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The goblinoid races are the most important group after the demihumans in virtually all worlds. They are fecund, their short lifespans balanced by a very high birth rate, These races are generally evil and their gods and pantheons reflect this clearly (Or, sometimes, it's the other way around). They compete with all the surface races for living space, and with most of the underground races who live above the Underdark realms also. They are all aggressive and territorial, and they would surely dominate worlds if not for a major weakness: Many are too chaotic to organize well enough to achieve lasting success, and those races which are lawful often factionalize into competing clans who waste resources skirmishing against each other. These races rarely dominate the world around them because they are divided amongst themselves.
The term "goblinoid" needs definition: For the purposes of looking at their gods, this refers to orcs and orogs, goblins and hobgoblins, bugbears, kobolds and urds. Mongrelfolk are also included here, because they usually have mostly goblinoid blood and their god attracts a handful of followers from the other goblinoid races.
Orc Pantheon
Most extensive of all goblinoid pantheons is that of the populous fertile orc race. Their myth of pre-time, constantly re-told by shamans around the campfire in the deepest dark of night, is archetypal for most of the goblinoid races. The orcs believe that in ancient days, the gods gathered to divide the world among their followers. When Gruumsh, the creator of the orcs, claimed the mountains, he learned they had been taken by the dwarves. He laid claim to the forests, but those had been settled by the elves. Each place that Gruumsh wanted had already been claimed. The other gods laughed at Gruumsh, but he responded with a furious bellow. Grasping his mighty spear, he laid waste to the mountains, set the forests aflame, carved great furrows in the fields, as well as creating caves, blighted glades, and badlands for his people to dwell. Such was the role of the orcs, he proclaimed, to take and destroy all that the other races would deny them. To this day, the orcs wage an endless war on humans, elves, dwarves, and other folk.The orc pantheon, known as the Tribe of He Who Watches, is one that's been kicked around far more than its fair share. As the head of the group, the greater god Gruumsh must make sure the orcs and their deities are well taken care of, that they survive no matter what. And that's getting harder. See, folks say the orcs have been driven so far that they'll have to make their final stand on Acheron, and Gruumsh is partly to blame. By allowing his lieutenants to squabble among themselves, the pantheon was taken by surprise and forced to leave its territory on Baator (and chant is the orcs'd already fled Gehenna before that). Now, they'll do or die from Nishrek, a realm on the opposite face of the same cube inhabited by the goblin pantheon.
Nishrek's not as orderly as Clangor. Instead, individual orcs jockey for position in the ever-changing leadership of the realm, fighting their way out of the trench-slums dug deep into the iron surface of the cube. Those who make it out of the trenches can then vie for places in the mighty orcish army, which marches out regularly to war with the goblins. The pantheon knows that Nishrek is its last stand, which makes the orcs a more effective force than ever.
- God of Evil: All are evil-aligned. They're the orcish gods, after all.
- Our Orcs Are Different: Each orc god has its own place in the scale between Tolknian and Blizzard orcs. Baghtru is the definition of a Tolknian orc. Gruumsh was firmly a Tolknian orc in the beginning, but has become more progressive lately. Ilneval, Shargaas, Yutrus and especially Luthic are of the more calm, clever and progressive sort.
Gruumsh (pronounced GROOMSH) is the undisputed head of the pantheon of the orcs. In pre-history, one or two now-unknown orc gods conspired to depose He-Who-Never-Sleeps, and were destroyed utterly. Since that time, Gruumsh has ruled the other orc gods with an iron grip. He is a fearsome, brutal god who revels in warfare, and ever seeks new territory for his race.
The drive to acquire territory and living space is Gruumsh's greatest motivation. He has always felt cheated by the way the gods of humanity and demihumans divided up the world, casting aside the orcs (and himself!) without any respect. Gruumsh drives his people relentlessly, through the work of his priests and shamans, to colonize new lands. And his deep and abiding hatred of the other gods ensures that he strives to achieve such dominion through warfare, constant and unceasing. Gruumsh tolerates no sign of peaceability from his people. Indeed, orcs have no word for "peace" in their language, only a guttural expletive which means, roughly, "temporary respite from strife".
Gruumsh has an abiding hatred of Corellon Larethian for defeating him in battle. Orc religion denies that Gruumsh lost an eye to Corellon, as their story of "in the beginning..." demonstrates. They hold that Gruumsh was tricked and cheated by Corellon's magic, and that the elf-god could not win in a fair fight. Gruumsh seeks to have his people raze and destroy elvish homelands whenever possible. It is as well for the elves that they usually live in homelands far distant from the orc clans.
But then, Gruumsh has an equally deep hatred of dwarves and their gods. The shamanic tales of how Gruumsh and the Elder Orcs fought for control of the mountains would weary the patience of any listener. Orcs desire mountains for their stark and barren quality; they are despoilers, and love the bare and bleak. Still, they'll take whatever they can get, and a major strength of the race is their ability to survive almost anywhere.
That property, too, is close to Gruumsh's heart. He and his priests weed out orcs who are sick, weak, lame, or unfit for the prosecution of war. Gruumsh is a harsh deity, and iron rule and weeding out the weak is a key element of orc thinking. Since males are physically stronger than females, his church is extremely patriarchal, and females are usually relegated to the roles of child-rearing and making sure the warriors have food on the table after a hard day's pillaging and slaughter. "If Gruumsh intended females to be the equal of males he'd have given them bigger muscles" is a less brutish translation of an orcish saying among the warrior caste.
Gruumsh watches over the endless battles on Nishrek from his Iron Fortress. Within its walls, any orc or orc petitioner gains damage reduction and spell resistance. Gruumsh often wanders the battlefields, aiding one side or another apparently at his whim. The orcs are happy to return the favor by occasionally seeking shelter within his fortress because of its supreme defensive benefits. Sometimes the god allows an army to take cover in his fortress; sometimes he does not. Bahgtru and Ilneval live in Gruumsh's Iron Fortress as well. These two deities fight beside Gruumsh or at his bidding.
Fortunately for the races of the Prime Material Plane, much of Gruumsh's attention is taken up with the eternal battle of orc and goblin spirits, where he directs the warfare against them from his Iron Fortress. But Gruumsh is ever watchful over his race, and is especially watchful for transgressions.
Gruumsh also makes his home on an eternal battlefield outside the walls of the Iron Fortress of Chernoggar in the Astral Sea, determined to raze it to the ground one day. Immortal warriors fight and die on both sides of this conflict, returning to life with every nightfall.
Gruumsh will only send an avatar if this is needed for a great battle, and where Ilneval and Bahgtru cabbot be entrusted with the matter at hand. Very rarely, he will send one to stymie some appearance of an elven avatar. His omens usually take such agreeable forms as the sudden snapping of a young shaman's neck vertebraem or more leniently a cloud of drifting toxic black smoke.
- Arch-Enemy: With Corellon.
- The Conqueror: Gruumsh is a god of conquest, driving his savage multitudes to expand their power by whatever brutal means they wish. Gruumsh commands his followers to take all the territory he thinks is rightfully theirs (which is almost everything). He tolerates no sign of friendliness from his people. Unceasing warfare is his creed, though Gruumsh does not object to simple colonization if that can be arranged.
- Cyclops: Gruumsh usually appears with one large central eye. The orcs' version of the legend holds that he always had one eye.
- Deity Identity Confusion: In the 4th edition, Gruumsh was stated to actually be Talos, the human god of storms, natural disasters, rebellion, and destruction, and the leader of a group of evil gods known as the Deities of Fury, in disguise, getting some worshipers from different races. This was Retconned in the 5th edition, in which they're once again established as separate deities.
- Destroyer Deity: Gruumsh is the unblinking god of destruction, lord of marauding barbarian hordes, who unleashes the savage multitudes against outposts of civilization. Gruumsh exhorts his followers to slaughter and pillage. If orcs can strike a beautiful, serene land, they'll do so, but because of Gruumsh, they'll likely raze the place and return to the austere beauty of their homes.
- Evil Counterpart: To Tempus. While the two have little in the way of interaction, Gruumsh's realm is described as a dark reflection of Tempus' Warrior's Rest.
- Evil Virtues: Determination and valor; Gruumsh doesn't quit.
- Eye Scream: Gruumsh is said to have lost his left eye in a battle with Corellon Larethian, and now the orc deity searches the cosmos over for it. He plans to find whoever's foolish enough to keep the eye hidden from him, and tear them apart. Or at least that's the version the elves like to tell; according to the orcs, it's bull, and Gruumsh only ever had one eye. Orcs often demonstrate their faith in Gruumsh by gouging out one of their eyes and offering it as a sacrifice to their one-eyed god.
- Fantastic Racism: Gruumsh dislikes everything that is not an orc or of orcish make, and he feels particularly spiteful toward elves (over the matter of his eye). He feels equal malice toward dwarves, who contested with the orcs for control of the mountains and won; a state of affairs Gruumsh regards as strictly temporary.
- Forever War: His dogma teaches his followers to seek unceasing war against their enemies, and kill and enslave those that oppose them.
- The Heavy: He was this when part of Lolth's Legion of Doom. While she was the mastermind behind it, Gruumsh was by far the most powerful deity in the group, and the only one who could hold his own against Corellon.
- "Just So" Story: One story explains how the world was divided between the elven, dwarven and human gods; The elven gods claimed the forst for their kin, the dwarven gods claimed the metal-rich mountains, and the human gods claimed the plains, leaving nothing for the orcs. Gruumsh took his spear and threw it into the ground, raising rocky and barren hills, declaring that they would be the demain of his orcs, and there they would grow stronger than elves, dwarves and humans.
- Kill the God: During the height of the Orcgate Wars, Gruumsh battled and killed Re, the leader of the Mulhorandi pantheon, in the first known deicide. Since then, Gruumsh has had multiple counts of deicide under his belt.
- The Maker: Gruumsh created the orcs from his own blood and hatred, in his own image, to be his servants in the world.
- Named Weapons: Gruumsh wields a great spear called the Bloodspear, which is covered in the blood of elves. The spear paralyzes when it strikes.
