Blibdoolpoolp

Blibdoolpoolp is the patron goddess of the kuo-toa; a paranoid, reality-denying deity of the sea of questionable sanity. The supposedly ancient Sea Mother views the kuo-toa as her children, though she herself might have been the nonsensical spawn of her fanatical followers' madness-fueled imaginings.

Description

Blibdoolpoolp usually took the form of a 15‑foot-tall (4.6‑meter) nude human female, with a lobster's head and claws. Other depictions portrayed a crayfish's head and claws and an articulated shell covering her shoulders. Those forced to look deeply into her eyes at close range could be driven to insanity.

Personality

Blibdoolpoolp is a bloodthirsty goddess filled with hatred for the pain her kuo-toa children suffer at the hands of many races. She holds a special enmity for surface-dwelling races, as well as illithids and drow. Humans and particularly elves are spited for the initial driving of her children to the Underdark, while mind flayers and drow are seen as competitors for the little territory her followers have left. On the other hand, her hatred for sea dwellers is relatively minor, except for sea elves.

The Sea Mother is irrational, prone to unpredictable mood swings and fickle changes in behavior. She is also highly secretive, shunning contact with most other deities. She believes herself to hold deeply fundamental magical secrets related to the nature of the universe, but hoards those secrets to herself, making them impossible to check.

The Sea Mother places a high value on pearls, which are considerably more effective than normal gems and precious metals in gaining her favor.

Blibdoolpoolp once possessed a magical necklace that is capable of generating pearls with an assortment of magical properties. A number of new pearls can be made each week, with effects lasting approximately one month. This necklace was stolen by the goddess Diancastra.

She also possesses a ring of human influence and a wand of fear.

Divine Realm

According to the Great Wheel cosmology, Blibdoolpoolp's realm is known as the Murky Depths, located in the Elemental Plane of Water. Its waters churn and swirl based on her emotional state. The realm is kept surrounded by giant primitive crustaceans in an attempt by the Sea Mother to convince herself that her powers have not diminished. Visitors to her realm who cannot breathe underwater are granted that ability by the deity herself, a boon which also puts them immediately in her debt.

Activities

The Sea Mother spends most of her time brooding about her chosen race, while plotting her revenge against those who drive them from the surface. She is known for sending avatars to attend large-scale sacrificial rituals conducted by her priests, in which many humanoids are drowned. She also spends some time holding court for visitors, who make offerings in exchange for small favors from the goddess. Simply visiting the Sea Mother requires an offering of exorbitant amounts of gold and gems in the tens of thousands of gold pieces, although the price is lessened if paid in pearls. Those who do not bring an offering to her domain are then commanded via a geas spell to later return and either bring the offering amount or a number of drow as sacrifices. Affected individuals are also forbidden from directly or indirectly harming the kuo-toa until they do so. She does not send omens to the kuo-toa as warnings or assistance, but simply to communicate her pleasure or displeasure, which can be somewhat random due to her unstable state of mind.

Worshippers

Blibdoolpoolp's only worshipers were the kuo-toa, whose priests ran most of their civilization. Her kuo-toa priests kept large black pearls and giant crustaceans in their temples, looking for changes in the pearls' coloration or in the animals' activity that indicated favorable omens. Priests from different settlements collaborated with each other to ensure their mutual defense, and were mandated to immediately drive away any illithid settlers found close to their homes.

Rituals

Lobsters were one of Blibdoolpoolp's preferred offerings and were regularly sacrificed to her. As a scavenger goddess, she also appreciated offerings of personal objects that were discarded and later recovered. Regurgitation at her feet was seen as a sincere show of faith, practiced regularly by her more devout followers.

The most commonly held ceremonies to Blibdoolpoolp involved the drowning of humanoids. Worshipers requested favors from the goddess by offering copious amounts of gems and pearls. Larger amounts had a better chance of winning the Sea Mother's favor, so an offering of about 100,000 gold pieces worth of gems (or 50,000 gold pieces worth of pearls) would be considered adequate.

Relationships

Blibdoolpoolp avoided contact with most other deities. Blibdoolpoolp hated the drow, but would not directly oppose them. Instead, she compelled those of other races to bring drow to her as sacrifices when an opportunity arose.

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.

At one point, the young demigoddess Diancastra snuck into Blibdoolpoolp's lair disguised as a kuo-toa and stole her magical necklace.

Blibdoolpoolp

Intermediate deity

Basic Information

Titles

The Sea Mother
The Drowning Goddess
Whip of Whips

Pantheons

Kua Toa

Attributes

Alignment

Chaotic Evil

Symbol

Lobster head
Black pearl

Realm

Elemental Plane of Water/Murky Depths

Portfolio

Kuo-Toas, Evil Undersea Creatures

Favored Weapon

Pincer staff

Following

Worshippers

Kuo-toa

Alignments

NE, CE

Domains

Evil (Fear)
Luck (Imagination)
Madness (Insanity, Truth)
Water (Flotsam)