Bestiarum vocabulum - Forkrul Assail

After the Jaghut (one of the most famous entries on this blog, for reasons I can’t fathom) and the T’lan Imass, here’s another (totally unofficial and biased) version of an exotic race from the Malazan Book of the Fallen novels – the dreaded neutral fanatics and dispensers of judgment, the Forkrul Assail.

The Forkrul Assail are my second favorite race from the Malazan universe (‘cause, you known, Jaghut rules!). In part because they’re given little spotlight in the novels (so far, read the next paragraph); but also because they’re so frigging alien and frightening – in appearance and behavior.

While one can argue that the K’Chain Che’Malle (another Elder race from the novels) are weird, c’mon!, they’re just funky lizard/dinosaur-men and we had already our share of them in fantasy. The Forkrul Assail, however, are something completely new. Besides, their view of “Neutrality” is something so inhuman and f*cked up that (IMHO) it goes beyond the traditional view of Alignments.

Well, the usual warnings:

1) Lately, I haven’t had the time to read novels or RPGs on a good pace, so I’m still stuck on the seventh book – Reaper’s Gale. That said, if anything new comes up on the next books they aren’t here. An example would be my T’lan Imass conversion; I made it after reading the first and half the second books. Reading those stats again showed to me that a lot things that weren’t right (like the “anti-magic” abilities, which I created out of a confused interpretation of Elder/normal magic).

2) I don’t care about canon. Like the Jaghut, the idea here is to add more cool stuff to the D&D mash-up. Forkrul Assail as “uber-neutral alien judges that can scare demons/sorcerer-kings” is a very cool concept. The stats try to reflect that idea.

3) As I already mentioned twice, my love for these guys come from their vision of what means to be True Neutral. Yes, they’re pushing it, but in a wondrous and bizarre way, perfect for Gamemasters who like to provoke their players (or just love Planescape).

4) Finally, the Forkrul Assail are my perfect excuse for a high-level humanoid menace. Most high CR humanoids that come in bestiaries just don’t “click” with me (like, for example, the Adlet, from Bestiary 3). The humanoid/monstrous humanoid types are also so hard to properly define. It looks like the former (should) represent weak/non-supernatural beings, but Pathfinder made Giant into Humanoids, so any distinction in this regard is totally gone for me. If not for the Giants I’d have made the Forkrul as Monstrous Humanoids, but let’s see what kind of monster we can make with a Humanoid type pushed to its (almost epic) limits.

The stats below represent a fully adult Forkrul Assail with lots of centuries on its back (and thousands of deaths in its judgment records). 

Bestiarum vocabulum – Forkrul Assail 

"To achieve peace, destruction is delivered. To give the gift of freedom, one promises eternal imprisonment. Adjudication obviates the need for justice. This is a studied, deliberate embrace of diametric opposition. It is a belief in balance, a belief asserted with the conviction of religion. But in this case, the proof of a god’s power lies not in the cause but in the effect. Accordingly, in this world and in all others, proof is achieved by action, and therefore all action – including the act of choosing inaction – is inherently moral. No deed stands outside the moral context. At the same time, the most morally perfect act is the one taken in opposition to what has occurred before...In this civilization...its citizens were bound to acts of utmost savagery. Vast cities were constructed beneath the world’s surface. Each chamber, every building, assembled as the physical expression of the quality of absence. Solid rock matched by empty space. From these places, where they did not dwell, but simply gathered, they set out to achieve balance."

-          Silchas Ruin on the Forkrul Assail, Midnight Tides

 

Art by derkhanblue

Forkrul Assail                         CR 20 (307,200 XP) 

N Medium Humanoid 

Init +24; Senses low-light vision, darkvision 120ft., blindsight 15 ft.  