- Named After the Injury: He's commonly known as the One-Eyed God. General consensus is that he had an eye gouged out while fighting a duel with the elf god Corellon Larethian, although Gruumsh's priests consider this heresy and insist that Gruumsh has always had one eye.
- Our Orcs Are Different: Gruumsh himself is the epitome of the older, more savage orcs, though lately has been guiding his people to a more neutral stance, if only because getting them out of caves will make them stronger as a whole.
- The Scottish Trope: Nonclerics are never allowed to say the deity's name and may refer to him only by title.
- The Social Darwinist: Gruumsh calls on his followers to be strong and to cull the weak from their numbers. His church is responsible for the elimination of the sick, weak, lame, or unfit members of the tribe, regardless of age or status. Gruumsh also sends horrifying omens to those who don't live up to his expectations. If a batch of orcs can't push themselves to excel, Gruumsh usually destroys them by fire or the aggression of rival orc clans.
- Top God: Gruumsh is the driven and aggressive leader of the orc pantheon. He enforces a clear and rigid chain of command with himself at the top.
- War God: Gruumsh is a god of war who loves fighting for its own sake. He revels in strife and pain, pushing his people to expand their territories by driving other races from prime-material lands.
Bahgtru (pronounced BOG-true) is the awesomely stupid god of incredible might, who scorns all arms and armaments or workings of magic and values only physical strength. He is said to challenge and battle all manner of archetypal beasts and roam the planes tearing the landscape asunder.
Bahgtru is the son of Gruumsh and Luthic the Cave Mother. Though scorned and derided for his stupidity and lack of self-will, no one says ill of his awesome might. The other orcish gods both fear him and call upon him for assistance when they have need; he is obedient and an unfailingly loyal lieutenant to Gruumsh, though his incredible strength always exceeds the expectations of others, and he may "accidentally" cause harm to those who command his services, especially if they fail to give him some respect.
It is said that Bahgtru once fought and killed the first behir, breaking each of its legs in the process and earning him his moniker. Since this, Bahgtru has never been known to use weapons or armor of any usual kind. He wears little other than a great pair of cesti, or gauntlets, studded with steel rivets, with which to beat his victims flat.
Bahgtru sends his avatar into the Prime Material Plane only at the urging of other orcish gods (usually Gruumsh or Luthic); he is too stupid to do this of his own accord. If he sends an omen, it is in the form of a splitting headache ("Bahgtru's pat" is the term used for this).
- The Brute: Bahgtru cares for sheer physical prowess and little else. The other orc gods fear him for his incredible strength, yet they call on him for assistance when they have need.
- Dumb Muscle: Bahgtru is dumber than any deity has the right to be. Chant is most mortals could easily put one over on the basher, but if he ever found out about it, he'd use his awesome power to crush them into pulp and beyond.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: His skin is so thick and tough that blunt weapons do only one point of damage to him before they bounce off.
- Power Fist: Bahgtru's favored weapon is a spiked gauntlet called Crunch.
- Undying Loyalty: He's unfailingly loyal to Gruumsh. Fact is, the only deities Bahgtru trusts are Gruumsh and Luthic, and he trusts both of them completely.
Ilneval (pronounced ILL-nev-all) is Gruumsh's battle lieutenant, to whom he trusts the command of warfare when he does not wish to exercise it himself. Ilneval is more of a "captain's god" rather than one of the common orc soldier, and is thus revered by many orogs. Ilneval is the daring war leader, always leading the charge into battle with nothing but victory and destruction on his mind, as opposed to just watching them fight from behind the front lines. Before a battle commences, however, he carefully plans his strategy so as to maximize his chances of winning and inflicting terrible damage. Ilneval is more cunning than Bahgtru and nearly as strong. His bravery inspires great loyalty among his followers, yet he does not transfer that loyalty to his own superior.
The War Maker brooks no challenge to his position, systematically destroying any potential rival, and has been said to have deposed one or two other orcish demigods, relegating them to lesser status, in his climb to power. Ilneval covets Gruumsh's position as the chief god of the orcs, and has been waiting for ages for the right moment to seize power from He-Who-Never-Sleeps. Though Gruumsh does not trust Ilneval, He-Who-Never-Sleeps has Bahgtru on his side, and this relieves some of his concerns.
On the other hand, Ilneval is absolutely frightened of Bahgtru's brutality, and he avoids Gruumsh's son as much as possible. What's more, Ilneval's said to lust after Luthic, Gruumsh's wife, but he's afraid to act on that as well. For a god of bold warfare, it's amazing that he's so hemmed in by forces he can't influence. Ilneval is seen as the patron of powerful orc crossbreeds, particularly orc-ogres (orogs) and tanarukks. Ilneval will only send an avatar at Gruumsh's command, and only for important battles. His avatar will never battle together with that of Bahgtru. His omen is characteristic: blood seeping from chainmail.
- Church Militant: Many members of the church of Ilneval are leaders and officers in tribal armies, answering only to their chieftain. Although the church of Gruumsh is responsible for issuing the call to summon a horde, it falls to the temple of Ilneval to marshal the fractious tribes into a horde united against a common foe.
- Cool Sword: Ilneval wields Foe Smiter, a dreadful broadsword or longsword that causes bleeding wounds.
- The Dragon: Ilneval serves as Gruumsh's chief lieutenant, tactician, and general, and commands his armies when Gruumsh does not have time to do so himself.
- Frontline General: Ilneval is the archetype of the leader-from-the-front, the one who plunges into battle with nothing but victory and destruction on his mind, as opposed to just watching them fight from behind the front lines.
- Genius Bruiser: He's clever for an orc war god.
- Rugged Scar: His face and arms are heavily scarred from the many battles he's fought, but the scars only increase his appeal to his orcish followers.
- The Starscream: He secretly covets Gruumsh's position and has been waiting for ages for the right moment to seize power from He-Who-Never-Sleeps. Naturally, Gruumsh doesn't trust Ilneval and knows what he's planning, but with Bahgtru on his side, chooses not to take action.
- The Strategist: Ilneval is a master of command and strategy (next to Gruumsh, of course), and always carefully plans his strategy so as to maximize his chances of winning and inflicting terrible damage before a battle commences.
- War God: Ilneval is the primary orc god of war. He is a direct, take-charge kind of deity, one who doesn't hesitate to lead troops into battle with nothing but victory and destruction on his mind.
Luthic (pronounced LOOTH-ick) is the wife (and sometime servant) of Gruumsh and the mother of Bahgtru, although only the latter pays her heed. The Son of Gruumsh honors his mother's commands, even above Gruumsh, a small rebellion on the part of his otherwise loyal son that the One-Eye God tolerates only grudgingly. She has only a small following, but her worshipers are faithful enough to feed her plenty of power. She's the one the orcs turn to when they're in need of morale, healing, and children. For a female (a curse indeed in orcish society), she proves herself far more useful than most males'd ever think possible.
Truth is, Luthic is one of the few who can readily bend the ears of both Gruumsh and Bahgtru, and she doesn't shy from using this to her advantage. Chant is she's also secretly communicating with Hecate for help against the goblins, but so far the witch-queen hasn't responded to Luthic's overtures. The Great Mother never gives up, though, and she's determined to get Hecate on the orcs' side soon.
Luthic has a strong affinity for the earth on which her enduring strength is built. Although hardly kind, she tends to the injured with a brusque efficiency and is the quiet bedrock on which the orc pantheon rests. The Cave Mother does not take kindly to those who abuse her name, inflicting wasting diseases on those who do. She has a nasty temper that can erupt at any time. Her avatar is dispatched after great battles, to heal, and sometimes to observe and protect orcs during fertility rites. Her omens may appear as claw marks in rock, a magical darkening of some area, or as a rumbling in a cave mouth.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Given her domains, which include Fertility, Wisdom and even Healing.
- Dragon Ascendant: 5th edition establishes that Luthic is the foremost of the orc gods next to Gruumsh, and Volo speculates that, should Gruumsh' endless war finally end, it would be Luthic who became chief god, and not her husband.
- Earth Mother: Luthic is a mother-goddess who governs over fertility (mostly for female orcs; Gruumsh is the male fertility god) and her affinity with the earth is strong; many orcs rub themselves in dirt to ensure they have many children, while making an invocation to her.
- Evil Matriarch: It's pretty much her job and she encourages this mindset to her followers.
- Femme Fatalons: Luthic has unbreakable black claws four feet long. The other orcish gods fear her great claws, which are so strong they can tunnel through solid rock.
- Genius Bruiser: She's an orc goddess, so she's definitely strong. She's also one of the cleverer deities in the orc panteon.
- Healer Goddess: She is a goddess of primitive medicine and healing. Her avatar is often dipatched to heal injured orc warriors after great battles, which she does with brusque efficiency. Her clerics also teach simple healing and herbalism to orcs, skills that enable orc warriors to survive many battles.
- Informed Attribute: While every edition of D&D has officially listed her as some variation of Evil, they never seem to include examples of her doing or ordering anything evil. Her primary concern has always been the continuation of the orc race, so this comes off as guilt-by-association.
- Mama Bear: She is the orc goddess of motherhood and is fiercely protective of her children, and it is her priestesses who raise and protect the tribe's children. Fittingly, her sacred animal is the cave bear.
- Our Orcs Are Different: While still brutal, her domains differ greatly from the other orc gods.
- The Scottish Trope: Luthic does not take kindly to anyone abusing her name, orc or non-orc alike, and she may (25% chance) inflict a wasting disease on them that, unless the curse is broken, will prove fatal within 2-7 days.
- The Smurfette Principle: Luthic is the only female deity of the orc pantheon. Aside from her loyal son Bahgtru, the other orc gods pay her only a modicum of respect and then only because she is the wife of Gruumsh, treatment she grudgingly accepts as her lot even if she detests it.
- White Magician Girl: Inverted. She's evil, but she's one of the few evil gods with the Healing domain. Her clerics are mostly female and are noted to be skillful healers, which is both handy and ironic for a culture that values Social Darwinism and Rape, Pillage, and Burn.
- Women Are Wiser: Enforced, as Wisdom is in her portfolio, unlike the other orc gods.
