Kuo-toa
Kuo-Toa, also known as gogglers and men-fish, were a debased, piscine race of warm-blooded and amphibious creatures that dwelt in the Underdark. Sinister secrets lurked below the surface of their alien minds, for the Kuo-Toa were fanatics plagued by mental instability that saw things others couldn't and worshiped gods that didn't exist.
Kuo-toa were normally 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall and weighed approximately 160 pounds. Contrasting with their paunchy shape were their arms and legs, slender and lithe despite their relative shortness. At the end of each limb were broad, distended and partially webbed hands and feet. Each extremity had three main digits and one opposing digit at its end. Topping their bodies were bullet-shaped, piscine heads hosting a mouthful of sharp teeth and a pair of bulging silver-black eyes capable of independently swiveling to observe a situation.
Kuo-toa were extremely suspicious, as well as duplicitous, betraying trust for their own benefit so long as they believed they could do it successfully. They were easily willing to turn in family members they suspected of crimes to community officials, and as such were normally perceived as cruel monsters by most other races, but this wasn't entirely accurate
The mental oppression they suffered at the hands of other races broke the already-simple minds of most kuo-toa and as a result madness was a common ailment amongst their kind. Kuo-toa were not all necessarily evil, but within their repressive theocracy, common kuo-toa did not possess anywhere near enough willpower to oppose the ruling castes.
Kuo-toa societies were almost all based around the worship of Blibdoolpoolp. While earlier reports describe her as an ancient, eldritch deity, more recent ones believe her to be a figment of the gogglers' imagination given divine form. Either way, the diligence of Blibdoolpoolp's whips made her the dominant deity among all other kuo-toa and the focus of the kuo-toas' lives. She even created her own chosen out of gifted whips and monitors, monsters known as kuo-toa leviathans.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Feudal Theocracy
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Mainly dwell in the underdark, though some have traveled to the astral seas
Civilization and Culture
Major Organizations
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
History
After the kuo-toa were driven from the surface, they were captured by the mind flayers and forced into slavery. Unable to resist the illithids' psionic oppression, the peaceful kuo-toa were driven to insanity and to an extreme religious fanaticism, inventing deities upon which they relied for protection against their enemies, most notably the drow. If a large enough number of kuo-toa believed in an invented deity, it manifested a physical, albeit nonsensical form.
Some sages maintained that Blibdoolpoolp was simply the most prominent among the deities invented by the kuo-toa, most likely the result of a human statue having been modified by a kuo-toa by adding a crustacean head and appendages and then worshiped as a deity. So intense was the insane fervor of kuo-toa priests that they managed to manifest as clerical powers. Notably, the nearly-extinct, ancient kuo-toa tribes of the open seas, mostly wiped out by sahuagin that rightly viewed them as a threat, had never heard of Blibdoolpoolp
Some sages maintained that Blibdoolpoolp was simply the most prominent among the deities invented by the kuo-toa, most likely the result of a human statue having been modified by a kuo-toa by adding a crustacean head and appendages and then worshiped as a deity. So intense was the insane fervor of kuo-toa priests that they managed to manifest as clerical powers. Notably, the nearly-extinct, ancient kuo-toa tribes of the open seas, mostly wiped out by sahuagin that rightly viewed them as a threat, had never heard of Blibdoolpoolp
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Hatred for the Drow and Illithids
Lifespan
60 years
Average Height
5 ft
Average Weight
160 lb
Average Physique
relatively short with paunchy shape contrasting with slender, lithe arms and legs. At the end of each limb are broad, distended and partially webbed hands and feet. Topping their bodies are bullet-shaped, piscine heads hosting a mouthful of sharp teeth and a pair of bulging silver-black eyes capable of independently swiveling to observe a situation.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Their bodies are covered in gray scales with yellowish undertones in males, which could vary in pigmentation based on their emotional state, such as a dark red when angered and a ghostly white when terrified. Coating their rubbery skin and piscine scales is a layer of slippery slime that gives their bodies a glimmering sheen.
Geographic Distribution
Related Organizations
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