[3.5] "No Gods or Kings. Only Man."

[Xefas]

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This is intended to be used as a substitute for the "Human Paragon" class presented in Unearthed Arcana, functioning with the Mythos subsystem used in these classes:

The Olethrofex
The Teramach
The Kathodos

"There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect."

The Mythic Human

Few, save the Gods, know the true story of how the Human race came to be. Even fewer know that Humans, as they are today, are a second iteration on what was to be their final design.

Elves were made in the image of Corellon Larethian - quick, agile, keen-eyed, and keen-witted. Dwarves were patroned by Moradin - strong, disciplined, and durable, with a natural talent for craftsmanship. And so it was with Halflings, Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, and so on. But Mankind was an experiment. They were created with no God as their mold, no template to draw inspiration from. Slow, weak, foolish, and dull, each design failed as miserably as the last. They were nearly scrapped altogether, but one powerful angelic servant of the Gods of Law spoke up on their behalf, and offered a suggestion.

The Elves seemed content to dwell in their forests, passing centuries in revelry or study. The Dwarves exulted in peaceful routine, settling comfortably in their stone fortresses beneath the mountains. A Halfling's greatest ambition was a steady job, warm home, plenty of food, and a happy family. The Gods sat at the top of their hierarchy, unchallenged, happy to live an idyllic eternity, creating, ruling, being worshiped. Their creations mimicked this. But the angel who spoke was different. While the Gods languished on their golden thrones, he and his brothers fought and killed and died in the cosmic trenches surrounding The Infinite Abyss. He had seen atrocities without number committed to those he loved, and had committed a few of his own on those responsible. He had a task that none should have to bear, but bore it proudly so his masters could play with their trinkets unmolested.

"Give them ambition." he said. The Gods shrugged; they had done so already. The humans wanted to live. They wanted to gather food, and make shelter, and protect what they cared about. They wanted to form a society where they could all live happily together. "No." said the angel. "Give them my ambition."

The next batch of Humans was intended as the final design; one more chance, before the idea was forsaken altogether. They took that chance, eagerly, and the Gods looked on in wonder. These Humans combined compassion, empathy, and integrity, with ruthlessness, obsession, and a hypocritical moral dexterity that allowed them to form, break, and recreate social groups that they felt utter loyalty for, bordering on suicidal zeal, while committing the most heinous of acts on enemies and former friends alike. Human soldiers could crucify flayed-but-living elves on the borders of their territory as a warning to trespassers, but enter their homes and be sincerely loving and peaceful with their families and friends, unmarred by the horrors they'd seen and done. They could conquer and oppress and brutalize while believing in their hearts that they were doing the right thing. Their sense of self-preservation was so great that they could hack their own limbs off with a rusty blade in order to keep living, but they could override that same basic instinct to kill themselves over perceived dishonor. They were insane, territorial, expansionist, patriot-zealots, whose love was as dangerous as their hate, with boundless hubris, and no God to steer them.

Their reign was short, by the timelines of the other races, before the Gods convened to annihilate them. But Mankind did not fade as quietly into the night as they'd hoped. They saw the signs of apocalypse, and rather than hide themselves away, beg for forgiveness, or bargain for their lives, the Humans banded together, every tribe and nation, and swarmed over every deity as they arrived, dragging the Gods down like wolves, and pouring into their eyes and mouths with cursed blades to make every life lost another pain to be remembered.

In the end, every artifact of Human civilization was purged from the world, scoured into nothing, and forgotten. Almost (but that is another tale altogether). It took a long time, but a handful of the Gods, whose fascination with Mankind outweighed their fear, iterated on the design, and created the Humans that we know today, by instilling within them an innate fear of the divine, a love of theism, and an instinct to betray and dull their personal feelings in accordance with social mores (which are often determined by the dominant religion(s) in a particular culture, giving the Gods yet more control over them).

The old Humans were renamed the 'Vashar', an archaic Celestial-Infernal word for regret, to keep them distinct from the newer, house-broken model.