Shargaas (pronounced SHAR-gas) is a dark and brooding deity of terrifying cruelty and evil. More cunning than even Ilneval, his scheming is cold and calculated. His hatred of non-orcs is rooted in a basic hatred of life itself, and he views even orcs as little more than killing tools to be eventually discarded. He is thought to lurk in the depths of the earth, deep beneath the caves of most surface-dwelling orcs, and is considered the patron of orc tribes that dwell in the Underdark.
Shargaas tries to remain aloof from the eternal battle between the orcs and the goblins, but it's nigh impossible to ignore the demands of Gruumsh. At the greater god's command, the Night Lord sends forth squadrons of assassins to remove the generals of the goblin army, and then withdraws so far into his realm that not even Gruumsh can contact him for a year and a day.
Shargaas the Night Lord lives in a tremendous cavern system below the fiery plain of Chamada, the second level of Gehenna. His caves extend infinitely, and are darker than the deepest night; no creature can see within them save for Shargaas and his servants. It's hard to find anything in the realm, really. The Night Below is a place of near-absolute blackness. Shargaas' petitioners can see just fine, but any person who doesn't belong finds themself stumbling through the dark, attracting orcs like flies draw spiders.
- Aloof Ally: Although the Night Lord's hatred of all life extends to a hatred of other deities as well, he has found it prudent to ally himself with the other orc deities and manipulate them to serve his ends.
- Casting a Shadow: Shargaas can cast darkness at will and has 99% hide in shadows ability in partial light or darkness.
- Cool Sword: He wields a short sword called Nightblade.
- Dark Is Evil: Shargaas teaches his followers that the darkness is cold and everlasting, but provides a dark mantle for the blade in the night.
- Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Shargaas is blinded completely by the light from the sun.
- Enemy to All Living Things: While the orcish god Yurtrus is antilife, Shargaas simply hates life. He even rails against his own existence, and strikes out at those who make it any more unbearable (often after careful, considered scheming). 'Course, almost everyone fits that description.
- Manipulative Bastard: His scheming is colder, and more considered, than that of the other orcish gods. He secretly revealed Ilneval's treacheries to Gruumsh as a way of cementing his own position within the pantheon and undermining the One-Eyed God's overly ambitious lieutenant.
- Stealth Expert: Shargaas teaches his followers to use stealth, with silent stride and hidden hand, to cull the weak from the tribe and eliminate all other races. In the days when he is said to have walked upon the earth, Shargaas could also hide himself and his followers so well that no mortal could detect his ambushes or lairs.
- Innate Night Vision: He can see for a mile or more in absolute or magical darkness.
- Weakened by the Light: Shargaas has no magic resistance in daylight.
Yurtrus (pronounced YER-truss) is the terrifying orc god of death and disease, dreaded by almost all orcs; they fear and propiate him. The god himself has no mouth, he is unspeaking, non-communicative, and is simply an embodiment of life-destructive principles, although he sometimes seems receptive to properly respectful entreaties and sacrifices to spare a particular individual or tribe from the ravages of disease. Whereas Shargaas embodies the fear of what lurks below in the darkness, Yurtrus represents the ever-present threat of death and disease that orcs must live with on an ongoing basis.
Almost nothing is known of Yurtrus or his realm, which is commonly Fleshlough. That's because anyone who enters the realm never leaves, not even avatars sent by other deities. The entrance to the place is two great black-iron doors set into a forbidding hillside in Oinos; the stench of death wafts out every time the doors swing open.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: Often, but not always. He's a plague god and his clerics are fond of spreading diseases upon their enemies. On the other hand, his clerics are responsible for keeping the tribe's food edible so they might have Mend Food spells ready.
- Body Horror: Yurtrus appears as a huge, vaguely orcish giant covered with peeling, rotting green flesh; his hands, however, appear completely normal except for being chalk-white in color.
- Deadly Gas: His avatar is surrounded by a cloud of stinking gas with a 20' radius, which poisons those exposes to it.
- The Dreaded: As the embodiment of life-destructive principles, Yurtrus is an ever-present terror to be feared, propitiated, and dreaded by most orcs, who worship him only because they fear to anger him. He frightens even Gruumsh. Sure, Gruumsh could probably kill White-Hands if he so desired, but chant is he's afraid to get that close.
- Enemy to All Living Things: Yurtrus embodies nothing more than the denial of life and existence.
- The Grim Reaper: Yurtrus is the orc god of death and is said to lurk in the shadowed corners of Luthic's cavern until he inexorably comes again to claim more victims, which is referred to as the touch of White-Hands. He teaches his followers that death is inexorable and eventually claims all life. His church also teaches that the touch of White-Hands can be forestalled only by bowing down to the Rotting Lord and begging his mercy, but, in time, plague strikes all living things.
- No Mouth: Yurtrus has no mouth and doesn't communicate.
- Plaguemaster: Yurtrus is the orc god of disease and teaches his followers that the ravages of plague are simply death claiming victims who have yet to fall in battle. His avatar is only dispatched to spread plagues and pandemics, much at the god's capricious whim. His omens usually take the form of such disease outbreaks. When plague or disease strike the orcs, the clerics of Yurtrus appeal to him for an end to the illness with great sacrifices of prisoners and slaves.
- Share the Sickness: Nurtured Ones of Yurtrus are orcs that have contracted a disease, and they charge into enemy lines to sicken them.
- The Speechless: Yurtrus is unspeaking because he has no mouth and never communicates. Orcs say "when White-Hands speaks" as a way of saying "never".
- Touch of Death: Any hit from him causes the victim to suffer from a rotting disease that will be fatal in 1d4 days unless heal is cast.
Goblin Pantheon
Once, the various goblinoid races were as separate from each other as humans, elves, and dwarves. They had their own traditions, their own kingdoms, and their own religions. And then, Maglubiyet happened. The brutal god of conquest set his sights on claiming the goblinoids as his soldiers, and he attacked their divine rulers first. Almost all fell before his brutal onslaught, with Maglubiyet sparing only those who would help him keep control over his new minions — invariably, they were gods of brutality, war, and slavery. Now, all goblinoid society is based on one simple rule: Maglubiyet's the boss. Few goblins actually revere him, but they all live in healthy fear of what he could do to any rebels.Maglubiyet is currently trying to conquer the Orc pantheon, and the two constantly war in the plane of Acheron, where both pantheons make their home.
Maglubiyet (pronounced Ma-GLUB-i-yet) controls the goblins and hobgoblins with a strong, unyielding fist, dominating the two races through visions sent to his shamans (or, in some cases, through the clan chiefs themselves). He tolerates no infringements on his power; he crushes all interlopers, and is just paranoid enough to find interlopers everywhere. If there's one thing Maglubiyet teaches his people, it's a person's got to look out for number one.
The deity has a true passion for war and destruction. He sends his chosen on missions of devastation simply for the glory of battle, it's up to the lesser deities to push for things such as survival and expansion of the races. Maglubiyet used to have a pair of sons as his lieutenants; however, because of the nature of goblin life, he decided he couldn't trust them. So he disposed of them by sending them on disastrous charges against the orcs and the dwarves. 'Course, now he wishes he had cutters he could trust to go on important missions.
Maglubiyet's realm, also the home of the rest of the pantheon, is called Clangor, a society of strict hierarchy and rugged order. A person who doesn't keep their place is cut down faster than an orc recruit. The realm's on one face of an iron cube of Avalas (the first layer of Acheron), and it's a land of cold metal and hot blood. Towers and burgs rise up from the surface of the iron, but because buildings are wrecked whenever the mammoth cube crashes into another, the goblins also tunnel deep below the ground to keep from being crushed.
The goblin god's capital is a fort called Grashmog, the Heart of Battle. Usually far from the lines of battle, Grashmog is a temple-city that serves as a training camp for the elite forces of the goblin and hobgoblin army. Clerics from Grashmog advise generals on upcoming battles, and the elite warriors trained here (called the Steelbiters) are respected throughout the plane for their combat prowess and their bonds with their fiendish winter wolf mounts.
- Alternate Self: In the Mystara setting, Maglubiyet is an alias for Wogar, the Immortal patron of goblin wolf-riders. Wogar was originally a mortal goblin king, and a great wolf-rider and handler. In life who decided to follow the prophecies of his shaman in order to achive greatness. He lead his tribe along a river from their home of the lake Cradle, until a group of trolls killed his shaman and fled with his treasures, forcing them to settle in lands of Sind. In this land, Wogar achieved immortality in the Sphere of Matter.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Maglubiyet retains his power by virtue of his strength, and never allows other deities within the pantheon to achieve true power. The 5th edition sourcebook Volo's Guide to Monsters states that he unified the goblinoid pantheon by beating the gods of the goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears into submission, and destroying any who refused to accept his rule.
- The Conqueror: Volo's Guide to Monsters states that the gods of the goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears were separate pantheons at one point. Then Maglubiyet came and conquered them all, uniting them into one pantheon. The goblinoids thus revere him as the Conquering God, and honor him by assembling into great hosts to conquer the lands of their neighbors.
- The Dreaded: He is worshiped by goblins not out of adoration but fear. Most goblins dread the "privilege" of joining the ranks of Maglubiyet's army on the plane of Acheron after they die in battle, fearing the Mighty One's eternal tyranny even more than death.
- Godzilla Threshold: Due to being fearful of extending any of his strength away from his dismal base, Maglubiyet will only dispatch an avatar if the goblins are losing a battle that has the potential for decimating some significant area.
- Large and in Charge: Maglubiyet appears as a terrifying eleven-foot-fall battle-scarred goblin with ebony skin, with fire erupting from his glowing, red eyes, and with sharp fangs and clawed hands at the end of powerfully-muscled arms.
- Offing the Offspring: He got rid of his two sons by sending them on suicide missions against the orcs and dwarves until they were slain in order to prevent them from becoming more powerful and overthrowing him.
- The Paranoiac: Maglubiyet is a paranoid deity who never allows the other deities within the pantheon to achieve true power. He eternally watches over the lesser and demigods to make sure they do not conspire to overthrow him.
- Top God: Maglubiyet rules the goblin pantheon with an iron fist, not allowing the other gods to grow and develop in strength and destroying those who seem to be increasing in strength before they can become a potential challenge to him. Through long eons, the other goblin gods have learned ever to bow themselves to Maglubiyet's flaming iron throne.
