Adapting Two Githyanki-like races for the Troll Lord Games Victorious & Red Room Bella Apoque rpg- The Aether-Born & The Khaos-Bane

 In classic fantasy, Githyanki are astral-sailing, sword-wielding, psionic zealots who escaped mind-flayer enslavement. To make them fit the Victorian aesthetic of Victorious, we can reimagine them as The Aether-Born : an ancient, aristocratic race of planar travelers who view Earth’s British Empire as a crude, amateurish imitation of their own cosmic dominion. This blog entry picks right up from 

A Hidden Refuge Town of monsters called Halloween Town in London for the Victorious rpg by Troll Lord Games & The Red Room's Belle Ãpoque Red Rpg with New Monsters, Artifacts, NPC's, And PC Races

Here is a detailed breakdown of this race, tailored for the Victorious system.

The Aether-Born 

"They arrived in vessels of brass and obsidian, navigating not the seas, but the very fabric of the Aether. They look down upon our steam engines as a child’s toy, and upon our souls as raw material."

— Extract from the journals of the Royal Society of Metaphysics, 1888

Lore & Concept

Centuries ago, the Aether-Born were enslaved by horrific, subterranean entities from the Deep Umbra (your Mind Flayer stand-ins). After a bloody, cross-dimensional rebellion, they liberated themselves and retreated into the Aether—the space between dimensions.

Now, they are ruthless planar privateers, knights, and scholars. They have recently taken an interest in Victorian Earth, viewing the smog-choked, industrializing world with a mixture of disgust and predatory curiosity. They look strikingly human but possess elongated limbs, hollow-boned grace, jaundiced or alabaster skin, and eyes that gleam like polished obsidian.

Cultural & Visual Aesthetic

• Victorian Integration: Instead of standard fantasy armor, they wear tailored, high-collar frock coats made of shifting, extra-planar fabrics, reinforced with plates of Aether-brass.

• Weapons: They eschew firearms, viewing them as clumsy. Instead, they wield Aether-Blades—rapiers, sabers, or greatswords forged from solidified thought and silver, capable of cutting a man's soul just as easily as his flesh.

• The Astral Estate: They don't live on Earth; they reside in massive, floating gothic estates anchored inside Aetherial rifts, occasionally dropping anchor over London, Paris, or New York while remaining invisible to the uninitiated.

Character Creation & Attribute Modifiers

In Victorious, characters are defined by their Attributes and Supernatural Powers. An Aether-Born character typically fits the Magical/Supernatural or Alien archetype.

Attribute	Modifier	Description
Strength	+0	Wiry and lean, relying on leverage and telekinesis.
Dexterity	+1	Possess uncanny, fluid, and predatory reflexes.
Constitution	+0	Vulnerable to Earth's heavy industrial pollution.
Intelligence	+1	Sharp, calculating minds with centuries of planar history.
Wisdom	-1	Arrogant, aloof, and severely lacking in human empathy.
Charisma	+0	Command presence, but their alien nature unnerves humans.

Supernatural Powers & Disadvantages

To build an Aether-Born in Victorious, players should allocate their Power Points into the following suite of abilities:

Core Powers

• Aetherial Attunement (Astral Travel / Teleportation): They can step into the Aether to bypass physical obstacles. In game terms, this functions as a short-range Teleportation power or the ability to become Insubstantial for brief periods.

• Psionic Sovereignty (Telekinesis / Telepathy): The hallmarks of their race. They can move objects with their minds (Telekinesis) and speak directly into the minds of others, bypassing language barriers.

• The Silver Discipline (Superhuman Combat - Dexterity): When wielding a melee weapon, they can channel their mental focus, effectively granting them ranks in Super-Aglity or combat-specific bonuses when using swords.

Distinct Disadvantages

• Arrogance of the Noblesse: They must take a psychological complication regarding their superiority complex. They rarely accept advice from "indigenouos Earthlings" and will never willingly submit to human law.

• Miasma Vulnerability: The coal smoke, sulfur, and industrial smog of Victorian Earth is toxic to their pristine lungs. Prolonged exposure to heavy smog without a specialized rebreather (often stylized as an ornate, brass filigree mask) inflicts penalties to their Constitution.

