The enigmatic yak-men of the Al-Qadim campaign are one of the more interesting “hidden threat” foes in AD&D. They can take over the bodies of humanoids and infiltrate their society in order to undermine and eventually dominate them. Their god is even stranger, for it has no known name but is the source of the ability of the yak-men to summon and control the genies of elemental earth, dao.
The Faceless God (PDF Version)
(The Forgotten God of the Yak-men, the God With No Face)
Demipower of the Elemental Plane of Earth, NE
Portfolio: Domination, knowledge, secrecy, magic, the yikaria
Aliases: None
Domain Name: Elemental Earth/Smoothstone
Superior: None
Allies: The Great Khan of the Dao (reluctantly)
Foes: The Great Khan of the Dao (surreptitiously), Hajama, Hakiyah, Haku, Jauhar, Jisan, Kor, Najm, Selûne (as Selan), Vataqatal, Zann, many others
Symbol: Pair of yak horns on a circle
Wor. Align.: LE, NE, CE
Worshipped by the yikaria as their patron and progenitor, the enigmatic Faceless God strikes fear into those living beyond the edges of his followers’ empires. It granted its followers the powers they use to infiltrate and dominate other lands, and it pushes them to always expand and control all they can.
Little is known about the god of the yak-men, not even the name its worshipers use for this mysterious entity. As such, those who the yak-men conquer and infiltrate have come to believe that the name of this deity was erased or deliberately forgotten and call it the Forgotten God. The yak-men speak nothing of their patron to outsiders, leaving its origin a complete mystery. The most common belief is that the Faceless God was a powerful sorcerer, cursed by the Loregiver of Zakhara for its great evil, and rather than learn humility, it set about creating a race in its likeness to destroy everything the Loregiver had wrought. A small number of sages speculate on an elemental origin of the Faceless God due to the nature of sacrifices the yak-men make, sometimes connecting the deity to dark reflections of geniekind, the hooved great ghuls. Other sages dismiss these theories and connect the god and its followers to minotaurs and Baphomet instead. Little information exists to confirm any of these theories, however.
The most significant legend about the Faceless God involves the dominion the yak-men hold over the earth genies. Different variations on the legend exist, but the outcome is clear to all who’ve encountered a member of the yikaria. According to the most common version known outside yak-men lands, the Faceless God, hunched over and craggy with apparent age, rode a mangy, wild-eyed camel to the gates of the Great Dismal Delve, home of the Great Khan of the dao. The Great Khan, being an enlightened individual, invited the Faceless God into his home, the Sevenfold Mazework. The pair shared food and drink, exchanging stories until the servants could no longer hide their tiredness. When even the Great Khan began to flag, requested a challenge, flattering the Stone Sultan’s skill as a camel racer, with the loser becoming the other’s servant. Easily considering his finest grey camel a superior racer to the Faceless God’s mangy beast, the Great Khan agreed, expecting to win a small favor. This was exactly as the Faceless God had planned, for his appearance belied his great cunning and duplicitousness. Possessing the mind of the Great Khan’s gnomish groom, he proceeded to overfeed and overwater the well-trained racer, right under the noses of the Stone Sultan and his guards. When the time for the race arrived, the Great Khan’s sleek grey camel was so bloated it stumbled and floundered while the Faceless God’s mangy black animal swiftly crossed the finish line. So it was that the Dao came to serve the yak-men for one thousand and one years. How much time has passed since this reward was extracted from the earth genies is unknown, but most sages are sure it has many centuries left.
The Faceless God, and by extension the yikaria as a whole, hold a vast amount of power in the servitude of the dao, but their long-term plans remain a mystery. So far, the yak-men have used them to vastly transform their cities and citadels, expanding them and rendering them incredible sights to behold. Dao are of course potent bodyguards and warriors, but this almost seems to be a waste of their true power. Rumors swirl that with the power of the dao, the Faceless God has set his sights on expanding his dominance to the rest of geniekind. As yet, only the djinn have taken this potential threat seriously and are watching the activities of the yak-men on the Elemental Plane of Earth closely. For their part, the dao seem eager to extend the humiliation they’ve suffered to other races.