- War God: Maglubiyet is the goblin god of war and wishes to see war waged for the glory of his people, eternally urging them on to conflict and strife. Although goblins have a strong affinity with underground environments, Maglubiyet nonetheless desires to see his people destroy the surface races purely for the glory of war and carnage rather than for territory.
Bargrivyek is an aggressive, territorial deity, but he is smart enough to realize that unity is strength. Bargrivyek didn't earn the epithet "The Peacemaker" because he grovels and scrapes and begs for peace with enemies of goblindom. No, he won his nickname because he tolerates no interclan warfare (at least no more than is good for the sake of the tribes involved). So, this deity and his servants work to minimize and mediate disputes within goblin tribes, and also between them. He wants goblins to focus on the dangers from without, to work together to crush the enemies of the race (especially orcs). Bargrivyek is pleased by displays of unity and discipline, and the successful mediation of disputes. Bargrivyek wants peace not so much because he enjoys a lack of fighting, but because he wants to see goblins expand ever outward. Bargrivyek is impatient with goblins staying underground and rewards priests who bring tribes to new above-ground settlement areas.
He's on excellent terms with Khurgorbaeyag, both stress the unity of goblins at the expense of other races, and they're firm believers in the eventual ascendance of goblins to the rulership of the multiverse. When it comes to the other deities of the pantheon, though, Bargrivyek is something of a coward. He does nothing that might infuriate Maglubiyet, and he absolutely fears the wrath Nomog-Geaya can bring upon his head. He leaps to their commands as quick as he can.
Bargrivyek's realm, the Peaceable Lands, is nothing but a misnomer. Here the deity trains his goblin armies and forces them through brutal calisthenics. Occasionally he leads them on raids against Draukari (an underground realm of kobolds fiercely guarded by Kurtulmak, the kobold god), showing that nothing can stand against the might of goblindom.
- The Dragon: Bargrivyek serves as Nomog-Geaya's second in command. Nomog-Geaya would prefer the position were filled by someone more like himself, but Bargrivyek was all he was left with after Maglubiyet's conquest.
- Epic Flail: He wields a white-tipped flail, which will stun opponents when it strikes.
- Omniglot: Bargrivyek speaks all goblinoid and demihuman languages, and can use any spell which permits direct communication (i.e. speaking with animals, plants, the dead, etc.) once per day.
- Pragmatic Villainy: He's 'The Peacemaker' because he (unlike a lot of other evil gods) realizes that internal squabbles and grudges are actually detrimental to those involved, and so seeks to mediate conflict between his followers.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: Bargrivyek always fears displeasing Maglubiyet and Nomog-Geaya, and always leaps to their commands to avoid causing them displeasure.
- Rising Empire: Bargrivyek promotes for the goblins to expand ever outward and eventually rule the multiverse, with one of his omens taking the form of atmospheric events at distant locations (e.g., a falling star) to lead goblins to new territory. He advocates for unity among goblin tribes in order to achieve this ever-expanding control of territory.
Travellers venturing into certain goblin-infested lands might begin to notice stakes decorated with the polished skulls of many small animals. This is a sign that they have entered the territory claimed by the Gurnung tribe, who are noted for their seemingly limitless numbers and their dedication to their ancestral god. Gapnagurnung is not an especially helpful ancestral god; the adepts serving him (and there are a surprising number of them, though none of any significant power) claim that the god did all that was required of him simply by ensuring that there were so many Gurnung goblins in the world. He does, however, provide spells to his adepts, and sometimes he warns his children of approaching danger by rattling the skulls of his offering-stakes.
- Deity of Goblin Origin: He was originally a mortal goblin who achieved godhood due to his descendants' dedication and worship of him.
- Famous Ancestor: Gurnung goblins are descended from Gapnagurnung and credit him with ensuring their large numbers and warning them about oncoming threats.
- Nothing but Skulls: The skulls of small animals are used to decorate his offering-stakes, which he sometimes rattles in order to warn his children of approaching danger.
The Iron One is the god worshiped by the goblins of the demiplane of Grodd, which is named for the city that the goblins of that demiplane reside in. He is believed to be the semimythical original ruler of the city of Grodd and the bearer of the city's Iron Crown of Grodd. The wearer of the great iron crown is believed to be the voice or manifestation of the Iron One and is obeyed as the greatest general. While few are extremely religious, all the city's goblins worship the Iron One and thank him for his gifts and protection.
- Badass Crew: The eight goblin heroes of the city are said to serve as the Iron One's champions in the afterlife.
- Carry a Big Stick: The Mace of the Iron One is an iron idol in the shape of an armored goblin that can be wielded as a mace and used as a divine focus by any being that worships the Iron One or other members of the goblin pantheon. As the goblins of Grodd lack the spells necessary to create such an item, it is likely that this was acquired before their extradimensional imprisonment or was somehow created by the Iron One himself.
- Deity Identity Confusion: It has been suggested that the Iron One might be an aspect of one of the other goblin gods.
- Founder of the Kingdom: The Iron One is the semimythical original ruler of the goblins of Grodd, who ruled their city sometime after they became trapped in the demiplane.
- Our Founder: The two temples in the city of Grodd each feature a statue of the Iron One (a large, vague-featured goblin clad in armor) flanking the paths to the doors of the public entries of the temples. The back area of the dais in the worship area also features an altar to the Iron One: a rectangular block of stone upon which stands a larger-than-life steel statue of the Iron One.
- The Theocracy: Worship of the Iron One is the only legal religion within Grodd and the temple of the Iron One owns all the shops on the market. Those who try to start other cults or just sell items of other faiths are arrested or fined, and their works are destroyed.
Khurgorbaeyag is as trusted a lieutenant of Maglubiyet as any deity is, and he is the patron god of goblins as a specific race. He is a god of rigid hierarchy like Maglubiyet, and also one of slavery and oppression. It's Khurgorbaeyag who rigidly drives the goblins to the atrocities they commit in war, and Khurgorbaeyag who urges them to take loads of slaves to do the work the lowest goblin would scorn. His priests are his highest servants, and he uses them to push the race in the direction he wants it to go.
Khurgorbaeyag obeys Maglubiyet mainly because he's seen what happens to deities in the pantheon who get too uppity. Still, in his secret heart, he plans ways to depose the tyrant ruler. However, until he has a foolproof plot, he remains as loyal as possible.
The Overseer also has a rivalry with Nomog-Geaya (the god of hobgoblins), for he knows that the race that succeeds the most is likely to curry favor with the head of the pantheon, and he's determined to have his goblins climb to the top of the heap. Finally, Khurgorbaeyag has established an alliance with the Bugbear god Hruggek; the two of them sometimes work together against the lesser orcish deities.
He shares the realm of Clangor with the other goblin deities. The home of Khurgorbaeyag and the site of his greatest temple is Shetring, the goblins' greatest city. The city sprawls on both sides of the great River Lorfang, with five strong bridges linking the two sides. The river itself wells up from a spring, circles the realm, and plunges into the cube again not far from where it first rises out of the earth.
- I Have Many Names: He is worshiped under the name Kuro by the Batiri tribes of goblins in the jungles of Chult.
- The Rival: His chief rival for power is Nomog-Geaya, the patron god of hobgoblins, and there are stories told by goblin shamans of how Khurgorbaeyag deals with his rival's subtle treachery. The goblin spirits that Kurgorbaeyag commands are forced to fight all the harder against their enemies, the orc spirits, because they must take up the slack from the laziness of their clumsy hobgoblin spirit allies.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Khurgorbaeyag is the goblin god of slavery and oppression. Khurgorbaeyag drives his worshipers to be the masters of others. Only by wielding the whip can they hope to escape its lash. He delights in the use of demihumans as slaves to undertake menial work while goblins go to war. His avatar is dispatched to oversee the efforts of goblin tribes in acquiring slaves. Khurgorbaeyag sometimes makes his presence or his desires known through wrathful signs and magical blessings: the crack of a whip without a visible source, chains or ropes that move of their own accord, or a glowing cage that appears to trap foes or those who displease him.
- Sole Survivor: Khurgorbaeyag is the last remaining member of the goblin pantheon after Maglubiyet destroyed all the others, leaving him alive to serve as a harsh overseer who can keep the goblins under heel.
- The Starscream: Khurgorbaeyag plans to usurp his tyrannical master as soon as he can concoct a flawless plan to do so. However, until that time, the Overseer acts as loyal as possible to Maglubiyet.
- Whip of Dominance: Khurgorbaeyag, a god of slavery, oppression, and militaristic hierarchy, wields a whip that can fly up to 30' as a rope of entanglement and a blow from which acts as a symbol of hopelessness, compelling its targets to surrender to its wielder. If the victim can't resist, they can stay in a depressed state anywhere between a week and several months, depending on their willpower.
Nomog-Geaya is the grim patron god of hobgoblins, and exemplifies their traits of brutality, stoicism, courage, and cold-bloodedness. He has no expression other than a look of grim, tight-lipped, tyrannical authority. Feared and respected as a great military commander and a merciless warrior, Nomog-Geaya is one of the toughest of the goblinoid deities, probably second only to Maglubiyet himself in terms of personal power despite his status as a lesser god. He is very valuable to Maglubiyet: Too weak to be a threat but good as a war-commander. Nomog-Geaya barely controls his disgust and hatred for Bargrivyek, who he sees as a cowardly weakling, but Nomog-Geaya knows that to smite the Peacekeeper would be to invite the wrath of Maglubiyet, and he's not ready for that.
Fact is, though Maglubiyet wouldn't believe it, Nomog-Geaya has no wish to supplant the pantheon leader. He knows his own place too well, and knows that he's not qualified for the greater god's work. Instead, the General is quiet, speaking only when he must, one of the qualities that makes him so valuable a commander.
Chant is Nomog-Geaya's the one who charged the hobgoblins with settling the giant mesa Redspike, and they did just that, turning the whole thing into a cross between a town and a giant tower. It's the main city of the hobgoblins of Clangor, and any planewalker who finds themself in trouble with the realm's goblins might try their luck in Redspike. Playing the two races against each other is a dangerous game, but it just might save a person's skin now and again.
