#divinity: fear

[dailyadventureprompts]

Deity: Torog, the Crawling King

But see, amid the mimic rout /  A crawling shape intrude! A blood-red thing that writhes from out  / The scenic solitude! It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs  /The mimes become its food, And seraphs sob at vermin fangs  / In human gore imbued.

Out—out are the lights—out all! / And, over each quivering form, The curtain, a funeral pall, /  Comes down with the rush of a storm,   While the angels, all pallid and wan, / Uprising, unveiling, affirm That the play is the tragedy, “Man,” / And its hero, the Conqueror Worm. 

- Edger Allan Poe

An avatar of suffering and madness, the worm god Torog embodies the worst aspects of mortalkind’s relation to pain: both in the cruel supremacy of those who inflict it, and in the desperate degradation of those they inflict it upon.

There are many mythologies that explain why the king crawls, usually painting him as a great and terrible divinity of the dawn age who was broken in battle with some foe, imprisoned within the underdark and crushed beneath its ever shifting weight. There Torog lingers, suffering eternally save when someone inflicts suffering in his name. To these individuals Torog grants power, blasphemous secrets, the promise of endless indulgence to their heartless desires. One would think that only the most twisted and broken of souls would worship such a foul god, but the worm wriggles its way into the hearts of many as there is always profit and power to be had in the subjugation and exploration of others. From the slave driver to the industrialist to the prison warden to the residential school instructor, few actively understand that their cruelty is a form of worship, or what exactly that worship is feeding.

Hooks

Travelling into a decrepit castle for whatever reason adventurers do, the party makes its way to the actual dungeon part of the dungeon, discovering disused torture chambers and a single cell that still seems to be occupied by some poor wretch begging for release. This is a lure into one of Torog’s many prison realms, a realm the party will have to escape but not after being marked by the crawling king’s agents for further collection.

Grotesque monstrosities have been lurking about the city’s underbelly: shambling tangles of wormflesh that sprout from the wounds and ruptures of humanoid corpses. There seems to be no pattern in who these, until the party investigates and discovers that one of the vessels was a vagrant and petty criminal that was sentenced to a workhouse some years ago. There they find the workhouse is operated by a puritanical social reformer that places strict emphasis on cleanliness, obedience, and piety. All the corpses turn out to be those who stepped out of line and died as a result of her “discipline”, but it’s not until the party notices that her dutiful but bruisemarked husband shows the sign of infection that they realize that her abuse is what’s allowing the worms to take root.

While excavating the foundations for the duke’s new estate, a group of workers stumbled across an unsettling statue and altarspace buried low beneath the earth. The duke ordered the altar torn down and work to continue, and since then has not known peace. Terrible accidents befall everyone who was on the digging crew that day, and the duke’s dreams are full of the earth yawning open to swallow him and everything he knows. The heroes are hired to break whatever nightmare or curse is preventing the duke from sleeping, but must deal with their patron growing increasingly paranoid unhinged as Torog’s influence over him grows. Should the party not play their cards right, they might end up imprisoned by their employer just as a colossal worm breaks through the foundations and begins ravaging the castle.

An aside from the author: I think Torog might be one of the best gods ever produced by the the greater d&d think tank, as I fell in love with the Matt Mercer’s presentation of him during the second campaign of critical role. Iconic, Thematically rich, and Adaptable, he’s EVERYTHING you want from an evil god whether you have him as a central antagonist in a campaign or the slightest hint of worldbuilding. 

As it turns out, Torog is one of the few exceptions to my “people don’t worship evil gods” rule, as the evil that Torog represents is so insidious and far ranging that worship for him can occur without the worshipper even acknowledging it. Every society has people that perpetuate cruelty and restrict the freedom of others, and those are all the prayers the wormgod might ever need.

Also, for your benefit, Here’s a grand listing of all my Torog inspired adventures

[bungledown-chim]

i cannot explain how much kristen needs to change her marketing tactic

she keeps going around and saying that cassandra is the goddess of mystery and doubt and the night, but thats not quite true. cassandra is the goddess of finding safety in the unknown. of not being afraid of doubt.

she is the belief that even if you don't know where you are or what to do, if you are lost and alone in a dark forest, there will be something on the other side, and all you have to do is get there. Cassandra is the goddess of staring into the cold, uncaring void and feeling a warm hand clasp your own, of a whisper in your ear saying youre going to be okay. you aren't alone. it is going to be scary and hard and uncertain, but you will never be on your own because i am here with you. you will never be lost because i know where you are

[lucabyte]

Hmmm just gonna spit this headcanon out in text post form since A. I don't think I could exposit it well enough in image form and B. It's not actually textually/thematically substantiated and I don't like actually staking my stuff on just vibes alone*

But anyway. I'd say it's pretty evident that all the islanders forgot their names, right? King obviously. Because why the hell else would he do that, but also Siffrin No Middle Names No Last Name.