How to Use Them in Your Campaign

1. The Anti-Hero Ally: A rogue Aether-Born knight has tracked a fleeing cosmic horror to the slums of Whitechapel and reluctantly teams up with the players' Vanguard to hunt it down.

2. The Industrial Rival: An Aether-Born noble house begins secretly funding a human industrialist, providing them with impossible "steampunk" technology that is actually psionically-charged Aether-tech, aiming to destabilize the British Empire.

3. The Cosmic Raid: The sky over London turns a bruised purple as an Aether- Born dreadnought slips through the veil, demanding the return of a stolen artifact currently sitting in the British Museum.

The Khaos-Bane: Masters of Volatile Ascension

"The Aetherborne seek the perfect order of the Aether. We have found a truer power: the beautiful, absolute potential of utter collapse."

— High-Channeler Vask, of the Khaos-Bane

 

Lore & Concept

While the Aetherborne (the race you described) retreated to the Aetherial rifts, their splinter-cousins, the Khaos-Bane, turned inward to a much darker cosmic frequency: the Deep Umbra, the primal wellspring of primordial chaos. They view the Aetherborne's quest for sterile perfection as a dead end. Instead, the Khaos-Bane embrace the volatile, entropic forces that fuel reality. They did not just escape their enslavers; they consumed their power, developing a technology that is as likely to destroy them as to elevate them.

The Khaos-Bane are cross-dimensional raiders, zealots of entropic philosophy, and engineers of "living decay." They are a reflection of what happens when Githyanki discipline is twisted by a lust for absolute, unstable power.

Cultural & Visual Aesthetic (The Chaositech Influence)

• Aesthetic of Rust and Resonance: Where Aetherborne tech is polished brass and obsidian, Khaos-Bane technology—Chaositech—is asymmetric, jagged, and perpetually active. Imagine copper, verdigris, and black iron, held together by internal energies rather than bolts. It crackles, smokes, and frequently sparks with erratic green or multi-colored plasma.

• The Mark of Entropy: Their cities and bases are built from the salvaged husks of conquered civilizations, re-engineered into vast, chaotic, impossible geometries that defy gravitational stability. They are anchored inside volatile dimensional tears.

• Chaositech Prosthetics: The Khaos-Bane view the mortal body as a flawed vessel that must be "perfected" through controlled collapse. Senior members have limbs or even half their bodies replaced with asymmetric, powerful, but unstable Chaositech prosthetics that can shift form or discharge catastrophic energy.

Physiology & Attributes (Vs. Aetherborne)

The Khaos-Bane share Githyanki features but are visibly scarred by their practices.

Feature	Aetherborne	Khaos-vane
Appearance	Tall, graceful, smooth features, jaundiced/alabaster.	Tall, lean, heavily scarred, frequently mutated. Skin can appear like crackled rock or obsidian.
Skin Tone	Monochromatic.	Mottled, frequently with faint, shifting energy patterns.
Eyes	Obsidian, gleam internally.	Burn with erratic energy (usually green, red, or purple).
Physical	Graceful, fluid.	Wiry, powerful, often with asymmetric limbs (due to implants).
Constitution	Sensitive to pollution.	Highly resistant to all forms of environmental damage and decay.

Attribute Modifiers (Khaos-Bane):

• Strength +1 (Due to erratic cellular reinforcement or prosthetics).

• Constitution +1 (They are survivors of primal entropy).

• Charisma -1 (Their presence is deeply unsettling, a psychic hum of collapse).

• Wisdom -1 (Driven by chaotic impulses, lacking empathy).

Chaositech Powers & Abilities

Their abilities are not psionic, but rather a perfect symbiosis with their volatile machinery.

• Entropy Surge (Aesthetic Power): Instead of psionics, they manipulate raw entropy. This functions as a "destructive force" power, allowing them to rapidly corrode objects, create localized fields of instability, or discharge erratic bursts of chaotic energy.

