Kuo-toa

Kuo-toa, also known as gogglers, were a debased monstrous humanoid fish-like race that dwelt in the Underdark. They had human-like bodies and fish-like heads.

Description
Kuo-toa were normally 5 feet (1.52 meters) tall and weighed approximately 160 lbs. Contrasting their paunchy shape were their arms and legs, slender and lithe despite their relative shortness. At the end of each limb were broad, distended and partially webbed hands and feet. Each extremity had three main digits and one opposing digit at its end. Topping their bodies were bullet shaped, piscine heads hosting a mouthful of sharp teeth and a pair of bulging silver-black eyes capable of independently swiveling to observe a situation. Their bodies were covered in gray scales with yellowish undertones in males, that could vary in pigmentation based on their emotional state, such as a dark red when angered and a ghostly white when terrified. Coating their rubbery skin and piscine scales was a layer of slippery slime that gave their bodies a glimmering sheen. Normally the only clothing that they wore were leather straps to hold their gear, as conventional armor and leather was highly uncomfortable due to their slime. They did have a fondness of accessories of bone, shell, and gems. A light stench of rotten fish was constantly exuded by their bodies.

Personality
Kuo-toa were extremely suspicious as well as duplicitous, betraying trust for their own benefit so long as they believed they could do it successfully. They would easily turn in family members they suspect of crimes to community officials. Due to these actions they were normally perceived as cruel monsters by most other races, however this wasn't entirely accurate. Acting upon the kuo-toa's already simple minds, the mental oppression they suffered at the hands of other races broke the minds of most kuo-toa and as a result madness was a common ailment amongst their kind. Kuo-toa were not all necessarily evil, but within their repressive theocracy, common kuo-toa did not possess anywhere near the willpower to oppose the ruling castes. When separated from these societies kuo-toa could adopt neutral or good philosophies such as pacifism.

Combat
Kuo-toa were an amphibious race, capable of operating equally as well underwater as they could on land. While capable of biting their opponents they would more typically employ weapons like spears and shields against their foes. Because of their use of slave labor they would commonly employ nets, harpoons and pincer staffs in order to capture their enemies. The slime produced by their skin was also fairly useful, partially protecting them from poisons and allowing them to wriggle free of most attempts to restrain them. They could also secrete an adhesive oil, that they would apply to their shields causing weapons that struck them to become stuck. The kuo-toa possessed incredible monocular vision capable of perceiving invisible or even ethereal creatures when they moved, although their time in the Underdark rendered it poor above ground.

The psychic damage inflicted by the illithids rendered the kuo-toa mad, but had another unintended side effect. In their insane state the kuo-toa invented gods of their own to protect themselves from the threats they constantly faced. The subconscious energy of enough kuo-toa's simultaneous belief was actually capable of causing the entity to manifest in reality. This subconscious power allowed the kuo-toa to draw power from their own belief in said entity, giving them access to a kind of divine power. The more powerful the gogglers' belief, the greater their abilities. By combining their individual abilities, two kuo-toa priests could create lightning strikes and launch them at their opponents.

