Atropus, the World Born Dead
Death has a name, one that few know, and fewer dare speak. The Raven Queen may be the god of death, but she is a god of the true death, the shepherd to the realm beyond. Vecna may be an undead god, but he is a meddler, a tinkerer compared to the true lord of undeath. Atropus is far beyond these paltry gods, and little is truly known about him. His cults say that he is the creator of the universe, but that he now regrets his choice, and seeks to claim the gift of life back, and leave only the undead in its place. What's more unsettling is that no scholar who knows about these beliefs can disprove it. They may deny it, but the truth is it is possible the greatest god of them all is an enemy of the world, and all life on it.
What is known for sure is that Atropus is a being of the Far Realm, a planet sized undead entity that may be the power source of all necromancy. Once, it entered the world in its full power, breaking through into The Aether. This resulted in a shattering of the order of the old gods, leaving more than half a dozen dead, and the rest scattered before it could be pushed back into the Far Realm. It left Undeath in its wake, along with the Mind Flayers and the Gith. The foul blight of it never fully left the Aether, and no god other than Vecna has dared return.
For millennia, Atropus has attempted to return to The Severed Expanse, but the Far Realm alone is easily as massive as the entire universe, and traveling it takes time. Now, however, it draws near, heading back to the tear in reality that allowed it into the Aether. If it arrives, the whole plane will drown in the dead, and Atropus will drain its life force, before moving onto the next one. It will eat, and eat, and eat, until nothing is left but the hungry dead.
What is known for sure is that Atropus is a being of the Far Realm, a planet sized undead entity that may be the power source of all necromancy. Once, it entered the world in its full power, breaking through into The Aether. This resulted in a shattering of the order of the old gods, leaving more than half a dozen dead, and the rest scattered before it could be pushed back into the Far Realm. It left Undeath in its wake, along with the Mind Flayers and the Gith. The foul blight of it never fully left the Aether, and no god other than Vecna has dared return.
For millennia, Atropus has attempted to return to The Severed Expanse, but the Far Realm alone is easily as massive as the entire universe, and traveling it takes time. Now, however, it draws near, heading back to the tear in reality that allowed it into the Aether. If it arrives, the whole plane will drown in the dead, and Atropus will drain its life force, before moving onto the next one. It will eat, and eat, and eat, until nothing is left but the hungry dead.
Divine Domains
Death
Holy Books & Codes
Though not written specifically for Atropus, the Book of Vile Darkness contains much information on the undead planet, for those willing to dwell into its pages.
Divine Goals & Aspirations
To drain the life of every world with life on it.
To destroy the centers of powers of the gods, and watch them fade to nothingness, therefore bringing about its own destruction.
To destroy the centers of powers of the gods, and watch them fade to nothingness, therefore bringing about its own destruction.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Atropus is as much a place as it is a being. It is a small moonlet
spinning through the void, waiting to be ensnared by the
pull of the planets it nears. To those on the surface of the
chosen world, the elder evil appears as a speck in the sky. At
night it is almost invisible, blending in with the darkness,
but during twilight and dawn, it looks like a moving pinhole
of darkness.
As it draws closer and its sign intensifies, it grows, expanding from a tiny dot to a small disk until it dominates the sky. Pitted and slick with the black slime of the putrid amniotic fluid of its birth, it hangs above, always drifting away from the light of the sun and lurking overhead when the sun has fl ed. It has the appearance of a huge chunk of black stone, but from certain angles, it looks like a great hairless head, black eyes glassy and soulless.
As it draws closer and its sign intensifies, it grows, expanding from a tiny dot to a small disk until it dominates the sky. Pitted and slick with the black slime of the putrid amniotic fluid of its birth, it hangs above, always drifting away from the light of the sun and lurking overhead when the sun has fl ed. It has the appearance of a huge chunk of black stone, but from certain angles, it looks like a great hairless head, black eyes glassy and soulless.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Atropus saps life from worlds it encounters, draining away
energy as it draws ever closer to a planet. Once it comes near
enough to a planet’s gravity, the celestial body that is the elder
evil enters a descending orbit, sweeping closer and closer and
looming larger and larger in the night skies. The effects are
terrifying. As the moonlet nears a planet’s surface, the dead
rise from their graves and, as Atropus fills the night sky, the
twitching undead spread like a stain until nothing living
remains.
Atropus is self-aware, but not as mortals can conceive. Its memory extends back to the one moment when it brought forth the gods, and it has lamented this decision for all time. Stripped of its incredible power, it would undo its sacrifice.
To this end, Atropus devours life energy to replace what it gave. Into this sucking vacuum, it draws positive energy from those planets it encounters, but the negative energy constituting its existence instantly negates any life energy it takes.
Atropus knows this. It suspects that the instant all life is swept from the Material Plane, the gods must cease to be and, with their annihilation, so too will it find its own end.
Atropus is self-aware, but not as mortals can conceive. Its memory extends back to the one moment when it brought forth the gods, and it has lamented this decision for all time. Stripped of its incredible power, it would undo its sacrifice.
To this end, Atropus devours life energy to replace what it gave. Into this sucking vacuum, it draws positive energy from those planets it encounters, but the negative energy constituting its existence instantly negates any life energy it takes.
Atropus knows this. It suspects that the instant all life is swept from the Material Plane, the gods must cease to be and, with their annihilation, so too will it find its own end.
Social
Contacts & Relations
The undead are Atropus' most obvious ties, as he brings all dead back as weaker undead beings, as well as enhancing the abilities of them, making the most powerful undead even more prominent. His most common servants are liches and necromancers, but Mind Flayers and other Far Realm beings are also quite common, though normally not directly. Atropus simply creates breaches through to the Far Realm, letting through abominations from the Far Realm, leading them to believe it is one of them. In truth, Atropus will drain the life of Mind Flayers as quickly as anything else, though the odd Ithililich will serve it well.
Relationships
Relationship Reasoning
Firstborn of Atropus, Pelor is terrified of the World Born Dead. Barely surviving the last incursion by the undead planetoid, thrown from his throne, Pelor strives to wipe out all undead if he can, working tirelessly to keep the influence of Atropus contained.
Alignment
Lawful Evil
Species
Realm
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Pronouns
He/Him
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