Damn that trinity of Ao, Lady of Pain and Tharizdun makes perfect sense. And the thought that they're so vast and endless as to not even need worshippers or a particular multiverse to survive could definitely overwhelm one's faculties.
There is Also Jazimar, Ahriman, "The Serpent", Luminous entity, Io/Asgorath the world shaper and those are one of the most powerful entities. And Jazimar may be the weakest of all these the good one!
@@lorekeeper685 Dark powers, elder evils, great old ones, immortals, far realm entities, they might not be on that level but theres a hell of a lot of powerful entities to pull from
If I recall correctly from my college years in mathematics, there are actually different sizes of infinity. Of course the truth is probably a lot more nuanced than I understood at the time. But all things considered, we have pretty unusual stuff going on in our own universe that will make any brain go whoosh.
More like, that is the only time a good aligned character should possibly summon Asmodeus... And all the other deities. All. Hands. On. Deck. Keep the cage CLOSED. 😳
No.... that's when my own campaign brings two types of paladin to the table... the standard Cavalier/Paladin AND the ANTICHAOS Atrox (formerly named Lyan)... reasons I love 1st edition/second edition hybrids
I love this one. My custom campaign world that I'm running now is based on this lunatic. I'm fortunate that at least one of my players will know what I'm talking about IF they ever find out why their world is so messed up. I'm not hopeful that they will ever delve that deeply, but it informs the world and why things are the way they are. Every DM should have an internal logic behind the scenes. The Chained God's machinations are mine.
I bear a warning for you, oh mighty king. The struggle to escape oblivion only serves only to usher it forward. You, who know that Tharizdun's goals are inevitable, acknowledge that our universe is doomed. You, who would have your wizards work tirelessly to find a way to escape the dying of this world, must not ignore the consequences. Before it is too late, you must realize just what it is that doomed this existence, for you are poised to do the same to the next.
Tharizdune was the "kinda" BBEG of my first ever complete campaign. The game was set in a New York City analog set in the 20's-30's. The basic plot was that all the gods and demons and devils and basically all powerful extra-planer beings were gone. And on New Year's Day at midnight, Tharizdun would be unchained and the world would end. The twist was that Tharizdun, the god of decay, emptiness, entropy, and non-existence *didn't exist.* He was just an illusion made up by the campaign's really BBEG, a Night Hag who was creating mosnters and dangerous situations in order to get the party to "level up" enough that they could survive traveling to the Demiplane of Imprisonment long enough to unleash the previously mentioned powerful extra-planer beings who locked themselves there in order to survive the world's "edgy atheist phase" that was caused by rapid industrialization. With them free, the world once again fell to chaos and reformed as the high fantasy sword and sorcery, and patently not urban fantasy world it was always meant to be.
one of my fav gods of dnd, playing a custom lesser Elhoriad that has the goal of becoming the god of chaotic creation when he learns of his lineage and the chained gods tale, so far it’s a pretty rad quest
The God of the Far Realm. The Lord Of Madness and Dreams The Crawling Chaos The Doom The Chained God The Lord Of Entropy The Elder Elemental Eye The Inevitable The God of Oblivion The End He goes by these and many more names, but you dear players should call him......D&D's FINAL BOSS
Sooooo, if all of the gods are afraid of Chronos.........would that include Ao? ~AND~ If Ao is afraid of Chronos, does that mean Chronos could destroy Ao/Tharizdun?? I imagine Chronos wouldn't be satisfied if he broke out and killed all of the regular gods, taking all of their portfolios combined with his power that was/is enough to already slay greater gods......may he possibly be able to destroy overgods??? "Match of eternities Tharizdun vs Chronos", one HELL of a fight 😂🤣 Curious to hear some thoughts ^^
Timestamps and Spoilers below 0:11 History of Tharizdun 1:48 The Mad God of Entropy 3:23 The Demiplane of Imprisonment and the Dawn War 5:54 The Oberynth Corruption 7:59 The Shard of Ultimate Evil, and the Creation of the Abyss 10:25 VoidHarrow and the 333 Gems 11:26 One Origin of the Elder Elemental Eye 12:03 Cults of the Chained God and Artifacts 14:20 Warlocks of Tharizdun and Shothragot 14:55 Description of the Mad God 15:55 Commentary Hi everyone, no doubt some of you are from Critical Role. Welcome to the Channel, don't forget to Like, Share and Subscribe, and if you enjoyed some of the cosmology and discussion, maybe check out AJ's video on the Astral Dreadnought, which has some interesting tie-ins to this. Astral Dreadnought Video: th-cam.com/video/6OAE2JDsPaM/w-d-xo.html
Just recently threw this boss in my Homebrew game. There are so many inconsistencies and plot holes (this is my very first game, I've been running it for 3 years now.) And the idea that the world needs a good reset has already been conversed in character in some 4th wall breaking character moments. This god is suck a good way to actually do something like that, the party is against resetting, saying "even Gods make mistakes" this video is so helpful in learning about this chaotic being and what his goals are! Thank you so much!
Of course you'd have a video on this😀 I just came from watching an episode of Critical Role and The Chained Oblivion was name dropped. Definitely happy it's one of your videos that was at the top of the page! - sits quietly and listens - 🍿
WOWWWWW how did I not see this before. The first time I read The Sentry (Marvel comics), I thought of Tharizdun - a cosmic power that shakes other gods into existential crisis. So powerful, so transformative, it must be willfully forgotten so as not to risk its rediscovery. AJ, this is one of your most beautifully narrated and scripted ecology. THANK YOU. brilliant presentation of a truly dynamic, paradoxical deity
My players were smart...they gave the gem they found to a deity who sent it into a blue sun in a solar system where no life exist. It didn't destroy it, but it may keep it safe.
Here's a fun little plot outline: Party is commissioned to fight evil, successfully thwarting plans to destroy the gems that are powering big ancient evil's prison, delivering those nasty ritual gems to the people who can use them to strengthen the imprisonment instead. Oops, the prison's actually perfectly secure & the gems unlock the prison, shattering them would make it even harder to unlock. The evil trying to break them was Asmodeus, one of Tharizdun's main jailors & the first to realise how far the cult has come to unlocking the prison...he may be evil but hey, he wants to be in charge of what's already here, not destroy all of it. Unfortunately, he's frikken Asmodeus, who'd trust him to be acting in genuinely good faith in this one instance? Party now has some interesting conflicts in that they're going to be working under Asmodeus' guidance to fix what they'd done, but who's going to trust someone working for Asmodeus, who has who knows what other plots & angles he's going to be working?
Thats great analogue and that kindof sums it up Why I hate that like gods or creatures, even univese is flaved it cand be mendet maybe not perfecly but total destruction is whaste of resourses.
Vigant especially when the machine can be scavenged for parts and made into a new perfect machine. Tharizdun is the turning of the wheel. He is the reason the ages of both aboleths and dragons came to an end. He will bring an end to the age of man. ALL HAIL
We played the Greyhawk module Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil in the campaign we've been playing twice a month for about four years. We were getting torn apart in there and going into some hard boss fights so our cleric summoned a Planetar to help us complete our destruction of the Mad God's followers. When we finally defeated the cult, a Wish (only the feckless rogue could use it) and a Miracle (Miracle cast by the Planetar, with a boost from the god who created him) were used to send an artifact tower called the Black Spike into Tharizdun's prison- mentioned in this video. There was one catch. The Planetar had to go with it, and be imprisoned, forever, with the Mad God. The feckless rogue decided to go off plan, have mercy on the Planetar (he was kind of our friend after all), and wish for him to be able to escape. And escape the Planetar did! Driven totally mad by Tharizdun, and now his willing tool. Not only that, but he established a telepathic link with the feckless rogue via an item he picked in Tharizdun's temple! The Mad Planetar set about reviving all the bosses (mostly clerics) we fought and didn't completely destroy in the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, turning them into unique greater undead. He even found the corpse of a dead party member and snatched it before we could find and resurrect him. Turning our party member into a unique undead as well, forced to serve his will, and fight against us. We finally (after 16 months of play sessions), rescued our party member, defeated the undead clerics of the Mad God, a metric ton of undead (mostly vampires, specters, and wraiths), and the Planetar a couple of sessions ago. The Planetar now rests, Sequestered, after being Power Word Stunned, in a portable hole, following a titanic battle on the plane of Limbo. Our next adventure is to obtain a scroll of Sanctify The Wicked, a spell that will trap him in a gem, for a year, and when he emerges he will be restored to sanity and goodness. We are very much looking forward to putting Tharizdun behind us!
Woohoo! Always glad to see that notification! Thank you so much for doing a Celestial series now! It has been super helpful thus far! Keep up the awesome work amigo!