They're 'pretty sure' they've 'always' been 'Just Siffrin' 'as long as they can remember'. It's a pretty cruel twist of the knife to say that they don't even get to keep their birth name as a memento, which is why I'm saying as such.

My utterly unsubstantiated claim is I think it'd be cute to say that Sisyphus *is* the name Siffrin initially picked, assuming the myth of King Sisyphus is recontextualised as idk, just a play or something in the setting. But I like the idea of Siffrin going 'oh shit 🫵 he's just like me fr' at a tortured fictional character long before the irony kicks in.

As for how Sisyphus -> Siffrin. I think that chronic mumbler and emotional doormat Sif just did not correct people who misheard the name during their time travelling, and went through enough places with incompatible phonologies (pronounceable sounds in the language) without ever really writing it down that it just got kinda. Changed until it was unrecognisable, and Siffrin just went with it until the earlier pronunciations slipped out of their swiss-cheese brain. And they just kinda don't remember any of that.

Also, something something the horrid realisation that Siffrin also named themselves after a King. Just not as blatantly.

*(though I think there's something here about Siffrin, a guy from a belief system that seems to thoroughly disincentivise autonomy and self-motivated choice continuously having their hand forced to make changes/choices they don't want but have no choice but to... It's not solid enough to really back this up tbh, but it informs it.)

Anyway.

[utane]

Sannet, chief curator of Solemnace Sassmaster extraordinaire and short king

[laufxsons]

'Not even Hell will stop the Wrath of a retired Angel'

My hc is that Hell decided to yoink themselves one (1) retired demon to extract information or enact whatever revenge they seem fit for the whole bathtub debacle. What they hadn't account for was that a certain Angel, who is know to be quite territorial about the things he loves, would do anything to find their husband after weeks of missed calls.

Well, once he does which might have included summoning and trapping a very frightened and confused demon and pressing them very politely for information (after Heaven was useless as always), he comes up with a plan.

One might say Aziraphale was quite disgruntled, positively seething, maybe even willing to give smiting a try after finding out demons had abducted their partner.

So, filled with the wrath of God and being judt enough of a bastard to be worth knowing he decided the best course of actions is, of course, passive agressive diplomacy. I mean the demons don't know that he isn't actually immune to Hellfire and noone would be stupid enough to try the main entrance, so noone would actually expect an Angel to just waltz into the place like they own it.

Those demons certainly aren't immune to an Angel's Divine Intervention (of the lethal variety) and Aziraphale be damned if he didn't at least try and get their partner out of this in the most idiotically genius way.

[softgirlll-withanziety]

[karjalantroll]

absolute disaster

I didn't even have enough space to put everyone in the hashtags......

[llitchilitchi]

tonight has been such a great show of how the fans see c!Dream. the language surrounding him is dehumanizing, in the story, he is the book, he is kept in a vault, he is a monster - c!Q and c!Sam are seconds from calling him it, and the fandom reflects so many of these views. he is not a person with feelings, he is a monster, a predator stalking its prey, an obssessed beast. not human, never human with his very own motivations and goals and dreams who plans for something more. he never wans things for a reason that could not be seen as selfish desire, he is evil personified.

but the moment the language around him, by others in the story, the people who hold power over him reflect the lack of humanity that he should be granted, suddenly it is impossible to strip him of this human side. no, he cannot be in a vault, vault is for objects (like the revive book that everyone sees him as).

he is granted only as much humanity as people think he deserves to be punished further

[thegoddessgarden]

Continued from here

Lucoa watched as the futa suddenly came all over herself, making quite a sizable mess. In spite of that, she was still hard. She must have quite the libido. "Oh my... Do you want some help cleaning up?" Lucoa had mostly cum to enjoy the flowers, but she wouldn't mind a little treat while she was at it.

