Dungeons and Dragons Lore : Atropus 

*HOW TO DESTROY ATROPUS* *STEP 1:* Travel back in time to the dawn War, and craft a demiplane in the form of a perfect Crystal sphere that is perfectly reflective on the inside. Then open a one-way gateway to the positive energy plane within it, and leave the demiplane collecting positive energy throughout the entirety of Toril's history. The interior of the sphere should essentially be a small star comprised entirely positive energy by the time Atropus appears. *STEP 2:* Create a magical artifact that links to this demiplane, and spread the story that it is linked to all mortal life on Toril. A conduit, through which a being like Atropus could strike at all life on the planet simultaneously. Pass this information on to the cultures of Toril, and to many of be more powerful celestial beings. The idea is to get this to become myth and Legend, a story that all of the cultures of Toril would hold in common from the dawn of time. Basically, it's Atropus bait. *STEP 3:* Deliver the artifact to Atropus somehow. Maybe this is a catastrophe that has already taken place earlier in the campaign, and you're now just learning the significance of that artifact. This would allow the players to discover the fascinating truth about an object as old as the world itself, and realize it's true purpose. *STEP 4:* After Atropus has devoured the artifact, and it has sunken into its interior. Maybe this is the result of a battle that the party lost at lower levels. Trigger the artifact, releasing its many Millennia of stored positive energy into the Atropus' core, vaporizing it from the inside. *STEP 5:* Realize that you just basically translated Chrono Trigger into Dungeons & Dragons.

Every wizard on the planet using a 9th level fireball.

The reason Atropus has not been destroyed is because it is invisible to the gods. It is specifically stated in the book "Elder Evils" that they all have the power of anathemic secrecy. The gods cannot see them. The gods cannot find them. They can only perceive the destruction they cause, and by then it is too late.

What if we're Atropus? The Earth was "killed" so the Forgotten Realms could be created. Imagine: The players land on Atropus, and they discover remnants of a civilization on the dead world. Destroyed concrete fortresses, large metallic airships, fossilized humanoids... and a culture built around a tabletop game, with figurines that resemble the likeness of the gods. _Existential Dread!_

My favourite take on Atropus, supported in his chapter on Elder Evils, is that he is the Prime Mover himself, the Creator of all who regretted giving life to the first gods (Ao, Shar, Selune?) because, by giving life, he had to sacrifice his own lifeforce as a necessary counterbalance. He seeks to engulf all life so he can undo his own sacrifice and either restore himself as the sole being in existence, or obliterate existence itself since he is tired and sickened of it. The Gods fear him enormously and dont speak of him, because he is the regretful and embittered creator of their creator. Like Chronos devouring their children. Albeit severely weakened, he cannot be undone because all came from him and not even the Gods know what would happen to Realmspace If Atropus ceased to be. There is no Hope other than temporarily defeat his Aspect and prepare for a long-term Future when, after devouring more and more planets, Atropus will have enough energy to create another aspect and return for a vengeance.

"Why is everything so dark? Why are there so many monsters?" "The people living there don't seem all that put out. Besides, you wanna be a hero or not?"

I sometimes wonder if there was a creative connection between Atropos and Pathfinder's Groteus. Also, my old players were incredibly clever when I threw Atropos at them. They called in ever favor, and hadn't been very kill-happy for a change and managed to leave all manner of magic users alive. They even had a lich at gunpoint by holding onto his last phylactery. They managed to get dozens of factions to work together on a project, arcane and divine (even somehow getting a minor demon lord to help) by crafting gems that when spread out would create a giant, temporary portal to the positive energy plane. They didn't even go into space. They just predicted where Atropos would crash, spread the gems out, and Atropos slam dunked himself right into the Positive Energy Plane, destroying himself. I still am not sure how to calculate XP for killing a moon.

How To Kill Atropus: Tell Demogorgon that he was talking shit about him.

"Why is the Dungeons and Dragons world so dark?" I prefer the phrase "a target-rich environment." :P

This is where Tarkin would really come in handy.

