In the desolate silence following Erebos’s mournful dominion, the ground trembles as the third general arises, a titanic force of destruction and creation. Known as Gaius Vortex, the World Forger, he rises from the carnage left in the wake of the first two generals, not with wings, but as a colossal sentinel, his lower half a swirling vortex that consumes and reshapes the land.
Gaius Vortex is the architect of apocalypse, an agent of change on a cataclysmic scale. Where Krovaxis wrought desolation and Erebos smothered hope, Gaius Vortex’s mandate is to dismantle the remnants of the old world and forge from its ruins a realm befitting the Ebon Overlord. His form, seemingly torn asunder, is a paradoxical union of annihilation and rebirth. The upper half of his body is a monument to the Overlord’s merciless vision, while the lower half is an abyss from which new horrors are born.
He commands the Legion of Genesis, an army that marches not to war but to the rhythm of an infernal drumbeat, echoing the cadence of a world being refashioned. His legionnaires are constructors and destroyers in equal measure, entities that dismantle civilizations with one hand while crafting grotesque monuments to the Overlord with the other.
The World Forger’s arrival is a cataclysm, a reshaping of the very earth upon which history has tread. With each step, Gaius Vortex erases the works of millennia, and in their stead, he raises twisted spires and fortresses that blaspheme the skies. His battles are a testament to his name, for each confrontation ends not with victory or defeat but with a world unrecognizably altered.
To speak the name of Gaius Vortex is to accept the end of an epoch and the dawn of a new, darker age. His presence is not just a harbinger of the Ebon Overlord’s rule but a promise that the world to come will be crafted in the image of the abyss, a place where only the strongest, most ruthless will thrive in the Overlord’s shadow.
And though his power seems insurmountable, the sagas whisper of the cycle of destruction and creation—a reminder that from the ruins of the old, seeds of a new beginning are sown, waiting for the time to break through the cracked earth and reach for the light once more.
Reckoning of Vhal’Dun
Vhal’Dun, the city encrusted within the unyielding Godspine Mountains, had long been whispered to be the sole seedbed of rebellion, a fortress defiant against the darkness that had consumed the land. Its survival through the ascents of the first two generals was not a mere stroke of fate but a testament to its formidable might and the indomitable spirit of its people.
Krovaxis, the Bloodscourge, descended upon Vhal’Dun with his legion, his presence heralding a storm of blood and fire. The city, ringed with fortifications and protected by ancient spells, stood undaunted. Krovaxis’s siege was relentless, his strategies ingenious, but the city’s arcane bulwarks held firm and the spirits of its defenders remained unshaken. The land around Vhal’Dun withered into desolation, yet the city itself emerged unscathed, a lone island in a sea of ruin.
Then came Erebos, the Sorrowbringer, whose silent legion of spectres sought to drown the city’s hope beneath waves of despair. But the people of Vhal’Dun were resolute, their hearts fortified against sorrow by the memories of a time before darkness, their wills anchored by the city’s enduring legacy. Erebos’s ethereal forces faded at the gates, unable to extinguish the flame of defiance that burned within the city’s soul.
It was upon these twin failures that Gaius Vortex, the World Forger, gazed down upon Vhal’Dun with cold resolve. Here stood the city that had withstood the Bloodscourge’s rage and the Sorrowbringer’s malaise. Gaius Vortex, larger and more formidable than his predecessors, did not come bearing the promise of battle. His form, colossal and torn, loomed over the city, a silent challenge to its impervious legend.
With a mere gesture, Gaius Vortex commanded the earth to heave, and the mountains themselves to bend. It was not the walls he sought to breach, but the very foundations of Vhal’Dun to unmake. The Godspine Mountains, which had cradled the city for eons, now responded to a new master. The earth beneath Vhal’Dun groaned as Gaius Vortex’s will coursed through it, reshaping the unshapeable, forging a new world from the old.
The city’s enchanted protections, so stalwart against assaults of steel and specter, faltered against the inexorable might of the World Forger. The mountains unraveled, not with violence but with the grim certainty of fate. Vhal’Dun, the unconquerable, was not conquered—it was remade. Its spires that once kissed the skies now twisted into grotesque forms, its walls that held firm for ages now flowed like rivers at the behest of the World Forger’s silent command.
This was the Reckoning of Vhal’Dun. Not a tale of its fall to ruin, but of its rebirth into the image of the Overlord’s dark dream. It was the undeniable proof of Gaius Vortex’s might, where even the most steadfast bastion of the old world was but clay in his hands, sculpted into a monument to the new epoch—the Epoch of Ashes.
Character Sheet
Name: Gaius Vortex, the World Forger
Race: Primordial Titan (Homebrew)
Class: World Forger (Homebrew)
Level: 25
Ability Scores:
- Strength: 34 (+12)
- Dexterity: 14 (+2)
- Constitution: 36 (+13)
- Intelligence: 26 (+8)
- Wisdom: 20 (+5)
- Charisma: 24 (+7)
Hit Points: 725 (50d20 + 325)
Armor Class: 25 (worldforged armor)
Speed: 30 ft., burrow 60 ft.
Saving Throws:
- Strength: +22
- Dexterity: +12
- Constitution: +23
- Intelligence: +18
- Wisdom: +15
- Charisma: +17
Skills:
- Intimidation: +27
- Arcana: +18
- Nature: +18
Attacks:
- Mountain Maker Fist: +26 to hit, reach 20 ft., one target. Hit: 6d12 + 12 bludgeoning damage.
- Abyssal Crush: +26 to hit, reach 20 ft., area of effect. Hit: 8d10 + 12 bludgeoning damage plus 8d10 necrotic damage.
Spells: Gaius Vortex has access to the following spells (spell save DC 26, +18 to hit with spell attacks):
- Cantrips (at will): Mending (as world shaping), Shocking Grasp
- 1st level (5 slots): Earth Tremor, Shield
- 2nd level (5 slots): Erupting Earth, Shatter
- 3rd level (5 slots): Meld into Stone, Wall of Sand
- 4th level (4 slots): Stone Shape, Stoneskin
- 5th level (4 slots): Wall of Stone, Geas
- 6th level (3 slots): Move Earth, Flesh to Stone
- 7th level (3 slots): Reverse Gravity, Seismic Event (homebrew)
- 8th level (2 slots): Earthquake, Gaius’s World Forge (homebrew)
- 9th level (1 slot): Worldform (homebrew, similar to True Polymorph but for terrain)
Equipment:
- Worldforged Armor: Gaius Vortex’s skin is like armor forged from the core of the earth, granting AC 25 and immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks.
Special Abilities:
- Legendary Resistance (5/Day): If Gaius Vortex fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead.
- Magic Resistance: Gaius Vortex has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
- World Shaper: Gaius Vortex can alter the terrain around him at will, creating barriers, chasms, and other geographical features.
- Tectonic Presence: Any creature that starts its turn within 120 feet of Gaius Vortex must succeed on a DC 26 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone by a minor tremor.
- Eternal Forge: Once per long rest, Gaius Vortex can reshape up to one square mile of terrain as if using the Worldform spell.
Languages: Primordial, Abyssal, Common, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge Rating: 30 (155,000 XP)
Gaius Vortex, the World Forger, stands as the mightiest of the generals before the Ebon Overlord himself. With the power to unmake and reshape the very earth, Gaius is not a mere harbinger of doom but the crafter of a new world—a world of darkness and despair, perfectly sculpted to the Overlord’s design. His appearance heralds the end of an era and the painful birth of another, under the rule of his dark master.
