"Your pain shall be legendary."

[Xefas]

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Mythos Discussion Thread I
Mythos Discussion Thread II

Wicked step-sibling to the Teramach.

Maybe 50% done! I couldn't contain myself.

"I am the lucid dream. The monster in your nightmares. The fiend of a thousand faces! Cower before my true form! Bow down before the God of Death!" ~Yogg-Saron, World of Warcraft

The Olethrofex

In the chaos of the young universe, the first Gods of Law sought to bring stability to the maelstrom, but even their greatest champions could not bring permanent destruction to the primordial creatures they warred with, for their stories were made to weave in upon themselves, creating tales that always ended, but always begun anew once concluded.

First, the Lawgivers caused the Sun to rise, instating time upon the timeless expanse, bringing the first day and the first night, then scouring the titans with passing eons to erode them. But the titans proved immortal, the truth of their narratives indelible in the fledgling universe.

Daunted, but not defeated, the Gods forged a thousand golden chains with which to bind their greatest enemy, a red beast whose stories of violence and madness had consumed Lawgivers without number in its insatiable lust for blood. Unthinkably, they bound the beast, dropping it into a cage whose bars would bend and whose walls were cracked, before sealing it in an infinite pit with many of its lesser kin. Through the cracks, the beast roared and lashed its fury at the Gods, as they had intended, and they collected its rage as fuel with which to, hopefully, inflict a monstrous finality on their opponents.

Forged in the fires of the Sun, the Gods smelted violence and law together into a spear, and with it, they slew a titan. It was Dead, truly, not merely in a story, but in the reality that the Gods had made, and all the tapestry quaked in that moment. The fighting ebbed as the other primordials loomed over their fellow's corpse and each of their billion souls attempted to comprehend what they saw. Then, the corpse moved. It was dead, yes, but all the world was one in that time, and it had nowhere to go. Scared, rotting, it pleaded with its kin to explain what had happened. When they remained silent, it pleaded with the Gods, asking what they had done. None could answer, and so it screamed impotently into the vastness, horrifying both factions with its very existence.

Solemnly, some of the Lawgivers chose to take responsibility for the act, drawing the portfolio of Death into their being, and staking out an Afterlife in the chaos, for the dead to reside. But the dead titan, whose brothers and sisters devised for it a new name so that they need not contemplate the idea of death, was too lost to the terror of its new state to go peacefully, and it fought any and all who attempted to send it through the Black Gate of the new Gods of Death. Though it was eventually defeated, neither God nor Titan could scrub the stain of the Abomination's being from the strata of the universe, and so forevermore there would be things that had died but would not yet journey beyond the Gate, walking as if alive; undead.

Special Rules On Becoming An Olethrofex

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Every Olethrofex has a single thing in common - they have all died. In most cases, a living character with no levels in Olethrofex will be killed and, there, at the threshold between the living world and the afterlife, something intervenes, and they reawaken - alive, but suffused with the essence of death.

Mechanically, the character is rebuilt, trading in one or more of their previous class levels for Olethrofex levels. Characters with levels in a different Mythos-using class must trade in enough levels so that they have more Olethrofex levels than of their other Mythos-using class, and they lose all Mythos and Excellencies previously purchased with Mythos Points. Those spent Mythos Points are then refunded to them.

Alternatively, a sapient undead character who was once alive can take levels in the Olethrofex class just as they would any other class.

Hit Die: d10
Skill Points: 6 + Intelligence Modifier
Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Disguise, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Any), Listen, Move Silently, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Swim, Tumble
Proficiencies: Olethrofices are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as light, medium, and heavy armor, and with all shields, including tower shields.

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special	Mythos	Excellencies
1st	+1	+2	+2	+2	The Abomination's Mythos, Mythos Known, Exceptional Mythos, Unliving Excellence, Horror Manifest I, Death's Torn Tapestry	+2	+1
2nd	+2	+3	+3	+3		+0	+1
3rd	+3	+3	+3	+3	Horror Manifest II	+1	+0
4th	+4	+4	+4	+4		+0	+1
5th	+5	+4	+4	+4	Horror Manifest III	+1	+0
6th	+6/+1	+5	+5	+5		+0	+1
7th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+5	Fantastic Mythos	+1	+1
8th	+8/+3	+6	+6	+6	Horror Manifest IV	+0	+1
9th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+6		+1	+0
10th	+10/+5	+7	+7	+7		+0	+1
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+7	+7		+1	+0
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+8	+8		+0	+1
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+8	+8	Legendary Mythos	+1	+1
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+9	+9		+0	+1
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+9	+9		+1	+0
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+10	+10		+0	+1
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+10	+10		+1	+0
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+11	+11		+0	+1
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+11	+11	Exalted Mythos	+1	+1
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+12	+12		+1	+1

The Abomination's Mythos: An Olethrofex's power is expressed in terms of one or more "Mythos", the building blocks of the legend that they are, and the stories that they have told and will tell. While any given Mythos varies from the rest, they share some similar traits. They are always Extraordinary abilities, and when they reference a difficulty class for an imposed saving throw, that saving throw is always calculated as (10 + 1/2 class level + Charisma modifier, unless otherwise stated). When a Mythos references a "level" that is not clearly defined in some other way, such as "character level", it refers to "class level" as in the number of levels one has in the Olethrofex class. When a Mythos references "allies", it specifically does not refer to the Olethrofex using it. When a Mythos grants a feat as a bonus feat, it is regardless of whether the character meets the prerequisites for that feat (unless otherwise stated), and if the character already possesses that feat (in some permanent fashion - via the normal allotment gained by leveling up, or through another Mythos, and so on, but not those gained temporarily, such as via a "Heroics" spell), they must replace the prior instance of that feat with another feat that they qualify for.

Every Mythos has a Tier. The Tier of a Mythos ranges from 1 to 4, typically referred to as Exceptional, Fantastic, Legendary, and Exalted. The Exceptional Mythos of the Olethrofex belongs to faceless ghouls that lurk in the dark spaces beyond the sight of the living, tricksters who thought to cheat Death when He came for them, victims of fate's errors, servants of dark powers cursed with their gratitude, and soldiers so enthralled by the blood and terror of the battlefield that their bodies never stopped seeking new foes to kill though their soul had long departed. The Olethrofex's Fantastic Mythos further reveal the truths of Death, Undeath, and Oblivion, driving the black champion to serve them one or all, lest he choose ignorance and devolve into a mere monster of the mortal coil, feared but meaningless. A Legendary Olethrofex is a guardian of the veil, a terrible lich-king, or a devouring blight on existence itself, manipulating, raping, or butchering the gate between this world and the next with their unnatural designs. Once an Olethrofex is Exalted, they mold bleak eternity as a craftsman would with clay. When they ride with scythe in hand, the end of days follows behind them. In their hands, the finite is made eternal and the eternal is brought to nothing. They are the dusk that drowns the day and the night that brings relief to a weary universe.

Some Mythos, in addition to their initial stated effect, have Basic and Advanced manifestations. When an Olethrofex gains access to a Mythos with a list of Basic manifestations, they may choose one such manifestation, and they gain that benefit immediately as well. This choice may not be changed later. When an Olethrofex gains access to a Mythos with a list of Advanced manifestations, they may choose one such manifestation, and they gain that benefit upon achieving their next level of Olethrofex. This choice may be changed at any point before receiving the chosen manifestation itself, but not after (choosing beforehand is just an easy way to mark it down on your character sheet so you don't forget that you'll be getting something later).

Mythos Known: A 1st level Olethrofex begins play with two Exceptional Mythos that he qualifies for if this is his first level in a PC character class. At higher levels, he gains additional Mythos as noted on the Olethrofex class table.

For characters that multiclass into Olethrofex after having taken levels in another PC character class, the 1st level of Olethrofex grants only a single Exceptional Mythos, rather than two.

An Olethrofex also has the ability to learn more Mythos, above the ones automatically allotted to him by leveling up by performing certain tasks. The first is to expend resources funding or performing funereal rites for the dead, creating crypts, graveyards, and other repositories for the deceased, or constructing monuments to great deaths and tragedies. The second is to fund or create the infrastructure for an independent holding of sentient undead (other than yourself), such as constructing a city, or fortress, or flying necropolis where awakened zombies can unlive and work in relative safety from rampaging adventurers, or establishing a bunch of disparate vampies into a unified court where they can pool their resources, police themselves, and terrorize the living all the more effectively. The third is to annihilate magical items; destruction is not enough. To qualify, the item in question must be consigned to total oblivion, such as by a Sphere of Annihilation. The fourth is to deny a quest reward, which much also not be collected by an ally, given either from a living character as a request to destroy undead, or from a dark power to which you serve, rewarding you for slaying the living.

Resources expended or denied in these fashions, which are utilized earnestly and without intention to recollect on them for personal gain, have their gold piece value recouped as an identical number of Mythos Points.

By spending 1,000 Mythos Points, and 250xp, an Olethrofex may learn an Exceptional Mythos. A Fantastic Mythos requires 5,000 Mythos Points and 500xp. A Legendary Mythos takes 10,000 Mythos Points, and 1,000xp. And an Exalted Mythos takes 20,000 Mythos Points and 2,000xp.

For half the listed price for a given Tier, an Olethrofex may learn a Basic or Advanced manifestation of a Mythos they already know of that Tier.

Learning Mythos above the standard amount requires astounding, nearly single-minded devotion to the story of the Olethrofex. One may only utilize this ability while more than half of his effective character level (ECL) is devoted to levels in the Olethrofex class.

Unliving Excellence: As denoted on their class table, an Olethrofex gains a certain number of abilities known as "Excellencies". These tend to be more general, generic, and passive than a Mythos, but are useful nonetheless, and are drawn from their own separate list, unsegregated by Tiers. Like a Mythos, an Olethrofex may learn more Excellencies above their allotted amount. Each one costs 1,000 Mythos Points and 100xp, plus an additional 1,000 Mythos Points and 100xp for each time a new Excellency is innovated beyond the first. (So, 2,000mp and 200xp for the second, 3,000mp and 300xp for the third, etc.)

Horror Manifest: It would be a mistake to assume that the destruction of an Olethrofex's flesh is all that is required to defeat it. It is so much more than meat and bones. It is the gross mutilation of reason and nature made into physical form, a walking elemental anathema to the multiverse. At first level, an Olethrofex adds their Charisma modifier as a bonus to their Armor Class, so long as they wear light or no armor, as the heat of violence withers and dies upon seeing their horror revealed to the world.

At 3rd level, an Olethrofex may substitute their Charisma modifier in place of their Constitution modifier for determining the number of hit points they recieve at each level. They may apply this benefit retroactively.

At 5th level, an Olethrofex may substitute their Charisma modifier in place of their Constitution modifier for determining their Fortitude saving throw bonus.

At 8th level, an Olethrofex gains Force Of Personality as a bonus feat (CA).