"What is preventing the gods from destroying Atropus for good?" Ed Greenwood.

A Bruce Willis Armageddon scenario, with a positive energy bomb made with the aid of the Wind Dukes. The bomb must be delivered to the deepest point possible, the mouth, and may require some additional digging. You also have a deadline of safe detonation before the rogue moon approach the danger zone of dealing heavy damage to the planet. If your players are ahead of schedule, then just have the Atropus notice their plans and move faster for suspense. Bonus points if you can have one or more of the characters stay behind to trigger the explosion due to the trigger malfunction, to protect the bomb since the Avatar of Atropus shows up to defeat them and force them detonate ahead of time, or even have the bomb require additional positive energy due to a miscalculation (presumably the soul energy of one or more 20th level characters).

"Atropals, almost common here" _Guess I'll die_

To destroy Atropus, you need something more powerful than it is. Basically the trope "Summon Bigger Fish". And there are a few entities in D&D that would be able to deal with the dead world permanently. But only three spring readily to mind: Ao, the Overgod of Toril. Io, the ninefold dragon which is all, and possibly Anubis, as he has evolved way beyond the limits of godhood and is now the guardian of dead gods. But yeah, you'd probably need to contact and convince an overgod of dealing with it. Which would be a whole campaign in itself.

Atropus sounds like the d&d version of the head of Unicron from Transformers. A devourer of worlds.

If one were to create a portal to the Positive Energy Plane or link a portal to another portal placed over one of the Star Portals on the inner surface of the crystal inner shell, it would potentially be like a massive beam of radiance to blast Atropus with, or at least force Atropus to retreat in pain ("It burns us, Precious!") .

Why is the Dungeons and Dragons world so dark? Because picking lilies every day gets really boring...

Ah I did forget to mention how we 'killed' Atropus. Which was a mix of the options you mention. Gate into the Positive Energy Realm; we had our three level 20 wizards do a ritual to open such a portal at the cost of their lives. While at the same time unleashed a powerful arcane bomb at the 'core' of Atropus... the bomb was escorted by the rest of our party and well... you can imagine how we all fared as we unleashed the Arcane Bomb at the very last stand of our strengths. TPK... but we saved the world and the gods took our shattered souls into their realms at Atropus turned into mirco space dust.

"Why is there so much evil and darkness in D&D?" Because in D&D you get to actually kick evil's butt and win. Real evil can't be defeated by polymorphing into a penguin, diving of a magic carpet and landing beak first in the face of a demon lord. But in D&D (at least at my table) that would - per rule of cool - do as many d6 falling damage as was dived - because I like creative fun and that's how my weird brain works. :P

I can imagine the gods being less help than you'd think against Atropus. They might not be willing to set aside their differences and agree on a plan of action, or spend all their time arguing about who's job it is to do what, or pointing fingers about who's fault it is the threat detected sooner, etc, etc. You know, _politics._

There's evil everywhere so adventurers always have something to do.

to those who say dnd is dark n horrible, then Warhammer 40k is your utter nightmare XD

One of the things that I like about the “Prime Mover” theory of Atropus’s origin, and how Atropus wants to become the prime mover again by reclaiming all the life it gave away to create the universe, is that it is ultimately futile. If Atropus succeeds, devours all life in the universe, and is resurrected as the prime mover, I think that the Mover would just recreate the universe again, starting the cycle. It’s like an anti-cosmic horror, the cosmic horror’s ultimate goal is about as futile as it is to defeat it.

The first thing I thought of when I heard of Atropus was Dead Space, especially the plot of Dead Space 3; I imagine a cult of Atropus creating Marker-like objects to draw Atropus to Toril, and as It gets closer, the Cultist transform into ravenous Undead that herald Atropus's arrival...

Currently writing a campaign where Atropus is approaching a planet, which caused a whole lot of problems

I just figured out how to deal with atropus: rapid-fire warlocks at it. when they take fall damage, they can use hellish rebuke and target the planet. normally this wouldn't work since toril isn't a creature, but atropus is.

