A Herald of Sinister Insights Has Arrived

 

I use a lot of visual artwork on this blog, the absolute most of which I have no shreds of rights to. Naturally, this being a purely fan-made RPG blog, I hope that no one minds. But that's not what I wanna talk about today. 

Here I commissioned a piece of visual artwork. There are certain visions crawling out of the depths of my nightmares that must be cast into lines and colors, and while I can do a half-decent drawing every now and then, my painting skills (either digital or analogue) are just too sucky to truly do the worst of them justice. 

So it happened that this abomination was born to the light of your screens:

 

I'm sure most of you recognize at first glance which entity this beautiful mister is based on. A friend who is also one of my favorite artists (but chooses to remain anonymous) was pointed out to me by my Mistress Malkuth as the ideal candidate for casting it into a new take, a Kultified appearance. 

I asked her if she wanted to try this, she agreed, and I think she made a really fine job of it!

Now that he exists, and proudly adorns my desktop background, I wanted to write a little something about him.

Baoth Hammad

Better known under his pop-cultural moniker Baphomet, this entity and its involvement in Elysium is truly ancient. Records of its dealings with human truthseekers and doomed souls go back to at least the Bronze Age. Some occultists even claim that he had a hand in the fabled and mysterious collapse of that era's most powerful kingdoms. 

His name, contrary to the lictors' twisted teachings, originally means The Blood-Stained Teacher. He appears to be affiliated with none of the known Higher Powers, though he engages in precarious flirtations and temporary alliances with either of them.

He can be seen dancing on the forlorn toxic waste fields of Inferno, mocking the suffering sinners in their purgatories. He resplends at the outskirts of dreams, looking in to sate his voyeuristic pleasures. He whispers riddles to the mad, and curses the sane with bouts of insanity so their erratic behaviours become clues that help solve them. He will fuck virtually anything that moves, but truly loves only those that cannot love themselves. His home is nowhere, and he is never there. 

 

Is he an ascended human magician, millennia old and powerful beyond measure?

An alien godhead, the last survivor of a people we once enslaved and almost completely eradicated? Or was he even a willing collaborator in our unrelenting conquest of the cosmos?

Is he perhaps a champion of Malkuth, embodying a certain subset of her wider Principle of Rebellion and Awakening? An arch-nepharite, with legions of purgatides wailing his praises and razides trembling at his passing?

An envoy of Da'ath, gleefully tugging at the strings of Archons and Death Angels alike? The last surviving Incarnation of the Demiurge?

Or could he be something else entirely, something we don't even have a name for, yet?

What the god offers:

[tba]

What the god wants:

[tba]

Community challenge: 

Suggest me horrifying services that this being could demand from hapless humans who cross its mystic paths, and darkly tantalizing rewards it would offer to those who worship it or serve its mysterious causes.

Use the comment section here, or find me over on Discord or FB if you prefer. 

I will compile the best offerings and demands, in good time, and complete the above writeup based on them. 

The Herald of Blood-Drenched Insights is prophesied to arrive. All must fear him and rejoice!