Stucture
Kuo-toa societies were oppressive feudal theocracies ruled by a 'Vi-Poolgol' which translated to Priest-King, and 9 Oorg-Poolgoopan, also known as priest-dukes. The priest dukes comprised a religious governing body known as the 'Sunken Council' which exercised complete control over the citizens' lives. Each council member dictated a different element of Kuo-toan society, with a duke for fishing, trade, war, agriculture, mining, pilgrimage, sacred sites, slavery, and child rearing. While the king and dukes theoretically held absolute authority over their subjects, the Kuo-toan propensity for madness forced noble elites to forge alliances with other elites to mitigate infighting. Directly below the priest dukes were the Ba-Poolgol, priest princes who might rule over smaller cities. Serving under the kuo-toan nobility were the Vi-Plagoop and the Ba-Plagoop inquisitor rogues and normal priests known as the Eyes of the Priest-King, and Pincers of the Priest-King respectively. Enforcing the authority of the Sunken Council upon the fragmented kuo-toa communities were the Va-Scour, otherwise known as whips, fanatics who inspired the kuo-toan militia to fight fervently for the archpriests and their gods. Their power was bestowed to them by archpriests rather than their own belief energy. Blib-sanvu, more commonly known as monitors, were an order of celibate, elite warrior-monks whose duties were killing and subduing kuo-toa who succumbed to madness as appropriate. Both whips and monitors underwent heavy mental exercise to reduce their capacity for madness. Their also existed kuo-toa marauders, who hunted the Underdark for creatures to enslave and sacrifice. Common kuo-toa worked menial labor tasks such as fishing, farming, or guard duty, although without supervision by a whip or monitor would normally flee dangerous combat situations. Within the rigid caste system of the gogglers, those of higher status were fanatically fawned over while inferiors were treated like slaves. Even fingerlings felt the bindings of the caste system, with normally only noble spawn becoming priests or monitors, and young ones grouped in pens sorted by gender, fitness, and nobility. Whips were normally only the children of archpriests, and would fight to the death for the honor of taking his place after his expiration, although whips who displeased their masters could be stripped of their divine power and even killed. The primary flaw in their system was a combination of the kuo-toa's own propensity towards insanity and the structure of the justice system. Because the system was designed not to remove those unfit for power, nobility suffering from madness of their own would retain their positions forcing monitors to apply interpretation to their teachings, with some monitors becoming inefficient themselves due to their own mental disorders.

Gogglers were excellent fishermen, capable of diving deep to collect mollusks, crustaceans and fish from the depths of their pools. Although a diet of flesh was preferable they were equally capable of living off of plant matter and would create fields of mushrooms and kelp lit by phosphorescent fungi that were tended to by slaves. Due to their poor mining skills they would employ slave labor in order to conduct mining operations. While they possessed a mild fondness of gemstones they much preferred sacred relics, shells or pearls and would gladly trade the former to obtain any of the latter.

Architecture
Kuo-toa communities were centered around pools used for recreation, transportation, and spawning, were sometimes covered by glass domes, and believed to be a tradition hearkening back to their past presence in above surface tidal pools. Kuo-toa were spawned like normal fish and raised in pools until their amphibian qualities developed, about one year after hatching. The young were known as fingerlings and after reaching approximately a foot tall they became fully amphibious and would be raised in separate pens based on various factors. All Blibdoolpoolp worshiping communities possessed at least one shrine to the Sea Mother with larger communities holding major temples that served as hubs for smaller, primitive settlement clusters. Most kuo-toa lived in small tribes far from their ancestral homes, and would make great pilgrimages to reach the temples. The shrines were often in damp caverns surrounded by great bodies of water and welcomed all kuo-toa as well as other races, serving as forums for inter-group trading, council meetings, neutral zones and Sea Mother worship. Although communities were usually not cooperative they would band together to defend such spots from destruction. Other large ziggurats were normally constructed within shallow pools encircled by stones that served the dual purpose of staircases and amphitheater from which the adults could watch and conduct unholy rituals. Kuo-toan architecture was one of the few areas not heavily monitored by the ruling clergy. It retained marine elements, with blue and green gems as well as shells embedded in objects being primary focuses and artisans working endlessly to imitate alien thought patterns into their shell-like patterns. It was rumored that those who looked at kuo-toan architecture for too long and hard would succumb to madness. Their were few free standing buildings as the central caverns serving as market, communal area, and place of worship, and individual residences simply being carved into preexisting walls. Sea mother statues were a common sight, often placed on top of temples built by other races.