Sounds like the Moon from Majora’s Mask got recreated by Warhammer 40k then thrown into D&D.

Atropus sounds like a gigantic rotting head and all the undead that inhabit it are like the organisms that gather on a corpse

Finaly a good allinged use for the Death Star.

On the flip side of the coin you got the living comet Ragnorra that drowns out planets with positive energy. Maybe that is why Atropus is kept around just in case they need to clean up her mess.

My current idea... battle to the core. Travel in a globe of invulnerability and Cast a 10th level reverse gravity at the epicentre. A 20th level wizard is actually scarier than atropus.

I seem to recall in the original Elder Evils, Atropus' backstory was that he was the original god/force/what have you that created the D&D multiverse, at the cost of his own life. The reason he's destroying worlds is because he figures that if he wipes out all life, there'll be no more faith to sustain the gods, starving them to death. And if the gods die, the multiverse dies, taking Atropus with it and giving him and end to his tormented existence.

5th Element is a D&D module!

For a while I was running a campaign where the players were trying to stop an evil necromancer from using a ritual to ascend to Demi-Godhood. From levels 1-10 they'd chase him around the world as he committed various mass murders to prime the pump, then at level 10 they would confront him in the middle of the ritual. Something would go wrong releasing the massive amount of negative energy that he had been holding, and it would attract Atropus. Unfortunately, it would also grab the attention of an Elder Evil that's kind of Atropus' opposite named Ragnorra. She's basically a positive energy cancer that travels the plane as a meteor. As they both moved closer and closer the world would begin to be covered in swirling vortexes of negative and positive energy, with living things becoming withered and rotten corpses one second, and the next exploding back into life and becoming grotesque blobs of flesh the next.

Hmm, if your party has permission from whoever is in charge of Mount Celestia, they can cast Gate, with one portal being on/above Atropus' surface and the other being in the sea of holy water that is around Mount Celestia. Rinse and repeat until your nightmare planet is clean.

I believe Atropus is the wandering mindless body of tharizdun operating off instinct.

Used Atropus in a campaign once. World basically got completely fucked. Was a fun time.

So you're saying that Atropus is a great vacation spot

Use a portal to lure the Tarrasque onto the surface of Atropus. Might help, might just end up in a zombie Tarrasque.

This monster is something that would be great for the end of a very high level campaign.

Atropus sounds like an undead version of Unicron...

Ego Prime would give him a tussle, but if I had to get rid of him, one word: GALACTUS.....

Don't go 'round tonight, It's bound to take your life, *There's a bad moon on the rise!*

I feel like this is some endgame spelljammer shit and I am so on board

When faced with a threat of this caliber, get elder evil on it. Undead god of destruction? Meet Pandorum. The god killer.

Reminds me of the junji Ito story “Hellstar Remina” very cool, and very grim.

I’m imagining something like a brethren moon from dead space.

Atropus "aka" HellStar Remina's long lost sibling.

Hook of a Homebrew campaign: doomsday is drawing near and Atropus is getting close to toril. Players must seek out and discover a new spell never cast before: true plane shift to plane shift an object the size of a planet. But the players have the ultimate choice of where to send it,, and ultimately who to Doom by doing so

To fight atropus id make the entirety of his body one massive dungeon where the party has to move through and annihilate certain guardian monsters, working down until they reach the center and battle an avatar of atropus.

The Gods imprisoned Tharizdun then they can surely deal with this. But on second thought, certainly some Gods would benefit from an undead Toril and thus cause interference, while imo Orcus would be elevated tipping the blood war and cosmic balance. I suspect the Nine Hells are about to lose a host of future souls needed to fuel their armies in the Blood War. An interesting twist (subverting expectations) could be a team effort with certain evil factions.

I read into dnd demon lore before most everything else. You know it’s bad when even literal demons from hell aren’t even the worst thing that could come to get you

Constellate. Just one. Millions of points of radiant damage per round.

Rewatched about several dozen times. Still never gets old.

