Jab’s Builds! (Beaker! Sam Eagle! Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Mesopotamian & Egyptian Gods! Seth! Gaea!)

Post by Jabroniville »

L-Space wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2017 8:18 pm
Jabroniville wrote: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:10 am And that's it for the God Builds! I think I've run out of Pantheons, characters worth statting (I decided to stat up Balor at the last minute, for example), and more! This was a MUCH longer project than I'd anticipated, largely because "start researching every major religion on Earth" is apparently a bigger project than I'd initially imagined :).

Seriously, I started these on September 28th!! That's five freakin' weeks! No wonder I kept putting this off :). It's been fun and VERY informative, with some very helpful people coming in to add their bits (thanks to everyone, especially Kenma & Spam!). And now I can finally re-do the "A" list and other names. My "trapped on the original Atomic Think Tank" list is now MUCH smaller, as well! That's a load off my mind!
Between the fascinating material (I love learning about different mythologies) and the amount of feedback/participation from everyone, this is probably one of my favorite build series that you've done Jab. Great job all around.
Thanks, man!! This set really was a blast to do, and I never got bored, constantly having to pore over Wikipedia to find information on the most obscure gods.
Jabroniville
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The Eternals

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE ETERNALS:

Now here's a group I was always dreading- I'd statted the majority of the Marvel Universe, but something always kept me back from statting up Jack Kirby's final big addition to comics. Part of it was that I'd never grown up reading about The Eternals- in fact, the only comics I own featuring Ikaris & Thena (major characters) is in The Incredible Hercules, which is a book from like EIGHT YEARS AGO. I own one book featuring Makkari (as a side character in Quasar), one with Gilgamesh (The Avengers fighting The U-Foes), and one arc with Ajak (The God Squad versus The Skrull Gods). In fact, the only Eternals characters with whom I was at ALL familiar was Sersi, and even then it was only because I got into comics when she was an Avenger! And even THEN I didn't know who the hell she was or how to pronounce her name (I always said it like "SIR'S-eye")- when Fantasma said "Calm yourself, Eternal!", I thought she was just using an odd phrase at the end of her sentence.

So you can imagine why I was a bit hesitant to stat up a group where everyone has TONS OF POWER with this limited amount of first-hand knowledge. SECOND of all, the very idea of the group always bothered me, for reasons I'll get into later with their origins. THIRDLY, they were entirely much too powerful- the weird crap Sersi & Starfox do in Avengers stories puts some of the Magic Heroes out there to shame in terms of ass-pulling stuff to save the day.

But I eventually decided that was enough hemming and hawing- I couldn't just always stat up the characters I LIKE- it was time to finally lay out the entire group of these butts once and for all! And thus, in September 2014 (SEVEN YEARS after I started statting up comic book characters in M&M!), I finally decided to lay out builds for all of The Eternals.

The 1970s:
-Jack Kirby's run at DC had ended in 1970- his New Gods failed to set the world on fire in terms of sales, and he was now considered old-timey and actively washed-up by the generation of comics fans who'd grown up on his work- his stuff now looked dated compared to what comics had turned in to, and Kirby's own lack of writing ability had hampered things as well. And so, Kirby's first act when he returned to Marvel (he'd quit over a lack of credit and Marvel holding back funds while profiting off of his creations... something that every comic company would do a hell of a lot MORE of) was to basically use the same theme of "Space Gods" with a new saga.

The Eternals was meant to be a stand-alone book outside of normal Marvel Continuity- this is easily understood when you get the whole story of humans seeing these God-like beings with names like "Zuras" and "Makkari" and shifting them to "Zeus" and "Mercury" when coming up with their own mythologies. Kirby was effectively describing the origins of human mythos in Europe with these guys, which isn't a bad idea. BU-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-T by this point Kirby & Marvel had already established that Zeus, Mercury (Hermes) and other Gods were ACTUALLY LIVING BEINGS in the mainstream Marvel Continuity, which makes the existence of The Eternals redundant and overly-complicated! This could have been easily-avoided by keeping the story out-of-continuity, but Marvel just HAD TO add them in once they liked where the story was going, and so they stuck Nick Fury into things in issue #16.

Soon, it was established that Eternals had taken Greek & Roman-like names as part of a treaty, and that Eternals had long since been part of our Earth's history- a few other races were Retconned into being long-lost Eternal Tribes, and eventually a grander cosmology was created, featuring the idea that The Celestials seed living worlds with the potential for developing Eternals (Super-Powered Gods), Deviants (Ugly Mutated Freaks) and sometimes Mutants. Kirby added elements from the work of other sci-fi authors, using the whole "Ancient Astronauts" concept of the world (adding in stuff like Nazca Lines being a spaceport or ancient cultures getting high technology from these "Gods"). This in itself is actually pretty cool, however clumsy the Greek link became, so in effect, the series had a positive influence on Marvel as a whole, despite the fact that low sales resulted in its early cancellation (and 12-issue Mini-Series would come out in the '80s, but Jim Shooter would drop the writer after eight, and have Walt Simonson re-write Peter B. Gillis' work in the last four). But still, there are issues.

