Ghaunaduar
Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Ghaunaduar

This information is an excert from "Drow of the Underdark"..

" Legend whispers that the largest slimes, jellies, oozes, slugs, and other crawling things are intelligent, and worship their own gods. These tales go further: once, all such beings worshipped one god, who struck most of them mad in a fit of fury at some transgression. The deity’s revenge stole their intellect. Consequently, many of its worshippers, and most of its power, ceased to exist.
A few of the intelligent dwellers below remain - enough to continue and spread worship of this fell deity. It still lurks somewhere in the Elemental Planes (perhaps on the planes of Earth, Ooze, or Smoke).
This amphorous, dark purple blob with many tentacles is called Ghaunadaur (pronounced “GONE-ah-door”), That Which Lurks. Ghaunadaur and its giant roper servants have been worshipped for eons by various creatures of the Underdark, particularly lone or sub-intelligent “monsters” (whom it occasionally aids, in return for adulation). Evil beings seeking an alternative to established deities - including drow dissatisfied with the rule of Lolth - have also began to worship That Which Lurks. Most humans find the worship of Ghaunadaur (also known as “The Elder Elemental God”, “The Elder Eye”, or “Gormauth Souldrinker”) disgusting, but there are secret, subterranean altars and cults to the Eye all over the world.
Roleplaying Notes: Ghaunadaur is unpredictable by human standards. It may aid worshippers who merely pay “lip service” to its rituals, even expending great power to grant permanent magical boons - but may also devour or maim them, without warning. Ghaunadaur enjoys watching the hunting and devouring activities of large, horrible monsters, and the suffering they cause.
Ghaunadaur is silent and terrible when outside the Inner Planes, but old records tell of gibbering, bestial “language” spoken in the deity’s great “court” of mingled mud and gelatin pools.
Ghaunadaur can communicate telepathically with all beings within 90’ of his avatar. He can understand and contemplate complex emotions, schemes, and reasoning, but keeps his end of such communications blunt and simple (e.g. “Approve;” “No, Not;” “Slay;” “Come to Me;” “Go To (mental picture of desired place),” and so on.)

Statistics: Alignment: Chaotic Evil; Worshipper’s Alignment: any neutral or evil (especially “monsters”, outcasts); Area of Control: oozes, slimes, jellies, outcasts, rebels, all things subterranean; Symbol: purple circle, outlined with an inner ring of black with a single black rimmed, violet-on-mauve eye in the center of the circle; or (older symbol) an inverted triangle of amber on a purple background, with amber lines inside is forming an upside-down “Y” shape whose arms end by bisecting the sides of the triangle.

DUTIES OF THE PRIESTHOOD

Priests of Ghaunadaur have simple duties: they are to ensure, by force or threat, that a ready supply of sacrifices reaches Ghaunadaur’s altars. The god supplies them with spells and tentacle rods to ensure success in this.
Most of all, Ghaunadaur delights in creatures that offer themselves to him without resistance (regardless of whether these sacrifices have been charmed or otherwise coerced by its clergy). Priests who can bring such offerings are highly valued and favored by the god.

Requirements: Attribute Scores: any (devotion is valued over ability, even oozes and jellies are accepted); Alignment: any evil; Weapons allowed to Clergy: Any; Armor Restriction: any; Special Powers granted to priesthood: immunity to all poisons, gained at level three; immunity to all acids, corrosive fluids and substances, gained at level five; immunity to all breath weapons, gained at level nine; immunity to all elemental spheres and related magics; Command undead.

Aims, Credo, and Ethos: All creatures have their place, and all are fit to wield power. Those who hunt weed out the weak and strengthen the stock of all. Those who rebel or who walk apart find new ways and try new things, and do most to advance their races.

Creatures of power best house the energy of like, which Ghaunadaur reveres and represents.
Faithful of Ghaunadaur are to make sacrifices to the Eye, persuade others to sacrifice themselves to Ghaunadaur or in service of the Eye, further knowledge and fear of Ghaunadaur, and in the end give themselves to Ghaunadaur in unresisting self-sacrifice.
Priests of Ghaunadaur are to convert all beings they can to the worship of Ghaunadaur. They must slay all clergy of other faiths, plundering their temples and holdings for wealth to better their own lot and to further the worship of Ghaunadaur.

Rituals: Ghaunadaur expects a prayer of adulation and praise, accompanied by a sacrifice, at least once a day. If live sacrifices cannot be procured that often, the Elder Eye will accept offerings of bones and food, burned in oil, as braziers of perfumed incense are also burned.

If a priest is unable to procure such offerings, the priest must pray while holding one hand in an open flame. The priest’s hand must be covered in any magical oil or potion. (Oils or potions of fire resistance are instantly converted to lamp oil, with the appropriate results.) If the prayer is good (55% chance), the hand is restored. If not...
Priests of Ghaunadaur are to do whatever pleases Ghaunadaur best, and serve the Eye absolutely.

Customs, Rules, & Taboos: No thief, or priest of another faith, is to enter a temple of Ghaunadaur, leave again, and live for more than eight days thereafter (unless conversion to the worship of Ghaunadaur occurs). All such blasphemers must be destroyed, preferably as sacrifices on the altar.

No creature who receives the aid of Ghaunadaur is to allow eight days to pass thereafter without praying and making offerings to the Eye.
Priests of Ghaunadaur must not knowingly befriend or consort with priests of any other faith. If such a relationship arises out of ignorance, the unbeliever must either perform at least one task for Ghaunadaur (and preferably to enter the service of the Eye), or sacrifice to Ghaunadaur. Failing that, the offending priest of the Eye must sacrifice himself in the unbeliever’s stead.

Equipment, Garb, & Offerings: In any place of worship to Ghaunadaur, all cloth furnishings and garments worn by priests are to of hues pleasing to Ghaunadaur’s eye. Accepted colors are: copper, amber, flame-orange, russet, gold, dark red, plum, purple, amethyst, violet, heliotrope, mauve, lilac, lavender, black, and silver.

Smoke and flame are to be a part of all sacrifices to Ghaunadaur. No creature is to speak out against the will of Ghaunadaur in the presence of the Eye, its avatar, or its manifestation. If such defiance occurs, a sacrifice of appeasement is to be performed (preferable involving the creature who defied the Elder Eye).

Priests of Ghaunadaur are encouraged to become familiar with the use of and manufacture of acids, poisons (including gases and incenses), and flaming oils of all sorts. (Temples and priestly abodes are typically well-supplied with such weapons, in a ready state.)"


(If anyone wants decorating tips for a Temple of Ghaunadaur (They're very specific!), e-mail me)