I'm planning to run two campaigns in the future. My world purposefully does not have Gith. They are an unknown, never-before-seen creature. In the first campaign, they will arrive. Thousands of them. Millions. They come seeking land, seeking a safe haven, and they will take it by any means necessary. This campaign is a Witcher 3 Wild hunt-style "stop the invasion from another realm". The Gith will say nothing of why they need this land at first, only that they are fleeing something and without it their people will die. Whether the Gith are pushed back through their portals, brought to their knees, or a peaceful resolution is, eventually, found... the bloodshed causes a giant eye to turn, ever so slowly, in the direction of my world. (A peaceful resolution will allow the Gith to reveal the true horror behind their flight from their homeland... and the entity that now stalks them.) Campaign two takes place about a year after campaign 1. The world is still reeling from the war with the Gith when the first bodies begin to rise. It starts slowly, with the recently deceased, and a strange spec of red light in the sky, visible only at night time. A star, where no stars were before, perhaps? Then it slowly ramps up, until, about mid-campaign, that spec of light becomes visible during the daytime. Bodies aren't staying dead anymore, with about half of them rising again, feasting on the living. Until the end comes, and Atropus appears in the sky, the dark revelation dawning upon the people of this plane (and the Gith, if a peaceful resolution was reached), the horror stuck on their blood-covered faces as the tides of undead devour the world... unless the PCs can stop a planet, of course. I doubt I'll ever have enough of a turnout for one full campaign of this, much less two, but it's nice to dream.

Atropus doesn't sound like a good place to build your vacation home.

The problem I see with sending Atropus to the positive energy plane is that you are taking a huge gamble. The abyss was created from basically a shard of pure order being thrown into limbo. This is pretty much the same concept with one exception, the positive energy plane is so much more important to the continued existence of mortals and most gods. Best case scenario Atropus dies. But it could cause all manner of things. I mean it could cause an abyss type situation creating some sort of neutral energy plane which interferes with magic or creates new types of magic etc. Getting Atropus dead by involving any major plane, besides maybe the abyss, would most likely kill everyone anyway just slower then if they let Atropus do its thing. That being said love is supposed to conquer all. So a party can make a portal over to Atropus give it a big hug and watch as it flies away into the vast void finally free of its teenage angst.

"The instances of Evil Dead rising from profane places will become more & more frequent" Are there any things like say, chainsaws & sawn-off shotguns in D&D?

Time to invest in charisma and then ask it politely yet firmly to leave

So...to get rid of this, it’s time for a world-hopping Tarrasque hunt to Gate them there.

A stillborn god. Well, that is certainly horrible. I like the idea that it can literally only be destroyed by the Gods, and the only thing the players can do is to render it weakened enough for it to be wounded.

This is bassicaly Orcus wet dream.... summoning this near Toril!

Repeatedly hitting it with a sphere of annihilation?

I prefer the idea that Atropos isn’t meant to be defeated. It is the slow encroachment of death that all mortals know looms on the horizon. The adventurers are in the world to find meaning and commit acts of heroism in the face of inevitable doom.

Maybe atropus is a living Pyhlactery for itself Essentially becoming the universes largest demilich

Tell John Wick that Atrropus kills dogs.

Another way of harnessing a vast amount of planar magic in order to send it into the plane of positive energy and annihilate it would be to go to Sigil or another such powerful planar nexus and somehow negotiate with the powerful denizens there that guard the portals to the positive energy plane to open a massive portal in the path of Atropus. This may mean you have to try to negotiate with the Lady of Pain herself though...and good luck with that!

Take a page from the Blood War playbook and pit (Elder) evil vs. (Elder) evil; feed as many negative Energy protections and haste buffs as you can to Holashner, The Hunger Below (Lords of Madness), then teleport it into Atropus. Then ignite the Black Bile with a bombardment of Stonefire (Shining South) meteorites, Air spells, and Meteor swarms.

