Azathoth

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Azathoth
Azathoth.
(Deity)

Titles
The Daemon Sultan,
The Primal Chaos,
The Blind Formless Chaos That Lies Behind the Stars,
Blind Idiot God
Realm
Centre of the Material Plane
Alignment
Areas of Concern
Entropy
Madness
Mindless destruction
Worshipers
Edicts
Gather a court of devotees, create discordant piping or babbling
Anathema
None
Cleric Alignments (1E)
Domains (1E)
Chaos, Destruction, Madness, Sun, Void
Subdomains (1E)
Catastrophe, Dark Tapestry, Entropy, Insanity, Nightmare, Stars
Cleric Alignments (2E)
Domains (2E)
Decay, destruction, nightmares, void
Favored Weapon
Symbol
Eight pointed star
Sacred Animal
None
Sacred Colors
Black, white
Source: In Search of Sanity, pg(s). 65 (1E)
Gods & Magic, pg(s). 90, 130–131 (2E)

Azathoth,12 also known as the Blind Formless Chaos That Lies Behind the Stars, the 'blind idiot god', the Daemon Sultan, or the Primal Chaos, is a little-known, inscrutable, all-powerful Outer God described as a gibbering mass of uncontrollable destructive power at the center of the universe.3 An utterly mindless being, Azathoth is totally unaware of the cosmos, including its own existence and worshippers.42

Home

Within the Dark Tapestry (the darkness between the stars where inhabitants of Golarion believe true madness lies), Azathoth's home is at the centre of the Material Plane, and some scholars view this as proof that the Primal Chaos is the source of everything in existence. A mysterious coterie of an unknown number of powerful lesser gods, known as Azathoth's Court, orbit Azathoth like planets orbit a sun, singing mad songs while listening to Azathoth's gibberish.54 Many of Azathoth's followers view these entities to be the true manifestation of its will. The greatest among them is Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos.2

Appearance

Azathoth is a gibbering mass of destruction as large as a star.4

Church of Azathoth

Despite Azathoth's seeming indifference to everything, including any folk mad enough to worship Azathoth, the Primal Chaos does have cultists. These are often power seekers wanting the destructive force of Azathoth to work for them and their schemes, but this is a perilous endeavour easily prone to backfire, as Azathoth does not care about anything else and its tiniest thrashings can destroy planets.42

The worship of Azathoth is largely undocumented among humans in modern times, although some cloaker and neothelid communities worship it.67

Unholy symbol

Azathoth's unholy symbol is an eight-pointed star.4

On Golarion

In the early years of the Age of Destiny, Azathoth was worshipped by small groups in the Shory Empire, who are said to have developed ways to harness its power; however, in the end, tampering with such powers only led to the empire's fall. Azathoth is indirectly linked to the destruction of the flying Shory city of Ulduvai. Cultists of Azathoth were contacted to help unlock the mysteries of a recently discovered artifact known as the shoggoth stone. Upon activation, the shoggoth stone summoned a shoggoth servant of Azathoth and transformed nearly the entire city into heaps of undulating, rotting viscera.82910 The only temple to Azathoth on Golarion can still be found in the ruins of Ulduvai on the Shattered Range in southeastern Garund.11

Azathoth's worship was also known amongst the cyclopes of ancient Ghol-Gan during the later period that marked their descent into barbarism and madness.12

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.

  1. Wikipedia article on Azathoth. Azathoth was created by H. P. Lovecraft. Original Source: H. P. Lovecraft, "Azathoth", 1922, published posthumously in 1938
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 James Jacobs. “The Elder Mythos” in In Search of Sanity, 65. Paizo Inc., 2016
  3. Colin McComb. “Minor Deities” in Faiths of Corruption, 20. Paizo Inc., 2011
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 James Jacobs. “Cults of the Dark Tapestry” in Wake of the Watcher, 64. Paizo Inc., 2011
  5. James Jacobs, et al. The Inner Sea World Guide, 235. Paizo Inc., 2011
  6. Sean K Reynolds. Cloaker” in Dungeon Denizens Revisited, 12. Paizo Inc., 2009
  7. James Jacobs & Greg A. Vaughan. Orv” in Into the Darklands, 48. Paizo Inc., 2008
  8. Wolfgang Baur. Crucible of Chaos, 2. Paizo Inc., 2008
  9. Neil Spicer. “Rise and Fall of the Shory Empire” in The Slave Trenches of Hakotep, 66. Paizo Inc., 2014
  10. Neil Spicer. “Rise and Fall of the Shory Empire” in The Slave Trenches of Hakotep, 68. Paizo Inc., 2014
  11. Erik Mona, et al. “Appendices” in Campaign Setting, 245. Paizo Inc., 2008
  12. Robert Brookes, et al. “Occult Locations” in Occult Realms, 32–33. Paizo Inc., 2015