Neil Gaiman would bring them back for a Mini-Series in recent times, having them return to Earth with no memory of their past lives (probably to avoid fans having to deal with elaborate continuity issues), and it was pretty well-received (apparently this Gaiman dude can write). Another ongoing was attempted, but low sales got it cancelled quickly- and so we once again have a large group of super-powered beings who just don't matter.

Eternal History:
-So the Celestials- Cosmic Space Gods- visited Earth 5 million years ago and perform genetic experiments on proto-humans, creating two distinct races: The long-lived Eternals and the gross-looking Deviants- things that had been performed on other races (The Skrull race is in fact comprised of the surviving Deviant population, which had wiped out the baseline and all but one Skrullian Eternal- Klyb'n, their chief deity). The Eternals and Deviants would soon go to war, with The Eternals protecting nascent humanity. There was a civil war between Eternal factions as well, leading to Kronos leading the good guys against his warlike brother Uranos, who would be exiled from Earth and settle on Uranus, building a new colony. An offshoot of Uranos' group tried to stage another attack, but were attacked by a passing Kree ship and settled on Saturn's moon Titan, forming ANOTHER colony, and thus giving the Kree an idea to experiment on the nearby humans, creating The Inhumans- this already seems like excessive complications and weak Retconning to explain various things.

On Earth, Kronos would destroy himself accidentally while performing experiments (he would eventually become a Cosmic Being- the embodiment of time), but the explosion would give all the Eternals the ability to channel Cosmic Energy. The race formed the first Uni-Mind, a combination of all their psyches, and allowed Kronos' son Zuras to take charge- his brother A'lars would leave for Titan to avoid setting off another Civil War, and discovered a sole survivor of ANOTHER Civil War, Sui-San, whom he married and repopulated Titan. These Titanian Eternals, combining the powerful genes of A'lars with Sui-San's more regular ones, produced some lower-powered Eternals. A'lars would eventually change his name to Mentor, and father two children- Eros and Thanos.

The Eternals, now led by Zuras, build Olympia near the Olympians' home dimension, creating some confusion with nearby humans, who mistake one group for the other quite often. An agreement was made between all these Gods, whereby Eternals would impersonate Olympians to their followers. The Celestials would return to Earth 18,000 years ago, and sink the continents of Mu & Atlantis after the Deviants attacked them. Celestials would reappear a few more times to investigate their experiments. A human scientist made contact with the Uranian Eternals, and his son would become the first Marvel Boy in the 1950s- these Eternals would later be killed by Deathurge in a Quasar storyline. The Earth Eternals would split between Olympia & Polaria, and would sometimes be rivals.

The Eternals finally revealed themselves to humanity in the modern era, being forced to when The Celestials arrived once again, judging Earth. The Celestials easily fought back the assault of the Uni-Mind and the Asgardian Destroyer, the attack killing Zuras. His spirit left his daughter Thena in charge, while most of the Eternals left Earth in a Uni-Mind after the Celestials judged Earth favourably (thanks to the intervention of Thor and Gaea, the Earth Goddess, who had shown the Celestials a group of worthy humans, known as The Young Gods). Eternals like Eros (calling himself Starfox), Gilgamesh and Sersi would join The Avengers, while Thanos would threaten the entire universe numerous times. Eternals Makkari, Ajak & Ikaris would also deal with various super-heroes.

Eternal Physiology:
-Eternals are ludicrously powerful- each one has access to a staggering number of powers, usually in different proportion to each other. Some Eternals can focus nearly-entirely on Strength (Gilgamesh), others Speed (Makkari), and others Transmutation (Sersi).

In short, they have:
* Immunity to Environmental Stuff (they can breathe underwater, don't age, and are immune to disease, poisons, pressure, cold and heat)
* Super-Strength
* Durability
* Immortality (they can regenerate from basically anything)
* Cosmic Blasts
* Flight
* Telekinesis
* Reading/Controlling Minds
* Illusions
* Teleportation (rarely-used, as they find it uncomfortable)
* Force Fields
* Can form the Uni-Mind, a collective being of all the psionic energy of The Eternals.

The Problems:
-So herein lie the problems with the race and their concept:

* Too Powerful:
Eternals are INCREDIBLY powerful, and capable of nearly any action, making them too capable of wiping out nearly any foe. In particular, their war with The Deviants seems RIDICULOUSLY one-sided and goofy, as The Eternals are smart, beautiful and highly-powerful, whereas the Deviants are ugly and dumb. This basically makes it look like a giant bully-job- it's like if MENSA teamed up with the UFC to beat up a group of mentally-retarded, crippled people.

In my personal favourite instance of "What the **** is THAT?", during Operation: Galactic Storm, an Avengers squad is doomed- their ship is set to explode in outer-space, killing the entire group. Another squad comes across them, finding lifeless bodies floating in space. BUT WAIT- it turns out that Starfox just happens to remember a game the Eternals played as children, whereby they'd put themselves in suspended animation, and have another kid change them back! And so Starfox realizes that Sersi has just put her squad into suspended animation, and he just casually pops them back, saving the day! Hooray, right? But reading this, I was like "HUH? They have TWO PEOPLE who can solve basically every problem? HOW DOES CRIME STILL EXIST?!?"