And yet, every once in a long while, a man or woman still feels a spark of the true Human spirit. They touch upon the madness of their ancient kin, and are reborn as a citizen of that savage age. They are the Human Paragons, the Godless Inheritors, the Mythic Humans.

New Feat: The Vasharan Legacy
Prerequisite: Human, One Mythos
Benefit: Choose one Mythos-granting class that you have levels in. You may treat the following Mythos as if they belonged to that class. You ignore alignment requirements for gaining [Vile] feats. Your maximum hit points increase by 1 for every [Vile] feat you possess.

If you somehow lose this feat, or no longer qualify for it, you cease to gain the benefits of the granted Mythos until you regain this feat or qualify for it once more.

Exceptional Mythos

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Heart-Freezing Atrocity Void
Prerequisite: -

There are pleasant Humans and unpleasant Humans. There were pleasant Vashar and unpleasant Vashar. But today's Humans have been deprived of the fluidity their ancestors had in such regards.

As a free action, you may switch off your ability to feel empathy for other living things as well as guilt, fear, disgust, or sadness. In this state, you ignore morale penalties to your statistics and any effects that alter you in some way based on your ability to feel the aforementioned emotions (such as a Crushing Despair spell), are Immune to Fear, reroll any 1s you roll on an attack, damage, skill check, or ability check roll, and can justify any course of action to yourself as if it were a morally reasonable thing to do. Ignored effects are not removed; if the state ends while an ignored effect's duration is still active, you are subject to it as normal.

This state automatically ends after you have spent 5 minutes without being in danger.

Characters with a Good or Neutral moral alignment that possess this Mythos may ignore prerequisites (including those for classes, feats, alternate class features, and so on) that require them to be of an Evil alignment. However, they do not gain the effects of things that require them to be Evil unless they have Heart-Freezing Atrocity Void active (for classes, they still benefit from any Base Attack Bonus or Base Saving Throw increases, as well as weapon and armor proficiencies, but none of the class features). Note that many abilities are gated behind an Evil alignment for a reason, and their use may likely corrupt the wielder's alignment over time anyway, but not always.

Genetic Progenitor Prerogative
Prerequisite: -

By the bonds of blood, all derivatives of mankind are subordinate to the purity of the Vashar. All that they are capable of is within the Vasharan potential and, diminished as those bastard children are, a true paragon of humanity has no difficulty emulating their imperfect attributes.

A character can only learn the basic manifestations of this Mythos if they have encountered the race to which the manifestation corresponds, are aware that the race is a derivative of humanity, and are not a member of that race.

Basic
Human Sublimation: You gain Open-Minded (CA) as a bonus feat, and one other bonus feat of your choice. You must meet all the prerequisites for this free bonus feat.

Illumian Sublimation: You gain the Luminous Sigils, Power Sigils, Illumian Words, and Final Utterance traits of the Illumian race, and you learn the Illumian language.

Mongrelfolk Sublimation: You gain the Low-Light Vision, Emulate Race, and Sound Imitation traits of the Mongrelfolk race, and Toughness as a bonus feat.

Sea Kin Sublimation: You gain the Low-Light Vision and Hold Breath traits of the Sea Kin race, Open-Minded as a bonus feat, and a +8 racial bonus on Swim checks.

Sharakim Sublimation: You gain the Darkvision and Shadow Affinity traits of the Sharakim race, a +1 natural armor bonus, and a +1 racial bonus on Strength checks.

Skulk Sublimation: You gain the Innate Nondetection, Peerless Camouflage, and Trackless Path traits of the Skulk race.

Underfolk Sublimation: You gain the Darkvision and Camouflage traits of the Underfolk race, and Open-Minded as a bonus feat.

Advanced
Blood-Thickening Genealogy: You gain one basic manifestation of this Mythos that you do not already have, even if you have not met the race or do not recognize them as a descendant of mankind.

Over-Specializing Obsession
Prerequisite: -

You gain Able Learner (RoD) and Open Minded (CA) as bonus feats.

