a Deific Curse of Banishment, or wrest control of the earth and weather. Then again, sometimes it doesn't work, and succeed or fail, the God who caused the effect will know it was tried, and by whom.

Display Deific Omen- N/A. Send dreams, visions and other omens, including rumbles of thunder, strange colored-sky, auroras, flights of birds, and floating personal symbols to express your approval or lack therof with your worshippers.

Forge Holy/Rune Weapon- N/A. make a weapon that is lighter, indestructible, does extra damage and has 1-4 special powers depending how much PPE the God wants to burn on this project. Can imbue an existing weapon with these qualities even without taking it from the owner's hand. Even though it costs a pittance of energy, Holy and Rune Weapons are some of the only things Gods and other players at their level are vulnerable to, so they're very careful about handing them out.

The Godblaze- A. The weapon of last resort, when a God burns up their primal manifestation to throw all of themselves at their enemy in an energy bolt more potent than thousands of nukes that doesn't miss. This attack will one-shot anything short of the Old Ones, and if used against a God will disintegrate him without touching one blade of grass around him. Against a less tough opponent, the blast will look like this: 1 million MDC for a 100 foot radius, then 5,000-30,000 MDC for 100 feet past that, up to 300 feet away you get 300-1800 MDC damage, and 1300 feet away from the target sees 20-120 MDC. If you're on the edge, you might have time for a forcefield effect or to teleport out. The only way to contain the blast is for a God to take the hit.

Greater Demonic Metamorphosis- N/A. Turn someone into a lesser or sub-demon (or the Deevil equivalents or even one Greater Deevil, the Arch-Fiend) with the strength and all the powers, but not the MDC. No expiration date, cannot be countered by other Gods, only the one who caused the transformation can reverse it. Usually used to reward cultists, less so since they started just turning them into Demonic Mortals. But every so often it amuses the Lords of the Pit to make an ordinary man, or champion of good, into a demon and watch them freak out and maybe be killed by their friends.

Hellfire Blasts-T. Spam 16 bolts of hellfire that always hit (unless a critical save) and do 100-400 MD, half that if the target is resistant or immune to fire. Strictly line of sight, but once again can be fired through cultists or minor demons.

Manifestation-T. Create another Manifestation, or avatar, allowing the God to be in two places at once. The secondary manifestation has only half the powers and MDC of the original, and can only see through the eyes of minions and worshippers on the same plane he's on. Only two duplicates can be operated at once.

Deific Resurrection- N/A. Restore the dead, even if they were reduced to ashes. All wounds repaired, lost limbs restored. Only penalty is they come back with very little PPE, and 10% of their PPE base is permanently sacrificed.

Mobile Sphere of Destruction- T. Conjure a black sphere the size of a baseball that flies at 220 mph and is guided by the God's mind. Each time it hits it does 20-80 MD and shocks the target even through insulated power armor, causing him to lose one attack next turn. This effect accumulates. Held stationary against a tough object, the sphere will slowly burn through, doing 15 MD every five seconds.

Transmutation- T. Gods can turn base metals into gold, but also wood, stone, pottery, glass or any other metal. In fact, they can turn any of these things into any other, and even turn living things to one of these. This "freezes" the creature so from it's perspective no time will have passed between it's transmutation and it's reversal. If they get broken, in the other form, they will return injured or dead, a small obstacle for a God. Any God can reverse Transmutation by using Transmutation, it's the one counter to a God's power he won't be immediately aware of.

Weaponwright- N/A. Enchant a weapon (even firearms, energy weapons and artillery) so it does double, or triple for a bit more PPE, damage to a class of creature. The class is determined by the God and can be as broad ("carbon-based life") or narrow ("the elves of the Llanovar forest descended from Illithan") as they like. Likewise as useful ("supernatural evil") or silly ("southpaws" "people named Bob") as the God likes.

[Ahriman238]

Just as an aside because I had to look up the divine stuff, no relation to the Demon Lords.

There is a magic ritual in RIFTS that will give you the ability to cast every spell that exists (or every spell published, except those of the 13 Deadly Spells following the Key spells) as well as all Ley Line Walker class abilities, fluency and literacy in every language of your homeworld, and fluency in all others, and understanding of all magic symbols, runes and mystic circles.