Sersi on The Avengers was always trouble- she could basically do everything, instantly Transmute anyone around her, and was ALSO super-strong and durable! She was basically Zatanna without the limitations or vulnerability!

* They Look Stupid:
Jack Kirby had some great visual ideas in the 1960s, but after a point, he just got WAY too obsessed with through giant circles and lightning-bolt lines all over everything, resulting in entire squads of these overly-detailed doofuses running around. Ikaris looks okay, but Thena is rather plain (what's with the giant body-stocking?), Makkari is overly-complex and some of the others background guys are exactly what people joke about when they make cracks at Kirby's design theories. They're not as bad as some of the New Gods (I can't think of anybody who matches Orion's ridiculous Tiny Space Tricycle), but as a whole, they look silly.

* Too Confusing:
Look at that history I wrote up above. Look at how many Retcons got involved- they retroactively made them the progenitors of TWO Space Races in our own galaxy, latching them onto the origins of Thanos, Starfox and the '50s Marvel Boy. Then they had to explain away the snafu of "The basis for Greek Mythology" existing in the same universe as THE ACTUAL GREEK MYTHOLOGY, leaving us with Thena & Athena, Ikaris & Icarus, Zuras & Zeus, and Makkari & Mercury. And the GIANT swack of history these guys have means that you either explain it all every time one of them shows up, or you leave the audience utterly confused (as I often was).

* A Few Too Many Guys:
Okay, so only a couple really matter anymore- Ajak, Ikaris (usually The Hero), Gilgamesh (a former Avenger), Sersi (ditto), Thena (the current leader), Makkari and a couple random background guys. But there's still an enormous group still around, and it makes things complicated. If Earth is at risk, the whole heroic community comes out to help, right? Well then WHY DON'T THE ETERNALS? Why are THEY sitting on their asses all the time? Then you see random instances of one or two Eternals helping out in a story- where are the others? You don't think they'd call for help now and then? It's a bit iffy.

* Very Vague Usage of Powers:
This one is frustrating to me as a builder of guys in RPGs. I just CAN NOT FIGURE OUT how powerful any of these guys are supposed to be! I look at someone like Zuras, who's probably gonna be powerful because he's the boss, and think he fits at PL 11 or 12. But then some random bio says that he FIGHTS ZEUS at one point! All of the other "named" characters are supposed to be tough, but every description of them interacting with other, established characters features losses to Marvel guys. BUT, said Marvel guys are types like Thor, who are REALLY POWERFUL. The easiest ones to go on are Sersi, Starfox & Gilgamesh, because they were all Avengers, and generally were mid-tier Powerhouses, with Gilgy being Thor Lite.

ANYWAYS, let's get to it-

The Roster:
Earth's Eternals:
Kronos- First leader, now Cosmic Being of Time.
Zuras- Former leader.
Thena- Current leader. Hottie with low standards.
Ikaris- Generally the "Main Character" or Hero of the stories.
Makkari- 1940s Superhero Retcon. Quasar ally.
Ajak- Celestial Ally, Incan helper.
Gilgamesh, The Forgotten One- Solitary hero.
Sersi- The "Circe" of Greek Myth. Avenger and hedonist.
The Interloper- Hermit hero.
Druig- Commie asshole.

Titanian Eternals:
Mentor- Genius and... mentor.
Starfox- Avenger and love-bug. Potential rapist.
Thanos- Looks like Super-Skrull had sex with a California Raisin. Cosmic menace.

The Deviants:
Warlord Kro- Leader. Not that bad a guy. Loves Thena.
Karkas- Giant Deviant guy.
Ghaur- Lemurian High Priest. Part of the Summer Annual Event Atlantis Attacks.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Dec 02, 2022 2:05 am, edited 2 times in total.
Jabroniville
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Eternal Template

Post by Jabroniville »

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STANDARD ETERNAL
Created By:
Jack Kirby
First Appearance: The Eternals #1 (July 1976)
Role: Elite Race of Perfection
Group Affiliations: The Eternals
PL 7 (155)
STRENGTH
7 STAMINA 8 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills: 
Expertise (History) 3 (+6)
Perception 2 (+5)
Technology 1 (+4)

Advantages:
Diehard, Great Endurance, Languages 2 (A Few), Jack-of-All-Trades, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Eternal Physiology"
Immunity 7 (Disease, Poison, Aging, Drowning, Pressure, Cold, Heat) [7]
Immortality 6 (Flaws: Must Maintain Mental Control of Their Molecules- Can Be Dispersed Too Far) [6]
Regeneration 8 (Feats: Regrow Limbs) [9]
Flight 6 (120 mph) [12]

