Elder Elemental Eye
The Elder Elemental Eye, also known as the Elder Elemental God, is an aspect of Tharizdun created to mask his cult from the forces of Good, to draw in worshippers who might otherwise avoid Tharizdun's service, and to gain the alliance of the Princes of Elemental Evil. The symbol of the Elder Elemental Eye is an inverted Y within a black metal equilateral triangle, point down.
The Elder Elemental Eye is described as a huge, mottled, tentacled being, or as a pillar of vast elemental force with a body of burning magma, radiating steam. How often it is able to manifest an avatar owes more to the waxing and waning of planar influences than its own will or the rituals of its priests. It also manifests itself as permanent phenomena in its oldest temples, including energy-draining tentacles emerging from altars and glowing golden eyes that cause blindness, madness, premature aging, or transform into eggs that hatch into berserk salamanders.
The Princes of Elemental Evil—Cryonax, Imix, Ogrémoch, Olhydra, and Yan-C-Bin—believe the Elder Elemental Eye to be their forebear, a powerful entity who will elevate them to true godhood and give them domination over the Prime Material Plane if only they can free it from its imprisonment. They do not realize that the Elder Elemental Eye is actually Tharizdun, for as ancient as they are, they are too young to recall the ancient war between Tharizdun and the other gods. They do not realize that their master's liberation would result in the destruction of themselves as well as the rest of the existence.
Tharizdun dwells in the Demiplane of Imprisonment. Hidden somewhere in the depths of the Ethereal Plane, the demiplane resembles a swollen, crystalline cyst nearly a mile in diameter. The ethereal substance surrounding the demiplane boils with the dreamscapes of the Elder Elemental Eye's worshipers and others whose dreams the dark god invades.
Worshipers of the Elder Elemental Eye envision a future where the world has been consumed utterly by elemental chaos, floods, earthquakes, lava, and destructive winds destroying civilization until only the faithful survive.
Worship of the Elder Elemental Eye has been found among the drow, particularly house Eilserv and their mistress Eclavdra, and among fire giants and various beings of the Underdark, as well the evil elemental beings in the service of the elemental princes. In Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, the leaders of the cult were fully aware that they were were actually worshipping Tharizdun. Among the evils threatening New Empyrea, worship of the Princes of Elemental Evil is common.
Cults of the Eye sometimes work behind guises of seeming innocents. Worshippers of the earth aspect may infiltrate mining guilds, for example, initiating those they find most trustworthy into their cult while putting others into their debt by offering clerical services for a heavy price.
Cultists of the Elder Elemental God work to free their imprisoned master, rediscover lost shrines, and sacrificing sentient beings to attract more of their master's power, including their own flocks or themselves. They seek out places of elemental power throughout the world which they transform into elemental nodes using special rituals. They wear ochre robes emblazoned with their deity's symbol.
Some of the Eye's priests dedicate themselves to a specific elemental aspect, while others emphasize all elements simultaneously. Those who worship the air aspect trim their robes with white, those who worship the earth aspect trim their robes with yellow and wear amulets festooned with gems and precious metals, those who worship the fire aspect trim their robes with red and carry jewelry enchanted with continual flame, while those who worship the water aspect trim their robes with deep blue and often carry small jugs filled with seawater.
The Elder Elemental Eye's favored weapon is the dagger, but some priests carry magical items known as tentacle rods, strange organic devices that grasp their victims in their tendrils, seemingly of their own accord.
The Elder Elemental Eye was worshipped in the Temple of All-Consumption until it was destroyed. Worshippers of the Elder Elemental God's air aspect built temples in high mountain peaks or even among the clouds. Worshippers of the earth aspect excavate temples deep beneath the surface of the world. Worshippers of the fire aspect build temples within volcanic tubes, but also migrate to regions afflicted with drought to burn and destroy.
Imix believes himself to be a spawn of the Elder Elemental Eye
Imix believes himself to be a spawn of the Elder Elemental Eye, who he is not aware is an aspect of dread Tharizdun.
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