 

DEFENSE

AC 33, touch 24, flat-footed n/a (+9 natural, +12 Dex, +1 dodge +3 ring of protection) 
HD 390 (20d8+300) fast healing 10* 
Fort +27, Ref +29, Will +19 
DR 10/adamantine 
Immune asphyxiation, bleed, critical hits, poison, disease, fatigue, massive damage, weather; Resist all 10;
SR 35 
*stops if the Forkrul Assail is brought below 0 hit points 

OFFENSE

Speed 90 ft. (40 ft. in armor) 
Melee flurry of blows +30/+30/+25/+25/+20/+20/+15/+15 (2d10+15/17-20 x3) or punch/kick +27 (2d10+21/17-20 x3) 
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft. 
Special Attack Alien Limbs, Constrict (2d10+21), Combat Surge, Crippling Critical, Improved Evasion, Frenetic Reflexes, Grab (Large), Piercing Strike, Quivering Palm (DC 29), Pull (any natural attack, 15 ft.),  Push (any natural attack, 15 ft.),  Sneak Attack +5d6, Stunning Fist (DC 29), Trip. 

STATISTICS
Str 31, Dex 35, Con 40, Int 23, Wis 25, Cha 27 
Base Atk +15; CMB +30; CMD 52 
Feats Combat Reflexes (B), Combat Expertise, Deflect Arrows (B), Dodge (B), Gorgon’s Fist, Improved Feint, Improved Initiative (B), Improved Sunder, Improved Vital Strike, Mobility (B), Medusa’s Wrath, Power Attack, Scorpion Style, Spring Attack (B), Weapon Finesse (B), Vital Strike 
Skills Acrobatics +35, Bluff +22, Climb +20, Diplomacy +14, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (Arcana) +20, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +10, Knowledge (History) +24, Knowledge (Planes) +15, Knowledge (Religion) +20, Linguistics +20, Perception +31, Sense Motive +15, Stealth +35, Survival +23, Swim +28, Use Magic Device +17 
Skill Racial Bonuses +8 Perception 
Languages Forkrul Assail, Aboleth, Common, Undercommon, Aklo, Dwarf, Elven, Giant, Jaghut, Goblin, Infernal, Celestial, Abyssal, Draconic, Necril, Protean, Ignan, Terran, Aquan, Auran and two other dead and exotic languages of your choice, besides Telepathy (100 ft.) 
Special Qualities Blindsight, Compression, Darkvision, Hard to Kill, Improved Evasion, Keen Scent, Low-light vision, Preternatural Awareness, Primal Anatomy. 

ECOLOGY

Environment any 
Organization solitary, pair or army (30+) 
Treasure none 

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Alien Limbs (Ex) Forkrul Assail possess strong arms and legs with multiple joints. This increases their speed and threat range but also allows them to fight opponents at close combat. 

Crippling Criticals (Ex) Forkrul Assail are deadly martial artists. Their critical range with their natural attacks is 17-20/x3. If they confirm a critical hit, the attack also inflicts 1d10 ability drain to a random determined ability score.

Frenetic Reflexes (Ex) Forkrul Assail are so quick and their long limbs so agile that taking a 5 ft. step or a withdrawn action within their threat range provokes an attack of opportunity (though using Acrobats still works). 

Preternatural Awareness (Ex) Forkrul Assail are never flat-footed and have a +8 racial bonus to Initiative and Perception. Flanking or surrounding a Forkrul Assail doesn’t grant any bonus or mechanical advantages. 

Primal anatomy (Ex) Forkrul Assail have a unique anatomy, incredibly primitive but also very efficacious against trauma.

They (also) breathe through their skins, can survive underwater under practically any pressure, don’t suffer altitude sickness, can hold their breaths for an absurd amount of time and can, theoretically, hibernate through millennia.

They have multiple and redundant organs, except for their brains (which can, however, regrow cells if not completely destroyed) with makes them immune to critical hits and grant a 50% chance of ignoring precision damage (like Sneak Attacks) and ability score damage (but not drain).

Even though Forkrul Assail doesn’t have the regeneration special ability, they can regrow arms and legs, given enough time (or promptly recover lost members, if reattached a few minutes after removed, including their heads). Their amazing recoverability works like fast healing, with one difference: if a Forkrul is brought below 0 hit points, their fast healing is shut down.