• Chaotic Shunt (Dimensional Ability): This is their counterpart to Aetherial teleportation. Instead of slipping through the Aether, they violently tear a temporary hole in reality and force themselves through the primal chaos. It is faster and longer-ranged but dangerous and often leaves residual instability at the exit point.

• The Living Prosthetic (Superhuman Durability): They can channel their connection to entropy into their Chaositech, effectively creating a temporary Super-Constitution or Invulnerability effect against specific types of harm.

• Entropic Combat (Melee Weapon): They utilize Khaos-Forged Weapons (asymmetric chainblades, maces, or saws) that are constantly vibrating with entropic energy. On contact, these weapons can disintegrate matter.

Equipment and Mounts

• Aesthetic of Rust and Glass: Their equipment is built for rugged survival and power.

• Chaositech Rebreathers: Like the Aetherborne, they use rebreathers, but these are cruder, leaking orange steam and crackling with green energy, filtering the air through small, stable pieces of raw entropy-glass.

• Entropic Dreadnoughts: Their ships are monstrous, asymmetric, jagged structures, held together by visible bolts and massive internal engines that hum with contained chaotic power. They look perpetually in a state of self-destruction.

• Khaos-Striders (Mounts): Instead of elegant beasts, they ride large, multi-legged arachnid constructs made of salvaged iron and crackling entropy cores. These constructs can scale vertical surfaces and discharge energy fields.

The Relationship with the Aetherborne

The Khaos-vane and Aetherborne are engaged in an eternal, asymmetric war.

• Mutual Hatred: Each views the other as the ultimate abomination. The Aetherborne see the Khaos-vane as agents of utter destruction and a betrayal of their shared ancestry. The Khaos-vane see the Aetherborne as cowardly, stagnant fools trying to build a cage for the universe.

• Unstable Parity: They have near-parity in raw power. The Aetherborne possess superior strategy, psionic foresight, and control. The Khaos-vane possess superior durability, destructive force, and sheer, unpredictable resilience.

• Current Earth Involvement: The Aetherborne's interest in Victorian Earth is precise, focused, and potentially predatory. The Khaos-vane's involvement is purely entropic. They have also arrived, but their goal is to identify Earth's critical stability points and collapse them, either through engineered disasters or by manipulating human desire for dangerous technological acceleration.

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Integrating Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) with the legendary, chaotic, and maximum-gonzo DNA of Dave Hargrave’s Arduin Grimoires - The Deodanth & The Phraint

 In ACKS II, classes are built using a point-allocation system distributed across four categories: Fighting, Thieving, Divine, and Arcane. Demi-human races require purchasing a "Race slot" that modifies these allocations and establishes baseline racial traits. This blog post entry picks right up from Integrating Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) with the legendary, chaotic, and maximum-gonzo DNA of Dave Hargrave's Arduin Grimoires

Deodanth concept art by Greg Espinosa for the Arduin Monster Cards,1977

Let’s build the Deodanth—Arduin's iconic, unsettling, reality-warping, predatory time-cats. In Arduin lore, they are slender, charcoal-skinned humanoid felines with silver hair, feline eyes, and a cruel, melancholic disposition. They exist slightly out of sync with time, making them lethal, agile combatants and superb ambushers.

Here is how to construct the Deodanth True-Stalker using the explicit mathematics and structural logic of the ACKS II Class Construction system.

The Deodanth Custom Race Template

To establish the Deodanth as a viable race in ACKS II, we must first build their racial modifier package. This package costs 1 Value Slot out of the character's baseline configuration.

Racial Traits & Modifiers

• Attribute Adjustments: +1 Dexterity, -1 Charisma (their cold, sadistic nature makes them deeply unsettling to normal mortals).

• Keen Senses: Deodanths possess sharp feline senses. They gain a +1 bonus to avoid surprise and can see in pitch darkness (Infravision 60').

• Predatory Agility: They gain a +1 bonus to Initiative rolls and a +1 bonus to Evasion.

• Time-Slip (Racial Ability): Once per day, a Deodanth can step slightly out of the time stream. Mechanically, this grants them a +2 bonus to Armor Class for 1 round, or allows them to re-roll a single missed melee attack roll.