You have to befriend the Asgardian Elves, so they will take you to the World Tree, Yggdrasil. You must be impaled on the tree with a magic weapon, permanently sacrificing 1-6 hit points if SDC, 10-40 MDC if you can survive that, and be left there without food or water for 9 days. At the end of that period roll three percentile dice, best two out of three. The magic number is your endurance (ultimately capped, as all stats are, at 50) plus your level (max of 15.) So if you are a first level character with an Endurance of 11, you're aiming for 12 or less. Failing more than one throw means you are destroyed beyond all hope of resurrection.

If you survive, roll about going mad from the revelation. There is an 80% of a mortal losing his mind, gods get reduced to 75%. Other than that, you get acces to all spells from all schools appropriate to your level (If your level 7, you can cast spells 1-7, the moment you level again all 8th level spells become avilable.)

As you can imagine, this ritual has become the focus of much munchkinry in the years since it was published, including an amusing thread on Palladium's own forum, Here

[Ahriman238]

Okay, let's get the Demon Lords whittled down a bit.


Modeus, Lord of Hades

One of the most powerful and respected, the closest thing Hades has to a true ruler. Modeus is actually a Supernatural Intelligence, a creature in much the same vein as VIs, Splugorth, and the Dweller, and his true form is a giant eyeball with a hundred tentacles. Modeus may be the most powerful of all Demon Lords, but millennia without a true challenge have made him lazy and complacent.

Modeus has only 14,000 MDC, among the least of all Demon Lords. This is because he has sent out so many hundreds of bits of his essence to become familiars to Witches, if he recalled them he'd have 68,000, and he still has a good dozen more in him. Standard demon powers, including a regen on par with a vampire's, plus invisibility, shapeshifting into any human or animal with unlimited duration, impervious to fire, cold, diesease, poison, and has no need to breathe. Counterbalancing that, sunlight will half his MDC and powers and while he's in daylight he takes MD from SD weapons. Holy Weapons, Rune Weapons and holy water all do considerable damage to him.

Teleport with a hundred mile range, animate and turn 100-600 dead at once, a mild healing touch ability, and three times a day he can summon 6-36 lesser demons or 2-12 Greater Demons instantly without bringing them one by one with his Call power. Modeus has all Deific Powers, and is one of the lucky ones who pays the normal PPE and Body Investment cost. He knows all standard list spells, plus all ritual magic and wards, no Spells of Legend. His psionics are nil.



Absabrax the Insatiable

King of the Shedim, which doesn;t mean they don't appear generously sprinkled throughout the armies of other Demon Lords, including his enemies. Anyways, he looks a lot like his "people" a man 16 feet tall with a rooster's head and bird talons for his hands and feet. The Insatiable title refers to his bloodlust, as he's well known for getting anxious and twitchy, and eventually going berserk if he goes more than a day without killing something or picking a fight. Which makes sense as the leader of bloodthirsty and fearless warrior demons.

8600 MDC, all standard demon powers plus invisibility, teleport, fire resistant and can shapeshift into any animal, thorugh he favors the form of a hawk, lizard of spider. Once a day can summon 1-4 Alu or 4-14 Shedim to his side. He is weak against cold, silver and Holy Weapons. He has the full range of Deific Powers and pays the standard PPE and Body Investment costs. He knows all standard spells up through level 4, plus Animate & Control Dead, Turn Dead, Lesser Paralysis, Agony, Sickness, Spoil, Banishment, Exorcism, and Negate Magic.



Belphegor of the Sulfur Pits

Picture one of the Worms of Dune, scaled down so as to be only 24 feet (7 meters) long and you have a good idea of Belphegor, Demon Lord of Ignorance and Sloth. Well, that and a stink detectable most of a mile away.

Belphegor has 24,000 MDC, standard demon powers plus imperbious to fire, poison and disease, and invisibility, which sounds kind of useless considering he stinks so much of sulfur. Once a day can summon either 3-8 Gallu Bulls or 1-4 Magots. Other than that, his signature power is a toxic gas he exhales that can easily cover 100 square feet, causing a bit of damage and incredibly slowness and lethargy. Belphegor is vulnerable to cold, to silver, Holy and Rune Weapons, and all forms of Angel or Spirit of Light.