Death's Torn Tapestry: When the Abomination was created, its fetid, rotting hide grew slick with the universe's conceptual blood as its impossibility tore wounds in things that had not yet come to be. As it tried to die, but could not, its anathematic Mythos swept up threads from Death and Oblivion while they roiled their spite at its existence, and devoured them as a ghoul feasting on flesh. And so it is that its story gained some perverse purview over these things, though in a twisted way, and not to the extent of those things' true champions.

Some of an Olethrofex's Mythos are labeled with [Death], [Undeath], or [Oblivion] descriptors. [Undeath] are the purest expression of the Abomination's ideals - they create or empower undead to further blaspheme against the essence of all that is proper in the multiverse. An Olethrofex can maintain control over a maximum number of Hit Dice of Undead created via his Mythos equal to (4 x Class Level).

[Death] Mythos require dedication to what the Abomination should have been - the first dead thing, rather than an undead creature. As such, every [Death] Mythos you know lowers the number of Undead you may maintain control over by 4.

[Oblivion] Mythos require dedication to a true, silent end beyond any life or afterlife. Truly internalizing such ideas is deadening to one's heart and mind. Whenever you gain a Morale bonus or penalty, reduce that bonus or penalty by 1 per [Oblivion] Mythos you know.

[Xefas]

Exceptional Mythos

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Corpse-Body Resilience
Prerequisite: -

The unnatural essence that flows through you has begun to transform your physical husk in terrible and unnatural ways. You may choose one of two (mostly) cosmetic paths which this Mythos will begin, and subsequent Mythos that branch from this one will continue. The first path is that of the Festering Carrion Horror, and the second is that of the Eternal Cadaver Idol.

When a Festering Carrior Horror takes this Mythos, their skin pulls unnaturally tight against their body, looking unpleasantly stretched at the joints, and turns a sallow hue, as if they were perpetually afflicted with a debilitating illness.

Eternal Cadavar Idols have the color of their skin slowly lighten or darken, until it is either a bloodless marble white or a complete pitch black. Blemishes, skin polyps, scars, and other minor skin deformities fade to nothing in the process.

You gain Tomb-Tainted Soul and Tomb-Born Vitality as bonus feats (LM). You are immune to Poison and Disease.

Grave-Creche Fortitude
Prerequisite: -

You gain Damage Reduction X/Silver or Magic, where 'X' is your class level.

If you spend at least 4 hours in complete inactivity while resting atop material that you have died upon (or that your body landed on immediately after dying; that counts) or while wearing only clothing that you have died in, without being touched by natural sunlight for the duration, you gain enhanced durability for 24 hours afterward. In this state, the Damage Reduction granted by this Mythos can only be overcome by Silver and Magic, your Turn Resistance (if you are Undead) improves by 2.

At 3rd level, your natural healing rate is doubled while resting upon or within your grave material (as mentioned above). At 6th level, during your state of enhanced durability, you also have Fast Healing 1. This Fast Healing increases by 1 per two levels above 6th (2 at 8th, 3 at 10th, etc).

Inevitable Sunset Strike
Prerequisite: -
[Oblivion]

The living revel in their survival. They are so short-sighted as to discern value from not perishing to wound or illness or accident. Do they not see their death of age swiftly approaching? A mere moment to an immortal. But then, the immortal and the unliving cling, too, to their existence, willfully ignorant to the inevitable conclusion of all things, when the timeline ends, and all is brought to naught. Perhaps not for a billion billion years, and yet, less than a moment to the infinite darkness beyond.

As a standard action, you may make a normal melee attack. If the attack misses, your target still takes damage equal to the base damage dice of your weapon (ex. 2d6 for a medium greatsword). As your blade passes over them, they seem to wither and fade, even as they desperately block and parry in an attempt to preserve themselves.

Iron-Nerved Reaper Alacrity
Prerequisite: -

You gain Improved Initiative as a bonus feat.

Basic
Death Rushes Forth: You gain Run, Dash (CW), and Fleet of Foot (CW) as bonus feats.

Black Steel Torrent: You ignore a number of points of Armor Check Penalty from worn armor equal to your Strength modifier. If this reduces your Armor Check Penalty to zero, it no longer reduces your speed and you can rest or sleep in it without difficulty.

Advanced
Rising Smoke Swiftness: You gain Leap of the Heavens (PHBII) as a bonus feat.

Flickering Shadow Sense: You gain Lighting Reflexes as a bonus feat.

Necrotic Phantasmagoria Pulse
Prerequisite: -

With a gesture, you cause a nightmarish cascade of roiling spectral images to pour forth from the innermost vital cesspits of your being. This may be used as a melee touch attack or ranged attack that deals 1d8 negative energy damage per two class levels, minimum 1d8, and requires a standard action to initiate. If used as a ranged attack, the normal maximum range is 60 feet. However, you may choose a target up to 120 feet away by halving the damage dealt after rolling.

Advanced
Black Gauss Stroke: As a standard action, you may unleash a lashing coil of black-tinged lightning at up to three separate targets, all of which must be within a 30ft cone. This deals 1d8 damage per two class levels, minimum 1d8, half of which is negative energy, and the other half of which is electricity. The first target is allowed a Fortitude save for half damage; if they succeed, the other targets are spared. If the first target fails their save, the other two targets are hit with the lightning, and may make Fortitude saves for half damage.

If a target takes half damage due to a save, you may choose for that half to be all negative energy or all electricity.

Drowning Banshee Wail: As a standard action, you may focus a screeching, sorrowful blast of sound through your mouth or a musical instrument. This targets one creature within 60ft that can hear the noise. They, and one object in their space, must make a Fortitude save or take 1d6 damage per two class levels, minimum 1d6, half of which is negative energy, and the other half of which is sonic. You may choose a particular object to be targeted, if you have line of sight to the item, otherwise the damaged item is chosen randomly. If you destroy an item with this Mythos that the target has equipped, you gain Mythos Points equal to its gold piece value.

Lichpyre Flare: As a standard action, you may unleash an unnaturally colored conflagration at a target within 120ft. That target must make a Reflex save or take 1d10 damage per two class levels, minimum 1d10, half of which is negative energy, and the other half of which is fire.

Remorseless Gaze of Winter: As a standard action, you may call forth a great icy storm that moves with you as its eye, encompassing a cylindrical space that radiates 60ft from your body, and 100ft high (if there is sufficient room, it will also extend 100ft below you). Your space, and the space for 10ft around you, is the storm's calm, and it will not harm those within. Creatures that enter the storm, or begin their turn in the storm, must make a Fortitude save or take 1d4 damage per three class levels, minimum 1d4, half of which is negative energy, and the other half of which is cold. A single creature cannot take damage from the storm more than once per round.

The storm lasts until you dismiss it as a move action. While the storm is active, you cannot use the attack provided by Necrotic Phantasmagoria Pulse, or any of its other advanced manifestations.

None Trespass The Black Gate
Prerequisite: -
[Death]

There is power in death, and that is all some see. Others find the solemn sanctity in its meaning, and may weave sacred chains upon the gate of a fallen one's body, allowing none to trespass upon it.

As a full-round action, you may perform a short rite over an adjacent corpse. As part of the rite, you must place a small object (or, sometimes, a collection of objects) on the body, which somehow symbolizes rest, purity, or safety in death. Two silver pieces over the eyes is common, as is a dusting of salt, or an anointment of holy water or ashes. The cost of such items expended as part of the rite may be recollected as Mythos Points*.

The sanctified body will not rise as an undead under any circumstances, natural (such as a traumatized person rising naturally as a ghost) or magical, nor can it be resurrected as an undead creature, such as by a Revive Undead spell. The corpse is similarly expunged of the ability to be targeted by Necromantic spells and effects that disturb the corpse and compel actions of it without raising it as an undead, such as Speak With Dead. Parts of the sanctified corpse are completely useless as a material in supernatural affairs, such as the creation of a Bone or Flesh golem, or the material components of a spell. The corpse can still be raised to life (as with Raise Dead), after which this Mythos' effects end. If that creature should die again, their corpse requires another rite in order for it to be immunized once more.

Removing the item used in the rite does not reverse its effects, but if so blasphemous an act transpires, you immediately become aware of the name of the one who did so. It is not uncommon for Olethrofices with this Mythos to keep a list.

*As per the usual rules, this is only the case if you do not intend to take back the expended resources, or profit from their use. They must be earnestly given.

Basic
Drawing Open The Gate: For 24 hours after you sanctify a corpse with this Mythos, all of your attacks gain the Undead Bane special quality. In lieu of an outright attack, you may also make touch attacks that deal 2d6 points of positive energy damage to Undead. The time accrued by this ability is cumulative. So, an Olethrofex that sanctifies three corpses in quick succession would have 72 hours of this benefit. If, after 10 hours, he sanctifies two more corpses, it would extend again to 110 hours. And so on.

Caretaker at the Threshold: When you spend a full-round action to sanctify a corpse with this Mythos, you may choose to also sanctify all others corpses within (20 x level) feet. Corpses sanctified in this way show markings reminescent of the rite performed on the first corpse. For example, if the rite usually involves silver pieces placed over the corpse's eyes, then the other corpses will have eyes completely clouded over with a silver tone (tarnished or shining, as the coins used on the first corpse). If the rite usually involves ash drawn on the corpse's forehead in the depiction of a holy symbol, then the other corpses might have bruised or scabrous flesh in the shape of the same symbol upon their brow.

In addition, you also gain the ability to perform a new, extended rite on a corpse. This new rite takes at least a full minute to perform, and requires some form of marking on all of the corpse's extremities. Upon its completion, the corpse retains the pallor of death, but otherwise does not decay any further. Hair and fingernails stop growing, bacteria and mindless vermin shy away from feeding upon it, flesh does not rot or bloat from moisture, etc. If a spell with the [Healing] subschool is applied while the rite is taking place, then the corpse may also have previously rotten flesh or other features returned to it, or injuries healed, despite its lack of hit points, likely leaving it in a state where it could be mistaken for a living thing once more.

On A Pale Beast
Prerequisite: 4 ranks in the Ride skill

Your will to bring death to the living or unliving, suffused with your soul's black essence, coalesces into the name of a swift beast that wishes for nothing but to bear you into battle. By speaking the name for the first time, you make the creature real, and its ash-white countenance bursts forth into this world to greet you.

Your pale beast always appears as a quadrupedal animal suitable for use as a mount. Among the most civilized races, this is usually a horse, but other options are possible. A Hobgoblin Olethrofex might conjure a massive wolf, or a Kobold could summon a giant reptile.

