Yeenoghu

Yeenoghu is a demon lord and the chief being worshiped by gnolls. Dedicated only to destruction, the Ruler of Ruin seels the collapse of civilization and he would brutally butcher all that stand between him and his rabid slaughter.
“His demands are simple: kill. Follow his commands, and you shall know blessings beyond your dreams." — Zaiden, closest servant of Yeenoghu

Description

Yeenoghu appears as a gnoll-like creature, 12‒14 ft tall with a grinning skull-like face and a leering pair of burning emerald or amber eyes atop his seemingly emaciated form. A mangy, yellow crest of fur reaches from his head to mid-back, with the only hair on his body being small scabby patches. The rest of his body is pale and gray, his leathery hide contrasting with his taut mane and a crest of blackened spines within it. His canine chest is armored with a patchwork of discarded shields and breastplates held together with weighty chains, and decorated with the flayed skin of his enemies. He wields a three-headed flail in his paws.

Personality

“Yeenoghu is special because he embodies killing. He has few ambitions beyond the visceral thrill of rending the soft flesh of his enemies and drinking deep the hot blood from their bodies. He craves nothing more than the utter defeat of all those who stand against him and is relentless in his pursuit of feeding the emptiness of his existence with the frantic screams of those he slays. Butchery is the provender of Yeenoghu, and his single-minded pursuit of annihilation makes him a dangerous force in the infinite layers of The Abyss.”— Tersoul
Yeenoghu's desires are savage in nature, wanting slaughter and destruction above all else. He takes great pleasure in inflicting terror and sorrow before his victims' deaths, destroying treasured possessions and crushing their hopes. He despises civilization and if he were to conquer other realms, abyssal or otherwise, he would not attempt to rebuild their former structures.
To the Beast of Butchery, the gnolls are both his instruments and children, whom he seeks to use to bring his ideal world to fruition. Such a world would be one of endless combat and brutality, where gnolls rule supreme and all other creatures would be either slaves or food. Ultimately when the mortal world possessed one final champion he would challenge them to battle, slay them, and preside victoriously in his version of paradise; a wasteland of decaying corpses, in an absolutely ruined world.
Despite his savage nature, Yeenoghu is not stupid, being capable of subtlety and trickery, but merely chooses not to use it in most circumstances. He actively encourages the arrival of new races into his followers, recognizing the lack of his people's unity. Counting among the Lord of Savagery's favorite demons are barlguras, dretches, hezrous, manes, and especially maw demons and Shoosuvas, all appreciated for their bestial natures. With any entity that does not serve him he would not waste any time on discourse, leaping boldly into battle unless he became bored.

Powers

“There is nothing unique about the wanton violence of the Destroyer. All demons hunger for slaughter, and they all seek the end of all things. They all want to tear down the works of the gods and reduce all things to ruin. Where Yeenoghu differs, however, is in his ability to turn the business of killing into a breathtaking spectacle. With him, it is a form of art if you can stomach the screams and noxious odors issuing from the dead.”— Tersoul
Despite being a relatively powerful demon lord, Yeenoghu is not in the same league as entities like Orcus or Demogorgon, either in terms of strength or influence. He is incapable of arriving on Eldarr of his own accord and requires his fanatics to summon him in order to spread his taint.
Despite this, he is both capable of and willing to influence Eldarr in order to further his agenda. He is remarkable among demon lords for his active influence on Eldarr, mostly in the form of various types of omens. He will use various dreams, visions, and signs to guide his people, although his wavering commitment to specific groups at once and use of so many different methods could raise many false flags. Signs are noticed in blood trails, laughter without sources, winds, mental messages, and various other objects.
Once Yeenoghu is allowed entry to the mortal realm, he typically goes on a rampage destroying any civilizations he encounters. Along his path of destruction, hyenas tended to follow, devouring the corpses of those that he kills until becoming bloated and immobile. Hyenas who consumed corpses killed by Yeenoghu might be transformed into numerous demonic forms, the most common of which are gnolls, followed by leucrotta.
Yeenoghu has the ability to grant his followers the ability to replicate this ability through rituals, giving his devoted the power to bestow corpses with abyssal energy and transform hyenas that consume them. The powers granted to his followers also include raising fallen gnolls as skeletal witherling servants, and granting enchanted flails to his powerful flind champions. Even his non-gnoll followers will take on gnoll-like aspects, becoming brutal, hunched, and sharp-fanged. He also creates the shoosuva in order to protect his most powerful champions, who appear when a gnoll clan achieves a great victory.
When put in direct combat situations, Yeenoghu does not bother with subtle tactics, instead wading directly into battle and hurling derogatory epithets at his enemies, although he might first attempt to pump himself up. The insults he hurls at his opponents are rumored to be dangerous curses he uses to weaken his enemies. He shows heavy resistance to electricity, fire, and frost, and complete immunity to poisons and non-magical weaponry.
Despite being able to conjure his mighty flail at will, he is just as likely to wade into battle with nothing but his fearsome fangs. He is well known for the use of fear and invisibility magic, as well as bestial transformations. His strong sense of smell and sharp perception made him an expert and dangerous tracker. If placed in serious danger, he can teleport away in order to plot another day and later amass a force necessary to take revenge.