When you gain a level of experience, you may spend a skill point to apply a permanent +1 insight bonus to a skill of your choice. You may only spend one skill point per skill at each level, but multiple points spent over multiple levels stack the granted insight bonus.

With An Apostate Yell
Prerequisite: -

You gain Apostate and Insane Defiance as bonus feats (EE). The saving throw bonus granted by your Apostate feat also applies to the spell-like abilities of Outsiders.

When you succeed on a saving throw to resist a divine spell or the spell-like ability of an Outsider, you heal a number of hit points of damage from yourself equal to your character level, or one point of ability damage or drain.

Fantastic Mythos

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Uncanny Extemporization Mastery
Prerequisite: One Other Mythos granted by 'The Vasharan Legacy' feat.

You gain Jack of All Trades and Open Minded as bonus feats (CA).

You gain a special Skill Trick and Feat slot, which begin empty. By spending an hour in practice, you may "charge" both slots. As a free or immediate action, you may expend the charge on either your Skill Trick or Feat slot to fill it with a corresponding Skill Trick or Feat that you meet the prerequisites for. Expending the charge on one slot does not remove the charge on the other.

By spending an hour of practice, you may empty and charge both slots once more.

United We Hate
Prerequisite: One Other Mythos granted by 'The Vasharan Legacy' feat.

You gain the Favored Enemy class feature, which functions much like the Ranger class feature of the same name, granting a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, and Damage rolls against a chosen creature type. However, you do not choose a creature type for this ability; you automatically gain Favored Enemy (Non-Humans), applying to all creatures without the [Human] subtype.

In addition, you ignore Damage Reduction and Regeneration possessed by Outsiders that can be bypassed by attacks of a given alignment or by Epic weapons.

Legendary Mythos

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Omnicapable Human Spirit Ignition
Prerequisite: Two Other Mythos granted by "The Vasharan Legacy" feat.

Choose one base character class that you have no levels in.

Your maximum hit points increase by the number of sides on their hit dice. You gain a +1 bonus to all skills that are considered class skills for that class. If that class gains +1 base attack bonus for its first level, you gain a +1 bonus on all attack rolls. If that class gains a +2 base bonus for its Fortitude, Reflex, or Will saving throws for its first level, you gain a +2 bonus on your saving throws of the same kind. You gain all the class features that a first level character of that class would have, choosing spells, maneuvers, and so on as normal.

By spending one hour practicing, you may change your chosen class to another class that you have no levels in, losing all benefits of the previous class. You may not "change" to the same class that you currently have chosen. If you gain a level in the class that you currently have chosen for this Mythos, you lose the benefits of this Mythos until you spend an hour practicing to change your choice of class.

[commander panda]

sweeet...

EDIT: just finished reading this. it's really, really, cool. the role play potential of fusing this with the hierodule (if you do end up building that class) is phenomenal. i especially like the ability to switch off morality whenever the need arises.

EDIT EDIT: are you going to do this for the other base races?

[thethird]

This is it Xefas. Great job, my hat upon to you.

Excellent and flavorful.

Wouldn't it be a tad strong for a feat though?

[Xefas]

EDIT EDIT: are you going to do this for the other base races?

Likely. I'm part-way done with another racial paragon, but it's not a base race. That said, I've got some solid ideas for most of the base races too.

Wouldn't it be a tad strong for a feat though?

Maybe? I'd like to hear your reasoning.

[thethird]

I was going to say that most feats that give access to spells/powers/maneuvers etcetera only give access to one, but then my mind remembered several cases in which this is not the case. So never mind.

Would this feat be also available for Vashar? It seems to be the intent.

[Xefas]

Would this feat be also available for Vashar? It seems to be the intent.

It is the intent, yes. The racial write-up for Vashar doesn't list a Type that I can see, so I think we're to assume they have the same typing as a Human, which is to say that they're a Humanoid with the (Human) subtype, like Illumians, Skulks, and so on. Anything with the (Human) subtype counts as Human, and can therefore take this feat.