From his hidden realm on Elemental Earth, the Faceless god directs his yak-men progeny in their empire building, and rarely does he visit the Prime except to confer his high priests directly on matters of great import or to invest a new ruler for one of his empires. His yak-men can be found throughout the Great Dismal Delve of the dao, but their numbers are too few to dominate life there. Instead, they act to ensure the dao are acting in accordance with their wishes, or at least not against them. It is said the Faceless God is actively sending out colonizing parties to other worlds of the Prime in order to further expand its influence and gain more knowledge from exotic locations.
The Faceless God’s Avatar (Fighter 18, Mage 14, Cleric 14)
The Faceless God appears as a large yak-man in long, elegant robes with a deep hood or turban. Its face, however, is completely blank and nothing more than a smooth ovoid the same shade of grey as his fur. It speaks normally but no mouth can be seen to break its egg-like face. The Faceless God’s hands lack fur and reveal a skin tone of pale red, while its nails and hooves are a deep crimson. It draws his spells from all schools save necromancy and all spheres save plant and chaos.
AC −4; MV 9; HP 162; THAC0 3; #AT 1 or 5/2
Dmg 2d10+8 (fists, +8 Str) or 1d8+12 (staff +2, +8 Str, +2 spec. bonus in staves)
MR 20%; SZ L (10 feet tall)
Str 20, Dex 14, Con 19, Int 20, Wis 18, Cha 15
Spells P: 8/8/7/6/3/2/1, W: 5/5/5/4/4/2/1
Saves PPDM 4; RSW 6; PP 5; BW 4; Sp 7
Special Att/Def: The Faceless God wields the Staff of the World Pillars, a magical staff +2 that combines the functions of a ring of regeneration, a staff of withering, and a chime of interruption. It has no charges in the hands of the Faceless God, but if ever stolen, it would have 40 charges (each power of the staff would drain one charge), and it would not be rechargeable. If lost or destroyed, it takes the yak-man god a full year to create a new one.
The magic jar ability of the Faceless God is more powerful than that of a normal yak-man; while still requiring a touch, it is nearly instantaneous (initiative modifier +0), and the saving throw against it is made at a −8 penalty. In addition, the Faceless God can cast hold person and power word, stun three times per day, and always has ESP operating (as the medallion). It is always accompanied by a noble dao and can summon 2d4 normal dao once per day.
The Faceless God is immune to all mind-affecting magics and psionics, illusions, enchantment/charm spells, and its magic jar ability cannot be detected by any magic weaker than true seeing, nor can it be dispelled by anything less than a dispel evil. It can only be struck by magical weapons with a +1 or better enchantment.
Other Manifestations
The Faceless God does not manifest its power on the Prime Material Plane outside of dispatching an avatar or servant. It especially favors sending dao or tasked genies to aid or direct followers. It otherwise expects its followers to be able to achieve their goals with their own powers.
The Forgotten God of the Yak-men is served primarily by dao and marrashi, as well as artist, builder, messenger, miner, slayer, and warmonger tasked genies, azers, crysmals, earth elementals, noble dao, wind walkers, and xorn. It does not display its favor or displeasure through any sort of discoveries or signs, instead directing its high priests, emperor, and appointed governors with direct messages.
The Church
Clergy: Specialty priests, monks
Clergy’s Align.: NE
Turn Undead: SP: No, M: No
Cmnd. Undead: SP: No, M: No
All specialty priests and monks of the Faceless God receive religion (yak-men) and reading/writing (yikarian) as bonus nonweapon proficiencies.
Priests of the Faceless God only rarely establish alliances or relationships with outside faiths, as they see other races as fodder for their sacrifices and eventual slaves. However, they make strategic alliances with priests of other dark powers when it seems particularly advantageous to so, betraying them at the earliest opportunity. Because of the secrecy of the yak-men’s activities, however, other faiths are typically unaware of the machinations of the Faceless God’s clergy. When more than vaguely aware of the goals of the priesthood and the race as a whole, most faiths, good and evil alike, act to oppose their actions either out of altruism or self-interest.