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Type: Magical Beast
Size: Choose; Medium or Large (a Large pale beast has a Reach of only 5ft)
Hit Dice: 3d8 (+1 hit die per two class levels)
Speed: 60ft (for some unusual mounts, such as a lizard or spider, this might be substituted for a 30ft speed and a 20ft climb speed)
Armor Class: +2 Natural Armor (+1 per two class levels)
Attack: The pale beast has a primary natural attack that deals (1d6 if Medium, or 1d8 if Large) damage, which is usually a slam, bite, or claw (for simplicity, a strike with multiple claws or hooves is represented as a single attack). It adds 1.5x its Strength modifier to the damage of this attack.
Ability Scores: Int 3, Wis 13, Cha 7; Assign the following scores to their phsyical abilities at your chossing (18, 16, 14). Every four hit dice, it gains an additional point that may be applied to any score, much like a player character.
Skills: A pale beast gains an additional 4 skill points for its first hit die, and one additional bonus skill point at each hit die after that. Its class skills are (Balance, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim). A pale beast that uses the alternate climb speed option (see above) also adds the following skills to its list of class skills (Climb, Escape Artist, Search).
Feats: A pale beast gains feats as normal, but it always chooses Endurance as its first level feat. (A pale beast that uses the alternate climb speed option may take Weapon Finesse in place of Endurance as its first level feat, even if it does not meet the prerequisites.)
Special Abilities: A pale beast always has Low-Light Vision, Darkvision out to 60ft, Scent, Evasion, and the ability to understand all languages that its master does, as well as telepathically communicate broad emotions and vague animalistic concepts to its master across any distance. It is healed by both negative and positive energy, and has a +4 racial bonus on saving throws against fear effects.

As long as you may speak aloud, you may summon or dismiss your pale beast as a full-round action. It is always summoned adjacent to you, or to the closest available space with solid ground if there are no free adjacent spaces large enough to contain it. After being dismissed or being killed, its essence diffuses back into the world and must reconstitute itself for 1d4 hours before it may be summoned again. It cannot be permanently destroyed. If an ability that can permanently destroy things that cannot be permanently destroyed annihilates your pale beast, you lose this Mythos. After spending an hour in isolated meditation or mourning, you may regain this Mythos, creating a new beast with a new name, or simply replace it with a different Exceptional Mythos and forsake the ability to gain this Mythos ever again.

Basic
Reborn In The Saddle: You gain Saddleback (PGtF) as a bonus feat.

Pale Rider Mien: While riding your pale beast, you are considered to have a masterwork tool for Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival.

Striking-At-Despair Futility: You gain Mounted Combat as a bonus feat.

Relentless Nightfall Fusillade
Prerequisite: The 'Iron-Nerved Reaper Alacrity' Mythos

When night falls, it throws its shade upon all things with equal measure, and no man, women, or child is given a death any more or less complete than any other.

As a standard action, you may make two melee attacks against different targets.

At 4th level, you may make three melee attacks instead of two, all against different targets. At 6th level, this increases to four, and you gain the option to, instead of rolling separate attack rolls, you may make a single attack roll and apply it against all chosen targets. This decision must be made before making the first attack roll. At 8th level, the number of attacks increases to five.

At 11th level, you may attack every creature within your melee reach. At 13th level, you may now choose whether to make a single attack roll or multiple attack rolls after the first roll is made, but before the second.

Rigid Deathgrip Calcification
Prerequisite: -

The bones in your hands and wrists swell and bulge, giving them an almost claw-like appearance. While you use at least one hand to climb with, you have a Climb Speed equal to one half your Land Speed, and are considered to have a masterwork climbing tool. While using two hands to climb, your Climb Speed increases to be equal with your Land Speed.

Basic
Razor Ghoul-Grip: You gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. Like a Monk, you may make unarmed attacks with any part of your body, even if your hands are otherwise occupied. You may deal slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning damage with unarmed strikes that utilize your hands or feet. If an average damage roll from your unarmed strikes would be capable of overcoming the Hardness of a surface that you are climbing, you may choose to automatically leave slight alcoves in the surface just sufficient enough that they may later be used as handholds or footholds.

Heavy Mohrg-Grip: You gain Improved Grapple as a bonus feat.

Staunch Skeleton-Grip: You gain Monkey Grip as a bonus feat, but do not suffer the -2 penalty on attack rolls normally inflicted by that feat.

Vicious Wight-Grip: You gain Power Attack as a bonus feat.

Twilight Harbinger Appointment
Prerequisite: -

The nature of Death is to follow, not because it serves, for it bows to no one, but because it is eventual, inevitable; it is consequence, and judgment, and conclusion. Whether by wound, plague, misfortune, the turning of years, or something else, Death has a herald.

When initiative is rolled for an encounter, you may swap initiative counts with an ally that has a lower initiative count than yourself. That ally becomes your Herald until the end of the encounter; choose one of the following benefits to apply for the duration.

Bright Herald: When you make a ranged attack against a target that has taken damage from a ranged attack made by your Bright Herald earlier in the same round, that attack ignores damage reduction. Whenever your Bright Herald inflicts a morale penalty on a creature (or a penalty that they suffer as a result from being Shaken, Frightened, or Panicked), that creatures treats the penalty as being 1 higher whenever it interacts with you directly (such as a penalty on its armor class when you are attacking it, or a penalty on its attack rolls when it attacks you).

Iron Herald: When you charge a target that was charged earlier in the same round by your Iron Herald, the penalty to your Armor Class from charging is reduced by 2. Whenever you are flanking a target with your Iron Herald, both of you increase the attack roll flanking bonus by 1.

Cruel Herald: When you force a target to make a saving throw, when that target has already been forced to make a saving throw earlier in the same round by your Cruel Herald, they take a -2 penalty on that saving throw, and their Spell Resistance is reduced by 1 for 5 minutes. Additional applications of the Spell Resistance reduction stack and reset the duration back to 5 minutes.

Basic
Reflections on Conquest: By spending a day training with a character that has served as your Bright Herald at least once before, in whatever manner they choose, they may teach you one feat that they know. This feat must benefit ranged attacks, intimidation, diplomacy, or make you a better leader in some way. You may ignore one prerequisite listed for the feat, but must otherwise meet all others prerequisites.

You may only learn one feat via Reflections on Conquest.

Reflections on War: By spending a day training with a character that has served as your Iron Herald at least once before, in whatever manner they choose, they may teach you one feat that they know. This feat must benefit melee attacks or somehow make you more durable. You may ignore one prerequisite listed for the feat, but must otherwise meet all others prerequisites.

You may only learn one feat via Reflections on War.

Reflections on Famine: By spending a day training with a character that has served as your Cruel Herald at least once before, in whatever manner they choose, they may endow you with a spell-like ability. They must know the spell, have the same spell-like ability, or have an invocation or mystery (or other supernatural power) that mimicks the taught spell. The spell must be of a level no higher than ([your class level - 2] / 2, rounded up; for example, a 5th level Olethrofex could learn a 2nd level spell). If the spell has verbal, somatic, or expensive material components or foci, you must still supply them. Otherwise, it operates as a normal spell-like ability, which may be used once per day.

You may only be endowed with one spell-like ability via Reflections on Famine.

Viral Tyrant Legacy
Prerequisite: The 'Corpse-Body Resilience' Mythos or The 'Undead' Type
[Undeath]

The ecosystem of a living body is vast and intricate, with numerous specialized cells for fighting off disease and infection from the blood, digestion, or airborne particles. All of these are now largely vestigial to you, but the necrotic energies that have come to sustain your body may have another use for them. These phagocytes, intestinal flora, and other creatures may be slain and raised as a mockery of what they were, becoming a virulent undead plague upon living things.

This disease can be called many things, but is referred to here as Walking Death. Its method of delivery is via transfer of a host's bodily fluids into a victim's bloodstream. This may be done through a natural bite attack, or by a creature without a natural bite attack by succeeding on a grapple check against a pinned target. Other ways are possible, but the disease loses its virulency one round after the host's fluids leave its body. The DC to resist Walking Death is (10 + 1/2 host's hit dice + host's Strength modifier). Its Incubation period is 1 hour, and it deals 1d4 Strength and 1 Constitution damage.

When a creature dies while afflicted with Walking Death, they rise as a Zombie one minute later, with an insatiable urge to consume flesh and spread their disease, for they continue to host its tyranny even in death. They instinctively do not consume or mutilate a body to the extent that it would not rise as a functional Zombie.

Advanced
Mutant Necrosis Proliferation: When a creature rises as a Zombie due to the Walking Death, there is a 10% chance that they will become mutated, gaining a new ability. If, in life, their highest ability score was Strength, they become a Big Zombie, gaining the Powerful Build quality and Toughness as a bonus feat (in additional to the first purchase of Toughness granted by the Zombie template). If their highest ability score was Dexterity, they become a Fast Zombie, losing the "Single Action Only" special quality granted by the Zombie template. If their highest ability score with Constitution, they become a Carrier Zombie; upon their destruction, they release a specialized airborne variant of Walking Death, which forces living creatures within 30ft to save against being infected, before dying out. If multiple ability scores are tied for highest, choose randomly among them for which mutation takes precedence.

Tyrannical Progenitor Inheritance: When the Walking Death is transferred to a new creature, that creature uses the DC of their infector's version of the Walking Death, minus 1, if it would be higher than calculating it from their own Strength and Hit Dice.

(For example, if you have 18 Strength and 4 Hit Dice, the DC of your Walking Death is 16. If you infect a level 1 Commoner with 10 Strength, the DC of their Walking Death would normally be 10, but is instead 15. If they infect another level 1 Commoner, that Commoner's DC would be 14. And so on.)

Noble Plaguefather Authority: Zombies created by the Walking Death never attack you, ignoring even magically enforced orders to do so. In addition, as a standard action, you may assert your authority over every Zombie created by the Walking Death that can hear you, and spur them to rampage in a direction of your choosing. Any commands more intricate than "Rampage that way." are too much for them to understand. Zombies that are already hunting prey, or are under the direct control of another being, ignore you.

Slavering Horror Malformity: After a Zombie is created by the Walking Death, the necrotic disease polluting their body begins to develop them towards becoming an even more effective scourge on the living world. Over the next day, bits of bone and flesh are broken down and repurposed to give the Zombie an oversized, gaping maw filled with sharp too-large fangs. This weakens them structurally, reducing the Natural Armor they gain from the Zombie template by 1, but granting them "Deformity: Teeth" as a bonus feat (HoH).

[Xefas]

Fantastic Mythos

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Clad In Broken Hopes And Stolen Lives
Prerequisite: -

With a small sacrifice, you may transform a suit of armor that you wear into a more intuitive conduit for your power. To supply this sacrifice, you must coup-de-grace a living creature - as the essence of death wells up around them, you reap the pain and fear of their life and robe yourself in it.

Armor so transformed is cosmetically altered into an ornate symbol of death. Leather and Hide armor might change to look as if the material were sown-together, still-rotting scraps of carcasses from the recently deceased. Chainmail or Banded Mail might become altered to appear as if they were made of sequences of interlocking or bolted-together bones. Breastplates and Full Plate could gain skull motifs around their joints and pauldrons, with metal like black ice and bone-white filigree. Whatever the change, the armor does not gain or lose functionality based on the materials it now appears to be made of.