Made an "Exarch(cleric/chosen) of Tharizdun" that combine himself, via "the Apparatus"(AD&D book of artifacts), with a Spellweaver, (after he found out what the spellweavers ultimate plan was/is). ~AND~ he is the BBEG of my campaign. Hes using the spellweavers, (trying to complete their work) setting reality back to a time BEFORE Tharizdun was imprisoned.......with the ultimate goal of "freeing" Tharizdun(in a way) and with Tharizdun seeing his imprisonment, avoiding it. In this instance, the spellweavers are their own worst enemy. My players will face off against him as a last boss (a cleric/wizard half fiend [1/2 fiend also give sorc. spells] "merged" spellweaver)......and if they don't stop him, the entire multiverse will be reset. With Tharizdun seeing his imprisonment/knowing the future, he could avoid it and actually win. My players just found out the main storyline this past session. They loved it, and if it wasn't for your videos......wouldn't be a thing (forget "save the world", all of existence is on the table if they don't succeed). Wouldn't be happening w/o these videos.....for that good sir, my hats off to you. Thanks for all of your hard work! Appreciate the heck out of you Mr. Pickett!! You are The Man!!!
I feel like Tharizdun is very stoppable if he were to get loose. The Over god and the Lady Of Pain should be equal in power to him, and while she’s neutral in alignment, I doubt LOP would just stand by as the mad god tries to kill her. And if there were ever a setting where entropy could be stopped and life sustained for eternity, it’s the D&D universe. The gods of light could reignite or create new stars whenever they want, and gods of life could revive dead worlds whenever they want. I realize Tharizdun could definitely do a lot of damage, but if anyone has a hopeless goal to achieve, I think it’s the chained god.
@@sircastic959 wouldnt that like.... CURE Tharizdun? Basically? Itd be like he never touched the Shard of Evil sooooo.... O.O He'd than be his normal self again and not the mad god?
@@sagesheahan6732 I suspect he was always mad but was happy as his creation was being put to use in ways he approved of. They the obyrith happened and ruined it forever as far as he is concerned.
He isn't the only being that would be unstoppable if they ever figure out that only through mental trickery were they contained.ie The Titan Cronus is imprisoned in much the same way. He's literally a God-Killer.
AJ Pickett the best part was that they were looking for the head cultist aka me to try and stop the releasing of the chained God. They never saw it coming. I mean who would think that the main boss would be one of the four party members
Tharizdun/Cult of Tharizdun playlist: 1.) “Let’s Go” by Ministry. 2.) “Call of Ktulu” by Metallica. 3.) “The Thing That Should Not Be” by Metallica. That’s all I can think of at the moment, anyone have any suggestions for other potential tracks?
4) "Count down to extinction" by Megadeath 5) "2 minutes to midnight" by Iron Maiden 6) "Fade to black" by Metallica 7) "Burn" by Papa Roach 8) "Let the bodies hit the floor" by Drowning Pool 9) "Sweating Bullets" by Megadeath
This video is very helpful to me, I'm about to introduce to my players that this aincent order that has kinda been an overarching villain stretching across all of my campaigns have actually been a cult to this God
Tharizdun worshippers known as “Doom Dreamers” (3e Return to ToEE) are granted an “insanity bonus” to which us players asked...”Can we get a “sanity bonus?”
Got to be honest, I think my favourite parts are the unspeakable horrors with great old ones and player class of a warlock drawing on said power. I like the idea of going through dusty books and getting power from things even the gods want kept secret. Although, I do suspect that making a pact with Tharizdun, even without its permission/knowledge, would invite some serious side effects. I do wonder what the difference is that makes a Great Old One different from a god and their followers being warlocks opposed to clerics. Actually, this relates to a question I relates to evil gods. Do evil gods have angels? Some players in a game I have are under Set(Egyptian god), and I have been wondering what envoys he would have? You mentioned Tharizdun cultists have demons, so I am wondering if other Chaotic Evils gods may use them, or fiends in general.
Angels serve whoever they feel inclined to, evil gods may be served by Erinyes and Ugoloths, both are great options. The great old ones are more like Primordials, they differ from gods in that they are not derived from Ao, and they do not require worshippers to maintain their power, so, great old ones don't give a damn about mere mortals, we are just bacteria to them, occupying their worlds.
Just found your videos last week when looking for more info on Bulette (Bullet's?) and have binge watched. Probably my favorite sub now. Absolutely invaluable as a new DM. Just wanted to say thanks and greetings from Utah.
I've literally fallen for the trap. My player picked big G because "yay god of fuckups and rebels, I'm a drow who'se only ever lived on the surface." and then I start deep diving into big G, looking at Tharizdun and saying "pfshhh I'm not interested in researching anything involving him. I gotta figure out Ghuanadaur stuff." LITTLE DID I KNOW I was catapulting myself into his maw of madness!
Wait- what exists on Toril in 1487DR during the rage of demons that Tharizdun would want.. .....The Hills of the Seven Lost Gods outside of Westgate? That Days of Thunder dragon laser? That shot the sky? DO DRAGONS HAVE SOMETHING TO SO WITH THIS NOW? Well, time to flavor every single form of demonic madness regardless of demon lord to reflect Tharizdun in a certain way. *Including the party's madness.*
I now have a theoretical way to, essentially, undo the D&D cosmos. 1. Build a coalition around some discovered weapon that can destroy/banish/unmake the Obyriths, possibly something from their original dying universe. Go to the various abyssal layers and vanquish the unvanquishable lords of ruin and the Flesh-Shabing Sibyrexes. 2. Awaken Tharizdun from their prison and bless the Mad God with a moment of clarity and show them that the Obyriths are gone and, with its help, Tharizdun can return the world to an un-corrupted cosmos of order. With Tharizdun's allegiance to the cause we could have all of the Astral Dreadnaughts, their Beholderkin, and other Far Realm servants of Tharizdun be no longer considered threats to cosmic order. 3. Tharizdun approaches the Lords of Elemental Evil and breaks off his deceitful parental bindings with them, persuading them that they can be free of corruption if they disgorge the Shard of Ultimate Evil from their realm. (Perhaps the forces of Chaotic Good would finally have something worthwhile to do in the cosmos if they took it upon themselves to purify or expel this terrible artifact.) 4. Now the hard part. Slay the non-Obyrith demon lords, especially Orcus. With Orcus destroyed his faint influence over all undead forces that draw power from the Negative Energy plane will be gone, and perhaps Negative-Energy beings can self-determine their fates with more freedom. Zombies and Skeletons may no longer be definitively Evil creatures. 5. The Blood War would overrun the weakened lines of assault in Avernus and the Infernal armies would storm into the Abyss and begin slaying hordes of demons. With Tharizdun's blessing, the Demons (as the last remaining piece of the Obyrith corruption) would be vanquished from reality. 6. Resurrect Primus. Primus would then (depending on origin narrative) rescind his ruling in Asmodeus' favor and erase the magical pact in Asmodeus' Ruby Rod, shattering the infernal rule over the Hells. With no demons to threaten reality, the need for a necessary evil in the form of Asmodeus' hells is gone. With Hell in dysfunction and with Primus not getting in their way, the forces of Law and Good could descend into war with Devils. Preferably, all significant man-power on both sides would be drained to the point where not only are the devils vanquished, but the Angels would not be in a state where they could impose rule over all creation. 7. Undead scourges, far-realm abominations, demons and obyriths, elemental evil, infernal terror, celestial autocracy. All would be undone from the cosmos. The forces of Chaotic Good would be left to inherit a peaceful world alongside the pure forces of Law, Good, Chaos, and Evil. A world with Yugoloths, untrustworthy CG powers, the Modrons, and the Slaad would still be a world rife with conflict. But it would be a world without imbalance. 8. Hell, maybe we get rid of Chaotic Good entirely by way of the Shard of Ultimate Evil in some great cancellation. Perhaps the souls of all good chaotic beings would be enough to purify the Shard, where it would then be a Shard of Ultimate Chaos cleaned of Obyrith taint. Such a shard could then be given to the Slaad to combat the Spawning Stone, which is a similar object of (originally) pure Law. The Shard could be involved in some "restful sleep" for the Slaad and their Gods by getting rid of Primus' stone and replacing it with this Shard. Perhaps swapping the Stone for the Shard could return the Spawning Stone (under it's original title now) to Mechanus where it could thus be what revives Primus so that Asmodeus can be stripped of his powers of Law. There. A lot of hard work and death and impossible deals with mad gods, but there. A Universe with not but pure Good, pure Law, pure Evil (selfish evil as it pertains to the distribution of resources and not a cosmic alien corruption from another universe), and pure, uncorrupting, self determining Chaos. Honestly, what's more Chaotic Neutral than just up and dissolving your race's sentience for freedom from the pieces of the Spawning Stone that were lodged in their brain? It'd return the Slaad to their original chaosstuff forms. We'd even give the Chaotic Good beings one last Hurrah suicide party where they would be seen as universal martyrs. Kill the Obyriths, make peace with Tharizdun and his forces, free the Elementals from their corrupt binds, kill Orcus and free the Negative Energy plane from his corruption, unmake the Abyss, suicide-cleanse the Shard of Infinite Evil and swap it with the Spawning Stone to free the Slaad and resurrect Primus, disown Asmodeus from cosmic Law, get rid of the Solars and Planetars by having them delve into hell and cancel out the Archdevils, and bam. No more threats to cosmic order. All things balanced between Mechanus, Hades, Limbo, and Elysium. We'd also have to let Tharizdun sever all access to the Astral for Mortals (which at this point isn't that bad honestly) and we'd have a world at peace. Even Tharizdun would not be wanting for more as any Gods left alive would be able to welcome Tharizdun into the fold as having been.. misunderstood. Tharizdun's perfect universe, where he is the savior of all. Strange parallels and even stranger bedfellows, Thooooooooooooooooughts?
