Dave Wood's

Campaign

Tharizdun / The Dark God / The Elder Elemental Eye

The deity Tharizdun is a being of pure destructive force, of cold, conclusive obliteration and utterly evil nihilism. So terrible is he that in eons past, all the other deities banded together against him. But even their combined might was insufficent to destroy him, and they were forced merely to banish him to a special prison plane.

Even so, seperated from the Material Plane and sticken from all offical histories of existance, Tharizdun still influences the life of the occasional mortal. 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.

Two schemes to accomplish this grand task have dominated the activities of the cult.

1. First, they seek to recover lost shrines and artifacts devoted to their deity. In re-establishing his places of worship and wielding the dark devices concecrated to his name, they increase Tharizdun's power.
2. Second, following advice gained in soul-bending divinations and dream-communications, they have established another church. This new religion, simply called Elemental Evil (but often referring to a deity called the Elder Elemental Eye), channels the reverance and power of unknowing worshipers directly to the Dark God

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. For example, drow clerics introduced to the religion of Elemental Evil did not know that they truly served Tharizdun. 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).

The Symbol of the Elder Elemental Eye is a downward-pointing black triangle with an inverted yellow Y within it so that the tips of the figure meet the middle of each side of the triangle.

The cult also uses the much more overt symbol of a golden flaming eye. For years, people have wrongly assumed that this was the symbol of Zuggtmoy, but with good reason. While Tharizdun was imprisoned far away, he used powerful demon lords such as Zuggtmoy, Lolth, and Demogorgon as conduits to transfer power to his clerics. In some instances, the demon did not even know what was happening, while in others it believed itself to be the object of reverance by the worshiper in question. 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 (and Tharizdun).

Clerics of the Elder Elemental Eye often choose one element to revere. Sperating into four factions results in much competition among the cult's ranks. Yet they see this rivalry - which sometimes results in open conflict - as good, since it promotes strength.

The Elder Elemental Eye is obscure. Tharizdun and the Dark God are names that are fairly well known, but they are so feared that details are always mysterious.