Belphegor has all Deific Powers, but still has to pay double the cost in PPE and Body Investment. His magic covers the first two levels of Fire Magic, plus Animate & Control Dead, Turn Dead, Blind, Sickness, Spoil, Banishement, Exorcism, and Heal Wounds. He is also a major psychic with all sensitive powers.



Mictla the Devourer

Yep, it's Mictlantecuhtl, the Aztec god of the dead. Why create a Demon Lord from scratch? This version of Mictla is black-skinned with several tentacles, 90 beady eyes and a massive mouth on a vaguely humanoid frame 50 feet (16 m) tall. Supposedly Mictla ruled all of Hades in a previous age, but when fighting Modeus became a losing proposition, Mictla agreed to cede most of her territory and bend a knee for survival. She alternates between scheming her glorious return to power, and moping in a deep black depression, but either way her territory is severely neglected. She is the principle demon of Gluttony and Greed.

There's also a bit of a canon hiccup, in that I have one book claiming Mictla is mother (presumably via Create Minion) and master to all Magots, and another saying they all belong to Succor-Behemoth.

Mictla has 18,000 MDC, and all the standard demon powers plus impervious to fire, cold, poison and disease, with no need to breathe, then invisibility and teleport with a 100-600 mile (160-960 km) range. Can raise or turn 100-600 dead as a special ability with no PPE cost, with a 6-36 MDC fire-breath attack, and the ability to spam Restoration and Flesh to Stone again without cost. Finally, her enormously large tongue is magically sticky and can whip you into her mouth like a frog would. Three times a day she can summon 4-24 lesser demons, or 2-12 Greater ones. She has all Deific Powers at double the standard cost. No spellcasting abilities outside her natural powers. However, she has all physical psychic powers, plus See Aura, Sense Magic, Sense Evil, Sense Presence, Group Trance and Auto Mind Block.



Succor-Behemoth

Lord of Envy and Despair, Succor-Behemoth appears as a 20 foot tall skeletal man in black robes with a staff of bones. He is usually followed by a small gang of Banshees and Ghouls, hoping to score a free meal the next time he kills something. Also the Lord of the Magot in at least one source.

Succor-Behemoth is another one with hardly any MDC, just 5,000 plus the standard demon powers, plus invisibilty, teleportation and immunity to poison and disease. He has an upgraded shapeshifting allowing him to impersonate any human, animal, or supernatural creature. Once a day he can summon 1-6 Alu, 2-12 Shedim, 2-8 Greater Demons or 30-180 Magots to his side. He has all Deific Powers, at double the standard cost. He is weak against Holy Weapons, holy water, Angels and Spirits of Light, but his greatest weakness will always be his compulsive jealousy of his peers, of anyone who has something he doesn't, really. He knows all standard spells up to and counting level 11, and no psionics.

[Ahriman238]

Andras, Marquis of Hades

Andras is an Owl-headed humanoid winged demon 22 feet tall. He is Modeus' strong right hand, the commander of his armies, and the lord of the Baal-Rog heartland. He is also nearly perfectly placed to become ambitious, and one day supplant Modeus. He has already been meeting with a couple of his peers, and Set, to make arrangements for the day he seizes power over all Hades.

Andras has 8,700 MDC, all the standard demon powers plus impervious to fire and cold, invisibility, and teleportation. He can summon 20-120 Baal-Rogs, or 6-36 lesser demons of any type at will, as many times a day as he likes. He is weak against Holy Water and Weapons. Andras has all the Deific Powers, and is able to use them at the standard (rather than Demonic) cost. Magic-wise, he has neglected the standard spell list to become one of the greatest Warlocks, mastering all Elemental magic. He has all sensitive, physical and super psychic powers.

Past that, Andras has a unique black Rune Sword, Kau-ken. This sword does immense damage to anyone who touches it except Andras himself, in battle it does 6-36 MD to mortals, 20-120 to supernatural beings, and 200-1200 to Gods, Demon Lords and Deevil Lords. He also has a massive black wolf named Mar-Loo for his steed, with 2000 MDC and a bite doing 40-240 MD.



Rabdos the Strangler

An ordinary woman, besides being 20 ft tall, in her natural form, which Rabdos rarely uses. She is Modeus' personal sadistic more-than-slightly-insane assassin. In fact, she is the God of Assassins in the Palladium Fantasy world. Other then that, she's your standard psychotic, sadistic, nymphomaniac nutjob who might decide to screw you or kill you at any moment. In fact, she's tried to kill Andras twice, playing both incidents off as jokes later. She didn't even really mean to end him, she's just curious what secret defenses and precautions he has.