I wonder would it be possible to cure Tharizdun of his insanity, if so would become the god of chaos/rebirth no longer focusing on nihilism but instead something greater
I'm actually playing with that idea with my warlock character. She is a person who through a series of unfortunate events was thrown into fantasy bedlam and driven mad. Ever a religious woman (acolyte background) she reached out to the gods for help, but the only one that could reach her was Thirizdun. Thinking she had been abandoned and with nothing to lose she became an agent of chaos. Her big goal isn't to free him, but to cure him of his madness hoping it would cure her of hers.
@@em01455 there will be a LOT of Demons to kill then. For there is a surefire way to cure Tharizdune: Remove the Shard of Evil and any and all Traces of the Demons. While simple in concept, it is a monumental task in execution. But is it really impossible? Probably if you go about it by simply slaying demons. But if you managed to unite enough forces in the Multiverse once more, patch things up between the primordials and the gods and gain allegiance of the Lady of Pain and control over Sigil, suddenly the task might be daunting but not impossible. Though at some point you will have to probably clean out at least a portion of the Abyss, layer by layer. If it is not impossible theoretically then it is maybe a coordination problem akin to climate change (although much slower and much more serious, since Climate change is unlikely to end our existence) It is not unlikely that the hostilities from the dawn war is what prevents the forces in the multiverse from forming ranks against the demons, as well as the current comfortable balance of power which serves a lot of the powerful forces. Everybody could lose from shaking things up. The demons are mostly contained and everybody plays by the rules, for the most part. But what would happen if the Abyss is gone? What role does Baator serve now and what will they do now that the Blood war is over? What happens if Celestia wants to make sure all Evil is removed? Where will the Primordials go?
I'm a bit late to the party on this video but, if we take a look at some of the races in D&D that claim to be survivors of other universes. How many times has this fight gone on? Is the multiverse a closed loop? How many times have Lord Ao, the Lady of Pain, and Thurizdun done this dance of creation?
I've been working on a game inspired by Undermountain, and I knew I wanted this deep, sprawling dungeon to act as a prison for something BIG... and now I know what is locked away beneath Black Lantern Keep! 😃
By listening to this, I learned this Greater God doesn't necessarily advocate absolute destruction and madness. The reason they went batshit obsessed with destruction was because the natural order of the current universes' natural order was literally destroyed by invaders that forced their way into this universe. This God really isn't all that bad when you think about it.
Pretty good video on the chained god Tharizdun, his followers, as well as his overall motives. On an unrelated (or similar note given it involves gods) I'm thinking of starting a game revolving around the Shadowfell soon and was thinking of implementing the goddess Shar (Forgotten Realms goddess of darkness) as one of the main antagonists to the players, considering she was the one responsible for creating the Shadowfell based on what I saw in your previous videos. Since you seem to be exploring the various gods of note throughout the realms, could please possibly look into her and maybe her twin sister Selûne at some point? Thank you for your time for reading this in advance.
this was one of the deities i was actually interested in learning more about since i read about him in one of the monster manuals i have. i wouldn't mind doing IO or one of the other dragon deities next or maybe some fiendish leader.
Hello AJ, enjoying your content! I subscribed not that long ago, compared to other viewers - around the Rot Grub video before or after that - whilst I am aware you are doing the Gods of the Realms and yes that's a big task. I was wondering if you have have thought of doing a video on the different magic types? Such as necromancy and such. Fairly certain many would enjoy hearing you rant about it. But mainly I thought that new members of our society of D&D may not know the difference beyond the type of spells. Not to mention that many people struggle with choosing a Wizards specialization, finding it a bit.. Game-y, such as simply picking Evocation because it brings the biggest bang. Or enchanter for buffs. A bit more information here would be nice for new people, and for old veterans that have forgotten little things here and there. Thanks in advance and thank you for the amazing content!
Hey no problem, I am glad I got the chance to tell you, I am really happy with how the wizard vids turned out and am looking forward to seeing your comments on them, let me know if there is more I can talk about re: magic and spells.
Not sure how familiar you are with Werewolf: The Apocalypse by White Wolf (currently published by Onyx Path,) but Tharizdun seems to have inspired the source of Entropy & Destruction in that setting, an entity simply called The Wyrm. The Wyrm has as it's symbols a black spiral which is also one of the symbols of Tharizdun so that's one of the MAJOR links between the two. The Wyrm is the corrupted spirt of Balance now forced to only destroy due to being partial bound by The Weaver, the mad spirit of Order. The Weaver, whose servants appear spiritual spiders, wishes to Bind both The Wyrm & the third member of the Trait The Wyld who is the source of Chaos, Nature & Creation. This war is reflected in the Material Plane as Human PROGRESS edging out nature but the Wyrm causing Corruption both mentally & polluting the world thanks to unintended consequences of this human progress. On the Spiritual World the corruption has The Wyrm corrupting it & twisting Nature Elementals into Pollution Elementals etc, & the Weaver binding everything not dedicated to spreading it's maniacal order further. The Wyrm's form is better described as a Plane in and of itself & a number of beings the power of Gods serve as parts of his fractured mind. While there are insane cultists that knowingly serve The Wyrm, are few & far between. The Wyrm works best when his servants DON'T realize they are serving him, as every act of Evil serves his ends. Of those that KNOWINGLY serve the Wyrm include the Fallen Tribe of Werewolves who before they fell were the White Howlers, but now call themselves The Black Spiral Dancers, the remaining "Pure" tribes of werewolves see themselves as Vengeful Angels Of The Mother Goddess Gaia, who represents the waning balance of the Triat & that which SHOULD have been & Should be restored. I use "Pure" in quotes as their own rage fuels their heroic deeds but frequently taints their goals, nothing in the setting of Werewolf: The Apocalypse is black & white, well at least nothing is white. One of the Wyrm's other knowing agents is the board of the powerful multinational Pentex Holdings Inc. the kind of company that not only takes shortcuts that end up poisoning water supplies, but at times goes out of it's way to do it. With fingers in almost every imaginable industry Pentex & it's board also house literal monsters, including a vampire, a werewolf, & a few spirutually corrupted mutants that the werewolves call Fomori originally after the giants of Celtic myth but now the Formerly Human. The Formori of the board include a near immortal who looks like anybody's grandfather but has as the price of that long life the dietary requirements of a Mind Flayer, but none of the helpful body parts like tentacles & beak, so it's a hammer & hacksaw to get at that tasty skull meat. Even without Pentex the news shows us how many real world Corporations have nasty habits that poison the natural world enough that you can make the moustache twirling Pentex an optional part of your Campaign.
Not gonna lie i got giddy when this went up, and maintained it through the whole video, i've really gotta thank you for making it as while i did know the broadstrokes of tharizdun's backstory there was alot of origin based stuff that i never heard and it really helps. All my characters , a certain evil and sassy drow wizard without a house, a seemingly dopey and relaxed [but in all reality bloodthirsty and mad] half elf bard, a friendly and astute [but perhaps too curious] tiefling warlock ironically named tharizdun; are all tied as being [eventually] loyal servants of the chained god. Me and my different dms even made a unique artifact given to them by tharizdun called the paradox overcoat which, well long short once a day it performed one random effect...like literally anything, could be you get covered in paper cuts, or summon meterors or make it rain bacon. i think one was even dropping the tardis on an enemy but again thank you for this, it really did make my day and i'll be sure to use this if i ever get back into a campaign.
Got to love random game events.. one time, as the players were approaching a profane temple where something really nasty was being contained, the sky rained flies bloated with blood, and the players were a little queasy as I described the squelching as they trod in pools and piles of them on the rutted dirt road.. stopping for the night at the last Inn before the monastery, an old watch tower now housing a halfling innkeeper, but still with the barred dungeon cells below.. they discovered the Innkeeper was serving up slaughtered Kenku to his guests, and nearby was a secret shrine to a halfling cannibal cult (the halflings in that setting were prone to having dark appetites), one of the players went into the shrine to search for trinkets and saw a sickly, fat and pale figure hiding up inside a fireplace chimney.. he swiftly retreated.. that was a little too creepy for his character to handle. They got chased by some very nasty Gnolls, damn near got themselves killed when they took on a few too many kobolds, and had a giant throw a boulder at them seemingly at random, because the giant just happened to fluke it's roll for moving up to them stealthily in the forest beside a river.. the boulder completely demolished their boat and left them stranded near a mated pair of Manticores who had cubs to feed... by the time they had finished their business at the monastery, they were pretty much ready to set the forest on fire and wait it out in the castle.
maybe that's what movies need more of, just a nice slide down a slope of "you've got to be kidding me" type scenarios into madness. Sounds loads of fun, major points for going big on ambiance
Tharidzun also created the 10 facets black diamond that drove the Queen of Air and Darkness insane and thus is indirectly responsible for the creation of the Unseelie Court in the Pandemonium.
wonder how powerful the 4 primary chaos deities would be in a reality with other powerful deities since too me it seems that part of the reason they are so powerful is other then each other they don't really have a rival so it sort of boosts how powerful they seem
*BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!! SKULLS GOR THE SKULL THRONE!!!! KILL MAIM BURN!!! KILL MAIM BURN!!!! KILL MAIM BURN!!!! WRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!*
I have this theory, which will be canon in my campaigns, is that Tharizdun and He Who Was (the creator of the first humans) are aspects of the same being. This ultra-deity was torn in two as a result of coming into contact with the Shard of Pure Evil, one becoming the maniac Tharizdun, the other becoming HWW. And when the gods and primordials trapped Tharizdun inside his Ethereal Plane prison, there was something else in there - a universe without magic with only one planet that harbored life...our Earth.
