Kaasma Khara

Officical Art of Atropal from Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition

### Connections

Lagos, The Failed Simulacrum, Lagos, The Insidious Parasite, Elenora Mordove, Levin, Lagos, The Inevitable Fate, Happy's Travelling Circus, Daemancer Cult, Tremmer Kushions, Zehani, Shattering of Io

## Status

### Cause of death

Obliterated by volley of magic from the Astral Academy's defenders.

## Campaign Appearances

### Main Campaign(s)

*Arcane Academy*, *Astral Academy*, *Goblins of Io*, *Final Battle Vs. Kaasma Khara*

### Guest Appearances

Miss Demeanor, Under Io, Nova Hellscape

**Kaasma Khara** was one of the triplets born of the dead god Kaasma. During the Jupiter Incident, Kaasma created three offspring to uphold its divine retribution against its enemies, the Aurorans and the Astari. Firstborn of the Dead God, Kaasma Khara was commanded to oversee the exile of the soulless bodies of the Astari in the Astral Veil, condemning them to perpetual undying torment. Khara was thus torn from its parent and unleashed unto this new Veil, where it would terrorize its inhabitants for centuries.

Approximately 1,500 years later, Kaasma Khara's wanderings were interrupted when it was rediscovered by the Eight Lagos, a group of Astari clones with a unsatiable vendetta against Io and its people. The clones managed to capture the diabolical infant and modify it into a bioweapon by which they would use to destroy Io. One of their number, Lagos, the Insidious Parasite, also infected Khara in order to pilot it from within. Though Khara became lost once more in the Astral, it was unwittingly summoned back by Elenora Mordove after deciphering a difficult arcane spell discovered by the Exodus Academy. Using a branded Mark, Kaasma Khara was able to hunt her and her friends down, from which they narrowly escaped. Khara, under the direction of Lagos, then spent a year in the Astral gathering power before returning to a Githyanki village to prepare to rip open the boundary between Veils.

However, as Khara prepared to shift into the Prime Plane to lay waste to Io, the nearby Astral Academy began a campaign to prevent this scheme and defeat Kaasma Khara. Under the tutelage of its Headmaster Levin, a task force of students led by Tremmer Kushions and Gideon Snowfall began researching countermeasures and recruiting heroes from Io to protect their home. Though disaster befell them through the loss of their Headmaster, the betrayal of their allies and the machinations of the Eight Lagos, the Astral Academy and its allies launched a three pronged assault against the unholy abomination before it could gather its full strength. With their combined efforts, Kaasma Khara and the masterminds manipulating it were defeated once and for all, though it came with the cost of Tremmer Kushion's life at Khara's hands.

Though Khara's destruction was a resounding victory for Io and its denizens, it was not a complete loss for the Eight Lagos. Its failed shift into the Prime Plane tore a hole in the sky barrier protecting Io, which provided an opportunity for future plans to be enacted. Some 500 years after Kaasma Khara's death, Lagos, The Emissary of the End returned with a fleet of starships infused with Black Star energy. Exploiting the tear caused by Kaasma Khara, Lagos's fleet unleashed a devastating barrage that nearly obliterated Io from existence, where it not for the timely intervention of Io's new gods. The Shattering of Io, as it became known, was a pivotal moment in Io's history, owing no small part to the lingering malice of Kaasma Khara.

## Description

### Appearance

Kaasma Khara has the appearance of a gargantuan malformed fetus with purple pockmarked skin covered in sores. Its stomach appears to be severely bloated, with a large fleshy umbilical cord protruding out from its navel. Its limbs, by contrast, are slender and elongated with wicked claw-like digits on its hands and feet. Its extremities are also blackened as if under going necrosis, while its feet appear to be bound together by some form of sinew.

Its head is very large, with the cranium being especially swollen and elongated like an oval. From the centre of its forehead to its crown are a row of arcane sigils and stitching, which when broken reveal a large diamond that has been surgically implanted in its skull. Its facial features seem shrunken by comparison, with tiny ears, a upturned narrow nose and a small mouth from which a row of teeth can be seen fixed in a rictus grin. It's eyes are entirely milky white and are sunken back into its head, rimmed by darkened flesh that seems to seep from the sockets.

### Personality

Kaasma Khara, though the first child of a god, acts much like one would expect from a baby. Its primary concerns appear to be sustenance and sleep and it will regularly cry when upset or frustrated. According to Levin, Kaasma Khara was well known for its voracious appetite, causing it appear solely to consume entire settlements before disappearing once more. It also got distracted easily, giving up its chase of the lost students and being goaded into fighting by Shen despite having Duqhazan at its mercy.