If you remove a transformed suit of armor, it retains its cosmetic changes. However, if an Olethrofex with this Mythos wears armor of this kind, they gain the following benefits. First, they are considered to have a Masterwork Tool for the Intimidate skill against anyone that can see them. Second, they reduce the Armor Check Penalty of the armor by their Charisma modifier, and if this would reduce the Armor Check Penalty to 0, their movement speed is not penalized for wearing it and they may rest and sleep in it without hindrance. Third, their 'Horror Manifest' class feature functions in the armor, even if it is Medium or Heavy Armor.

Corpse-Life Apotheosis
Prerequisite: The 'Corpse-Soul Desecration' Mythos

The darkness has finally devoured you, snuffing out the last glowing ember of your humanity. You breathe your last breath, and die. Moments, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even years later, you arise again, neither living nor dead, a creature of terrible stasis, an Abomination in miniature.

Your type changes to Undead, with all associated alterations, save for the following. Unlike normal undead creatures, your natural state becomes undeath. You may be targeted by spells such as Raise Dead, and all spells that would return a creature to life from the afterlife, like Resurrection or True Resurrection, return you to your undead self. You may choose, upon gaining the Mythos, to lose your "Deformity: Madness" feat, as your mind no longer suffers from being pulled between the living and undead states of being. If you make this choice, the permanent Wisdom points that were removed by that feat are returned to you. You cannot alter your decision later.

You gain Improved Toughness and Positive Energy Resistance as bonus feats (LM) and you have Turn Resistance equal to your Charisma modifier.

Festering Carrion Horrors become grotesque monsters, though the specifics are highly variable once the constraint of life are removed. Ribcages bursting through the torso, filled with writhing, bloody viscera. Skulls broken and twisted to resemble nothing that has ever lived. Hands made of thousands of intertwined black, squirming spider legs. Or perhaps something more mundane, like a simple bleached skeleton. Regardless of the form, they are one and all nightmarish, and gain Frightful Presence (Drac) as a bonus feat.

Eternal Cadaver Idols make their home in the uncanny valley, becoming altogether too ideal, too perfect, too fantastic, too graceful, too consistent to appear as a normal member of their race any longer. With neither heartbeat nor body heat, they are more likely to be mistaken for exquisitely crafted statues, dolls, or mannequins than as a living person. They gain a +4 bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks, doubling this bonus while they remain perfectly still. And a +10 bonus on Disguise checks to disguise themselves as an inanimate representation of a person, such as a statue.

Corpse-Soul Desecration
Prerequisite: The 'Corpse-Body Resilience' Mythos

The black essence of the grave has consumed your body, but now you beckon it to desecrate you in ever-more intimate ways, until your soul itself has been twisted beyond repair. This renders you immune to Energy Drain, Death Effects, and the Ability Damage and Drain inflicted by undead or necromancy spells or spell-like abilities. However, this debasement is not without consequence; your mind begins to become poisoned by the inhuman whispers and impulses of undeath, inflicted 'Deformity: Madness' on you as a bonus feat (EE).

A Festering Carrion Horror with this Mythos loses all or most of their hair, and their eyes cloud, scab, or rot over, remaining functional, but becoming grim to look upon. Bits of their flesh routinely die and fester, still clinging to the limb, before flaking off over the course of days or weeks. Their movements become strange and spidery, sometimes too still, other times too abrupt, and often using angles and twists of the joints that shouldn't be possible for a normal person. They gain Stench Of The Dead as a bonus feat (UA).

An Eternal Cadaver Idol's hair darkens or lightens to become as black as a starless winter's night, or as white as the snow beneath it. Their irises become something instantly striking and recognizable as being unusual, often a brilliant blood-red, a frigid ice-blue, or so dark that they seem to consume the light of everything around them. Their physical features subtley shift to a perfect symmetry, and their nails, hair, eyelashes, and other naturally growing bodily items cease to grow or change, shifting to an idealized state, and only regrowing if damaged. They may substitute their number of ranks in Bluff for their number of ranks in Diplomacy (even if this would exceed the normal number of ranks in Diplomacy they could have) for the purposes of making Diplomacy checks against characters that could be physically attracted to them.

Death-Mourning Phylactery Fission
Prerequisite: 4 ranks in a Craft skill

After learning this Mythos, you may, one time, create the basis for an artifact of power beyond mortal kin. To begin, you must personally craft a masterwork weapon, suit of armor, or article of clothing that would occupy your face, head, throat, shoulders, arms, hands, waist, ring, or feet item slot.

At the item's moment of completion, you sunder a portion of your own soul from the whole, and graft it into the item, transforming it into a Soul Reliquary. If it is a weapon, it becomes a +1 weapon, if it is a suit of armor, it becomes a +2 suit of armor or a +1 suit of armor with an additional quality worth an effective +1 bonus, if it is neither, it gains a Basic Wondrous Power (see below).

In addition, your Reliquary is nigh invulnerable. It cannot be harmed or destroyed, except by a single flaw that you build into it during its creation. Nothing is beyond Death, after all. This flaw can be difficult to exploit, but it cannot be impossible. Perhaps it must be thrown into a very specific volcano, or sundered by a Paladin wielding a Holy Avenger, or it must slay a hundred innocents in a single night. If a Reliquary's flaw ever becomes completely impossible (such as a blade that can only be destroyed be being immersed in the Prime Material Plane's sun, and the sun is devoured by some rampaging monster, never to return), then it develops a new, similar flaw.

You are not the only one who can wield your Reliquary, of course. If someone else takes up your Reliquary, the fragment of your soul within will attempt to subvert them. In this case, "taking up" a Reliquary can be quite indirect; certainly, drawing on its powers directly counts for this purpose, but so does simply carrying it, magically levitating it, strapping it to a pack animal to carry, or dragging it a hundred feet behind one's self with a rope while it is incased in a steel box. As a general rule, it cannot be safely transported without you.

Once a character has taken up the Reliquary, they have a choice. They can give in to the subtle manipulations emanating from the item, and begin to act in accordance with your moral and ethical philosophy (which may be more specific than your Alignment), slowly changing themselves of their own free will. In this case, the item functions for them as it would for you, allowing the wielder access to all of its powers. Or they can fight the influence of the item, in which case the item functions merely as a masterwork version of itself, without any further abilities, and the wielder suffers a -1 penalty on all d20 rolls, -5 maximum hit points, -1 effective level for rolls or abilities they use that function off their class or character levels, and they lose one spell slot of their highest level known. This lasts until the wielder abandons the item, plus one week afterward. For each full week after the first that they carry the item, these penalties stack an additional time. If a wielder gives in to the item's influence, they become immune to these penalties - however, if they deny the item's influence again, then all the penalties come back, including those that have continued to accrue while they were immune to them.

A character that dies while wielding your Reliquary rises as a Zombie whose sole purpose is to take your Reliquary and bring it back to you. If it completes this task, it returns to being an inert corpse.

If you are on the same Plane as your Reliquary, you know the exact distance and direction it is from you at all times. If it is on a different Plane, you know which Plane it is on. Reliquaries cannot have new magical qualities applied to them in a permanent fashion beyond those granted by this Mythos (such as a Wizard with Craft Magic Arms and Armor improving your +1 Greatsword Reliquary into a +2 Greatsword; see the Magic Item Compendium pg233 for more details), though they can be temporarily enchanted, such as by a Greater Magic Weapon spell.

Rules For Weapon Reliquaries

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At level 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, and 20, your Reliquary's effective enhancement bonus increases by 1, which can be represented by an increase in enhancement bonus (up to +6), or by the addition of special abilities with a value expressed by an effective enhancement bonus. Each time the effective enhancement bonus of your Reliquary increases, you may alter what its enhancement bonus and special abilities are, though it must always maintain at least a +1 enhancement bonus (for example, a level 10 Olethrofex with a +2 Greatsword Reliquary could alter it to a +1 Axiomatic Greatsword upon attaining level 11, and then into a +1 Cold Keen Magebane Greatsword at level 13).

By spending an amount of Mythos Points equal to the cost in gold pieces, you may apply new weapon special abilities to your Reliquary, but only those special abilities with a cost expressed in gold pieces, rather than effective enhancement bonuses (such as Aquatic or Illuminating). These cannot be altered after they are chosen.

Rules For Armor Reliquaries

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At level 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, and 19, your Reliquary's effective enhancement bonus increases by 1, which can be represented by an increase in enhancement bonus (up to +5), or by the addition of special abilities with a value expressed by an effective enhancement bonus. Each time the effective enhancement bonus of your Reliquary increases, you may alter what its enhancement bonus and special abilities are, though it must always maintain at least a +1 enhancement bonus (for example, a level 10 Olethrofex with a +3 Full Plate Reliquary could alter it to +1 Gleaming Full Plate upon attaining level 11, and then into +1 Anchoring Mobility Displacement Ghost Ward Full Plate at level 13).

By spending an amount of Mythos Points equal to the cost in gold pieces, you may apply new armor special abilities to your Reliquary, but only those special abilities with a cost expressed in gold pieces, rather than effective enhancement bonuses (such as Healing or Proof Against Enchantment). These cannot be altered after they are chosen.

Rules For Other Reliquaries

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At level 9 and 11, your Reliquary gains a new Basic Wondrous Power. At level 13, 15, and 17, your Reliquary gains a new Advanced Wondrous Power. At level 19, your Reliquary gains a Greater Wondrous Power.

Basic Wondrous Powers
Implacability: When the wielder takes enough damage to be reduced to 0 hit points or less, that damage is negated and their hit points are instead set to 1. Then, they are healed for a number of hit points equal to your class level. After this ability activates, it cannot activate again for 24 hours.
Incarnum Conduit: A soulmeld can be bound to the same chakra slot that this item occupies without disrupting the functioning of either. Grants 1 Essentia.
Increased Speed: Grants a +10 enhancement bonus to base land speed.
Innata Arcana: Choose one 0th level spell. Grants use of that spell at-will, with a caster level equal to your class level. This power can be taken multiple times.
Lesser Profane Empowerment: Grants a +2 Profane bonus to one ability score. This power can be taken multiple times, but only once for each ability score.
Lesser Resistance: Grants a +2 Resistance bonus on all saving throws.

Advanced Wondrous Powers
Certainty: You do not automatically fail on a roll of 1 for attack rolls or saving throws.
Elemental Empowerment: Choose Fire, Ice, or Electricity. The wielder's melee attacks deal an additional 1d6 damage of the chosen type. Spells, spell-like abilities, soulmelds, and abilities granted by Mythos that deal the chosen type of damage deal an additional 1d6 damage of the chosen type, if they require a standard or full-round action to activate.
Incarnum Catalyst: The chakra slot shared by this item is opened, and the wielder gains the ability to bind a soulmeld to it. If they could already bind soulmelds to any of their chakras, binding a soulmeld to this chakra does not count as one of their daily binds. Requires the Incarnum Conduit basic power.
Lesser Deflection: Grants a +2 Deflection bonus to armor class.
Greater Profane Empowerment: Grants a +2 Profane bonus to one ability score. This power can be taken multiple times, but only once for each ability score. Stacks with the bonus granted by the Lesser Profane Empowerment basic power and the Perfect Profane Empowerment greater power.
Greater Resistance: Grants a +2 Resistance bonus on all saving throws. Stacks with the bonus granted by the Lesser Resistance basic power and the Perfect Resistance greater power.
Unstoppable: Grants a +5 enhancement bonus to base land speed (which stacks with the bonus granted by the Increased Speed basic power). The wielder ignores difficult terrain, and gains +10 Profane bonus on Balance checks.

