Pantheon: Other Racial Gods II

Pantheon: Other Racial Gods II

Again, some more racial deities with information based on Wikipedia articles, AuldDragon's blog, and excerpts from the D&D books.

Diirinka

Lesser deity

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a spiral of white, gray, and black

Home plane: Pandemonium

Domain (-30%): knowledge spells, meta spells

Portfolio: magic, knowledge, cruelty

Worshipers: derro

Diirikna is often seen as the father of the derro race, twisting his former dwarf followers into the hateful things they are today. Along with his brother, he practiced the cross-trade on Ilsensine, but when the mind flayer god tumbled to the theft, he abandoned his brother and escaped with some of Ilsensine’s magic.

            Dogma: The stolen magic is what empowers Diirinka, and it is the same magic he grants to his priests. Diirinka does not care what the priests teach as long as they revere him and help the derro grow even stronger.

Great Mother, The

Greater deity

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: an egg with an eye peering out of its center

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): knowledge spells, meta spells

Portfolio: magic, fertility, tyranny

Worshipers: beholders

The Great Mother is the creator and primary racial deity of beholders, gibbering orbs, and the various races of beholder-kin. The Great Mother is the beholder deity of magic, fertility, and tyranny.

In avatar form, the Great Mother appears as a huge, bloated beholder with rocks, gems, scraps of armor and weapons, shells, monstrous teeth, intact skeletons, and other debris stuck in its carapace. However, because the eyes of its Abyssal layer are the eyes of the deity itself, its true form must be much vaster and stranger. The Great Mother is said to have mated with demons, demodands, and worse, always consuming its mates in the process. Some of its offspring are said to still wander the Lower Planes. It is said that one of its spawn managed to attain godhood.

Unlike its primarily lawful evil children, the Great Mother is chaotic evil and quite insane by human or even beholder standards (although it is possible that mortals simply lack the intellectual capacity to comprehend its motivations). Its outlook is profoundly alien, and few of its children are able to contemplate its thoughts or understand its actions, even if they survive an encounter with it. Unlike beholders, the Great Mother is an egg-laying being.

Dogma: The Great Mother exists to remake the multiverse in its image by filling it with its spawn, replacing all forms of life with monsters that resemble the Mother itself. It does not bother to acquire knowledge as Ilsensine and Orraya do, because it has always known all that it could ever need to know. However, it cannot or will not communicate this knowledge to lesser beings, including its own offspring. It neglects its children, not bothering with omens or portents. Sometimes it will allow beholders to be entirely wiped out on a given world, while other times it will become enraged when even a small beholder community is threatened.

Mak Thuum Ngatha

Lesser deity

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a fan-shaped glyph of nine undulating lines

Home plane: Far Realm

Domain (-30%): gate spells, knowledge spells

Portfolio: worm-like aberrations

Worshipers: psurlons, nilshai, tsochari, cultists

The Nine-Tongued Worm is an entity of the Far Realm. Unlike many of the terrible and powerful creatures that dwell in the mindless chaos of the Far Realm, Mak Thuum Ngatha is interested in the Material Plane. Psurlons, tsochari, and nilshai pay the Nine-Tongued Worm homage, but it has few worshipers among other races; only a handful of alienists, cultists, and half-farspawn monstrosities even know of its existence. No being outside the Far Realm can say what the Nine-Tongued Worm’s desires or goals might be, but they are certainly inimical to every living creature on the Material Plane.

Several other entities of similar power and disposition exist in the Far Realm, some with their own cultists and adherents.

Dogma: Mak Thuum Ngatha demands the worshipers to accumulate knowledge, especially forbidden one. It does not care much for anything else the cultists do.

Hruggek

Intermediate deity

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a morningstar

Home plane: Pandemonium

Domain (-40%): spells that improve combat prowess and physical characteristics, stealth spells

Portfolio: violence, combat

Worshipers: bugbears

Hruggek is the chief deity of bugbears, the deity of violence and combat. Hruggek appears as a huge, powerful bugbear, twelve feet tall. He has great fangs and clawed hands and feet, and wields a 10-foot-long morningstar.

