Aboleth
Ancient creatures who claim to predate the very gods themselves, aboleths are a powerful aquatic race that plot byzantine schemes from their underwater cities. The word aboleth in their own language is roughly equivalent to owner, master, or god. The creatures called aboleths are only one part of an anatomically diverse species who call themselves alghollthu, meaning the one who are all.
Appearance
An aboleth's appearance is alien and bizarre; the closest analog would be some sort of nightmarish, prehistoric fish that has grown to huge proportions. The creature's outline is fish-like, with a powerful tail at one end and a pointed head at the other. The head bears no resemblance to any sort of known fish, having three huge, alien, red eyes located at its very front. The creature seems to have no other facial features, lacking even a mouth. Behind this hideous head is a slime-covered body. Further back it has a fish-like dorsal fin that helps with movement, but instead of the fins one would normally find on the side of a fish, it has two long, grasping tentacles on each side. From head to tail, an aboleth is around 25 feet long and their bulky bodies weigh well over 6,000 pounds. An aboleth is a master of mind magic, able to weave illusions to confuse, or simply crush the will of those who oppose it. Aboleths have several unique abilities: their tentacles are covered in slime that weakens the flesh of those it touches. They also have the ability to release a cloud of mucus that removes a creature's ability to breathe air and instead make it breathe water. Aboleths normally use this to capture and make use of air-breathing slaves; it also ensures the controlled person's loyalty, as the effect only lasts a few hours and must regularly be renewed.History
The first alghollthu awakened spontaneously in a pool of primordial soup on an unknown planet created by the Great Old Ones. Its first experience was to sense a cataclysm in the sky, which all alghollthus can remember in their cellular memory and agree to be the cause of the first alghollthu's awakening. The first alghollthu sensed myriad similar simple creatures around itself, but it was the only intelligent one. This is the source of the First Dictum of the alghollthus: life exists to be controlled. The first alghollthu realised that it was mortal and absorbed the nearby lifeforms, but this was not enough for survival. Eventually, instead of fully consuming a prey item, the alghollthu merely ended its life before allowing it to perform its normal functions for the alghollthu's benefit. Hence the alghollthus' Second Dictum: an alghollthu is to control. With its energy needs fulfilled, the alghollthu set out to control all lifeforms in reach. Its body grew larger from absorbed prey, but the alghollthu was still frail, its structures weakened, and its consciousness started to fragment, while the alghollthu was unable to express its rage. Eventually its membrane cracked and the alghollthu split: its being was no longer drained, its consciousness stabilised, and it realised that they were two. Thus the Third Dictum: alghollthus are eternal as many and one. Eventually the alghollthus evolved and seeded their planet with multiple lifeforms, creating their first global empire. It was at the peak of this alghollthus rule that the Age of Empires ensued. They ruled for millennia over the lesser creatures until the newly founded empire of Giants challanged the alghollthus, leading to their slaves rising up, catching the alghollthus unaware. The alghollthus resisted hard, but their former slaves were too numerous and armies of giants were to powerful, and the alghollthus were losing a war of attrition. Millions of rebels fell, but only a few thousand alghollthus survived, and they were forced to flee underground before they could be exterminated.Habitat
Aboleths dwell in the deepest, darkest depths of the Ocean, untouched by sunlight. There they dwell in vast, alien cities whose buildings are supported by the water, and which dwarf almost every human structure. These cities are hideous to look upon, as they are created with strange, alien designs that bear no resemblance to the tastes that govern human architecture.Languages
Aboleths generally speak their own language and Aquan, along with the most-common languages of the Underdark: Aklo and Undercommon.
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