Greater Wondrous Powers
Flight: Grants a Fly speed equal to the wielder's base land speed with (average) maneuverability.
Greater Deflection: Grants a +2 Deflection bonus to armor class. Stacks with the bonus granted by the Lesser Deflection advanced power.
Incarnum Depth: A soulmeld that occupies the same chakra slot as this item has +1 essentia capacity. Grants 1 Essentia. Requires the Incarnum Conduit basic power.
Perfect Profane Empowerment: Grants a +2 Profane bonus to one ability score. This power can be taken multiple times, but only once for each ability score. Stacks with the bonus granted by the Lesser Profane Empowerment basic power and the Greater Profane Empowerment advanced power.
Perfect Resistance: Grants a +2 Resistance bonus on all saving throws. Stacks with the bonus granted by the Lesser Resistance basic power and the Greater Resistance advanced power.
Shifting Darkness: Grants concealment.

Imminent Nightfall Understanding
Prerequisite: -
[Oblivion]

When looking up at the noon-day sky, it is difficult to imagine the pitch darkness of night, just as living creatures have difficulty imagining what it is like to be dead. And yet, the night still falls as it always does, and death always comes, as it must.

When you (unintentionally) miss with an attack roll, you gain a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls until you succeed on an attack roll, or until a minute passes, whichever is less. This bonus can stack up to a maximum of your class level.

Advanced
Holding Back The Day: The bonus granted by Imminent Nightfall Understanding also applies to Armor Class.

Fading Dusk Vitality: When you (unintentionally) miss with an attack roll, you are healed 2 hit points.

Sudden Midnight Execution: When the bonus granted by Imminent Nightfall Understanding reaches its maximum number of stacks, the bonus doubles for the next attack. Whether that attack hits or misses, the bonus resets as if you had succeeded.

Night of the Living Dead
Prerequisite: -
[Undeath]

As a standard action, you may unleash a wave of insidious negative energy that infects corpses within 100ft, creating up to (level x 2) hit dice of skeletons or zombies, which rise under your control (literally, if their corpse is prone), roll initiative, and act on the following round. You may not raise undead in excess of your control limit. The undead obey simple commands, which you may relay as a telepathic free action.

If you allow only the initial wave of energy to maintain their existence, the undead return to inert objects after (class level) minutes. However, you may invest a portion of your story in them to make them more real and relevant - a payment of (25 per Hit Die of the minion) Mythos Points at any point while you have them animated via this Mythos will make an undead self-sustaining, and remove this time constraint on their existence.

Advanced
Children of the Night: Up to (class level) hit dice of undead raised by this Mythos will sustain themselves indefinitely without an investment of Mythos Points. However, any undead created by this Mythos that you have not invested Mythos Points in will begin to lose power whenever natural sunlight touches them, becoming inanimate one minute after doing so (even if they are taken out of the sunlight afterward).

Zombie-Lord Celerity: Zombies you create with this Mythos are Fast Zombies, losing their "Single Action Only" special quality. In addition, they gain Lightning Reflexes as a bonus feat, and reduce the Armor Class penalty suffered from Charging by 2.

Skeleton-Lord Mastery: Skeletons you create with this Mythos are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and with light and medium armor and shields (except tower shields), if they were not already. They ignore movement speed penalties from wearing medium armor or carrying up to a medium load.

Ghoul-Lord Potency: You may create Ghouls with this Mythos, in addition to Skeletons and Zombies. The risen creature has all of its class levels (if any) converted to undead hit dice, and gains the Gravetouched Ghoul (LM) template. The corpse must have at least enough intact flesh to be raised as a Zombie, and attempting to raise a corpse as a Ghoul that has been dead longer than one week yields a Zombie instead.

Sanguine Emperor Appetite
Prerequisite: The 'Viral Tyrant Legacy' Mythos
[Undeath]

The necrotic infestation inside your body continues to evolve. Your blood is now completely unrecognizable from that of a normal living person, and you may consume the fresh blood of living creatures to feed the darkness within.

When you succeed on a grapple check to pin a living creature, or at the beginning of your turn while you are maintaining a pin against such a creature, you may choose to also sink your teeth into them, and drain their blood, resulting in 1d4 points of Constitution Damage. The target must either already have a bleeding wound, or have a Natural Armor bonus less than your Strength modifier (otherwise, their hide is too thick to so easily chew through).

Drinking in this way provides a day's worth of sustenance in terms of food and water, if your body still requires such things, and heals 5 hit points of damage from you. This may heal you in excess of your maximum hit points, becoming temporary hit points that last up to 1 hour. You may have a maximum of (2 x level) temporary hit points from this ability.

Advanced
Gift of Eternal Hunger: This manifestation may only be learned if you also possess the 'Grave-Creche Fortitude' Mythos. If you do not have that Mythos at the time you would normally gain this manifestation, you acquire this manifestation as soon as you learn Grave-Creche Fortitude. If you kill an intelligent living creature with two or more hit dice that is at least significant enough to have the Elite Array for their ability scores, or better, by drinking their blood, you may simultaneously inject their corpse with a small amount of your own tainted innards.

A creature infected in this way will not rise as a zombie via your Viral Tyrant Legacy Mythos. If, within the next 24 hours, their corpse spends 4 undisturbed hours upon or within their grave material, untouched by natural sunlight, they undergo a metamorphosis, awakening as something just as vile as yourself.

The new creature's type becomes Undead, with associated statistical alterations. They lose two levels or hit dice, but gain one level of Olethrofex. Their starting Mythos (or one of their starting Mythos, if it is their first class level) must be Grave-Creche Fortitude. They may also drink the blood of the living in the same way that this Mythos allows you to do, and gain the same benefits, except that they may not make use of the "Gift of Eternal Hunger" manifestation until they learn the Mythos for real. Upon gaining access to Fantastic Olethrofex Mythos, their first Fantastic Mythos must be Sanguine Emperor Appetite.

When creating a spawn in this way, you may place them under your control, counting their hit dice against the number of hit dice of undead you may control with [Undeath] Mythos. They are aware that you are unnaturally forcing your will on them, but must obey your commands to the best of their abilities.

Shade-Reaping Finality Beacon
Prerequisite: The 'None Trespass The Black Gate' Mythos
[Death]

You gain the ability to Turn Undead as a Cleric of your class level. You may Turn Undead a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.

If you already had Turn Undead from another source, you do not gain the above benefit. Instead, your Olethrofex levels stack with one of your other classes (of your choice) that provide Turn Undead for determining your effective turning level from that class. You also add 3 daily turning attempts to that class's Turn Undead.

In either case, you no longer require a holy symbol to Turn Undead. You are a potent enough symbol of death in your own right to inspire fear and assert dominance over the unliving.

Sitting Astride Calamity
Prerequisite: 8 ranks in the Ride skill, The 'On A Pale Beast' Mythos

Your Pale Beast permanently gains one of the following abilities.

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Awaken
Your Pale Beast's base Intelligence and Charisma increase to 10 (retroactively receiving skill points for their new, heightened intellect). Though they still do not have the physical equipment required to speak, they may now communicate as articulately and fluently as an average human with their telepathy. Finally, they gain proficiency with all Light Armor.

Breath Weapon
Choose Fire, Cold, Electricity, or Acid. Your Pale Beast gains a Breath Weapon that deals 1d6 damage per two hit dice it possesses, of the energy type chosen, and allows a Reflex save for half damage (DC 10 + 1/2 the beast's hit dice + its Constitution modifier). If you chose Fire or Cold, it is a 30ft Cone. If you chose Electricity or Acid, it is a 10ft wide, 60ft line. After spending a standard action to activate its breath weapon, it cannot do so again for 1d4 rounds.

If it also has the Elemental Affinity ability from this Mythos, then you must choose the same type of energy that it has a resistance to.

Elemental Affinity
Choose Fire, Cold, Electricity, or Acid. Your Pale Beast deals an additional 1d6 damage of that type with its natural weapons, and it has Energy Resistance (10 + its hit dice) against the chosen type.

If it also has a Breath Weapon, then you must choose the same type of energy as its Breath Weapon.

Expanded Training
Your Pale Beast gains a Fighter Bonus Feat as a bonus feat. It must still meet all the prerequisites.

Frightful Presence
Your Pale Beast gains Frightful Presence as a bonus feat (Drac). While you ride atop it, it may substitute your hit dice for its own when determining the DC of this feat, and what creatures it may effect with it.

Multiple Attacks
Your Pale Beast gains a second natural attack. This could represent the extrusion of a new limb, multiple attacks with the same appendage (such as biting twice), or representing multiple claws or hooves as two different attacks (unlike how the base Pale Beast handles such things). Both of its natural weapons are considered Primary.

Shared Evasion
While your ride atop your Pale Beast, you share its Evasion special quality.

Spell Resistance
Your Pale Beast gains Spell Resistance (11 + its hit dice).

Steel Hooves
Your Pale Beast ignores difficult terrain.

Thick Skin
Your Pale Beast gains DR X/Magic, where X is equal to (5 + its hit dice).

Venom
Your Pale Beast's natural weapons secrete a poison that it delivers through dealing damage with them. It deals 1d3 Strength damage for its primary and secondary damage, and has a DC of (10 + 1/2 the beast's hit dice + constitution modifier).

Basic
Continuous Ruin-Steed Evolution: Your Pale Beast gains another ability from the above list. This manifestation may be purchased multiple times, to a maximum of your Charisma modifier.

[Xefas]

Legendary Mythos

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Angel of Death Shintai
Prerequisite: The Undead Type
[Death]

Through utmost denial of the more abominable origins of your power, you have forsaken the path of undeath and become a champion of the natural cycle. You retain all of the traits and features of the Undead type (and those granted by the Corpse-Life Apotheosis Mythos if you have it), with the following exceptions, but your actual type changes to Outsider (your native plane remains the same). The first exception is that you are now healed by both positive and negative energy, which overrides prior feats you may have, such as Tomb-Tainted Soul. Secondly, you are no longer destroyed at 0 hit points - you may be reduced to a negative hit point threshold before death, just like an Outsider. Thirdly, any immunity to mind-affecting effects that you possess through traits of your race or type, or via feats, do not function against Gods of Death (that do not also possess portfolios of Undeath), other deity-level entities aligned with Death, or the direct servants of such powers.

Furthermore, you may now see, at a glance, the remaining lifespan ordained by fate for any mortal creature with Intelligence 3 or more that you look upon that has hit dice equal to or less than (class level -4)*. This typically includes most Aberrations, Dragons, Giants, Humanoids, and Monstrous Humanoids. This time is not absolute; the actions of creatures that can alter fate, even a little, such as anyone with PC class levels, those important enough to be built with the Elite Array or better, or just particularly significant characters, can end a life prematurely. But, if all things go according to fate's plan, when a mortal's time strikes 0, something will kill them.