Atropus to me is just a boogeyman, doesn't actually exist. That's the way I see it. Because if it does exists, the world would just end the same every campaign. "You managed to convince the God of Justice that you are not guilty, as you are about to return to Toril, you notice: It's gone."

In my longest game Atropus was one of three supreme entities, the universe eater, it floats in from the negative energy plane and slowly erases the universe unlucky enough to receive it. Unfathomably powerful and completely ambivalent, if it was called into the world, campaign over, sorry guys you lost, the universe is dead. The final battle was actually against a Phane from the end of time that wanted to call Atropus into the world and begin the end of everything (thus ensuring it's own creation.)

Love that Wizards are brough back Atropus and a few of the other elder evils for 5e

Good in the world, any world, rises up to the level of evil that exists there. While evil is widespread, good is intensly concentrated in people. It has the power to overthrow the evil around it, if only someone will care to exercise it

We accidentally released it from a time paradox in spelljammer.

Well if orcus can probably walk freely as Atropus draws close, what about other demon lords? The devils? As prayers to the gods can no longer be heard, what about those to azmodeus and his devils? Could souls be sold to save the world? That would be an interesting twist

Am I the only one thinking of Hellstar Remina by Junji Ito here?

AJ Pickett your Lords of Ruin series once again serves up another helping of chaos, destruction, & horror. Thank you.

I can totally see a high level one-shot involving Atropus that plays out like the plot of Armageddon. Just sayin...

Just compact everyone into a stone and phase the stone into some random other multiverse in the far realm. Then corrupt one of the hyper powerful old ones there and manipulate it into placing the stone into the right spot so that when everyone leaves the stone you can just rebuild the material plane. - totally not an oberinth or anything

Would a primordial entity not simply be reborn eventually from whatever natural forces created it to begin with. I bet that old ass ocean guy would know hes probably seen it happen. Also that description of the apocalypse Reminds me of a dream I once had, there was this undead elderly mobster guy with bronzey green skin like he'd been embalmed and he had a really nice coat and there were these cultists that were killing people inorder to make a frankenstine's monster the size of a barn so me and this group of survivors kept getting dreams about this mountain of fleash that was supposed to bring about the end of the world or what was left of it but the thing just ended up being torn apart by its own weight and whole bunch of blood poured out. Thats a normal dream right? Everybody has that one?

My favorite explanation of Atropus is that is the Afterbirth of Creation.

I have an idea for a campaign featuring Atropus. In the final chapters, Chauntea, goddess of life, sacrifices herself to protect Toril from the undead schenanigans, and the players must deliver Selûne, goddess of light, to the core of Atropus, where she can destroy him. Even her sacrifice wouldn't be enough to kill him. Shar, utterly pissed at the death of both her daughter and kinda-maybe-sorta lover, appears, and, having taken Selûne and Chauntea's divine portfolios for herself, and with it some of their wisdom, surrenders her deific position to the players (after nearly killing them), and personally dragging Atropus off to hell.

Negative energy balances zealotry. Cats at midnight lack enough negative energy and chaos guides them. Order demands balances.

My best guess is that Atropus wasn't full destroyed because he is a primordial, living embodiment of the very concept of death and entropy, and that his death would likewise weaken the very concept of death in reality, and upsettingthebalance between fundamentalprinciples of nature. On the surface, having life supercede death sounds like it isn't that bad, but is actually pretty horrible, as creatures that would normally die of natural causes would endure beyond their natural life by several decades, centuries, or even millennium, while the natural life energies saturating everything would cause birthrates to skyrocket, shortening developmental stages of embryos and fetuses to a few weeks instead of months and exponentially increasing instances of multiple births, like triplets, quintuplets, and octuplets. As life proliferates explosively, available living space will be rapidly encroached upon, and conflict will arise, but with death having less of a hold on reality, organisms would take grievous injury after grievous injury and simply will themselves back to physical fitness as the life energies in their bodies healed them almost constantly. And on an equally terrifying note, with life superseding death, even the dead, should they have had sufficient power in life, would be able to simply will themselves back to life, and those nearing death would be filled with vitality, but having knocked on death's door once already, seek to save off death's cold embrace by any means necessary, turning to dark, profane magic and rituals en masse.

