Guide to the Immortals

Mystara and found an extensive culture that could rival that
of the humans. Arachne Prime ordered her aranea to utilize
magic in order to colonise unexplored areas. This was how
the Aranean colonies in the Savage Coast, the Archipelago of
Thanegioth, and other parts of Mystara came to be. It was
Arachne Prime’s intention to create an empire of vast
dimensions, while Korotiku simply planned to free the
aranea from the abominable influence of their great mother.
Korotiku became a constant and important presence in the
aranea pantheon, especially in the colonies, while secretly
acting also among the phanatons of Aran, inducing them to
rebel. With the advent of the Great Rain of Fire and the
chaos that followed, the phanatons (who had been
reproducing so much that they outnumbered their masters
three to one) chose the occasion to revolt and began to fight
aranea and planar spiders everywhere they were
encountered. The kingdom of Aran decayed, and the colonies
had to provide for themselves without guidance from the
motherland. Arachne Prime’s efforts to halt the collapse of
her kingdom were futile, and Korotiku revealed his true
intentions around 2600 BC when a group of his aranea
followers were brought into the sanctuary of Arachne Prime
and assaulted it. The Immortal was not destroyed, but
simply deprived of most of her power, becoming a paltry
Initiate.
After this betrayal, Arachne Prime fled underground.
Isolated from the rest of her offspring, she became
paranoid, with a mortal dread of being destroyed. It
would take 2000 years for the survivors of Aran to find
Arachne Prime and convince her that the traitors had
been exterminated and that she could again covet a
position of power on Mystara. In the meantime, things
were changed. Thothia, Alphatia, and Thyatis were
awkward powers in the Isle of Dawn, and the contacts
with the former colony had been lost. It was around 450
AC that Arachne Prime finally decided to act by
extending her design out from the Thothian Plateau and
sent her daughter, Aketheti (a horrible being in a position
to change from planar spider into a human being) to
enter the pharaoh of the nearby Thothia. Very quickly
the Thothian kingdom forgot its faith in Rathanos (who
had saved it from destruction 800 years before). Thanks
to the influence of Aketheti and of the new convert
Pharaoh Ramenhotep X, an odd form of mysticism based
on the veneration of spiders and of the unfathomable
mysteries of the cosmos becomes popular in Thothia
through the publication of the Canon of the Square Web.
The descendents of Ramenhotep X were then all
controlled by Aketheti, who spent age after age
pretending to be daughters and nieces of herself and
reinforcing for the next five centuries the control of
Arachne Prime on Thothia, which remained imprisoned
in the web of the Spider of the Night. 11
Personality: Arachne Prime is an untrustworthy and
manipulative being who nevertheless has an incredible
fear of dying, due to the events that she saw fleeing from
her home plane. In the course of centuries she has tried to
expand her influence to reach the aranea of Herath,
distant descendents of her ancient servants, the planar
spiders that had fled with her to Mystara. Because of the
attention that Korotiku has for the aranea of Herath, and
due to the distance between the Isle of Dawn and the
Savage Coast, her plans have been slow. Because of her
various plots she has made a throng of powerful enemies
that comprises Korotiku (patron of the aranea and the
non evil planar spiders), Rathanos (original patron of
Thothia), Terra, and Zirchev (patrons of the phanatons
that she harassed so much).
Patron: Unknown [presumed Hel]
Allies: Alphaks in the Isle of Dawn and in Alphatia,
Iliric in Herath
Enemies: Korotiku, Rathanos, Terra, Zirchev
Classic D&D Stats
Followers’ Alignment: any; the clerics must be
Neutral or Chaotic
Favoured weapon: natural weapons (allowed all
bludgeoning weapons and nets)
Clerics’ skills and powers: +2 bonus to ST versus
Poison and Paralysis
D&D 3E Stats
Domains: Entropy, Law, Evil, Slavery
Favoured weapon: natural weapons (bite or claw/fist)
Source: M5, DotE
ARIK
(Arik of the One Hundred Eyes)
Lord of Madness and Nightmares, Patron of
Massacres, Patron of Beholders
Level, Alignment, Sphere: 18 th (Celestial), CE,
Entropy
Symbol: An open eye with a red pupil
Portfolio: Madness, chaos, nightmares, massacres,
beholders
Worshipped in: Known World (Cynidicea), Davania,
and in many beholder communities
Appearance: Unknown.
History: Arik is a mysterious immortal whose past is
lost in the mists of time, and looking for information on
him is difficult, some would say dangerous, even for
Immortals. What little is known of him is that he was
imprisoned in an faraway pocket dimension long ago by
other Immortals, who expelled him from the Multiverse.
The reason for this extreme measure is unknown, but
there are rumours. Some say Arik was imprisoned because
he had gone too far in cooperating with the alien entities
known as Outer Beings (creatures whose powers and
11 Thothia remains under the nefarious and indolent influence of
the Spider of the Night until a group of heroic adventurers
arrived on the Isle of Dawn to conduct treaties between the
empires of Alphatia and Thyatis discovered the deceit and
23
drove off Aketheti, liberating Thothia according to the events
described in the adventure M5, Talons of Night (set between
1003 and 1004 AC).