Hruggek's cave in Hruggekolohk, his realm in the second layer of Pandemonium, Cocytus, is surrounded by severed heads of various races, which continually cry his praises or beg for mercy, and gift him with powers against their respective peoples. Hruggek didn't make the heads - they were already there when he arrived, remnants of more ancient gods who carved the plane's tunnels.

Hruggekolohk is unusually honeycombed and filled with many standing pools, interspersed with bones and garbage. These pools are magically heated, and various forms of pallid, grublike life grow within them. The petitioners congregate in villages on the banks of these pools, often hunting the sickly pond creatures.

Hruggeks' priests dress in black and wear skulls on their heads. They're warriors and leaders, and keep an eye on the priests of other bugbear deities. They cooperate casually with the priests of Khurgorbaeyag. Hruggek will occasionally send his priests omens in the form of gruesome utterances from severed heads.

Temples to Hruggek take the form of halls built in natural caves. Sacrifices of blood are made to Hruggek once a month, when the moon is full.

Dogma: Hruggek delights in savage combat, but he believes his people are too small in numbers to make mass warfare practical. Instead, he urges that stealth and wiles be used to pick off foes in small groups.

  

Laogzed

Lesser deity

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: a lizard’s head

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-20%): food spells, poison spells, water spells

Portfolio: eating, gluttony, waste, filth, elimination of unwanted things

Worshipers: troglodytes

Perhaps one of the few deities who can rival the disgusting nature of Vaprak is the patron of troglodytes, Laogzed. While he grants spells to the troglodytes, he did not create them, and cares little for their welfare, granting spells simply because he does not care enough not to. He is shunned by most other powers, and used as a divine disposal by those willing to deal with him or willing to risk getting close.

            Dogma: Meat is meat. Tender, tasty flesh provides strength to the eater and the Devourer, and humanoids are the most tasty. Feast on flesh for it feeds you and the Devourer. Take what you desire if you can win it; spoils go to the strongest warrior. Dispose of the old, the broken, and the worthless. Embrace the new and the strong. Shed old skins, and with them old mistakes, old failures, and old curses; be reborn again in the new skin.

Maglubiyet

Greater deity

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Symbol: a bloody axe

Home plane: Acheron

Domain (-30%): spells that improve physical characteristics, martial prowess; spells that repair weapons and armor; spells that grant bravery; spells that conjure weapons and armor; spells that improve weapons and armor

Portfolio: war, domination

Worshipers: goblins, hobgoblins

Maglubiyet is described as a giant (11 feet tall), black-skinned goblin with flaming eyes, powerfully-muscled arms and sharp talons. He is said to wield a mighty coal-black battleaxe that constantly drips blood.

Dogma: Maglubiyet controls the goblins and hobgoblins with a strong, unyielding fist, dominating the two races through visions sent to his priests. He tolerates no infringements on his power; he crushes all interlopers, and is just paranoid enough to find interlopers everywhere. If there is one thing Maglubiyet teaches his people, it is that everybody has got to look out for number one.

Skerrit

Lesser deity

Alignment: Neutral Good

Symbol: an oak growing from an acorn

Home plane: Beastlands

Domain (-20%): animal spells, plant spells, protection spells

Portfolio: community, natural balance

Worshipers: centaurs

Skerrit is the deity worshipped by the centaur race. Skerrit is also known as the "Forester." Skerrit may appear as any creature of the forest. Sometimes his spirit will temporarily possess various plants and animals in order to do his will. In his centaur form, Skerrit wields a bow and a spear. When he is in the forest, the branches and leaves of the trees move to impede his foes' attacks. Skerrit's Glade is located on the Outer Plane of the Beastlands, near Ehlonna's Grove of the Unicorns. Skerrit is worshipped mainly by centaurs and satyrs, and by those sylvan elves who are more neutral in alignment.