Four words: BUILD A DEATH STAR!!!

Epic quest: Beseech the Primodials (The seven lost gods or/and elemental lords) for help in sealing away Atropus for good. 5-7 stages of preparation involving retrieving lost artifacts, unearthing old places of elemental worship... something epic. Culminating in the adventuring party going to Atropus physically to confront the headless avatar. Not just a tank and spank but as the party fights the avatar they need to implant elemental resonating rods (granted as their boons from earlier stages) in the ground around the avatar. When defeated the elder evil will retreat physically, it is this action that backfires if the rods are in place shunting Atropus deep into the elemental chaos and binding him there. Inject as much intrigue as one wants. Perhaps the night serpent is working with the elder evil, maybe instead of devouring Atropus he sets his eyes on the Sun... as intended all along. This would be an entire campaign for epic level characters.

Make it collide with a star disguised as a fertile lush planet through illusion. A planetary scale Turn Undead. A time bomb to freeze time around the planet forever. Let the gods figure it out.

The only way to repel Atropus is to have all the beings of Toril stop fighting each other and start making love.

I'm gonna posit that the gods aren't actually powerful enough to deal with Atropus. Maybe they just delay it every once in a long while, sending it far away/back in time every eon. Maybe it defines a kalpic cycle?

I thought I should mention, I commissioned a setting agnostic version of Atropus on Dscryb! Look up the Dead Planetoid's Approach and On the Planet Born Dead if you want to see it!

Easy solution. Submit to the will Atropus. Pray to the Gods for oblivion. Rinse. Repeat.

Dungeons and Dragon worlds are pretty lite when you compare it to something like Thief World or Warhammer 40k. At least in D&D you can survive, there is that glimmer of hope.

Isn't Orcus pissed that this guy is around claiming mastery over entropy and undead?

Has anyone ever asked politely for Atropus to please go away?

Hmmm, well, first we are going to want to start a secretive new cult called the Unborn Order that worships the vestige of the Primus killed by Tenebrous - and who's primary tenets revolves around establishing order through sacrifice and the power of an unbroken will to reform itself. Then we are going to want to split the cult into two fronts: one that focuses on acquiring the necessary materials to build a super weapon and the second that recruits or abducts the high priests of various sun gods and also as many necromancers as we can get our hands on. Using the necromancers in a mass sacrifice we will pull the vestige of Primus into the super weapon to . . . prime it, and then using the vestige's unparalleled understanding of the multiverse's structure we perform a complex ritual that forces the abducted clerics to channel far more divine energy than should be possible to energize the weapon. Firing this newly completed super-weapon annihilates the surface of Atropus and burns away the strange being's personality (however much one could say it truly possessed). The smoldering core of the planetoid that's left is a perfectly glassed black sphere that slowly cracks open to the birth scream of a new god: Finalus the Last and the Unwelcomed. Now, at this point, we have definitely created something worse than Atropus, but it has such an unwavering fixation on killing Orcus and usurping Thanatos that it immediately leaves realmspace for the Abyss. This saves Toril, but also marks the reignition of the Blood War as the legions of the Nine Hells take advantage of Finalus' path of destruction and his obliterates everything standing between it and Orcus.

I love this intro!!! For me, evil and darkness is what I LOVE about D&D!!!

This one really reminds me that The Riftwar Saga (by Raymond E. Feist) started as a TTRPG world. This is The Enemy.

I wonder what would happen if a massive number of people called upon Mystra with some epic magic to open a portal or gateway to the positive energy plane.

What was that one elder evil, the 'meteorite" that's I think is nick-named the mother of monsters, it's a corrupted/warped positive energy font. What if you managed to smack that into Atropus? Would they cancel out? Or, you know, just "BOOM"?

i too would like to thank your pateron suppoters for this

I think WotC have been hinting at atropus in tomb of annihilation with black comet murals in the dungeon