Rabdos has 7,500 MDC and the standard demon powers, plus immunity to poison, teleport and metamorphosis: human. She is weak against Holy Water, Holy and Rune Weapons, and Angels and other Spirits of Light. In direct sunlight or extreme cold she is greatly weakened and more jittery/nervous. She has all the Deific powers, but has to pay the demonic price for them. Her magic is limited as she's focused on mastering the skills of a thief and assassin, so she has only the first two levels of the standard list. No psionics whatsoever.

Rabdos has more knives than a dozen men could carry, but prefers the sensation of choking someone to death with her bare hands.



Ravana, King of the Raksasha

The Raksasha's King is a towering warrior, 30 feet tall with a giant tiger's head, and 4 smaller human heads protruding from his shoulders, front and back, plus 20 arms. He is particularly an enemy of the Indian Gods, and once managed to capture Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma but all three Gods escaped and Hanuman later destroyed Ravana. One of his contingencies sent him the moment before discorporation to Hades, where his loyal Raksasha nursed him back to health and he led a venegeful army against the Indian Gods, just in time to see the Splugorth take over their realm instead. Ravana is an arrogant megalomaniac who will go to any lengths to avenge a defeat or slight, but he is also frighteningly intelligent, as befits a Raksasha leader.

Ravana has 80,000 MDC, standard demon powers with frankly insane regeneration (100-600 MDC per minute) plus ipervious to heat and cold, invisibility, turn to mist, teleport, a healing touch and the ability to animate or turn 100-400 dead at once. Oh, and he can assume any human or animal's form indefinitely. Expert summoner, can summon 2-12 Raksasha, Baal-Rogs or Gargoyles an unlimited number of times. Other than that, he knows all standard spells and all psychic powers.

Raksasha are generally scattered to the four winds of the Megaverse, but Ravana personally leads a group of a thousand, the greatest concentration of the demons anywhere, and his personal army is considered an honor all Raksasha aspire to.


Kubera-Loe

The God of Thieves in Palladium, Kubera-Loe has very little territory in Hades and a small, austere, absurdly secure estate. Here he keeps his treasures, stolen from mortals, dragons, gods, and frequently from his peers. The others have no idea Kubera-Loe has taken anything from them, and he prefers it way. He is obsessed with both riches and secrets, and stays carefully neutral in all disputes and politics between Demon Lords. He favors the appearance of an ordinary old man, with long white hair and a neatly trimmed beard.

Kubera-Loe has just 8,000 MDC, and the standard demon powers. He can also teleport, fly (at 30 mph) and has a special power, a super-effective variant on the charm spell for mind-control that works only on women. He is vulnerable to Holy Weapons, holy water, and Angels. He has all the expected Deific powers, at the demonic cost. He doesn't, however, have any magical ability. All sensitive psychic powers, plus PPE shield.

[Ahriman238]

Charun the Cruel

Because it's just not the way of Hades that Modeus would have only one snake in the grass to look out for. Charun takes the appearance of a giant black Gargoyle with horns. Probably not a coincidence, as he has spent some years recruiting away the bulk of Gargoyles and Alu, and most recently the Jinn have joined his banner for a promise of protection, having heard rumors that other Demon Lords are sacrificing them to use Deific Powers. Naturally, Charun hasn't bothered to tell them that he does the same thing on a regular basis, and has no intention of stopping. There have been persistent rumors for some time that Charun is actually a Deevil, the son of Sahtalus sent to infiltrate the Demon Lords and destroy them from within.

Charun has 9,000 MDC, all standard demon powers plus impervious to fire and cold, invisibility, teleportation, shapeshifting into any human or supernatural creature, and flight. Weak against holy Weapons, Holy Water, and cold. He can summon at will, 4-24 Alu, 2-8 Jinn, or 20-120 Gargoyle Lords. He has all the Deific Powers, paying the demon cost. He knows all wards, rituals and most magic circles, but no ready to cast spells. He has all physical and sensitive psychic powers, plus Hypnotic Suggestion, Cause Insanity (?) Induce Nightmares, Mentally Possess Others, and Psi-Sword. He is one of a few who are so strong, their claws and teeth do hundreds of MDC damage.