However, there is a subtle maliciousness to Khara that goes beyond that of a mere child. It deliberately marked Elenora Mordove with the express purpose of hunting her, something it took glee in upon their first encounter. The mark itself bore the ominous echo of "*I see you*", implying a cognitive decision on its part. It enjoyed causing destruction and liberally applied excessive force to anything that drew its attention, a fact made clear by its destruction of the monodrone army and the killing of Shen. It also corrupted and transformed the Githyanki of the village when it took over, creating minions that would fight in its defense, something that required some degree of forethought.

However, it must be said that the nature of Khara's actions can be called into question, as it was being manipulated from within by Lagos, The Insidious Parasite. It is clear Lagos exerted some direct control over the terrible infant, namely in staying Khara's hand when the goblins offered their services and forcibly directing the abomination to tear its way into the Prime Plane, something that caused Khara grievous harm and distress. It can be difficult then to determine how many of its more complex traits can instead be attributed to the parasite rather than Khara itself.

## History

### Birth

Kaasma Khara was born of the Dead God Kaasma in the wake of the Jupiter Incident, some 500 years before the Repopulation of Io. Long before the war between the Aurorans and the Astari, Kaasma was sealed away in the gas giant Jupiter by the ancestors of the Astari, earning their eternal enmity. Kaasma's imprisonment, however, was eventually ended when the Dead God reached out to an Astari clone by the name of Lagos, who served in the Auroran Navy. Kaasma informed Lagos of his true nature as a clone and how the Auroran Federation was using them as a weapon against the Astari. Outraged by this revelation, Lagos swore vengeance on both his creators and his original self's people. Travelling to Jupiter, Lagos followed Kaasma's instructions and unleashed the Dead God from their prison in a catastrophic event that caused Jupiter to ignite as a new star and lay waste to the Auroran Fleet and the planet of Io both.

Following their calamitous release, Kaasma wasted no time in enacting their judgement upon both parties and proclaimed three Divine Decrees to be upheld for eternity. The first Decree was that the Astari would have their bodies cast into the nascent Astral Veil to exist as husks of their former selves. The second Decree concerned the Astari's souls, which were to be trapped in a newly formed Veil known as the Shadow where they would be forever tormented. The third and final Decree was directed at the Auroran interlopers, dictating that they would be forever barren so that their kind would die out and never stain the universe with their presence again. To ensure these Decrees would be maintained, Kaasma thus gave birth to a set of divine triplets to carry out their will: Kaasma Khara, Kaasma Thara and Kaasma Phar. Kaasma Khara was the first of this trio, and theirs was the responsibility of upholding the first Decree. With the birth of their offspring and the completion of their revenge, Kaasma became dormant and their decapitated corpse languished in orbit around Io for centuries to come.

### Terror of the Astral Veil

Shortly after its birth, Kaasma Khara was sent into the Astral Veil in pursuit of the bodies of the Astari. The fate of these bodies varied depending on factors unknown and would shape this new expansive realm. Some of them made it to the other side as undead corpses clinging to a singular emotion or thought related to the trauma of the Jupiter Incident. Others only made it as shards of themselves, which would be reincarnated into a variety of different forms that would become the new denizens of the Astral, such as the Gith. Of all the Astari that were cast into the Astral, only two retained some semblance of themselves, a lich named Nycrona and an Elder named Levin. All of these were now the playthings of Kaasma Khara.

Centuries would pass on the Prime Plane, which nigh equaled millennia in the quicker temporal flow of the Astral. Over this vast span of time, Kaasma Khara would roam the Veil with random abandon, wrecking destruction on settlements and consuming and corrupting its denizens at whim. Such forays of destruction would reverberate throughout the Astral, ensuring that Kaasma's name and the horror attached to it remained in the minds of these new communities as an ancient evil. Often after an appearance, Kaasma Khara would drift off and disappear for an extended period of time, leaving a specter of its menace behind until its next unpredictable encounter.

### Rediscovery

Kaasma Khara's existence was not entirely forgotten in the Prime Plane. The Lagos clone who released Kaasma, now calling himself the Emissary of the End, had formed an alliance with his fellows, which numbered eight including himself. Through their shared Memory, the knowledge of Kaasma's children was known to all of them as well as a rough understanding of their whereabouts. This octumvirate then set about attempting to locate the children as part of their plans to destroy Io and the new peoples that had colonized it. After centuries of searching, about 500 years after the deaths of Io's gods DIV and VOID, two of the Lagos's, known as the Failed Simulacrum and the Insidious Parasite respectively, were able to locate Kaasma Khara in the Astral using the technologies of the Kaasma Mind Facility, an Auroran base that had been constructed in Kaasma's brain. With the terrible infant now within their reach, this duo hatched a plan to weaponize Khara and unleash it upon Io.