- The Commandments: The Soldiers of the Last Order adhere to a list of five orders given to them by Galtai, a messianic cleric of Nomog-Geaya. The five orders are:
- Arm yourself with fire and steel.
- Rally all hobgoblin tribes under your banner.
- Hunt elves and goblins and put them to the sword.
- Burn prisoners alive in sacrifice to Nomog-Geaya. Nomog-Geaya will accept no other sacrifice.
- Honor no god above Nomog-Geaya.
- The Creon: In contrast to Khurgorbaeyag, Nomog-Geaya does not want to overthrow and replace Maglubiyet, as he knows his own place too well and knows that he's not qualified for Maglubiyet's work.
- Cult of Personality: The fanatical hobgoblin cult known as the Soldiers of the Last Order was founded by Galtai, a messianic cleric of Nomog-Geaya. This cult, active in Western Oerik, seeks to follow five directives given to them by their founder. If they do these things, they believe Nomog-Geaya himself will appear on Oerth and bring about a new age for all hobgoblins. Nomog-Geaya grants spells to the leaders of this cult, but he is reluctant to support them too openly for fear that Maglubiyet may deem them a threat to his rule.
- Dual Wielding: In battle, he wields two weapons, one per hand, a longsword and a hand axe.
- I'm a Humanitarian: He has a habit of eating the cooked flesh of his enemies after battle. This habit is emulated by the shamans and witch doctors who worship him.
- The Rival: Nomog-Geaya has a fierce rivalry with Khurgorbaeyag, the patron god of goblins. Hobgoblin spirits must learn to exert themselves in their eternal war with orcish spirits, to cover for the weakness of their untrustworthy goblin-spirit allies.
- The Stoic: He's stoic, gruff, and brutal, exemplifying all the traits hobgoblins seek to emulate. His shamans are expected to display the personal qualities of their deity, and some of them have been executed for laughing in public, even during the torture of captives.
- War God: Nomog-Geaya is the primary god of war of the hobgoblins. He is said to be one of the finest military commanders on any plane and commands the hobgoblin legions.
When Maglubiyet destroyed the goblin gods, he intended to spare only one — Khurgorbaeyag. But this wasn't quite the case. Among the gods he slew was a trickster who made sure that he would get the last laugh. Though his essence was shattered into pieces, said pieces were still active, and still cause problems for the hobgoblin armies. Whenever the god senses goblins being particularly abused, he will possess one of them and turn it into a nilbog, a "backwards goblin" that heals when it's hurt and charms any attackers. The only effective way to stop a nilbog from causing trouble is to let it have its way, which has led to most hobgoblin armies appointing the goblin most likely to turn into a nilbog as a "Jester" who can do and say whatever he wants. The deity itself is nameless, with goblins refusing to give it a name for fear that Maglubiyet will be able to find it and finish the job.
- Chaotic Evil: This is the In-Universe alignment given for its nilbogs.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: The deity behind the nilbogs used his death to turn into a spirit that could possess goblins and get back at Maglubiyet, if only in small ways.
- The Nameless: It presumably had one originally, but now goblins won't give it a name so that Maglubiyet won't be able to find it.
- Trickster God: This one likes upending the usual "goblins-on-the-bottom" social order that most goblinoids have.
- Violation of Common Sense: The whole idea behind nilbogs is that they reverse logic — attacking will heal them, aggression will turn into friendliness, and so forth. In previous editions (where the Possessing Spirit wasn't involved), this could go so far as being compelled to give all your treasure to the nilbog.
Bugbear Pantheon
The bugbear race is tough, hardy, and both faster and stronger than most goblinoids. They are not as populous or fertile as the smaller races, however, and they often compete with races the smaller folk don't, such as giants and giant-kin. For these reasons, bugbears tend to be less preoccupied with mass battles. They are also chaotic, of course, making the organization of armies more difficult. They have a martial pantheon, but it is more diverse than those of orcs and goblins, and they have gods of stealth, surprise, hunting and fear among their number. Local pantheons also have minor deities of fertility, earth, and death; sometimes, the bugbears include Stalker, a darkness/death god among their group. Bugbear shamans and priests show a greater inventiveness in their use of magic, and in their mythic tales, than most goblinoids. This reflects both their chaotic (and thus more flexible and potentially creative) nature and their slightly higher intelligence. But still, their creator god Hruggek lives in a cave in Clangor surrounded by severed heads, so there is no question as to the bedrock of bugbear religion. It's just that they are slightly subtler in their approaches to severing heads than orcs or goblins.
Hruggek (pronounced HRUG-ek) is the dominant god of the bugbear pantheon, although he does not really rule the others. There is an understanding between the bugbear gods; no one works actively contrary to Hruggek's interest, and then Hruggek leaves them alone. This doesn't tend to filter down to the Prime Material Plane servants, though, and Hruggek's priests keep a wary eye on the competition, especially given the sneakiness of Grankhul's priests.
Hruggek is a deity who delight in fairly savage combat. He is not truly a war/battle god in all respects, though. Mass battles and epic confrontation are not what the bugbear god seeks. His people are not numerous enough for this, and he prefers to see them use stealth and wiles to pick off small groups of others creatures.
Hruggek has no specific racial enemies. The bugbears are an opportunistic race, and Hruggek has no special antipathies to other deities for past slights. He is quite happy to see elves, dwarves, goblins, gnomes or any other available walking target knocked on the head (or, preferably, to have its head severed). Hruggek has a tolerance for Khurgorbaeyag due to past co-operation, and he quietly urges the goblin deity to act against Maglubiyet, usually by puffing Khurgorbaeyag's pride and commenting on how sound his plans are (and how Maglubiyet's are lacking in vision). Hruggek hopes to keep the goblins divided in this way, since they can compete with bugbears for resources. He has a definite antipathy for Bargrivyek for the same reasons, and tries to stir up Maglubiyet against him. Hruggek may not be especially smart, but he is cunning and wily.
Hruggek's realm on Clangor is called Hruggekolohk; its name simply means "Hruggek's Place". Hruggekolohk is a warren of caves worn from the iron of the plane over millennia. Its interior is red-brown with rust, and stagnant pools dot the floors, interspersed with piles of bones and garbage. The bugbear petitioners that stalk these tunnels are far less regimented than their goblin cousins, and they tend to congregate in small "villages", each of which might boast a single building or a temporary shelter. The bugbear petitioners are no less inclined to war than the goblins, they simply have a different view of it. Stealth and ambush are their favored combat techniques, and since the caves of Hruggekolohk seem to stretch underneath the entire plane, such tactics serve the bugbears well.
Hruggek himself lives in a wretched cave, where he is surrounded by the severed heads of his conquered opponents. Many are cursed to speak eternal pleas for mercy and paeans to the might of the bugbear lord. It is rumoured by sages of extra-planar affairs that some of these heads have powers of magical control over creatures of their races, were Hruggek to bring them to the Prime Material Plane. Magical powers of domination, mass suggestion, and the ability to utter power words are reputed. How this has come to be is hard to explain; it would need magical powers well beyond Hruggek's capacity to create such artifacts. This suggests that some deity with major wizardry powers has some form of agreement with Hruggek, although the nature of this, and who the other deity may be, and what that deity has to gain, is entirely unknown.
- Alternate Self: In the Mystara setting, Hruggek is the real name of Bartziluth, the Immortal patron of bugbears. Bartziluth was originally a mortal bugbear from the Broken Lands, where he was renowned for smashing the faces of his enemies with his morningstar. No one actually knows how he reached Immortality, or who sponsored him to the Sphere of Energy. Since his ascension though, he has been the patron of bugbears everywhere.
- Bash Brothers: According to bugbear legends, Hruggek and his younger brother Grankhul often fight alongside each other, preying upon all they encounter as is their right as superior warriors.
- Blood Knight: Hruggek is the bugbear god of violence and combat, delighting in masterful ambushes and sneak attacks. He prefers sudden, savage skirmishes to mass battles. Bugbears believe that when they die, their spirits have a chance to fight at Hruggek's side. They try to prove themselves worthy by defeating as many foes as possible.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: If Hruggek is angry with his followers, he lets them know by sending bolts of lighting at ground level.
- Creepy Souvenir: Hruggek takes the heads of those he kills and puts them on spikes in his den, where, through some magical secret known only to him, they utter pleas for mercy and sing paeans to his might. One of the reasons that Hruggek may send out an avatar is to vanquish a powerful warrior of another race if he doesn't have a severed head of that racial type among his collection.
- The Maker: Hruggek is credited as the creator of the bugbears.
- Off with His Head!: Hruggek's favored method of killing is to sever the heads of his enemies, preferably of leaders and mighty opponents, so that he can put their heads on spikes in his den. Bugbears sever the heads of defeated foes and then either place them on spikes or hang them from cords around bugbear dens in an act of worship.
- Savage Spiked Weapons: He wields a huge morningstar, which is fully 7 feet long and is used two-handed.
- Shock and Awe: Simply by clenching his fist, Hruggek can cause shock damage to any single target within 60'.
- Top God: Hruggek is the primary god of the bugbear pantheon, but that doesn't mean he rules them, as the bugbear gods all tend to be suspicious and solitary. In general, there's an understanding between them that Hruggek will leave them alone as long as they don't work against his interest.
- The Trickster: Although Hruggek delights in fairly savage combat and is possessed of legendary might and prowess in battle, he prefers caution and sneak attacks over direct confrontation.
Grankhul is a dangerous and subtle god. He is the god who gave bugbears their surprise abilities, and has taught them that, despite their size, swift and silent action is a very effective strategy for a race not easily able to muster great armies for battle. He is vigilant, never surprised, and never sleeps. In some worlds, he has the enmity of Gruumsh because of his symbol. He prizes dexterity, swiftness and a modicum of intelligence among his priests. He can be very violent, a god of swift death, and is prone to temper tantrums.
Grankhul's avatars are active on the Prime Material Plane, stalking the world in darkness, ambushing hapless creatures of many races. He strives to displace goblinoids and demihumans close to bugbear groups, but is very secretive in his actions. Omens are rare, and of two distinct sorts: very subtle environmental changes (testing the intelligence of his priests) and sudden, brutal, angry ones (sudden blindness or death).
