Lyc, the Great Calamity

Lyc, the Great Calamity

“Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.”

 - Joker, The Dark Knight (2008)

Alternate Names: Dofung (halfling), Draowg (elf), Emaas Barzam (dwarf), Furorem (gnome), Kanosz (orc)

Expanded Domains:  Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Fur, Liberation, Madness, Murder, Trickery

Portfolio: anarchy, beasts, freedom, lies, murder, rebellion, traps

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Knowledge (Religion) DC 10:

Eldest son of Aelma and Erb, the deity known as the Chaos Prince is referred to only in epitaphs, for to speak his name is to invite his attention. Amongst his many epitaphs are: King of Beasts, the Eternal Laughter, the Great Calamity, and He Who Stalks at Night.

     It is said that the Eternal Laughter was the one to create all the bestial races, from harpies to minotaurs. Supposedly, the progenitors of each race passed one of his tests and were rewarded by being merged with the nearest of He Who Stalks at Night’s creations.

     The King of Beasts watches down upon the world from his throne on the red moon, seeking places to upset order and cause chaos. In art, he is frequently depicted as a male humanoid composed of different bestial parts with the one consistent feature being a wicked grin that seems to split his face in two.

Knowledge (Religion) DC 15:

The most widespread of the Chaos Prince’s followers, knowingly or otherwise, are rebels seeking to overthrow the tyrannical governments that oppress them or their loved ones. Few of these followers actively worship the Chaos Prince, but the deeds that they perform are offerings to He Who Stalks at Night just as much as the offerings that the clergy of other gods make to their patrons.

     The most favored of his followers are of a different sort. In cities across the Green Coast and Sylvanor, every night the blood moon is full, the true followers of the Great Calamity go out to make grand sacrifices and offerings to their prince. Offerings take the form of acts of chaos and discord; the greater the chaos and discord, the greater the blessing the Chaos Prince gives. The greatest such acts include destruction of government buildings, kidnapping a member of the royal family, spreading a disease, anything that would throw a nation into chaos.

     The sacrifices on the other hand, are much simpler to pull off. Sacrifices to the Eternal Laughter are always figures of authority. From as low as a simple guardsman to as high as a king or hierophant, any such figure will satisfy the Eternal Laughter.

     The Chaos Prince grants power to any who makes an offering or sacrifice on the blood moon, making those with divine magic granted by the Chaos Prince more common than any other single deity.

Knowledge (Religion) DC 20:

It is written in Rogn Kazve Vozdolltok that when the gods forged the world, the King of Beasts was disappointed with Kyrnash’s creations in the animals of the world. They were too boring, so he took it upon himself to make them more…interesting. He took foxes and made them bigger, creating wolves. He took badgers and gave them strength, creating bears. He took cattle and heightened their fury, creating bison. He took pigs and removed their submissiveness, creating boars. While these creations were good, they were not good enough. Then, he had an idea. He would combine the savageness of his beasts and the finest of his sister’s with the creativity and ingenuity of the humanoids. Thus were born the monstrous humanoids.

     In Egesa Boc, there is a different story. A man was born weak and frail, and prayed to the gods day and night. He prayed for power, for strength, for magic, for anything that would free him from the torment that his body trapped him in. Then one night on the blood moon, as he prayed, a voice answered. This voice promised him strength such that he could not imagine. It offered wisdom, wealth, women, and revenge. All he had to do was say the god’s name. Blinded by his greed, the man spoke the name of the King of Beasts and was struck with terrible agony. Bones broke, muscles tore, organs shifted. When the pain passed, he had turned into a bestial creature that was half man half bull. Demanding an explanation, for this isn’t what he was promised; the god’s response was simple: ‘You didn’t think it would be that simple did you?’

Knowledge (Religion) DC 25:

The oldest known book detailing the Chaos Prince, Luvren len Lips-Goru, is in an unknown language similar to the primary gnomish dialect. While no one has been able to translate either of the two surviving copies, the book is filled with beautifully drawn illustrations of horrifying scenes. The illustrations show men and woman under the blood moon with their bodies seemingly breaking apart and being reformed into lupine monsters that then proceed to engage in an orgy of blood and murder. In some illustrations the men and women return to their natural forms with the light of day, while others seem to be trapped within their monstrous bodies.

Organization: Night Terrors

“In the dark of the night, we’ll be there. In your deepest nightmares, we’ll be waiting. Only then, when you can no longer tell dream from reality, will we strike.”

 - A warning given to anyone targeted by the Night Terrors

A rumored guild of assassins and followers of the Great Calamity, the Night Terrors supposedly haunt their victim’s dreams, turning them into nightmares where they are being killed only to wake up just before they die. A person targeted by the Night Terrors soon dreads the thought of going to sleep or trance, as every time they nod off the Night Terrors return. Each nightmare murder is different from the last, growing more and more creative as they progress. According to the whispered rumors, the last nightmare begins with the victim finally seeing the face of the one that has tormented them.

     In truth, the Night Terrors are a real organization. Gifted with similar power as the Council of Minds, but turned to a different purpose. Once trained, an agent of the Night Terrors is able to project their mind into that of a slumbering individual, turning dreams into nightmares at their command. The targets of the Night Terrors are rarely chosen for a given purpose beyond an agent’s whim, but occasionally someone will find a way to hire an agent to kill a specific individual.

     Never large in number, not even the Night Terrors themselves know how many of them there are. There is no hierarchy beyond a basic Master/Apprentice system, though one of their only rules is that they shall not target each other once recognized. This is borne more out of practicality than any form of loyalty, it is difficult to control a person’s dreams when they know how to fight back.

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