Finally, their amazing resistance to damage also grants them a relatively immunity to weather (like endure elements) and resistance against all kinds of damage (thus their energy resistance). Forkrul Assail do eat and drink, but don’t die due to starvation. 

Hard to Kill (Ex) Forkrul Assail can keep fighting below 0 hit points and only die after reaching double their Constitution scores. Even after that, unless their heads are destroyed or their bodies are totally dismembered, it’s quite possible that the Forkrul Assail will eventually recover from their wounds. They’re immune to massive damage. 

Stunning Fist (Ex) Forkrul Assail can use this class feature as a 20^th level Monk. The DC is 29. 

Piercing Strike (Ex) Forkrul Assail’s natural attacks work as +5 magic weapons and adamantine for the purpose of overcoming DR or bypassing hardness. 

Combat Surge (Ex) Forkrul Assail using a full-round action with her natural weapons attack like a 20^th level Monk using a flurry of blows. They also gain an additional move action every round.  

DESCRIPTION 

Forkrul Assail. Forkrassal. Krussail. Judges. Watchers. Balance Keepers. Demons. They’re known but a thousand names, deep in the legends and mythos of most humanoids civilizations of the present age and bygones ones. Few, however, recognize them for what they really are. Most people misjudge this elder race for just another exotic type of demon or outside – a dire mistake.

Forkrul Assail were ancient before the first elf was even born. The Winds Dukes of Aaqa knew them. The Forkrul walked the world long before the serpent folk and the jaghut. It is whispered that they’re almost as old as the aboleth, the mi-go and the neothelids. Even the primordial qlippoth were subjects to the Forkrul Assail’s judgments during their initial forays in the material planes.

At the present age, most Forkrul are long dead. Destroyed and eradicated by unlikely and desperate alliances of Good and Evil pantheons and ancient races. Unfortunately, a few survived. It’s just too hard to kill a Forkrul Assail. During the heat of battle – or worse, war – it’s tempting (or convenient) to just trap or bind them.

The Forkrul Assail are humanoid, although taller and thinner than humans or even elves. Their bodies are alien and belong to older eons of existence. A Forkrul possess more joints in their limbs and hands, a jointed sternum, large, solid black eyes and blue blood rather than red. They are physically far more robust than most humanoids, and appeared to be virtually un-killable through conventional means, healing from cuts and blows extremely quickly. They also possessed incredible strength, speed and agility, and are able to successfully combat several powerful opponents at once while sustaining only minor wounds. In addition, they have preternatural longevity and could live for millennia without food or water.

Their mind is as alien as that of the aboleths, though one can argue that the Forkrul’s worldview came rather from eons of decadence and inhuman philosophy than from contact with strange realities and entities. Unlike the illithid and the aboleths, the Forkrul were born on this sphere. Maybe that gives them a more frightening aura – what mortals can become after long and strange ages living upon this world.

Forkrul Assail are obsessed with Neutrality and Judgment, with restoring the Balance, the perfect stance between all Moralities, the ultimate pinnacle of Equilibrium. It can be argued that this almost religious passion eventually drove the entire race mad (the other option being too alienating to contemplate – that the Forkrul found the Final Truth of Neutrality).

To most living creatures, the Forkrul Assail’s worldview of balance and perfect neutrality is a vast, dead and motionless desert. After all, where nothing can change, where no improper act of moral can happen, the Balance would hold forever. The few Forkrul that took enough notice of the younger races in the first place to proper address the issue (usually while quickly slaughtering the listeners) said that such “gross oversimplification of the matter is a just and sufficient evidence of the Judgment’s ontological necessity”.

The knowledge that a breathing Forkrul Assail has awakened and is wandering the local region is enough to force alliances between metallic and chromatic dragons, to force the awakening of a neothelid or even an avatar or outsider intervention. More careful beings quickly leave the area. At least one of the dragon flights of the last millennia was actually provoked by the sighting of three Forkrul Assail leaving an underworld passage in the mountains to the north.