Mania, Queen of the Dead

Queen of the city of Allvice, as well as the Succubi and Incubi (frequently referenced, yet to find stats or actual description of their powers/nature yet. sorry.) Mania is unhappily married to the Demon Lord Mantus, and has recently become Charun's lover and co-conspirator, with Mantus' death being the price of her participation. Mania is, to all appearances, a slightly tall red-haired woman with tiny bat wings. Her dress goes from skimpy to nonexistent. Mania is, of course, a manic hedonist who simply can't stand anyone who can't keep up with her, or takes time to think or plan. This is the main reason she's decided her husband needs to die, he got slow and boring. Of all places in Hades, Allvice is the city littered with portals to all over the Megaverse.

Mania has 8,000 MDC, all standard demon powers plus flight, resistant to fire, and shapeshifting to nay human or animal form. Vulnerable to all RUne Weapons, Holy Weapons and Angels. All Deific Powers at demonic cost. Has no magic, but all psychic powers. Can summon 4-24 Incubi/Succubi at need.



Mantus, King of the Dead

An old man, 7 feet tall, with the tattered remnants of great grey bat-wings, pointed ears and fangs. As a younger Demon Lord, Mantus was the terror of the Megaverse, the living symbol of darkness, the thing used by mothers to frighten children into behaving. Now he's increasingly old and feeble, with a definite sense that his best evil is behind him. He sits around remembering better days, and only his creations and prize subjects, his Nightmares, have any power to entertain him. Oh, he knows full well his wife has taken up with a mortal enemy and a blade is being sharpened for his throat, and he wonders if he can summon the strength and motivation to do something about it.

Mantus has 9,000 MDC all standard demon powers plus resistance to fire and cold, flight, invisibility, teleportation and shapeshifting to any human or humanoid form. He is weak against Holy Weapons and Angels, but especially against sunlight which oculd kill him with just 40 minute's exposure. Mantus has all Deific Powers at the demon price. He knows all standard spells up thru level 7, and all Fire magic up to level 6. He has no psionics. He can summon, at will, 2-12 Mares

[Ahriman238]

Murmur

A giant man 18 feet tall, with long black hair and gold plate. Murmur is a demon of deceit and desire. He is a skilled warrior, but his peers disdain him because he constantly re-writes history in his head, ocasionally doing so out loud moments after the events in question, He constantly lies, betrays any oath he swears, and will then insist and actually believe that he never said or did any of those things and he is the aggrieved party. He's also a great music lover, and is constantly luring people into Hades and his fortress with a promise of a show.

Murmur has 8,700 MDC, all standard demonic powers plus resistance to fire and cold, and teleport. He is extra vulnerable to Holy Weapons, but has no other weakness. All Deific Powers at the demonic cost. No psionics and little magic, just levels 1-3 off the standard list.

Murmur has a set of magic pan pipes that let him induce calmness, sleep, or confusion. Or he can make you dance whether you like it or not. He rides a gigantic vulture, Ramsea, into battle at 150 mph, or 241 kph.



Mormo, Lord of Ghouls

A huge fat man in expensive robes and jewelry with only some slightly larger and pointier canines to give him away. Mormo loves Palladium, where he maintains an identity as a nobleman known for his orgies and rumors of cannibalism. Mormo seeds groups of Ghouls and Nasu wherever he goes.

Mormo has 7,000 MDC and the standard demon powers plus enhanced smell and taste, and the ability to shapeshift into a raven. Loses half his strength in sunlight, vulnerable to RUne & Holy Weapons, as well as cold and Angels. All Deific Powers at the demon price. Magic is all standard spells 1-4, plus animate object, fly as eagle, and tongues. No psionics. He can, however, summon 100-600 Ghouls, and 3-18 ravens. The ravens are intelligent and capable of speech, so Mormo uses them as messengers.

Mormo is actually a skilled juggler and knife-thrower. His favorite knife is a rune weapon that does 23-38 MD to supernatural beings, and 44-64 to Gods or his rival Demon/Deevil Lords. It also always returns to his hand.



Abdul-Ra

A demon of cunning and treachery, who prefers the form of an ordinary Alu or wolfman. Abdul-Ra has recently maybe fallen in love with a Deevil Lord named Rhada. He's still not sure how he feels about the whole thing. But Rhada is powerful enough he's willing to at least fake affection long enough to figure out if it's real and what he should do.

