Timeless Threats: Antigod

Introduction

antigod (plural antigods)

1. (mythology) A preternatural being opposed to the gods.

An Antigod is a being opposed to one or more Deities, either through personal enmity or by representing the antithesis of what those Deities stand for. Examples from mythology include the Greek Titans, the Norse Giants, the Indian Asuras, and the Christian Devil.

If Deities are good (in their own minds and those of their worshipers), it stands to reason that Antigods must be evil (in the eyes of the Deities and their followers). Most Antigods embody traits that few religions endorse: malice, anger, greed, gluttony, pride, ignorance, indifference, and destruction for destruction’s sake. While Deities thrive on worship, Antigods draw sustenance from terror, horror, and hatred.

Appearance

Antigods manifest in monstrous forms, the more horrifying the better. Antigods’ traditional forms encompass giant size, unusual coloring, horns, tails, wings, leering or grotesque faces, and animal features. More outré Antigods take the forms of mind-boggling jumbles of animal features, inorganic parts, or abstract shapes.

Tactics

Antigods draw power from human disgust, fear, or hatred, so their behavior in myths and real life is meant to inspire those negative emotions.

Many have been sealed away by Deities, so their other objective is to find some poor hapless mortal to unseal them so they may revel in their aberrance. To that end they scatter books, artifacts, and similar keys to lure mortals in and have them unwittingly break their seals.

Antigod Characters

Extra Dice Needed: None

Antigods seldom cross the path of mortals, although a Timeless may encounter one of their manifestations if they have a habit of investigating the unknown. Thus Timeless the game defines Antigods only in qualitative terms. Their manifestations are best left to the Host System.

The Antigod Sheet

• Name: the Antigod’s most common name.

• Other Names: other names that refer to the Antigod.

• Worlds Known: a list of Worlds where the Antigod is known.

• Tactics: the Antigod’s specific tactics to sow chaos and instill terror.

• Threat: rated at one of the following levels:

  • Folkloric: a local legend unknown outside a specific area.
  • Legendary: a widespread legend of death and misery.
  • Mythic: a matter of ancient myths, capable of much destruction.
  • Catastrophic: a plague upon the World if loosed upon it.
  • Apocalyptic: the end of a World if loosed upon it.

• Corpus: location of the Antigod’s soul, mind, or main body:

  • Psychic Plane – the plane of purely mental phenomena, within time but without sensation, only pure thought.
  • Corporeal Realm – part or all of a corporeal world dedicated entirely to the Antigod, whether as a prison or a palace.
  • Corporeal Titan – a colossal creature somewhere in corporeal reality as the true body of the Antigod, no matter where its senses or spirit may roam.
  • Corporeal Fiend – a less-than-colossal creature somewhere in corporeal reality.

• Location: name of the Antigod’s home in a Corporeal World, possibly shared with other Antigods.

• Manifestation: ways in which the Antigod inflicts itself to mortals:

  • Corporeal – manifesting wholly and completely in the flesh, so to speak.
  • Dreams & Madness – as nightmares and mental instability to a few “chosen” victims.
  • Incarnation – as a mortal creature with a fragment of the Antigod’s spirit.
  • Messenger – as another creature that acts as the Antigod’s harbinger.
  • Portent – as disturbances in the natural order.
  • Sorcery – through dark magic taught to its cultists and mortal agents.

• Appearance / Symbol: the Antigod’s traditional appearance, unholy sigil, omens, or anything else that distinguishes or identifies the Antigod.

Special Abilities

Antigods, like Deities, exist amidst a cloud of legends, myths, and traditions. Where Deities have religions, Antigods have at best small cults worshiping them while larger religions fear or hate them. Still, even a Timeless is more likely to meet a cult member than the Antigod itself.

Antigods of necessity tend to take matters into their own hands, claws, or tentacles. Here we enumerate how Antigods actually manifest in a corporeal World.

Corporeal Form

The most obvious and most potent manifestation of an Antigod is its true, complete physical form. Few Antigods do so, however. Some lack a physical form; others have been imprisoned by one or more Deities, or a cabal of powerful wizards, or some other force that keeps them from rampaging across the land. Perhaps the Antigod sleeps, or lies “dead” in some hidden tomb.

The corporeal form of most Antigods, whether titanic or merely huge, possesses inconceivable physical, mental, and mystical power. Depending on its level of Threat, it may easily level a town, a kingdom, a country, or a world. Only a Deity can hope to defeat one on its own terms, and Deities are notoriously absent. Luckily they have left spells and artifacts to banish or slay an Antigod, if a mortal can find and use them. What happens to the mortal in the process is not the Deities’ concern.

Dreams & Madness

Instead of corporeal form, Antigods may appear in nightmares to mystically sensitive individuals. Such manifestations increase the terror of sensitives and those around them. The sensitives themselves may lose their mental stability or acquire long-term mental issues, which also serves the Antigod’s purposes. Mystics are humanity’s early-warning system; if humanity ignores its alarms, the Antigod can progress to stronger manifestations with mankind none the wiser.

Incarnations

The Antigod, whether through imprisonment or whim, may choose to incarnate as a more limited creature with a portion of the Antigod’s consciousness. How much is best left to the imagination.

Such incarnations will bear some resemblance to the Antigod’s true form. While not as powerful as the Antigod’s corporeal body (if any), they will share some small measure of its physical, mental, and mystical power.

Details of such incarnations are left to the Host System.

Messengers

The Antigod may have spirits or corporeal creatures serving it, often as freakish as the Antigod. These supernatural horrors would logically be more visible than the Antigod itself, but still hidden from the eyes of those who refuse to see.

Details of such creatures are left to the Host System.

Portents

As the Antigod draws near, it may cause characteristic disturbances in nature such as a change in climate, unusual disturbances among flora and fauna, freakish animal births, rains of frogs, or other inexplicable patterns.

The Referee should drop in references to these events, increasing in frequency and severity, whenever or wherever the Antigod’s presence grows stronger.

Sorcery

The Antigod or its messenger taught mankind the rituals to summon its messengers or incarnations and perhaps to summon it corporeally, or at least contact it mentally. It also taught sorcerers other spells that invoke its name to spread torment and ruin.

The details of the Antigod’s sorcery are best left to the Host System.