Religion
Kuo-toan societies were almost all based around the worship of the Blibdoolpoolp, While earlier reports describe her as an ancient eldritch deity, more recent ones believe her to be a figment of the gogglers' imagination given divine form. The diligence of Blibdoolpoolp's whips has made her the dominant deity amongst all other kuo-toa and the focus of the kuo-toas' lives, even creating her own chosen out of gifted whips and monitors, known as kuo-toa leviathan. Her priests conduct constant sacrifices in her name using ceremonial drowning pools using captives and slaves, although kuo-toa perceived to be mad or defiant may also be sacrificed. The duties of the archpriests involved communication with outsiders, judging criminals, conducted rituals during breeding seasons and the growth/culling of fingerlings. The ruling archpriests of a kuo-toa community decided the gods that lower kuo-toans had to exclusively worshipped, many of which being imagined by the specific priest. Some kuo-toa tribes did worship more conventionally divine beings such as the brutal Demogorgon trying to appeal to him so he would aid them in the restoration of their empire. Other worshiped entities included the slimy and eldritch Ghaunadaur, tyrannical Bane, the water deity Istishia, and the mistress of darkness Shar. Kuo-toa might have also worshiped krakens, aboleths, morkoth, and other eldritch horrors, with their madness having blinded them to their manipulation by said entities.

Relations
Kuo-toa were antagonistic with almost every other subterranean race and all surface dwellers. They had no qualms about kidnapping others and sacrificing them to their gods or using them as slave labor, with 1/4 of their populations being comprised of slaves. They had a special enmity with the drow, who had exterminated them on sight at one point in their history. Despite hating and fearing the drow, the dark elves were among the kuo-toa's most common trading partners, who would even cooperate to raid deep gnome settlements and capture them for sacrifice. This partnership was strictly business related and the two would still hold minor skirmishes and would capture each others people. Kuo-toa recognized the need for trade and would conduct it with practically any race, the exception being the mind flayers and their allies who were invariably attacked without warning. This was most likely due to the mental oppression inflicted upon the Kuo-toa by the mind-flayers that crippled the remains of their once mighty empire.

History
Kuo-toa history was difficult to compile as the race existed long before human recordings, although lore suggests that they were distant relatives of the locathahs. While some legends believe they evolved amphibious traits and established an empire on the surface before being driven back by surface dwellers, others think that once land dwelling, but sea modified races like the sea elves drove them to extinction. It was likely that both were true with man-kind's growing power and numerous surface world allies wiping out the initial invasion and those that sought refuge in the seas being killed by the various monsters that lied within it. Either way the kuo-toa were forced to reside in Underdark caverns and continue their empire within it's murky depths. The kuo-toan version of this tale had the gogglers ran out from their ancestral domains with some scholars linking this event to the Second Serôs War beneath the Inner Sea nearly ten millennia ago. During this migration the gogglers encountered the illithids, who enslaved and mentally mangled the minds of the kuo-toa race driving most of them mad. With the race rendered useless as servants due to their lack of sanity the illithids abandoned them, and the kuo-toa would now kill them on sight. A similar racial hatred existed between them and the drow, although mitigated by the drow's possession of useful trade goods. It was theorized by many that one of the primary reasons that neither of the three races has attempted a large scale invasion upon an unsuspecting surface was that they were locked in constant battle against one another. Their empires had entered a state of decline and, only a few of their once great cities remained with other kuo-toa forced into hiding in small underground oases. Any wizardly pursuits were long since abandoned and all magical power laid in their bent religious institutions. Some of their cities were Sloopdilmonpolp, the City of Pools, Looblishar the City of Welcome Darkness and the magocratic Arcanum of Olleth.

Notable Kuo-toa

 * Shuushar the Awakened, a peaceful kuo-toa hermit. He had adopted a pacifistic philosophy and refused to fight even to defend himself.

Appearances

 * Adventures:
 * City of the Spider Queen
 *  Out of the Abyss
 * Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land
 * The Occupation of Szith Morcane
 * Computer Games:
 * Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
 * Novels:
 * Homeland (mentioned)
 * The Sentinels