I'm considering a Warlock with "The Great Old One" as a patron. It seems like Tharizdun, Ghaunadaur, and Juiblex are all given that title at some point, and may be the same entity, or maybe different aspects of the same entity. In terms of age/power, how would you rank the 3? I'm thinking Juiblex < Ghaunadaur < Tharizdun based on this video.
AO is a Sphere Overseer. Many crystal spheres have one entity like that, even GrayHawk if I remember correctly. In that he is not unique. AO's absolute authority on the Gods only extends to the portion of their essence that it's worshipped and linked to the crystal sphere of RealmSpace. For instance he could demote Lolth to a demigoddes in Realmspace if so he wished, but he couldn't demote her anywherelse like on Greyspace, Krynnspace or on the Outer Planes.
Now, pure speculation here, but if all the Sphere Overseers were in fact part of a single entity who has complete authority on all the Chrystal Spheres.. that would be something else 🤓
Idk how long it is going to take me to tie it together but I feel like tying him to a plot thread I have related to an evil earth primordial I have going in my game.
As entropy is the only thing which is truly inevitable, it must be seen as being above any doubt or divisive question. It would therefore be impossible to consider one as being either right or wrong, in embracing it. Any who embrace entropy share in its immunity to being questioned on divisive matters. They become above such things, just as entropy itself is. That must surely be part of the appeal, amongst those who embrace entropy.
I'm doing research for a campaign, and I'm trying to pin down my Big Bad. I just watched your video on Ygorl. Madness, entropy, nihilism, chaos, the destruction of everything, born at the end of time... would it make any sense for me to say that Ygorl is an aspect of Tharizdun? Even if it's just in a "in my universe" kind of way?
Actually, absolutely! You're the DM, it is your world. That being said you could make Tharizdun the god of puppies. 😂 It's your story. You are Lord Ao, and it is your call.
I have a version of him I call Antithesis. It is a sentient planet sized Sphere of Annihilation that was used as a cosmic garbage disposal by the gods that came before.
I have only ever played games that drew on some of the resources from Greyhawk, so, never got very deep into the lore, so, not sure I would be the best option to bring that info to you.. there is some overlap here and there, so, I'll cover some parts, but not all of it.
For a video on the ultimate madness, I'm surprised the intro music wasn't Iron Maiden's Can I Play With Madness, or maybe Metallica's The Thing That Should Not Be.
I have a question AJ. I'm thinking about using Tharizdun as the end boss for my campaign; is there any way for him to be slain, or is imprisoning him the only option to defeat him say if he was freed and let loose upon the multiverse?
Tharizdun can not be destroyed, he is immortal. Not only would one have to simultaneously destroy all versions of him in all alternate realities, doing so might also destroy Ao and The Lady of Pain, which would cause all other gods to cease to exist. which would effectively destroy the universe.. at which point a new universe pops into existence and a new version of Ao, The Lady of Pain and Tharizdun...
What would have happened if the shard of elemental evil was placed in the Astral Sea as intended. That would be an interesting flip for a campaign setting theme. Perhaps on similar lines of Dark Sun where the Primordials were victorious over the Gods?
Feel like the shard of ultimate evil would be a fragment of something else greater that contained neutrality and goodness maybe the lady the mad God and AO all had been one three headed being who ruled every aspect of a reality but then the ideas they had clashed to much and broke the thing containing all three of there essences like Asmodeus has a ruby rod and the other demons , gods have other items etc so it wouldn't be out of the question that this great being had had some sort of staff used to create the very mulitverse and them all clashing in ideas like Demogorgons heads being enemies just sorta broke this supreme being with a supreme rod and then all the different aspects scattered out and they all just do the ideas they see as best but that's just a thought
If Ao, Tharizdun, and the Lady of Pain aspects of the same overgod, I would like them to being the Id, Superego, & Ego of an artist who has messed up a work of art. Ao wants to preserve the work of art and fix it while not destroying it. Tharizdun is the Id that wants to smash and burn the work of art. The Lady of Pain is the Ego that acts as the neutral, logical force that keeps the other two in check.
Hmm how will "The Mad god" react in my campaign where surviving obyrith managed to come and actual know how to fix a dying or dead universe, and gained an ability to that can brake a god's divinity including his, the lady of pain, AO
• Become a cleric of Tharizdun
• Acquire Divine Intervention
• Nuke the multiverse
Clerics are broken
"Gentlemen, meet my god."
@@DarkHunter670 love the reference
I feel like tharizdun might decide to intervene by just deleting the cleric from existence "you are no longer in danger, you're welcome"
I endorse this comment 😈
Damn that trinity of Ao, Lady of Pain and Tharizdun makes perfect sense. And the thought that they're so vast and endless as to not even need worshippers or a particular multiverse to survive could definitely overwhelm one's faculties.
There is
Also Jazimar, Ahriman, "The Serpent", Luminous entity, Io/Asgorath the world shaper and those are one of the most powerful entities.
And Jazimar may be the weakest of all these the good one!
@@lorekeeper685 Dark powers, elder evils, great old ones, immortals, far realm entities, they might not be on that level but theres a hell of a lot of powerful entities to pull from
@@antimatterstudios8395 fun
except once you step out of realm space, given Ao's power is limited to realmspace
If I recall correctly from my college years in mathematics, there are actually different sizes of infinity. Of course the truth is probably a lot more nuanced than I understood at the time. But all things considered, we have pretty unusual stuff going on in our own universe that will make any brain go whoosh.
Remember kids, if it worships Tharizdun, *RUN.*
It won’t help, but it might make you feel better lol
More like, that is the only time a good aligned character should possibly summon Asmodeus... And all the other deities.
All. Hands. On. Deck.
Keep the cage CLOSED. 😳
No.... that's when my own campaign brings two types of paladin to the table... the standard Cavalier/Paladin AND the ANTICHAOS Atrox (formerly named Lyan)... reasons I love 1st edition/second edition hybrids
Run, you fools run
Nah. Send his corpse to the astral. If he comes back, kill him again. Endless BBEG's.
I love this one. My custom campaign world that I'm running now is based on this lunatic. I'm fortunate that at least one of my players will know what I'm talking about IF they ever find out why their world is so messed up. I'm not hopeful that they will ever delve that deeply, but it informs the world and why things are the way they are. Every DM should have an internal logic behind the scenes. The Chained God's machinations are mine.
I bear a warning for you, oh mighty king. The struggle to escape oblivion only serves only to usher it forward. You, who know that Tharizdun's goals are inevitable, acknowledge that our universe is doomed. You, who would have your wizards work tirelessly to find a way to escape the dying of this world, must not ignore the consequences. Before it is too late, you must realize just what it is that doomed this existence, for you are poised to do the same to the next.
Tharizdune was the "kinda" BBEG of my first ever complete campaign. The game was set in a New York City analog set in the 20's-30's. The basic plot was that all the gods and demons and devils and basically all powerful extra-planer beings were gone. And on New Year's Day at midnight, Tharizdun would be unchained and the world would end.
The twist was that Tharizdun, the god of decay, emptiness, entropy, and non-existence *didn't exist.* He was just an illusion made up by the campaign's really BBEG, a Night Hag who was creating mosnters and dangerous situations in order to get the party to "level up" enough that they could survive traveling to the Demiplane of Imprisonment long enough to unleash the previously mentioned powerful extra-planer beings who locked themselves there in order to survive the world's "edgy atheist phase" that was caused by rapid industrialization. With them free, the world once again fell to chaos and reformed as the high fantasy sword and sorcery, and patently not urban fantasy world it was always meant to be.
Dang, son.
@@jburt779 It's possibly one of the best things I've ever come up with.
one of my fav gods of dnd, playing a custom lesser Elhoriad that has the goal of becoming the god of chaotic creation when he learns of his lineage and the chained gods tale, so far it’s a pretty rad quest
The God of the Far Realm.
The Lord Of Madness and Dreams
The Crawling Chaos
The Doom
The Chained God
The Lord Of Entropy
The Elder Elemental Eye
The Inevitable
The God of Oblivion
The End
He goes by these and many more names, but you dear players should call him......D&D's FINAL BOSS
Sooooo, if all of the gods are afraid of Chronos.........would that include Ao?
