Exploration and Fantasy

* The sands blow like the winds, and death stains the air. The summoning grounds for the Skeleton King only reside within the deserts. This is because tombs 
were built in his honor by a cult following of sorts that has since been turned undead by the Skeleton King, for the most part becoming the Mummies that 
traverse the deserts. As a tale from olden days goes, "Ancient stories tell that there was once a bellicose king, who swore to conquer all land he stepped 
on. Sadly, he underestimated the mercilessness of the vast desert. Finally, the king cursed the land and embraced the warm hug from the desert, buried and 
forgotten." ...the tale should've ended there. However, the king that fell lived out his afterlife in the realm of the dead like anyone else, in time wishing 
to return to the realm that he felt wrongly snubbed out of. He began to conquer the realm of the dead, absorbing the souls of others around him one by one 
until he grew far more powerful than he should've been allowed, breaking free and becoming the most powerful known connection between the two worlds. As the
Skeleton King's strength grows, something...unexpected has occurred. The strength of nearly every boss grows across the land as well.
- The Skeleton King marks his territory. A number of undead and other monsters drop an emblem from him, at two rates;
- - The Hirschgeist drops 1 Emblem of The King.
- - The Wither drops 1 Emblem of The King.
- - The Ender Dragon drops 1 Emblem of The King, as he wants to personally watch the last of its kind die out. This is something both he and the soul in the
Task Book share in common, I suppose.
- - The list of every 0.01% chance of the King's Emblem is as follows; Zombies, Unburied, Forsaken, Skeleton Warriors, OsVermis and OsVermis Spiritus,
Undertakers, Revenants, Frigids, Mycosis, Zombie Piranhas, Undead Swine, Sea Hags, Wither Skeletons, Skeletons, Banshees, Avatons, Zombie Villagers, Zombie
Pigmen, Strays, Husks, ...Thralls..., Penghouls, Mummies, Ithaquas, Foglets, Isnachi, Imps, Grave Robbers and their ghosts, Ghouls, Ghost Rays, Ghost 
Swarmers, Myrmex Queens primarily to watch how to properly raise an army like their colonies, Shulkers to watch over the abandoned castles of the overworld,
Void Eyes to monitor how the Void acts, and Haunted Tools. He's become aware of the Void and equally aware of the amount of futility to do anything about it. 
* A number of undead and related monsters were not chosen however for various reasons explained below;
* The Hierophant is a being whose strength near matches the revival capabilities of the Skeleton King. It's currently unknown whether or not it's actually
more powerful overall, willingly holding back its strength or simply lost the grand majority over time, but a strange mixture of both its power and the
Skeleton Kings gave life to the Thralls. These undead creatures who are reanimated bodies of those who fell during the Ender Dragon invasions make strange
sounds not of this world, perhaps in agony and wishing for death.
* Death Worms despite having "Death" in the name like his mace are not beings the Skeleton King gives a shit about.
* Every Dread monster from Ice and Fire was not caused by the Skeleton King, but rather by the Dreaded Queen. Her presence is not greatly felt in this
world as she rules over another dimension which is too far off to be reached. However, she left her blades in the clutches of the Ice Dragons, who failed her
since they were stolen away by the Frostmaw, who may have grown more powerful by absorbing some of the strength imbued in the blades themselves.
* Pier Knights are not permanent beings, only existing by being summoned through the Damascus armor, though it is a bit interesting they answer the call of
both monsters and players who wear the armor.
* Ghasts can be seen as ghost-like entities, though they're very much of the living and are simply natural inhabitants of the Nether.
* Normal Minecraft Giant Zombies do not spawn naturally.
* Skeleton and Zombie Horses do not spawn naturally.
* Nether Cactyrants are not undead and are natural inhabitants of the Nether, though it's a bit curious they have souls.
* Parasites often pop out of the dead, but they're living. They're also extremely weak, therefore making the Skeleton King not give a shit about them.
* Scarecrows might seem like it at a glance, but they're not undead. They have hearts though and that's a little creepy.
* Ferrous Wroughtnaut are not exactly undead, they're simply living pieces of armor that have a will of their own. The closest known entity like them are
the Snow Guardians from the Twilight. They're not ghosts, but simply animated pieces of armor that exist to protect something. However, unlike the Snow
Guardians whom protect the Snow Queen, it's unknown what Ferrous Wroughnaut are protecting...or if they were even protecting something to begin with at all. 
They've existed longer than most have even realized, far, FAR before the days of the Ender Dragon invasions.
* Bewitched Tomes may seem ghost-like in nature, but are simply books animated by enchantment magic.
* The Aurorian and the Twilight Forest run on their own rules, and the Skeleton King while powerful, cannot bend the will of both dimensions to his since the
bosses are on high alert after everything that's happened. Nothing from these two dimensions can be touched by his hands. also like Death Tomes despite
having "Death" in the name are not beings the Skeleton King gives a shit about.
- - The Skeleton King's health has increased from 430 to 440.
- - The Skeleton King's attack has increased from 32 to 36.
- - The attack strength of OsVermis Spiritus has increased from 17 to 18.
- Items from the Waystones mod are meant to be the one of the main ways to travel long distances between your base and the rest of the world during mid to 
late game progression, but need to be adjusted to be a little more balanced;
- - Global Waystones are not immune to cooldowns now.
