Lesser Deities & Other Extraplanar Powers

The following beings are not nearly as powerful as true gods, but have the ability to grant certain magical abilities to loyal followers. Many are demigods themselves, capable of granting divine power. Others are not, but warlocks and wizards seek them out in to reap their power and knowledge. And unlike the gods, they usually take physical form, sometimes even on the material plane.

• Ahmon-Ibor is a twin-headed demon-lord of the Lower Planes, privy to all of the yet-unacted upon spite in the universe, from promises of bloody vengeance to mild irritation spoken under the breath. And it has driven him to cosmic madness. Each time someone acts on their innate cruelty, a voice leaves his head, but another fills its place just as quickly. The Twin-Beasts lash out due to the screaming hatred that constantly fills its mind. Occasionally, one voice will be heard above the others, and Ahmon-Ibor will transform the source of the noise into a manticore, or a medusa, or some other terrible monster, so that it may finally wreak its revenge and stop its whining. Of course, this has only made people worship Ahmon-Ibor — and they’re the loudest ones of all. Avatars of Ahmon-Ibor, once summoned, tend to destroy shrines and cultists first.

• Anam the Rune-Carver was once a proper god, creator of the giants, and an obsessive chronicler of divine runes. But, by revealing his true name to his followers, his power was considerably diminished, and he has faded mostly into obscurity. He is still worshiped occasionally by giants and the goliath . He is known to them as a god of wisdom and creation, as well as a protector and god of the mountains.

• The Burner-Prince is a maniacal fey-entity who starts destructive fires in forests where the border between the material world and the Court of Fey draws thin. And while he can travel between many forests through his home-plane, the Forest of Veils is a favored haunt of his.

• The Croaking King is a god defined by an oddly specific portfolio: he is the god of bigotry and human-supremacy, and the patron of frogs and toads. This rather strange and odious combination has lent him few worshipers and limited divine power. He has, however, found some measure of success coercing Swampers by convincing them that he is some kind of animist frog-spirit. The foulest aspect of his dogma calls up his followers to make non-human-human-sacrifices.

• D’ggon endlessly slumbers beneath the Sea of Swords (as the legend goes, amid the ruins of some underwater city). His stirring brings thunderstorms, and the leviathan-beast rules the depths of the ocean, even from his deep sleep. His followers wish to see the entire world swallowed up by the ocean, although sailors sometimes give him small offerings, if they are feeling particularly superstitious or fearful.

• The Elder Gods of the Void dwell in the place undreamed of, crushed between the infinite bounds of time and space. They exist in the Void, a dimension without those luxuries, and live a torturous existence as formless, ageless beings, who wish to warm themselves by the fires of reality. The wisest among them know the secrets of the universe, although they are aware of men only in the same way that we are aware of gnats or fleas. They were the patron gods of Alphos. Examples include Nyarelath-Hotep, the Crawling Chaos, Shubnegurath, She Who Spawned One-Thousand Young, Hasz’tuur, the King in Yellow, Az-Atoth, the Blind-Idiot God, K’thuul’huo, the Dreamer in the Dark, or Ba'aa'a-aa, Elder God of Sheep.

• Gargak the Bloody-Clawed was a giant-god whose true name was revealed by the compulsive writing of Anam the Rune-Carver. As an act of revenge, Gargak turned many of the giants towards evil, before being imprisoned in the Lower Planes. There, he resides as a horrible troll-like demon of limited power. Ogres, trolls, and hill giants are too stupid to ponder spiritual questions, but Gargak is sometimes worshiped by orcs, or humans who seek his destructive might.

• The Gilded Queen was formerly a lesser deity of love and vanity, specifically concerned with dowries, whose dogma stressed marriage as an economic institution. She was courted by the other deities because of her incomparable beauty, and amassed an impressive array of valuable gifts. With the emergence of the urban middle-class, the Gilded Queen has also become associated with wealth and prosperity, and is a friend to merchants and artisans alike. She is in a transitional period in the pantheon, and although her powers are small, her faith is growing.

• The Great Raven is a lesser god under the authority of the Keeper, who has been tasked with watching over the Vale of Shadows to ensure that the Prince of Undeath never escapes into the material world. She is not a true god (she takes a physical form as an overlarge raven), but she is worshiped by some as a minor goddess of repose and shadow magic.

