The Elder Elemental Eye

## God of the Abyss

* Artwork
* Symbol

The Elder Elemental Eye is an Intermediate Deity in Ahlus that occupies a place amongst the Malign.

## History

Also known as Tharizdun to those non-native to Ahlus, the Elder Elemental Eye is the Lord of Insanity, the supposed creator of the Abyss. Old by even the measure of the gods, the Elder Elemental Eye first resided in the Outer Plane of Limbo, bending such a vast quantity of the Plane to his design that the chaos of the Abyss came into existence. His corruption of Limbo continues to grow, although occasionally his influence spreads further still, spilling into the other planes - Material or otherwise.

## Enemies

Many believe that it Yaldin that cast the Elder Elemental Eye into Limbo, hoping the banishment into a Plane of Elemental Chaos would be sufficient to overshadow the tumultuous deeds enacted by the malignant entity. Of particular detestment are the denizens of the Lord of Nessus, spurning an eternal Blood War along the banks of the River Styx.

## Commandments

* Embrace the chaos of life, only greater tumult will follow in death.
* Make offerings of your bodies and that of others to the Elder Elemental Eye. Gifts given forcefully and without hesitation only spurn further delight.
* The world seeks to forget the Chained God. Ensure that they do not.

## Research

### Completed by Rinn Zelnolar

Trying to apply logic to the nature of the Elder Elemental Eyes is a nigh impossible task, and as such, discerning definitive truths about such an entity proves likewise illogical. Originally cast in the plane of Limbo, it was from this wandering world that another was spawned, namely that of the Abyss, from which the demons that fortunately spend near all of their time making war with devils in the ongoing Blood War spawn. Nonetheless, this itself is filled with fallacy. It is undisputed that the Lantern Lord Yaldin was responsible for casting the Elder Elemental Eye into Limbo, an act supposedly inspired by a belief that the tumultuous Plane would prove far more chaotic than the would-be prisoner, and yet from this attempted incarceration the Abyss came to be nonetheless. However, Yaldin was likewise said to have come to be during Aita's First Gift, in which the Dawn Matron created the other gods to protect the lands created by the God of Soil and Stone, but by that time the Wandering World of Limbo had clashed against the Elemental Sphere eight times, sending the Primordial Princes bound for the Material Plane - for which the Elder Elemental Eye is credited, despite the fact that they may indeed predate the Ahlusian Pantheon. How can the Chained God have been in Limbo at that time, if Yaldin as the faithful know them was yet to be, contained within the divinity of Aita, light of the divine? The clergy of the Principal Sixteen suggest that this is surely a sophism created by bards and other story-tellers, caused by the poeticising and aggrandisation of the mythos of a time before mortal comprehension. The title of Chained God makes reference to this imprisonment, and although the prison cell has grown wide and large over the years, it remains a prison cell nonetheless. It is, however, a measure by which the difficulty in discussing the Elder Elemental Eye definitively can be demonstrated.

