Yth'Zirath
(a.k.a. The Devourer In the Void)
Unlike the gods of Aeloria who manifest in comprehensible forms, Yth'Zirath's physical appearance defies standard description. Those unfortunate enough to glimpse its true form report conflicting and impossible anatomies—a vast, writhing mass of tentacles and mouths extending in directions that shouldn't exist; a perfectly geometric shape that somehow contains infinite angles; a darkness so absolute it appears to consume light itself. The entity seems to exist simultaneously as both singular and multiple, part of reality yet fundamentally separate from it. When it does create avatars to interact with the material plane, they appear as wrongness given form—beings with too many limbs arranged in impossible configurations, creatures with skin that ripples with mouths that speak in unison, or eerily perfect humanoid shells with eyes that reflect the empty void.
The worship of Yth'Zirath is fragmented and secretive, practiced by isolated cults that rarely communicate with one another. Its followers include those driven mad by contact with The Void, power-seekers willing to sacrifice their humanity for cosmic knowledge, and those who believe the current reality is fundamentally flawed and must be unmade. Devotional practices involve rituals designed to thin the barriers between realms, often incorporating human sacrifice, self-mutilation, and the creation of non-Euclidean geometric patterns that hurt the eye to observe. Many cultists undergo voluntary modifications to make themselves more like their patron, resulting in disturbing physical transformations.
"Temples" to Yth'Zirath barely qualify as such, as they represent attempts to create spaces where reality itself is weakened. These profane sites are typically located in remote areas—deep underground, in abandoned ruins, or in locations where reality already feels thin. The architecture deliberately incorporates wrongness—angles that don't add up, corridors that seem to lead back to themselves, rooms that appear larger inside than their external dimensions would allow. At the heart of each site lies a "thinning point" where the barrier between realities can be ritually weakened, often marked by a structure that appears to fold in on itself in impossible ways.
Unlike the celebrations associated with Aeloria's gods, Yth'Zirath's cult observes "convergences"—rare astronomical alignments when the barriers between realms naturally weaken. During these times, cultists perform elaborate rituals involving synchronized chanting in languages that damage the throat to speak, creating elaborate patterns with their bodies or with sacrificial victims. Their ultimate goal varies between cult branches—some seek to physically bring Yth'Zirath into Aeloria, others wish to transform themselves into beings capable of surviving in The Void, while still others believe they can gain favor by helping the entity devour reality itself.
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