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He-Man and the Masters of the Universe d20

a setting for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5

Skeletor's forces on the left and He-man's on the right, each bearing weapons at each other at point blank range.

Setting

He-Man is dead. The Sword of Power lies shattered into fragments, the largest of which is possessed by Skeletor. Using this shard, he has gained immense power and confronted the Sorceress in her solitude at Castle Grayskull in a mighty battle. This time, without He-Man’s help, she was unable to defend the castle, and Grayskull was overrun by Skeletor and his forces of evil. Powerless outside of the Castle and trapped in her falcon form Zoar, the Sorceress has retreated into hiding to work out a plan. With only a shard of He-Man’s Sword of Power, Skeletor has not yet been able to fully unlock the secrets of Grayskull, but as his sorcery grows ever more powerful, it is only a matter of time.

Word of Grayskull’s fall soon made it to the Royal Palace of Eternia. Teela, acting against the advisement of Man-at-Arms and the King, led every Eternian soldier under her command in an immediate desperate offensive against Skeletor at Grayskull to try to drive him out before he grows any more powerful. The battle was a spectacular failure, as Skeletor stepped out onto the jawbridge and, with the twisted Power of Grayskull, killed every last troop with a single spell, sparing only Teela, whom he now keeps as his prisoner inside the Castle. Unbeknownst to them both, something about Teela’s mere presence within the walls of Grayskull is the only thing slowing Skeletor’s efforts to fully seize the ancient powers there.

Evil-Lyn, betrayed by Skeletor’s hoarding of Grayskull’s magical power for himself alone, deserted him and rallied a few of his evil warriors to join her instead. She seized the opportunity to assault the royal Palace, easily conquering it while Teela and her army were occupied… or dead. Many citizens and most of Eternia’s heroes, including Stratos, Ram Man, and Orko, fled the capital and have set up hidden resistance camps in the Evergreen Forest, led by Man-at-Arms and Queen Marlena. King Randor remained behind to try to locate his missing son Adam, and to do what he could for his people, even ready to die in battle if necessary.

Instead, Evil-Lyn now rules with Randor as her puppet, forcing him to issue her tyrannical decrees to his remaining subjects. Though he was once loved by his people, they can now only wonder how he could remain so complicit with Evil-Lyn even under duress, and many suspect that Evil-Lyn’s influence may be a lie and believe the King has gone mad.

The situation on the distant world Etheria was already dire: the evil Horde, led by Hordak, still enslaves most of the planet, but recent events have not been so dramatically grim and bleak as the crisis on Eternia. However, the shattering of the Sword of Power has been felt even here, where the gem set in She-Ra’s sister sword, the Sword of Protection, went black the moment that He-Man was killed (by means unknown). Shadow Weaver has been quietly amassing her power within her sanctum Horror Hall, and to her surprise she found herself able to work her magic through this darkened crystal focus to once again make Princess Adora her mindslave. If Shadow Weaver should make a move to betray Hordak, Etheria might quickly find itself in the same sort of doomsday as Eternia.

Finally, back on Eternia, a fringe snake cult that has long predicted the end of the world has suddenly found thousands of desperate followers, and in some villages now has tremendous influence. This sinister cult worships the ancient vile Snakemen, and reawakening them is one of the only things that might be able to stop Skeletor…

Characters

Here’s a full index of all the weird prestige classes used, including several d20 Future classes.