Grankhul resides in the realm of Palpitatia on the 241st layer of the Abyss, which he shares with his fellow bugbear god, Skiggaret. This layer is eternally dark, populated by shadows and spectres, with fear eternally radiating from every inch of the grim terrain.
- Bash Brothers: According to bugbear legends, Grankhul and his older brother Hruggek often fight alongside each other, preying upon all they encounter as is their right as superior warriors. Grankhul watches over Hruggek when he sleeps, but if he must be elsewhere, he whispers commands to the severed heads in his brother's den to wake Hruggek if any danger threatens him.
- Cool Sword: He wields a longsword, which strikes its victims dumb unless they manage to resist it.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He is a very violent god, prone to terrible tantrums and swift murder.
- Jerkass God: If Grankhul is angry with his followers, he will strike them blind or dead.
- Off with His Head!: When bugbears sever the heads of defeated foes in honor of Hruggek, they also cut away or stitch open the eyelids as an homage to sleepless Grankhul.
- Protectorate: Grankhul frequently sends avatars to serve as protectors of bugbear groups, ambushing and chasing away other goblinoids and demihumans in the areas close to them.
- The Sleepless: In the stories bugbears tell, he gifted them with stealth but in return he sapped their vigor, so that bugbears sleep in his stead while he remains eternally alert and awake.
- Stealth Expert: Grankhul is the bugbear god of stealth and bugbears credit him with having taught them their stealth skills. Thanks to Grankhul, they can use their size and strength to work as stealthy assassins rather than blundering around like ogres. He cannot be surprised and can hide in shadows and move silently with skills at 95%.
Skiggaret is the half-mad bugbear god of fear. The god prowls the world in avatar form, driving bugbears to acts of destruction and aggression through the fear he creates in them. Skiggaret's avatar is powerful for a demigod; this reflects the strength the other bugbear deities grant him, in his role as a messenger.
Skiggaret does not have priests or shamans. Bugbears do not worship him in any way; they seek to propitiate him with sacrifices and especially torture of captives. They believe that this god and his rare omens and signs, which take the form of sudden chills, especially along the spine, the raising of hackles and fur, and magical pools of darkness, are a sign of the wrath of the gods. Skiggaret is sent to make them afraid because they have displeased the bugbear pantheon as a whole; in this sense, he is a messenger of the gods. While bugbears dread Skiggaret, they also believe that if they survive the fear he generates, they will be strengthened. They also consider that he helps to drive off oppressors who threaten to overcome bugbears, and in extremis they may appeal to this dire, dark entity for help, always by offering sacrifices.
Skiggaret resides in the realm of Palpitatia on the 241st layer of the Abyss, which he shares with his fellow bugbear god, Grankhul. This layer is eternally dark, populated by shadows and spectres, with fear eternally radiating from every inch of the grim terrain.
- Demonic Possession: Skiggaret's influence manifests at times when bugbears are forced to act in a cowardly fashion; a bugbear that knows or feels itself to be in mortal danger is affected by a form of madness and will do anything, including trying to flee, in order to stay alive. Bugbears believe that this feeling of fear comes from being possessed by Skiggaret, and they don't relish experiencing it. After the madness has passed, bugbears don't dwell on things that were done in the presence of Skiggaret. Talking about such acts might call him back.
- The Dreaded: Skiggaret is the bugbear version of the bogeyman, as hateful and terrifying to them as bugbears are in the eyes of many other races. His name is rarely spoken, and never above a whisper.
- Godzilla Threshold: When the bugbears are threatened to be overcome by oppressors, they may try to appeal to Skiggaret by offering sacrifices so that he might appear to drive them off.
- Perpetual Smiler: He always has a half-crazy smile playing about his mouth.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Skiggaret appears as a jet-black bugbear with red lips, hands and feet.
- Supernatural Fear Inducer: Skiggaret is the bugbear god of fear and has a permanent cloak of fear surrounding him and affecting anyone within a 20' radius.
Kobold Pantheon
This pantheon is again small; Kurtulmak is only an intermediate god, and like Maglubiyet he is a jealous deity who is ever watchful over other gods. He tolerates Gaknulak because he has magical control over him, and he mostly ignores the cowardly god of the urds, the minor race related to kobolds. Kobold religion is interestingly divided. Kurtulmak is a vengeful, blindly aggressive deity. He may be smart, but he is not wise, and can be tricked easily, as his dealings with Garl Glittergold show. Gaknulak, however, is a pragmatic deity who does his best to achieve Kurtulmak's ends through practical innovation. He is the closest any goblinoid gets to an inventive, creative god. The shamans of war and pragmatism sometimes conflict, but when they work together the dangerousness of this race belies their diminutive size. Of course, kobolds have an especial hatred of gnomes (and to a lesser extent svirfnebli) and work ceaselessly to eradicate them. It is a matter of an eternal war to avenge Kurtulmak's pride.
Kurtulmak (pronounced Kurt-UHL-mak) is the chief deity of the kobold pantheon. He is a hateful deity, one who despises all life, save kobolds. He has an especial antipathy for brownies, pixies, sprites and their kin, and most of all, gnomes. Kurtulmak is prepared to enter into any alliance in order to defeat Garl Glittergold or any other gnomish god, even ignoring alignment considerations (and all others!) for this end.
Kurtulmak is not a stupid deity. He has skills; he taught the first kobolds the skills of mining and tunneling, and also the skills of ambushing, although Gaknulak is now the more important influence in this sphere. Rather, Kurtulmak is a creature dominated by his emotions and hates.
Thus, Kurtulmak is intelligent, but he is not wise. He is fairly easily trapped or tricked and out-manuevered if his weaknesses are played upon. He is arrogant in his hatred of his enemies, and loves to gloat over his successes at length. It is this weakness which Garl exploited when he demolished Kurtulmak's cavern; rather than putting the gnome straigth to death, Kurtulmak wanted to gloat and watch Garl grovel, and this was his undoing.
Kurtulmak has the psychology of the small creature written large all over him. He carries grudged, and has a huge chip on his small shoulder. He hates being bettered by any means, especially by deception or by some "frivolous" means such as illusion or practical joking. Kurtulmak has absolutely no sense of humor. He makes characteristic errors as a result of this weakness. He often tries to gain revenge over his enemies in the same ways that they gained an advantage over him. Thus, dragging Gaknulak along for support (despite the demigod's misgivings) he attempted to booby-trap a citadel of the gnomish gods, only to fail miserably as the first group of guards easily detected him (Kurtulmak is hardly subtle). The gnomish gods captured him, tied his tail in a knot which took a score of years to unravel, stuck a false red wax nose on his face and hung a luminous stuffed chicken to his waist, and packed him off home. No wonder Kurtulmak hates gnomes above everything.
Nonetheless, Kurtulmak should not be underestimated. He is a savage deity who is always attentive to events on the Prime Material Plane, and who is always active in trying to secure some advantage for his people on that plane. He is reluctant to oppose other goblinoid gods, especially Maglubiyet whom he fears (while he considers Gruumsh and the orcish gods stupid and oafish), and thus while his people often contest with other goblinoid races for living space, Kurtulmak will rarely overactively intervene in such conflicts.
Kurtulmak's realm is called Draukari. It is a snaking network of narrow and short tunnels and catacombs filled to bursting with fiendish kobolds. The twisting warrens of Draukari are muddy and reek of death, and they twist so maddeningly upon each other that those not accustomed to them are doomed to get lost. Blood seeps from the surface above and drops down onto the inhabitants, covering their skins completely. This ghastly lubricant helps them writhe and wriggle through the mass of fellow fiends more effectively.
Because they are free from hunger here, kobolds consider Draukari an absolute paradise. Periodically, however, the overcrowding becomes intolerable even for them, and a fiendish civil war ensues. Such a conflict culls out the weakest of the fiends and gives the strongest some momentary breathing room. However, given the vast population of kobolds in the multiple worlds of the Prime Material Plane, it is never long before Draukari fills up once again.
Draukari's hideous reptilian stench can overwhelm nonkobolds as soon as they enter its claustrophobic passageways. Any visitor larger than a halfling must crawl through the mud, which often hides unpleasant surprises. Like the bugbears of Hruggekolohk, the kobolds of Draukari prefer stealth over brute force, though kobold sorcerers are plentiful and offer a magical advantage over the goblinoids.
- Alternate Self: In the Mystara setting, Kurtulmak is the real name of The Shining One, the Immortal patron of kobolds and Caymas. Kurtulmak was in his mortal life a kobold war-leader and tactician who came across an ancient artifact, a suit of plate mail with various properties, most notably the ability to flare up to blind enemies, from which he earned his moniker. Using this armor he found, he eventually achieved immortality in the Sphere of Energy.
- The Berserker: He becomes permanently enraged by gnomes whenever he sees or fights them. In his enraged state, Kurtulmak cannot be forced to leave combat with a gnome or a group of creatures including gnomes by any means, including all magical means.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: He has a long, ratlike tail which is tipped with a wicked stinger.
- Captured Super-Entity: In the 5th edition, when Garl Glittergold stole a treasure from Tiamat's hoard, she sent Kurtulmak to retrieve it. Garl lured his pursuer into a maze-like cavern, then collapsed the exits behind him, trapping Kurtulmak for all eternity. Because of this, the kobolds are bitterly hateful toward gnomes and Kurtulmak's most devoted worshipers are always on the lookout for magic that might help them free their lost god from his prison-maze.
- Fantastic Racism: Kurtulmak hates all life but kobolds, and holds an especial enmity towards gnomes.
- The Maker: According to at least one kobold creation myth, Kurtulmak came across one of the pilfered eggs of his mother Tiamat while carving a network of tunnels to re-connect her lair to the planes. Knowing that the egg had been away from the nest for too long and deciding that his immense task would be easier with help, Kurtulmak caused the egg to hatch, creating miniature incarnations of himself. Thus the first of the kobold race was born.
- Multiple-Choice Past: There are at least two known kobold creation myths regarding Kurtulmak's origin.
