Old Ones was the 2nd supplement in the Palladium line: the 1e was for Palladium RPG and the 2e was for Palladium Fantasy Second Edition.
The original table of contents at File:60660-sample.pdf comes via https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/60660/Palladium-RPG-Book-II-Old-Ones--1st-Edition-Rules?src=also_purchased
Great and Lesser[]
"Old Ones" is somewhat of a blanket term. Alien Intelligences such as Vampire Intelligences have been described as "puny Old Ones". This happens on page 11 of the original Vampire Kingdoms sourcebook:
- The vampire intelligence and most other intelligences are puny Old Ones who were not locked in mystic slumber because their numbers were few and they are reasonably vulnerable to destruction.
- If these are the weak, comparatively harmless Old Ones, then what were the powerful "Great Old Ones" like? Kind of a scary thought, eh?
This moreso refers to the eight distinct "Greater Old Ones". A contrast much like that between "Greater Demon Lords" and "Lesser Demon Lords" in PF.
The Vampire Intelligence also has a "lesser" version per D+G pg 182 which may refer to the smaller batlike variant from the 1st edition of Beyond the Supernatural who knew how to make zombies/mummies/golems (the Rifts versions do not) which also had more peaceful Mindolar
Pg 279 of PF2:
- Vampires and other alien intelligences possess considerable supernatural and magic power, yet are believed to be the puny cousins of the ancient Old Ones!
Power counterparts[]
Power Words (of Force) refers to Xy as "The Great Old One!" but the GOO expression also seems to refer to these SIX named ones mentioning their aspects:
- Agu life/birth/rebirth
- Erva death/darkness
- Netosa suffering/undead/eternity
- Xy power INCARNATE
- Ya-ahk-met power/light
- Ya-blik fear/betrayal/pestilence
Pg 207 of the Conversion Book talks about them noting their three jailers:
- Kym-nark-mar dragon
- Lictalon elf
- Lokum angel
Pg 208 gives them alignments and introduces a two more who weren't in Palladium as PWOF (Al-vil and Tarm-kin-toe) for a total of eight, predominantly evil as seen by their alignments:
- 6 Diabolics (Xy, Al-Vil, Erva, Netosa, Tarm-kin-toe, Ya-blik)
- 1 Miscreant (Ya-ahk-met)
- 1 Anarchist (Agu)
The newer old ones represented new aspects:
- Al-vil represented envy and jealousy (hating those who possess what you can't have) having some similarity to Ya-blik.
- Tarm-kin-toe represented hatred/treachery/vengeance/pain
Ya-blik was also given new information as a rumored source of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, later seen in Rifts Africa. This wasn't entirely confirmed though. There is a Horseman called Pestilence but it seems likely that Erva and Netosa would be connected to the central head of the quartet (Death)) whereas War was likely connected to TKT (hatred leads to war) and Famine doesnt have a clear patron.
Syth stats[]
Pg 223 has "Syth, The Old One" described as:
- "a lesser Old One, an ancient alien intelligence who, may not be as powerful as the famous Old Ones whose names have become words of power, but is still and incredible force equal of the most powerful gods"
This is one possible indication of their power in 2nd edition. In saying "the magic slumber and other means of magic imprisonment are still in force and limits its current level of power to about one, one hundredth its normal level." we know it has a witch bound to it (pg 221) who casts spells at 10th level (pg 223) via the gift of union: meaning at full power, Syth while awake would be level 100, implying the GREATER old ones would be 101+.
Much like that level 50ish wolfen guy in one of the other PF books.
Thoth stats[]
Another indication might be the stats assigned to Thoth in Rifts Africa and the dual stats he's given in Dragons and Gods. The first reveal of Thoth's nature actually seems to be in the Conversion Book prior to Africa though.