Diinkarazan was a lost demigod of the derro[1] and twin brother of their main deity, Diirinka.[2] Known as The Mad God, he was trapped in the Abyss and tormented by nightmarish visions as punishment for both his and his brother's crime.[5]
Description[]
Diinkarazan appeared as a gaunt, 5 ft (1.5 m) derro, making him tall by that race's standards. He had a staring, insane face, the most notable feature of which being his black-pupiled, glowing-red eyes. Gusts of wind constantly swirled around his presence and his hair was always streaming out behind him whilst changing color, texture, and straightness at random.[1]
Personality[]
Diinkarazan spent the vast majority of his time trapped in a tortured state of perpetual, raving insanity. On the rare days he was reprieved of this condition, a sane Diinkarazan was no less of a homicidal maniac than before, his lucidity doing little to stem his murderous intent.[1][3] The vengeful deity was abandoned by his own kin and felt betrayed by his people, and so desired the destruction of the derro.[5]
However, just because he was insane didn't mean he couldn't feel terror; drowning (whether in water or lava), certain horrible monsters, and the illithid deity Ilsensine were among his worst fears.[1]
Powers[]
Physically, Diinkarazan's avatar wasn't particularly strong; though it was a capable rogue, it carried no weapons, fighting in melee using its bare hands. What truly make Diinkarazan dangerous was his power as a wild mage, although unfortunately for him, he essentially had zero control over it. Though he knew evocation, and abjuration spells of the highest order, Diinkarazan's actual power was always in a state of dramatic flux, going anywhere between the incredible arcana of a master spellcaster to the feeble magic of a rookie from minute to minute at complete random.[1]
Similarly, Diirinkazan's other abilities weren't so much activated as they were triggered. Attempts to detect the thoughts of The Mad God universally ended in insanity, and there was an about one in four chance that any spell cast on him that he couldn't resist would be reflected back to the caster, whether he wanted it to or not. He could employ a variety of spell-like effects by employing the wind around him, including whispering wind, feather fall, gust of wind, wind wall, wind blast or stinking cloud, but he had no control over which ability manifested and each was just as likely to occur as another.[1]
Divine Realm[]
Despite technically being an Abyssal lord,[7] Diinkarazan's realm in the Abyss, the 586th layer, was not his domain as much as it was his prison, hence its moniker.[3] The complex curse keeping him there could only be broken by a greater god,[1] or by destroying an artifact known as Ilsensine's ring, which incidentally had a small chance of accidentally summoning a crazed avatar of Diinkarazan who would try and steal and break it.[8] Once every fifty years, give or take 1-10 more, Diinkarazan would became sane for a day.[1]
The Prison of the Mad God consisted of a perpetually swirling vortex of air, gas, and rings of flying rocks,[3] at the center of which was a stone throne set with various gems and stones[3][8] to which Diinkarazan was bound to where he was tormented with images of things he feared. The distance between places in the realm was constantly distorted by 10-80% on a minute-by-minute basis, and the entire layer was also dimensionally unstable. The realm was being torn between Carceri and Pandemonium by it's imprisoning and maddening qualities, the balance between the two elements keeping it from slipping into one or the other and keeping it in the Abyss.[3]
Activities[]
Though trapped on his plane, Diinkarazan was still capable of killing visitors, though he was just as likely to do so when he was sane.[3] On whatever day the mad god was able, he sent an avatar to the Prime Material Plane to stalk and destroy entire derro communities. This obsession with revenge at the cost of all else frequently ensured the destruction of his avatar, since its genocidal, but at least somewhat meditated actions, often degenerated into a spree killing until it was eventually destroyed.[1][5]
Relationships[]
Diinkarazan and his twin brother were perhaps the least respected of the dwarven gods. Even the avaricious Abbathor, despite being distrusted and disliked by the other members of the Morndinsamman, was considered a member of the pantheon. Even Laduguer and Deep Duerra were at least considered members-in-exile, still acknowledged by the dwarves and Laduguer's leave being debatably mutual. Diinkarazan and Diirinka were not just banished but completely disowned, the most commonly given reason by Moradin being that both were irredeemably evil, though while true, it's also possible that fear and jealousy of their magical powers played a part in the consensus.[5][9]
The twins were thought to be children of a dwarven god that was a lesser deity at the time of their conception, possibly even Moradin himself, although this was unclear. While Diirinka had betrayed his brother, he showed clear signs of self-loathing, and possibly felt guilty for having done so.[2][9]
Diinkarazan was an enemy of many gods outside of the dwarven pantheon for unknown reasons, including the elven god Shevarash, the deep gnome god Callarduran and the entire Dark Seldarine (counting Eilistraee).[10] Ilsensine was allegedly the one that had sealed Diirinkazan in the Abyss, supposedly for trying to steal its magic items.[2]
Worshipers[]
Originally, Diinkarazan was the patron of one of the eight subkingdoms of Deep Shanatar, the Jewel Kingdom of Korolnor. His symbol was a ring of seven gems, although this would be confusing to most sages since it was also a symbol commonly associated with Mystra. This millennia-long time of supremacy ended after the Spawn Wars, when the dwarves of Shanatar as a whole abandoned the worship of Diinkarazan in favor of the entire Morndinsamman.[4][11]