"Eternal Powers"
"Transmutation" Transform (Anything to Anything Else) 4 (20) -- [25]
  • AE: Cosmic Blast 8 (Feats: Split) (17)
  • AE: "Telekinesis" Move Object 7 (14)
  • AE: Mind-Reading 4 (8)
  • AE: "Unpleasant Teleportation" Teleportation 8 (Flaws: Distracting) (8)
  • AE: Force Field 0 (Extras: Affects Others 8) (8)
"Transmute Others" Affliction 2 (Fort; Entranced/Disabled/Transformed) (Extras: Ranged, Continuous +3) [10]

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Cosmic Blast +6 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Transmutation +6 (+2 Ranged Affliction, DC 12)
Transmute +6 (+2 Ranged Affliction, DC 12)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +8, Fortitude +8, Will +4

Complications: 
Responsibility (Olympia)
Enemy (The Deviants)

Total: Abilities: 70 / Skills: 6--3 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 69 / Defenses: 4 (155)

-This is a build that represents your common, everyday, circle-wearing Eternal. And yes, the BASELINE ETERNAL is really a PL 7, ONE-HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE POINT being.

The Various Background Eternals:

Left Earth With The Uni-Mind:
DOMO- PL 7 (168): INT 8, Technology 6 (+14) [13]
-The "Head Technologist" in charge of monitoring all of Olympia's advanced systems.
VALKIN- PL 8 (166): ST 8, FIGHTING 8, AWA 4, PRE 4, Leadership [11]
-The leader of The Polar Eternals who'd left Olympia, and father of the evil Druig. Led the Eternals into space as The Uni-Mind (after a brief leadership issue because most Eternals wanted him, rather than Thena, to lead them).
ZARIN- PL 7 (159): Vehicles 8 (+10) [4]
-Valkin's Pilot.
SIGMAR- PL 7 (168): INT 8, Technology 6 (+14) [13]
-Genius inventor with an elderly appearance.

Stayed on Earth:
THE DELPHAN BROTHERS- PL 8 (160): FIGHTING 8, Improved Critical (Unarmed) [5]
-Boxing brothers always eager for a fight. They tried to force Sersi back to Olympia, and she briefly turned them into armadillos as punishment.
KINGO SUNEN- PL 10 (176): FIGHTING 10, Expertise (Samurai) 6 (+9), Expertise (Acting) 4 (+6), Expertise (Film Production) 4 (+7), Improved Critical (Sword), "Sword" Strength-Damage +2 (Penetrating 8) [21]
-A master swordsman and samurai who is also an actor in modern times.
SPRITE- PL 10 (199): Deception 10 (+13), Transmutation at 11 ranks, AE: Illusion (Vision & Hearing) 10 [44]
-A mischievous young-looking male Eternal who pranked mortals, and the inspiration for Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream and Peter Pan. Is responsible for the hiding of The Eternals in Gaiman's updated book (as punishment for their constantly treating him like a child), and killed by Zuras for it.
PIXIE- PL 8 (195): "Transmute Others" Affliction 10 (Fort; Entranced/Disabled/Transformed) (Extras: Ranged, Continuous +3) [40]
-A trickster who liked to turn people to stone (her "pixie dust"). A member of The First Line, from Marvel's Lost Generation of super-heroes.
PHASTOS- PL 7 (178): INT 8, Technology 6 (+14), "Hammer of Phastos" Move Object 10 (Flaws: Limited to Machines) [23]
-Similar to Hephaestos, he builds most of the Eternals' devices after Sigmar left Earth.
KHORYPHOS- PL 7 (182): PRE 4, Expertise (Music) 10 (+14), Mind Control 6 (Feats: Subtle, Insidious) (Flaws: Limited to While Playing Music) [27]
-Mistaken for Orpheus & Horus, a musician who fell in love with Ydrisis (a Deviant woman), and use his mandolin to subtley control the thoughts of others.
DONALD & DEBORAH RITTER/TZABAOTH/DARK ANGEL- PL 7 (161): ST 8, FIGHTING 8 [6]
-The children of Thena & Warlord Kro, birthed during the Vietnam War. Thena implanted the embryos in an infertile human woman, and only later revealed their origins. Could combine and turn into a being called Tzabaoth, then later turned into Dark Angel. Oddly, in each story, the twins were meant to have been transforming for the "first time"- meaning that the second writer (on Heroes For Hire) DIDN'T REALIZE THE STORY HAD ALREADY BEEN DONE. The twins appear to have no powers, but their combined forms are Standard Eternals.

Others:
MASTER ELO- PL 7 (155): A Himalaya-dwelling guy who showed Makkari how to channel his powers into increased speed.
AGINAR- PL 8 (164): FIGHTHING 8, Expertise (Military) 10 (+13) [9]
-Doesn't like the Olympian Eternals. Military leader of the Polar ones.
ARLOK- PL 7 (155): Not explained.
TITANIS- PL 7 (155): A gladiator.
ASTRON- PL 7 (155): A follower of Uranus- killed by Deathurge when he shattered the dome protecting them.
VIRAKO- PL 7 (155): Ikaris' father, who was mistaken for Quetzalcoatl when doing missionary work to "lesser cultures".
CYBELE- PL 7 (155): Thena's mother and Zuras' wife, but lives as a hermit in Colorado, only helping her people out rarely. Often gets mistaken for The Earth Mother of various cultures (like Gaea or Rhea).
EL VAMPIRO- PL 7 (157): Deception 4 (+7) [2]
-A Pro Wrestler who pretends to be a vampire-type guy (oddly, there IS an El Vampiro Luchadore, though he's actually Canadian).
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun May 01, 2022 2:13 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Davies
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Seth! Gaea! The Demogorge! Shinto Gods!)

