Teneb'Urat¶
Teneb'Urat is the Elder God of Darkness, Charm and Paralysis, "associated with snakes, venom and vampirism", and the twin brother of Teneb'Vari (S101). He is imprisoned, but in the Fifth Age "some of his minions have awoken and are seeking to free their master" (S028), and his serpent-cult, the Tenebrians, works beneath the Warrens of Proturas. The Fifth Age notes rate him Moderate (S101).
Also called: Ten-Ebb-Yer-At (S101, S028); "the snake god" among his cult's slaves (S063).
Nature¶
"Elder God of Darkness, Charm/Hypnotism and Paralysis. Associated with snakes, venom and vampirism. Creations include Lamia, Gorgons, Hydra, Naga, Giant Snakes, etc." (S101). The Proturan cast list sums him up as "Elder God of snakes, venom and darkness" (S068).
Like his kin he raises no Ascendants: "Teneb'Urat's equivalent of ascendant is a Goruspex, a being granted powers of Darkness, Charm and Venom" (S101). The notes raise, with question marks, the possibility that Arya "is the younger sister of Teneb'Urat and Teneb'Vari" (S101).
The statue in the Lost Mines¶
The one image of the god in the sources stands in a shrine in the Lost Mines beneath the Warrens:
Quote
The huge statue that dominates the room depicts a fearsome creature with six arms and a serpentine body, frozen in a powerful and imposing stance. Two arms stretch over a stone altar near its base. The upper torso of the statue is carved in the likeness of a powerful humanoid, with rippling muscles and a confident, almost arrogant posture. However, instead of a regular head, the statue has the venomous head of a viper, complete with gleaming fangs and a forked tongue, frozen in a snarl. The statue has no clear indication of gender, possessing an androgynous form that defies easy categorization. (S063)
The Tenebrians¶
The Tenebrians are the awakened minions of Teneb'Urat and the people they have made in his image. Their city lies in the Underdark across a great underground lake from the Warrens, and their High Priest is Saeviul, "located in their city" (S065, S068). The Tenebrian City is described under Geography.
In the Warrens they worked through the White Hand, a gang "ultimately led by a Lamia", Lamystra, whose "lair spills into the Underdark where more powerful minions of Teneb'Urat are gathering: Gorgons, Quetztls, Naga and other Serpentfolk" (S028). Lamystra answered to Saeviul and was "also a priestess of the Sun" of the Kalari (S068), and the Sun Priests "in red robes with a yellow sunburst" were seen among the Hand (S038); see the Kalari Priesthood. The Tenebrians wanted the Warrens for "ready supply of minions and converts" and for a Runestone of the prison of the primal dragon Vixseranyol buried beneath the Pale Pit, which they dug for with the help of the warlock Valtor of the Circle of Eternity; they "plan to betray" the Circle "to release Teneb'Urat" (S038, S061).
The Lost Mines show how the cult lives. Slaves mine copper ore with some Cuprium in it; doors are fitted with "strange-looking bronze locks and hinges" of Tenebrian Bronze; an alchemist brews green fluids and ground spores. Four fates await the peasants: "Tenebrian transformation. (The strong and willing ones are selected for this)"; a failed transformation and the fungus farm; death from overwork; or "Punishment -> feed to the snake god while the other peasants watch" (S063). One woman waited mid-transformation with "snakes … writhing under her skin" (S063). The great black Tenebrian Constrictors with acid blood and paralytic venom are described under Creatures.
The mark of Teneb'Urat¶
A Goruspex can live in a mortal as a curse. The warrior Alvaldi of the Proturan campaign carried "a fragment of Teneb'Urat (Goruspex)" that woke when he killed the gang-boss Dunstan: a power "eager to be released in combat", bringing scales, snake-like eyes, venomous fangs and at last "the potion that transforms him completely into a Tenebrian and is under the full control of the Goruspex" (S040, S041). The notes give two ways to be rid of it: "Kill the host", or "Find a Dedicated Temple to the Elder God AND an attuned vessel to transfer the Goruspex into. Then perform an EXORCISM rite" (S041). The mark has another side: in the forests of Teneb'Vari, "full minions of Teneb'Vari will not attack him unless attacked", for he bears her brother's sign (S052, S053). What Alvaldi did is told under the Proturan Campaign.
Gap
No source names Teneb'Urat's symbol, says where or how he is imprisoned, or records any rite of his cult beyond the transformation and the feeding of the snake god.