Dungeons and Dragons is full to the brim of fantastical species and creatures, each with their own behavior, traits, and sometimes even culture. Even the enemies in D&D often have societies, since a higher level of intelligence allows them to use tactics, weapons, and other means of making a fight more challenging for players.
Whether they have full sapience (like orcs and giants), or are barely more than sentient (like gnolls), many of these “monsters” have gods. They might be worshiped through structured, intentional worship, or through the kind of blind trust and praise that you might experience in moments of great fear or power. But they are undeniably powerful. These species are a constant presence, and a constant threat, throughout the history of the Forgotten Realms. Their gods, in turn, are forces to be reckoned with, often using the species’ that they patronize to meet their own selfish or mysterious ends.
Yeeonghu, Prince of Gnolls
While Yeeonghu is technically a demon and not a proper deity, he is undeniably the object of worship for gnolls (monstrous, hyena-like creatures with a strong instinct for violence). He fuels their instinctive bloodlust, and grants just enough intelligence to his shamans to make them not just violent but downright cruel. He uses their own animal nature to lead them in acts of brutality and destruction, hoping to bring about the “perfect world” – one of endless blood sport. His followers spend their days performing acts of violence, either mindless or calculated to disrupt Giants, and eating anything that had some level of intelligence.
Yeeonghu appears like a giant hyena with mangy fur and a skull-like face. His personality is violent and brutish, but not without the capacity for occasional trickery. His alignment is Chaotic Evil.
Despite the fact that he is their patron, and can create new gnolls from the corpses of hyenas, Yeeonghu is not their creator-god. After all, he is not a god at all. His connection with them is fully unknown, and it is equally possible that he was once a mortal gnoll, or simply took on their appearance due to a strong affinity with their nature.
Semuanya, God of Lizardfolk
Another god with a tendency for devouring intelligent creatures, Semuanya is the most commonly worshiped deity of the lizardfolk, a species of carnivorous scaled humanoids. He took over from another lizardfolk god whose worship dwindled over the millennia, despite the fact that he rarely interacts with or cares for his own worshipers. It’s hardly surprising that he cares for very little in the Forgotten Realms – he embodies the ‘instinct to survive’ above all else. If something does not directly threaten him, even if it threatens those who give him power, he doesn’t care at all.
His main rival is Sess’inek, a lizardfolk demon who many worshipped under the domain of civilization and law. Sess’inek and Semuanya are in constant conflict with each other, and though Semuanya isn’t exactly a good or protective deity, he is far better than an outright demon.
Semuanya looks like a large lizardfolk wearing armor and wielding a club. His personality is supremely apathetic, with no strong inclination toward any alignment. He doesn’t care what his followers do, so long as it doesn’t endanger him. He is True Neutral.
Vaprak, the Destroyer
Huge, ugly, and vicious, ogres and trolls feature in the bedtime tales for many a young child. And their god, Vaprak the Destroyer, earns every bit of those fantasies. Vaprak is a brutal and foolish god who also embodies greed and frenzied violence. He is said to be the son of the Giant god Annam, whose wife he later slept with, originating the ogre species. His immense physical power is limited by his dwindling wit, but he compensates for that (and his fear of the giants’ pantheon) by keeping his followers in a perpetual frenzy of bloodshed. He also appears frequently in Halfling legends, but only as a source of mockery and a target of constant defeat.
Vaprak appears like a huge ogre with long, talon-like claws rather than a weapon. With these claws, he likes to tear apart his enemies for a close-up kill. His followers are frequently sent to conquer or destroy other civilizations or temples, and are rewarded with ever more rage and violence for their efforts. He is Chaotic Evil.
Blibdoolploop, the Drowning Goddess
Patron mother of the Kuo-toa, Blibdoolploop is best known among fans of the Forgotten Realms for her humorous name. But in truth, her personality is less comedic and more Lovecraftian. It is commonly believed that Kuo-toa have no naturally found deities, and instead resorted to creating their own as they descended into Mindflayer-induced madness, reassembling sunken statues to better resemble their deep-sea companions, and imagining them to have great enough powers to protect them.
Regardless of her origins, however, Blibdoolploop now very much exists. She spends her time granting her children favor and power, plotting the demise of drow, illithids, and all those who live on the surface, and holding court to trade favors for pearls. She has a legitimate realm of her own, and has even interacted with gods from other pantheons.
Blibdoolploop takes the form of a beautiful, naked human woman with the head and arms of a crustacean. She is dour, vengeful, and capricious, with unpredictable mood swings. She is also fiercely secretive and rarely interacts with other deities. Her followers are frequently sent to drown surface-dwellers, steal valuables to regurgitate at her feet, or generally hunt down and kill drow. But they are also commanded to protect Kuo-toa villages as effectively as possible, making her a strong protector-goddess for those that she guards. She is Neutral Evil.
Have you used any of these gods in your Dungeons and Dragons campaigns? How were they involved in the story? Did we leave out any interesting information about them that you think should be included? Let us know in the comments below!
