Vaprak the Destroyer

January 8, 2015

Vaprak is the deity of ogres and trolls, and as befits those races, he is a savage and destructive god. With an alternate view of Vaprak from Elminster’s Ecologies, he becomes a much more interesting god than a single-mindedly destructive god, although that is still his predominant personality trait. Read the rest of this entry »


Ysshara the Lorekeeper

December 1, 2014

Like Mirklak, Ysshara received a brief mention in the Great Grey Land of Thar booklet of Elminster’s Ecologies. With Mirklak and Vaprak, the three deities form a nice small pantheon for ogres, and I felt I needed to give considerable depth to her, so she didn’t seem like just an ogre version of the orcish Luthic. Ysshara turned into what I think is a very interesting deity, with considerable potential to make ogres into a more well-rounded race in any AD&D campaign. Read the rest of this entry »


Mirklak the Orcslayer

August 15, 2014

I found a brief mention of this deity in The Great Gray Land of Thar booklet of Elminster’s Ecologies. The description of the ogres in that land, as well as the section on their gods, offered great fodder for expanding ogre culture and faith. In particular, the additional deities of the ogres, the ancient kingdom of the ogres, and the depiction of Vaprak as wholly ogrish rather than a mix of ogre and troll gave me the idea that the Thar ogres are actually descended from ancient spelljamming colonists, perhaps from the ogre empire that appears to be in the sphere of the Steel Star. Regarding Mirklak, I made him an amalgam of the various ogre heroes mentioned, and to whom all deified ogre heroes merge with. Read the rest of this entry »


Gorellik the Loner

July 10, 2013

Gorellik was once the primary patron of gnolls and flinds, but as those races have turned to other gods, he has languished and lost power. I’ve always thought Gorellik was an under-appreciated deity in the game, and a pretty interesting individual. I’ve tried to embellish his history a bit with some additional speculation on his origins, and set him up to be a more useful deity to DMs who want to make more varied gnollish cultures. Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »


Kostchtchie, the Demon Prince of Wrath

June 26, 2013

Kostchtchie is another tanar’ri prince who is a true success story. Once a mortal human, he has risen to the rank of Abyssal lord and beyond, to become a true divinity. He is a hateful power of violence who lives in a realm of harsh ice and snow. He has attracted worship from the most violent and power hungry amongst the frost giant race through promises of wizardly magic, power over dragons, and priestly magic. Enjoy!

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Refnara the Moon-Biter

May 10, 2013

Refnara is the old Gnoll goddess of fear, mentioned solely in the adventure “To Bite the Moon” in Dungeon #48. There was quite a bit in that adventure to extrapolate from, and I drew upon a bunch of ideas I had floating around to make quite an interesting deity, I think. Enjoy!

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Baphomet, Demon Lord of Minotaurs

April 10, 2013

Baphomet, like Yeenoghu, is a tanar’ri power who has gained enough power to become a full-fledged deity, adopting minotaurs as his followers. As he believes he is the master of all beasts, he spends a great deal of time creating and modifying new monsters; similarly, many wizards with a desire to do the same are drawn to his service. Enjoy!

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Yeenoghu the Demon Prince of Gnolls

April 19, 2011

Gnolls have always been one of my favorite races, so it was very interesting to work on Yeenoghu, although I’m a bigger fan of Gorellik. I drew upon a lot of sources for this, including Dragon #63, so I’ve updated the Shoosuva to 2nd Edition. I’ll have to make a Monstrous Compendium sheet for it at some point.

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