And rightly so, for all that comes to be
Deserves to perish wretchedly;
'Twere better nothing would begin.
Thus everything that that your terms, sin,
Destruction, evil represent—
That is my proper element.”
― Faust
- Part One
I had an idea. I thought I might write about what was the
eldest of the eldest in Greyhawk, and in my imaginings, that was the Old Faith
and the Elder Evil. It’s all in the name, I thought. This will be easy, I
thought. I was wrong. Other years, it has become a gordian knot, begging for
Alexander’s sword.
What is to be made of it all?
If you haven’t already, read the treatise on the Green
God, and the first part of the Elder Evil exploration, before diving into this.
They are meant to read as one, but they are long. Regrettably, most of my posts
are long.
To continue:
The
Elder Elemental Eye
 |
| The Chained Horror |
The deity Tharizdun is a being of pure destructive
force, of cold, conclusive obliteration and utterly evil nihilism. [RttTEE – 4]
That about sums
Tharizdun up: dark, cold, malign, destructive, so much so that the whole of the
universe had to go, so much so that an entire pantheon of gods has to come
together to defeat him. The answer as to why these disparate beings banded
together to banish Tharizdun is obvious; the gods are part and parcel with the
universe; should it go, so do they. I can imagine they were rather motivated to
set aside their differences, for the nonce. If it took all their might to
banish Tharizdun, that would make him pretty powerful, equally powerful to the
lot of them, it would seem.
An ancient,
dark god of malign decay and madness, Tharizdun seeks nothing less than the
utter destruction of the universe, reducing all to literal nothingness. Eons
ago, Tharizdun was imprisoned when the other gods put aside their differences
and attacked in unison, fearing his dread dreams would come to pass. [Dragon #294 – 31]
It’s an old
trope, Evil cast down; used in most religions, I imagine; used in the Christian
ethos, certainly:
And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of out brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.[Revelation 12: 7-10]
Defeated, much
like Lucifer, Tharizdun broods; he plots, he manipulates, and awaits his
eventual return.
Now Tharizdun
is trapped alone in a prison demiplane from which he cannot free himself. His
conduits to the Prime Material Plane and the rest of the Great Wheel are few
and tenuous, and only learned sages know that Tharizdun was ever worshipped.
Under the cover of darkness, cults of his insane priests labor tirelessly to
free their dark master from his prison, hoping to aid him in his destruction of
all.
Tharizdun’s
cultists call him by many names, including He of Eternal Darkness and the Ebon
God. He also grants spells in the guise of the Elder Elemental Eye. [Dragon #294 – 31]
That’s how we
imagine Tharizdun, anyway.
The question
arises: Does Tharizdun truly wish to bring an end to the whole of creation? He
must; all our literature professes as much; so, it must be true.
Why? Because he
is the embodiment of Entropy, and Oblivion, and wishes a return to its
perfection.
If that is the
case, we could never hope to understand him.
And if we can
never hope to, you have to wonder about his worshipers. Who are they that they
should desire the same? Such a world view would be nihilistic, in the extreme. You
would have to be insane to worship a god that promises to destroy the universe,
bringing an end to everything, themselves in the bargain. So, we have to wonder:
Are they insane? Or do they see him in some different “light?”
 |
| Oh, Lucifer, son of the morning! |
"How you are fallen from heaven,O Lucifer, son of the morning!How you are cut down to the ground,You who weakened the nations!For you said in your heart:'I will ascend into heaven,I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;I will also sit on the mount of the congregationOn the farthest sides of the north;I will aabove the heights of the clouds,I will be like the Most High.'Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,Yo the lowest depths of the Pit."[Isaiah 14: 12-15]
This is how I
imagine devotees of the Elemental Eye see their god. Cast down. To rise again
in all his glory. But that is their world view of the Elemental Eye. Do they
even know that they are worshiping Tharizdun? Few, in fact, realize that they
are.
The Elder Elemental Eye is actually an aspect of dread
Tharizdun. Clerics of the Elder Elemental Eye are his clerics, although
sometimes they do not realize it. [RttTEE
– 4]
Even the clerics of the original Temple of Elemental
Evil did not refer to the Elder Elemental Eye. They believed that they revered
only the evil aspect of the elements themselves (or the demon Zuggtmoy […]). [RttTEE – 4]
Those few that
do are hopelessly insane. Did congress with the mind of Tharizdun drive them
so?