~AND~
If Ao is afraid of Chronos, does that mean Chronos could destroy Ao/Tharizdun??
I imagine Chronos wouldn't be satisfied if he broke out and killed all of the regular
gods, taking all of their portfolios combined with his power that was/is enough
to already slay greater gods......may he possibly be able to destroy overgods???
"Match of eternities Tharizdun vs Chronos", one HELL of a fight 😂🤣
Curious to hear some thoughts ^^
The Endless Darkness
He of Eternal Darkness
The Elder Elemental God
The devourer
What's more frightening; the scope and size of the abyss, or the fact that all of that exists as a small scab on what is? 🤯🤯🤯
Timestamps and Spoilers below
0:11 History of Tharizdun
1:48 The Mad God of Entropy
3:23 The Demiplane of Imprisonment and the Dawn War
5:54 The Oberynth Corruption
7:59 The Shard of Ultimate Evil, and the Creation of the Abyss
10:25 VoidHarrow and the 333 Gems
11:26 One Origin of the Elder Elemental Eye
12:03 Cults of the Chained God and Artifacts
14:20 Warlocks of Tharizdun and Shothragot
14:55 Description of the Mad God
15:55 Commentary
Hi everyone, no doubt some of you are from Critical Role. Welcome to the Channel, don't forget to Like, Share and Subscribe, and if you enjoyed some of the cosmology and discussion, maybe check out AJ's video on the Astral Dreadnought, which has some interesting tie-ins to this. Astral Dreadnought Video: th-cam.com/video/6OAE2JDsPaM/w-d-xo.html
Just recently threw this boss in my Homebrew game. There are so many inconsistencies and plot holes (this is my very first game, I've been running it for 3 years now.) And the idea that the world needs a good reset has already been conversed in character in some 4th wall breaking character moments. This god is suck a good way to actually do something like that, the party is against resetting, saying "even Gods make mistakes" this video is so helpful in learning about this chaotic being and what his goals are! Thank you so much!
How did it go?
Of course you'd have a video on this😀 I just came from watching an episode of Critical Role and The Chained Oblivion was name dropped. Definitely happy it's one of your videos that was at the top of the page! - sits quietly and listens - 🍿
WOWWWWW how did I not see this before. The first time I read The Sentry (Marvel comics), I thought of Tharizdun - a cosmic power that shakes other gods into existential crisis. So powerful, so transformative, it must be willfully forgotten so as not to risk its rediscovery.
AJ, this is one of your most beautifully narrated and scripted ecology. THANK YOU. brilliant presentation of a truly dynamic, paradoxical deity
My players were smart...they gave the gem they found to a deity who sent it into a blue sun in a solar system where no life exist. It didn't destroy it, but it may keep it safe.
God of murderhobos, who unwittingly worship Tharizdun with every act of unmotivated violence.
Here's a fun little plot outline:
Party is commissioned to fight evil, successfully thwarting plans to destroy the gems that are powering big ancient evil's prison, delivering those nasty ritual gems to the people who can use them to strengthen the imprisonment instead.
Oops, the prison's actually perfectly secure & the gems unlock the prison, shattering them would make it even harder to unlock.
The evil trying to break them was Asmodeus, one of Tharizdun's main jailors & the first to realise how far the cult has come to unlocking the prison...he may be evil but hey, he wants to be in charge of what's already here, not destroy all of it. Unfortunately, he's frikken Asmodeus, who'd trust him to be acting in genuinely good faith in this one instance?
Party now has some interesting conflicts in that they're going to be working under Asmodeus' guidance to fix what they'd done, but who's going to trust someone working for Asmodeus, who has who knows what other plots & angles he's going to be working?
He reminds me of a painter who is nearly made the perfect painting but do to one little miss hap he wants to trash the project
exactly.
Thats great analogue and that kindof sums it up Why I hate that like gods or creatures, even univese is flaved it cand be mendet maybe not perfecly but total destruction is whaste of resourses.
@@FrostWolfPack is it a bigger waste to keep a broken machine running (on electricity for example) or unplugging it?
Vigant especially when the machine can be scavenged for parts and made into a new perfect machine. Tharizdun is the turning of the wheel. He is the reason the ages of both aboleths and dragons came to an end. He will bring an end to the age of man. ALL HAIL
@@iamvigant a truly broken machine can run?
We played the Greyhawk module Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil in the campaign we've been playing twice a month for about four years. We were getting torn apart in there and going into some hard boss fights so our cleric summoned a Planetar to help us complete our destruction of the Mad God's followers. When we finally defeated the cult, a Wish (only the feckless rogue could use it) and a Miracle (Miracle cast by the Planetar, with a boost from the god who created him) were used to send an artifact tower called the Black Spike into Tharizdun's prison- mentioned in this video. There was one catch. The Planetar had to go with it, and be imprisoned, forever, with the Mad God. The feckless rogue decided to go off plan, have mercy on the Planetar (he was kind of our friend after all), and wish for him to be able to escape.
And escape the Planetar did! Driven totally mad by Tharizdun, and now his willing tool. Not only that, but he established a telepathic link with the feckless rogue via an item he picked in Tharizdun's temple! The Mad Planetar set about reviving all the bosses (mostly clerics) we fought and didn't completely destroy in the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, turning them into unique greater undead. He even found the corpse of a dead party member and snatched it before we could find and resurrect him. Turning our party member into a unique undead as well, forced to serve his will, and fight against us. We finally (after 16 months of play sessions), rescued our party member, defeated the undead clerics of the Mad God, a metric ton of undead (mostly vampires, specters, and wraiths), and the Planetar a couple of sessions ago. The Planetar now rests, Sequestered, after being Power Word Stunned, in a portable hole, following a titanic battle on the plane of Limbo. Our next adventure is to obtain a scroll of Sanctify The Wicked, a spell that will trap him in a gem, for a year, and when he emerges he will be restored to sanity and goodness. We are very much looking forward to putting Tharizdun behind us!
Feckless?! I'll have you know I am full of feck madam! Now wisdom... well, that was my dump stat...
@@markphoenix2302 I made you a star and this is how you repay me?! LOL :)
Woohoo! Always glad to see that notification! Thank you so much for doing a Celestial series now! It has been super helpful thus far! Keep up the awesome work amigo!
So much content to cover, so glad everyone is enjoying these and finding them helpful. :)
Arguably the most important god across the various settings.
Any chance of getting a review of The forgotten temple of Tharizdune. Can't find one anywhere else.
watermark.drivethrustuff.com/pdf_previews/17080-sample.pdf
Made an "Exarch(cleric/chosen) of Tharizdun" that combine himself, via "the Apparatus"(AD&D book of artifacts), with a Spellweaver, (after he found out what the spellweavers ultimate plan was/is).
~AND~
he is the BBEG of my campaign.
Hes using the spellweavers, (trying to complete their work) setting reality back to a time BEFORE Tharizdun was imprisoned.......with the ultimate goal of "freeing" Tharizdun(in a way) and with Tharizdun seeing his imprisonment, avoiding it.
In this instance, the spellweavers are their own worst enemy.
My players will face off against him as a last boss (a cleric/wizard half fiend [1/2 fiend also give sorc. spells] "merged" spellweaver)......and if they don't stop him, the entire multiverse will be reset. With Tharizdun
seeing his imprisonment/knowing the future, he could avoid it and actually win.
My players just found out the main storyline this past session. They loved it, and if it wasn't for your videos......wouldn't be a thing (forget "save the world", all of existence is on
the table if they don't succeed).
Wouldn't be happening w/o these videos.....for that good sir, my hats off to you.
Thanks for all of your hard work! Appreciate the heck out of you Mr. Pickett!!
You are The Man!!!
I feel like Tharizdun is very stoppable if he were to get loose. The Over god and the Lady Of Pain should be equal in power to him, and while she’s neutral in alignment, I doubt LOP would just stand by as the mad god tries to kill her.
And if there were ever a setting where entropy could be stopped and life sustained for eternity, it’s the D&D universe. The gods of light could reignite or create new stars whenever they want, and gods of life could revive dead worlds whenever they want.
I realize Tharizdun could definitely do a lot of damage, but if anyone has a hopeless goal to achieve, I think it’s the chained god.
IMO there is a very simple yet nigh impossible way to "beat" Tharizdun.
Remove every trace of the Abyss and the Demons from the entire Multiverse.
@@sircastic959 wouldnt that like.... CURE Tharizdun? Basically? Itd be like he never touched the Shard of Evil sooooo.... O.O He'd than be his normal self again and not the mad god?
@@sagesheahan6732 I suspect he was always mad but was happy as his creation was being put to use in ways he approved of. They the obyrith happened and ruined it forever as far as he is concerned.
@@jacobfreeman5444 🤔 huh. Actually thats an interesting view point.
He isn't the only being that would be unstoppable if they ever figure out that only through mental trickery were they contained.ie The Titan Cronus is imprisoned in much the same way. He's literally a God-Killer.