• The Hag Mother does not offer her blessings to just any mortal worshippers. Instead, she lurks in the shadows of the universe, allowing her daughters to interpret her mysterious will from their covens, only rarely granting power to those who offer her sacrifices in the name of destroying all that is beautiful and lovely in the world. As the progenitor of all hags (they are said to ooze from pores and pustules upon her hideous form), she is responsible for all of the evil and ugliness in the Court of Fey.

• The Harbinger of Rot and Doom is an exarch of the Prince of Undeath, once a powerful cleric of his who transcended his mortal coil. His appearance in the material plane is meant to usher in a new age, where undead destroy and replace the living creatures of the world. For now, the Harbinger lords over decay and ruin, and is strongly associated with worms. In fact, his form is composed of a mass of writhing worms, larva, and maggots. Those who serve him are always trying to summon him into the material plane.

• Hvethrungr is spoken of by the Norsken as a capricious devil who can take any form, and dooms otherwise good men with his cunning and guile. Despite that fact, his relationship with the gods and other demons is strange – ranging from a harmless trickster to a cruel and pitiless manipulator, or at times, even helpful – and his motives and allegiances seem to shift on a whim.

• Lagezod dwells in some filthy pit in the Lower Planes, unconcerned with the greater universe, and it would seem he provides for his followers only because he can’t ignore them. He only wishes to sate his eternal appetite, while lording over hunger, desperation, and unchecked impulse. His worshipers include troglodytes, bullywugs, and other primitive reptilian or amphibian humanoids. Lagezod resembles a horrible union between an enormous toad and a lizard, oozing slime from a wide, toothy maw. As the legend goes, the soul of anyone slain by a follower of Laegzod is transported instantly to his gluttonous mouth.

• Lelath, the Demon-Queen of Spiders, rules a portion of the Lower Planes called the Eternal Web, lording over poison, spiders, and crimes of spite. Her worship, for whatever reason, is disproportionately represented among the Night Elves of the Lands Below. As a result, she is one of the most powerful demons in the Lower Planes, second only to the Lords of Sin and the Prince of Undeath. She is very nearly a true god.

• The Lich-Kings of Stygia are numerous and varied in their identities and motives. They are undead necromancers, some nearly one-thousand years old, who dwell in the desert lands to the south, interred in nigh-impenetrable, pyramid-shaped tombs filled with dangers and traps. Most are bound to their lairs, and require living followers to exact their will.

• The Lords of Sin are the court of the Horned King, and the most powerful demons and devils in the Lower Planes . They serve as advisors and allies, but constantly scheme to increase their own power. Each rules a single aspect of man’s worst behavior.

• • Fraes-urb’lu, the Prince of Deceptions, lords over the sin of Envy and delights sowing paranoia and turning men against each other. He finds weak-willed people ruled by envy, and promises them what they seek.
  • Mammon, the worm-like patron of Greed, stirs in his lair, endlessly counting his immense treasure hoard. He forms pacts with those seeking wealth or power in their business relationships.
  • Baephomat rules over minotaurs and others with savagery in the hearts, as he is the Lord of Wrath. Baephomat grants power to those who wish to release their bestial urges, or bring about the downfall of ordered civilization.
  • The Demon Queen of Fungus, Zug-ti-moi, is the master of an army of brainless, spore-infected servants, slowly rotting before the Queen of Sloth. She caters to lazy folk who wish to cut corners on the path to knowledge or power.
  • Jubilex, the Faceless Lord, a great blob of hissing acid that dissolves all it touches, is the Lord of Gluttony. Jubilex forms pacts with the truly desperate -- people who believe their only recourse is a giant ooze-demon.
  • Grast, the Lord of Lust, is a warning that not all beautiful things are good; he lords over the collective harem of succubi and incubi, as well. Those who seek to form pacts with him typically seek to be more attractive or charismatic, or those who wish to have influence over their preferred sex.

• The Nameless was once a mortal being, a brutal warrior who cut down giants with his twin axes, but became a demon lord after stealing the Staff of Undeath (the fabled scepter of the Prince of Undeath) for a brief time, exploding in a surge of demonic magic. He now rules a far-off corner of the Lower Planes, offering his power to those hungry enough to seek it, counting bears as his unholy animal, and a handful of copper coins as his symbol.

• The Prince of Fools, said to be the father of all the satyrs, commands his followers to debase themselves and commit acts of debauchery for his amusement. He is a trickster and hedonist, and one of the patrons of good (but mischievous) fey everywhere. Bards and revelers hold him in high-esteem, as do followers of the Mad Mistress – his off-and-on lover, depending on what sex he prefers that day.