_{*For the remainder of this Mythos, the term "mortal" will refer to "mortal creature with Intelligence 3 or more".}

As a servant of Death, you are barred from interceding with a mortal's natural allotment of time. Hostile actions taken with your Mythos (or by minions created by your Mythos) fail against mortals with more than a day's time left, your attacks cannot reduce them below 1 hit point, your ailments cannot push them over the threshold, and any power that you have to heal, evade, protect, or otherwise safeguard a creature fizzle in the face of Death's imminent hand if a mortal has less than a day to live.

Finally, by spending a full ten minutes in uninterrupted concentration, you may momentarily subvert time and space in one of the two following ways. In the first, you and up to (class level) willing creatures within 30ft, travel from the Prime Material Plane to an Outer Plane, or from an Outer Plane to the Prime Material Plane. If the Plane to which you are traveling hosts the domain of a deity, or other greater power, of Death, then you appear there. If it does not, then this ability functions with a margin of error as the Plane Shift spell.

In the second case, you may mentally aim for a city or other similarly sized geographical location on the same plane as yourself, either that you are familiar with or that you are capable of making a DC 30 Knowledge (Geography) check to direct yourself with (substitute Knowledge: The Plane outside of the Prime). If there is at least one mortal in that general location with less than a day to live by fate's measure, you disappear from your current location and appear somewhere near one such dying mortal (usually within 100ft or less), in the most ominous fashion possible; standing at the foot of a person's deathbed, or looking in their window as lightning flashes or the moon drifts out from behind a cloud are both very common. The mortal, whose imminent death allowed your passage, dies nearly instantly. The disease they struggle with takes them a little earlier than expected, they have a freak heart attack, a pot falls off a shelf and cracks their skull open, they fall down a flight of stairs, a nearby horse bolts from its handler and tramples them, etc, etc.

Bibliography of Concluded Lives
Prerequisite: The 'Death-Mourning Phylactery Fission' Mythos

You gain Harvester of Souls as a bonus feat (EE). In addition, every time you reap the soul of an intelligent creature with that feat, it is stored in your Soul Reliquary rather than in your body, regardless of the distance between yourself and your Reliquary. This reaping is more thorough than normal, and does not leave behind even an imprint of the dead creature's knowledge on the corpse, rendered spells such as Speak With Dead useless to commune with it.

When a soul is added to your Reliquary, if it had any ranks in any Knowledge skills, one random Knowledge skill is chosen amongst those that they had ranks in, and your Reliquary gains an Echo corresponding to that skill (such as an Arcana Echo or a Geography Echo). A Reliquary may have a maximum of 30 Echos for each type of Knowledge; if it is "full" of one kind of Echo, that skill is excluded from the random pick of which Knowledge skill a new soul contributes.

The wielder of your Reliquary gains a competence bonus on their Knowledge skills equal to the number of Echos that the Reliquary has for that skill. In addition, they may spend a full-round action to call forth one of the souls that contributed an Echo to the Reliquary. The soul projects a phantasmal image of their former self to stand before the wielder until dismissed. The wielder may converse with the soul as they like, but the soul cannot be coerced into speaking via the use of skills or abilities. The exception is that, once per year per soul, an ultimatum can be forced on a called soul. They can either answer one question, truthfully, completely, without chicanery, to the best of their ability, or they can refuse, and be scourged into an insensate coma. A soul that has been so scourged no longer contributes their Echo to the Reliquary, but unlike a soul merely reaped by the Harvester of Souls feat, even a Wish, Miracle, or greater power, cannot return that creature to life until you are slain.

Upon being slain, your Reliquary loses all of its Echos as the souls are freed.

Basic
Loaning A Scythe: Any creature wielding your Reliquary gains the benefits of the Harvester of Souls feat.

Thousand-Voiced Sagacity Nova: While your Reliquary has at least ten Echos each in ten different Knowledge skills, its wielder gains the benefits of the Omniscient Whispers feat (UA). If one wielder expends the weekly use of that feat, it cannot be used again by any wielder of the Reliquary until that week is up.

Expanded Word Count: Your Reliquary can gain Echos for Craft, Profession, and Spellcraft skills. A soul only contributes to one of these skills if it could not contribute a Knowledge skill.

Lashing Scream-Chord: You may only gain this manifestation if you already know the Drowning Banshee Wail manifestation of the Necrotic Phantasmagoria Pulse Mythos. When utilizing that manifestation, you may sacrifice one Echo from a held or worn Reliquary; the soul is released and may be returned to life as normal. However, its exit is far from peaceful - if the target of your Drowning Banshee Wail fails their saving throw to resist it, they are also permanently deafened. Until the deafness is cured, they have a +1 competence bonus with the skill of the Echo used to deafen them.

Catastrophe Held In My Reins
Prerequisite: 12 ranks in the Ride skill, The 'Sitting Astride Calamity' Mythos

Corporeity-Grinding Avatar of Entropy
Prerequisite: The "Inevitable Sunset Strike" Mythos

You no longer need to spend a standard action to activate the ability granted by "Inevitable Sunset Strike". Every melee attack you make is automatically benefited by it, dealing its base damage even on attacks that miss. Furthermore, the damage applied on a miss now bypasses all Damage Reduction and Hardness.

Graven Void Shintai
Prerequisite: The Undead Type
[Oblivion]

Material Immortality Externalization
Prerequisite: The 'Death-Mourning Phylactery Fission' Mythos

Regarding Guttering Flames
Prerequisite: -
[Oblivion]

The fearful light lamps and candles to ward away the night, and those facing the sunset of their lives may attempt to stave off death with magic, medicine, or healthy lifestyle choices. But the darkness will always be there. It is an unmoving, indestructible monolith, and you are just a man, or just an angel, or just a god. Eventually, no matter how much you fight it, you will die. And death can wait.

As an immediate action, in response to being the target of an attack, you gain a +10 competence bonus to your Armor Class and Reflex save. This bonus applies to the next three attacks or Reflex-targeting hostile effects (+1 if you are wielding more than one weapon, +1 if you are wielding a weapon with the Speed property, and +1 if you are 16th level or higher) that target you. However, for each attack or effect that you gain a bonus against, the same number of attacks that you make following the activation of this ability receive a -10 penalty. You cannot activate this ability again until you have made all of these penalized attacks, or a minute passes, whichever is less. If a minute passes without you applying the defensive bonus to an applicable number of attacks, the bonus fades.

Exalted Mythos

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Creation-Slaying Holocaust Blade
Prerequisite: -
[Oblivion]

Poised at a site of great death, you may strike at the surrounding plane itself, slicing open a wound where the strata has been saturated with ending and loss.

To successfully use this Mythos, you must be standing at a point where, within a 5-mile radius, there have been a thousand deaths, all transpiring within a week's time, within the past year. If this is true, as a full-round action, you may strike out and wound the surrounding plane. The area within 5 miles becomes mildly saturated with negative energy. In this area, colors fade to a black-and-white monochrome spectrum, sounds are distorted such that the eerie, the sad, and the spiteful become echoed and amplified, while sounds of happiness and cheer are dulled to monotone whimpers, and all living or undead creatures are subjected to 1d6 points of negative energy per round. Within 2 miles of you, the negative energy is more concentrated. Sight within this space becomes a series of drifting and jumping shadowy images; recognizable things are blurred and stretched while things both terrifying and grotesque are all too clear in the gloom. Voices are not so much heard as remembered, discovered from the nooks and chasms of a waking dream, never entirely here, nor entirely forgotten. In addition to the 1d6 points of negative energy felt elsewhere, living creatures in this space must also make a DC 25 Fortitude save or gain a negative level. Creatures that have their hit dice reduced to 0 by these negative levels spontaneously rise as a free-willed Wraith.

In both areas of the wound, daylight does not penetrate from the outside, and in the deep part of the wound, there is no day-night cycle, remaining dark as a moonless night unless external illumination is brought in. In the shallow wound, if it is day-time outside, the level of light increases to Shadowy Illumination, but this is still not considered to be natural sunlight.

For every ten deaths beyond the required thousand that meet the criteria, the size of the wound increases by 1%. If a wound is created that is 50 miles in radius or greater, either by utilizing ten thousand deaths as the catalyst for a single wound, or by creating multiple separate wounds in the same general area such that their total area roughly equates to a 50 mile radius, the mile (+1% per ten deaths over the ten thousand necessary) in the very center of this atrocity sinks into utter Oblivion. This space cannot be truly perceived, though it is visible as an incomprehensible distortion, a void without space, a blackness without color. Any matter that comes into contact with Oblivion is annihilated. For every ten living creatures, souls, or undead creatures that still host a human soul, that are fed to the void increase the size of the whole wound, including the void itself, by 1%. A Sphere of Annihilation counts as a thousand souls for this purpose.

If a planar wound goes a full year without being expanded, or having its radius overlapped with another new wound, and life and light flourish at the edges of its expanse, it will begin to recede at a speed of one foot per year. However, the radius of Oblivion will never reduce or recede once it has appeared. Since it is a complete absence of substance, there is nothing to target or effect with a power potentially strong enough to mend such a thing, it has no space or volume to be shaped or altered, nor even a theme or concept that could be opposed or unraveled.

Monolithic Necropolis Heart
Prerequisite: -

Seal-Shattering End-of-Days Invocation
Prerequisite: -

As a full-round action, you begin the apocalypse.

An apocalypse comes in five stages, the first four of which are built like the Signs of Apocalypse outlined in Elder Evils (page 7). As a player, you detail the cosmetic and mechanical effects of each Sign, from Faint to Overwhelming, keeping in line with the power given for the example Signs, as well as which Knowledge check is required to identify the Signs. In addition, you must create five Seals; acts that will trigger each stage of the apocalypse. Sample Seals are given below, but in general, breaking a Seal should be something nigh-impossible for a low level character, worthy of a whole adventure for a mid level character or, for a high level character, breaking all five Seals should be an adventure in itself.

The final stage, after the Overwhelming Sign of the Apocalypse is shown, and the fifth Seal is broken, is the End of Days. This should be something on par with the awakening of an Elder Evil, and might literally be that. All the world should be brought to the brink of destruction, teetering on the edge, only capable of being saved by a ragtag group of underdogs with more luck than sense and at least one dead mentor who was a single day from retirement.

As a character, an Olethrofex does not "design" their apocalypse - they merely reveal an apocalyptic scenario that was already there, though the scenario is often (but does not need to be) thematically linked with them in some way. An Olethrofex servant of Pandorym unleashing Pandorym is reasonable. A heavily Oblivion-leaning Olethrofex literally drawing the world into the maw of nothingness beyond reality is also reasonable. But a well-meaning Olethrofex could also accidentally stumble on this Mythos, believing it to be something else entirely, only to bring about Hell on Earth, and then race to defeat their own apocalypse.