So i played a warlock who got his power from the chained god.....the campaign ended when I set them free sorry everyone entropy is here
bwuah ha ha ha haaaaa!
AJ Pickett the best part was that they were looking for the head cultist aka me to try and stop the releasing of the chained God. They never saw it coming. I mean who would think that the main boss would be one of the four party members
Masterful.
yasz >XD
Kevin McGuire That's pretty cold.
Tharizdun/Cult of Tharizdun playlist:
1.) “Let’s Go” by Ministry.
2.) “Call of Ktulu” by Metallica.
3.) “The Thing That Should Not Be” by Metallica.
That’s all I can think of at the moment, anyone have any suggestions for other potential tracks?
4) "Count down to extinction" by Megadeath
5) "2 minutes to midnight" by Iron Maiden
6) "Fade to black" by Metallica
7) "Burn" by Papa Roach
8) "Let the bodies hit the floor" by Drowning Pool
9) "Sweating Bullets" by Megadeath
This video is very helpful to me, I'm about to introduce to my players that this aincent order that has kinda been an overarching villain stretching across all of my campaigns have actually been a cult to this God
Great video and the art in this one was amazing, hats off to the many talented artists out there.
Looking forward, as always, to your next upload.
Tharizdun worshippers known as “Doom Dreamers” (3e Return to ToEE) are granted an “insanity bonus” to which us players asked...”Can we get a “sanity bonus?”
Great video!
Got to be honest, I think my favourite parts are the unspeakable horrors with great old ones and player class of a warlock drawing on said power. I like the idea of going through dusty books and getting power from things even the gods want kept secret. Although, I do suspect that making a pact with Tharizdun, even without its permission/knowledge, would invite some serious side effects.
I do wonder what the difference is that makes a Great Old One different from a god and their followers being warlocks opposed to clerics.
Actually, this relates to a question I relates to evil gods. Do evil gods have angels? Some players in a game I have are under Set(Egyptian god), and I have been wondering what envoys he would have? You mentioned Tharizdun cultists have demons, so I am wondering if other Chaotic Evils gods may use them, or fiends in general.
Angels serve whoever they feel inclined to, evil gods may be served by Erinyes and Ugoloths, both are great options. The great old ones are more like Primordials, they differ from gods in that they are not derived from Ao, and they do not require worshippers to maintain their power, so, great old ones don't give a damn about mere mortals, we are just bacteria to them, occupying their worlds.
Great video. If I remember right Gary had him destroy his version of grayhawk after he left Tsr.
Yeah he did.
12:15 "Man, that's hard to pronounce!" Me reading most dnd lore.
Love the vid keep up the good work
Thanks, absolutely!
Just found your videos last week when looking for more info on Bulette (Bullet's?) and have binge watched. Probably my favorite sub now. Absolutely invaluable as a new DM.
Just wanted to say thanks and greetings from Utah.
believe it or not, I visited Utah, back in 1992, as I recall, it was nice. :) *waves back at the beehive state*
YES! Thank you! I was hope one day you might do this video.
ohhhh myyyy goooood out of the abyss 3.0 is getting *sooooo muuuuch better*
I've literally fallen for the trap. My player picked big G because "yay god of fuckups and rebels, I'm a drow who'se only ever lived on the surface." and then I start deep diving into big G, looking at Tharizdun and saying "pfshhh I'm not interested in researching anything involving him. I gotta figure out Ghuanadaur stuff." LITTLE DID I KNOW I was catapulting myself into his maw of madness!
Wait- what exists on Toril in 1487DR during the rage of demons that Tharizdun would want..
.....The Hills of the Seven Lost Gods outside of Westgate? That Days of Thunder dragon laser? That shot the sky? DO DRAGONS HAVE SOMETHING TO SO WITH THIS NOW?
Well, time to flavor every single form of demonic madness regardless of demon lord to reflect Tharizdun in a certain way.
*Including the party's madness.*
I now have a theoretical way to, essentially, undo the D&D cosmos.
1. Build a coalition around some discovered weapon that can destroy/banish/unmake the Obyriths, possibly something from their original dying universe. Go to the various abyssal layers and vanquish the unvanquishable lords of ruin and the Flesh-Shabing Sibyrexes.
2. Awaken Tharizdun from their prison and bless the Mad God with a moment of clarity and show them that the Obyriths are gone and, with its help, Tharizdun can return the world to an un-corrupted cosmos of order. With Tharizdun's allegiance to the cause we could have all of the Astral Dreadnaughts, their Beholderkin, and other Far Realm servants of Tharizdun be no longer considered threats to cosmic order.
3. Tharizdun approaches the Lords of Elemental Evil and breaks off his deceitful parental bindings with them, persuading them that they can be free of corruption if they disgorge the Shard of Ultimate Evil from their realm. (Perhaps the forces of Chaotic Good would finally have something worthwhile to do in the cosmos if they took it upon themselves to purify or expel this terrible artifact.)
4. Now the hard part. Slay the non-Obyrith demon lords, especially Orcus. With Orcus destroyed his faint influence over all undead forces that draw power from the Negative Energy plane will be gone, and perhaps Negative-Energy beings can self-determine their fates with more freedom. Zombies and Skeletons may no longer be definitively Evil creatures.
5. The Blood War would overrun the weakened lines of assault in Avernus and the Infernal armies would storm into the Abyss and begin slaying hordes of demons. With Tharizdun's blessing, the Demons (as the last remaining piece of the Obyrith corruption) would be vanquished from reality.
6. Resurrect Primus. Primus would then (depending on origin narrative) rescind his ruling in Asmodeus' favor and erase the magical pact in Asmodeus' Ruby Rod, shattering the infernal rule over the Hells. With no demons to threaten reality, the need for a necessary evil in the form of Asmodeus' hells is gone. With Hell in dysfunction and with Primus not getting in their way, the forces of Law and Good could descend into war with Devils. Preferably, all significant man-power on both sides would be drained to the point where not only are the devils vanquished, but the Angels would not be in a state where they could impose rule over all creation.
7. Undead scourges, far-realm abominations, demons and obyriths, elemental evil, infernal terror, celestial autocracy. All would be undone from the cosmos. The forces of Chaotic Good would be left to inherit a peaceful world alongside the pure forces of Law, Good, Chaos, and Evil. A world with Yugoloths, untrustworthy CG powers, the Modrons, and the Slaad would still be a world rife with conflict. But it would be a world without imbalance.
8. Hell, maybe we get rid of Chaotic Good entirely by way of the Shard of Ultimate Evil in some great cancellation. Perhaps the souls of all good chaotic beings would be enough to purify the Shard, where it would then be a Shard of Ultimate Chaos cleaned of Obyrith taint. Such a shard could then be given to the Slaad to combat the Spawning Stone, which is a similar object of (originally) pure Law. The Shard could be involved in some "restful sleep" for the Slaad and their Gods by getting rid of Primus' stone and replacing it with this Shard.
Perhaps swapping the Stone for the Shard could return the Spawning Stone (under it's original title now) to Mechanus where it could thus be what revives Primus so that Asmodeus can be stripped of his powers of Law.
There. A lot of hard work and death and impossible deals with mad gods, but there. A Universe with not but pure Good, pure Law, pure Evil (selfish evil as it pertains to the distribution of resources and not a cosmic alien corruption from another universe), and pure, uncorrupting, self determining Chaos. Honestly, what's more Chaotic Neutral than just up and dissolving your race's sentience for freedom from the pieces of the Spawning Stone that were lodged in their brain? It'd return the Slaad to their original chaosstuff forms. We'd even give the Chaotic Good beings one last Hurrah suicide party where they would be seen as universal martyrs.
Kill the Obyriths, make peace with Tharizdun and his forces, free the Elementals from their corrupt binds, kill Orcus and free the Negative Energy plane from his corruption, unmake the Abyss, suicide-cleanse the Shard of Infinite Evil and swap it with the Spawning Stone to free the Slaad and resurrect Primus, disown Asmodeus from cosmic Law, get rid of the Solars and Planetars by having them delve into hell and cancel out the Archdevils, and bam. No more threats to cosmic order. All things balanced between Mechanus, Hades, Limbo, and Elysium. We'd also have to let Tharizdun sever all access to the Astral for Mortals (which at this point isn't that bad honestly) and we'd have a world at peace. Even Tharizdun would not be wanting for more as any Gods left alive would be able to welcome Tharizdun into the fold as having been.. misunderstood.
Tharizdun's perfect universe, where he is the savior of all. Strange parallels and even stranger bedfellows,
Thooooooooooooooooughts?
You just had to like this when the last words i put in my notes for rererevisited secomber are "SHARNLANDS"
don't tempt me
Amazing vid, loving the D&D lore
I wonder would it be possible to cure Tharizdun of his insanity, if so would become the god of chaos/rebirth no longer focusing on nihilism but instead something greater
I'm actually playing with that idea with my warlock character. She is a person who through a series of unfortunate events was thrown into fantasy bedlam and driven mad. Ever a religious woman (acolyte background) she reached out to the gods for help, but the only one that could reach her was Thirizdun. Thinking she had been abandoned and with nothing to lose she became an agent of chaos. Her big goal isn't to free him, but to cure him of his madness hoping it would cure her of hers.