Possessions

At his leisure, Yeenoghu can summon to his hand the three-headed magical flail known as the Butcher. It is constructed from the thighbone and torn flesh of an ancient Angel he slew, with three chains ending in rusty barbed heads. Those hit with more than one head of the flail can suffer from mental confusion and paralysis and it bleeds ichor when used in battle. Only when the Beast of Butchery holds his flail will the powers of the three heads manifest. He can also will the chain to fly independently into battle while he himself tears his enemies to shreds.

Realm

Yeenoghu refers to his layer of The Abyss simply as his realm, but to others it was known as the Seeping Woods or Death Dells. The plane is covered in barren hills, great ravines, wide savannas with poisonous and parasite-filled waters, and sickly yellow forests. It serves as his own personal hunting grounds, where he plays with mortals in cruel hunting games. There are nearly no structures in his realm, it being entirely devoid of civilization.
Six miles from Yeenoghu's lair all predators became wasteful and savage, killing far more than required and leaving it to rot in careless displays of wastefulness. Within a mile of Yeenoghu's personal lair is a dangerous region influenced by his dark powers. Iron spikes grow out from the ground and stone, which Yeenoghu uses to impale his victims, and intelligent beings that spent an hour within this region may grow increasingly deranged. The longer sentient beings remained in this region, the more gnoll-like they became with mental changes including increased rage, aching blood-lust, hatred of civilization, the need to collect trophies from bodies, and a fondness for the flesh of intelligent beings.
Within the smoke-filled halls of his lair he sits upon a throne of dismembered limbs of those who have angered him. His lair is populated with gnolls, hyenas, and ghouls. It is a place of blood and death from which he can exert a certain level of control. He can cause iron spikes to rise from the ground and impale those underneath them, as well as fill gnolls and hyenas with a bloodthirsty rage. The lair itself is a giant mobile fortress-city, pulled by legions of slaves and demonic creatures on hundreds of stone wheels. If Yeenoghu were to perish, the effects of his power on the local region would eventually fade in less than ten days.
Yeenoghu once took over the layer above his own, known by most as the White Kingdom. After conquering it, however, he did not possess the resources required to hold dominion over it, forcing him to retreat back to his home layer. Despite leaving it, he still technically rules it through his vassal Doresain, the King of Ghouls.

Activities

The Gnoll Lord spends most of his time either guiding his gnoll children to victory through his mysterious omens, tormenting and hunting lesser demons and mortals for his amusement, and plotting against upcoming abyssal powers to prevent them from gaining influence. He also plans for future invasions of other layers of The Abyss, targeting weaker entities to conquer.

Relationships

Yeenoghu is the patron of all gnolls, having earlier displaced Gorellik, and commands the servitude of ghouls through the subjugation of the demonic King of Ghouls, Doresain, a former ally of Orcus, who has thus far failed to strike back at Yeenoghu for the acquisition of one of his subjects. Yeenoghu is also the master of a massive mudskipper-like demon known as Crokek'toeck. The unique demon's near bottomless gullet and immunity to the mind-altering effects of the Styx make it Yeenoghu's go-to pet for transporting himself and other demons across the Blood River. Despite disliking Kostchtchie, Yeenoghu admires his immense strength and power.
Yeenoghu has a continuous feud with Baphomet, and both demons pull no punches when dealing with one another. The feud has lasted so long that neither demon lord can remember what originally started the battle. Along with Baphomet, Yeenoghu loathes Malcanthet, the queen of the succubi, because the Queen destroyed a number of Yeenoghu's Eldarr cultists.

Worshipers

“As my connection to my lord deepens, I leave my old concerns behind. His hunger is all that matters. It is greater than me; it is greater than us all. It is His mark. He made us. He drives us. He eats what we eat. He kills what we kill. He will come if we eat well. He will come if we kill well. He will come if we eat well. He will come if we kill well. We will kill and He will eat, and we shall be He and He shall be we, never alone, never afraid, never hungry.”— A cultist of Yeenoghu's mad ramblings
Yeenoghu's worshipers mostly consist of gnolls, although he accepts servants from all races, known as Fangs. Yeenoghu possesses a personal honor guard of sixty-six gnolls that he can summon onto the battlefield to aid him, although this small legion is primarily for show. The Claws of Fury are his elite combat force, comprised of extremely capable gnoll warriors. He is also capable of calling upon various demons to serve his goals including the shoosuva and leucrotta creatures completely loyal to his wishes. Yeenoghu also has ghoul worshipers in part because of the consumption of intelligent beings was part of his doctrine and also because of his subjugation of the Ghoul King.

Ritual

His servants are commanded to conduct live sacrifices in wilderness regions upon stone altars. Dress code of his shamans involves dark brown robes with manged yellow fur outlines. These clothes are not allowed to be cleaned, resulting in an incredible stench hanging off his worshipers. Yeenoghu implants a constant nagging need for intelligent flesh in the minds of his creations and devoted, as only through its consumption can he find complacency for his hunger. Thus, the devouring of human flesh os also an important ritual within his cults. Many gnolls also participate in other rituals involving self-mutilation and various acts of depravity.

Divine Classification

Demon

Alignment

Chaotic evil

Current Location

Seeping Woods

Species

Demon

Realm

Seeping Woods

Aligned Organization

The Hordes of Hell

Ruled Locations

• Seeping Woods