- In one version, Kurtulmak was originally a mortal kobold born when Caesinsjach, a green dragon, performed a ritual to create life taught to her by Io, the Ninefold Dragon. After Garl Glittergold collapsed Darastrixhurthi, a mine that Kurtulmak and his followers had created, Io gave Kurtulmak a choice. He would either empower Kurtulmak with the strength to rebuild the mine, or he would make the mighty kobold a champion of his people for all eternity. Kurtulmak chose the latter, and the loss of Darastrixhurthi would remain, but the memory of what happened would endure in the minds of kobolds forever, ensuring that atrocities of that magnitude would never be overlooked again.
- In another version, Kurtulmak is the son of Tiamat, the goddess of evil dragons. Shortly after the Queen of Dragons laid her first clutch of eggs, an army of thieves invaded her lair. Though she fought furiously, several of her eggs and a signficant amount of treasure was stolen before the injured deity collapsed her lair in on itself, crushing all the thieves. Weakened but needing to protect and restore her brood, she caused one egg to hatch early, resulting in Kurtulmak, a huge kobold with a powerful stinger for a tail. Infused with a fraction of Tiamat's divine power, Kurtulmak understood his situation and fixed up Tiamat's lair, riddling it with the deadliest traps he could invent, and then started re-opening the passageways out of the lair. During his excavations, he dug up eggs stolen from Tiamat, which had cooled too greatly to have a hope of hatching. So he used his powers to make them hatch into the first kobolds. At his side, they learned the arts of digging, mining, trapmaking and cunning. As the kobolds grew in number, they continued digging an everexpanding network of tunnels, eventually reaching every corner of the Prime Material Plane, where they established lairs of their own and began to flourish.
- Named Weapons: Kurtulmak's personal weapon is Foestinger, a halfspear with the keen, lawful, and unholy special abilities.
- Reincarnation: Kobolds believe that if they die in service to their tribe, Kurtulmak immediately sends each of them back to life as the next egg laid in the hatchery. If a particularly important or respected member of a tribe dies, the hatchery is closely monitored. The next egg laid is immediately separated from the rest and carefully protected. Once hatched, the resultant wyrmling is groomed to fill a position of importance, if not the position of the recently deceased kobold. Such wyrmlings are given the name of their predecessor in some form. When a tribe is wiped out, kobolds believe that Kurtulmak distributes the souls of the deceased to other tribes. If a kobold dies while serving their own needs rather than those of the tribe, Kurtulmak reincarnates them as the next pup born in the dire weasel stables, they become a domesticated animal unable to choose whether to serve. Kobolds who die betraying their tribe are reincarnated as giant stag beetles, which kobolds hunt for chitinous armor.
- Super-Senses: Kurtulmak can see (using normal vision or darkvision), hear, touch, and smell at a distance of fifteen miles. As a standard action, he can perceive anything within fifteen miles of his worshipers, holy sites, objects, or any location where one of his titles or name was spoken in the last hour. He can extend his senses to up to ten locations at once. He can also block the sensing power of deities of his rank or lower at up to two remote locations at once for 15 hours.
- Supernatural Fear Inducer: He has an aura of fear which forces enemies within 20 feet to either resist it or flee in panic.
- Top God: Kurtulmak is the chief deity of the kobold pantheon and, similar to Maglubiyet, he is a jealous deity who is ever watchful over the other kobold gods.
- Trap Master: Kurtulmak is the kobold god of trapmaking and taught it to the kobolds. Kurtulmak insists that his clerics train under military discipline, learning doctrines for setting ambushes, building defenses, and otherwise defending the kobold people.
- Tunnel King: By concentrating, Kurtulmak can bore a tunnel through dirt, clay, sand, or rock up to 150 feet long and up to 10 feet square. The tunnel begins where Kurtulmak stands and extends in the direction he indicates. For each minute Kurtulmak concentrates, the tunnel is 15 feet long. This power is similar to the passwall spell except that the tunnel created is permanent. Kurtulmak can also use this power to dig pits, but if he does so, he slowly sinks down into the pit.
- War God: Kurtulmak is the kobold god of war and oversees any task that furthers the power and propagation of the kobolds. Whenever kobolds need to expand their territory in order to accomodate their swelling populations, Kurtulmak directs such expansions to push into gnome territories whenever possible, dealing the maximum number of casualties to the kobolds' racial enemy. Kurtulmak encourages his followers to win battles by any means, retreat to fight another day, and to mete out revenge on every enemy, regardless of how long that retribution takes to achieve.
Dakarnok is one of the chief servants of Kurtulmak, the chief kobold deity. Such lesser demigods are the deified heroes of the kobold folk, who best demonstrated the most revered qualities of their people when they were alive. The heroes that become demigod helpers of Kurtulmak upon their deaths are those who also caused the greatest destruction and havoc among demihumans and humans (especially gnomes), and increased the wealth and might of their home gens. There are a number of these minor deities, none of them of exceptional power compared to most deities, and it would appear that they are continually engaged in power conflicts with one another in their drive to become Kurtulmak's most favored aide.
In life, Dakarnok was a shaman/chieftain who conquered all the other kobold gens near his own tribe, and then moved against human and gnome settlements scattered along his frontier. He enjoyed considerable military success against the poorly organized opposition, and specialized in fast, light raids against the smaller villages, driving the populace toward the distant major cities.
It is said that Dakarnok gained godhood through the use of certain magical devices; whatever the means, upon his death his people continued to revere him, and shamans found they were able to cast spells after prayer and ceremony dedicated to his memory. His worship has spread, though not evenly, to a number of other gens, since his people scattered when his home gen-empire was conquered after his death by more powerful human, dwarven, and gnome armies.
Shamans of Dakarnok may be found in kobold gens also having shamans or witch doctors devoted to Kurtulmak; the clerical level of Dakarnok's priests will never equal or exceed that of Kurtulmak's shamans, and the former are generally subservient to the latter.
Dakarnok's shamans frequently lead raiding parties, and gain respect and more followers after especially successful (or lucky) acts of thievery, looting, and destruction. These shamans are typically armed with a black, spiked club that doubles as their holy symbol. These shamans are quite aggressive in the spread of their form of religion, and though they accept Kurtulmak's clerics as their superiors, they have been known to attack the shamans and witch doctors of other kobold demigods on sight.
Dakarnok is usually depicted as an unusually muscular kobold with silverblack scales and tiny red eyes. He uses a spiked club made of dark oak. His shamans cannot attain higher than 3rd level in clerical ability. The particulars of his worship are the same as for Kurtulmak, save that there is no holy animal and the holy color in his worship is black.
Dakarnok's realm is located in the Nine Hells of Baator.
- Carry a Big Stick: He wields a spiked club made of dark oak, which he uses with two hands.
- The Conqueror: In his mortal life, Dakarnok managed to conquer all the settlements located near his own tribe and along his frontier, creating an empire. However, his empire was ultimately conquered after his death by more powerful human, dwarven, and gnome armies.
- Deity of Kobold Origin: Dakarnok was originally a mortal kobold shaman/chieftain who managed to conquer all the settlements located near his own tribe. He successfully gained godhood through the use of certain magical devices upon his death.
- Destroyer Deity: Dakarnok encourages his shamans to engage in acts of destruction during raids, with them gaining respect and more followers if they're especially successful.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: He engaged in these brutal methods of conquest during his mortal life and encourages acts of thievery, looting, and destruction during raids among his shamans.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Dakarnok only appeared in Dragon #63 and has never been seen or mentioned since.
Gaknulak is the kobold demigod of trickery, ambushing, and setting traps. He is a highly intelligent and sneaky deity with a magical cauldron from which he pulls tools, unpredictable minor magical items, and diverse resources for the ingenious, and to fool others. He is a deity who protects and defends kobolds, and teaches them practical trickery. He is a supreme pragmatist, and in this way is a very lawful trickster.
Gaknulak is always ready to send his avatar to instruct kobolds in new arts of defense through creative innovation. He avoids direct confrontation with other avatars and races, preferring defense and trickery. His omens are subtle, and/or hard to decipher, challenging his priests to understand or perceive them: subtly triggered trap defenses, misplaced tools and everyday items, and weapons/clothing subtly rearranged.
Gaknulak lives in the realm of Aknuthrak on Khalas, the first layer of the plane of the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna.
- Magic Cauldron: Gaknulak has a magical cauldron from which he can pull various items.
- Trap Master: Gaknulak is the primary kobold god of traps and frequently sends his avatar to instruct kobolds in creating new traps to defend themselves.
- The Trickster: Gaknulak is a pragmatic and lawful trickster who promotes the use of trickery for the defense of the kobolds.
- Trickster God: Gaknulak is also the kobold god of trickery and teaches his priests to avoid direct confrontations with their enemies in favor of setting traps and ambushes of all kinds.
Miscellaneous Goblinoid Deities
Kikanuti is the principal deity of the bhukas, an offshoot of the goblinoid people, who revere her as the source of all life and their protector in the time before the Emergence. The great cavern below the earth, from which the bhukas claim they and all other people first emerged, is thought of as her womb, and the Upper World is her hearth, where she warms and nurtures her children. Her symbol is a tall clay pot painted with a stylized bird. She appears in many forms, embodied in the ritual masks worn by bhuka dancers, but most commonly as a bhuka woman with braids of corn ears, wearing a brightly painted tunic. She is cordial with Haku, who embodies some aspects of the migration that scattered her children across the waste. Maglubiyet, the patron deity of brutal goblinoids, is her sworn enemy. She considers him an enslaver of his people, keeping them beneath the earth and blind to the full joy of living. For his part, Maglubiyet wishes to seize Kikanuti's power over the fertility of the earth and extend his dominion. Goblinoid tribes in the mountains bordering waste areas often raid bhuka territory, forcing those people to retreat into ever more inaccessible terrain.
The bhukas believe that Kikanuti still guides them in the Upper World by sending themher spirit children to dwell among the villages. These spirits are embodied in ritualmasks, which clan elders don for festival dances at specified times of the year. A mask's spirit possesses the dancer wearing it and is honored by the villagers with feasting and prayers.
