IASHAR - The Haunter of Desolate Places and Piper of Madness
Depicted vaguely as a loathsome, elongated, malformed, mottled, capering figure with phosphorescent eyes , Iashar is said to haunt the wastes of Algol. Tales speak of a distant atonal, reedy, whistling piping heard at night in such regions. This piping is reputed to induce panic and eventual madness and is attributed to Iashar. The hopelessly mad wretches and reavers that wander the wastelands are said to be his followers.
VAIKHAL - The Inexorable Iron Wheel
Vaikhul is depicted as an unspeakably massive towering iron spiked wheel; the cruel blade-like spikes that stud it's tread are clotted with debris, mangled metal and clotted bodies and blood. Vaikhal embodies methodical, merciless slaughter and destruction and is the patron of those that exterminate hostile nonhumans and other threats to Lawful men and civilization.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
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Cool! Vaikhal reminds me of the War Wheel.
ReplyDeleteVery nice. I do like both of these, nice and apocalyptic. I can see why some might worship Vaikhal. Iashar, though, seems more of a cautionary figure. "Don't go out at night, Iashar will get you!" Madness-inducing doesn't seem much of a draw. It would be nice to see an aspect this abhorrent deity that a sane but desperate person (i.e. a typical PC) might feel forced to call upon...
ReplyDeleteTrey: Wow! Thanks for the link, that's indeed what I was going for!
ReplyDeleteDave: Iashar is a deity of the Lords of Change, and as such both it and it's worshipers are irrational. I imagine folks would pay tribute to Iashar or it's priests in order to ward off it's attention while traveling the desolate places. Now I'm imagining the hooded priests of Iashar standing at the gate of a city the leads to the wastelands. "Pay a tithe to Iashar here and yee shall not worry about the atonal nocturnal piping in yon desert lands!
Also, Iashar is worshiped by those in the wastes who hear the piping and are drawn to it, find it beautiful, bow to it...
And yes, Iashar is a cautionary/boogeyman figure. And since Iashar may very well not exist, it may be a mythological figure to explain insanity and those who go mad or missing while traveling the wastelands.