Bestiarum vocabulum - T'lan Imass

Here’s another monster from the Malazan Book of the Fallen, adapted (again) without any regard to cannon sources (particularly because I’m still reading Reaper’s Gale). So, this take on the T’lan Imass is based on my impressions from the first books – mainly Gardens of the Moon and Memories of Ice – besides my ideas on how they should integrate with Pathfinder.

T’lan Imass are one of my favorite aspects of the Malazan universe. They were the first thing that really hooked me in the novels – undead armies created by a Stone Age proto-human culture, bound to the command to whomever possess a mythical artifact (the mysterious First Throne that Emperor Kellenvand found). It’s a cool idea, especially if you consider the personality given by Erikson to the Imass characters – like Tool (in the first book).

The T’lan are also a perfect example of the scale of these novels – they’re things created around 300.000 years ago. Erikson not only mixes Sword & Sorcery with High Fantasy, but also takes High Fantasy’ traditional “biblical ages” (worlds with 5.000 or 10.000 years) and skyrocket it to historical and geological levels. In the Malazan novels, the Elder Races are really “elder” things and the various ages between conflicts easily reach hundreds of thousands of year (if not millions or more, if you take the Tiste races and the K'Chain Che'Malle).

T’lan Imass

 

"Tell me, Tool, what dominates your thoughts?"

The Imass shrugged before replying, "I think of futility, Adjunct."

"Do all Imass think about futility?"

"No. Few think at all."

"Why is that?"

The Imass leaned his head to one side and regarded her. "Because, Adjunct, it is futile".

 

-          Tool and Adjunct Lorn, Gardens of the Moon

T’lan Imass                                                                                      CR 10 (9.600 XP)

T’lan Neanderthal Barbarian 8

CN Medium undead (augmented humanoid)

Init +6; Senses low-light vision, darkvision 60ft.

Aura elder magic (30 ft., DC 25)

DEFENSE

AC 22, touch 14, flat-footed 13 (+5 natural, +2 Dex, +5 hide armor +1)

HD 96 (8d12+44)

Fort +10, Ref +4, Will +5 (+7 against illusions and enchantments)

DR 10/magic and bludgeoning; DR 1/--

Immune electricity, fire and undead traits; Resist cold and sonic 10; SR see aura

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)

Melee 3 orc-bane greatsword +20/+15 (2d6+13, plus 2d6 fire) or slam +16/+11 (1d6+8, plus 1d6 fire)

Special Attack Fires of Tellann, Hatred (orcs and ogres), Rage (21 rounds)

Rage Power Guarded Stance, Intimidating Glare, Knockback, Clear Mind

STATISTICS

Str 26, Dex 14, Con -, Int 9, Wis 16, Cha 18

Base Atk +8; CMB +16; CMD 28

Feats Improved Bullrush, Improved Initiative (B), Power Attack (B), Toughness (B), Weapon Focus (greatsword), Vital Strike

Skills Acrobatics +9, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (Geography) +5, Knowledge (History) +4, Knowledge (Nature) +5, Knowledge (Religion) +4, Perception +8, Stealth +11, Survival +7, Swim +11

Languages Imass and Common

Special Qualities Dust to Dust, Fast Movement, Forged by Tellann, Hardy, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Mental Fortitude, Trap Sense +2

ECOLOGY

Environment any

Organization solitary, unit (3-5) or army (500+)

Treasure none

DESCRIPTION

T’lan Imass resemble zombies or even skeletons with parchment-like skins, dressed in tattered armors made of the hide and bones of creatures that were dead long before the first human empires were raised. They traditional use leather horned helms and moldy fur cloaks, using as weapons spears, javelins and protoswords made of stone (however, these primitive items are lethal in their hands, besides being usually enchanted).

The T’lan Imass are an ancient race of humanoids, perhaps the original people from which today’s myriad of human cultures and races came (some sages include in this roll halflings and even ogres). Very little is known about the Imass. In fact, if not for the existence of the T’lan Imass nothing would be known.

The T’lan Imass – when one of these silent creatures can be made to talk – allude that an ancient oath, ritual or sacrifice, made by their entire race to escape from the tyrannical clutches of a vastly older race of evil Sorcerer Kings. After this massive dweomer or pact was establish, the Imass were no more, and the undead T’lan Imass came into being. They probably were the world’s first humanoid undeads. Forming huge armies or hordes, the T’lan advanced against their nemesis, driving them to extinction (at least according to them).