• Vulnerability to Silver: Deodanths are creatures of shifting reality. Weapons forged of pure silver deal an additional +2 damage to them.

The Class Profile: Deodanth True-Stalker

The True-Stalker blends lethal, light-armor combat prowess with reality-bending ambush techniques. They are the ultimate scouts, assassins, and vanguard skirmishers.

Category Allocations (4 Value Slots Total)

• Race: 1 Slot (Deodanth Race Template)

• Fighting: 2 Slots (Fighter-style progression, excellent combat scaling)

• Thieving: 1 Slot (Basic stealth, climbing, and assassination capabilities)

• Magic (Arcane/Divine): 0 Slots

Class Progression Basics

• Hit Dice: d6 per level (derived from Fighting 2 mixed with Thieving/Race constraints).

• Armor Allowance: Narrow. Limited to leather, padded, or studded leather armor to maintain their supernatural agility. They may use bucklers but not medium or heavy shields.

• Weapon Allowance: Broad. Any one-handed melee weapon (favoring curved blades and claws) and shortbows.

• Fighting Value: Expands at the Fighter rate (+1 to hit per level).

Level 1 Class Features & Stats

1. Thieving Skills (Thieving 1 Allocation)

Because of their predatory feline nature, all True-Stalkers possess baseline thief capabilities. They perform the following skills as a Thief of equal level:

• Move Silently

• Hide in Shadows

• Climb Walls

2. Combat Maneuvers & Agility

• Backstab: When attacking a target from surprise or complete concealment, the True-Stalker gains a +4 bonus to hit and deals x2 damage.

• Skirmishing: If wearing leather armor or lighter, the True-Stalker may move at full combat speed while maintaining an active defense, granting them a permanent +1 bonus to Armor Class.

3. Saving Throws

The True-Stalker utilizes the Thief saving throw matrix, reflecting their reliance on quick reflexes and supernatural luck over brute physical endurance.

True-Stalker Level Progression Table

Level	Experience Points	Hit Dice	Title
1	0	1d6	Prowler
2	2,400	2d6	Shadow-Stalker
3	4,800	3d6	Night-Blade
4	9,600	4d6	Blood-Seeker
5	20,000	5d6	Reality-Cutter
6	40,000	6d6	Time-Slayer
7	80,000	7d6	Deodanth True-Stalker

XP Progression Note: The baseline cost for a Fighting 2 / Thieving 1 human is 2,000 XP for Level 2. Adding the custom Deodanth racial modifier slot applies a 1.2x multiplier to the XP requirements, resulting in the 2,400 XP baseline shown above.

Campaign Integration: Domain Play (Levels 9+)

When a Deodanth True-Stalker reaches Level 9, they do not build traditional feudal castles. Instead, they establish a Stalker-Nexus—a hidden, shadowed enclave typically located in deep twilight forests, ancient ruins, or planar intersections.

• They attract a dynamic force of $2d6 \times 10$ lower-level Deodanths and chaotic human outcasts seeking to learn the secrets of time-slip combat.

• Their domain income is generated primarily through specialized hunting fees, high-end assassination contracts, and the harvesting of rare planar substances rather than standard peasant agriculture.

To translate Dave Hargrave’s iconic Phraint—the lethal, hyper-logical, metallic-blue insectoid warriors of Arduin—into ACKS II, we need to mathematically capture two distinct physical traits: their naturally armored chitin and their legendary, explosive leaping ability.

In ACKS II, we build this by dedicating a high allocation to the Custom Race template, combining it with elite physical martial scaling.

The Phraint Custom Race Template

Because a Phraint’s biological advantages (natural plate-like armor and massive leaping legs) are so profound, the Phraint Race Template requires a Value Allocation of 2 Slots.

Racial Traits & Modifiers

• Attribute Adjustments: +2 Strength, -2 Charisma (their alien, hive-like, hyper-logical mindset is profoundly unsettling to mammalian races).

• Chitinous Exoskeleton (Natural Defense): A Phraint’s metallic-blue carapace provides an innate Base AC of 4 (equivalent to Leather Armor + Shield, or Scale Armor) even when completely unarmored. They cannot wear standard mammalian armor; however, specialized smiths can bolt custom-fitted plate reinforces directly onto their carapace at triple the standard cost, increasing their base AC to a maximum of 7.