Post by Davies »

Jabroniville wrote: Fri Nov 10, 2017 12:27 am VIRAKO- PL 7 (155): Ikaris' father, who was mistaken for Quetzalcoatl when doing missionary work to "lesser cultures".
Yeah, unfortunately, this concept inherited a good chunk of the not all that subtle racism of the Von Danikenism that spawned it. I'm fairly sure that Kirby didn't intend things that way, but ... <shrugs>
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Seth! Gaea! The Demogorge! Shinto Gods!)

Post by Ken »

Isn't there a Devian named Ransak, who was outcast because he looks like an Eternal?
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Seth! Gaea! The Demogorge! Shinto Gods!)

Post by RUSCHE »

Ken wrote: Fri Nov 10, 2017 12:46 am Isn't there a Devian named Ransak, who was outcast because he looks like an Eternal?
Yes, he fought as a gladiator for the Deviants .
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Seth! Gaea! The Demogorge! Shinto Gods!)

Post by MacynSnow »

2 things jab:i actually like how your writing the Eternals up & will probably use it myself for The Sky People from the Ultraverse and have you already done the First-line builds already? i have a wierd sense of deja view with Pixie's name being listed..... :?:
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Titanian Eternals

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image

TITANIAN ETERNAL
Created By:
Jim Starlin & Mike Friedrich
First Appearance: Iron Man #55 (Feb. 1973)
Role: Elite Race of Perfection
Group Affiliations: The Eternals
PL 7 (139)
STRENGTH
6 STAMINA 7 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills: 
Expertise (History) 3 (+6)
Perception 2 (+5)
Technology 1 (+4)

Advantages:
Diehard, Great Endurance, Jack-of-All-Trades, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Eternal Physiology"
Immunity 7 (Disease, Poison, Aging, Drowning, Pressure, Cold, Heat) [7]
Immortality 6 (Flaws: Must Maintain Mental Control of Their Molecules- Can Be Dispersed Too Far) [6]
Regeneration 5 (Feats: Regrow Limbs) [6]
Flight 5 (60 mph) [10]

"Eternal Powers"
"Transmutation" Transform (Anything to Anything Else) 4 (20) -- [25]
  • AE: Cosmic Blast 6 (Feats: Split) (13)
  • AE: "Telekinesis" Move Object 6 (12)
  • AE: Mind-Reading 2 (4)
  • AE: "Unpleasant Teleportation" Teleportation 8 (Flaws: Distracting) (8)
  • AE: Force Field 0 (Extras: Affects Others 6) (6)
"Transmute Others" Affliction 2 (Fort; Entranced/Disabled/Transformed) (Extras: Ranged, Continuous +3) [10]

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Cosmic Blast +6 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Transmutation +6 (+2 Ranged Affliction, DC 12)
Transmute +6 (+2 Ranged Affliction, DC 12)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +7, Fortitude +7, Will +4

Complications: 
Responsibility (Olympia)
Enemy (The Deviants)

Total: Abilities: 62 / Skills: 6--3 / Advantages: 7 / Powers: 64 / Defenses: 3 (139)

-In one of the more funny concepts out there, Jim Starlin had this great idea for a villain, but had no real place for the space baddie known as Thanos... so he threw him into his Iron Man book, despite being a very odd fit. I mean... Tony Stark, brawling with Thanos and meeting up with Drax the Destroyer? Very odd. These guys were formed BEFORE Kirby's Eternals were even on the scene, but were retroactively added to them for some reason. They're basically an offshoot of Eternals, created when Uranos lost a civil war and was outcast to a planet that'd later bear his name. They soon crashed on Saturn's moon of Titan when the Kree came calling, and all died (in a civil war incited by The Dragon of the Moon) except Sui-San, who later married the empowered Eternal A'lars. The two formed a race of lesser Eternals, lacking the raw power of Earth's thanks to Sui-San's weaker genes. They were still highly-successful and ingenious, building a perfect utopia... until A'lars' son Thanos returned to his home, slaughtering thousands (including his mother, Sui-San) and leaving only one-hundred alive.

-As a weaker offshoot, the Titanian Eternals lose points all-around, but still make PL 7 thanks to their Defenses. None of them quite hit the level of Earth's elite Eternals like Ikaris, Thena or Makkari thanks to their genetic deficiences, however. The only two exceptions? Eros and Thanos. Uranos was likely more powerful as well, but died on Titan when his people engaged in the civil war.

