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
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.
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.
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
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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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