Abdul-Ra has 7,900 MDC and all the standard demon powers plusresistance to fire and cold, invisibility, teleport, and changing to mist, or to any human or animal. Abdul-Ra is vulnerable to silver and holy weapons. All Deific Powers at the demonic cost. Magic is suprisingly sparse, just the first level of the standard list, and all rituals, circles and wards. As a psychic, however, he has all sensitive, physical and super powers.

Abdul-Ra is more of a summoner than a straight-up magician, and can call anything given time, or 5-30 Raksasha with no prep-time. There's a small conflict where both Abdul-Ra and Ravana are said to be ruler of the Raksasha. Abdul-Ra is it in this book, I took Ravana from the Pantheons of the Megaverse book.

Abdul-Ra is also one of the only Demon Lords to take an interest in science and technology.

He has a human mercenary who serves as his valet, bodyguard and pet, a madman named Random. One to whom he gave a magic ring of invisibility and a great big indestructible longsword.

[Ahriman238]

Ok, that got a bit tedious at the end there. But I'm done with Hades, on to Dyval!

Once again, the major difference between Deevils and Demons is that Deevils are a lot more subtle, better able to hide their true nature. Demons prefer a hands-on approach to causing human suffering, while Deevils prefer to act through agents. Demons appeal to very simple triggers in humans: fear, greed, lust for power and the pleasures of the flesh. Deevils like to use envy and revenge, and will use a more refined approach to fear and greed, but duty is the best of all. Deevils love to convince ordinary people to do the most horrible things for reasons that seem just and reasonable, or an unpleasant neccessity.

Unlike Hades, Dyval doesn't really have cities, just the citadels of the Deevil Lords and a lot of pristine wilderness. Deevils are expected, just as Demons, to respond immediately to their Lord's summons and orders, but the Deevil Lords understand that in most cases Deevils do their best work out there, as free agents.

Even a single Deevil usually has thousands to millions of mortal minions, pawns, catspaws, followers or allies, depending on how much they know and how disposable they're considered. Of course, even the most valued mortal ally is not worth the life of a single Deevil.



In the whole hierachy of the Deevils, there are actually two types of Deevils that rank above human pawns, but below cultists, witches and the Host (effectively, sub-demons.) The lowest of the low likely to actually see Dyval are Abominations. Abominations are Deevils who were killed on some other plane and reborn in Dyval, or who seriously ticked off a Deevil Lord enough to strip him of his powers. In any case, an Abominations keeps his infernal appearance, strength and MDC, but loses all magic, psionics and other natural abilities (nightvision, flight, gnossolalia etc.) most especially the power to travel between dimensions, and the power to shapeshift into a more benign-looking form. This leaves them stuck in Dyval, powerless before their brutal peers. An Abomination that died will regain his powers after 20-80 years, one who betrayed his master will probably never get it.

Just above Abominations are the Known, those Deevils who let their True Names get out. Since mortals, or supernatural enemies, can summon and command these Deevils with ease they cannot be trusted with important information, or in battle. Or at any task at all, really.

Witches and cultists are the only humans who know what they're getting into, what the Deevils are and who can be entrusted with most or all of the plans they partake in.

I'll get back to do the Host, aliens from a dozen planes conquered by, or willing to join, the Deevils and serve as their footsoldiers, even moving to Dyval, when I have a bit more time to do them justice.

[Ahriman238]

Dragons of Dyval

A very long time ago, there was a group of dragonids (dragon-like, not to be confused with the Draconids of Phase World) who generally despaired at their lot in life. They had the blood of dragons, yet they were barely MDC, with no unusual magic or psionic powers, no supernatural strength or shapeshifting, no teleporting or casual dimensional travel, and they lived a pitiful few decades compared to the millenia their distant brethren measure their lives in. So they apprached the Deevils and struck a pact: the power and longevity they saw as their birthright, in exchange for lifelong fealty and service. Oh, and the Deevils added a term, 90% of all their offspring would be delivered to the Deevil Lords directly, no fuss.

