Encyclopedic Entities: Part 2 - Tyrant & Chums (Patreon)

For this next look through the various Entities in the world of Kingdom Death we're going to have a look at the ones related to the best boy, the Tyrant, or more specifically the ones in his campaign. 

As before, if it is in italics, then it is official material, everything else is speculation, conjecture or received via back channels (which means it's mostly official, but subject to potential change).

Spoilers for People of the Stars ahead!

Storm 

This is the Entity in this list we know the second highest amount about, Storm was slated to be a small part of an expansion which got shelved and it was to be about the Worshippers of the Storm, Storm Knights and making survivors into Heroes. We'll see a lot of Storm's themes as we move down the pieces of descriptive text here.

Sunstalker Showdown:

There is a great castle in the sky shaped like a sword. At the top stands the Storm. Tired of its ineffective challengers, the Storm sought to give them an advantage. The Storm dragged the oldest Sun into the sky and chained it to the top of its castle to give its challengers light. Now, when a challenger is defeated and rain strikes the stone-faced floor, the Sun cries out for help, igniting the sky with desperate flashes of light.

This piece gives us a huge amount of information about Storm, we know that it stays mostly in one place, that it is powerful enough to take the strongest Sunstalker in existence (Sunstalkers become more and more powerful as they age) and that is a HUGE deal. Adult Sunstalkers aka Suns are massively powerful Entities in their own right, they can form civilizations, plus keep other monsters and Entities away. The fact that it's mentioned that Storm has managed to capture one of these is in itself demonstrating how huge this is. It's so incredible that people talk about it in their folk-lore.

We also know that Storm's castle is in the plain of Stone Faces, because of the involvement of Sunstalkers and the direct text 'stone-faced floor'.

Storm Constellation:

A bloated jelly sack in the shape of a face stares down at you, its facial features a colony of mushroom-like organs with square teeth that gnash with lightning.

A glance changes you forever. Your heart now beats fast enough to sound like a single, continuous drone.

Also gain Destined, +1 Permanent Speed and an ability called Heart of the Sword:

First up, we can be confident that the description of Storm (and all the entities we encounter in these cards) is accurate, because we know exactly what The Gambler and The Sculptor look like - and their appearances match the description, this is also going to be very relevant for the Goblin entry lore.

I'm not entirely sure what trope/real world thing Storm is referencing in its appearance, though it is clearly at least a smidgen cloud-like. So I can't infer from that, maybe it's an animoo reference, if so perhaps a weeb can provide a link in the comments. Who knows? Either way we can assume that Storm is humanoid in shape and possibly Tyrant/Gambler/Dragon Goblin in size.

However, even without that information we get a continuation of the themes of Storm - weapon mastery, oxidization of blood, speed, lightning and having a grand destiny. As you'll see when we move onto the Worshipers, all of this comes home to fruit, and it is clear that Storm is a master of weaponry, idly waiting for the one(s) who can finally beat it in its tower.

Worshiper of the Storm (M):

The Worshippers of the Storm measure stature in lighting scars and those with the most beautiful burn patterns lay claim to the best weapons and armor from the corpses of failed questing survivors. The homes of the wealthy are decorated in all manner of metal trophies, filling the rain drenched town with the constant angry clattering of rain hitting metal. 

Worshiper of the Storm (F):

At the base of the sword shaped castle in the sky is a culture that worships the Storm Knight as a god. They are both crazed and opportunists. Questing survivors who perish in the castle are tossed down to the town where their bodies are scavenged. The worshipers sell the weapons of the dead to newcomers hoping to traverse the castle. 

These two entries should be looked at together and they tell us a huge amount about the culture and world of Storm. It is clearly the ruler of its own realm, which is a sword shaped spire that exists as a lure to pull heroes in for Storm to battle. This entire world is something of a self-perpetuating situation, where heroes climb the tower, die and their weapons are tossed down to be sold to the next wave of heroes who try and climb up the tower.

So the whole tower is almost like a rogue-like design in nature, and you can see how gargantuan the experience would have become if Adam had explored it properly, this is not just a new expansion, it would be an entirely new dungeon crawl experience.

