Weekly Wonders - Eldritch Archetypes Volume XI - Archetypes of the Great Race of Yith

Archetypes Out Of Time

The eldritch, the strange, and the weird are often relegated to the domains of villains and NPCs in fantasy, with the good guys being the ones who stand in the way of the dark things that remain just beyond our perception, which we can never truly understand. But sometimes, it can be fun to take on the mantle of the otherworldly, and to embrace the alien terrors of the cosmos. Each installment of Weekly Wonders: Eldritch Archetypes contains five archetypes for eldritch characters—those that are weird, alien, and otherworldly, who don’t fit in with normal society—as well as a cleric domain devoted to a specific mythos entity or race.

For this book, we focus on the Great Race of Yith, or the Yithians, a species of strange and alien creatures that possess the power to cast their minds through time and space to inhabit the bodies of other creatures. Introduced in The Shadow Out of Time by H.P. Lovecraft, the original physical features of this race are unknown, but they are often depicted in the bodies of a host-race of conical aliens with long necks and crab-like claws. The Great Race is said to gather knowledge from the past and present, and to cast their minds about to different places and times, perhaps to influence the course of history. Whether or not they mention the Great Race directly, each archetype on this book builds upon the powers and themes of the great race, casting their minds into other bodies, and peering forward and backward in time. This book contains the following archetypes:

The seeker out of time, an investigator archetype that focuses on divination magic and can share experience others’ memories.

The channeler of the Great Race, a medium archetype who channels the minds of Yithians rather than traditional spirits.

The transcendent one, a monk archetype from an order devoted to combating the Yithians and their ilk, trained to defend against mental attacks and possessed of supernatural foresight.

The ally of Yith, a vigilante archetype whose vigilante identity is actually the mind of a Yithian that works in tandem with the vigilante to accomplish inscrutable ends.

The temporal master, a wizard archetype that can bend time to prepare exactly the spells he needs, consult his future self, and even cast his mind backwards or forwards through time.

A bonus cleric domain devoted to those who worship the Great Race.

Whether you're about to embark on a campaign of eldritch horror (such as the official Paizo adventure path dealing with strange and alien entities), or you just want an excuse to play a servant of the unknowable and uncaring cosmic entities of the Cthulhu mythos, this book has lots of tantalizing options to offer. Even GMs can get in on the fun, as several of the archetypes here are perfect for insane cultist NPCs as well, and can make for exciting and memorable encounters.