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Chaos deities in Genertela

Posted on March 5, 2023

When we think about the Chaos deities in Genertela, we have a few heavy hitters we all know: Primal Chaos, Bagog, Cacodemon, Krjalk, Krarsht, Mallia, Pocharngo, Thanatar, Thed, Vivamort, etc. We also get the Red Goddess, Crimson Bat, and Nysalor. Bad Man is also a Chaotic entity.

Elswhere we have Gark, Gloomshark, Ikadz (not really Chaotic but hangs out with them), Jraktal, Ompalam, Seseine, Tyram, Valkalta, and Vovisibor. We also get a few Chaos demigods like Ralzakark, but not many, plus numerous corrupted spirits and things that are the subject of small cults like the spirit of Dokat, the Mad Sultan, the Hungry Eater.

Some of the mightiest Chaos entities cannot be contacted within Time, at least yet – Ragnaglar, Wakboth, Kajabor, and Jotimam.

Some of the Lords of Terror are tacitly accepted by non-Chaotic societies – Mallia, Ompalam, and Seseine come to mind, and even Thed is sometimes treated more as an ancestress of a sentient species than as the Mother of the Devil.

Putting the Red Goddess and Nysalor aside for the moment, but all of the rest represent something corrupted, turned inside out, or otherwise “unnatural”, if not antithetical to the continued existence of the cosmos.

The Red Goddess and Nysalor are unusually, as they do not appear to follow that pattern. Perhaps, as the Nysalor cult claims, Chaos truly is not inherently evil, and both Nysalor and the Red Goddess show that. Or perhaps this is just another of Gbaji’s lies, and the followers of Nysalor and the Red Goddess have been deceived. Who knows – ultimately that is up to your campaigns to discover.

Vivamort’s follower’s severe their connection with the spiritual world to maintain a deathless ego immortality. Bagog gives birth to twisted things that are part-scorpion, part her last meal. Gark gives us eternal peace through becoming zombies.

Isn’t Bagog just the ancestress of another non-human race no more inimical to Glorantha than Kyger Litor and Gorakki? Bagog is pretty inimical to life of Glorantha. Scorpion Men devour everything to turn it into twisted little versions of Bagog. What’s worse is those little twisted versions faintly recall their pre-Bagog experience. There’s nothing remotely natural about the scorpion men lifecycle. Bagog was a slow-witted daughter of the Darkness who followed the Devil, perhaps unwittingly (then again, she didn’t have a lot of wits). At first she killed and ate all who opposed her, but then began laying eggs, that hatched into things changed by what Bagog had eaten. They are persecuted by others, largely because they are nearly mindless eating machines badly twisted by Chaos. Without Chaos, there would be no scorpion men, just giant scorpions.

Please note that Seven Mothers are NOT Chaotic. And for members to become initiates of the Red Goddess there are a few steep hurdles.

Jeff Richard

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