By all accounts however, The Elder Elemental Eye is madness-incarnate. A distinction must be made between the Chained God and entities from the Between and Beyond, for while they can be maddening, incomprehensible to a sane mind, Tharizdun is instead madness, an embodiment of a fractured and disordered mind. From this mind, completely out of touch with reality - experiencing simultaneously every form of mania, depression, paranoia, delusion, the greatest psychosis imaginable and then far beyond besides - acts of the divine come, inspired by whatever bout of insanity inspired it. Trying to predict the actions of the Elder Elemental Eye are like trying to predict the next strategies enacted by the largest army in existence, its commander a random duck in a pond somewhere on the continent, or directed by what the least popular dish on a tavern menu is. To this effect, it has frequently been speculated as to if, not how, such an entity plots and schemes, as it does indeed seem to do. Is there a secret path through the insanity, to cut through layers of madness to the true through-line beneath clear and bright as day, or is the the reality more so horrifying than this? In truth, it is widely believed by scholars that the Elder Elemental Eye does not plot or scheme, but instead, owing to the vastness of their scope, simply casts all manner of plans in response to threats real or perceived far and wide, doing so with such incredible frequency that eventually from time to time, they seem to align with some facsimile of sense. Perhaps upon the battlefields of Avernus, Oinos and Pazunia a sudden series of demonic victories over the Legions of the Hells may seem to be some masterful and strategic victory finally coming to fruition, but may instead be looking past the dozens, hundreds, thousands of other widely disproportionate occurrences that faltered and failed, yielded coincidence simply by their frequency. Whether or not this a reassuring fact is once more hotly debated by scholars, who cannot decide whether knowing the the Elder Elemental Eye has the scope for such destruction but simply by their nature lacks any agency to do so - or if instead somehow they came to possess such an ability, the fear that would surely follow. Many of the Malign seek not the destruction of the Principal Races, and thus while they may plot and scheme, it is usually believed - and hoped - to be that of dominion, not definitive destruction. No such comment can be said with regard to the Elder Elemental Eye, whose each and every thought spell uncertainty.

Deliberately or otherwise, there are those that find themselves in servitude to the Chained God. Creations of the Abyss, all Demons indirectly serve the Elder Elemental Eye, but these surely do not look the Elder Elemental Eye as a patron. Demons, enraptured by their own interests and appetites do not consider themselves in submission to this patron, seeking to place no individual but themselves at the peak of the hierarchy, with adamant chaos sprawling beneath. So powerful are the Demon Lords, and above them the Demon Princes - that they may rival the power of the least of the divine, creating mortal minions and objects of great power to embolden them, most turning their attention to the clash of sanguine swords on the banks of the Styx and beyond. Likewise, when the Wandering World of Limbo presumed to contain the Elder Elemental Eye shattered repeatedly into the Elemental Sphere a half-dozen and two times in quick succession, shards of the chaos of Limbo seeded the Sphere, creating entities representative of elemental and natural might. Each was cast towards the Prime, these Primordial Elemental Princes moved to carve the Soil and Stone into a state that they saw fit, and were countered by the newly formed Principal Sixteen, who subsequently cast them back from the Prime to languish elsewhere, without trail or route upon which to return. Amongst mortals, worship of the Elder Elemental Eye is very rare, typically relegated only to those at the edges of society, forced there by pre-existing beliefs filled with hatred, rejection or madness. From this madness a connection and dedication subsequently sparks, spiralling rapidly downhill to depravity - acts of unpredictable violence, intense grandeur and all-encompassing mania. Self-mutilation of body parts is not uncommon in those that have developed a perceived deeper connection with Tharizdun, finding no struggle as their faith replaces what has been lost. By their very nature, individuals and cults dedicated to the Elder Elemental Eye tend to be short-lived and self-limited, but the scope of damage dealt on the way can be catastrophic, and thus best not just left alone to fail by their own means.

Nonetheless, cults that indirectly find themselves in service to the Elder Elemental Eye may persist more successfully, albeit their goals may not align directly with the intents - if any true intents exist - of the deity. These cults tend to be associated with one of the entities to which the Elder Elemental Eye is given credit, whether enacting the schemes of one of the numerous Demon Lords and Princes, or perhaps instead focused and acknowledging of the scope and natural majesty of one of the Archomentals. From time to time, these cults and sects may find themselves briefly unified, positing that further a seemed plot of the Elder Elemental Eye furthers the position of all entities of the Abyss or likewise, but such occurrences are few and far between. Instead, these groups are insular, with many members surely never once considering the presence of the Chained God in their particular machinations, focusing rather on their patron. Amongst these, the most notorious are surely the Sect of the Tenebrous, dedicated to Orcus, the Screaming Sky, dedicated to the Tempest Trinity, the Order of the Sybarite, dedicated to Graz'zt and The Exitless, dedicated to Baphomet.