Yob-Soddoth

**Yob-Soddoth** is the god of forbidden knowledge - not secrets, since those have a way of becoming known, but of knowledge that will consume the mind with madness.

There are no records regarding Yob-Soddoth before about 6500 AL, but those that do exist suggest that his cult was well-established, if secretive, by that time. The first account is from the *Histories of the Northern Plain*, the seminal work of historian and anthropologist Borr Longnose, in which Longnose describes:

*And it came to pass that the Watchers Upon The Prow came unto Midship, and spake, saying,*
*Behold, and give ear, for the course of the Ship passeth unto a region both new and perilous, and there dwells there a great being, of strange hue and terrible countenance, and we shall pass beside it, or mayhap we shall strike it, and whither shall we flee?*

*And the wise men and the magicians and the soothsayers did speak one with another, and there was much spilling of ink and pulling of beards, and the people waxed wroth with their wise men, and behold, they spake dire mutterings, for they said, The wise men care not for us, nor for our peril, but care only for their station and their respect.*
*And when the wise men heard this they ceased their strivings one with another, and sent forth agents unto the Prow, which lieth beyond the Foksell Mountains, and the agents went forth.*
*And the agents of the wise men were of great learning, and ancient wisdom they bore, and they gazed upon the being before the Ship.*
*Now the time of Docking was near at hand, and the agents looked, and beheld the world unto which the Ship was bearing them, and they mourned, for it was barren and dead.*
*And above the world was a being of terrible countenance, and strange hue, and it came forth unto the Prow and spake unto the agents, saying, Who art thou, and what manner of ship is this Ship?*
*And the agents cried aloud, for the being was strange, and the voice thereof was terrible to be borne, and of the agents many perished thereby.*
*And the agents that perished not cried aloud, saying, Depart hence, and come not upon the Ship, for thy nature is abhorrent and thy presence is death.*
*And the being said, I am Yob-Soddoth, and I was born before the stars, and I come and go as I please, for I seek all knowledge. Wherefore is my presence anathema unto thee?*
*And the agents who perished not cried again the more loudly, and the being came forth unto the Ship and took upon itself a form less harmful, that the light of its countenance burned them not, neither were they consumed, but they beheld its power and mystery and knelt before it.*

*And these agents became the first Chosen of Yob-Soddoth*

Longnose goes on to ascribe to the Chosen of Yob-Soddoth a variety of evils and schemes, but this part of the manuscript is less well-attested. The "cult" of Yob-Soddoth appears to have remained small but resilient, and has notably been successful in resisting the usual fate of secret cults on the Ship - being infiltrated and subverted by Ithirian cultists.

## Dogma

Yob-Soddoth appears to have very little in terms of structured teachings - inasmuch as they do exist, they revolve around the importance of finding forbidden lore and securing it away from those unprepared to bear the weight of it. Many Soddothian teachings take the form of mind-bending riddles, the idea being that only those whose minds are already a bit twisted can understand them. For example:

"If two men meet in the woods, but only one can fly, how many tricycles make up an ostrich?"

appears multiple times in Soddothian texts. What the answer is - or if it even has one, or what an ostrich is supposed to be - remains a mystery.

## Clergy and Temples

Yob-Soddoth has no temples. Yob-Soddoth needs no temples. Yob-Soddoth doesn't *really* have any clergy - some (very few) of his adherents are clerics, and they are granted spells by Yob-Soddoth almost absent-mindedly. Ten thousand years of concentrated survival on the Ship has consumed Yob-Soddoth with curiosity, and he is travelling along with the Ship as long as his curiosity remains unsated.

The Ritual of Seeking Knowledge is the most common way for neophytes to be indoctrinated into the cult - the varied and intricate requirements for performing the ritual will force neophytes into contact with Soddothian cultists, who ensure that the Seeker of Knowledge is properly initiated before they are permitted to perform the ritual.