A priestess of the Great Mother.
Beholder worship was the practice of non-beholders venerating beholders or their deities like the Great Mother, usually under the direct supervision of a tyrannical beholder overlord.[1][2]
Description[]
Ulchaice Darrovyn, High Priest of the Tyrants.
Many beholders, particularly the sane ones, found that charmed minions could worship the beholder as a god. Even better, larger and larger organizations of minions could be operated indirectly by using charmed or indoctrinated servants to direct them. This cult worship provided the beholder with a delightful sense of satisfaction and self-importance (even from such lesser creatures), in addition to the more material purposes that the organization could be bent to such as a thieves' guild or political apparatus. Larger confluences of beholders working together—clusters, hives, and hive cities—continued this pattern, using increasing numbers of slaves and servants to provide material and worshipful value.[2]
There were a number of beholder cults across Faerûn, particularly among barbarian tribes and city dwellers who felt oppressed or slighted by their rulers. In many cases the focus of these cults were fictional beholder deities such as "Aurauth Manyeyes", "Xangolgaerath", and "Yaerethontur". The humanoid cultists believed that they served a great beholder god and the present beholders were demigods or divine servants of it, but this was simply a fiction created to ensure loyal and zealous followers.[4]
Ocular adepts were the rare individuals who entered the service of a beholder and took a gazer's eyeball as an implanted organ. They then served as the middlemen for a beholder, managing their servants and leading the worship of the Great Mother. They were actually fully-fledged clerics of the Great Mother, though they received lesser powers due to being non-beholders.[1][2] Other "high priests" of beholders could instead gain abilities from a kind of shamanic tradition.[5]
History[]
The beholders that formed the Alimir Hive plagued the Lake of Steam region with repeated wars and schemes for thousands of years, aiming to enslave the local human populations. From −1428 DR to −1402 DR they conquered and ruled the Calimshan Empire before being driven out by the founders of the Drakhon Dynasty.[6] Then in the years leading up to the Eye Tyrant Wars in −170 DR, many beholders established cults within the sewers of cities across the Lands of Intrigue, planning to one day have them pour out and conquer the cities when they had grown strong enough.[7]
Another spate of conquest and cults occurred in the Lake of Steam region between 409 DR and 430 DR during the Eye Battles.[8] Later, the Ring of Eyes set themselves up with cults in Cortryn from 731 DR, before being destroyed by Tashara of the Seven Skulls in 757 DR.[9][10]
The beholder known only as the "Unseeing Eye" formed the monotheistic Cult of the Eyeless in the city of Berdusk, then was caught and thought destroyed by Thom Wainwright.[11] It later re-emerged in 1369 DR in the sewers of Athkatla to reform its cult, only to be slain by Abdel Adrian.[3]
The Daeth Haeromm was an alliance of beholders which utilized a "High Priest of the Tyrants" in the 15th century DR, ostensibly serving the "Dread One", a fictional deity that even the High Priest Ulchaice Darrovyn knew was false.[12]
The infamous "City of Cults" Kormul attracted many strange followings in its time, including the Risen Eye beholder cult.[13]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Eric L. Boyd, Erik Mona (May 2002). Faiths and Pantheons. Edited by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 200, 201. ISBN 0-7869-2759-3.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Richard Baker, James Jacobs, and Steve Winter (April 2005). Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 48. ISBN 0-7869-3657-6.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 BioWare (September 2000). Designed by James Ohlen, Kevin Martens. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Black Isle Studios.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (December 2012). “Eye on the Realms: The High Priest of Beholders”. In Steve Winter ed. Dragon #418 (Wizards of the Coast), p. 59.
- ↑ Julia Martin, Eric L. Boyd (March 1996). Faiths & Avatars. (TSR, Inc.), p. 13. ISBN 978-0786903849.
- ↑ Steven E. Schend, Dale Donovan (September 1998). Empires of the Shining Sea. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 17. ISBN 0-7869-1237-5.
- ↑ Steven E. Schend, Dale Donovan (September 1998). Empires of the Shining Sea. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 170. ISBN 0-7869-1237-5.
- ↑ Steven E. Schend, Dale Donovan (September 1998). Empires of the Shining Sea. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 31. ISBN 0-7869-1237-5.
- ↑ Steven E. Schend (August 1997). “Book Two: Amn”. In Roger E. Moore ed. Lands of Intrigue (TSR, Inc.), p. 21. ISBN 0-7869-0697-9.
- ↑ Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 101. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
- ↑ Black Isle Studios (August 2002). Designed by J.E. Sawyer. Icewind Dale II. Interplay.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (December 2012). “Eye on the Realms: The High Priest of Beholders”. In Steve Winter ed. Dragon #418 (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 55–58.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (02-18-2014). Where Bloody Knives See The Sun. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 07-24-2017. Retrieved on 07-11-2021.