Oddos
Lord of the Underdark, the King That Crawls, Whisperer in the Darkness, the Dweller Below
Oddos the Crawling King, is an evil god of torturers, slavers, and jailers. His worshippers are those who take others' freedom and creatures living in the darkness below. It is said that pathways under the world are the result of his tears of pain and anger, and his realm is a network of deadly caves and manacles. He was defeated during the Calamity by the Dawnfather .
Oddos is, in some ways, the overlooked deity of the pantheon. When people think about dark gods, they rarely recall Oddos’s name or his role within the pantheon. Few people are familiar with what Oddos truly represents, let alone the particulars of his religion.
Several likely reasons exist for Oddos’ relative obscurity, not the least of which is that the Lord of the Underdark prefers to remain mysterious and hidden. One possible reason involves Oddos’ very name. According to legend, if you say the god’s name out loud, he will reach out of the ground and drag you into eternal imprisonment and torment, far from any hope of freedom or succor. Although almost every god enjoys his own unique legends and folktales, there remains substantial evidence that this particular story is true. If you speak Oddos’ name, he hears and feels compelled to respond, often with swift and cruel anger.
The other gods, good and evil, typically seek out glory, influence, power, and domination throughout creation. The good gods work to spread their faiths and indoctrinate new worshippers. The evil gods, for the most part, pursue a similar agenda, albeit with different tactics and weapons. For his part, Oddos has little interest in mortal worshippers, mortal recognition, or an expansive and organized church. He enjoys his solitude, his secrecy, and the darkness.
Oddos is not well liked or appreciated by the other gods of the pantheon. The good gods view him as repulsive, loathsome, and corrupt. The evil gods consider Oddos as weak, narrow-minded, and probably insane. Far from resenting these attitudes, Oddos seems to invite mortals and gods alike to underestimate him. For all their feelings towards Oddos, the other gods can never forget or overlook the enormous debt they owe the King That Crawls.
In the aftermath of the brutal conflict against Cyric, the surviving gods faced a seemingly insurmountable problem: what do you do with an unkillable and immensely powerful deity? In the end, Oddos produced the answer. Using his innate understanding of incarceration, Oddos constructed an ingenious prison for Cyric. He provided plans for keeping the Enemy locked away and essentially powerless to escape. Thanks to Oddos’ efforts, Cyric became known instead as the Chained God.
On a fundamental level, the other gods understand the debt they owe to Oddos. They also appreciate the tremendous and dangerous power Oddos actually wields. He and he alone knows how to free Cyric. He holds all the secrets to the Chained God’s eternal prison, and where the keys lie hidden.
Oddos, despite his lingering insanity, has no desire to see Cyric unleashed. It remains in his interests – and the interests of every other living creature – to keep the Chained God imprisoned. That being said, Oddos uses his secrets as insurance and protection. He has repeatedly warned the other gods not to pursue, threaten, attack, or otherwise interfere with him. Should any god move against Oddos, he would release Cyric and essentially destroy creation. The King That Crawls has a number of sinister, secret safeguards in place. Should Oddos perish, these triggers will unchain the Chained God. No matter how much the other gods despise the great jailer, they cannot move against him or destroy him for fear of backlash. Put another way, Oddos holds all creation for ransom, and the gods must live with this fact.
Fortunately, as long as Oddos remains unharmed and untroubled, he holds no intention of freeing Cyric. He remains content to pursue his own dark and twisted ambitions, happily free of outside interference.
The obvious question comes next: what do Oddos’s dark and twisted ambitions involve? What makes a god of torture, prisons, and dark places truly happy?
For the most part, Oddos seems content to collect dark secrets and keep them for himself, much as a dragon hoards gold and gems. His spies lurk everywhere, hiding in shadows and hanging from spider webs. Vermin of every conceivable sort serve Oddos as his eyes and ears in the mortal world. Rats, spiders, and carrion creatures all provide Oddos with access to a virtual treasure trove of secrets. His clerics also move through the world and collect information, passing it on to their superiors and thus on to Oddos.
Not surprisingly, the King That Crawls also collects something else besides forbidden knowledge: he collects creatures. As the god of prisons and jailers, Oddos kidnaps creatures from across creation and locks them into deep, dark, and eventually forgotten cells. Many of Oddos’ priests dedicate their lives to providing him with live sacrifices – creatures doomed to incarceration the rest of their lives. Little accurate or verifiable information exists regarding what Oddos does with his “guests,” or how exactly he selects them. Every large town and city has its share of rumors and stories about missing persons, sinister cults, and basement prisons. In the case of Oddos’ cult, some of these unfortunate stories are all too true.
A number of sages (those brave or foolhardy enough to research Oddos’ cults) believe that the King That Crawls has a special interest in unusual and exceptional captives. Individuals graced with beauty, grace, strength, or intellects are all favorite targets. It seems apparent that Oddos’ clerics expend considerable effort in locating and capturing those people deemed desirable.
As dark as these tales may seem, they are mild compared to stories about what happens to Oddos’ permanent guests. While Oddos is the god of jailers, he is also the god of torturers. According to most legends, anyone captured and placed in Oddos’ care would do well to pray for a quick and merciful death.
Oddos the Crawling King, is an evil god of torturers, slavers, and jailers. His worshippers are those who take others' freedom and creatures living in the darkness below. It is said that pathways under the world are the result of his tears of pain and anger, and his realm is a network of deadly caves and manacles. He was defeated during the Calamity by the Dawnfather .