His cult is small but fanatically devoted. Coming to
them in mysterious and mind-wrenching dreams, the deity imparts his dark will
to his followers. The goal of Tharizdun’s clerics is to channel enough power to
their dread master so that he can free himself from his prison. This, of
course, will spell the utter end of the world, and so this faith appeals only
to the completely insane. [RttTEE - 4]
 |
| Calling to those souls that resonate with His |
When Man was still young, they were drawn to his temple
in the Yatils, and would be for centuries, to the dark presence that thrummed in its depth.
The Temple was built in a previous age, a secret place
of worship to Tharizdun, He of Eternal Darkness. It drew the most wicked
persons to it, and the cult flourished for generations, sending out its minions
from time to time to enact some horrible deed upon the lands around. However, a
great battle eventually took place between Tharizdun and those opposed to his
evil. Unable to destroy him, they were strong enough to overcome his power and
imprison him somewhere, by means none have ever been able to discover. Thus
Tharizdun disappeared from the face of the earth, and from all of the other
known planes, and has not been seen again since. [WG4 - 3]
GREAT CHAPEL: This area appears to be a long-abandoned chapel or small temple, but in whose honor it is impossible to state. The whole is 40' wide and about 60' long, with the far (north) wall concave, the curve being smooth and shallow. Small, fluted columns of deep black stone line a 20' aisle, leaving a 10' wide space beyond on both east and west walls. Within the front 40' of the place, all stone is black. Beyond, where a stone rail rises 3' from the floor, and a curving step or dais rises 1' and meets the back wall, floors and walls are of deepest purple, although the ceiling remains black. [WG4 - 18]
AISLE: The 10' wide area seems to have
been well-used, for the floor is worn down, and the walls are likewise slightly
dished by the touch of many bodies. If the walls are actually touched, the
character will feel a tingling and his or her vision will go black for a
fleeting moment, then sight will be restored. Tactile sense will discover that
there are strange, indiscernible convolutions here which form mind pictures
when touched. These impressions are pleasurable and unsettling at the same
time. Any person failing to save versus magic after experiencing this sensation
will attempt to return and feel the sensation once again. If this happens, that
individual will automatically experience the following things:
1) [Vision] in total darkness will seem normal, but, any
light brighter than a hooded lantern will be disgusting to him or her, and he
or she will immediately ask that it be extinguished or else he or she will go
elsewhere.
2) Strange desires will begin to flood the
individual's mind during times of quiet. These desires will be unwholesome at
first, then absolutely strange ...
3) The name of Tharizdun will rise unbidden to the
individual's lips whenever he or she is under stress and needs aid.
ALTAR RAIL: The square fore portion of
the chapel is divided from the sacred portion by a railing of puce-hued stone.
This railing is 3' high and intricately carved and pierced. This work is
disgusting and disturbing in nature, being of vines and tendrils, tentacles and
serpentine bodies intertwined with human forms and skeletons and other things
unknowable.
RAISED SECTION: This step or dais
appears to be the place where an altar service might have been conducted. There
is a low table of black mineral which has bits of shiny purple within its
polished surface. […] To either side are rotted and crumbling chairs of some
sort. There are piles of rusted metal near the doors on the north wall. What
devices or purposes these items once served is impossible to tell. On the wall
behind the altar stone there is an anomaly. The violet color of the stone seems
to bear the indistinct shadow of a large, vaguely-human shape. But it is so
obscure, and so uncertain in form, that it may be a trick of light playing upon
the curving surface of stone. [WG4 - 18]
After a time his servants returned again to the Temple, deserted as it was of any manifestation of their deity. Amongst these wicked folk were many powerful magic-users and clerics. All sought with utmost endeavor to discern what had happened to Tharizdun, so that he could be freed and returned to rule over them once again. All attempts were in vain, although the divinations and seekings did reveal to these servants of Eternal Darkness that a "Black Cyst" existed below the Temple. By physical work and magical means they delved downward to reach the Black Cyst. What they discovered there dismayed and disheartened them. In the hemisphere of black needlerock (floating as if by levitation) a huge form could be seen. Was this the physical manifestation of Tharizdun? None could tell. The misty form was black and indistinct and enclosed in vaporous purple energy as well. No ritual, no spell, no magic could pierce the enigma. [WG4 - 3]
THE BLACK CYST
As you enter this hemispherical chamber of some 40'
diameter, the name of the place comes unbidden to your minds. It is called the
cyst, The Black Cyst. From where you stand near the entrance, your iron torches
cast only a faint light to where some form lies near the center of the place.
This shape is so black that it is absolutely lightless, and it seems to absorb
all the radiance from your torches. As was true in the entry chamber, so too
here; all is needle-rock. [WG4 - 30]
 |
| The Black Cyst |
You have dared all and descended the spiraling purple
steps formed by the strange column of gray smoke, lilac light, and jet black.