Temples dedicated to the Faceless God are temple, palace, fortress, and city, all in one structure. They are always built on hills or mountains with massive, fortified walls, and often towering over one hundred feet tall, honeycombed with chambers for residents, priests, and slaves all together with the highest status individuals living on the upper floors. Many shrines dot these structures, usually one for each social class or grouping of the settlement, and all are opulently appointed. Colorful, upholstered benches line the altar room, leading to a statue of the Faceless God at one end of the room; the other end either features the entrance doors or windows to allow sunlight in. Paintings or tapestries line the walls, depicting the Faceless God and his dao slaves dominating other genies and the people of various nearby lands. The temples always feature the colors of mauve, crimson, gold, and green. Personal shrines are similarly decorated, but at a smaller scale.
Novices in the service of the Faceless God are called Gyenyik, a term that means Servants of the Chosen in the yikarian language. Full priests of the Forgotten God of the Yak-men are called Lasan’yer, which means Bringers of Destiny. Upon becoming a full priest, each member of the clergy is given, or chooses for themselves a unique title that effectively becomes that individual’s name for the rest of their lives. Shortened forms of these titles are common in casual conversations, however. Specialty priests are known as possessors. The hierarchy of the church is very strict, but instead of titles indicating where a member of the priesthood fits in, duty assignments indicate where a member fits in, with the lowest ranked members assigned to more menial tasks, while the highest ranked priest rules the empire. This position is not hereditary in the normal sense, although the yak-men believe each successive emperor is the reincarnation of the first emperor chosen personally by the Faceless God. The emperor only serves for 20 years before being ritually sacrificed; after that, a new emperor is chosen from among all the novices with a ritual intended to determine which one received the transmigrated imperial soul. Specialty priests (80%) make up the majority of the Faceless God’s clergy, with the remainder being monks (20%). The priesthood is fully egalitarian, with females (50%) in equal numbers to males (50%). Only yak-men (100%) may join the priesthood; slaves of the yikaria are required to propitiate the Faceless God but any found to be trying to mimic the rites of a member of the clergy are sacrificed.
Dogma: Your destiny is to rule all the lesser races of the planes. The yikaria are the Lucky Chosen, granted the power to slip into another’s skin and puppet their actions and bring about the downfall of their people with none the wiser of the betrayal. Seek out and collect the knowledge and magic of other races in order to use it against them. Use the rules of hospitality and respect of the lesser races against them and gain advantage and control. Sacrifices of the manner elemental empower the God With No Face; diligence in these actions brings the goals of the yikaria that much closer.
Day-to-Day Activities: Diligence in their duties is considered a most important trait among the Faceless God’s clergy, with promotion based entirely on the success of their missions. True hobbies are rare among members of the priesthood, although reading, studying, and controlling other races and causing them to commit mischief comes quite close for many yak-men. Some who are content in their missions have taken up hobbies such as gardening or cooking, however.
Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: The clergy of the Faceless God observe regular ceremonies but have few explicit holy days. Once each week, on a day that varies from temple to temple, priests must make a sacrifice of an intelligent creature to their Forgotten God “in the manner elemental.” Such sacrifices involve a death by elemental forces, such as immolation for fire, downing for water, burial or crushing for earth, and tossing from the top of a mountain or suffocation for air. These sacrifices are believed to empower the Faceless God, and it is considered a grave breach of protocol for a temple to miss a sacrifice; in some cases it is cause for the temple’s chief priest to be sacrificed instead of a humanoid captive or slave.
Major Centers of Worship: The most significant temple dedicated to the god of the yak-men is the Mosque of the Faceless God in the dao’s Great Dismal Delve on the Elemental Plane of Earth. This temple has been under construction almost since the Faceless God won the subservience of the dao, the genie builders have been ingenious at manufacturing delays towards completion of the temple.
