Atropus Your edit was saved.

From 1d4chan

Atropus, the World Born Dead is an undead Primordial

and Elder Evil who also happens to be an entire moon. Said Atropus
to be as old as creation, this sentient celestial body goes Aliases The World Born Dead,
around destroying planets since it has a hate boner for all The Moonlet, The Prime
life. Not even the gods can kill this thing, so all adventurers Mover (former name,
can really do against it is attempt to shoo it away before it sometimes)
plunges into their world and drains it of its positive energy. Alignment Chaotic Evil
The most effective way of doing that is killing the Aspect Divine Rank Greater Deity
of Atropus, but that requires venturing onto the undead- Overdeity (formerly,
ridden surface of Atropus and finding it, and that's no small sometimes)
task. It is also considered the polar opposite of a different Pantheon Primordials, Elder Evils
Elder Evil, Ragnorra.
Portfolio Death, destruction, fear
Atropus is also speculated to either be the first Atropal or Domains 3E: Chaos, Evil,
their source/creator, based on their similar names and Corruption, Destruction,
origins - both are undead abominations that are said to be Death, Entropy, Undeath,
stillborn immortals. Vile Darkness, Deathless,
Moon
In terms of crunch, Atropus itself has no stats (because let's 4E: Undeath, Death,
face it, if the gods can't fight this thing head on neither can Destruction, Darkness,
you - it's also a goddamn planet, how can you stat that?) Moon
but its Aspect is a high-challenge Gargantuan Undead 5E: Death
that'll really only be seen as the final boss of a campaign Home Plane None known, but mainly
featuring the undead moon. seen on the Material Plane
Worshippers Undead, Star Spawn,
nihilistic/cynic
individuals,
Contents necromancers, liches, Ur-
Priests, cultists
▪ 1 Where the fuck did it come from?
Favoured Weapon Themselves
▪ 2 The surface of Atropus
▪ 2.1 The Aspect of Atropus
▪ 3 Okay, but just how powerful is it?
▪ 4 Patronage
▪ 5 How to tell if your DM is using Atropus
▪ 6 External links

Where the fuck did it come from?

While origins can vary between settings, all depictions have Atropus being as old as time - essentially being
described as the afterbirth of Creation, a primal force of undeath that exists only to create more undead and
snuff out all life.
In the Forgotten Realms specifically, scholars believed that the World
Born Dead was accidentally created by Ao, either indirectly
Your editaswas
a saved.
byproduct of the creation of the first god of death, or directly as a
divine mistake - the last god created, stillborn in immortal undeath
upon creation. However, both of these origin theories conflict with it
being described as a Primordial, so whether Atropus is indeed the fault
of Ao or not is up in the air (or up for the DM to decide).

In other settings, especially Greyhawk in 3/3.5E, Atropus was

speculated to be, in fact, the undead remains of the 'Prime Mover', aka
the creator of the universe, not just some accident created by a more
powerful being. This former self apparently saw the chaos of what
came before, and decided to create gods to shape it, but didn't bother to
read the fine print for gaining the power to create and ended up dying
after using up all his energy creating said gods. But since creator deities
just don't die, they instead became the shriveled undead moon one
That's no moon...
witnesses in the present day. Essentially its said it destroys planets and
absorbs their positive energy in order to restore itself to life, although
doing so will require everything it created to be destroyed.

The surface of Atropus

The surface of Atropus is, expectedly, as barren and lifeless as the being itself wants the D&D multiverse to be.
Unless its touching the atmosphere of a world that it's about to crash into, there's also no atmosphere, so unless
you want to cut it extremely close you'll need some method of breathing up there. The only notable surface
features besides Atropus' face is a bunch of steep mountains and ridges, spikes jutting up from the ground, and
various craters. The surface is made of black stone, amniotic fluid, and undead flesh and blood, and the craters
are often filled with noxious tar.

Besides the lack of oxygen, dangerous terrain, and the negative energy permeating the entire planetoid, the main
threat upon Atropus is the legions of undead that inhabit the world, all born of nightmares. These include the
aforementioned Atropals, as well as dread wraiths, nightwalkers, angels of decay, nightwings, rage winds,
advanced deathshriekers, famine spirits, and the like. There's also a single dread boneyard on Atropus, though
why there's only one on an entire planetoid of undeath makes little sense.

Since Atropus is also an Elder Evil a DM may also sprinkle in some Star Spawn and/or make being on Atropus
maddening. Either way, be prepared to slaughter hordes of monsters on your way to the head(less) honcho...

The Aspect of Atropus

Chances are, finding and slaying this thing is why you even set foot on this abomination. A headless
Gargantuan Undead (with a CR of 23 in 3E), the Aspect of Atropus is the final obstacle between a party and
sending Atropus packing. It's definitely no pushover, and just standing near it is enough to get weakened
considerably and take necrotic damage - and attempting melee is suicide anyways, since (depending on the
edition) it's entirely immune to nonmagical damage. However, it can't teleport or otherwise force you into the
range of its adverse effects, so its entirely possible to cheese it to death by keeping it at range and using all your
best spells. Just watch out for its minions - its rarely alone.

Fluffwise, its said to be the body to Atropus's head. This makes absolutely no sense until one considers said
body is a shell of its former self, and was likely XBAWKS HUEG in the past. Now its withered and fossilized
to the point it can stand on its own head without adverse
effects, but is still large enough to tower over giants. Your
It also
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now acts a giant 'phylactery' for Atropus itself, being the
center of its Eldritch intellect and unworldly power. While
this makes it an Achilles' heel - something that's foiled the
moon's deadly descent more than once - it does allow it to
defend the core of its power with legions of undead, taken
from the surfaces of worlds its devoured.