@@em01455
there will be a LOT of Demons to kill then.
For there is a surefire way to cure Tharizdune:
Remove the Shard of Evil and any and all Traces of the Demons.
While simple in concept, it is a monumental task in execution. But is it really impossible?
Probably if you go about it by simply slaying demons.
But if you managed to unite enough forces in the Multiverse once more, patch things up between the primordials and the gods and gain allegiance of the Lady of Pain and control over Sigil, suddenly the task might be daunting but not impossible.
Though at some point you will have to probably clean out at least a portion of the Abyss, layer by layer.
If it is not impossible theoretically then it is maybe a coordination problem akin to climate change (although much slower and much more serious, since Climate change is unlikely to end our existence)
It is not unlikely that the hostilities from the dawn war is what prevents the forces in the multiverse from forming ranks against the demons, as well as the current comfortable balance of power which serves a lot of the powerful forces. Everybody could lose from shaking things up.
The demons are mostly contained and everybody plays by the rules, for the most part.
But what would happen if the Abyss is gone? What role does Baator serve now and what will they do now that the Blood war is over? What happens if Celestia wants to make sure all Evil is removed?
Where will the Primordials go?
Sure....once Tharazdun has destroyed all of creation and remade it....I think he'll be fine
I'm a bit late to the party on this video but, if we take a look at some of the races in D&D that claim to be survivors of other universes. How many times has this fight gone on? Is the multiverse a closed loop? How many times have Lord Ao, the Lady of Pain, and Thurizdun done this dance of creation?
I've been working on a game inspired by Undermountain, and I knew I wanted this deep, sprawling dungeon to act as a prison for something BIG... and now I know what is locked away beneath Black Lantern Keep! 😃
By listening to this, I learned this Greater God doesn't necessarily advocate absolute destruction and madness. The reason they went batshit obsessed with destruction was because the natural order of the current universes' natural order was literally destroyed by invaders that forced their way into this universe.
This God really isn't all that bad when you think about it.
THARIZDUN DID NOTHING WRONG!
@@AJPickett Praise be thy lord!
Hehehe...so be it😆
Pretty good video on the chained god Tharizdun, his followers, as well as his overall motives. On an unrelated (or similar note given it involves gods) I'm thinking of starting a game revolving around the Shadowfell soon and was thinking of implementing the goddess Shar (Forgotten Realms goddess of darkness) as one of the main antagonists to the players, considering she was the one responsible for creating the Shadowfell based on what I saw in your previous videos. Since you seem to be exploring the various gods of note throughout the realms, could please possibly look into her and maybe her twin sister Selûne at some point? Thank you for your time for reading this in advance.
Yes, those twin goddesses are part of the original proto-pantheon that Ao created, so, certainly a good choice for the next gods to cover.
Pretty good vid, would love to see more vids about some of the other gods, maybe some vids dedicated to the less well known deities of D&D.
As always AJ excellent video
this was one of the deities i was actually interested in learning more about since i read about him in one of the monster manuals i have. i wouldn't mind doing IO or one of the other dragon deities next or maybe some fiendish leader.
Hello AJ, enjoying your content! I subscribed not that long ago, compared to other viewers - around the Rot Grub video before or after that - whilst I am aware you are doing the Gods of the Realms and yes that's a big task.
I was wondering if you have have thought of doing a video on the different magic types? Such as necromancy and such.
Fairly certain many would enjoy hearing you rant about it. But mainly I thought that new members of our society of D&D may not know the difference beyond the type of spells. Not to mention that many people struggle with choosing a Wizards specialization, finding it a bit.. Game-y, such as simply picking Evocation because it brings the biggest bang. Or enchanter for buffs.
A bit more information here would be nice for new people, and for old veterans that have forgotten little things here and there. Thanks in advance and thank you for the amazing content!
Moerem Hurrdurr I did talk at length about the magic schools in my videos about the wizard character class.
I must have missed this! Not sure how. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Hey no problem, I am glad I got the chance to tell you, I am really happy with how the wizard vids turned out and am looking forward to seeing your comments on them, let me know if there is more I can talk about re: magic and spells.
Not sure how familiar you are with Werewolf: The Apocalypse by White Wolf (currently published by Onyx Path,) but Tharizdun seems to have inspired the source of Entropy & Destruction in that setting, an entity simply called The Wyrm. The Wyrm has as it's symbols a black spiral which is also one of the symbols of Tharizdun so that's one of the MAJOR links between the two.
The Wyrm is the corrupted spirt of Balance now forced to only destroy due to being partial bound by The Weaver, the mad spirit of Order. The Weaver, whose servants appear spiritual spiders, wishes to Bind both The Wyrm & the third member of the Trait The Wyld who is the source of Chaos, Nature & Creation. This war is reflected in the Material Plane as Human PROGRESS edging out nature but the Wyrm causing Corruption both mentally & polluting the world thanks to unintended consequences of this human progress. On the Spiritual World the corruption has The Wyrm corrupting it & twisting Nature Elementals into Pollution Elementals etc, & the Weaver binding everything not dedicated to spreading it's maniacal order further. The Wyrm's form is better described as a Plane in and of itself & a number of beings the power of Gods serve as parts of his fractured mind.
While there are insane cultists that knowingly serve The Wyrm, are few & far between. The Wyrm works best when his servants DON'T realize they are serving him, as every act of Evil serves his ends. Of those that KNOWINGLY serve the Wyrm include the Fallen Tribe of Werewolves who before they fell were the White Howlers, but now call themselves The Black Spiral Dancers, the remaining "Pure" tribes of werewolves see themselves as Vengeful Angels Of The Mother Goddess Gaia, who represents the waning balance of the Triat & that which SHOULD have been & Should be restored. I use "Pure" in quotes as their own rage fuels their heroic deeds but frequently taints their goals, nothing in the setting of Werewolf: The Apocalypse is black & white, well at least nothing is white. One of the Wyrm's other knowing agents is the board of the powerful multinational Pentex Holdings Inc. the kind of company that not only takes shortcuts that end up poisoning water supplies, but at times goes out of it's way to do it. With fingers in almost every imaginable industry Pentex & it's board also house literal monsters, including a vampire, a werewolf, & a few spirutually corrupted mutants that the werewolves call Fomori originally after the giants of Celtic myth but now the Formerly Human. The Formori of the board include a near immortal who looks like anybody's grandfather but has as the price of that long life the dietary requirements of a Mind Flayer, but none of the helpful body parts like tentacles & beak, so it's a hammer & hacksaw to get at that tasty skull meat. Even without Pentex the news shows us how many real world Corporations have nasty habits that poison the natural world enough that you can make the moustache twirling Pentex an optional part of your Campaign.
Interesting!
Imagine having the power to create an infinite abyss
Not gonna lie i got giddy when this went up, and maintained it through the whole video, i've really gotta thank you for making it as while i did know the broadstrokes of tharizdun's backstory there was alot of origin based stuff that i never heard and it really helps. All my characters , a certain evil and sassy drow wizard without a house, a seemingly dopey and relaxed [but in all reality bloodthirsty and mad] half elf bard, a friendly and astute [but perhaps too curious] tiefling warlock ironically named tharizdun; are all tied as being [eventually] loyal servants of the chained god.
Me and my different dms even made a unique artifact given to them by tharizdun called the paradox overcoat which, well long short once a day it performed one random effect...like literally anything, could be you get covered in paper cuts, or summon meterors or make it rain bacon. i think one was even dropping the tardis on an enemy
but again thank you for this, it really did make my day and i'll be sure to use this if i ever get back into a campaign.
Got to love random game events.. one time, as the players were approaching a profane temple where something really nasty was being contained, the sky rained flies bloated with blood, and the players were a little queasy as I described the squelching as they trod in pools and piles of them on the rutted dirt road.. stopping for the night at the last Inn before the monastery, an old watch tower now housing a halfling innkeeper, but still with the barred dungeon cells below.. they discovered the Innkeeper was serving up slaughtered Kenku to his guests, and nearby was a secret shrine to a halfling cannibal cult (the halflings in that setting were prone to having dark appetites), one of the players went into the shrine to search for trinkets and saw a sickly, fat and pale figure hiding up inside a fireplace chimney.. he swiftly retreated.. that was a little too creepy for his character to handle. They got chased by some very nasty Gnolls, damn near got themselves killed when they took on a few too many kobolds, and had a giant throw a boulder at them seemingly at random, because the giant just happened to fluke it's roll for moving up to them stealthily in the forest beside a river.. the boulder completely demolished their boat and left them stranded near a mated pair of Manticores who had cubs to feed... by the time they had finished their business at the monastery, they were pretty much ready to set the forest on fire and wait it out in the castle.
maybe that's what movies need more of, just a nice slide down a slope of "you've got to be kidding me" type scenarios into madness. Sounds loads of fun, major points for going big on ambiance
The gods:
“But what of life?”