Well the Deevils worked some of that old black magic, and turned those dragonids into Deevil Dragons, some particularly nasty Greater Deevils who still fall a bit short of True Dragons. As for their young, they get dropped into pits of mutation fluid (rather similar to the Splugorth ones) which first turn each egg into a twin birth, than spit them out a few weeks later as physically mature, super-soldier versions of the original dragonids called Shock Dragons. And since their backstories are so intertwined, it only made sense to cover them together, despite the former being Greater Deevils and the latter merely Host.

Incidently, you'd think it would profit the Deevil Lords more to have large numbers of loyal semi-dragons on their side. Perhaps they have limited resources for the Deevil Dragons, or a re worried they couldn't control them in greater numbers.



Shock Dragons



The Shock Dragons don't know anything about their parents, they are bred and born and trained form birth to serve the Deevils, so they serve. They are used as elite shock troops on the rare occasion the Deevils get involved in open war. They are well-trained and disciplined, and can do everything normal soldiers can, but do their best work in small teams with focused missions. They do tend to dislike Deevil Dragons, and are generally glad they have little to do with them. Shock Dragons themselves are sterile as mules, they are born only from dragon eggs and since female Deevil Dragons (like other dragons) lay a clutch of 10-14 eggs every 200 years or so, even with two Shock Dragons born from each egg and a natural lifespan between 2000 and 7200 years, the population has never risen above the low millions.

Shock Dragons are 8-11 feet tall and come in a variety of colors. Gold, bronze, red, green blue, and black are the most common. There are four varieties of Shock Dragons. Half are the standard SD pictured above. 30% are Flyers, with dragon-like wings and a flight speed of 81 mph. 10% are Spellcasters who always come in blue, white or silver with a metallic sheen. The final 10% are Elites, who are also Flyers but are much stonger, tougher, with more powers.

Shock Dragons have 84-144 MDC, except Elites who get 198-258 MDC. Shock Dragons are immune to fear, and take half damage from fire, cold and posion. They have supernatural strength and endurance, speed isn't terrible either at 45 mph in a sprint, regeneration and gnossolalia. Besides that, they are each mutated and get a special power called a mutation. Standard and Flying Dragons get 2 mutations apiece, Casters get 1, Elites get 3.

Breath Weapon- either Fire (5-30 MD, 100 foot range) Ice (4-24 MD, 50 ft. range with mobility restrictions) Acid (3-18 MD, 50 ft. range with ongoing damage til washed out) or a Posion Gas that causes damage and nausea, to which Shock Dragons are presumably immune.

Increased Strength- extra 250-500 lbs. lifting capacity, and 10% more MDC.

Combat Prowess

Energy Blast- either electric, fire, or ion blast. 3-7 MD at first level, 17-27 MD at the last. Quarter mile range.

Enhanced Regen- double the regen.

Iron Hide- add 40-90 MDC.

Invisibility- what do you think?

Spider Walk- climb any porous surface as fast as they could run across it, slick surfaces at a brisk walking speed.

Superior Resistance- a bit more resistance to illusions and mind control, slightly better saving throws for all things, casters get a small buff too.

Weapon Tail- a prehensile spiked tail for fighting with.

Psionics- gain 2-7 psychic powers, sensitive or physical only.

Weapon Mastery- born to use a particular weapon with great skill.

Yeah. Aside from being so much stronger and tougher, and able to fly, Elites get 3 of these and are generally the only ones to use captured high-tech or magic weapons.

Casters may get only 1 mutation, but they have all the base abilities of a Ley Line Walker. They know all level 1 spells from the standard list, plus Turn Dead, Call Lightning, Fireball, and Armor of Ithan. They learn 2 spells each level, all from the standard list.




Deevil Dragons



Well, they sold their progeny for power, and if you ask them, it's going swimmingly. In fact, they usually give up the egg from each clutch they're allowed to keep, to show their loyalty and keep the number of potential rivals down. Or they keep the egg, so if they're killed outside Dyval they can possess and murder their offspring, and be reborn in it's eggshell, instead of becoming an Abombination. Still, they're a ways short of a REAL Dragon. But, one thing they like to do is steal the eggs of real Dragons to drop them in the same vats and turn to loyal little Shock Dragons. There is nothing a True Dragon hates worse than "the Egg-Stealers" and dragons frequently raid Dyval in hopes of killing a Deevil Dragon permanently.