@canopys-well-feared

[yashley]

imogen having to sit and listen to just how much predathos has taken of her mom

[pastellich]

Maxwell Rayner, leader of the People's Church of the Divine Host

Pencil and pastel

Check out my other TMA drawings

[scytheral]

ㅤ⸝⸝ㅤ⬧ㅤETERNELYNㅤ⦂ㅤA gender Related to Eternal Love , Cuddles , Lazy Mornings , Compliments , Blushing , Shyness && Loving One ' s Lover ( s ).

ㅤ⸝⸝ㅤ⬧ㅤDiSDAYNㅤ⦂ㅤA gender Related to being Comforted and Being darlingly Loved when Frightened / Fearing something.

Coined by The Prince , Tag : ꒰ @meadow-of-mogai-melodies ꒱ㅤ!ㅤ— Day 11 of This Event. Prompt : ꒰ Love / Fear ꒱

[ PT / Eternelyn: A gender related to eternal love, cuddles, lazy mornings, compliments, blushing, shyness and loving one's lover(s). / END PT. ]

Pronounciation: eh-tern-knee-lee

[ PT / Disdayn: A gender related to being comforted and being darlingly loved when frightened/fearing something. / END PT. ]

Pronounciation: dis-day-in

[succulentsiren]

What are you afraid of? Conquer That.

[miwtual]

Can you feel it? That fear running through your mind Your heartbeat gets faster and faster As midnight grows closer with no fucking end in sight The air so deathly still you feel like you can hardly breathe

HALLOWEENTOWN Dark Divine

[cooki3face]

Community does not need this!! But they’re loud in the comments about how harmful this could be for the community and divination and other spiritual practices and traditions! Thankfully!! I was just talking about spiritual psychosis on my close friends on Instagram yesterday and then I see things like this and post just went viral of some woman absolutely losing it, snot running out her nose and everything over the eclipse.

The fear mongering and demonization of spiritual teachings, astrology, tarot and spiritual practices and traditions is about to start becoming very big. It was already a really prominent thing oppressors have used for ages especially against poc who practice forms of witchcraft or deity worship they brought with them from home. I was just watching a docu-series yesterday that highlighted how the native population on mt. Shasta were forced to leave and practiced ritual and held ceremonies in the caves of mount Shasta and those who colonized would go into those caves after they left and preform mockeries of their ceremonies and rituals as entertainment.

We’re about to step into a reality and time where spiritual people, practitioners and others within the community will be replacing celebrities and individuals of high rank or people who hold a lot of power in this world and I said before that the oppressor has a very specific recipe for oppression and trying to keep people (especially in the west) as unaware and as stuck in perpetual karmic cycles and systems as much as possible. And this is just yet another technique they use to discredit individuals with gifts. They use psychics and astrologers and others themselves to help them predict and interpret what’s coming.

They use these types of stories or ideas to fuel radical religious beliefs and ideas that are built upon fear mongering and hatred, they use religious institutions and manipulated versions of their Bible and beliefs and create division within the west. Vast majority of republicans are statistically uneducated and are conservative who hold onto heavy religious beliefs and views to back up, support and justify their actions and beliefs. Heavily similar to antebellum America and the justification of slavery and the mistreatment of African American people.

To add onto that, this movie about tarot does not accurately portray what tarot really is and how it works whatsoever but guess who’ll believe it and perpetuate it. Half the negative ideas that are swirling around about metaphysical, Wiccan or spiritual practices are due to pop culture and horror movies and the individuals who sit at their desks in the dark scribbling away these plots and releasing these movies.

[shoezuki]

Okay random ramblings bout the aeons in the divinity au, the feelings/aura/sensations around them, their general vibes and their relation to sampo/aha:

Aha:

The Elation is. Obviously. About joy and happiness and revelry. But the Elation is more than that: its the extremes of emotion, absolute tragedy and bone chilling rage. Its being overwhelmed by feelings and sensations and stimulation. Its the chaos of thrills and suffering and all emotions spawned by consciousness.

As aha, they technically can experience emotions much more than most other aeons. But unlike mortals, they experience everything at once. Joy/elation is obviously the overwhelming majority, but everything else is muddled together that it becomes vague. They seek thrills and constantly fight boredom to keep joy as the reigning emotion.

(Thats why as sampo he gets. Confused by feelings and doesnt get it. Anything other than excitment or elation is something else entirely. grief or nostalgia or anger or love or jealousy, its strange. As a human, he experiences emotions individually and simply, which makes it more... precise. Its sharp and direct.)

