Ramenos was the bizarre god of the bullywugs, a dormant deity who seemed to exist purely for the sake of doing so.[5] Called the Sleeping God for his perpetual lethargy,[1] his power slowly decreased over the span of millennia until he eventually croaked.[3]
Description[]
Ramenos's true form was unimaginably massive, his innards alone estimated to be about ten miles in length and his mouth always open to intake more food.[3][1] His avatar took the form of a bloated, 20 ft (6.1 m) tall frog with vast, 10 ft (3 m) wide maw.[5]
Powers[]
When manifested as an avatar, Ramenos's fought by leaping forward about 15 ft (4.6 m) while crushing his opponent underneath his corpulence or simply consuming his foe whole and allowing them to be digested, although a trapped enemy could still slice the avatar's insides. Every few minutes he could belch out a massive, inebriating gas that would leave those caught within physically and mentally handicapped for up to twenty minutes. He was able to use evocation magic and was immune to illusions and phantasms.[5]
Divine Realm[]
Ramenos dwelt in a hollow tree on the 74th layer of the Abyss, Smaragd, a vivid jungle filled with poisonous frogs, venomous snakes, layers of jungle canopies and fermenting toxicants. It was a relatively non-hostile region of the Abyss, its dangers coming more from the environment, such as the heat or acid rain.[1]
Activities[]
Ramenos spent all his time in a drunken stupor hibernating within his tree,[5][1] completely uncaring about the fate of his worshipers and barely interested in his own. He sent no signs and only manifested avatars if they were summoned.[5]
Relationships[]
Ramenos did possess a consort in the slaad lord Urae-Naas. Her current appearance was that of a morbidly obese slaad capable of moving only by crawling and whose tongue lolled out until it practically touched the ground.[3]
Ramenos shared Smaragd with another dormant deity, the yuan-ti god and World Serpent aspect Merrshaulk to whom he was possibly related.[1][5]
Worshipers[]
Although he once had other worshipers, Ramenos was eventually left only with followers among the bullywugs[5] and the occasional tanar'ri feeder.[1] He lacked clerics and his shamans were weak and simplistic. Fortunately, Ramenos's poor support of his people was offset by the few duties of his shamans, who were only required to assist their tribal chiefs, likely relatives, and regularly partake in plant alkaloids,[5] along with the occasional sacrifice.[2]
Bullwugs that worshiped Ramenos did not necessarily have anything more than the shallowest of understandings of him.[7] They were known to placate him hoping for food, and some believed he manifested himself as certain locations, such as his mouth being a lake.[2]
History[]
Once active and capable, Ramenos's thoughtless pleasure seeking had led to his decline, his power and standing having deteriorated alongside that of his worshipers. His temples were nothing but forgotten ruins amid deep jungles and atop lonely plateaus, with great stone statues of him and his open mouth awaiting sacrifices dominating the open areas. Aside from powerful gate magic, only by performing ancient rituals in such abandoned areas could his avatars be called.[5]
Ramenos was once the god of the batrachi, one of the Creator Races, but sometime after −31,000 DR the batrachi left Toril due to an event known as the seven-turn winter that had driven them to near extinction. From the plane of Limbo, home of the slaad, they established the Supreme Throne and Ramenos altered them for at least the second time to serve his agenda.[8]
Eventually Ramenos was left only with the bullywugs, the regressed descendants of the batrachi and races of proto-amphibians, as his followers. It was possible that Ramenos could no longer properly recollect his past at some point, and the bullywugs themselves were completely unaware of such events, lacking any but the most basic creation myths centered around their own limited scope of themselves and their environment.[5] Whether or not he even existed, or if he was merely a mythical creator being, was a topic of debate among scholars.[7]
Eventually Ramenos's self-destructive behavior proved fatal, and his corpse was used to create a new Abyssal layer by Urae-Naas in which to create slaad tadpoles. His entrails were repurposed and used to form the tunnel system and internment facility that was the Phage Breeding Grounds, the relatively small but nonetheless grotesque, 53rd layer of the Abyss.[3]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
- Card Games
- Blood Wars
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Wolfgang Baur and Lester Smith (1994-07-01). “The Book of Chaos”. In Michele Carter ed. Planes of Chaos (TSR, Inc), p. 21. ISBN 1560768746.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Paul S. Kemp (July 2003). Twilight Falling. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0-7869-2998-7.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Mike Mearls, Brian R. James, Steve Townshend (July 2010). Demonomicon. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 77. ISBN 978-0786954926.
- ↑ Ed Stark, James Jacobs, Erik Mona (June 13, 2006). Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 156. ISBN 0-7869-3919-2.
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 Carl Sargent (May 1992). Monster Mythology. (TSR, Inc), pp. 98, 101. ISBN 1-5607-6362-0.
- ↑ Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 177. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Wolfgang Baur, Steve Winter (August 2014). Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Edited by Miranda Horner. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 61. ISBN 978-0786965649.
- ↑ Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 5, 8. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.