• Ralin the Watchful was a demigod of the Ralindrii people who inhabited the lands that would become known as Ralindor. Ralin himself was a protector-god associated with earthquakes, and supposedly the first chief of the Ralindrii clan. He shared many doctrine with the Lawcrafter and the Green Goddess, so their collective worship has mostly overtaken his.

• Sset, the Serpent-King of the Night is the patron of evil reptilian creatures, the most devoted of which are the Snake-Men. Sset was their progenitor, in the legends of the Stygians. Ages ago, he transformed his most devoted worshipers into foul monstrosities – half-man, half-snake – and continues to do so now. Many of his cultists, including more than a few shape-shifting Snake-Men, have begun to infiltrate cities in the Free Kingdoms, including Ralindor and Narrowmouth.

• Tarvarix the-Bat King is a secretive entity, a pit fiend and formerly a minion of the Horned King. Smaller and weaker than others of his kind, Tarvarix nonetheless made an excellent spy and treasurer, but coveted his master’s riches. During the Times of Strife, he stole away with some of the Horned King’s most prized possessions, and now scours the universe for loot while avoiding his old master’s wrath. He can be summoned in the flesh with an offering of treasure or magical items, but only briefly. Bats are his sacred animal.

• The Thunderer is an irreverent trickster-god of the dwarfs. He brings rain and storms to the Giantshield Mountains, and guides dwarven travelers and exiles, serving as the patron of dwarfs who have been rejected by their clans. He is the twin brother of the Ironbender, and has impersonated him on many occasions, leading to complications and confusion for the other gods.

• Treants can be found all over the great forests of the world, but are most prominent and powerful in the Forest of Veils. They are benevolent spirits from the Court of Fey, taken physical form in the natural world, and wise beyond its people. Both solitary treants and groves of the enormous tree-spirits forge pacts with outsiders, although only the oldest and most powerful of them have this capability, and they are extremely cautious about whom they contact. Their motives and goals are as variable as their identities.

• Tyrants from Below are found deep below the surface of the earth in the Lands Below, including creatures such as the mysterious aboleths, powerful Elder Brains and their Brain-Eater spawn, or the megalomaniacal eye-beasts. All are twisted and warped by alien magic, and all seeking agents upon the surface for whatever their fell purpose may be. Many are conduits of power for the Whisperer Below, and privy to the universe’s great secrets.

• Urlden the Hungerer, according to Small Folk campfire tales, is a great beast, resembling a star-nosed mole, who feasts upon halfling-flesh and burrows beneath the earth with huge, ivory claws. He delights in turning brother against brother, and his favorite pastime is to dig near groups of halflings and plant thoughts of greed and bloodshed in their minds. Apparently, he is the only creature capable of turning a halfling to evil, although there is no evidence to suggest his physical existence...so perhaps he is some kind of god?

• Venkanar the Maimed God is an exarch of the Knowing Eyes , worshiped by evil members of her clergy (she is, after all, a Neutral goddess). The Maimed God represents secrets and forbidden knowledge, especially dark magic. He derives his name from the Times of Strife; he knew of the Horned King's plot to overthrow them, and did nothing. However, since he was uninvolved with the plot, his sentence was more lenient; his hand and eye were severed, and cast to the mortal realm. They are said to still exist as powerful artifacts that corrupt the souls of those who wield them.

• The Wonder-Bringer was the patron god of the gnomes of Glimm, before the Elveswar wiped them off the map. He represents invention, creativity, and inspiration, but emphasizes technology over magic (an art he holds little esteem for). He had few followers outside of Glimm, and as a result, his worship has dwindled considerably in recent centuries. A few craftsmen and tinkers still pray to him, and clerics here and there can be seen tending to shrines, typically within the corners of larger temples.

Legends & Lore: The Ordning: When Anam (see below) created the giants, he crafted from pure elemental energy, and gave each a rank based on the difficulty of the task; the hardest to create are considered more impressive works. This rank is known as the Ordning, and informs the giants of their place in the world. At the top were storm and cloud giants, associated with air, followed by fire giants, and frost giants, carved from elemental ice. The lowest of the "true giants" were stone giants, composed of earth. The goliath are ranked just below stone giants. From the leftover clay, Anam tried to make one last creation, but the result was a set of rather unimpressive, misshapen creatures: hill giants, ogres, and ettins. The runes found throughout the Stone Teeth in Iscagna detail the Ordning.