Tharizdun (in the guise of jontron): *Considers..*
*“Fuck it.”*
333 gems to free the embodiment of disorder, madness, and nihilism. So you could call them...
Chaos Emeralds?
I'll see myself out.
I personally find the theory that those gems are scattered about and could be anything such as the orbs of dragon kind far more fascinating.
great vid! those obyrith can be a problem. the gem hunt sounds like a neat adventure.
That would be one epic campaign, perhaps the characters just keep discovering gems all over the place, because the gods are messing with them.
cause thats what gods do. infinite power can lead to boredom and prankyness.
Oh man, I have a story about a time a player tried to pull one over on a prankster god.
i would love to hear it.
Awesome video. That's a crazy meatball head. #Vecnadidnothingwrong.
Tharidzun also created the 10 facets black diamond that drove the Queen of Air and Darkness insane and thus is indirectly responsible for the creation of the Unseelie Court in the Pandemonium.
Awesome video
The pic at 14:38 Reminds me of Khorne from 40K
wonder how powerful the 4 primary chaos deities would be in a reality with other powerful deities since too me it seems that part of the reason they are so powerful is other then each other they don't really have a rival so it sort of boosts how powerful they seem
*BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!! SKULLS GOR THE SKULL THRONE!!!! KILL MAIM BURN!!! KILL MAIM BURN!!!! KILL MAIM BURN!!!! WRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!*
3:55 I think this is the inspiration for the elder gods prison in the original hellboy movie.
I have this theory, which will be canon in my campaigns, is that Tharizdun and He Who Was (the creator of the first humans) are aspects of the same being. This ultra-deity was torn in two as a result of coming into contact with the Shard of Pure Evil, one becoming the maniac Tharizdun, the other becoming HWW.
And when the gods and primordials trapped Tharizdun inside his Ethereal Plane prison, there was something else in there - a universe without magic with only one planet that harbored life...our Earth.
@JanusHoW that would explain why the world is like *gestures around*
I'm casting my vote for you to explain Vecna.
Vecna is one of my favorites, he actually showed up as an avatar in one game, the players were like "NOPE".
I'm considering a Warlock with "The Great Old One" as a patron. It seems like Tharizdun, Ghaunadaur, and Juiblex are all given that title at some point, and may be the same entity, or maybe different aspects of the same entity. In terms of age/power, how would you rank the 3? I'm thinking Juiblex < Ghaunadaur < Tharizdun based on this video.
agreed.
This is so informative and good! But now, Im dying to know how Bolothamogg fits in with Tharizdun, the Overgods, and the multiverse?
Can you cover more planes of existence please? Your video on Mechanus was so interesting.
amazing vid... ¿dawn war vid coming soon?
its in the pipe line :D
AO is a Sphere Overseer. Many crystal spheres have one entity like that, even GrayHawk if I remember correctly. In that he is not unique. AO's absolute authority on the Gods only extends to the portion of their essence that it's worshipped and linked to the crystal sphere of RealmSpace. For instance he could demote Lolth to a demigoddes in Realmspace if so he wished, but he couldn't demote her anywherelse like on Greyspace, Krynnspace or on the Outer Planes.
Now, pure speculation here, but if all the Sphere Overseers were in fact part of a single entity who has complete authority on all the Chrystal Spheres.. that would be something else 🤓
where can i find that picture at 5:17 ?
i.imgur.com/f2dzG5Z.jpg
AJ Pickett thank you AJ!
will you being doing all the greyhawk gods? this is great!
mmmmaybe.. it might take me years to cover all the stuff I want to make vids on.
Will you do one on the primordials?
They are way too varied to cover in one video.
Any more on the Chained God's Doom Dreamers I have looked around the net and in such texts as the Book of Vile Darkness for my game.
Oerth. Prounounced like a Brooklynite or a London cockney pronunciation of Earth, as in "Oith."
Wish they just stuck to a homophone of Earth.
Urth, Aerth or Erth, maybe.
Oerth is awkward.
Matt Lynn I'm going to pronounce it ee-arth
@@gargoyles9999
Wubba lub dub
Idk how long it is going to take me to tie it together but I feel like tying him to a plot thread I have related to an evil earth primordial I have going in my game.
Awesome!!!
Thanks!
I refer you all to the 2e Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil by Bruce Cordell.
He indirectly created the abyss
I'm creating a PC of chaos that worships Tharizdun.
As entropy is the only thing which is truly inevitable, it must be seen as being above any doubt or divisive question. It would therefore be impossible to consider one as being either right or wrong, in embracing it. Any who embrace entropy share in its immunity to being questioned on divisive matters. They become above such things, just as entropy itself is. That must surely be part of the appeal, amongst those who embrace entropy.
I imagine The Mask could one of its avatars who just for a cosmic second forget its not a mask
I'm doing research for a campaign, and I'm trying to pin down my Big Bad. I just watched your video on Ygorl. Madness, entropy, nihilism, chaos, the destruction of everything, born at the end of time... would it make any sense for me to say that Ygorl is an aspect of Tharizdun? Even if it's just in a "in my universe" kind of way?
Actually, absolutely! You're the DM, it is your world. That being said you could make Tharizdun the god of puppies. 😂 It's your story. You are Lord Ao, and it is your call.
I have a version of him I call Antithesis. It is a sentient planet sized Sphere of Annihilation that was used as a cosmic garbage disposal by the gods that came before.
The real madness is the friends we made along the way.
hey wasn't that naga sadow in the beginning
Awesume vid
Is tharazdim azathoth?
It seems implied, that would explain why the gods and primordials can not kill him.
AJ Pickett Who is Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, Hastur, Nyarlathotep, and Cthulhu in D&D then?
I don't know, lets find out! :D
AJ Pickett Yog is like an all knowing being who'd be the gate keeper of Tharizdun. All time tenses he can see as one.
Shug is like the mother of all monsters of chaos.
Are you ever going to any videos from the Greyhawk setting?
I have only ever played games that drew on some of the resources from Greyhawk, so, never got very deep into the lore, so, not sure I would be the best option to bring that info to you.. there is some overlap here and there, so, I'll cover some parts, but not all of it.
For a video on the ultimate madness, I'm surprised the intro music wasn't Iron Maiden's Can I Play With Madness, or maybe Metallica's The Thing That Should Not Be.
That would instantly demonetize my video :D
I have a question AJ. I'm thinking about using Tharizdun as the end boss for my campaign; is there any way for him to be slain, or is imprisoning him the only option to defeat him say if he was freed and let loose upon the multiverse?
Tharizdun can not be destroyed, he is immortal. Not only would one have to simultaneously destroy all versions of him in all alternate realities, doing so might also destroy Ao and The Lady of Pain, which would cause all other gods to cease to exist. which would effectively destroy the universe.. at which point a new universe pops into existence and a new version of Ao, The Lady of Pain and Tharizdun...
Oh okay, thanks for the clarification! Keep up the excellent work man!
Use him. Buy a few call of chuthilu adventures, not to run or use but for inspiration
You dont beat Tharizdun you survive him
Thanks for the vid sir.
My vote is for Kelemvor of the fugue plane next.... or Bahamut.
Noone:
Tharizdun: "we are nihilist Lebowski, we believe in nothing!"
Are you going to do these in a particular order?
Not even slightly.
What would have happened if the shard of elemental evil was placed in the Astral Sea as intended. That would be an interesting flip for a campaign setting theme. Perhaps on similar lines of Dark Sun where the Primordials were victorious over the Gods?
So what edition did you get your information from
All of them
Why are comments disabled in your "Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Ecology of the Gods" video?
They are not
@@AJPickett ...anymore
AJ you da man!
In my D&D campaign, my rogue unintentionally became his herself out of saving a party member
Feel like the shard of ultimate evil would be a fragment of something else greater that contained neutrality and goodness maybe the lady the mad God and AO all had been one three headed being who ruled every aspect of a reality but then the ideas they had clashed to much and broke the thing containing all three of there essences like Asmodeus has a ruby rod and the other demons , gods have other items etc so it wouldn't be out of the question that this great being had had some sort of staff used to create the very mulitverse and them all clashing in ideas like Demogorgons heads being enemies just sorta broke this supreme being with a supreme rod and then all the different aspects scattered out and they all just do the ideas they see as best but that's just a thought
If Ao, Tharizdun, and the Lady of Pain aspects of the same overgod, I would like them to being the Id, Superego, & Ego of an artist who has messed up a work of art. Ao wants to preserve the work of art and fix it while not destroying it. Tharizdun is the Id that wants to smash and burn the work of art. The Lady of Pain is the Ego that acts as the neutral, logical force that keeps the other two in check.
Does Tharizun is back the last edition?
No, he may get a mention, but I doubt Tharizdun will ever feature in any official WotC products going forward, but hey, you never know for sure.
Hmm how will "The Mad god" react in my campaign where surviving obyrith managed to come and actual know how to fix a dying or dead universe, and gained an ability to that can brake a god's divinity including his, the lady of pain, AO
Currently playing a Human Dhampir Paladin of Tharizdun, Oath of Vengeance.
6:33 *flips page*