This swirling, pulsing column of radiation has opened a means of entrance to
somewhere far beneath the surface of the earth — or perhaps to some place not
of this earth. All of you feel the press of time, a sense of urgency. How long
will this strange gate remain open? You all hope not to learn the hard way as
you hurry down a seemingly endless flight of "steps" made of the purple
radiance. Ten minutes seems more like ten hours, but at last you have come to
what must be your final goal, for the stairs of light give way to more mundane
ones of black stone... [WG4 - 29]
Their rituals went unheard.
Then, as time continued to pass, even this ritual grew
stale and meaningless. The clerics of Tharizdun began to pilfer the hoard of
beautiful gems sacrificed to him by earlier servants [….]
[The] former servants of this deity slipped away with
their great wealth to serve other gods and wreak evil elsewhere. [WG4 - 3]
Finally, only Wongas, Tharizdun’s last High Priest,
remained. He too grew weary, his life long and unfulfilled. “Lord, why have
you forsaken your people,” he cried. Old, tired, spent, he had strength for
one more spell, hand having prepared his way.
 |
| Wongas' Reward |
Unable to place himself in the chief crypt, not being
able to get past the guardian there, [Wongas] had his vault placed in this
chamber. Before he could begin proper decoration of the sarcophagus, however,
the last of the lesser priests and servants deserted the Temple. Eventually,
Wongas stalked to his tomb alone, full of rage and hate and shame. The High
Priest made his own corpse into a monster by force of hate and displeasure.
[WG4 - 26]
Wongas transformed himself into a Coffer Corpse to
forever guard his temple against those infidels who might pilfer it as his
perfidious brethren had. And Tharizdun’s temple passed into legend.
The Black Cyst knew that others would come, because they
always did. So, it sang its song, and waited. Patiently, as is the way of
Tharizdun. Patiently? One wonders, for the Black Cyst, like its master, does
not feel the passage of Time.
Time did pass.
Centuries. And the Evil rose again, as it is wont to do.
 |
| Hommlet |
Whether the evil came west from Dyvers as is claimed by one faction, or crept up out of the forestlands bordering the Wild Coast as others assert, come it did. At first it was only a few thieves and an odd group of bandits molesting the merchant caravans. Then came small bands of humanoids-kobolds or goblins raiding the flocks and herds. Local militia and foresters of the Waldgraf of Ostverk apparently checked, but not stopped, the spread of outlawry and evil.
A collection of hovels and their slovenly inhabitants
formed the nucleus for the troubles which were to increase. A wicked cleric
established a small chapel at this point. The folk of Hommlet tended to ignore
Nulb, even though it was but six miles distant. The out-of-the-way position was
ideal for the fell purposes planned for this settlement, as was its position on
a small river flowing into the Velverdyva. The thickets and marshes around Nulb
became the lair and hiding place for bandits, brigands, and all sorts of evil
men and monsters alike. The chapel grew into a stone temple as its faithful
brought in their ill-gotten tithes. Good folk were robbed, pillaged, enslaved,
or worse. In but three years a grim and foreboding fortress surrounded the evil
place, and swarms of creatures worshipped and worked their wickedness there.
The servants of the Temple of Elemental Evil made Hommlet and the lands for
leagues around a mockery of freedom and beauty. Commerce ceased, crops
withered, pestilence was abroad. But the leaders of this cancer were full of
hubris, and in their overweaning pride sought to overthrow the good realms to
the north who were coming to the rescue of the land being crushed under the
tyranny wrought by the evil temple. A great battle was fought to the east, and
when villagers saw streams of ochre-robed men and humanoids fleeing south and
west through their community, there was great rejoicing, for they knew that the
murderous oppressors had been defeated and driven from the field in panic and
rout.
So great was the slaughter, so complete the victory of
good, that the walled stronghold of the Temple of Elemental Evil fell within a fortnight, despite the aid of a terrible demon. The place was ruined and sealed
against a further return of such abominations by powerful blessings and magic.
[T1 The Village of Hommlet - 2]
Worshippers of
those evil deities is scattered about, and on the rise again everywhere, or so
it would seem.
It seemed that no monsters were left to slay, no evil
existed here to be stamped out. For four years thereafter, this seemed true,
but then bandits began to ride the roads again-not frequently, but to some
effect. This seemed all too familiar somehow to the good folk of Hommlet, so
they sent word to the Viscount that wicked forces might still lurk thereabouts.
