Daskaandolon
God of Chaos and Madness
Intermediate God

Epithets: Chaos Incarnate, the Everchanging, the Mad One, the Living Chaos  
Alignment: Chaotic neutral
Symbol: Crystal fang
Primary followers: Anarchists and the insane of all races; otherwise, has few followers other than clerics and Knights, who are often mad themselves

     Mortals cry out the names of the True Gods in many tongues, their voices softened by reverence, constricted by fear, or sharpened by rage. But there is one Power whose name is rarely uttered…for if he should hear, a horrible, mindless insanity may be your reward. Such is the power of Daskaandolon, the Living Chaos.

     The true form of this Power is formlessness itself. According to the Astarith, the True God stands upon a multitude of legs, while a writhing host of appendages sprout from a bloated, amorphous torso the size of an elephant’s. The god’s body sports dozens of heads, each with its own sentient or bestial voice, the whole in a state of eternal cacophony. The limbs and heads of the Living Chaos are in a constant state of transformation—from dragon to human to shark to lion to songbird to horse to forms unpredictable and ever changing. Daskaandolon can assume a stable form if he wishes, but it’s rarely worth the effort.

     Daskaandolon was the first Power of the current pantheon to be mentioned in the Astarith; indeed, the True God was already wafting through the Void as the Forgotten Gods abandoned their battlefield. Alone in the Void, Daskaandolon reveled in his "dominion" over the debris-strewn Cosmos.

     But when Sephri arrived from Beyond and convinced the hostile Elements to help her create a world, an enraged Daskaandolon was powerless to stop them. From that moment to the end of the Age of Mists, the Living Chaos felt his power wane with the rise of each new race and the arrival of each new Power. Thwarted time and again, Daskaandolon pursued the restoration of his "primal chaos" with such desperate fanaticism that his very sanity began to crumble. In the end, just about the only followers the Living Chaos could attract were beings as hopelessly mad as he.

Avatars: Daskaandolon is the only True God whose Avatars are actually barred from the surface of Minarra. This isolation is enforced by the combined might of all the Lawful Powers of the pantheon, from Alviani to Tcharlat—for they know that an Avatar of the Everchanging loosed upon the world could only bring disaster.

     The Astarith reveals just why the Powers of Law keep such a careful eye on the Mad One: no mortal being can gaze upon an Avatar of the Everchanging without having its sanity permanently shattered. This curse could strike from a great distance; in one instance, Daskaandolon appeared atop the highest tower of a great city, instantly driving most of its populace to utter madness.

     When Daskaandolon feels he has to communicate directly with his followers, he invariably appears in the only form he can: that of dreams and visions. No one save his clergy has ever seen these "visitations", and fewer still ever speak of them.

Mortal Servants: The dress, mannerisms, and "beliefs" of the followers of the Mad One are a mockery of all the other Orders that serve the True Gods. There are no uniform vestments to distinguish priestly rank or even identity, precious little scripture, and no temples whatsoever to the Everchanging. Even the elésahs of the Order’s Knights are dyed according to the wearer's own whims. The only constant in the dress code is the holy symbol of the Order: a single piece of crystal (lead, quartz, or other common material) fashioned into the shape of a fang.

     The Order of the Crystal Fang draws new blood from the pool of malcontents, anarchists, pariahs, and sociopaths that mortal societies inevitably produce. The Order both nourishes and devours the emotional and spiritual instability of these unfortunates, providing the "faithful" with the tools to lash out at those that have "spurned" them. Members of the Order gain their power through the sheer mayhem they inflict upon their fellow beings.

     This power comes at a very steep price. Though a servant of Daskaandolon might begin his "career" without any notable mental illness, prolonged contact with the twisted will of the Mad One cannot help but to have a corrosive effect. By the time a servant becomes a Grace or a titled officer of the Knighthood, the odds are very poor that their sanity has remained intact.

Philosophy/Tenets of Faith: The Everchanging could care less about either of these useless distractions. Mayhem and anarchy are his joy, his sustenance, and his curse…and so shall it ever be for those who follow him.