Ubtao

Ubtao is a nearly unknown deity in Astora. The Father of the Dinosaurs stays distant from both mortals and other deities, and he seems to be above the daily doings of the world. This might partly be due to his origin as a primordial, (his alleged betrayal of them owing him his title as The Deceiver) and it remains unclear if he even is a deity in the traditional sense.

Description

When Ubtao showed his avatar to mortals, he appeared in the form of a powerful Tabaxi human male with dark brown skin; short cropped black hair; trimmed goatee; and a distant look in his dusky eyes. His age was hard to pinpoint as he appeared ageless. The color of his skin symbolized the dark brown fertile earth of his jungles. Manifestations

The shape Ubtao took most often, however, was a massive tyrannosaurus rex, more than twice the size of the biggest mortal dinosaur creature. Before the 14th century DR, Ubtao appeared in Chult much more often in forms other than his massive dinosaur avatar. When Ubtao communicated with his followers via messages, they were always cryptic and open to interpretation. Some messages came from an ageless, calm, and emotionless dark-skinned Tabaxi human face, where that lack of emotion could be considered as either an ill omen or a blessing. The fact that Ubtao did not talk when appearing as a manifestation made it even harder to interpret.

After the Time of Troubles, Ubtao began manifesting as a thunderous roar rolling across the Chultan jungles. The roar sounded as if every dinosaur in Chult vociferated at the same time. Apart from the dinosaur form and a roar, Ubtao manifested himself through the copious number of jungle spirits found throughout the peninsula. Finally, the Father of Dinosaurs also acted through his children.

Some sages speculated that Ubtao was worshiped as Haaashastaak, the Master of all Lizardkind, in southeastern Faerûn. Despite numerous similarities between the two deities, a few scholars believed that Haaashastaak was actually an aspect of Sebek, a minor Untheric crocodile god.

Personality

Ubtao's main personality trait is his endless patience and lack of emotions. He projects detachment and promotes wisdom. Unlike many of his peers, Ubtao shows little involvement and interest in the daily activities and lives of his followers. He shows the same detachment towards the dealings of other gods.

Divine Realm

Ubtao's main divine realm is the Labyrinth of Life, a massive labyrinthine jungle in the Outlands of the Outer Planes. He also creates a realm for his favorite children—dinosaurs. The realm of the Forbidden Plateau is located in the Beastlands. Ubtao can often be found in the Plateau when he needs seclusion from his human petitioners. In that domain, Ubtao takes on a shape of a free-roaming tyrannosaurus rex.

Worshippers

The Church of Ubtao was split among three wholly independent sects that venerated three aspects of Ubtao: the jungle itself, spirit worship, and the worship of the deity himself. All were based in the jungles of Chult among the various clans of the Tabaxi humans.

With him being technically a monotheistic society of sorts, Chultan humans and their dominant ethnicity, the Tabaxi, had worshiped Ubtao since the early days of the deity's existence. The church consisted of Ubtao's specialty priests called the Mazewalkers, jungle druids, and Tabaxi shamans. The Ubtaoan faith was tolerant of other religions. The worshipers of the Creator of Chult did not attempt to convert others nor stopped anyone from venerating other deities.

As Children of Ubtao, Chultan warm-blooded dinosaurs were venerated by the worshipers of the god. The creatures were considered to be harbingers of fate that carried the will of Ubtao: if a Tabaxi hunter successfully hunted and killed a number of dinosaurs, Ubtaoans believed it signified the hunter's special place in Ubtao's heart, while if a dinosaur killed a hunter, they believed it was punishment for vexing the natural order of the jungle.

Among other creatures that served Ubtao were couatls.

Temples

The Temple of Ubtao, also referred to as the Maze of Life, at the heart of Mezro was the only major Ubtaoan place of worship. It accommodated the worship of all three Ubtaoan sects.

Rituals

The clergy of Ubtao prayed for spells and miracles at noon, when the deity was in his zenith over the jungle. There were scores of ceremonies and holy days, most particularly dedicated to dead ancestors. Many of these rituals were necessary before performing certain activities, such as hunting special animals or burials. The small, moveable stone altars that were used for these ceremonies were treated just like any other rock in the jungle when they were not otherwise in use.

Chultan followers of Ubtao used gravestones and grave markers to bury their dead. When such a thing was unavailable, following a death deep in the jungles, for example, a big flat surface, such as a large flat leaf, was used for a similar purpose. As with the tombstones, the people closest to the deceased would write their name on its surface, and the others would each add a single word of praise. These ritual inscriptions were intended to serve as the deceased's introduction to Ubtao when the god arrived to claim the person's soul.

Relationships

Ubtao was considered to be the leader of the Chultan pantheon, despite the fact that he was the only power within it. Other beings worshiped by the Chultans—numerous spirits of nature, minor gods, and the essence of the Chultan jungle—were all various aspects of Ubtao himself. Due to this, he only had power in and around the jungles of Chult. Those who inhabited Chult and worshiped Ubtao considered dinosaurs to be "Ubtao's Children." The dinosaurs, however, were not intelligent enough to worship and venerate their creator.

Because of Ubtao's distance from the other deities, he had few allies: Thard Harr, the Lord of the Jungle Deeps and the protector of wild dwarves; and Corellon Larethian of the elven pantheon.