- - Both Warp Stones and Scrolls can be interrupted by damage now.
- - Shorter travel is not free, still requiring xp to teleport you.
- - The use time of both Warp Scrolls and Stones before they teleport you in ticks has increased from 32 to 127.
- - Waystones cost XP based on the amount of distance traveled now. The baseline level for this is 10. This allows you at level 30 to use a waystone at least
3 times between longer distances.
- - The cooldown of Waystones and Warp Stones has been reduced from 300 to 180, 3 minutes on the dot to make up for the nerfs.
- The Final Boss Kobold was holding back on you this whole time. NOW HE'LL SHOW HIS TRUE STRENGTH AS THE FINAL CASTLE'S CHAMPION! Here's a full list of the 
changes made to the boss;
- - The Final Boss Kobold will always spawn as a tier 4 Champion.
- - The Final Boss Kobold's attack strength was increased times 0.4.
- - The Final Boss Kobold bears 4 effects, Adaptable, Desecrator, Infested (Different from the Parasite version), and Plagued;
- Adaptable will make the Final Boss Kobold build a damage resistance to whatever source of damage you're using, up to 0.9%.
- Desecrator will make the Final Boss Kobold throw down a potion in a small area of effect that deals greater damage than normal potions.
- Infested will make the Final Boss Kobold summon Silverfish to aid him in battle.
- Plagued is a greater version of the Poison effect, lasting 14 seconds but is reapplied on hit.
- - Every effect is on Tier 4. This is to ensure that only the Kobold can have these effects instead of any of the tiers below it.
- - The Final Boss Kobold now can only drop one Charm of Keeping 2 instead of up to 2.
* A number of other bosses are being buffed as to give them a power boost at the point of progression they're in, the list is as follows;
- - Before the list actually starts, universally, every boss including the Kobold will drop 10 times more experience scaling with their tier levels.
- - Wither: Tier 1
- - Elder Guardians: Tier 2
- - Hirschgeist: Tier 1
- - Adherents: Tier 1
- - Harbinger Cubes: Tier 1
- - Battletower Golems: Tier 1
- - Minoshrooms: Tier 1
- - Armored Giants: Tier 1
- - Giant Miners: Tier 1
- - Gorgons: Tier 2
- - Cyclops: Tier 1
- - Amber and Sludge Lords: Tier 2
- - Ice and Fire Hydras: Tier 2
* The Wither in particular received some new buffs that changes up the fight a little bit;
- - The Wither now inflicts Wither 2.
- - The Wither now has health regen, meaning if you don't deal enough damage in the second phase, it will return to the first.
* Tier 3 goes unused because no matter what boss it was applied on, it gave them too much health and made them drop too much XP. The only reason tier 4 even
works for the Kobold is because at base, it's a monster that was incredibly weak.
* A select number of bosses received no changes through the Champions mod, for varying reasons listed below;
- The Twilight Forest Naga, Lich, Twilight Forest Hydra, Knight Phantoms, Ur-Ghast, Alpha Yetis, Snow Queen, Runestone Dungeon Keeper, Spider Mother, Moon
Queen, Ender Dragon, Skeleton King, Ferrous Wroughtnaut, Barako, and Frostmaw were not changed due to their fights being completely fine and needing no
further changes as of now.
- The Questing Ram was not changed because you don't actually fight it.
- Aquatic Depths and Ice and Fire Sea Serpents were not changed due to the sheer number of both and not every single one of them needing a health bar. You
could make that argument for the Armored Giants and Miners as well, BUT the Miner is needed for Twilight Forest progression and the entire Final Castle being
filled with minibosses with HP bars is a sick idea.
- The Ender Dragon in particular out of the vanilla bosses was not changed due to the entire End being in a fine state. There's not much that currently needs
to change about it.
- Ice and Fire Dragons, despite being the main point of the modpack, were not changed due to any Champions buffs making Stage 5 dragons already more insane
than they already are.
- Myrmex Queens and The Hierophant were not changed because the game didn't let them be for some reason! I wrote their names in correctly and everything,
but something about these two in particular doesn't allow them to be Champions.
- Aside from the Champions mod, the Sound System Reloader mod has also been added. The game's audio likes to cut out sometimes and this adds a way you can 
fix it in-game. Simply press F3 + S!
- Updated the modlist.html to include Champions and Sound System Reloader.
- "...what is this? It's not of this world, and feels extremely brittle in your hands. Some of the Hierophant's power leaks from it..."...The Staff of the
Forgotten now only has 5 durability, but the cooldown has been reduced from 30 seconds to 10. It's an extremely powerful supportive damaging weapon, but
being in a world it hasn't been acclimated to for so long now is wearing down on it. It now requires help from Mending, the Orb of Absorption, and the
Golden Heart to sustain longevity, but rewards the player by doing massive amounts of damage if you use it right. Just make sure to watch the durability
cause that thing could snap at any moment. Shit's built like a tree branch now.
- Following the changes to the Harbinger Cube now being closer to an actual boss than ever before, the drop rate for the Cube's Talisman has increased from
0.5% to 0.8%.
- I begrudge this idea every time, but Sea Serpent attack scaling has been buffed from 3.3 to 3.4.