            Dogma: Maintain the balance of the land, which is the balance between life and death and the balance between predator and prey. Educate those who disrupt this balance through ignorance. Hunt down those who intentionally disrupt this delicate balance. The bounty of the land is there for all; take no more than you need. Maintain community balance through understanding and cooperation. Sooth hurts and disagreements in the community with wisdom and just decisions. A community in balance is a strong community. A strong community is the best protection against the unbalancing forces arrayed against the sylvan races.

Blibdoolpoolp

Intermediate deity

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Symbol: lobster head or black pearl

Home plane: Elemental Plane of Water

Domain (-10%): meta spells, darkness spells, insanity spells, knowledge spells, water spells

Portfolio: darkness of the sea depths and underdark, insanity, revenge, paranoia, hidden magic, secrets

Worshipers: kuo-toa

Nearly insane, Blibdoolpoolp is patron of the declining subterranean race of kuo-toa. She hates humanity for the ancient wars that drove her race underground, and is well pleased when her followers sacrifice them to her. She is rumored to know great secrets of ancient magics, but in her insanity, she shares them with no one.

            Dogma: Survival is a privilege of the mentally and physically fit. Excise the weak, the corrupt, and the mentally deficient in order to achieve communal greatness. Watch the fingerlings and the adults to ensure none are disappointments to great Blibdoolpoolp. The royal blood of the noble priest caste carries with it their right to rule; all kuo-toa are obligated by the Sea Mother to follow and obey the nobility. Atrocities of old were committed by the weak surface dwellers, and usurp the rightful lands of the kuo-toa; capture and sacrifice them in the name of the Sea Mother. In all things, embrace the glory of the Sea Mother, and act in accordance with her wishes and desires; those who do not weaken the very fiber of society and risk corrupting the kuo-toan purity.

Shekinester

Greater deity

Alignment: Neutral, Chaotic Evil, or Lawful Good (depending on aspect)

Symbol: varies by aspect

Home plane: Outlands

Domain (Weaver) (-30%): breaking spells, knowledge spells, spells that improve physical characteristics

Domain (Empowerer) (-30%): knowledge spells, mind control spells

Domain (Preserver) (-30%): necromantic spells, protection spells

Portfolio: varies by aspect

Worshipers: nagas

Shekinester is the threefold deity of the nagas. She can appear as the aspect of spirit nagas, water nagas, and guardian nagas. She has a different symbol for each of her aspects: as the Weaver her symbol is a mask, as the Empowerer her symbol is a mirror, and as the Preserver her symbol is a grain jar.

            Shekinester is a complex, multi-faceted being. As the Weaver she is the active destructive principle of the multiverse. Chaotic evil in alignment, the Weaver appears as a spirit naga Crone. She destroys to make room for new creations, but is also the manifestation of connections and knowledge, bringing together disparate strands of being to create new understanding.

As the Empowerer she is neutral in alignment and appears as a young water naga Maiden who may be either beautiful or ugly, with pitted skin and greasy hair. In her beautiful form she grants safe passage, while in her ugly form she draws the uninitiated into opportunities for growth. The Empowerer is the bestower of wisdom and guardian of the uninitiated and the young. She can be kind and merciful, but she may force the unwilling into harsh initiations and painful knowledge, regardless of whether they know they need it.

The Preserver manifests as a mature but lovely guardian naga Mother, lawful good in alignment. The Preserver maintains (but does not create) all existence. She is the keeper of the flame within the Court of Light, her divine realm. She is also a guardian of the spirits of the dead (normally the naga dead, but sometimes the souls of other races as allowed by other gods), gifting them with sustenance symbolized as water, fruit, and bread.

Dogma: The Weaver’s faith dictates that what is inferior and exhausted should be eliminated to make way for new creatures and objects to have a chance at growth and improvement. Disparate threads of information can be tied together in new ways, or examined for the hidden ways they’re connected in order to discover new knowledge. The Empowerer’s faith teaches that all life is a test, and all decisions are an opportunity for a creatures’ growth of character. They preach that the young are vulnerable and in need of protection, so that they have such opportunities and choices as they grow. It is impossible to avoid these tests and initiations, for they are part of life, and the very act of avoidance is itself one of the choices inherent in the tests. The Preserver’s faith holds that the weak and vulnerable require aid and succor to ensure they are allowed all of what life has to offer them, for good or ill. They believe that the rewards of the afterlife come to those who stay true to themselves and do not waver from their principles when they are judged by the Arching Flame. In addition, they teach that burials and other death rituals are sacred rites that influence whether a creature can pass on, and stress the importance of guarding and defending the dead. All three hold that the pursuit of wisdom throughout life is the greatest goal, and spirits will eventually be offered a chance to return to the mortal world to further improve upon themselves and gain new wisdom through reincarnation.