• Cold-Blooded Vulnerability: Phraints suffer a -2 penalty to saving throws against cold-based attacks or environmental freezing, and take an additional +1 point of damage per die from cold sources.

• Leaping Strike (Racial Feature): A Phraint's hind legs are built like massive hydraulic springs.

  • Out of Combat: They can leap up to 30 feet horizontally or 15 feet vertically from a standing start.

  • In Combat: A Phraint can execute a Leaping Charge across a distance of up to 30 feet, bypassing frontline defenders if there is overhead clearance. If this charge hits, it deals double damage with any piercing weapon (such as their signature silver spears). This maneuver can be performed once every 3 rounds.

The Class Profile: Phraint Vanguard

The Phraint Vanguard is a cold, calculating shock trooper. They do not use magic, nor do they care for the subtle arts of thievery. They exist entirely to execute perfect tactical combat vectors.

Category Allocations (4 Value Slots Total)

• Race: 2 Slots (Phraint Custom Template)

• Fighting: 2 Slots (Elite fighter progression, maximum combat scaling)

• Thieving: 0 Slots

• Magic: 0 Slots

Class Progression Basics

• Hit Dice: d8 per level (derived from Fighting 2 allocation).

• Armor Allowance: None (rely entirely on their Chitinous Exoskeleton and shields). They may use any shield, often favoring large, light wicker or chitin bucklers.

• Weapon Allowance: Unrestricted, but they have a cultural preference for spears, javelins, and two-handed greatswords.

• Fighting Value: Expands at the maximum Fighter rate (+1 to hit per level).

Level 1 Class Features & Stats

1. Martial Supremacy

• Combat Reflexes: Phraints gain a +1 bonus to Initiative rolls due to their multi-faceted compound eyes and decentralized nervous system.

• Weapon Specialization (Spears): When wielding a spear or polearm, the Phraint gains a +1 bonus to damage rolls and a +1 bonus to Cleave rolls.

• Cleave Progress: Like standard ACKS II Fighters, when a Phraint reduces an enemy to 0 HP, they may make an immediate extra attack against an adjacent foe (up to a maximum of 1 Cleave attack per level per round).

2. Saving Throws

Phraints utilize the Fighter saving throw matrix, reflecting their immense physical resilience against poison, paralysis, and physical trauma.

Phraint Vanguard Level Progression Table

Level	Experience Points	Hit Dice	Title
1	0	1d8	Drone-Warrior
2	3,000	2d8	Sentry
3	6,000	3d8	Leaper-Blade
4	12,000	4d8	Hive-Guard
5	24,000	5d8	Myrmidon
6	50,000	6d8	Chitin-Lord
7	100,000	7d8	Phraint Vanguard

XP Progression Note: A standard Fighting 2 human requires 2,000 XP to reach Level 2. Because the Phraint race requires a 2-Slot allocation for its high-powered exoskeleton and jumping mechanics, it applies a heavy 1.5x multiplier to the XP curve, resulting in a baseline of 3,000 XP for Level 2.

Campaign Integration: The Hive-Castellum (Levels 9+)

Upon reaching Level 9, a Phraint Vanguard can establish a Hive-Castellum rather than a traditional human barony.

• Demographics: Instead of attracting random human mercenaries, the Vanguard draws a dedicated cohort of $1d4 \times 10$ lower-level Phraint warriors and $3d6 \times 10$ asexual Phraint worker-drones from their ancestral hives.

• Architecture: Hive-Castellums are vertically oriented, subterranean or cliff-side networks. They feature no stairs—only massive vertical shafts designed to be navigated entirely by the Phraints' natural 15-foot vertical leaping ability, making them completely un-navigable to mammalian siege forces.

• Domain Economy: Phraint domains are managed with cold, communistic efficiency. They ignore standard human morale laws; a Phraint peasant workforce never undergoes unrest or rebellion, but their economic output is rigidly capped by the hive's strict, non-expansionist logistical protocols.