His biggest foe and antithesis was Eshowdow, born from Ubtao himself. But due to the nature of Eshowdow, Ubtao was incapable of perceiving the Shadow Giant and could do very little to protect his domain and devotees against his dark antithesis. He had only one other enemy: Sseth, the Great Snake, a deity of yuan-ti and an aspect of Set. Together with Thard Harr, Ubtao opposed the snake god and his yuan-ti, who sought to enslave both peoples of Chult, the Tabaxi and the wild dwarves.

Following the imprisonment of Dendar underneath the Peaks of Flame, Ubtao forged an ancient pact with the deities of Faerûn. He was granted the exclusive domain over the human inhabitants of the Chultan Peninsula, and as long as he guarded Dendar's prison, members of the Faerûnian pantheon were to refrain from expanding their influence in that part of the world.

History

Ubtao molded and shaped the land of Chult in primordial times. However, this act of creation was the reason for the god's distance from his land and his worshipers. To rectify that, Ubtao splintered his being into aspects—the various spirits of nature and land. The biggest part of his being became the essence of Chult's jungle. However, this fracturing of his divine power left him little time to affect and interact with his mortal worshipers directly.

The creation of Chult's jungles and the splintering of Ubtao's being had one unexpected result. The dark part of Ubtao's essence, a primeval antithesis, the shadow entity Eshowdow was born. Eshowdow, the Shadow Giant, or "Shadow of Ubtao," became its own separate divine being that strove to annul and repeal anything Ubtao created or accomplished.

During the Shadow Epoch of the Blue Age, when Toril was still a new world, the gods and the primordials fought for dominance. This Age came to a sudden stop when the primordial known as the Dendar, the Night Serpent, took the sun out of the sky. Eventually, the Elder Gods won the fight when the primordials were betrayed by one of their own: Ubtao the Deceiver.

Circa the −24000 DR, Ubtao called on an army of couatls who started worshiping him as their deity. The creatures flew across the ocean from the faraway continent of Katashaka and settled on the Chultan Peninsula. Those couatls who stayed behind started spreading the Ubtaoan fate in Katashaka circa the −3000 DR. In the −2809 DR, the Eshowe, the Tabaxi, and the Thinguth human tribes tribes followed the religious voice of the Ubtaoan couatls and his plumed servant named Ecatzin, and traveled from the far continent to the Chultan Peninsula.

Ubtao made an agreement with the rest of the Faerûnian pantheon to guard the Peaks of Flame for the day when Dendar the Night Serpent would enter Toril and end the world. "She who gorges herself on all the unremembered nightmares in the Realms," Dendar, was said to be trapped behind a gargantuan iron door that sealed the Realm of the Dead and the serpent primordial away from Toril. As a reward for this service, the other deities granted him sole control over Chult and agreed to leave his lands alone and never to spread their own religions there.

Followers of Ubtao believed that the deity himself shaped them into existence, as well as the animals of the Chultan jungles, and that he raised the great city of Mezro up from the ground with his own two hands for the Tabaxi people in the −2637 DR. The legends claimed that Ubtao lived within the city among his creations but was driven away by the worshipers' constant complaints, requests, and demands. Since then, Ubtao took on a detached attitude towards his worshipers, allowing them to shape their own lives and the world around them.

During the Time of Troubles in the Year of Shadows, 1358 DR, Ubtao took the form of a tyrannosaurus that hunted in the jungles of Chult. During the exile, avatars of Ubtao and Sseth the Great Snake clashed in a fierce battle in the eastern part of the jungles. Once the Godswar was over, Ubtao returned to the planes, but he became more involved in the dealings within his church and expanded the number of clergy and his worshipers.

As of 1372 DR, Shar had recently absorbed Eshowdow, and it was believed this activity might be the beginning of the end for the agreement between Ubtao and the rest of the deities.

Sometime before 1400 DR, Ubtao abandoned Chult, allegedly because he had grown angry at his worshipers' infighting and their over-reliance on his assistance. Thereafter, his influence ceased to be felt among his Chultan followers, and yet, despite the spiritual void left by Ubtao's absence, the many warring tribes among the Chultans learned to unite as a people and set aside their differences. With Ubtao gone, many Chultans turned to other gods, including those introduced by foreign missionaries such as Waukeen, Gond, Savras, Sune, and Tymora. Without Ubtao, jungle spirits known as the nine trickster gods resurfaced in Chult. However, like countless other spirits of the jungle, the trickster gods were likely splinters of the Creator of Chult himself. While some faithful were convinced that Ubtao did not abandon Chult but was poisoned by Dendar's thorn that drove the deity mad.

Ubtao

Lesser deity

Basic Information

Titles

Creator of Chult
Founder of Mezro
Father of the Dinosaurs
The Deceiver

Adjectives

Ubtaoan

Pantheons

Astoran

Serves

Silvanus

Attributes

Alignment

True Neutral

Symbol

A maze

Realm

Wilderness of the Beastlands/Krigala/Forbidden Plateau

Portfolio

Creation, Dinosaurs, Jungles

Favored Weapon

Tyrannosaur head (heavy pick)

Following

Worshippers

Adepts
Chultans
Druids
Inhabitants of jungles
Rangers

Domains

Plant (Thorns)
Protection (Solitude)
Scalykind (Saurian)

Favored Aspects

Animals/Plants

Dinosaurs

Minerals

Gold
Ivory

Colors

Brown
Gold
Green

Manifest- ations

A vision of a placid Chultan male's face

A thunderous roar