Nagas simultaneously hold to all of these teachings, but their relative importance and subtly different interpretations reflect their different alignments. The unique combination of these tenets, however, often drives nagas to seek out and guard knowledge, testing those who would gain it for themselves. Among the other races who worship Shekinester, the tenets of one aspect are often followed to the exclusion and ignorance of the others.

Hleid

Lesser deity

Alignment: Neutral Good

Symbol: a jagged triangle surrounding a vortex of blue fire

Home plane: Elysium

Domain (-20%): animal spells, cold spells, healing spells

Portfolio: winter, frostfell animals, revenge

Worshipers: ulrda, druids, barbarians, witches

Hleid was once the primary deity of uldras, but some tribal humans who live in the frostfell revere her as well. Many centuries ago, she was struck down by Iborighu, her cruel and sadistic halfbrother. Her worshipers are still few and far between, but are slowly regaining their foothold in the frostfell. Druids, rangers, sorcerers, and wizards often venerate Hleid, but her most devout minions are the rimefire witches of the polar seas. She appears as a ghostly, matronly uldra woman who wears simple rustic clothing and carries an upraised trident on which several birds roost. Traditionally, she was the patron of the animals of the frostfell and the guardian of cold magic, but Iborighu’s betrayal left her scarred and embittered. The new Hleid still rewards her allies with kindness, but is no longer as slow to react to cruelty and wickedness with the same.

            Dogma: Be hospitable in the frostfell, but expect kindness in return. Do not delay punishment for betrayal or other wrongdoings.

Moongods

Demigods

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Symbol: a moon shrouded by the shadows of tentacles

Home plane: Material Plane (outer space)

Domain (-40%): knowledge spells

Portfolio: astrology, disasters, hidden knowledge, mooncalves

Worshipers: astrologers, cultists, seekers of hidden knowledge

Although distant, uncaring deities, the moongods that dwell between the stars do attract a small number of humanoid worshipers. Mostly, these worshipers are those seeking power through knowledge – evil diviners and astrologers who form small cults, revereing the secrets the moongods possess as much as the deities themselves. Occasionally, a mooncalf forms a cult to aid it in sowing dissent and disaster. The moongods have no true enemies, and no driving goals, making them unusually apathetic for deities.

Bargrivyek

Lesser Deity

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Symbol: white-tipped flail

Home plane: Baator

Domain (-20%): communication and empathy spells, protection and warning spells, healing spells

Portfolio: cooperation, territory

Worshipers: goblinoids

Bargrivyek is the goblinoid deity of unity and cooperation, titled Peacekeeper for his role of encouraging teamwork between the various goblinoid races and tribes. However, he is also a god of territory, and his peacekeeping role does not extend to creating positive relations between goblinoids and other races.

Grankhul

Lesser Deity

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: ever-open eyes in darkness

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-20%): earth spells, protection and warning spells, movement spells

Portfolio: hunting, senses, surprise, bugbears

Worshipers: bugbears

Grankhul is the bugbear deity of hunting, a cunning patron said to have gifted his people the art of stealth and to have taught them the value of the element of surprise. Grankhul is a god of the senses and of swift death, an eternally attentive ambusher symbolized by unclosing eyes lurking in the dark.

Khurgorbaeyag

Lesser Deity

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Symbol: red and yellow striped whip

Home plane: Baator

Domain (-40%): mind control spells

Portfolio: slavery, oppression, morale, goblins

Worshipers: goblins

Khurgorbaeyag is as trusted a lieutenant of Maglubiyet as any deity is, and is the patron god of goblins as a specific race. He is a god of rigid hierarchy like Maglubiyet, and also one of slavery and oppression. He delights in the use of non-goblins as slaves to undertakes mential work while goblins go to war, and is not averse to seeing his priest’s whips used for torture as well as chastisement.