Whether or not the apocalypse succeeds, having ended the world, or (more likely) having had its seals successfully protected and preserved by mysterious confluxes of inexplicably powerful homeless people, this Mythos requires a thousand years to recharge before it may be activated again.

Example Apocalypses From The Playground

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An Eternity Of Life by Amechra
Cosmic Oblivion by Network
Grim Inevitability by Grimsage Matt
Necrocharnel Cataclysm by Pokonic
The Blackest Night by vasharanpaladin
The Smothered Spark of Will by Sgt. Cookie

Shepherd-And-King Zion Construction
Prerequisite: Angel of Death Shintai
[Death]

[Xefas]

Excellencies

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Dark-Lit Revenant Eyes
Prerequisite: -

Something is wrong with your eyes. It may be subtle - perhaps some cold and hungry glimmer that flashes across them when you lay eyes on some weak and vulnerable living thing - or it may be overt, such as them completely clouding over into pure white or black, or them rotting out entirely and being replaced with flicking blue lights. Whatever the change, those who look in your eyes know that you are more than you seem.

You gain Lifesense (LM) as a bonus feat and the Low-Light Vision quality. You may substitute your Charisma modifier in place of your Wisdom modifier for the purposes of determining the ability bonus for your Spot skill.

Empowering Necromancer's Sortilege
Prerequisite: One [Undeath] Mythos
[Undeath]

You gain Corpsecrafter as a bonus feat. In addition, the Corpsecrafter feat and all feats with Corpsecrafter as one of its prerequisites that grant a benefit to undead that you raise or create with a necromancy spell, now also benefit undead that you raise or create with a Mythos.

Lifeless Flesh Assumption
Prerequisite: -

Although all of yours organs and internal processes continue to function as normal, you no longer produce any body heat, becoming as cold to the touch as a cadaver. You also have Cold Resistance equal to your class level, and a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells with the [Cold] descriptor.

Mortal [Ability] Transcendance
Prerequisite: One Fantastic Mythos

The living were designed and shaped, by gods, or fate, by chance, or by the ancient chaos of possibility. By their design, they are limited. Undeath was not designed - it is an impossibility, a paradox, an abomination. From where, then, are the limitations set for that essence from which you draw power?

Choose one of Strength, Dexterity, or Charisma. This Excellency may be purchased once for each Ability Score, granting a +2 enhancement bonus to the chosen ability.

Once you have at least one Legendary Mythos known, this Excellency may be purchased a second time for each of the aforementioned Ability Scores. This second purchase increases the enhancement bonus by 4, to a total of +6.

Omniscient Shade of Death Intuition
Prerequisite: -

Death touches upon all things, and knows them, though to them he might be a stranger. His is a one-way mirror from beyond the Black Gate, seeing but unseen until the moment is right. A man need not be educated in the way of rocks to know the texture of the stone he holds in his hands, and all stones and beasts and worlds are within the grasp of Death.

You may substitute your Charisma modifier in place of your Intelligence modifier for the purposes of determining the ability bonus for your Knowledge skills.

Timeless [Skill] Practice
Prerequisite: You must not require sleep.

Choose an Olethrofex class skill. It becomes a Study Skill for you. Every 24 hours, for a number of days equal to the ranks you had in the skill when it became a Study Skill, you gain a skill point, as the ease with which you have learned to use this skill allows you to study other areas, without needing to worry about practicing to keep this one sharp.

In addition, by spending 24 continuous hours constantly studying a Study Skill, you gain a permanent rank in it. This cannot surpass the limit for the number of ranks you may have in a skill based on your level. "Studying" a skill requires a suitable location or tutor, such as a library stocked with a variety of appropriate texts for a Knowledge skill, a tightrope for Balance, or a wretched hive of scum and villainy for Gather Information.

This Excellency may be learned multiple times, once for each Olethrofex class skill.

The Impure Face Revealed
Prerequisite: -

You gain either Willing Deformity (HoH), or any feat with Willing Deformity as a prerequisite, as a bonus feat. Unlike normal Mythos rules, you must meet the prerequisites for these feats, except for alignment prerequisites.

This Excellency may be purchased multiple times, gaining a different applicable feat each time.

As a swift action, you may put all feats gained via this Excellency into a state of dormancy. While dormant, you do not gain the effects of the feats, but neither do they show any physical signs on your body. You may spend another swift action to reawaken the dormant feats, suddenly becoming more hideous and powerful.

[vasharanpaladin]

...I'm drooling. Really, I am.

Need more mythos to work with. Then I'll see if Seal-Shattering End-of-Days Invocation is sufficient for a Black Lantern.

[D20ragon]

Good god! Stop man, Stop!

My Evil brain is going to explode with the awesome this contains!

[Saidoro]

Neat. The beast is pretty clearly the Teramach. Are the Lawgivers the Kathodos or some other as of yet unrevealed good counterpart to this?

[Vauron]

He's drawing on the fluff he used for the Primordialist and Yozi based martial disciplines he created.

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Before the birth of the infantile gods, before the petty and flawed gems of the planes began their wretched clockwork orbit upon the Great Wheel, before time and thought and matter, there were beings that existed as concept and story. They lived under the dreaded shadow of the Far Realm until their king wove a legend of such power and authority that he banished all darkness from their land, which they called Zen-Mu. There, they existed for eons impossible to number, peacefully and productively, spinning worlds and peoples and stories, until the Gods of Law came to be, in their hubris, to balance the scales of chaos.

The Gods of Law inflicted linear time and rigid causality on all things, slashing through the wondrous tales of their ancient predecessors and, in an act of true villainy, named these creatures; designating them 'Baernoloths'. Enraged at the rampant destruction of their works, the Baernoloths unleashed war upon the multitude of godly beings. Violence consumed every world-story of the Baernoloth's being, and for every wound the Lawgivers dealt, they used the severed threads to weave tools for themselves. From the slain, the gods created laws and barriers and possibilities, as well as magic to control them, and the corpses from both sides were stacked high and sown together to forge a magnificent Wheel, upon which those defeated titans would be hung and mutilated to form the Outer Planes.

There are few, if any, left that remember this time. Even those few deities that survive to this day feel their memories fade with each millennia, precipitated by the sheer impossible chaos of the time, that any mind would have difficulty containing. Still, the whispers of the dead and forgotten are not as silent as the gods would have hoped. A grain of silver sand or a beam of green sunlight may fall on a shopkeeper in Waterdeep, a beggar in Khorvaire, or a slave in Urik, and fill them with a madness to change their lives forever.

[Xefas]

Neat. The beast is pretty clearly the Teramach. Are the Lawgivers the Kathodos or some other as of yet unrevealed good counterpart to this?

I'm using the creation story given in the Fiendish Codex II as a basis for my fluff. Though they're never called "Lawgivers", only "Gods/Deities of Law/Order", I felt like "Lawgiver" was a snappy title for the most ancient of lawful-aligned deities.

As to whether I might, in the future, create a class that is to the Lawgivers as the Teramach is to the Monster - sure. The Cleric is such a bland, uninteresting class. A Mythos Cleric could be a lot of fun. At the moment, though, I'd take a look at this thing by Zaydos that I like. It has some concepts that are similar to what I'd want to do with a class like that. All about the domains, baby! None of this "Oh, sure, I'm the God of Murder, here are fifty healing spells for the day" nonsense that 3rd edition wrought. 2nd Edition Spheres > That Garbage.

He's drawing on the fluff he used for the Primordialist and Yozi based martial disciplines he created.

Sort of. I prefer to think of that as Version 0.1 of the fluff. This is Version 0.2. Kind of like the change from "Infernal Monster" to "Teramach". They aren't meant to coexist; one is just a new, better version of the other (with less plagiarism!).

[NosferatuZodd]

Are you eventually planning on any additional mythos or excellencies along the lines of natural weapons?

[The_Final_Stand]

Angel of Death Shintai confuses me. Specifically, the "Thou shalt not interfere with the natural order of death" bit. Does that include interactions of the mortals with the Angel of Death?

For example: Someone with the Angel of Death Shintai is set upon by (otherwise vastly inferior) bandits on the road. If the Angel was not there, they would continue raiding for some years before retiring rich in some distant foreign city. Can the Angel fight back? One could argue that he could not, for it is long before their natural death. On the other hand, the Angel is there, and they just attempted to kill and loot him. Their demise at his hands is entirely natural.

Or another situation; a dragon has been terrorizing the countryside for months, and a wealthy and powerful king hires forces to kill it. Is the dragon's death sufficiently natural for the Angel to intercede? Or would some fringe case such as (without Angel, dragon survives, Angel cannot intervene), (with Angel, dragon dies, Angel can intervene), where the Angel's intervention justifies his assistance pop up?

[Xefas]

Are you eventually planning on any additional mythos or excellencies along the lines of natural weapons?

The Impure Face Revealed can get you a natural bite attack via the "Deformity (Teeth)" feat. Rigid Deathgrip Calcification [Razor Ghoul-Grip] makes your hands very claw-like.

Do they need more than that? I am planning on stuff for delivering energy drain and potentially ability damage/drain via unarmed attacks/natural weapons. So there's that.

Angel of Death Shintai confuses me. Specifically, the "Thou shalt not interfere with the natural order of death" bit. Does that include interactions of the mortals with the Angel of Death?

It depends!

For example: Someone with the Angel of Death Shintai is set upon by (otherwise vastly inferior) bandits on the road. If the Angel was not there, they would continue raiding for some years before retiring rich in some distant foreign city. Can the Angel fight back? One could argue that he could not, for it is long before their natural death. On the other hand, the Angel is there, and they just attempted to kill and loot him. Their demise at his hands is entirely natural.

It depends if that Angel was fated to be going that way in the first place. If he was meant to go that way (which, if he's on a quest from a reputable god of death, he probably is), and the bandits were meant to attack him (which, being low level, I doubt they carry enough metaphysical weight to fight fate, so they probably are), then the Angel probably looks at them, sees that the timer over their heads reads "<5 Minutes To Live" and kills them.

If the Angel isn't fated to be there, for whatever reason, but he has denied fate such that he is anyway, and the bandits attack him even though they aren't fated to do so because the Angel isn't meant to be there, then the Angel will see that their timer reads something else entirely (maybe one guy has 30 years to live before he chokes on a walnut and dies, the elf in the back has a few hundred years before he dies in his sleep of old age, and the leader has 11 days before he gets stabbed in the back by his second-in-command). Therefore, he isn't allowed to kill them, even if they attack him. He needs to scare them off (keep in mind that he can hurt them, just not kill them), or run away, or get creative.

Or another situation; a dragon has been terrorizing the countryside for months, and a wealthy and powerful king hires forces to kill it. Is the dragon's death sufficiently natural for the Angel to intercede? Or would some fringe case such as (without Angel, dragon survives, Angel cannot intervene), (with Angel, dragon dies, Angel can intervene), where the Angel's intervention justifies his assistance pop up?

There's some leeway in terms of the way deaths are fated to happen. It doesn't necessarily matter "how" something dies, only "when".

