The foulspawn were humanoid creatures twisted and corrupted by the Far Realm. Although there were many different kinds of foulspawn, all of them shared a universal contempt for creatures originating in the Prime Material plane. Dwellers of deep Underdark areas, these alien humanoid-looking aberrations sought to destroy all living creatures in the Material plane, while working in concert with other aberrant creatures related to the Far Realm, such as aboleths, mind flayers, and beholders.[1]
Description[]
All foulspawn were humanoid in appearance, but they were divided into different kinds that had their own distinctive traits. Some were large and muscular, while others were small and had many arms. All shared a few common traits, however, such as having their mouths frozen in an eternal toothy grin and their eyes always wide open.[2]
Likewise, because of their connection with the Far Realm, the bodies of the foulspawn weren't fixed to a single shape. They could change their body's shape and height at will, reacting to their environment and situation by changing their thought processes to increase their muscular size and endurance, make their skin as hard as armor or even growing new limbs that would disappear when needed.[2]
Not all foulspawn were aberrant-looking, as well. A few foulspawn, such as those created by using the Symphony of Madness,[3] could retain their original form, although their bodies gained the ability to warp and change like those of the more corrupted foulspawn.[4]
Foulspawn were rarely found alone as they always formed loose associations or tribes of various kinds of foulspawn.[1] Also, as foulspawn were attracted to places were there where high concentrations of aberrant energy, over time more foulspawn would appear in places where a single foulspawn had made a lair.[2]
Personality[]
Foulspawn hated the natural world and any being originated from there. They were aware that once they were also creatures from the natural world, but they believed that what they once were was wrong,[5] so, in their mind, they truly believed that the only way to make the world right again was to either destroy every living thing in the world, or to corrupt it with the defiling energies of the Far Realm. For that reason, they felt drawn to aberrant creatures originating from that plane, as they believed that the natural inhabitants of the Far Realm were more knowledgeable about the "true nature" of the world.[2]
Likewise, foulspawn allied themselves with non-aberrant cultists of deranged beings, such as the followers of demon lords or chaotic evil deities, as they believed that the followers of such beings held philosophies closest to their own. Such alliances were always on a short-term basis, however, and the foulspawn always took the leadership of such cults, as they saw deranged non-aberrants as expendable pawns.[2]
For that reason, foulspawn grew disgusted with the mind flayers' tendency to have non-aberrant thralls, as they couldn't understand why such "perfect" beings would lower themselves to use unsuitable servants. Such foulspawn usually went rogue and attacked the non-aberrant thralls of their masters, to the chagrin of the latter.[2]
Foulspawn somehow retained a small part of their former selves, and people close to a foulspawn, such as family and friends, could recognize the former identity of a foulspawn with just a glance. This was not physical recognition—as the foulspawn's bodies were twisted mockeries of their original forms and were always in flux—but some form of psychic recognition of their former selves.[5]
Society[]
Foulspawn liked to live in tribes or loose coalitions. All foulspawn shared the same thought patterns, so there was no infighting between foulspawn, even with foulspawn from other tribes, because of that. The tribes usually split their time between finding things to kill, serving their aberrant masters, or to warp their territory into warrens that looked like places found in the Far Realm.[2]
Language[]
Foulspawn knew how to talk in Deep Speech, however they had little necessity to talk, as they not only shared the same thought processes with one another, but also were telepaths.[2]
Reproduction[]
Foulspawn could not reproduce themselves, so to increase their numbers they usually exposed their victims to places corrupted by the Far Realm. Those that survived the process would warp into new foulspawn. The actual process to transform a humanoid into a foulspawn was unknown to the few scholars that studied such creatures.[2]
Habitat[]
Foulspawn would appear in places were madness had had an influence over the fate of such sites, like in sanatoriums, places where atrocities broke people down and drove them insane, or places that had been affected by the Far Realm or aberrant creatures. Because of that, they were fairly common in the Underdark.[2]
Foulspawn always altered the places they had chosen as their warrens, turning them into bizarre places where the energy of the Far Realm had warped the landscape. Their warrens were made with no clear architectural plan in mind, though the overall structure often looked like a spiral. The walls of their warrens were painted with weirdly glowing sigils that had no equivalent in any known language or magical alphabet. Those sigils were usually painted with the blood of their victims.[2]
Despite their brutality, foulspawn liked to keep their lairs clean of bodies and bones. They usually piled up the corpses of their victims to form ramparts just beyond the bounds of their warrens.[2]
In the Sword Coast, foulspawn were common in the Chasm of Neverwinter. Their biggest known tribe inhabited a mysterious Underdark temple known as the Twisted Fane.[6]
History[]
After the Spellplague of 1385 DR, the Abolethic Sovereignty began to create foulspawn, or to summon foulspawn into their service, to further their dreaded experiments[3] and to protect the Cauldron of Blue Fire, located in the Underdark below the Chasm of Neverwinter.[7]
Notable Foulspawn[]
- Hexabaal, a foulspawn seer that was in an infernal contract.[8]
- Rohini
- Senoblith, a prophetess and leader among the Order of Blue Flame.[8]
- Soman Galt
- Torlgar, formerly a goliath, was the warden of the Sanatorium in Helm's Hold during the late 15th century DR.[9]
Appendix[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
Some fans have noted that the foulspawn resemble another monster from Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, the Ushemoi, which appeared in Monster Manual V. However, despite their physical resemblance and adaptive traits, the foulspawn are conceptually different from the Ushemoi.[10]
Appearances[]
Adventures
Novels & Short Stories
Video Games
Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert, James Wyatt (June 2008). Monster Manual 4th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 112–113. ISBN 978-0-7869-4852-9.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 Logan Bonner (September 2011). “Monster Manual Update: Foulspawn”. In Steve Winter ed. Dungeon #194 (Wizards of the Coast) (194)., p. 70.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Matt Sernett, Erik Scott de Bie, Ari Marmell (August 2011). Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Edited by Tanis O'Connor. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 91–92. ISBN 0-7869-5814-6.
- ↑ Matt Sernett, Erik Scott de Bie, Ari Marmell (August 2011). Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Edited by Tanis O'Connor. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 90. ISBN 0-7869-5814-6.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Logan Bonner (September 2011). “Monster Manual Update: Foulspawn”. In Steve Winter ed. Dungeon #194 (Wizards of the Coast) (194)., p. 69.
- ↑ Matt Sernett, Erik Scott de Bie, Ari Marmell (August 2011). Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Edited by Tanis O'Connor. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 161. ISBN 0-7869-5814-6.
- ↑ Matt Sernett, Erik Scott de Bie, Ari Marmell (August 2011). Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Edited by Tanis O'Connor. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 163. ISBN 0-7869-5814-6.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cryptic Studios (June 2013). Neverwinter. Perfect World Entertainment.
- ↑ Matt Sernett, Erik Scott de Bie, Ari Marmell (August 2011). Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Edited by Tanis O'Connor. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 169. ISBN 0-7869-5814-6.
- ↑ The Piazza forums. (2015-06-14). Retrieved on 2018-02-19.