The Aboleth Godmind (and Aboleth cults)


Homebrew and House Rules


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Hey. Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I had a concept regarding the aboleths that I want to share. Feel free to use this depiction of them in your campaigns if you wish.

Aboleth Godmind
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Domains: Evil (Fear), Law (Slavery), Water (Oceans), Knowledge (Memory)
Favored Weapon: Flail

Description: Not a deity in the traditional sense, the godmind represents the collective psychic will of the aboleth species manifesting itself as divine power that can be tapped into as though it were an actual god. An aboleth itself can deliberately choose to receive the godmind's spells, and does so with no significant effort. If the aboleth in question acts against the will of the collective, the godmind may rescind it's divine power from it. For other beings who wish to receive the godmind's power, the process is bizarre and traumatic. If an individual knows enough about the aboleth race and shows significant willingness to serve them, the aboleths may reach out and contact him or her through strange and horrific dreams. The person in question will feel the aboleth's influence spreading through his/her mind like a ghostly set of tendrils, and they may experience hallucinatory visions of cyclopean citadels at the ocean's floor, or incomprehensible images of the material plane at the time of it's creation. If they truly submit to the aboleth's power, they will begin receiving spells as though they were a cleric, inquisitor, or warpriest.

Aboleth Cults: When a creature becomes a divine spellcaster serving the godmind, he/she typically cultivates a group of like-minded followers to serve them and work towards assisting the aboleths in their unfathomable goals. Aboleth cultists are most common on island settlements, coastal cities, and amongst the crews of seaborne vessels. No matter where the cult is located, it tries to keep a low profile and build it's influence in secret, gathering more followers and placing members in positions of influence and power. Sometimes, an aboleth cult may openly proselytize, concealing it's alignment with magic and presenting the aboleths as a peaceful and advanced species wanting to impart their wisdom on the younger races. The motivations for joining such a cult vary: Many are admirers of the aboleths who look upon them with fear and awe, others believe that due to them being one of, if not the oldest sentient species in creation, ancient and exotic knowledge can be acquired by serving them. Still more serve them with the expectation that their loyalty will be richly rewarded, and then there are those who merely see their victory as being inevitable and wish to be on the side of their new rulers. In addition to serving as the fifth column of an aboleth invasion, the cults have also been known to operate as human traffickers, capturing either lone victims or sometimes entire settlements before meeting the aboleth masters face-to-face to trade them in as slaves. If someone is kidnapped by aboleth followers and not rescued in time, they can expect to have their bodies morphed into aquatic forms and dragged into the black, lightless depths of the oceans where they will most likely stay enslaved by the aboleths for the rest of their days. There is a general understanding that cultists acting as slavers will be spared the horror of the aboleth's enslavement themselves, but it's not known if this is a promise the aboleths truly intend to keep.

NOTE: To represent an aboleth tapping into the godmind's power, apply eight levels worth of spells from the cleric spell list to the aboleth without increasing it's hit dice, saves, base attack bonus or feats. The Aboleth also receives domain spells and powers from it's selected domains and subdomains (which are any of the above) as if it had taken cleric levels, and does not require a holy symbol as a focus to cast it's spells. For a non-aboleth creature, apply whole cleric levels as normal.


This if the card game home brew forum, not the rpg home brew. Good luck with your idea though.


I'll just delete this and post it somewhere else.

Sovereign Court

As I understand it, individual aboleths inherit the memories of their ancestors, and everyone they eat. But there's no collective mind involved.

That said, using the Inheritance as a source of clerical magic, similar to humans using Ancestor Worship as a divine source - that's a good idea.

On the other hand, I think the widespread lack of divine magic among aboleths gives them a certain charm as well. It gives them a peculiar vulnerability, as weird creatures scurrying and hiding from the "new light" of divine magic.

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