This information has been spread throughout the countryside, and the news has
attracted outsiders to the village once again. Who and what these men are, no
one can be quite sure, although all claim to be bent on slaying monsters and
bringing peace and security to Hommlet, for deeds speak more loudly than words,
and lies cloak true purposes of the malevolent. [T1 - 2]
Using their connections in the still-thriving cult of Lolth (unlike that of Zuggtmoy), the clerics of the Elder Elemental Eye influenced powerful individuals to return to the ruined temple. Lareth the Beautiful, the wizard Falrinth, Barkinar the commander, and others, not all of whom were friendly to one another, found their way into the hierarchy of the new temple. This time, its backers believed, the temple would grow quietly until it was ready to strike. [RttTEE - 6]
 |
| Lareth the Beautiful |
Lolth was as smitten as any other. She has sent him aid,
believing as any other that might meet him, that he is loyal and true.
Lareth the Beautiful is the dark hope of chaotic
evil—young, handsome, well endowed in abilities and aptitudes, thoroughly
wicked, depraved, and capricious. Whomever harms Lareth had best not brag of it
in the presence of one who will inform the Demoness Lolth. [T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil - 26]
Lareth has been sent to this area to rebuild a force
of men and humanoid fighters to gather loot and restore the Temple of Elemental
Evil to its former glory. He is but one of many so charged, of course, but is
looked upon with special favor and expectation. He and his minions have been
careful to raid far from this area, never nearer than three or four leagues,
travelling on foot or riding in wagons of the traders from Hommlet. None of the
victims are ever left alive to tell the tale, and mysterious disappearances are
all that can be remarked upon. No trace of men, mounts, goods, wagons or draft
animals is ever found.
Evil to the core, Lareth is cunning. If a situation
appears in doubt, he uses bribery and honeyed words to sway the balance to his
favor. He is not adverse to gaining new recruits of all sorts, and will gladly
accept adventurers into the ranks (though he will test and try them
continually). Those who arouse suspicion will be quietly murdered in their
sleep. Those with too much promise will be likewise dealt with, for Lareth
wants no potential usurpers or threats to his domination. [T1-4 - 26]
In days past, when Lareth the Beautiful commanded the moathouse (the outpost for the Temple of Elemental Evil), both Zuggtmoy and Lolth believed him to be their priest—when really he served none other than the Elder Elemental Eye [Tharizdun]. [RttTEE – 5]
 |
| Lareth Risen |
Surely, after such utter defeat, the temple would pose
no further threat to the lands of good.
Not so. In fact, in the years that have passed the
insane and corrupt followers of the Dark God have moved closer to victory than
ever before. A number of clerics and powerful servants in the Temple of
Elemental Evil were spirited away by agents from the cult of Tharizdun to a
new, hidden temple in the Lortmil Mountains. [RttTEE- 6]
Lareth does in fact know a great deal about the cult of Tharizdun, garnered from bits of information overheard in the temple and called forth in divinations that he has performed. Back in the day—like almost all the other clerics involved with the Temple of Elemental Evil—Lareth had no idea that he was actually working for the cult of Tharizdun. [RttTEE - 32]
Evil cults based in Verbinbonc and Southern Furyony are rare but dangerous, worshipping evil deities such as Iuz, Vecna (evil secrets), Tharizdun (entropy, insanity), and the Elder Elemental God. [Slavers – 10]
This rise is not
a local occurrence.
Ahead rises a pyramidal spire, as thin and sharp as a
dart. It is composed of dusky gray stone, marbled with the ghastly white of
dead flesh. A staring eye adorns the visible side of the spire.
A pit filled with glowing coals lies just beyond each
corner of the spire. Yellow and blue flames dance over the coals, and tendrils
of smoke and mist wander among the tongues of fire before escaping the pits and
creeping along the floor.
An irregular pool ringed with slime lies beyond the
spire. [A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry - 19]
Brubgrok brought in a small group of evil clerics to
assist him with his operations. The clerics worship an unspeakably evil god
they refer to as the Elder Elemental Eye, or simply the Eye. [A0 - 19]
There are things buried deep in the oerth that should
remain so; lest they be released and destroy us all.
The Ebon Lord
waits still. He has scattered the means of his returns hither and yon.
Beyond the purple veil, the rounded black walls of an
entirely different room stretch out around you. It is completely black here, yet
you can see the size and features of the room—as if here you can see shades of
darkness. A dark, oblong orb, like an egg, rests atop a long black block. The
orb is shrouded in swirling mist. [RttTEE - 116]
The Elder Elemental Eye is an aspect of Tharizdun. It was created to mask the cult from the forces of good and to draw in new worshippers who might be afraid to serve Tharizdun directly. Clerics of the Elder Elemental Eye typically wear ochre-coloured robes and carry or wear a symbol, a black triangle with an inverted Y-shape inscribed within it. Some times the robes are altered to reflect which element the specific cleric is aligned with (air, earth, fire, water).