Nomog-Geaya

Lesser Deity

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Symbol: crossed broadsword and handaxe

Home plane: Acheron

Domain (-40%): protection and warning spells

Portfolio: authority, war, hobgoblins

Worshipers: hobgoblins

Nomog-Geaya is the patron deity of hobgoblins, and exemplifies their traits of brutality, stoicism, courage, and cold-bloodedness. He has no expression other than a look of grim, tight-lipped, tyrannical authority. He is feared and respected as a great military commander despite his status as a lessed god, and he is very valuable to Maglubiyet: Too weak to be a threat but good as a war-commander. Nomog-Geaya has barely controlled disgust for Bargrivyek, believing him cowardly and weak.

Skigarret

Demigod

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: black claw

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-40%): darkness spells, spells that cause fear

Portfolio: fear, bugbears

Worshipers: bugbears

Skiggaret is the bogeyman of the bugbear race, a god of fear that is as nightmare-inducing to them as they were to others.

Stalker

Demigod

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: black spear

Home plane: Abyss

Domain (-30%): earth, darkness spells

Portfolio: vengeance, strife, death of goblinoids

Worshipers: goblinoids

The entity known simply as “Stalker” is an elemental entity related to the racial root stock of all goblinoid races. Stalker is always held in creation myths to have emerged from a dark underground complex into which the goblinoid race telling the tale entered in pre-history. Their intrustion drove Stalker out from his domain, and the demigod has sought revenge ever since.

Stalker is a solitary entity, without priests or shamans; goblinoids usually do not even attempt to propitiate it (a rare exception is the employment of ritual dancing to terminal exhaustion with the promises of a battle, and deaths/souls to be devoured, offered to this dire entity). The deaths of goblinoids strengthen the hate and anger which rules the deity and its power, so it always seeks conflict, war and death (which may be why other goblinoid gods don’t attempt to destroy it). It has a ravening, eternal, hateful hunger for livers and souls, but it is not powerful enough to directly oppose the stronger goblinoid gods. For this reason, it focuses its hate on bugbears, kobolds, urds, gnolls, and mongrelfolk.

Gorellik

Demigod

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: white, mottled hyaenodon's head

Home plane: Pandemonium and Abyss (wanders)

Domain (-30%): animal, protection and warning spells

Portfolio: hunting, hyenas, hyaenodons, gnolls

Worshipers: gnolls

Gorellik was the gnoll deity prior to the rise of the demon prince Yeenoghu. Gorellik fell out of favor among gnolls after Yeenoghu rose to prominence, though he was already in great decline before this.

Persana

Intermediate Deity

Alignment: Neutral Good

Symbol: silver trident against a silhouetted conch

Home plane: Elemental Plane of Water

Domain (-20%): water, healing, making and breaking

Portfolio: tritons, architecture

Worshipers: tritons

Persana is the creator-god of the tritons. Persana is unknown to many outside of the triton race and those that do know of him believe that is was nothing more than a god of construction and guardianship. This is due to the silence and mystery with which Persana, like his triton followers, surrounds himself.

Surminare

Lesser Deity

Alignment: Neutral

Symbol: a pearl held in a selkie’s paw

Home plane: Elysium

Domain (-30%): water, body control

Portfolio: selkies, beauty, peace

Worshipers: selkies

Surminare is a quiet, gentle, and reflective goddess who is reclusive and shy even in the company of other aquatic deities she trusts and loves. She can be playful, though, and get delight in simple beauties and pastimes is shown in the playful demeanor of her selkie folk. She detests confrontations, but is brave when she has to be.