[Avalon®]

Any links to the Vashar? Or are they something already made by WoTC in an obscure splatbook (or perhaps in BoVD)?

[thethird]

They are from Book of Vile Darkness indeed.

[Xefas]

Any links to the Vashar? Or are they something already made by WoTC in an obscure splatbook (or perhaps in BoVD)?

What thethird said. But, also, to sum it up for you: statistically, they're Humans but their bonus feat must be [Vile]. Appearance-wise, they're Humans. Psychologically, they're mean Humans. The history the book gives is a shorter and lamer version of what I just posted.

The only thing they go into that I did not was how a piece of the first Vashar was salvaged by some vague fiendish agent and resurrected in secret to reproduce the race, which has thrived in some vague secluded armpit of the multiverse to this very day.

I implied that, though. I imply many things.

[Avalon®]

What thethird said. But, also, to sum it up for you: statistically, they're Humans but their bonus feat must be [Vile]. Appearance-wise, they're Humans. Psychologically, they're mean Humans. The history the book gives is a shorter and lamer version of what I just posted.

The only thing they go into that I did not was how a piece of the first Vashar was salvaged by some vague fiendish agent and resurrected in secret to reproduce the race, which has thrived in some vague secluded armpit of the multiverse to this very day.

I implied that, though. I imply many things.

Good to know.

Hey Xef, would it be okay if I made a class based on your Mythos chassis? I'm thinking of making classes for some of the other Yozis other than the founding five (e.g. Szoreny, Isidoros, Hegra, etc.)

[Xefas]

Hey Xef, would it be okay if I made a class based on your Mythos chassis? I'm thinking of making classes for some of the other Yozis other than the founding five (e.g. Szoreny, Isidoros, Hegra, etc.)

Sure, go ahead. I would be very pleased to see such a thing.

[Network]

I actually found the vasharans pretty funny when I read through BoVD for the first time. They are so obviously evil that their society is (AFAIK) the only one in D&D to be democratic. They hate gods so much that they don't even bother to be hostile to the other races. They have a Vile feat at 1st level, despite the fact that they explicitely don't worship any evil entity to grant it to them. And yet, they are so utterly evil that one of them literally created a minor artifact of evil by writing his thoughts on a piece of paper. Seriously, what is not to like?

Also, I like these mythos, even though I think something less generic than ''you gain Open-Minded as a bonus feat'' may be better on some mythos.

[Arcanist]

I thought the quote was "No Gods, No Masters"? Or are you quoting Bioshock?

[Tacitus]

Given that Andrew Ryan from Bioshock is in the banner, I'm betting its a Bioshock quote. XP

[vasharanpaladin]

Can't help but feel a mistake was made in using only rather unpleasant individuals for the banner. I hereby suggest the addition of none other than SIMON THE DIGGER, most of whose speeches in the latter half of the anime follow the nihilistic theme?

[Primal Fury]

I think that's the point. Vashar, it seems, are humans at their worst: racist, hateful, murderous, god-killers that commit horrible crimes in the name of selfish ambition, then go home and sleep like babies because they believe what they did was right (or they just don't care).

Why would you want to lump Simon into a group like that? I'd like to see something based on him too, but it certainly isn't this.

That's not to say I don't like this; it's really cool. Why are there no Exalted mythos, by the way?

[vasharanpaladin]

I think that's the point. Vashar, it seems, are humans at their worst: racist, hateful, murderous, god-killers that commit horrible crimes in the name of selfish ambition, then go home and sleep like babies because they believe what they did was right (or they just don't care).

Why would you want to lump Simon into a group like that? I'd like to see something based on him too, but it certainly isn't this.

Bolded part. He may not have committed "horrible crimes in the name of selfish ambition" (at least, none that Rossiu didn't fabricate), may not be "racist, hateful" or "murderous," but that doesn't change that he stormed into what was essentially God's domain over something he didn't care for, raked that god over the coals and ultimately killed him over it.

