This article is part of a series for both the April 2020 RPG Blog Carnival and the 2020 Blogging A to Z Challenge.
Amonkhet is a plane home to an ancient and powerful civilization. The people of this fertile valley raise monuments dedicated to the glory of their gods and compete for their blessings. The Trials of the Five Gods give structure to this society as the population train their entire life for a chance to join the elite ranks of the Worthy and to claim an honored place in the Afterlife. They prepare for the great God-Pharaoh’s return.
«Rise Among the Worthy»
Towering, gold-encrusted monuments break the unending monotony of a horizon formed of sun-blasted sand. Awe-inspiring, animal-headed gods walk among the people, offering them care and protection from the horrors of the desert. A wide, life-giving river offers its abundant bounty, providing for every physical need. Happy, hopeful people offer sacrifices in grand temples dedicated to their benevolent gods, addressing their spiritual needs. They know that this life—wonderful as it is—is just the beginning, the prelude to the perfection that awaits them in the afterlife, promised to them by their God-Pharaoh.
Amonkhet is a plane of dichotomy. Beyond the lush river valley lies endless, scorching desert. Accursed, desiccated mummies roam the desert, while carefully embalmed mummies attend to the needs of the living in the glorious city. The people have everything they need—they are protected from the desert heat and wandering mummies by a magical barrier, and they spend their lives in focused training, honing their bodies and minds to perfection. Yet they eagerly anticipate the time when they will be permitted to die in combat and leave this world behind.
The gods are custodians of the path to the afterlife, established by the God-Pharaoh to purify and perfect the people who follow it and undergo its trials. Each god oversees one of the five trials and instructs the initiates who are preparing to face the trial, helping them to cultivate one of the five aspects of mortal perfection: solidarity, knowledge, strength, ambition, and zeal.
For your campaign: Eternals
Some elements from Amonkhet have already been adapted for D&D 5e and published for free as a handy PDF from Wizards itself. On it, Eternals are considered as wights, but you might want some more terrifying and relentless undead. Let us introduce to a new version of these menacing monsters.
Physically similar to skeletons, the Eternals form Bolas’ lethal undead fighting force, the Dreadhorde, that has transcended their mortal capabilities. They are elite soldiers with all the skill and prowess of living soldiers, but none of the disadvantages that arise in living beings, such as emotions, hesitation, or disloyalty. As they aren’t living beings, they can be deployed across planes with the use of a Planar Bridge. Not only winners of the Trials were transformed into Eternals: Several of the dangerous fauna of Amonkhet, such as hippos, manticores, crocodiles, and even demons were also eternalized and served in the Dreadhorde.
Bolas identified the five qualities he wanted his army to have, and designed the Five Trials precisely to cultivate those qualities. After passing these godly trials, every Eternal would be tactical, adaptable, resilient, ruthless and fanatical.
New Template: Eternal
- Additional type: Undead
- Resistance to necrotic energy
- Tactical Training: Proficiency in Athletics, Acrobatics and with Heavy Armor. If the base creature has two hands, it also has proficiency with the halberd.
- Adaptable Technique: Eternals treat halberds as if they had the Versatile (1d12) property. When using it with both hands, they can reroll any 1 it gets on the damage die.
- Resilient Physique: STR+4, DEX+2, INT+2 (minimum 11), Speed +5ft.
- Ruthless Frenzy: When making its first attack, the Eternal can get advantage on Strength-based melee attack rolls. Doing so gives advantage to its enemies until its next turn.
- Fanatical Obedience: Eternals have advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma saving throws against being charmed, paralyzed, stunned or unconscious. They have immunity against being frightened. Interaction skills have no effect on them.
- Lazotep Armor: Humanoid Eternals are equipped with lazotep breastplate armor.
We hope you’ll be able to turn some interesting monsters into their Eternal form easily enough with this template. If you do, please let us know in the comments below!
I love an Egyptian style setting, and the new template for the Eternals is pretty great! I’m going to have to try this next time I DM… 🙂
Happy A to Z!
Interesting setting for a MoonKnight character