The Womb of Kikanuti is a deep, water-carved cavern located beneath a vast, shallow salt lake. In the floor of the cave is a small, pure pool of water that grants healing to those who immerse themselves in it. When the bhukas first arrived on the surface, the opening to the Womb was in a dry valley, but they sealed the entrance and Kikanuti diverted a stream into the lower ground to hide it. The stream is intermittent, pouring muddy water into the lake after storms and remaining bone-dry the rest of the year.
- Big Good: Kikanuti is a nurturing deity who protects and guides her children and wants them to experience the full joy of living on the surface.
- Carry a Big Stick: She wields a mace called Clay pot.
- Earth Mother: Kikanuto presides over the fertility of the earth and the Upper World is thought of as her hearth, where she warms and nurtures her children.
- Mother Goddess: The bhukas believe that Kikanuti nurtured and taught all life in her subterranean womb until they were ready to emerge. The more savage goblinoids are believed to not yet be mature and therefore must stay beneath the earth.
Kuraulyek is the patron deity of urds. In mythology, he was a servant of Kurtulmak who stole a pair of magical feathered wings the kobold god had captured from Syranita, the aarakocra goddess; he then flew away and created the urds as rivals to the kobolds. But despite their formidable abilities, the urds have never become a threat of the magnitude that the frailer kobolds sometimes pose.
Kuraulyek is a cowardly demigod, ever fearful that Kurtulmak will come to extract revenge. He hides in a gloomy cave in Hades, seldom leaving his dismal home. He has a force of monstrous mobats, which defend his lair, and shuns all contact with other deities and inhabitants of Hades.
Kuraulyek is deeply cowardly and will not dispatch his single avatar unless his race is in desperate peril on the Prime Material Plane. More often, he will send one of his huge mobats to aid one of his shamans in combat, adding to it some minor magical ability (such as causing fear). Even so, the god avoids direct confrontation unless this is absolutely unavoidable (defending urds in their homes). Kuraulyek does not have specialty priests, only shamans; some urds revere Kurtulmak, and a prime task for Kuraulyek's shamans is putting a stop to such misplaced devotions.
Kuraulyek's realm is known as Urdsrest, a gloomy cavern in one of the hillsides of Oinos, the first layer of the Gray Waste of Hades. A deep cave infested with fiendish dire bats, it serves as Kuraulyek's hiding place, where he lives in abject fear of Kurtulmak's wrath.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Kuraulyek appears either as a blue-skinned urd or a blue dragonwrought kobold.
- Dirty Coward: Kuraulyek is a deeply cowardly demigod who is enamored of power and cares more for personal wealth and profit than he does for loyalty and responsibility. When the First Rage of Dragons began, in which Caesinsjach and her servitor dragons went mad and started destroying kobold settlements, he flew away with his chosen people to a complex of dismal, bat-ridden caverns in what are now the Thunder Peaks, leaving his ground-dwelling kin to the enraged fangs, claws, and breath of their dragon overlords. Because of this, Kurtulmak vowed revenge on the cowardly urd leader.
- The Maker: Kuraulyek created the urds as to the kobolds after stealing a pair of wings from Kurtulmak and flying away.
- Winged Humanoid: He has feathered wings, which he had stolen from Kurtulmak.
Meriadar is a god of patience, long-suffering, and tolerance. As his people, the mongrelfolk, are drawn from many races and are frequently oppressed by others who willfully misunderstand and despise them, Meriadar has had to suffer the enmity of many goblinoid gods. He has been forced to spurn the help of good-aligned gods of demihumanity and humans, for his sphere of concern is those goblinoids who are not irrevocably drawn to evil, and any affinity with the gods of their enemies would alienate those he seeks to bring into his fold.
Meriadar is a god who seeks peaceful solutions to conflicts, but he is not well-disposed to chaos, and he has an antipathy for the bugbear gods. He especially prizes bugbears drawn to his service. While Meriadar is peaceful, he will oppose over-aggressive actions with "passive force"; he uses protective and warding spells powerfully and very intelligently.
Meriadar espouses the practicality of arts and crafts as an important avenue for exploring peacefulness. Those who respects each others' creativity and skill are unlikely to take up arms against each other, and different races have something to learn from each others' skills. His symbol, the decorated bowl, is both a craft and an art in its decoration, and it is used for sacramental feasting and the sharing of food. Since food is indispensable to life, those who share from Meriadar's dish to eat participate in a basic sharing of life; so how can they strive to bring each other death?
Meriadar's mongrelfolk priests and shamans use this symbol and its practical qualities as an exemplary attribute of their god and their religion. It also serves as a springboard for their philosophical concerns; mongrelfolk priests debate the quality of the "eternal now" as having its origins in spiritual parallels to the act of drawing sustenance, and the immediacy (and "nowness") of the most basic earthly drive, that of hunger. Despite the sometimes stifling quality of lawful neutrality, the priests concern themselves with some subtle spiritual and philosophical questions, and Meriadar smiles on this.
Meriadar's cult is unique in that any goblinoid or demihuman race can become a specialty priest and attain the same maximum experience level as that of mongrelfolk. Of course, such priests are very rare, and usually exiles from their own race, but Meriadar's universal appeal to like-minded creatures ensure that his cult has a growing number of devotees in many worlds.
The deity himself is usually pacifistic and sends avatars for defensive purposes. Meriadar is never prepared to see mongrelfolk wiped out as whole communities, although there is a quality of suffering-god about him and his cult which allows him to see oppression of mongrelfolk as a road to higher spiritual understanding. His avatars are nonetheless forceful when confronted.
Omens from the god are frequently dispatched. They may take the form of automatic speech and speaking in tongues during philosophical debates, sudden artistic inspirations and automatic drawing and sculpting, bubbling in bowls of soup which release smoky vaporous symbolic images, and strange scents which alert mongrelfolk to imminent danger.
- Continuity Snarl: "The Ecology of the Mongrelman" in Dragon #242 has a very different take on the god of the mongrelfolk. In that article, the mongrelfolk worship a deity they call the Hidden God, who they believe is testing their patience by granting no spells, sending no omens, and displaying no evidence that he even exists. The mongrelfolk pray that their god will one day return and restore their days of glory. Each community generally has a single priest of the Hidden God (in slave societies, these priests keep themselves nearly as hidden as their deity is said to be). Unfortunately, the tragic truth is that the Hidden God does not exist at all. Rather, he is a distorted memory of the long-dead wizard who originally created the mongrelfolk race. The worship of the Hidden God is connected to the ritual of "feasting", which is the consumption of the flesh of dead humanoids. As a result of this ritual, future generations of mongrelfolk take on some of the characteristics of all those species their ancestors have consumed. Many mongrelfolk believe that once they have consumed enough different species, the Hidden God will restore their fabled ability to shapechange, while others believe he will restore this ability regardless, but they will only be able to take the forms of those beings their ancestors have consumed.
- Martial Pacifist: Meriadar is extremely peaceful, but will engage in "passive force" when confronted. If he needs to employ a demonstration of power he can stun and blind enemies once per day each.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Meriadar typically appears as a mongrelman, admixing many races, looking like a humanoid with an elf's ears, a dwarf's nose, a human's chin, an orc's jaw, and a gnome's eyes.
- Token Good Teammate: Meriadar is this in relation to the other goblinoid deities, as he teaches peaceful co-existence and tolerance to his followers and seeks to draw the goblinoid races away from evil. Because of this, he is disliked by many of the goblinoid deities.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Meriadar has a variable appearance, as his height, weight, build, and coloring shift from second to second, making it impossible to pin down his true features. He can appear as a tall figure of any goblinoid race when he needs to do so.
The entity known simply as "Stalker" is an elemental entity related to the racial root stock of all goblinoid races. Stalker is always held in creation myths to have emerged from a dark underground complex into which the goblinoid race telling the tale entered in pre-history. Their intrusion drove stalker out from his domain, and the demigod has sought revenge ever since.
Stalker is a solitary entity, without priests or shamans; goblinoids usually don't even attempt to propitiate it (a rare exception is the employment of ritual dancing to terminal exhaustion with the promises of a battle, and deaths/souls to be devoured, offered to this dire entity). The deaths of goblinoids strengthen the hate and anger which rules the deity and its power, so it always seeks conflict, war and death (which may be why other goblinoid gods don't attempt to destroy it). It has a ravening, eternal, hateful hunger for lives and souls, but it is not powerful enough to directly oppose the stronger goblinoid gods such as Gruumsh and Maglubiyet. For this reason, it focuses its hate on bugbears, kobolds, urds, gnolls, and mongrelfolk. It has an especial hatred of Meriadar, the deity who attempts to bring back some semblance of respect for life to goblinoids. In many worlds, Stalker has some form of alliance with Skiggaret; while the two do not work together, there is some form of tolerance.
Stalker will send its single avatar when there is a good prospect of preying on weak communities or damaged populations (after a mass battle, for example). The goblinoid gods often permit "Stalker's share" of souls after such a conflict.
- An Ice Person: Stalker is especially proficient with cold-related spells.
- Blood Knight: Stalker always seeks conflict, war, and death, as it gains strength from the deaths of goblinoids.
- The Dreaded: Stalker is feared by all goblinoid races, who usually do not bother to attempt to propitiate it, as it seldom does any good. The only exception that was found to be effective is ritually dancing to death while promising Stalker a battle with deaths and souls to be devoured; this will sometimes satisfy Stalker enough to turn away from the rest of the community.
- Enemy to All Living Things: Stalker has an intense hatred for all life (especially goblinoids) and preys on weak communities or damaged populations whenever possible.
- Living Shadow: Stalker takes the form of a slow shadow from 2-20 feet in length as Stalker desires.
- Horror Hunger: It has a ravening, eternal, hateful hunger for lives and souls.
- The Power of Hate: Stalker draws power from his hate and anger, which is strengthened by the deaths of goblinoids.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: According to the goblinoid creation myths, Stalker dwelled in a dark underground complex before being driven out by the intrusion of the goblinoids and has sought revenge against them ever since.
- Soul Eating: Stalker constantly hungers for souls. The other goblinoid deities often permit "Stalker's share" of souls after large battles involving goblinoids.
- Supernatural Fear Inducer: Stalker continually radiates fear within a 10' radius of itself.