Trishina

Lesser Deity

Alignment: Lawful Good

Symbol: dolphin with calf

Home plane: Elysium and Celestia

Domain (-20%): animal, water, protection and warning

Portfolio: children, fidelity, love, play, aquatic elves, dolphins

Worshipers: aquatic elves, dolphins, shalarin

Trishina is the goddess of the dolphins and consort of Deep Sashelas. She is the reason why aquatic elves had such a bond with dolphins.

Water Lion

Lesser Deity

Alignment: Neutral

Symbol: a sea lion’s head

Home plane: none (wanders)

Domain (-30%): animal, water spells

Portfolio: hunt, search, loyalty

Worshipers: aquatic beings

Water Lion’s home across the planes is not known, but his avatars roam the Prime Material ceaselessly. There are many myths concerning his purpose. Sometimes he is seen seeking a lost child or a lost god who is his best friend, and from loyalty he roams the planes forever seeking: the myths which place the latter as Stillsong are perhaps closest to the truth. Although it is not part of his quest, Water Lion hates sharks and attacks them on sight.

Stillsong

Unknown

Alignment: Neutral Good

Symbol: translucent golden sphere

Home plane: Upper Planes (wanders)

Domain (-30%): air, sound spells

Portfolio: song

Worshipers: bards, singers

Stillsong is a god in transition, developing and transcending his way through the elements in an ordered progression; now he is in his final development, in the element of Air. His manifestation in the Prime Material is as a sphere of song which approaches without warning and which is unheard outside the sphere. Some few gods know of Stillsong’s purpose and destiny, but none tell their priests of this.

Squerrik

Lesser Deity

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Symbol: rat’s head with bared yellow teeth

Home plane: Gehenna

Portfolio: thievery, disguise, concealment, wererats

Domain (-20%): animal, illusion, protection and warning spells

Worshipers: wererats

The cowardly and physically weak Squerrik lairs in an endless series of burrows and tunnels, infested with traps, below one of the plains of Gehenna. He is a fearful creature who ever seeks protective magic, disguises, and items for keeping his enemies at bay (not that he has many; most other deities don’t consider him worth bothering with).

Daragor

Lesser Deity

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: werewolf’s head

Home plane: Abyss

Portfolio: marauding beasts, bloodlust, pain, lycanthropes

Domain (-30%): animal, body control spells

Worshipers: werewolves, seawolves

Daragor is the bestial god of evil lycanthropes – werewolves and seawolves being his preferred creatures. This hateful god wanders the Lower Planes, picking off whatever prey he can. He has enmity for all other deities of lycanthropes, and virtually everything else he comes across. Daragor is simply savage, bloodlusting, and elementally vicious.

Eshebala

Lesser Deity

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Symbol: vixen

Home plane: Abyss

Portfolio: vanity, charm, greed, cunning

Domain (-30%): animal, mind control spells

Worshipers: foxwomen, wolfweres

Eshebala is the wily and supremely vain goddess of foxwomen, although she also favors wolfweres because of their hatred of werewolves. A denized of the Abyss, she loathes and detests tanar’ri and other infernal inhabitants of other Abyssal planes because of their ugliness, stupidity, brutish nature, or any combination thereof. She has a collection of fine gems, jewellery, fure, skins, objects of art, and the like, which are actually rather vulgar and flashy. She dwells alone and has no allies. She regards her brother Daragor as an oaf, although she does not actually hate him; her primary object of loathing is Ferrix. Two vain goddesses who preen and strut do not tend to get along well together.

Klikral

Lesser deity

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Symbol: a humanoid eye lacking both pupil and iris with an antenna sprouting from each corner

Home plane: Acheron

Domain (-10%): animal spells, communication and empathy spells, earth spells, mind control spells

Portfolio: insects, hives, secrecy, organization, insectare

Worshipers: insectare

The secretive patron of the spacefaring race known as the insectare is Klikral, the Master of the Mound. It is a strange creature that has little contact with other powers, instead directing its race on their quest for domination through manipulation rather than direct conquest.

            Dogma: A great injustice has been inflicted upon the insectare by the villainous elves. Work behind the scenes to wrest domination of the spacelanes from them. Work with their enemies when possible, but stay hidden and disguised. Stay close to Klikral and obey the words it speaks.