Elder evil

Elder evils were ancient, powerful, and generally evil beings or entities. Their power could rival, or even surpass, that of demigods, such that they could destroy an entire world.

"The cultists who blaspheme reality by calling out to Elder Evils often speak of a Far Realm from which these entities hail. In truth, there is no one place or space from which they come. There is the multiverse of things that are, and there is the multiverse of things that shouldn't be."

- Mordenkainen

Elder evils
Examples of these beings included Atropus, an undead planetoid said to be the first atropal, a stillborn god; Zargon the Returner, the original lord of the Nine Hells who was cast out by Asmodeus; Father Llymic, a being of intense power from the Far Realm who escaped the plane of madness to destroy the world but was encased in ice by elven mages; Pandorym, an entity from a space between the planes whose mind was imprisoned in a huge crystal, that was called to the world by the ancient Imaskari to intimidate the gods of their slaves. Other beings called elder evils included Hargut of the Gray Pestilence.

Elder Eternal Evils
Three beings described as "Elder Eternal Evils" are Dendar the Night Serpent; Kezef the Chaos Hound; and Ityak-Ortheel, the Elf Eater. Later, Dendar and Kezef were considered primordials.

Aboleth Elder Evils
The aboleth race recognized and respected certain powerful alien entities who predated the gods and inhabited the Far Realm. Collectively known as the "Elder Evils," these beings generally cared nothing for any mortal race, offering only madness and destruction.


 * Bolothamogg, called Him Who Watches from Beyond the Stars, was said to be the darkness between the stars, more a primal force than a physical entity. It was also said to be a guardian entity that existed to ensure nothing escaped the multiverse to taint the "true reality" of the outer dimensions. The aboleths honored it by building coliseums and other roofless buildings. According to the synchronized barking of twenty-three gibberlings, the demon lord Areex made a secret pact in "another place" with Bolothamogg. The message ordered him to go "Beyond the Stars" to pay the price.


 * Holashner, called The Hunger Below, was one of the few Elder Evils to exist fully in the Prime Material Plane. Appearing as part squid and part centipede, the massive entity burrowed through the deepest reaches of the world, driven by its unending hunger and eating everything in its path. It left behind a black, tar-like substance that was volatile and explosive when exposed to air; the aboleths called this substance the "Black Bile of the World". Over the course of a few months, Black Bile could be compressed by tremendous pressure into an obsidian-like substance called bilestone. Fortunately for the rest of the world, Holashner moved far more slowly than the amount of time it took bilestone to turn back into normal rock. Aboleths honored Holashner by including myriad spindly protrusions or tangled foundations in their architecture, or, very rarely, by crafting bilestone inlays on floors or walls.


 * Piscaethces, called The Blood Queen, was the source of the aboleth race, and consequently depicted as a colossal aboleth with no tentacles and mucus the color of blood. The aboleths believed that she traveled across the currents of probability through infinite realities, spreading her spawn as an afterthought. They not did expect or think that she would return. Aboleths honored her by including red crystal domes in their architecture.


 * Shothotugg, called the Eater of Worlds, was another one of the few Elder Evils to exist fully in the Material plane. It was a massive, undulating mass of fluid that existed in a far corner of the multiverse, traveling from world to distant world through the vast emptiness of space. Each world it found and landed on, it poisoned, parasitized, and eventually destroyed. With each destruction, it slightly altered the fundamental forces of the Material plane. Aboleths honored it by building pools and fountains of magically treated and colored fluids that were heavier than water, and by swirling vortex patterns on the floor. It was also worshipped by the kopru as the Great Whirlpool, symbolizing water, and from whose chaotic whirling everything originated and to which everything would return. They believed it lived in massive underground basins and in the deepest pits. Their shamans sacrificed both treasure and slaves by dropping them into such pits, and after a particularly large number of sacrifices on the day the first kopru city-state was formed, Shothotugg granted them the ability to dominate others with their gaze. With Prukal, Shothotugg was said be have both created the kopru species and parented Demogorgon.


 * Y'chak, called The Violet Flame, was unique among the Elder Evils in that it actively took an interest in the development of life, or, more precisely, in the development of the destruction of life. It was a muse and inspiration for all that was destructive and ruinous, making its presence felt on civilizations throughout time. It was known to actively encourage the worship of evil deities, and the aboleths thought that deities of war and cruelty and death came to be because of Y'chak's machinations. It typically appeared to people as a seductive or respectable person of the same race, but its true form was that of a pillar of violet flame around a form so horrifying that seeing it invited the complete destruction of the body and soul. Aboleths honored Y'chak by crafting massive pillars of violet flame that burned even underwater; they used the pulsing and writhing of such pillars to mark the passage of time, or even to send simple messages to the entire city at once.

Far Realm-infested Stars
At some point before 1396 DR, and as consequence of the actions of the Abolethic Sovereignty, some stars in Realmspace became infested with elder evils related to the Eldest. Unlike other stars, they had no set course or place in the sky but instead danced and wavered unreliably. Most were known to be served by certain types of star spawn.


 * Acamar, a corpse star that doomed celestial objects that drew too close.
 * Caiphon, a purple star that had enough of a fixed place just above the horizon to be used for navigation, though relying on it in that way would prove dangerous.
 * Delban, a white star that normally appeared only during winter, but sometimes flared into sight in other seasons.
 * Gibbeth, a greenish star that is was better to not observe or think about overlong.
 * Hadar, a cinder-red, slowly dying star that lurked near Ihbar.
 * Ihbar, a dark nebula that lay between the stars and ate the light of nearby constellations as it slowly expanded.
 * Khirad, a bright blue star whose radiance sometimes lead people to uncover secrets or reveal disturbing insights.
 * Nihal, a reddish star that writhed through the night sky.
 * Ulban, a blue-white star that confused people's minds and disrupted their ability to recognize danger.
 * Zhudun, a corpse star once shone with a baleful light over the city of Cendriane before its fall.

Other Elder Evils

 * The Eldest, the leader of the Abolethic Sovereignty. It was believed that the Eldest was the first aboleth of Abeir-Toril, and the ancestor of the aboleth that lived in the world of Toril around 1479 DR.
 * Zurguth was an Elder Evil whom few had written about. By simply existing, he had the power to alter life, transforming it into something more alien merely by being in proximity to it. He was primarily known for unintentionally creating the kaorti race.
 * Gaernoo, a dark entity depicted as a monstrous purple creature with a bulbous head, long arms, tentacles in place of legs, and glowing, multifaceted, aquamarine eyes. It was worshiped by the Burnt Tongue Cult and had grick and grell servants.
 * Prukal, the Dark Globe, was an entity believed by the kopru to embody darkness. They thought it manifested at sunset above the sky and enclosed the world in darkness every night, with the stars being holes punched through Prukal when it was injured by the light beyond the day that land rose from the sea. The darkness that was torn from Prukal, they believed, fell into the oceans to become the great kopura clams. The kopru also believed that, with Shothotugg, Prukal was responsible for both creating the kopru species and parenting Demogorgon.