 Storm Knight 

A toothless survivor tells the story of the knight in the center of the clouds. It was a beautiful sight, obscured by jets of steam and water issuing from ornate faces in its armor. A bitter, metal taste in the storming air. A bolt of light struck him, twisting his body and knocking the teeth from his clenched jaw. 

There is not much information about Storm here, but we can conclude that the Storm Knights are aligned to Storm in the same way that the King's Man is linked to the King and the Goblin Guard is linked to the (Dragon) Goblin. It also continues the themes of blood (bitter, metal taste) and storms - though interestingly it is not a weapon master itself, more a living weapon.

We also have the Storm Armor, but that's clearly made out of the Storm Knight parts as an abandoned part of the expansion so it's not directly related to Storm itself.

Finally there is one last line of text which you may have missed, it's on Katana Mastery (which is the least achieved mastery in the game for sure).

"When a survivor reaches Katana Mastery, they leave the settlement forever, heeding the call of the storm to hone their art."

Given how closely tied Storm is to weapons and weapon mastery, and how it also has a vague link with Sunstalkers. It is likely that this "call of the storm" is linked to Storm. (Also Adam is very particular with use of words like this, so you generally should apply Ockham's Razor to any lore situation. If there are Lions on it, it has a link to either the GK, Silver City or Golden City for example).

Goblin

The Goblin looks down at you, you die. This cannot be avoided in any way.

This is the actual Goblin, who may or may not exist, probably not the Sparrow King aka Dragon Goblin. It's still up in the air if there are two Goblins, or one is a fictional myth and the other is an imposter of that myth (which we'll look at later).

I'm not going to go into too much detail here, except that this version of the Goblin harks back to the old versions that were a single individual demon, not the green-skinned hordes of Tolkien and GW. 

Also that it's likely this entry indicates that the Goblin is a real thing and the ending of the Abyssal Woods is not going to go well for anyone. The reason for this is, people know what the Dragon Goblin looks like, they encounter its human form and its "Dragon" one quite often. But no-one has seen the face of this Goblin here and survived. Because we have no description, we are safe to surmise that this Goblin is not likely the Sparrow King version.

Rust

A face of oxidized metal stares down at you. Filthy water pours from the seams between its six eyes. Its open mouth reveals a full pair of lips beyond its teeth.

Your blood turns a slick black and your hair becomes fuller and greasy. 

Gain Tough and:

We don't know much more about Rust beyond this description and these abilities, though by applying Ockham's Razor to this matter we can assume that it's realm is the Rust Ocean.

I will put the text for the Rust Ocean here, because it's got some huge implications that I don't see enough people talking about:

Relentless currents grind the metal derelicts that lie dead on the floor of the Rust Ocean, creating a miasma of intensely charged rust particles. Lightning pours from the sky without end. On their island, Architects rely on their diamond-toothed spring-saws, harvesting soggy scrap and the electricity-channeling bones of beached rust whales. These massive rib bones are formed into a dizzying mandala of lightning rods that ground the ceaseless storm. The sound of grinding metal overlays the rhythmic sound of the ocean tides. Architects must cope with the din of the Rust Ocean with sound dampening helmets. 

I'll write that again. 

"Relentless currents grind the metal derelicts."

There are metal derelicts in the world of Kingdom Death, and rust whales, that channel electricity.

Sculptor

A concerned, inverted face with powerful jaws stares down at you, its forked eyebrows masterfully braided and trailing along the curve of its face.

The face's gaze shifts, directing you to a discovery.

You extract a stone copy of yourself that comes to life and gain the ability to replace dismembered limbs with working stone ones.

It's this chap:

It also appears in the hunt event Living Stone, where it is carving stone faces and discarding the damaged ones. It's mostly a benign entity at the moment, and the main interest here is that it clearly seems to know what every survivor looks like and carves their face into the ground.  

You can surmise what you wish from that! I feel there's not enough information at this time.

Gambler

A face with a jaw split in two stares down at you. Its chins curve away from each other, each with its own mouth.

You find on your hands a second middle finger. They move independently and prevent your hands from touching.  

You regrow any lost arms, gain immortal, +100 insanity and a mechanic that gives you luck +insanity for rolling well and brain damage -luck for rolling badly.