For instance, an Angel of Death might get a telepathic txt from Wee Jas one morning "Nerull bushwacked my paladin on the way to kill a Red Wyrm over in Lynchburg. Finish the job. I have a nun scheduled to bonk her head and drown in the bathtub later today. You can use her death to teleport there. Kthx." (Obviously, by using your Mythos to teleport into town, next to the aforementioned nun, your sudden and extremely ominous appearance is what causes her to jump in surprise, smack her head on a shelf, and drown in the bath. Wee Jas has a morbid sense of humor.)

And so, the Dragon is fated to die. Doesn't matter why. So you can kill him. An Angel of Death might even run into situations where he enters a town and finds a lot of people with timers set at 0. Some adventurers defied fate and saved the town when it should've been destroyed. Now all these people are abominations against the natural order. How the Angel feels about such situations is going to be an important decision for the character.

Of course - just like the Teramach's Untamed Apocalypse Shintai, this Mythos is the kind of thing that is meant to fundamentally alter the way the character is played, in really awkward and inconvenient ways. I wouldn't suggest it for every group.

[alex90lilb]

I imagine this in an NPC class?
I hate to be 'that guy' but this is more OP than the Death Star.

[vasharanpaladin]

I imagine this in an NPC class?
I hate to be 'that guy' but this is more OP than the Death Star.

So is the wizard. Make a more concise point.

[alex90lilb]

So is the wizard. Make a more concise point.

mmkay. Sorry, hope I didn't come off as 'that guy' :P

The perfect bab/saves, beastly hp and sp combined with very strong SU casting that is competitive with a divine caster of equal level. The Excellency ability to permanently buff an ability score by 2 alone is stonger than anything the wizard has in their kit.

The wizard is better on offense, but is much squishier and has saving throws which negate their abilities.

I agree it's a very fun class, an awesome villain, but just like the P-classes in BoVD, perhaps not intended as a party member.

[NosferatuZodd]

Thank you for pointing out that deformity feat.

One last question, are you planning a Shintai based on Undeath descriptor?

Some type of horribly strange final stage to the Eternal Cadaver Idol and Festering Carrion Horror paths.

[Fako]

mmkay. Sorry, hope I didn't come off as 'that guy' :P

The perfect bab/saves, beastly hp and sp combined with very strong SU casting that is competitive with a divine caster of equal level. The Excellency ability to permanently buff an ability score by 2 alone is stonger than anything the wizard has in their kit.

The wizard is better on offense, but is much squishier and has saving throws which negate their abilities.

I agree it's a very fun class, an awesome villain, but just like the P-classes in BoVD, perhaps not intended as a party member.

You're both correct and incorrect, alex90lilb. You're correct that this class has a stronger chassis, as well as some amazing abilities, but this isn't meant to be an NPC class. Xefas explained the power level of the classes in the Teramach thread:

I can't know for sure until I playtest, but I'm hoping it stands up to tier 2 classes at least. The idea is to be able to run one in a party of well played full casters and still be useful and impressive. Not necessarily "I'ma chaos shufflin' mah elf feats to get all the metamagic and then looping Gate spells to get infinite epic minions"-played full casters. But well played.

This works on a similar chassis, so we can assume a similar design goal - that it's meant to be an alternative class for Tier 2 groups that use some optimization, such as DMM Persist buffs on the cleric. While it may not fully pertain to the Olethrofex, Xefas also offered advice on how to "tone down" the power level of the Teramach in the same post:

To cut the Teramach down to Warblade level, I suggest removing the ability to buy new Mythos and Excellencies. And... maybe push back when you receive each level of Mythos. Fantastic unlock at 9th level, Legendary at 15th, and they never get Exalted Mythos. The Warblade is really only good at stabbing things, so the Teramach needs to get his good non-stabbing things much later. In fact, unless the Warblade engages in some creative multiclassing, you may have to remove all of the Teramach's Intimidate and Utility stuff. Warblade is still built on the "melee can't have nice things" WotC paradigm.

To cut it down to Fighter? All of the above, plus remove the current Mythos and Excellency progression from the class table, and have them only gain 1 Mythos at 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, 18th, and 20th level, and then 1 Excellency at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level. Even then, I feel like it might still be too strong unless the Fighter is engaging in the aforementioned creative multiclassing.

Remember: The best part of Homebrew is that its mutable. If you don't like giving that good of a chassis to your player, tell him what you're going to nerf before you allow him to play... it's perfectly acceptable to not take the class wholesale, especially if your party plays at a lower power level than the one intended.

EDIT: Xefas, are you taking submissions for example Signs/Apocalypses? I could probably whip a few up based on the material from Elder Evils...

[D20ragon]

As can I. My fluffing skills are at your service. *bows*

[Fredaintdead]

The Excellency ability to permanently buff an ability score by 2 alone is stonger than anything the wizard has in their kit.

Would like to point out that Mortal [Ability] Transcendence grants an Enhancement bonus, so it doesn't stack with items that the game itself assumes you will have. That, and you can't grab that particular Excellency until Lv7 at the very earliest [it requires you to know a Fantastic Mythos], at which point everyone else should already have the equivalent.

[Xefas]

EDIT: Xefas, are you taking submissions for example Signs/Apocalypses? I could probably whip a few up based on the material from Elder Evils...

As can I. My fluffing skills are at your service. *bows*

Sure. I'm looking for a good example one or two; preferably ones with a more nuanced world-ender than "Bring Forth One Really Big Scary Monster", just to make them a little more distinct from the Elder Evil scenarios.

My planned format was something like this:

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[size=4]Snappy Title![/size]
A brief synopsis, following by what skill is used to detect the coming apocalypse, and a short description of why that skill is applicable.

[b]The First Seal:[/b] What needs to be done to "break the seal", as well as noting how it could potentially be averted or repaired. If the greatest nation in the world must fall to apostasy, then converting it back to the worship of divine powers before the second seal is broken could foil the plan, for example.

[b]The Faint Sign:[/b] A mechanical effect that will, stacking upon the other signs, thematically lead to the End of Days. There must be something that can be observed and deciphered by the skill noted above. Sometimes, the effect will supply it by itself, such as the dead rising from the earth of their own accord. That's something that can be pointed at and said to be unusual. But, if it's something more subtle, such as certain spells becoming more difficult to cast while others become easier, then perhaps a more overt display, such as the arrival of alien constellations, a change in the number of hours in a day, all children born after the seal is broken coming in a set of identical twins - something eerie - is necessary.

[b]The Second Seal:[/b]

[b]The Moderate Sign:[/b]

[b]The Third Seal:[/b]

[b]The Strong Sign:[/b]

[b]The Fourth Seal:[/b]

[b]The Overpowering Sign:[/b]

[b]The Fifth Seal:[/b]

[b]The End Of Days:[/b]

One last question, are you planning a Shintai based on Undeath descriptor?

Some type of horribly strange final stage to the Eternal Cadaver Idol and Festering Carrion Horror paths.

Probably!

[The Tygre]

Oh, Hell to ****ing A YES!

[vasharanpaladin]

...Be right back, mapping the timeline of Blackest Night to an apocalypse scenario.

[Network]

Very good class. Its mythology fits very well with those of the Kathodos and Teramach, so I think it would be interesting to make prestige classes that reward multiclassing between them (the Class level > ECL/2 restriction on mythos-learning forces dual-classing at best, but I think the greater experience and personalization effort involved in multiclassing should be rewarded to players).

On an unrelated note, I think you should make Eternal Cadaver Idol and Festering Carrion Horror basic manifestations of the Corpse-Body Resilience mythos (instead of set-into-stone choices), so that a character may take both versions of it when they spend mythos points. Okay, that may not be so good of an idea, but at least let the Olethrofex have both one way or another (so that they can in turn learn the mythos from both paths).

Edit : Oh, and by the way, are you going to finish the Kathodos class? It is just as good as this one and the Teramach, but it lacks Legendary and Exalted Mythos.

[Amechra]

This is quite excellent.

There is a Ghoul template that applies to types other than Humanoid in Savage Species, iirc Think its called Ghoulish.

I'll work up an Apocalypse; I already have an idea for the sign...

[Pokonic]

I too would like to work on a sample Apocalypse.

*Eyes The Lich on the banner.*

[Xefas]

I'm glad everyone is psyched to end the world.

Very good class. Its mythology fits very well with those of the Kathodos and Teramach, so I think it would be interesting to make prestige classes that reward multiclassing between them (the Class level > ECL/2 restriction on mythos-learning forces dual-classing at best, but I think the greater experience and personalization effort involved in multiclassing should be rewarded to players).

Currently, my idea for facilitating Mythos "Multiclassing" is to allow a character to spend a feat to add a few Mythos from a different class to their own list, albeit with some special caveat. For instance, multiclassing into the Kathodos list, you might have to choose one element, and you can only pick Mythos of that element, and [Variable] Mythos only function for the chosen element. So, you can have a Firebending Teramach, or an Earthbending Teramach, but you can't be a master of the elements like the Kathodos.

I've also considered making some Supplementary Mythos - groups of five or six Mythos that either aren't broad enough to fill a whole class, or that I don't feel up to making a whole class for, and they can be added to another character's list of Mythos with a feat. Things like an Iron Chef pack of Mythos, or [Race] Paragon Mythos, or [Outsider] Heritage Mythos, or Far Realm Tainted Cartoon Physics Mythos. Things like that.

On an unrelated note, I think you should make Eternal Cadaver Idol and Festering Carrion Horror basic manifestations of the Corpse-Body Resilience mythos (instead of set-into-stone choices), so that a character may take both versions of it when they spend mythos points. Okay, that may not be so good of an idea, but at least let the Olethrofex have both one way or another (so that they can in turn learn the mythos from both paths).

Eh, I want folks to have to choose between being a Sexyfex or an Uglyfex. That's just how undead tend to go. You don't lose out on accessibility to any Mythos, just a few incidental bonuses based on your appearance.

Edit : Oh, and by the way, are you going to finish the Kathodos class?

Probably!

I too would like to work on a sample Apocalypse.

*Eyes The Lich on the banner.*

Mushroom War Cometh?

edit:

There is a Ghoul template that applies to types other than Humanoid in Savage Species, iirc Think its called Ghoulish.

I'm looking right now, but all I see is Ghost Brute, Mummified, Wight, Spectral, Shadow, and Wraith. I might just be blind, though.

[Draken]

For something more recent, there is the Gravetouched Ghoul in Libris Mortis.

Excellent as usual, by the way. Will the Kathodos get its own variant of Angel of Death/Untamed Apocalypse Shintai?

[Pokonic]

Mushroom War Cometh?

An't quite nothing like smothering all life on a planet with a cloud of necromantic horror.

[vasharanpaladin]

There is a Ghoul template that applies to types other than Humanoid in Savage Species, iirc Think its called Ghoulish.

Dragon #307, in fact, along with Ghastly and Bodak templates. But Draken has the right of it, the closest to an "official" ghoul template is the Gravetouched Ghoul in Libris Mortis.