However, as it stood, Khara was not yet suitable for their needs. Using all resources available to them, the two set about capturing and modifying the child to become the perfect bioweapon. As they were unable to pull Khara from the Astral themselves, it can be inferred that they instead shifted the necessary components into the Astral, though how they were implemented is yet a mystery. Kaasma Khara was thus upgraded to become a suitable bioweapon, which included the surgical insertion of a massive power-enhancing crystal into its cranium. Perhaps the most significant development was the infection of the abominable godling by Lagos, the Insidious Parasite. Now residing within Khara's body, the parasite was able to exert limited control over Kaasma Khara and allow its partner in the Prime Plane to both track and communicate with Khara and any who interacted with it. With the parasite now in place, Kaasma Khara was released to roam the Astral in order to grow in strength while preparations were made for its assault on Io.

Outside of the Lagos, evidence of Kaasma Khara was also discovered around the same time by a separate entity; an institution of magical education on Io's continent of Ishtar called the Exodus Academy. Though a reputable and prestigious asset of the Kingdom of Brisbane, the Academy was secretly under the control of a power-hungry cult headed by the exiled mage Dmitrius Valiensworth. To acquire arcane supremacy, the instructors of the Academy would explore other Veils of existence in search of new sources to exploit. During their research into the Astral, a popular source for contemporary spellcasters, they were able to draw upon the magics emanating from Kaasma Khara, though they knew not what it was they had made contact with. With this contact, they formulated a highly complex but potent spell for their arsenal. However, the spell required study and deciphering before it could be used and it thus remained in the possession of one Professor Veneway until that time. However, just as they had been ignorant of the source of the spell, the Exodus staff had no idea that Khara was aware of their meddling and cursed the spell to mark whoever would solve it so that it could hunt them down.

## Etymology

"Kaasma" appears to be an original name created for the World of Io setting. It is possibly is a corruption of the word "cosmic". which describes anything relating to the universe or cosmos, especially as distinct from the earth.

In Sankrit, the adjective "*खर*" (*khára)* has several meanings including "hard", "sharp-edged", "hurtful" (in terms of speech) and "cruel". When used as a masculine noun, its meaning changes to "donkey" amongst other things. On the other hand, the Greek word "*χᾰρᾱ́" (khára)* translates to "joy" or "pleasure". The name may also have a relation to the fictional bacteria Kharaa from the game Subnautica, which infected entire planets in a manner not dissimilar to how Kaasma Khara was being used to infect Io with its essence.

## Trivia

* Kaasma Khara made its first appearance via a Spell Card in Episode 2 of the first season of *Arcane Academy*. Its first physical appearance took place in Episode 8 of the same season.
* Kaasma Khara and its siblings bear resemblances to the Atropal monster in classic Dungeons and Dragons in both lore and appearance, going so far as to use the official artwork in Phase 2.
* Kaasma Khara is one of the most fought enemies in the Ioverse, having being faced as an encounter on seven different occasions by different parties, four of which were simulated by Levin within the Astral Academy.
* The threat of Kaasma Khara was the predominant conflict in Act 2 of Phase 2 and was a central focus of the *Astral Academy*, *Goblins of Io* and *Miss Demeanor* campaigns, with the *Final Battle vs Kaasma Khara* serving as a season finale for each of them respectively.
* The *Final Battle* *vs Kaasma Khara* was the first Crossover Boss Battle of the Ioverse. The battle was spilt into three distinct phases, each handled by a different party, and was over nine hours in length.
* Kaasma Khara is one of the three known NPCs that has directly killed a Player Character, having killed Tremmer Kushions during the *Final Battle*.
* Kaasma Khara's name sounds roughly similar to the term "*cosmic horror*", a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction popularized by H.P. Lovecraft that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible.

## Images

### Official art

A vision of Kaasma Khara triggered by Elenora's deciphering of its Spell Card in Arcane Academy Season 1 Episode 2.A illusion of Kaasma Khara manifested by the memory of Lagos in the Dreamscape.The body of Kaasma Khara being puppeteered by Lagos, the Insidious Parasite.