The reason why killing the Aspect forces Atropus to retreat

is that killing it is like destroying a Lich's phylactery, only
less permanent. Soon as it dies, many of its adverse effects
on the targeted world vanish, including its ability to siphon
positive energy. Atropus essentially flees because they can't
do jack shit now that the Aspect is dead - and resurrecting it
at the time of its fall likely would result in it just dying
again. And orbiting until the Aspect revives is not an option
either - since its power is weakened, the gods of that world
have a window of opportunity to actually kill Atropus for
good. As such, while convulsing from the backlash of the
death of its aspect, it breaks orbit and shoots back into the
void of space. The Aspect is never dead for too long
though, and soon enough Atropus is back to destroying
worlds.
"Take a left at Mouth Crater, and continue up to Nasal
Okay, but just how powerful is it? Peak..."

Atropus' mere presence can affect entire settings, if their

shadow (literal or not) isn't also hanging over the entire
campaign. As it draws closer, undeath becomes more
prevalent on the targeted world and necromancers get a
significant boost in power (if they're not turned into undead
or become liches to save themselves, though the latter
situation does still give them the necromancy boost), while
positive energy and thus divine magic is siphoned away by
the encroaching moon.

Crunchwise this results in increasingly dire effects as the

time of impact draws nearer - starting out small with a +2
casting level to Necromancy spells as well as a 20% chance
for someone who died to be raised as a zombie in 1d4
rounds. Once the shape of Atropus is noticeable in the sky,
there's a 40% chance for zombies to rise, and the entire
setting is now treated as desecrated, meaning that
consecration becomes a temporary nullification instead of
its normal effects and permanence. It also means the undead
What you're actually going to fight.
risen by this time become even stronger.

Once Atropus' face is visible (and usually the time people

realize it's definitely the World Born Dead), and until impact actually occurs (or is averted), bodies have an 80%
chance of rising from the grave and even long-dead bodies resurrect
Your edit as skeletons, mummies, etc. The entire
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setting now counts as Unhallowed, meaning Turning is now nigh-impossible and the undead are much stronger
- while simultaneously Good-aligned beings and anyone who taps into divine magic are weakened considerably.

Then there's what happens when Atropus actually manages to touch down. As well as the ramifications of a
moon-sized body crashing into a planet (spoiler: nothing good), this moment is when all the life energy and
positive energy of a world is assimilated by the Primordial. Anything that survives impact is killed and revived
as an undead horror by this (and if you died in the impact or somehow weren't revived before it, you'll still
become one), and all the undead created in this as well as prior to the impact embark onto Atropus' surface to
leave the dead husk behind, becoming part of Atropus' surface legions.

The Forgotten Realms gave us proof that Atropus is capable of this, when it was first spotted in that realm;
sages in Faerun first identified it after it had wiped clean the world of Glyth, an entire planet of Illithids and
their slaves. It was mistaken for a planetoid in the rings of the world, and apparently had been attracted there by
the death and destruction the mind flayers inflicted upon the other races. And the sages only noticed it after
Glyth had been decimated. Doesn't bode well for the future, considering that of the select few that know of
Atropus' existence, only a fraction of them know that Atropus may have set their sights on Toril next, wishing to
purge the lush world of everything on it.

Patronage
Since Atropus is an Elder Evil, some evil Warlocks, Wizards (particularly Necromancers), or Death Domain
Clerics (or Ur-priests in older editions), as well as cults, may serve it. Usually these are NPCs or outright
villains, but theoretically a player Warlock can take Atropus as a Great Old One or Undead patron if the DM
allows it. However, someone with Atropus as a patron will more often than not be (chaotic) evil and/or cynical,
so unless the reason why someone is worshipping an apocalypse-bringer is tagging along with a group that's
usually tasked with stopping it is well explained, or the DM has plans to work you into their plot, you'll
probably be forced to change patron. You may also be forced to give up control of your character at some point,
especially if Atropus itself shows up.

Followers of Atropus (that the World Born Dead is consciously aware of, or have been contacted by a Star
Spawn emissary of it) are directed to spread undeath as much as possible, as to prepare their world for the
arrival of their master. They will often also seek out artifacts and/or writings that may bestow upon them the
knowledge to expedite Atropus' arrival (and/or grab their attention) - though several of these are associated with
Allip curses. The only surefire way to get one's hands on a method to call it is to obtain the Book of Vile
Darkness. Particularly favored servants can be granted Lichdom, allowing them to survive Atropus-fall (without
being turned mindless, anyway) and become a commander of their undead legions.

Follower overlap with Orcus is expected, since both beings have similar goals (the replacement of life with
undeath). Sometimes Orcus will use Atropus to his own ends, as seen with a Bodak general of Orcus in the
campaign.

How to tell if your DM is using Atropus

Besides the obvious 'someone or some cult is trying to call Atropus to the world', a sign that foretells the
coming of Atropus is the undead rising with no other explanation and necromancy becoming more powerful,
while divine magic begins to wane in strength. If this occurs, or you have the suspicion the campaign is leading
to an encounter with the World Born Dead, it's best to keep an eye on the night sky (and never the sky in the
day, as Atropus always keeps the planet it targets between it and the sun) - if the DM is indeed planning an
Atropus encounter chances are you'll spot them, rock-face andwas
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External links
▪ Homebrew 5E stats for the Aspect of Atropus, as well as other Elder Evils (https://www.gmbinder.com/sh
are/-LNa95CLcSwIUPkRniO3). Be warned, they fixed the cheese (via teleporting its enemies to it as a
lair action) and its now CR 29-30.

The non-human deities of Dungeons and Dragons[Expand]

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