After the last Sorcerer King was killed – still during the world’s Antiquity – the T’lan armies dissolved and disappeared, quickly becoming the subject of myth. Once or twice lonely T’lan Imass were seen, sometimes a few more. Sages claimed that these were probably “renegade” T’lan – whatever that means. From these individuals came what little is known about this race. That the T’lan armies still exist and that they’re still hunting the last Sorcerer Kings. That there are arguments among the T’lan leaders about the “taint of Jaghut” and talk of marching against races like orcs, half-orcs and even humans. A more sinister legend tells of an old human emperor who managed to control one entire T’lan army through an ancient artifact known as the First Throne. Finally, there’s a story of a T’lan Imass renegade Bonecaster (their oracles) searching for a “lift” of the race’s curse.

CREATING A T'LAN IMASS

"T’lan" is an acquired template that can be added to any living humanoid creature with 5 or more Hit Dice (referred to hereafter as the base creature) and human blood. Most T’lan were once Imass (see below). A T’lan uses the base creature's statistics and abilities except as noted here.

CR: Same as base creature +2.

Type: The T’lan’s type changes to undead (augmented, but see below). Do not recalculate class Hit Dice, BAB, or saves.

Senses: A T’lan gains darkvision 60 ft.

Aura: A T’lan emanates the following aura.

Elder Magic (Su)

A T’lan emanates is surrounded by a 30ft. radius aura of elder magic. This aura is sensed by detect magic as overwhelming and is treated as an effect with a caster level of 15 + the T’lan augmented CR. It can, however, be surpassed by antimagic field.

This aura nullifies all spells and spell-like abilities indiscriminately (it can’t be surpassed). To activate a spell-like ability or to cast a spell, a creature must succeed at a caster level check (DC equal to the T’lan augmented CR + 15).

Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +4.

Hit Dice: Change all racial Hit Dice to d8s. Class Hit Dice are unaffected. As an undead, a T’lan uses its Charisma modifier to determine bonus hit points.

Defensive Abilities: A T’lan gains channel resistance +6; DR 10/magic and bludgeoning; and immunity to fire and electricity. They have resistance 10 against cold and sonic.

Attacks: A T’lan gains a slam attack if the base creature didn't have one. Damage for the slam depends on the T’lan's size.

Special Attacks: A T’lan gains the following special attacks. Save DCs are equal to 10 + 1/2 the T’lan's HD + the T’lan's Charisma modifier unless otherwise noted.

Fires of Tellann (Su)

A T’lan Imass’ natural, melee and ranged attacks are imbued with their elder Tellann magic. They ignore all types of DR, except when the type of damage requires is unnamed, adamantine or epic.

Any weapon a T’lan wields seethes with this Elder Fire, and deals an additional 1d6 points of fire damage for every 4 Hit Dice the T’lan has. Creatures healed by negative energy suffer 50% more damage.

Finally, every time a T’lan Imass hits and damage a foe, his Tellann magic unravels any dweomer affecting the target. Treat this as a targeted dispel magic cast by a caster of a level equal to the T’lan Imass’ HD. This last ability doesn’t work against creatures with a caster level higher than 20^th, because they also channel Elder Magic.

Special Qualities: A T’lan gains the following.

Forged by Tellann (Ex)

T’lan are undead powered by the primordial force of Tellann, which may be another name to positive energy. T’lan are immune to fire damage and are healed by positive energy and damaged by negative energy. Except for this, they retain all traits of undead creatures.

Dust to Dust (Su)

T’lan Imass can let their eons-old forms crumble to dust as a move action. While in this form they can’t communicate, attack or execute any action besides moving and using their senses. They can fly with a Speed of 60 feet (Perfect). T’lan Imass commonly use this ability for long-distance movement, covering 300 miles in an 8-hour period of flight.