The Shrine of the Jade Monolith is the most accessible temple of the Faceless God to non-yak-men, although non such are allowed in save slaves. This temple is located in the port city of Lipo, on the northern coast of the continent of Zakhara, on the world of Toril in Realmspace. This temple was once dedicated to one of the foreign ajami gods before the yak-men empire infiltrated and eventually openly took over the city.
It is said that the Faceless God has dispatched his yak-men from the Elemental Plane of Earth to other locations in order to create new empires on other worlds. Elsewhere on Toril, the Faceless God is believed to have sent his followers to create a new empire in the A-Ling Shan mountains, on the border between the eastern lands of Shou Lung and the Hordelands, although their heart may be in other high mountains instead. On the world of Aebrynis, the southern continent of Aduria appears to have become home to a new nascent Yikarian Empire; as yet, few of the native peoples of the world are aware of this new threat. Finally, the extreme heights of the Crystalmist Mountains on Oerth may now be host to a new nation of yak-men as well; reports of displaced giants point to evidence of a new force in the mountains that have taken their lands. Only time will determine if any of these rumors are true.
Affiliated Orders: The elite royal guards of the Yikarian Empire of Zakhara, known as the Faceless Guards, are an order of holy warriors who defend the Emperor of the Lotus Throne. Most members of this order are monks, while commanding officers tend to be specialty priests. This order always wears a smooth, oval mask over their faces in emulation of the Faceless God. They watch over all passes that lead to the capital city of the empire, called the Gates of Heaven.
The Faceless God’s priesthood also sponsors a monastic order called the Keepers of Knowledge. This order has a number of monasteries throughout the World-Pillar Mountains where they collect and disseminate the knowledge yak-men on Hallong bring back with them when they return. Their monasteries each have vast collections of books from all lands they are aware of, covering nearly all major subjects. Further, they study the texts they possess in order to create reports for the emperor and the various governors of the empire on how best to take advantage of knowledge in order to further their plans for domination.
Priestly Vestments: Elaborate, layered kaftans are the standard garments worn by the non-monastic clergy of the Faceless God. The colors of these garments can vary, but the most common is crimson over mauve or pale jade green. Turbans of crimson or jade are worn by about half of the male clergy, and sashes of crimson are also common, with designs embroidered to indicate their current assignment or rank. Monastic priests of the Faceless God wear simple mauve robes with crimson sashes and little in the way of accessories. The holy symbol used by the priesthood is a simple metal ring; this is typically attached to a favored staff or used as a face ornament on the priest’s face, surrounding their nose and mouth.
Adventuring Garb: When among their own kind, the Faceless God’s priests dress in their formal raiment in order to display their status. When traveling beyond the borders of their empire, they utilize heavy robes and cloaks to disguise their race, hoping that other creatures mistake them for ogres, minotaurs, or other similar large races. They always carry staves and never wear armor, but some have been known to arm themselves with daggers, short swords, or small scimitars. Other weapon isn’t forbidden to the clergy, but most members find it beneath their dignity to use such weapons as polearms, maces, or bows.
Specialty Priests (Possessors)
Requirements: Intelligence 15, Wisdom 15
Prime Req.: Intelligence, Wisdom
Alignment: NE
Weapons: Any
Armor: None
Major Spheres: All, animal, astral, charm, combat, creation, divination, elemental (all), guardian, healing, necromantic, protection, thought, travelers, wards
Minor Spheres: Numbers, time, war
Magical Items: Same as clerics and wizards
Req. Profs: Staff
Bonus Profs: Spellcaft
- Possessors must be yak-men.
- Possessors are not allowed to multiclass, except in special circumstances (see below).
- Possessors may select nonweapon proficiencies from the wizard group without penalty.
- Possessors may use any magical staff without restriction, despite any normal class-based barriers. Staves that rely upon or enhance class abilities they do not possess have no effect, but staves that have restrictions on who can use them but no bearing on class abilities can be used without issue. For example, a possessor can use all of the powers of a staff of the elements and can even recharge it by capturing elementals.
- Possessors can cast hypnotism (as the 1st-level wizard spell) or forget (as the 2nd-level wizard spell) once per day.