The Gambler also appears in the Gambler hunt event, where survivors can either gain luck or die, and there is an image of the Gambler before his change in the Tomb of Excellence hunt event. He's described there as a 'hero with a large fruit on his back'. So it is fair at this point to draw the conclusion that the Gambler was once a mortal who has changed for some reason.  There are also of course Atlas comparisons to be made, but most of the mystery will be drawn back once the Gambler returns in the Gambler's Chest. So I think we can stop here on it.

Absolute

A scaled oaken face stares down at you. Vicious looking flowers bloom in place of its eyes, and its gums are comprised of bloated birds vomiting long sharp teeth. 

From now on you always cut a hole in the bottom of your shoes. 

Gain +1 evasion +1 movement and:

So I assume that the hole in the bottom of the shoe is to represent the survivor remaining connected to the ground via their feet.  Now a hole in the bottom of your shoe is considered to be immensely unlucky, but that is probably not the intention here, instead this is a Gaia/Druid/barefoot reference and is reflected in the ability.

It seems that the Absolute is a world mother creature like Gaia. However we don't have much more information to go on at this time.

Reaper

A human skull with evocative patterns carved into it stares down on you. An eloquence patch depicting a sad and thoughtful eye blankets one of the empty sockets. A glance changes you forever.

Gain +3 accuracy and:

Die! Die! Die!

Reaper appears to be a variant of the classic reaper from our own folklore. Though there are additional elements here with the eyepatch and the psychovore ability.  

Unfortunately this is the Entity that remains most elusive for me. I've looked into things and I haven't even found the relevant trope for this entity based on the (limited) information I have, so it's either an old god I don't know (I'm more limited in my knowledge of the Indian, African and South American gods) and I don't see how the eyepatch would link to Odin when combined with the other elements.

If anyone has any further ideas/info/weeb knowledge, do let me know!

Witch

A smooth white face with round black eyes stares down at you, its mouth a veined triangular trunk and its ears adorned with humans in perverse poses.

A glance changes you forever. Below the soft, bulging skin of your cheek grows an eye looking into the past.

+1 Permanent Speed & Luck and:

Before we move into the obvious, I think it is important to point out that based on the description we have here, and I must again stress that all evidence points to these descriptions being actual representations of their appearance, this is not the Flower Witch - and we'll talk more about her in the future. 

This is a more traditional style of witch and her ability goes straight into the old folklore of a 'third eye that can see the future'. Except here, the eye looks into the past, but gives you clairvoyance of the future when you bite it.

Either way I'm going to call this one another one of those 'we don't know much about it' Entities.  

 The Tyrant/Dragon King  

Finally we're going to end this portion of the series with Kingdom Death: Monster's best boi. The Entity we know the most about because his expansion gives us a huge amount of information on him. While monsters are normally referred to as 'it' the Dragon King is clearly a male and I'll call him a him and refer to him as The Tyrant from now on.

I've written about The Tyrant a lot in the past and that's because in addition to him being a rich, evocative and symbolism filled creation, he's also one of the least malignant Entities in the setting.

The Tyrant is the last of his kind and there's a load of information to go through. We'll start with some of the stuff that's been posted up.

There was once a monster that was alone in the world. Abandoned in its grief, the monster crawled deep inside its aching heart until it broke and was set aflame. Now, the power of its grief and fury pours like invisible poison from the weeping face it hides inside its hulking body.

The Dragon King's species is long dead. It remains alone, clinging to the memories of its once mighty race. Its destructive moods swing wildly from impotent rage to obsessive nostalgia. It stalks the darkness, lashing out at anything it meets. Survivors that run across the moody monster usually fall prey to the unseen waves of ruinous pain that emanate from the monster's glowing heart. Those survivors lucky enough to drive off the monster will be amply rewarded with a trove of new armaments crafted from the abandoned husk of the monster's body.

There was a monster whose only fear was to be forgotten. Driven by that terror smoldering in its heart, the monster inscribed its face in the sky with a glowing breath. All who saw it grew sick and died leaving nothing alive that could remember the monster's face.  

So, there's a lot to unpack here, and there's even more stuffed into this expansion, in fact the sheer level of detail and depth that is wound up in the Dragon King expansion means that I think I'm going to have to write a piece separately on The Tyrant/Dragon King, mostly because he deserves it.

So next time we're going to take a small trip to dissecting everything that this expansion brings us and understand fully why he's Best Boi and Dragon Jesus!