Deevil Dragons have 200-800 MDC, with an almost vampiric regen (10-40 MDC per 5 seconds.) They naturally have supernatural strength and endurance, and can fly at 34 mph. Nightvision, teleport, dimensional teleport, being short only see invisible and gnossolalia of the standard demon powers. They stand 18-20 feet tall naturally, but can shrink down to man-sized. They have a special ability, they can be totally immune to any one of the following: fire, cold, electricity, posion, magic, or psionics. They are vulnerable to, well, anything that does extra damage to dragons, serpents, or deevils, as well as the claws and teeth of True Dragons.

They are master psychics with a dozen lesser (sensitive, physical or healing) powers and 4 super powers. Magically, they pick one spell list and stick to it, their spell knowledge progressing normally through the levels. They can learn the Standard, any one Elemental, Temporal, Demon or Nature Magic. Also on the list are Necromancy, Demon Magic, Diabolism (from the Palladium Fantasy, I really need to look more into this) and Summoning (Shifter.) At least they get lots of PPE.

[Ahriman238]

EDIT: Wrong window, working on the rest of the Host.

[Ahriman238]

Cryxon



An insectoid warrior race, might be Bronze Age if they smelted metal instead of using resins and the carapaces of their dead. Tough, physically powerful, and constantly spoiling for a fight, admittedly a lot more direct than Deevils generally are. Still, it's good to have some firepower on hand, and htey've been a lot more energetic and willing since Hel promised to make them or their rivals the Forest Stalkers full Deevils with effective immortality and supernatural powers. Specifically, whichever race proves themselves more worthy and useful will become minor Deevils.

Cryxon are 10-12 feet tall and have a number of physical abilities owing to their insect-like nature. They have 140-240 MDC depending on age and health. Their compound eyes can easily see behind them, as well as seeing a generous amount in to the UV and IR spectra. They can spit acid in a steady steam up to a hundred feet away, doing 2-9 MD for the really young ones and 12-54 MD for elders. This acid does a third damage to metals, ceramics and plastics (like most power armor) and nil to stone or glass. They are completely immune to their own and all other acids, and take half damage from heat and flame. A favorite trick is to coat their resin blades in acid. They can easily run (17 mph) on any surface with any purchase, even straight up, as long as it isn't greased or something similar. That said, whenever they move faster than a brisk walk they make a terrible clattering noise that destroys any chance of stealth. They also regenerate, and have spines they can break off and use as stabbing or throwing weapons. They can magically understand all languages, a gift from the Deevils, but can't speak except in their own subsonic tongue.

Cryxon like hot areas, jungles in particular. They can theoretically live for 600 years, but their violent lifestyle makes this unlikely. They're not terribly creative or cunning, preferring brute strength to solve their problems. They prize magic weapons, which are only rarely and reluctantly issued by their superiors. Oh, and they are particularly vulnerable to sonics.



Forest Stalker



Rivals of the Cryxon, the Forest Stalkers are even more primitive/tribal, hunters rather than warriors. Which the Deevils don't have much problem with, since the Stalkers tend to apply stealth, cunning and magic to win fights as opposed to the more... direct approach the Cryxon favor. Of course, they fall prey to the normal "hunting is all they do, think or talk about." brainbug, and will eat anything they hunt, even their own, making them cannibals.

Forest Stalkers are 7-10 feet tall with 60-150 MDC. They regenerate, speak all languages, and take half damage from heat and fire. They are extremely stealthy in any forested or jungle setting, have a slightly better sense of smell than a bloodhound and have three eyes, one on a stalk that can look behind them. They naturally can see heat, even through a thin wall. Beyond that, they are extremely flexible, triple jointed and skilled at all acrobatics. Their spell knowledge is instinctual and like a mystic grows as they do. They start off with Armor of Ithan, Chameleon, Cleanse, Climb, Death Trance, Energy Bolt, Energy Disruption, Electric Arc, Impervious to Poison, Lesser Invisibility, Magic Net, Magic Shield, Negate Poison, See Aura and Swim as Fish. Every 3 levels (so max of five) they can learn a new spell from levels 1 and 2 of the standard list.

Forest Stalkers are, as mentioned, organized in tribes. The tribal chieftain's power is absolute, but he can be challenged by any adult male for leadership. Stalkers respect only power, and trust no one. Forest Stalkers don't like the cold. They're not cold-blooded, just poor at coping.