Norog

God of Fear and Nightmares

The King who Crawls

An evil gone from the world for numberless centuries-long enough that the warnings of nascent humanity passed into rumor, then myth, then legend... until all that remained were simple fables. An entity so utterly alien that it defies almost all contemporary knowledge of magic. So impossibly ancient that it has always been. So universally feared that even animals grow nervous when someone speaks its name... the first fear: Norog. A legend of a great evil that has no form, no thoughts, and no understanding of the world it inhabits, instead building itself into the crude shape of those that fear it. Deep beneath the blurred lines of the Underdark's reality, where the lines between the Material Plane and the divine gate of the underworlds blur, he lurks within its tunnels. The terror of all living things, given life in that first terrible scream of creation. A nightmare before nightmares were known.
He is the dark god of the endless tunnels and caverns beneath Riven, The black entity that stalks humanoids amongst the woods. His violent tears carved the pathways under the world, and his realm of imprisonment is a network of deadly caves and manacles from which few return. He is the patron of slavers and torturers who relish in agony and fear, he is the ancient evil that haunts the nightmares of those in his sight, the unknowing hydra that has been cited across multiple continents and languages, some of which unaware of his myth in other cultures... At least, that's what the stories say...
But Norog is real...

Depiction

The King Who Crawls is often without form in most modern tapestries and ancient statues, purely a set of grasping hands expanding from a dark void or terrifying faces hungering in the dark. But in the most ancient texts and cavern scrawls uncovered by Elven archeologists deep within the Underdark, the form of Norog is shown to be that of an endless, twisting expanse of arms and long-necked heads. The eyes of these screaming appendages are all but gone as only gaping maws sit in their place. The true amount of these limbs and mouths is unknown, for when one has dismembered the False Hydra sprouts two or three more in its place.

Enemies

Norogs presence frightens even the hardiest of souls within the pantheon, however, those that carry their fears on their backs to smite the Underking are few in numbers. The two most notable of his rival gods are Celestor and Alune, both of whose lights illuminate the darkness he dwells in, and the former being the god to banish him from the material realm.

Divine Domains

• Death
• Trickery
• Eldritch

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Grasping hands emerging from a black void.

Tenets of Faith

• Seek and exalt places where no light touches.
• Embed yourself in the psyche of your prey, fear is your ally. Conquer your fear and inspire it in your foes.
• Imprison those who cannot resist you, and drag all life into the darkness.

Divine Classification

God

Honorary & Occupational Titles

• The False Hydra
• Underking
• The Ancient Fear
• The First of Ten

Gender

Male

Areas of Worship

• Fear
• Enslavement
• Nightmares
• Caves
• Torture