-The Uranian Eternals are less-powerful, and debuted in Marvel Boy #1, a 1950 comic written by Stan Lee, featuring them as a utopian society of aliens living on Uranus, who hosted Robert Grayson, turning him into Marvel Boy. Natural disasters wiped them out, but there is evidence that they requested to be killed, at the hands of Deathurge.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun May 01, 2022 2:13 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Seth! Gaea! The Demogorge! Shinto Gods!)

Post by Jabroniville »

MacynSnow wrote: Fri Nov 10, 2017 1:01 am 2 things jab:i actually like how your writing the Eternals up & will probably use it myself for The Sky People from the Ultraverse and have you already done the First-line builds already? i have a wierd sense of deja view with Pixie's name being listed..... :?:
I sorta left notes about them once. Not actual builds or anything. They're too hard to stat up without having read that book.
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Re: Jab's Builds! (Seth! Gaea! The Demogorge! Shinto Gods!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Past comments about the Eternals, circa August 2014:
Ares wrote:The Eternals are definitely one of the most overpowered groups in comics. I mean, if you have Ikaris, Sersi, Makkari, Thena and Hero/Gilgamesh as a team, you've got roughly the same amount of power as most Justice League or Avengers rosters, but with a roster half the size of said groups. It's one reason I left them out of my MEGAVERSE setting, along with the Celestials. With the Eternals, I've already got more interesting lost civilizations that aren't so broken power wise. With the Celestials, well, they're basically a big group of cosmic types that never really do anything. Why have them if there are more interesting cosmics out there?
Woodclaw wrote:I agree with the general sentiment that including the Eternals within the mainstream MU was probably one of the worst mistakes ever. Granted some might argue that the New Gods in the DCU were equally bad, but I have to disagree on this. The New Gods have their own little corner of the galaxy to dwell into -- except for Scott and Barda -- making them potentially harder to reach. The Eternal are on Earth (or close proximity if one consider the Titanians), which means that -- even if they're few -- their influence should be felt somwhow. Granted, many Eternals seem to downplay their own abilities (Sersi hardly ever use her super-strength and her mental powers come an go at the plot conveniency) but still they're a race of telepatic, super-strong immortals WITHOUT any exploitable weakness.
The DC Martians share some similar power-creeping problems (in fact I dig what they did with Young Justice and JLU, retconning many of Martian Manhunter's powers into a clever use of shapshifting), but having a ludicrously easy to exploit weakeness they unbalancing factor is somehow countered.

Plus we have another little bit of problem: the Inhumans. I know that they're a lot less powers (except for Black Bolt), but I really think that they're just the same concept done slightly different.
BatgirlIII wrote:DC's Martians also have another big limited factor: they're all dead. Ma'alefa'ak, D'kay, and J'onn are the only living Green Martians (post-Crisis) and the first two are bad guys. We all know bad guys don't count, they have to be supremely powerful in order to be a threat... And we all know they loose eventually!

Saturnians and White Martians are almost as powerful as Green Martians, but only ever come to Earth as bad guys (Jemm, Hyperclan) or the rookie heroine, Miss Martian.

The Eternals, on the other hand, live across Earth-616 in a pair of nation-states with a population about that of a small city. Which causes a huge narrative problem every time the planet is threatened... I can almost buy some sort of Prime Directive where they don't intervene in a threat that will only destroy Humanity (Onslaught, Secret Invasion, etc.). But what about all the times the planet itself was about to be cracked in half? As the Tick explained when dealing with his Galactus-analog: "You can't destroy the Earth! That's where I keep a all my stuff!"
Horsenhero wrote:I find myself forced to agree with everyone else as far as the Eternals narrative goes. Even if you explain away the noteworthy power gap between the terran eternals and the titanian eternals (I mean come on, Eros could barely hang with Captain Mar-vel, being relegated to the position of sidekick), it's hard to explain away why they wouldn't have gotten involved in some of the big events. Prime directive type orders aside, Skrulls are Deviants...or at least descended from them, which should bring a response from the Eternals regardless and all the shapeshifting in the world wouldn't save them from the Eternals once they were revealed.

Super-Inventor Phastos would just cobble up something to negate their whatever and 90% of the empowered Skrulls wouldn't last 10 seconds vs a pissed off Eternal. The lack of involvement is nearly inexplicable...unless of course they get sucked into some sort of limbo dimension whenever something important happens, kind of like how the JLA used to always be off-world whenever some earth shattering threat popped up and the Titans had to defeat it.

Plus, the Eternal narrative didn't add any cool villains to the MU the way the 4th World did for DC. I mean Thanos doesn't count, he was already in the MU. They retconned him into an Eternal. In the final analysis, the Eternals should've been left in their own little world that could be quietly ignored or they should kill 'em off except for Sersi, Ikaris, Thena, Makkari and Ajak, making them uber rare and giving them a "last survivors of Krypton" sort of vibe.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Ikaris