After he was banished to the Abyss, the worship of Diinkarazan completely plummeted. His symbol had been long-forgotten and he had no worshipers or proxies.[4][5] He was rarely ever mentioned, the very fact of his existence known to few derro or anyone else for that matter (with the wide-scale exception of the illithids). The only time he was even brought up by the derro shamans was when Diirinka was being praised for his guileful escape through the cutthroat action of betraying his brother.[2][12]
Diinkarazan only managed to keep up any kind of worshiper base through misdirection and trickery. One dwarven axe cult, cults that worshiped sentient weapons in an indirect homage to Clangeddin, followed the Living Axe, a malevolent battleaxe that flew around killing its followers' enemies and its followers alike. It was believed by the War Princes and Princesses of Clangeddin, that the axe's intelligence had been warped by Diinkarazan's twisted dreams, and that the Mad God was possibly behind the most depraved dwarven axe cults.[13]
Since the Time of Troubles, however, Diinkarazan's power had been on the rise. The last remaining remnant of his power in the Underdark was The Throne of the Mad God, once the ruling seat of power in troll-infested Korolnor, which through some unknown process, he could channel a manifestation of his ancient power through. Through derro renegades drawn to his madness, he used the throne to direct the trolls to fight for surface territory, as well as for Underdark territory against the mind flayers of Oryndoll.[11]
History[]
Diinkarazan and his twin were possibly among the oldest of the dwarven gods.[9] At some point in history, when the two were relatively young, the brothers wanted to expand their dominion, and came up with the idea of creating their own dwarven subrace to increase their power. They wanted a distinctive subrace, one that was fast, dexterous, and adept at magic—traits not possessed by other dwarves—and started to explore the Underdark for the means.[1][2]
Deep within, they found a cavern full of raw elemental magic and alien, magic artifacts, which they tried to take before being discovered by Ilsensine. Diirinka backstabbed his twin and fled with the magic while Diinkarazan was captured and imprisoned by the mind flayer deity.[1][2] Ilsensine, to ensure he would be permanently bound, removed one of the crystals from the stone throne he would be bound to and declared that only if it was destroyed would Diinkarazan be freed, before pouring great amounts of magic into it and putting it in a ring.[8]
Rumors and Legends[]
Given that the derro were a race of mad fanatics, it was difficult to discern how much of their origin story was accurate. Depending on what foe Diirinka's savants wanted to polarize the community against, Ilsensine, or even the mind flayers in general, weren't always the enemy they escaped. The only common factor was that Diirinka betrayed his brother to escape with magical power stolen by a great evil force.[12]
Trivia[]
Some races besides the derro referred to individual cloakers as "Diinkarazan's Mantle", as a whimsical reference to the Mad God's insanity and the alien minds of the manta-like monsters.[14]
Appendix[]
See Also[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Carl Sargent (May 1992). Monster Mythology. (TSR, Inc), p. 65. ISBN 1-5607-6362-0.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Carl Sargent (May 1992). Monster Mythology. (TSR, Inc), pp. 59–60. ISBN 1-5607-6362-0.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Wolfgang Baur and Lester Smith (1994-07-01). “The Book of Chaos”. In Michele Carter ed. Planes of Chaos (TSR, Inc), p. 23. ISBN 1560768746.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Steven E. Schend, Thomas M. Reid (1999). Wyrmskull Throne. (TSR, Inc), p. 58. ISBN 0-7869-1405-X.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 83. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.
- ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (April 1998). The Illithiad. Edited by Keith Francis Strohm. (TSR, Inc.), p. 40. ISBN 0-7869-1206-5.
- ↑ Wolfgang Baur and Lester Smith (1994-07-01). “The Book of Chaos”. In Michele Carter ed. Planes of Chaos (TSR, Inc), p. 18. ISBN 1560768746.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Bruce R. Cordell (1998). Dawn of the Overmind. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-0786912117.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Eric L. Boyd (November 1998). Demihuman Deities. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 47–48. ISBN 0-7869-1239-1.
- ↑ Eric L. Boyd (November 1998). Demihuman Deities. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 11, 17, 24, 28, 33, 36, 40, 157, 174. ISBN 0-7869-1239-1.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Eric L. Boyd (November 1999). Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark. Edited by Jeff Quick. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 85–86. ISBN 0-7869-1509-9.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford (May 29, 2018). Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. Edited by Kim Mohan, Michele Carter. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 158. ISBN 978-0786966240.
- ↑ Eric L. Boyd (November 1998). Demihuman Deities. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 60. ISBN 0-7869-1239-1.
- ↑ Eric L. Boyd (November 1999). Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark. Edited by Jeff Quick. (TSR, Inc.), p. 16. ISBN 0-7869-1509-9.
- ↑ Christopher Perkins, Adam Lee, Richard Whitters (September 1, 2015). Out of the Abyss. Edited by Jeremy Crawford. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 6. ISBN 978-0-7869-6581-6.