If the Elder Elemental Eye was
Tharizdun, was the Elder Elemental God Tharizdun?
"No, the
Elder Elemental God I envisaged as an entity of vaguely Chronos-like sort, a
deity of great power but of chaotic sort, and not always highly clever in
thought and action. Big T on the other hand is the epitome of pure, reasoning
and scheming evil. Eclavdra, being more of the mold of Tharizdun, would prefer
to have as "master" a powerful deity she might hope to influence,
thus the EGG."
Gary Gygax
("Col_Pladoh"), 10th January, 2003, Q&A with Gary Gygax Part
I, Enworld.
All that did was muddy the water.
I would hazard that the Green God and the Elder Evil,
however we might name them, are old indeed, far older than anyone imagines. They
find their origin at the very beginning.
Consider this:
In the beginning there was Eternity. It dreamed.
 |
| The Dreaming Void |
Form by its very nature was no longer infinite
possibility. Form must Be. And thus, Law was born.
But part of the dream wished to return to the perfection
of the infinite possibility that was once the eternal void. And thus, Entropy
was born, even as Law was.
Both are Possibility. And both are eternal. And all stem
from them/It. Indeed, It predates the planes, as it was the Dreaming that
created the elements and then the planes from the elements.
 |
| Oblivion |
Our desire “to be” found form in the Sacred Male and the
Sacred Female, the Father and the Mother, Obad-Hai and Beory. We created them
in our own image. They appear as human to humans, lizardfolk to lizardfolk,
treants to treants. The Green God is far more powerful than either of them
because they are an imagined aspect of It.
It is only our desire to exist that created the precept
that the Void, and the “Is Not”, are evil. And it was then that Evil was born,
and in its most primitive state it became the Elder Elemental God, only
becoming Tharizdun, the Destroyer, the Hater of Life, as our fears became more
concrete.
Do those Eternal Entities hate one another? No. How can
one hate the other when they are the Twin Serpents of Creation, forever
entwined; or dare I suggest it: One and the Same.
The gods as we know them are only constructs of our
imagination, begot from out desire to make sense of the universe. We created
them in our infancy to put a face to our wishes and fears. The eldest of those
are the greater gods, the youngest demi-gods. Those emerging, ascending, are
Quasi-deities and Heroes.
 |
| Eternity Chained |
And in the end, there can only be one.
I would suggest
that Gary Gygax was of the same mind as H.P. Lovecraft when he created the
Elder Elemental God, and then Tharizdun. There are some evils that are just too horrifying to comprehend—let alone defeat. To attempt to do so would result in
insanity (if you were lucky), or more likely, the loss of your soul.
One would be
better suited to defeat those who worship that inexplicable Evil, then that
Evil itself.
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the
inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not
meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own
direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of
dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of
our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation
or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”
―
To conclude, I give you words
and wisdom from our greatest muse:
There are more things in
heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act
1, Scene 5
One must always give credit where credit is due. This piece is made possible primarily by the Imaginings of Gary Gygax and his Old Guard, Lenard Lakofka among them, and the new old guards, Carl Sargant, James Ward, Roger E. Moore. And Erik Mona, Gary Holian, Sean Reynolds, Frederick Weining. The list is interminable.
Thanks to Steven Wilson for his GREYCHRONDEX and to Keith
Horsfield for his “Chronological History of Eastern Oerik.”
Special thanks to Jason Zavoda for his
compiled index, “Greyhawkania,” an invaluable research tool.
The Art:
Hommlet detail, by Dave Trampier, from T1 The Village of Hommlet, 1979
Lareth detail, by David Roach, from Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, 2001
Temple detail, , by Rich Longmore, from A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry, 2013
Twin Serpents detail, by Hannibal King, from Guide to Hell, 1999
Sources:
1015 World of Greyhawk Boxed
Set, 1983
1068 Greyhawk Wars Boxed
Set, 1991
2011A Dungeon Masters Guide,
1st Ed., 1979
9023 B1 In Search of the
Unknown, 1979
9034 B2 Keep on the
Borderlands, 1980
9058 G1-3 Against the
Giants, 1981
9065 WG4 The Forgotten
Temple of Tharizdun, 1982
9147 The Temple of Elemental
Evil, 1985
Dragon Magazine 294
The Greyhawkania Index, compiled by Zason Zavoda
The map of Anna B. Meyer
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