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

IKARIS (aka Ike Harris)
Created By:
Jack Kirby
First Appearance: The Eternals #1 (July 1976)
Role: The Hero
Group Affiliations: The Eternals
PL 12 (238)
STRENGTH
10 STAMINA 12 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 5 AWARENESS 4 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Deception 4 (+8)
Expertise (History) 6 (+11)
Expertise (Soldier) 2 (+7)
Insight 3 (+7)
Investigation 1 (+5)
Perception 4 (+8)
Perusasion 2 (+6)
Ranged Combat (Blasts) 2 (+10)
Technology 2 (+7)
Vehicles 2 (+6)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Diehard, Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Blasts) 2, Improved Initiative, Languages 3 (Many), Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Eternal Physiology"
Immunity 7 (Disease, Poison, Aging, Drowning, Pressure, Cold, Heat) [7]
Immortality 6 (Flaws: Must Maintain Mental Control of Their Molecules- Can Be Dispersed Too Far) [6]
Regeneration 8 (Feats: Regrow Limbs) [9]
Flight 8 (500 mph) [16]

"Eternal Powers"
Cosmic Blast 14 (Feats: Split, Variable- Force, Heat, Extended Range) (Extras: Penetrating 6) (37) -- [43]
  • AE: "Telekinesis" Move Object 7 (14)
  • AE: Mind-Reading 4 (8)
  • AE: Illusion 5 (Visual & Hearing) (15)
  • AE: "Unpleasant Teleportation" Teleportation 8 (Flaws: Distracting) (8)
  • AE: Force Field 0 (Extras: Affects Others 8, Impervious 8) (16)
  • AE: "Transmutation" Transform (Anything to Anything Else) 6 (30)
"Transmute Others" Affliction 2 (Fort; Entranced/Disabled/Transformed) (Extras: Ranged, Continuous +3) [10]

Offense:
Unarmed +12 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Cosmic Blast +10 (+14 Ranged Damage, DC 29)
Transmute +8 (+2 Ranged Affliction, DC 12)
Illusion -- (+5, DC 15)
Initiative +8

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +12, Fortitude +12, Will +8

Complications:
Responsibility (Olympia)
Enemy (The Deviants)
Rivalry (Thena)- The two share an intense dislike for each other, which is problematic, since both are in the running for being Prime Eternal.
Power Loss (Blasts)- Ikaris will deplete his energy after enough time using his Blasts, but will rapidly recover. I don't even know why they bother to mention this as a "weakness", since this means he is STILL higher in Stamina than other 95% of other characters.

Total: Abilities: 108 / Skills: 28--14 / Advantages: 14 / Powers: 91 / Defenses: 11 (238)

-Ikaris is as close as it gets to being "The Hero" of Jack Kirby's Eternals run, and has one of the more acceptable costumes, being distinctive and "iconic" while also not looking stupid or overly-detailed (like... well, most of the others). He named himself after his late son Icarus, who died in the same sorta way the mythical one did, and he takes center stage in many of the big fights. Despite being seemingly-important, he hasn't gotten involved in many other heroes' books (three other Eternals joined The Avengers; he never did), and he comes across as bland as hell. His entire life story is 100% uninteresting, and involves little dynamism and no twists- reading his Wikipedia bio is like "Ikaris stands by while others do stuff" like 100 times. Kirby REALLY needed a "voice" like Stan Lee's on his characters, as most of them turn out to be this kind of dull character.

-Ikaris has the feel of a PL 11 to me- I've never really SEEN him do anything, but he IS one of the main Eternal leaders over the years, and has taken on Apocalypse solo (he lost, but survived). He's a "4" out of a potential 5 for his Cosmic Blasts (called "Disintegration Beams", but they're just Blasts), which means he must be pretty powerful.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun May 01, 2022 2:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
Yojimbo
Posts: 666
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 8:31 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Gaea! The Demogorge! Shinto Gods! The Eternals!)

Post by Yojimbo »

I'll be that guy: I always kind of liked the Eternals.

Although, more for what they brought to the Marvel Universe rather than anything inherent in the Eternals themselves. We got Celestials, Deviants, and a whole swag-ful of other cosmic nonsense. The Eternals are pretty redundant given all the pantheons of actual gods bopping around the universe, but the fact that so many of them are non-entities means they're about as important to the goings-on of day to day life in the Marvel Universe as, say, the Mongolian Pantheon. Nothing against the gods of the steppe, but the same criticism for why the Eternals don't show up for Crisis level events can be leveled against all those gods Jab just statted up. Don't gods exist to help out humanity? And yet they never do.

At least we got Sersi and Karkas and Maelstrom out of this goofy gang of immortal weirdos.
brothersale
Posts: 92
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 6:49 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Gaea! The Demogorge! Shinto Gods! The Eternals!)

Post by brothersale »

Yojimbo wrote: Fri Nov 10, 2017 3:27 am I'll be that guy: I always kind of liked the Eternals.