Oddos is, in some ways, the overlooked deity of the pantheon. When people think about dark gods, they rarely recall Oddos’s name or his role within the pantheon. Few people are familiar with what Oddos truly represents, let alone the particulars of his religion.
Several likely reasons exist for Oddos’ relative obscurity, not the least of which is that the Lord of the Underdark prefers to remain mysterious and hidden. One possible reason involves Oddos’ very name. According to legend, if you say the god’s name out loud, he will reach out of the ground and drag you into eternal imprisonment and torment, far from any hope of freedom or succor. Although almost every god enjoys his own unique legends and folktales, there remains substantial evidence that this particular story is true. If you speak Oddos’ name, he hears and feels compelled to respond, often with swift and cruel anger.
The other gods, good and evil, typically seek out glory, influence, power, and domination throughout creation. The good gods work to spread their faiths and indoctrinate new worshippers. The evil gods, for the most part, pursue a similar agenda, albeit with different tactics and weapons. For his part, Oddos has little interest in mortal worshippers, mortal recognition, or an expansive and organized church. He enjoys his solitude, his secrecy, and the darkness.
Oddos is not well liked or appreciated by the other gods of the pantheon. The good gods view him as repulsive, loathsome, and corrupt. The evil gods consider Oddos as weak, narrow-minded, and probably insane. Far from resenting these attitudes, Oddos seems to invite mortals and gods alike to underestimate him. For all their feelings towards Oddos, the other gods can never forget or overlook the enormous debt they owe the King That Crawls.
In the aftermath of the brutal conflict against Cyric, the surviving gods faced a seemingly insurmountable problem: what do you do with an unkillable and immensely powerful deity? In the end, Oddos produced the answer. Using his innate understanding of incarceration, Oddos constructed an ingenious prison for Cyric. He provided plans for keeping the Enemy locked away and essentially powerless to escape. Thanks to Oddos’ efforts, Cyric became known instead as the Chained God.
On a fundamental level, the other gods understand the debt they owe to Oddos. They also appreciate the tremendous and dangerous power Oddos actually wields. He and he alone knows how to free Cyric. He holds all the secrets to the Chained God’s eternal prison, and where the keys lie hidden.
Oddos, despite his lingering insanity, has no desire to see Cyric unleashed. It remains in his interests – and the interests of every other living creature – to keep the Chained God imprisoned. That being said, Oddos uses his secrets as insurance and protection. He has repeatedly warned the other gods not to pursue, threaten, attack, or otherwise interfere with him. Should any god move against Oddos, he would release Cyric and essentially destroy creation. The King That Crawls has a number of sinister, secret safeguards in place. Should Oddos perish, these triggers will unchain the Chained God. No matter how much the other gods despise the great jailer, they cannot move against him or destroy him for fear of backlash. Put another way, Oddos holds all creation for ransom, and the gods must live with this fact.
Fortunately, as long as Oddos remains unharmed and untroubled, he holds no intention of freeing Cyric. He remains content to pursue his own dark and twisted ambitions, happily free of outside interference.
The obvious question comes next: what do Oddos’s dark and twisted ambitions involve? What makes a god of torture, prisons, and dark places truly happy?
For the most part, Oddos seems content to collect dark secrets and keep them for himself, much as a dragon hoards gold and gems. His spies lurk everywhere, hiding in shadows and hanging from spider webs. Vermin of every conceivable sort serve Oddos as his eyes and ears in the mortal world. Rats, spiders, and carrion creatures all provide Oddos with access to a virtual treasure trove of secrets. His clerics also move through the world and collect information, passing it on to their superiors and thus on to Oddos.
Not surprisingly, the King That Crawls also collects something else besides forbidden knowledge: he collects creatures. As the god of prisons and jailers, Oddos kidnaps creatures from across creation and locks them into deep, dark, and eventually forgotten cells. Many of Oddos’ priests dedicate their lives to providing him with live sacrifices – creatures doomed to incarceration the rest of their lives. Little accurate or verifiable information exists regarding what Oddos does with his “guests,” or how exactly he selects them. Every large town and city has its share of rumors and stories about missing persons, sinister cults, and basement prisons. In the case of Oddos’ cult, some of these unfortunate stories are all too true.
A number of sages (those brave or foolhardy enough to research Oddos’ cults) believe that the King That Crawls has a special interest in unusual and exceptional captives. Individuals graced with beauty, grace, strength, or intellects are all favorite targets. It seems apparent that Oddos’ clerics expend considerable effort in locating and capturing those people deemed desirable.
As dark as these tales may seem, they are mild compared to stories about what happens to Oddos’ permanent guests. While Oddos is the god of jailers, he is also the god of torturers. According to most legends, anyone captured and placed in Oddos’ care would do well to pray for a quick and merciful death.
Divine Domains
Underdark, imprisonment, jailers, torturers, suffering, caverns
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Eye within the lock keyhole
Tenets of Faith
Seek out and revere the deep places beneath the earth.
Delight in the giving of pain, and consider pain you receive as homage to Torog.
Bind tightly what is in your charge, and restrain those who wander free.
Divine Classification
Diety
Alignment
Neutral Evil
Children
PRONOUNCIATION:
(ooh-DUS)
(ooh-DUS)