Eldritch Horrors¶
"We need to find the right combination of souls, runes, power and flesh to avoid the madness and bloodlust we have seen with our previous attempts." — a Namakan priest's instructions found at Kilmarn (S164)
The Eldritch were the chosen of the High God Tamariel, imprisoned by Kalar and the younger gods with their spirits "shattered and split into pieces which where then forged into holy Kalari Relics" (S141). The Horrors are what the Eldritch become when prison, madness or a meddling priest gets to them first: corrupted and possessed Eldritch, the half-mad Ragers, and the shambling things bred from fragments of their souls. The Eldritch as a people, their castes and their free leaders are described on their own page; this page is for the monsters.
Horrors, Ragers and the sane¶
The world-plot notes draw the line plainly. "Eldritch Horrors -- corrupted and possessed Eldritch. This is what Asmodeus wants... uber powerful minions with astral connections. Eldritch Ragers -- half-mad, ego driven Eldritch seeking to restore/revenge themselves by force. Eldritch -- many seek a more nuanced ascension" (S141). Asmodeus infiltrated the Brotherhood of Light to collect the relics that hold them (S141).
Most of the imprisoned are past saving: "The vast majority of Eldritch are insane after many millennia of confinement." Allannia will not free the insane ones; the Stag Giant Luiranar "frees all his brothers and sisters with no grand plans or schemes for them". Phaendar's own attempts to wake his kin "resulted in disaster: Ragers, Deserters and Traitors" (S147). Luiranar himself, "a bit more cunning than the average 'Rager'", was "driven mad by the death of his lowborn family", was known to his foes as "Raging Slaughter", and the keepers' judgement on his prison reads: "He is completely mad and is likely to kill anyone or anything that comes into his path that is not another Eldritch" (S164). Those whose anchors remain scattered "exist as Eldritch ghosts, with but a shadow of their power (which by mortal standards is still considerable)" (S014).
Earlier accounts¶
A fragment of the regional plot has a "Rampaging Eldritch Horror -- taking the opposite approach to Allania... forging a kingdom in the far West" (S136); the later Eldritch document gives that kingdom, "to the far West, on the shores of the Amarin Channel", to the sane and scheming Phaendar Nar'Vizerai (S147). The Fifth Age after the Sancturi fall knows "several competing Eldritch kingdoms ruled by Witch-Kings and Witch-Queens (as called by outsiders)" (S112).
The things bred at Kilmarn¶
Beneath the Khardic temple of Kilmarn, in a ruined Namakan temple the dwarves built over, priests of Namaka ran "an experiment to infuse fragments of Eldritch into controllable bodies". A letter found among them gives the method: unwilling acolytes "should be transformed as practice for perfecting your art with the runes that I have shown you. Those that are more willing to sacrifice themselves for the glory of the goddess should be infused with a small fragment of the soul from the soulcrux I entrusted to you. We need to find the right combination of souls, runes, power and flesh to avoid the madness and bloodlust we have seen with our previous attempts." The priest in charge was killed by one of his subjects (S164).
What the experiments left behind:
- The Eldritch Lumbering Horror: "A lumbering, rotting tall humanoid like creature. Its eyes are oversized orbs of pure black. Some of its bones seem to protrude through its skin and where its hands should be are two tentacles, one 3 feet long and the other 2 feet. Its feet are a mass of ooze and blood and it leaves a trail of sticky bloody pools everywhere it goes." Its bloody footprints set and "will latch onto any living thing coming within" reach, draining them to heal the horror; "Fire is the only way to remove the blood."
- Eldritch Mawspawn Horrors: "A crawling orb with a gaping maw that leaves a slimy rut wherever it drags itself. It vomits a stream of teeth, blood, and gums, which assemble into undead-like mockeries of life. Small and fast."
- The Five Sisters: "This strange being is formed from the souls of deceased priestesses merged with eldritch spirits. The being has five heads, depicting joy, desire, sadness, suffering, and rage. It's body resembles a giant floating octopus. Eye contact from its head(s) affect the targets. Once eye contact is made the targets cannot break it." Left to guard the Astral Vertex of the inner sanctum, they warn intruders: "Sister, turn back, the goddess is here and you are not welcome" (S164).
A hybrid "Dread(Cthul) & Dwarrow DNA" creature, "Like a Zerg/Evolution", with minor psionics, simple shapeshifting and a parasite's habit of consuming its host, appears in the same campaign's notes with the remark that Khardas "tried to destroy" it; it looked like "a deformed small ugly bear" (S167).
Nothics and lesser horrors¶
A nothic fought in Pemeril is marked simply "Eldritch" (S183); the sources say no more of what a nothic is. The Eldritch knight Malo, who walked as a black-haired Oesterkull, showed a truer form in battle: "16 eyes, 6 large tentacles, 1 mouth" (S183). A Great Mental Shadow Beast stalked the infected Shadow Realm above the fungal Hollow of Alghert (S181).
Gap
Nothics are named once. Nothing says whether a nothic is a degenerate Eldritch, a bred thing like the Mawspawn, or something else.
The Hungering Dark and Ungaaritk¶
The Marshford campaign ended with one of its heroes dead "to contain the Eldtrich Hungering Dark" (S359). The Hungering Dark is treated among the Apparitions.
The dreams of Inwe recall an age when "The eldritch beast Ungaaritk is close to discovering the prison of the Elder God Yalluch" (S031, S071).
Gap
Neither the Hungering Dark nor Ungaaritk is described. Ungaaritk is called a beast and an eldritch in the same breath; whether it was an Eldritch person, a Horror, or a beast of theirs is not said.
Shambling Giants¶
Among the minor races of the Fifth Age, the Oesterkull have an offshoot: "Shambling Giants (Mithis Corrupted)" (S024). They are the only corrupted giants the sources name.
Gap
The Shambling Giants are a single line. How Mithis corruption makes one, and whether the giants retain anything of the Oesterkull, is unrecorded.