Aha is laughter, drunken singing, tragic comedies and bells and drums and every instrument and orchestras and people preaching into crowds. They're frilly clothing and theatre masks and splatters of paint and childrens toys and buttons and whistles and confetti. (They also like birds a lot lately)

Would create puppets to see through so theyd go watch plays and movies and concerts. If they liked them a lot they'd keep the show to themself, stealing it from everyone's minds and making it so it no longer exists for anyone but them.

Aha is the most sociable with all other aeons. They send out 'messages' to other aeons constantly. Only Qlipoth responds.

Aha's 'messages' are usually limericks, poems, songs, highly emotional words that echo out in frequencies only Aeons can feel/hear

Aha particularly likes qlipoth because they can put up with a lot of aha's shit before getting pissed. They have a weird morbid interest in Nous and tries to make Nous talk in something other than questions. Aha also likes poking at Lan and then running from The Hunt

(No wonder Sampo delights in the chase, almost getting caught by gepard time and time again)

Qlipoth:

Ancient and so massive they makes Aha look like an ant. Theyrepowerful and so, so overwhelming. Their presence even affects other Aeons; theyre a constant feeling of pressure, like youre buried under mountains or at the bottom of the ocean. Aha is largely immune because they visits qlipoth a lot and they just powered through the pressure

Qlipoth likes? Aha. At least as much as qlipoth is capable of liking anyone. Aha doesn't know why, but its because exactly 3489 amber eras ago Aha started stacking cool rocks and meteors they found on the celestial wall and altho they meant it as a game to see how many rocks they could stack before qlipoth got annoyed qlipoth took it as Aha helping build the wall. And qlipoth Never Forgets

Qlipoth existed before emotions, before consciousness. They existed when the universe was dark matter and atoms pushing against one another and stars barely shining. When there was nothing but rock. Theyre not alive, not conscious. They just Are.

They harbours a strange sense of protectiveness for Aha. It might be because Aha is the only glimpse of emotion they get. They dont feel much beyond a need to build the wall when aha isnt around, and the messages aha sends are like little tastes of feeling they indulge in.

Qlipoths 'messages' are never in words or anything straight forward. Its entirely a sensation, a nudge, a pressure, a rumble across the cosmos. (Normally Aha can take qlipoth's messages no problem. But now that he's sampo, qlipoth's messages sometimes bring him to his knees.)

Qlipoth is substance, they are insurmoumtable, theyre physical form and matter itself. They are bigger than anything humans can imagine, made up of the first material from the creation of the universe, metals that no longer exist, planets and astroids and celestial bodies

Lan:

Lan was human once and rose up from the Xianzhou due to his absolute unwavering desire to destroy the Abundance; unlike aha, he very much remembers being human before his ascension

He is narrowed down to a specific, narrow focus on destroying the Abundance. He's the rage and anger and bloodlust of humanity condensed into that one goal. Unlike Aha his form is not nearly as vague, he's a large endlessly moving centaur and everything he does is deliberate and with precision.

Doesnt give a shit or even consider anything else or any of the other aeons. As long as they don't get in lan's way

Second to Aha and akivili, probably closest to humanity. Rage and revenge are all he is now, but its still very human of him.

The aeon of the hunt is focus, its bloodlust and rage and suffering sharpened onto a deadly point. The Hunt is wind and speed, the path of a predator.

Lan hates Aha but also long as they dont get in his way they dont bother with aha. Unfortunately aha loves pushing Lan's buttons, poking and prodding until Lan snaps and rains arrows at Aha.

Aha doesn't realize it, but they are capable of instilling emotions in other Aeons and especially aha just by being around the elation. Lan hates it, hates being shaken from his narrow desire to destroy Yaoshi by feelings of annoyance and frustration and even sometimes amusement that Aha causes him.

Lan doesnt send messages across the cosmos and he ignores any that Aha sends to him. But if he did it would be a direct shot, instantaneous, a sentence or even single world like a punch.

Frankly, Lan could probably strike Aha down in one shot or at least wound and scatter them. The few times Lan gives in to Aha's badgering and hunts them down he doesnt try nearly as hard as he could. If Lan actually gave in to Aha's presence and the emotions they reawaken, Lan would realize he actually enjoys their cat and mouse games.

(When Aha causes some weird shit, like infinitely duplicating bodies or worms that stretch infinitely, they always Always call to Lan and pin the blame on Yaoshi. Lam isnt stupid, he knows its not the abundance and Aha just getting Lan to clean up his messes, but Lan does it anyways)