Although, more for what they brought to the Marvel Universe rather than anything inherent in the Eternals themselves. We got Celestials, Deviants, and a whole swag-ful of other cosmic nonsense. The Eternals are pretty redundant given all the pantheons of actual gods bopping around the universe, but the fact that so many of them are non-entities means they're about as important to the goings-on of day to day life in the Marvel Universe as, say, the Mongolian Pantheon. Nothing against the gods of the steppe, but the same criticism for why the Eternals don't show up for Crisis level events can be leveled against all those gods Jab just statted up. Don't gods exist to help out humanity? And yet they never do.
Ah, but those gods and their homes would not be destroyed if earth was (there are several god characters floating around in the marvel universe that indicate this, Hoggoth, for example), where as the Eternals are pretty much on earth. This means that events like Secret Invasion, Dark Reign and Secret Empire should effect them as those events are trying to control or destroy all the supers on the planet (heck in Secret Invasion, the only reason they were involved is due to a God pantheon making them). My personal preferance would be for marvel to acknowledge their existance, then pull the plug on them by killing off those remaining earth-based hero ones (they have already done so for most of the Titan Eternals in one of the Thanos story arcs) in some final last stand.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Re: Jab's Builds! (Gaea! The Demogorge! Shinto Gods! The Eternals!)

Post by Jabroniville »

I wouldn't have minded the Eternals so much if they'd mostly died out in a prior era (which would give them some tragedy and pathos), leaving only a handful left. Entire CITIES of them is nuts, unless you decide that most of them are simply PL 5-6 types. The PL 7s I've statted up being a baseline makes them enough to have a handful of civilians be a threat to real supervillains.
Jabroniville
Posts: 24689
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm

Zuras

Post by Jabroniville »

Image
Image
Image

ZURAS
Created By:
Jack Kirby
First Appearance: The Eternals #1 (July 1976)
Role: The Hero
Group Affiliations: The Eternals
PL 14 (290)
STRENGTH
10 STAMINA 12 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 5 AWARENESS 4 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Deception 4 (+8)
Expertise (History) 8 (+13)
Expertise (Soldier) 2 (+7)
Insight 4 (+8)
Investigation 2 (+6)
Perception 4 (+8)
Persuasion 4 (+8)
Ranged Combat (Blasts) 4 (+12)
Technology 2 (+7)
Vehicles 2 (+6)

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Benefit 4 (Ruler of The Eternals), Diehard, Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Blasts) 2, Languages 3 (Many), Leadership, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Eternal Physiology"
Immunity 7 (Disease, Poison, Aging, Drowning, Pressure, Cold, Heat) [7]
Immortality 6 (Flaws: Must Maintain Mental Control of Their Molecules- Can Be Dispersed Too Far) [6]
Regeneration 8 (Feats: Regrow Limbs) [9]
Flight 8 (500 mph) [16]

"Eternal Powers"
"Transmutation" Transform (Anything to Anything Else) 13 (Extras: Ranged) (78) -- [84]
  • AE: Cosmic Blast 16 (Feats: Split, Variable- Force, Heat, Extended Range) (Extras: Penetrating 8) (43)
  • AE: "Telekinesis" Move Object 11 (22)
  • AE: "Telepathy" Communication (Mental) 2 & Mind-Reading 7 (22)
  • AE: Illusion 5 (Visual & Hearing) (15)
  • AE: "Unpleasant Teleportation" Teleportation 8 (Flaws: Distracting) (8)
  • AE: Force Field 3 (Extras: Affects Others 8, Impervious 8) (19)
"Transmute Others" Affliction 2 (Fort; Entranced/Disabled/Transformed) (Extras: Ranged, Continuous +3) [10]

Offense:
Unarmed +12 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Cosmic Blast +12 (+16 Ranged Damage, DC 31)
Transmute +10 (+2 Ranged Affliction, DC 12)
Illusion -- (+5, DC 15)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +12 (+15 Force Field), Fortitude +46, Will +8

Complications:
Responsibility (Olympia)
Enemy (The Deviants)
Relationship (Thena, Daughter)

Total: Abilities: 106 / Skills: 36--18 / Advantages: 19 / Powers: 132 / Defenses: 15 (290)

-Zuras is your everyday "Generic Godly Leader Guy", with the trademark Kirby Mane. His name is similar to Zeus because he was meant to be the same guy in humans' eyes, but then they inserted The Eternals into standard Marvel Continuity, resulting in BOTH guys existing in the same universe. He's the son of Kronos and the brother of Mentor of Titan, who exiled himself when Zuras was named ruler of their race (the two had differing opinions, and Mentor didn't want to split apart their community with arguing). After leading their people for centuries (and doing things like banishing Gilgamesh), Zuras was killed by The Fourth Host of the Celestials when he formed the Uni-Mind of all the Eternals around himself- a Blast from the Space Gods KO'd his people, but since he was at the centre of the explosion, he was slain. This early event led to Thena & Ikaris taking over as primary influences on The Eternals, but Zuras has since been resurrected in Neil Gaiman's series, where he killed Sprite, who was responsible for everyone being mind-wiped into mortal forms.

-Zuras was going to be lower level, but apparently he's tough enough to hang with ZEUS at times, which throws the WHOLE idea out of whack. Zeus is a *PL 17* Skyfather, and thus Zuras has to be AT LEAST PL 14 to even be in the same fight and not immediately die. Sprite in the Gaiman series suggests that Zuras is the most powerful Eternal, though Wikipedia is all "but the others have been shown to have greater power!", so who knows?
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun May 01, 2022 2:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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