While in dust form, they’re invulnerable to damage from targeted effects and suffer only ¼ damage from area effects. They also gain a +10 bonus to Stealth checks and pass through even the smallest cracks.

Reassuming their form requires a full-round action and solid ground.

Human’s Forebearers (Ex)

T’lan Imass are treated for all effects as humans.

Ability Scores: Str +8, Wis +4, Cha +4. As an undead creature, a T’lan has no Constitution score.

Skills: T’lans gain a +8 racial bonus on Intimidate and Perception checks.

Feats: T’lans gain Improved Initiative, Power Attack and Toughness as bonus feats.

The Imass

I always saw the Imass as a type of Neanderthal-like race – the forebearers of the human race. You can use this information for creating living Imass – I just suggest that you change Hatred, limiting the Imass’ bonus to ogres and orcs. Actually, these stats are quite strong. If you add Powerful Build you could easily create a Barghast.

Bestiarum vocabulum - Jaghut

A powerful built humanoid creature stands before you. Taller and broader than a human, its bulk almost that of an ogre, with gray-green skin and long gray hair. It’s tusked lower jaw suggests orcish blood, although the creature’s face reveals intellect and power clearly above the fallen orc races.

Jaghut                                                CR 8 (4,800 XP)

N large humanoid (cold, giant)

Init +0; Senses darkvision 60-ft., low-light vision, scent, Perception +9 (+13 in cold terrains)

DEFENSE

AC 18, touch 11, flat-footed 18 (–1 size, +7 natural, +2 deflection)

HD 9d8+45 (85 hp)

Fort +13, Ref +5, Will +10

Defensive Abilities DR 10/magic; Immune cold; SR 19

Weakness vulnerability to fire

OFFENSE

Spd 40-ft.

Melee 2 slams +11 (1d8+5)

Space 10-ft.; Reach 10-ft.

Special Attacks omtose phellack

Spells Known (CL 9^th)

4^th (5/day) – Ice Storm, Solid Fog, Wall of Ice* (DC 19)

3^rd (7/day) – Elemental Aura* (DC 18), Dispel Magic, Fireball (DC 17), Protection from Energy

2^nd (7day) – Mirror Image, Rage* (DC 17), Scorching Ray, See Invisibility

1^st (8/day) – Chill touch (DC 16), Disguise Self, Enlarge Person* (DC 16), Mage Armor, Shield, Shocking Grasp

*bloodline bonus spell known

STATISTICS

Str 21, Dex 10, Con 21, Int 15, Wis 16, Cha 10

Base Atk +6; CMB +12; CMD 24

Feats Alertness, Combat Casting, Diehard*, Endurance, Iron Will

*bloodline bonus feat feat

Skills Diplomacy +9, Knowledge (Arcana) +10, Knowledge (Geography) +7, Knowledge (Religion) +5, Perception +9, Sense Motive +9, Stealth +6, Spellcraft +11, Survival +4, Use Magic Devices +9; Racial modifiers +4 to physical skills in cold terrains

Languages Common, Draconic, Giant, Jaghut (racial), Orc (racial)

Special Qualities omtose phellack, orc’s forefathers

ECOLOGY

Environment any cold terrains

Organization solitary (or rarely in pairs)

Treasure double

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Omtose Phellack (Su) The Jaghut are masters of ice magic, once responsible for locking the entire world into eternal winter during entire ages.  They call this arcane mastery Omtose Phellack. In game terms, they have the spellcasting abilities of a sorcerer of the same level as their Humanoid HDs and the features of the Boreal sorcerer bloodline (from the Advanced Player’s Guide), with the following differences:

-          Jaghut can substitute Constitution for Charisma for all spellcasting and bloodline purposes, drawing their arcane power from their vitality rather than force of personality;

-          Jaghut can spontaneously change the elemental damage of any spell to cold damage;

-          All cold spells cast by a Jaghut are affected by the Empowered metamagic feat for free;

-          Jaghut have fast healing 3 if they have access to their spellcasting abilities;

-          Jaghut have a +2 deflection bonus to AC (and CMD) and +2 protection bonus to all saves if they have access to their spellcasting abilities;

Jaghut that buy levels of the sorcerer class add them to their racial HD to determine caster level, spells known, spells per day and bloodline powers.

