Mu'stahcl (MOO-uh-STAR-cool)
Mu'stahcl — also known as Old Rotter, the Languisher, and the Still One — is the Demon Lord of Stagnation, whose will it is to stop all change, and keep reality exactly as it is now with no progress, no alteration, no movement whatsoever.
Mu'stahcl is a patient being that works at a snails pace, like rock eroding from the rain. Its followers believe It is inevitable, a hopelessly marching tide in the face of which one can endlessly flee or wearily surrender. As such, it tends to attract those who already feel this emptiness: the lost, the grieving, the sick, the imprisoned. To these figures, the Still One brings relief in fellowship, for misery loves company. However, Old Rotter is ever the victim of Its own slothfulness, with Its cults often wasting away into vice or inaction, or becoming bogged down in endless planning which ultimately goes nowhere.
Though intrinsically the enemy of all life, Its two siblings, and every God, Languisher holds particular ire for three beings:
- Rudderless, whom It sees as an amorphous, untameable tyrant. Unlike 'Khkohzd, which It understands to some degree due to their shared demonhood, Rudderless is utterly alien to Mu'stahcl, and thus irredeemable.
- The Lord of Bridges & Baubles, whom It sees as a bringer of hope and freedom, as They work to bring the world together and form connections. Because of this nature, however, Mu'stahcl delights in corrupting servants of the Lord of Bridges & Baubles, with particular focus on those learned in planar magic.
- Mother Make Me, whom It sees as inspiring mortals to never give up, and attempt to always climb out of the most wretched holes they find themselves in. Mu'stahcl's agents spend considerable effort thwarting the plans of Mother Make Me's priesthood, hoping to dash the false promising They bring.
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