Gaar-mU-tIff (Gar-moo-tiff)

One of the Nine Horrific Lords

Gaar-mU-tIff, also known as the Scittering One, is one of the most feared of the nine Horrific Lords of the Outer Reaches. Their goal is to expand, feed, and spread the reach of their children as the primary and superior species of the many dimensions known to the Eldritch Beings before the end of all things comes to pass.
This creature lives in many realms simultaneously, extending a psychic influence throughout parts of nature unless they are shepherded by beings of significant power. The part of nature that it chooses to inhabit are insects, specifically those creatures associated with a pestilence that feed on the decay and death of the mortal realm, including flies, maggots, mosquitos, and a variety of beetles. These creatures generally lack strong willpower or mental capacity and rely upon guardians of their realm to allow them to live free of influence while Gaar-mU-tIff is constantly looking for these creatures to exert influence upon to gain sustenance. This creature feeds upon death, decay, pestilence, and the diminishment of life that holds significant willpower. The dimension that Gaar-mU-tIff hails from is one that is devoid of creatures with higher willpower, completely devoured and enslaved to act as a part of the greater hive that embodies his will. The form of this being is perceived as a teaming mass of various insects and bugs, teaming over decay that assembles itself in a swaying and flowing mass with no true physical form of its own to express individuality.
During the Eldritch War, this creature would capitalize on the distraction of guardians that normally held its influence at bay and creep into the colonies and masses of billions of insects that inhabit the world of Isekai. It is said that Garr-mU-tIff waged a long but quiet war of disease and famine that struck the supply lines and natural areas of the world seemingly at random with masses that could not be easily quelled. It has often been called into question if the influence has truly been ended or if its wide reach has been understood and dictates that nature be closely guarded by those of keen understanding and staunch will. The main embodiment of Gaar-mU-tIff seems to take an incredible amount of power to actualize outside of his own realm and was not thought to have occurred during the Eldritch War.
It is said that this creature is a vast, disembodied will that exists through the masses of lesser creatures while others argue that it has an incorporeal form that mortals are unable to comprehend through observation or known magic. Regardless, this creature is said to be cunning and patient beyond all beings that exist as it feeds off the death and slow ruin of all things that show life and struggle against the inevitable end as it alone has true immortality. Classic iconography of this creature shows it as a mass of worms, grubs, and other crawling or slimy bugs with clouds of flying insects surrounding it, all of which reside in the night sky with a single arm made from the masses that extends to reach towards the ground. This iconography is used in conjunction with cultic beliefs to assert that Gaar-mU-tIff is disembodied will-incarnate that merely extends through lesser creatures because no one body could house the collective will of the great hivemind.
Lesser creatures under the influence of the Eldritch Being will behave much the same as they normally would but their ability to multiply and spread will be increased to an unimaginable degree as they spread disease and being to destroy ecosystems through their vast numbers. Eventually, these hoards will become immense colonies, masses that cover everything in sight to choke the life out of both plants and animals. Corpses claimed during this will become food and decaying puppets filled to the brim with various insects. The cult that worships this creature is known as the Lesser Hive, filled with crazed individuals that welcome the abolishment of all individuality and see the idea of belonging to a collective and all-powerful hivemind as a utopia of sorts. The cult engages in ritualistic sacrifice that involves depriving intelligent creatures of their ability to reason and think through the use of magic or physical surgery and then plunging them into masses of writhing insects. Some willingly undergo these rituals while others are captured and forced into them, these groups often being led by the insane and the possessed with the promise of liberation, freedom, and paradise. These fanatics often seek out assassinations of guardians of nature and seek to start the decay and corruption of areas full of powerful, natural life that is native to Isekai. Occasionally, those that are legitimately capable of dark curses and contacting Eldritch entities are able to create Deadskins through the use of sacrificing creatures that are deprived of their will to masses of insects.
Deadskins are creatures that have the outward appearance of their regular species but are merely a sack of skin and assorted bones or bodily fluids that are in a constant state of being devoured by a mass of insects. These creatures appear to move about with some sort of combined will, often becoming leaders in the cult of the Lesser Hive or exhibiting the ability to corrupt unprotected areas of nature with some of them seeking out guardians of nature to dispatch them and spread their influence. Despite this, it is summarized that the consciousness of the original creature somehow lingers within the apparatus of the Deadskin and endures all the pain of being constantly devoured and puppeted as their sanity is slowly stripped away. Eventually, it melts into the hivemind of the Eldritch Being, devoid of will and self-recognition as it falls into a meaningless existence as its physical body is destroyed and reaches the limits of its usefulness and is consumed wholly.

Divine Classification

Eldritch Horror

Species

Eldritch

Realm

Outer Reaches

Church/Cult

Lesser Hive

Body Features

Gaar-mU-tIff is perceived as a mass of various insects that are often associated with death, decay, disease, and misfortune. Most notably these insects will never be comprised of spiders, bees, butterflies, or insects that actively hunt as a solitary existence. The defining trait of this entity is how it exists as a mass of creatures, implying that it may not have a true form of its own and acts as "will" or "psyche" that can influence other creatures into a powerful collective. It is unknown if this being truly chooses to communicate to creatures that have not been absorbed into its collective though the cult of the Lesser Hive claims that it reaches out to those devoid of pride and stricken by despair through their dreams. Sources of questionable reliability have likened these dreams to their consciousness being pulled into a grand collection full of screams, echoes of laughter, and immeasurable noise but with a strange organization and enormity that erodes the mind of a mortal.
It is unknown but assumed that this creature can manipulate the mind of anything that it erodes for long enough though it has a preference for those creatures that can multiply quickly to give it greater reach and influence in the physical world. These influenced creatures, usually insects, exhibit a variety of abilities and intelligence that dictate a vast mind that drives their movements but their physical bodies seldom exhibit insurmountable abilities. Even Deadskins themselves often seem restricted to the innate limitations of their species but it is difficult to determine their level of intellect and ability as they often are consumed from the inside out when attempts have been made to capture them.