Dagon

Dagon is a Lord of the Abyss, whose dominion over sea, storms, and the long decay of time has earned him the epithet Lord of the Seas. He was once a demon, born of the chaos of the Abyss, but has lived longer than some gods and has risen to a commensurate level of power. While not widely worshipped by the mortals of Ahren, he nevertheless has followers among sailors, fishermen, and merchants, as well as whole cults of subaquatic civilizations at his command.

A chaotic evil diety, his symbol is sometimes given as a trident. Divine spellcasters inspired by the Greatest Leviathan gain access to the Chaos, Evil, Water, and Weather domains. His sacred weapon is the harpoon, and is known to arcwhales among all other creatures.

History

Dagon's origins are shrouded in the mystery of time and the volatility of his native realm, the Abyss, and there is contention in his legendarium as to whether or not he is a creature of Ahren who found the Abyss in the depths of its seas, or if he found his way into Ahren in like fashion.

Relationships

All of the Lords of the Abyss war with each other constantly, shifting alliances amongst each other in like manner to how mortals shift their clothes.

Appearance

Dagon is an enormous example of a type of merfolk known as a Deep One - humanoid, with gills at the neck, the jaw of a fish, and enormous unblinking eyes like a cephalopod. Unlike most Deep Ones, however, he can also take on the form of a leviathan, a type of aquatic demon.

Realm

Dagon rules over the Unfathomable Sounds of The Abyss, a realm in the manner of an enormous and unbounded ocean which can usually only be escaped by magic, or by allowing that universe's periodic changes to sweep you out of it.

Providence

Dagon has been known to give boons of plunder - usually some lost treasure or another - to his followers in exchange for their suffering and sacrifices.

Servants

Many species of demon pledge their loyalty to Lords of the Abyss, among whom Dagon is no exception. While Dretches are, as always, over-represented, he is also popular among the Leviathans, who are nominally his children. The Unfathomable Sound is also infested with the pale ones, an Abyssal variant of Deep One that tend to be even older and larger than their Ahren-bound counterparts.

Church

Dagon's church is disorganized, with a few coastal holdouts each worshipping independently, influenced by the more organized worship of subaquatic species in close proximity. These communities especially show a great distrust of outsiders and so prefer to keep to their own, tending to be highly secretive about their practices.

Worshippers

Dagon's worshippers fall under many categories. Most seek the secrets of the depths, and are usually seeking the wealth of the sea specifically, either indirectly through harvest or directly through riches.

Clergy

A rare few of Mestama's followers, more often men than not, walk down the twisted roads of knowledge and lore far enough that they come into direct contact with Dagon abyssal lieutenants, and so form pacts that make them formal members of her clergy. Clerics are overrepresented in this cohort, with warlocks also making a noted appearance.

Temples & Shrines

Raising permanent temples to Dagon on Wisteria is a dangerous game; where worship of the Lords of the Abyss is illegal under punishment of imprisonment in the Hearthlands and by death in Bastonia and the Atarlie Empire. Even in the Lordless Lands, where intelligent beings have great latitude in their choice of diety, Dagon is seen as distasteful at best, and her followers are often driven away from the mainstream bands of the Orcish Nation or Confederacy of Sages at best, or warred against at worse.

Indeed, it is only recently, since the Great Collapse opened up the Shimmering Shore to the influences of the planes and threw the region into chaos, that any effort to organize the church beyond country cults meeting in secret was possible. It is rumoured that a temple of some kind exists in or around Lake Uboa known as the High Deep.

Holy Texts

The Lords of the Abyss consider nothing sacred. No word, much less a facsimile of their word, may be used to bind them. Their only teachings are that which they or their lieutenants or priest pass along to the next generation, and their only law is their current demand.