- At 4th level, possessors can cast charm person (as the 1st-level wizard spell) or hold person (as the 2nd-level priest spell) once per day.
- At 6th level, possessors can cast phantasmal killer (as the 4th-level wizard spell) or telepathy (as the 3rd-level priest spell) once per day.
- At 8th level, possessors can cast domination (as the 5th-level wizard spell) or mindshatter (as the 5th-level priest spell) once per week.
- At 9th level, possessors may devote themselves to the study of magic, effectively becoming a multiclassed possessor/mage. While learning magic, they may make full use of their priestly magic but gain no experience points in their possessor class. All experience is gained at half the normal rate until their mage experience total matches their priestly total, after which experience points gained are split evenly between both classes as normal for multiclassed characters. No hit points are gained for these mage levels, and even once experience points begin to be awarded for both classes, possessor/mages do not divide their hit points and gain none for their mage class, instead gaining normal hit points upon achieving new priestly levels.
- At 12th level, possessors can cast geas (as the 6th-level wizard spell) or quest (as the 5th-level priest spell) once per week.
- At 15th level, the natural yak-man ability of a possessor to magic jar can no longer be dispelled by any magic less powerful than a dispel evil, nor can it be detected by anything other than true seeing or equivalent magic (for example, a gem of seeing).
Faceless God Spells
2nd Level
Body Alarm (Pr 2; Alteration)
Sphere: Wards
Range: 0
Components: V
Duration: 1 day/level
Casting Time: 1 rd.
Area of Effect: The caster
Saving Throw: None
This spell, which must be cast while the priest is out of their body, as in the case of an astral spell or magic jar effect. The body alarm sets up an unseen field around the caster’s body, alerting them if any creatures enter the field, other than selected designated individuals. In such a case, the priest receives a mental image of the creature that has entered the field, and they have the opportunity to instantly return to their body. This spell has no effect if it is cast when a priest is not out of their body, and it ends immediately upon return to their body, regardless of the reason.
4th Level
Summon Tasked Genie (Pr 4; Conjuration/Summoning)
Sphere: Summoning
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 day/3 levels
Casting Time: 1 turn
Area of Effect: 1 tasked genie
Saving Throw: Special
This spell allows the caster to summon a tasked genie from the Great Dismal Delve on the plane of Elemental Earth. Only artist (not all types may be available, at the DM’s option), builder, messenger, miner, and warmonger tasked genies may be summoned. The summoned genie serves the caster in its task for no more than one day per three levels of the caster, or until the task it is assigned to is completed, whichever is shorter. If the genie is mistreated during this time, it is allowed a saving throw against spell with a −4 penalty to resist the task and return to the plane of Elemental Earth prematurely.
The material components for this spell are the priest’s holy symbol, incense worth 100 gp and a monetary offering commensurate to the task required of the genie.
5th Level
Wrest Dao (Pr 5; Alteration)
Sphere: Charm
Range: 30 yds.
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 rd./level
Casting Time: 8
Area of Effect: 1 dao-controlling creature
Saving Throw: Neg.
By means of this spell, the caster wrest control of a single dao from another creature. Whether the earth genie is in temporary or long-term servitude, this spell can force the terms of its service to the caster; at the expiration of the spell the servitude returns to the original possessor. The target of this spell, which must be the one in command of a dao rather than the dao itself, makes a saving throw versus spell to avoid having their control usurped. This saving throw is modified based on the Wisdom of the caster of the wrest dao spell; any magical defense adjustment the caster has is applied as a penalty to the saving throw. For example, a caster with a Wisdom of 15 penalizes their target’s saving throw by −1.
For the duration of this spell, the dao is bound to the caster by whatever terms exist for its original summoning. So long as it obeys these terms, the dao cannot be penalized by the original summoner when the contract returns to them, even if the dao acted against them. If the magics binding the dao relies on the life of the summer, they are freed if the caster of the wrest dao is slain while in control of the dao; similarly, if the original summoner of the dao is slain then the dao is freed when the contract returns to them.
The material components for this spell are the priest’s holy symbol and a mixture of granite, gold, and gem dust worth 500 gp.