Rovagug

The Rough Beast

Alignment: Chaotic-Evil
Realm: The Dead Vault
Temples: caverns, chasms, fortresses, pits
Worshippers: destructive zealots, doomsayers, hate-mongers, warlords
Sacred Animal: scorpion
Sacred Colors: brown and red
Rovagug has no single holy scripture. He has little use for one, for his sole commandment is to destroy, and his followers need no instruction in how to accomplish that. The figurative and literal monsters who worship Rovagug share their myths and legends in secret shrines and hidden caves, calling him the Rough Beast, the Imprisoned King, the Tide of Fangs, the Unmaker, and the Worldbreaker. They tell each other that each life they snuff out, each piece of art they destroy, each work of labor they bring tumbling down puts a crack in the prison that holds their god. Each of their little efforts of destruction adds up and will one day free him, setting him loose to bring about the end of all things.
They tell of how Rovagug crawled millennia ago from beyond the depths of the universe, leaving only devastation in his wake. An endless number of lesser gods fell before him, devoured in his massive maw or crushed beneath his unholy bulk. His worshippers whisper in anger of a cowardly alliance of the other gods, who couldn’t hope to stop him alone: While sly Calistria distracted the Rough Beast, foul Torag, weak Gorum, and judgmental Pharasma conspired to forge an unbreakable prison in the heart of the world. Arrogant Sarenrae had the temerity to challenge Rovagug directly. She used holy fire to lure him close to the world that would be his prison before finally slicing a great rift on the surface that drew him in. Only then did cowardly, smug Asmodeus seal Rovagug in the Cage, taunting him with the Hell-forged key.
Still, his worshippers say, this prison merely contains Rovagug, and only for now. He sleeps fitfully, his shudders causing the earth to tremble and mountains to fall, his cries of rage spewing noxious gases to poison his enemies’ followers. His flesh births and sustains horrors undreamed of, parasites with the power to wreak destruction above. The deadliest of these— great spawn such as Festering Ulunat, the Unholy First; Chemnosit, the Monarch Worm; Xotani, the Firebleeder; and Tarrasque, the Armageddon Engine—are almost gods in their own rights, laying waste to the world and leaving nothing but destruction in their wakes. They have caused catastrophes on a scale most of the Rough Beast’s followers only dream of, monstrous steps toward setting Rovagug free to feast on the gods who locked him away.
While most of Rovagug’s followers simply seek an end to all, his most extreme worshippers believe they will be uplifted as gods in a new world Rovagug will create after destroying the old. In truth, the Rough Beast cares nothing for them. He cares only about destruction and bringing an end to all things. Should the day come that his prison fails, he would, after enacting his vengeance on the other gods, turn on his own spawn and followers, devouring them as surely as all else.
Rovagug’s faith is forbidden in civilized lands, where no temple to him is allowed to stand. The Rough Beast’s worshippers revel in the hatred of the other gods and their faithful. Creatures who take up Rovagug’s service live to destroy. Most are monsters or hail from communities that celebrate destruction; they cry out paeans to the god as they cut through lesser creatures in howling fits of rage. A few individuals—all somewhat monstrous in their own right—follow Rovagug in their lust for the power that they believe even the other gods fear, or in the mistaken belief that the obliteration the god promises would clear the way for a new birth. Even they know enough to not name their deity in the open, however, lest they be swiftly cut down.
The few adventurers who follow Rovagug cherish destruction, laying waste to as much as they can. They may be warlords, cultists seeking to open the locks of Rovagug’s prison, warriors who have seen such horrors that they can envision only destruction, or vengeful souls who want an end for themselves and all who have hurt them.

Divine Domains

Destruction, Disaster and Wrath

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Divine Classification

God