And moreover, take note that the last human to get this far stopped and hit his knees on the doorstep, cowed by divine might. Simon bulled right on through. Just because he doesn't ping for Heart-Stopping Atrocity Void and United We Hate doesn't mean he can't be a Vasharan.

[Primal Fury]

I guess, but it still feels weird. When I hear "Vasharan God-Killer," I think Kratos, not Simon.

[Xefas]

Why are there no Exalted mythos, by the way?

I made as many Mythos as I felt got the idea of a racial paragon across, which happened to not include the full breadth and height of a class's Mythos. The idea that a character belongs to a particular race just feels to me like it should be a less significant portion of their story in the long run than all the trappings that a class brings to the table.

Can't help but feel a mistake was made in using only rather unpleasant individuals for the banner. I hereby suggest the addition of none other than SIMON THE DIGGER, most of whose speeches in the latter half of the anime follow the nihilistic theme?

I chose the three characters I did for a very specific reason.

If you combine all of their facial hair, it forms a full beard.

[Amechra]

I'm kinda amazed Counselor Jarjuna is not in the banner. But then again, no one reads Water Phoenix King, so that's too much to ask for.

EDIT: He'd also supply the goatee.

[Pokonic]

I chose the three characters I did for a very specific reason.

If you combine all of their facial hair, it forms a full beard.

....

Mein Gott.

[vasharanpaladin]

I chose the three characters I did for a very specific reason.

If you combine all of their facial hair, it forms a full beard.

....

Mein Gott.

Meine augen.

Pass the brain bleach, would you?

[Avalon®]

I think that's the point. Vashar, it seems, are humans at their worst: racist, hateful, murderous, god-killers that commit horrible crimes in the name of selfish ambition, then go home and sleep like babies because they believe what they did was right (or they just don't care).

Why would you want to lump Simon into a group like that? I'd like to see something based on him too, but it certainly isn't this.

That's not to say I don't like this; it's really cool. Why are there no Exalted mythos, by the way?

Simon will be in a Mythos class. Just not this one. I'll see if I can bring up the class during the holidays unless Xefas creates a better version in the mean time.

Suffice to say it will involve Simon, Kamina, Jack Rackan and Isidoros and maybe Gladiator (from Marvel).

[Primal Fury]

Simon will be in a Mythos class. Just not this one. I'll see if I can bring up the class during the holidays unless Xefas creates a better version in the mean time.

Suffice to say it will involve Simon, Kamina, Jack Rackan and Isidoros and maybe Gladiator (from Marvel).

I certainly look forward to seeing it. I wish I could post my own Mythos Vestige Binder class (which is like the 3rd one of been working on... I don't get how you guys can stay focused on one class), but it uses a third-party book as the base, so I can't actually post it and have people get what I'm doing at the same time.

[Avalon®]

I certainly look forward to seeing it. I wish I could post my own Mythos Vestige Binder class (which is like the 3rd one of been working on... I don't get how you guys can stay focused on one class), but it uses a third-party book as the base, so I can't actually post it and have people get what I'm doing at the same time.

There's gonna be a lot of mythos going on "Clap your hands if you believe" and the traditional orky goodness.

[thethird]

Avalon you should paint your computer red, da red wunz go fasta!

[Omnicrat]

This is VERY interesting. Reading this gave me a character idea for a human gramarist who wants to kill the gods and remake reality in his image.

Just one thing. It might be a bit much for one feat, but if you took the one mythos requirement, and added the ability mythos classes to trade xp and gp for extra mythos...

[Jakodee]

The difference between this and a normal human is that humans are not all like this, only some if us.

[Network]

Just one thing. It might be a bit much for one feat, but if you took the one mythos requirement, and added the ability mythos classes to trade xp and gp for extra mythos...

You get to select a mythos class when you take the feat, precisely so you can take them as extra mythos. I don't see a problem with the one mythos requirement, though.

[Omnicrat]

The difference between this and a normal human is that humans are not all like this, only some if us.

I believe that is the point.