Gods of the Outer Night

It seems as though each of the gods of the Outer Night have the ability to manifest, or at least control, the appearances of their respective domain. However, unlike the Ardruids or Unknown, this is not seen so much as a reward, but rather just a result and cost of obtaining power. None of the realms are pleasant and all drain the sanity of its non-Outsider inhabitants almost instantly.

Why these gods choose to collect souls, if even they are aware they are, is largely a mystery. Many believe they use them as psychic batteries much like the devils of the Lower Realms.

Known primarily in the Riven Lands, Galgodot the Constant Hunger is described as a massive serpent made out of the darkness between stars. In this form is slithers from realm to realm, devouring any and all life upon them before leaving the ruined husk in its wake. Those who choose to worship the mad promises of Galgodot do so with the delusion they will be sated and find their place within the great belly when it consumes their world. Truly, only the mad worship this Outer Night god.

When they do hold festival for Galgodot its a cruel mimicry of noble feasts. Rife with cannibalism, decadence and bloodletting, these festivities are corrupt, heinous and not for the sane of mind. Its said that during these events, worshippers may be blessed with serpentine features bringing them closer to the image of their ravenous god. This entity is sometimes confused or conflated with Grandmother Iuna and Espet.

Little is known about this entity of Unknown, who haunts the dreams of kings and queens and slithers through the shadows of royal courts like a terrible rumor. Unlike its kin, Hz'Otha puts special emphasis on those who inhabit high social statuses in their cultures with special favor given to royalty. 

In the few cases this creatures influence can be proven, and in the many cases it is merely suspected, the Blind King rarely ever acts on its agendas with its own will or presence, but rather its often described as merely a thought or gesture that begins to weave its way into the rumors and paranoia of the nobility. Often, it employs servants drawn to it like moths to flame; assassins, firebrands, iconoclasts and saboteurs to shake up the paradigm and further upset the nobility until they are craven with fear and suspicion. 

This is often when the masterstroke falls, but again, Hz'Otha may not even deliver the blow itself. Many suspect that the Order of the Driven Nail was able to exert Vhaaalothi's influence over the Unknown because Hz'Otha opened the door. The Blind King is considered a grand puppeteer and manipulator who very rarely intervenes directly choosing to instead work through various proxies and powers.

Unknown is often described as a great void that is empty of all reason, goodness and life. Yet, it is also a place filled with things and yet still empty. Feeding this paradoxical nature is a creature known as Mh'aagr'lid the Thousand-Mother, the matriarch of most, if not all, terrible "life" in the void. From her body pours the thousand teeming hordes of incomprehensible flesh, none and fluids. They are not beholden to her, but many things in the Outer Night worship Mh'aagr'lid as a form of mother-goddess. Often, they offer supplication to her to prolong their species in a place hostile to all existence. Sometimes she obliges.

In the mortal realms, Mh'aagr'lid  often takes the presence of other maternal deities. Most suspect this is to gain or steal their worshippers. Others whisper its a jealous play to bask in true adoration not drawn of fear. When displeased, Mh'aagr'lid often unleashes her favored children; the Dark Goats of the Night.

Supposedly, Stramlag the Twisted One first touched the real when it whispered into the depraved mind of Isbal Cretney and his minions. In doing so, a cult swiftly formed around this creature. The spread was quick and it was only when the Archpriest Isbal was finally destroyed was the spread slowed until it dispersed to the secret places of the world. 

Stramlag promises to the minds of the creatures that worship it something akin to acceptance. The Twisted One seeks out those downtrodden and ostracized from society, such as Fomorii and Changelings, and promises them that if they can bring about its ascendance they will inherit the world with its coming. Its unfluence must be spread, so its followers believe, and that must be done in any way necessary. An ethos that fits within the Unknown way of life easily.

Vhaalothi is perhaps the best known god-thing of the Outer Night. Having somehow managed to obtain control of the Imperial Court of Samara Strima and replaced its original imperial religion. What is known of Vhaalothi is small, as with any Outer Night entity, but still disturbing. Adherents to the cult believe that Vhaalothi will manifest in its fullest when the majority of the world's population bears her spike in their neck.

To this end the cultists of the Thousand Nails Doctrine capture, arrest or otherwise obtain peoples both willing and unwilling. They are then subjected to a ritual by which one of Vhaalothi's thousand spikes is driven into their neck and a fragment of Vhaalothi infiltrates their mind warping their thoughts and their flesh. Now, however, with the backing of the Unknown, the cultists have adopted a new name and purpose; The Order of the Driven Nail who seek to indoctrinate all under the rule of the Empire.

Zho'thaq'quah often appears in subterranean areas or "thin places", places where the liminal veil of the Threshold are at their weakest. Unlike most of its ilk, Zho'thaq'quah has never tried to breach the inner cosmos by taking to wing or sail and traveling across the vast gulfs of space. Instead, Zho'thaq'quah somehow manifests itself anywhere in the liminal cosmos. 

How, priests and scholars are uncertain, but its presumed because of the eternal slothfulness and perpetual dreaming state that Zho'thaq'quah refused to leave its lair. Instead, it chooses to move its lair where it needs to be and the theorized easiest way to do this would be in spacially weak planes such as liminal ones.

Zho'thaq'quah is a squat, terrible thing not unlike a toad with gangly arms. It awakens only to feast on those who disturb it. However, it is said that those who awaken Zho'thaq'quah and bear a sacrifice in hand may be allowed a glimpse into the thing's mind and have their own mind "evolved". Even this merest promise of power and the radiating, maddening dreams Zho'thaq'quah chooses to place in the minds of those who show similarly idle natures, are enough to draw the lazy or power hungry to its worship.

The gods of Unknown often provoke great catastrophe in their workings. Such was the case during RE 2808 AoA during the Year of Invasions where the creature known as the Archpriest Isbal Cretney was able to fold the Mortal Realms into the Outer Night very briefly. In doing so, it twisted the very mortals within Manannan Port and set loose hundreds of unholy things until he was stopped and the Outer Night unfolded from the real.

Sometime before this, Vhaalothi managed to corrupt the imperial courts of the Unknown of Samara Strima. This caused officials to ban the practices of The Unknown and illegalize their meditations. What follows is an era of subjugation, persecution and eradication of these adherents in imperial settlements. Events that even lead to full-scale war between Samara Strima and Djinnaya who saw this new religion as heretical. Many still suffer under the rule of Vhaalothi cultists.

Most literary works revolving around the Outer Night are scrawled madness promising the ability for one to understand that which is completely alien, and so, impossible to understand with a mortal mind.

Art depicting landscapes or entities of the Outer Night are incredibly rare. Often the work of fevered minds, their mere existence a threat to the sanity of any onlookers. As such, they are often destroyed.