Orc’s Forefather (Ex) Jaghut are possible the primeval creatures from which today orcs are the fallen offspring – maybe corrupted by a dark deity or abyssal force. Jaghut are treated as orcs for gaming effects.

DESCRIPTION

The Jaghut are an ancient race of humanoids, older then even the elves and probably one of the first sentient creatures to walk the world. Albeit of bestial visage and posture, the Jaghut have keen intellects and a profound thirsty for arcane and philosophical knowledge. This urge is so strong that, in their meditations, the Jaghut rarely suffer the presence of other creatures – including Jaghut. However, they are pacifists and favor an isolated and spartan lifestyle. Jaghut dwelling are located in the far corners of the world and are usually simple and resilient stone structures.

Their quest for knowledge and understanding of the universe led many Jaghut to learn magic and tamper with other living creatures, mostly with scientific purposes. It is speculated that many beasts and even some sentient races are the result of Jaghut experiments.

Jaghut are natural spellcasters with a deep resonance for ice and boreal magic. This trait is reflected in the race’s tendency to guard and hoard all things that it finds worthy – the last ice age of the world may even have being a massive Jaghut attempt to prevent the coming of a cataclysm or great alteration. Some sages ponder that the Jaghut’s powers as “world-keepers” hint to an ancient purpose or mission bestowed upon the race by some elder or forgotten power, deity or even pantheon.

Ironically, this pacifist and neutral race suffered most for the crimes of their few. The so called Jaghut Tyrants were individuals burned by a desire of not only hoarding knowledge but also controlling all living things around them. These insane and power-hungry arch-sorcerers literally enslaved entire civilizations and laid waste to continents, eventually being destroyed or trapped by their own race or their old undead nemesis – the T’lan Imass. The T’lan Imass were once a living humanoid race, until after a harrowing ritual their embrace undeath to stop the depredations of the Tyrants. The problem is that the T’lan Imass didn’t stop there. They killed all Jaghut in their path until only a handful of individual survived to the present age of the world.

Variant: Jaghut Tyrants

These Jaghut shun the isolationist and peaceful way of their tradition brethren. Consumed by a deep desire for power and control, they seek to dominate all creatures leaving over their region. Many Jaghut Tyrants disguise themselves as deities for tribes of human, giants or orc savages.

Jaghut Tyrants usually have 15 racial HD and equivalent sorcerer powers. They usually have high ranks in the Intimidate skill. Their domain of Omtose Phellack doubles their fast healing, deflection and protection bonus and grant to all their cold spells the Maximize metamagic feat for free. Jaghut Tyrants gain dominate monster as a spell-like ability usable at will.

Finally, they can store their power inside an object called a Finnest, which works like a lich’s phylactery, guarding the Tyrant’s life force. If his body is destroyed, the Jaghut can, as an immediate action, transfer its spirit to any humanoid creature at a distance of 5 miles. If this creature fails a Will saving throw, its original soul goes to the afterlife and its body instantly reforms to the shape of the Jaghut Tyrant (with half his maximum hit points). Creatures that successfully resist this effect are immune for the next 24 hours. The Jaghut spirit lingers in the area until his Finnest is destroyed. Orcs suffer a –4 penalty to saving throws against a Jaghut’s dominate monster and possession spell-like abilities

A Jaghut Tyrant can always feel his Finnest even across planar borders.

A Little but Important Disclaimer: I’m a recent fan to the Malazan Book of the Fallen, from where the Jaghut originated. I’m still in the fifth book of the series (of a total of ten) and I don’t know all the things to know about both the Jaghut and the amazing world created by Steve Erikson. This article is a personal adaptation of the Jaghut to Pathfinder, without any concern for the cannon (especially the orc-blooded thing, which I totally made up). I’m aiming here for the “fantasy mash-up” feel of the original D&D, with its Tolkien’s balrogs and Paul Anderson’s trolls. The Jaghut are just the more recent arrival. I hope you like them.