Azathoth blurb
As for the benefits of following Azathoth: Seth gets another form (I have a huge problem with making too many forms for shapeshifting characters – but I get to cheat here since Azathoth doesn’t have a concrete form, either. :I), But contracting with Azathoth actually helps Seth forget some of the worst parts of his past by kind of …uh… emptying it during downtimes.
That’s not the best way to put it, but uh.. hmm:
I have to state that this is definitely not Lovecraft’s Azathoth. He’d be rolling in his grave. It’s almost as … uh… *different* as what Twilight did to vampires. Still has the name and some abilities, but not chaotic *evil*. Just.. chaotic.
Azathoth is the eldest in their pantheon, giving ‘birth’ to the other Abyssal gods. All Elder/Abyssal deity’s followers are called shoggoth (I can just see Lovecraft screaming in anger), or eldritch. Eldritch is a term that pretty much covers anything that deals with the Abyssal.
Azathoth has many domains including darkness, dreams, the primal chaos that created the universe, insanity, the sea, and overall entropy. Sounds bad, doesn’t it? But they gladly accept those who drown in their sorrows, have uncontrollable mania, trauma, and other illnesses that stem from the mind. He feeds from it. And that gives some relief to his followers, at the cost of bouts of complete obliviousness. and this is one reason Seth refuses to drive. It’s easy to pretend the entire reason he blanks out is from his PTSD.
Azathoth is not outright evil, but all deities have their own agenda. One of his is to keep the outer edges of the planet in utter chaos. (N.A. was the only continent that ‘survived’ post-end of the mundane world). Those other lands are completely lost to mortal eyes. That land is deadly and filled with much wild magic. So, one of Azathoth’s goals IS to keep sapient life out of it – and that ends up being good for that life, too. There are physical barriers that is the manifestation of various deities’ willpowers – the only thing these deities will agree on is to keep up that barrier. Then there, of course, are others who want to open that up. Let humanoids take the good and bad with reclaiming the land.
Some other drawbacks do exist. There are whispers. These can be beneficial or detrimental, but mostly, they are random…. Probably. And a little bit of mental pressure to partake in mind altering substances and work with more compulsion magic. Anything that deviates what would be considered the neurological norm is embraced.
There are some other little bonuses – like the ability to ‘see’ without ‘seeing.’ Azathoth is the Blind Idiot God – a being that needs to sense on another level. This makes some followers be able to sense magic much more easily and notice some things than many others wouldn’t. Small details and such – but this can turn into an obsessive compulsivity or paranoia. Oh, and he can speak and understand R’lyeh – the language of Abyssals. He can also breathe underwater, as well – but on a lore level, I’m not sure if I should make it only when shapeshifted or at all times. There are some things I still need to hammer out. Nothing… is ever finished!
Azathoth does have end goals, but young followers like Seth would have not an inkling of what they’d be. Not even the highest avatars of Azathoth completely know which direction their god is going. Nothing is stagnant, all plans change, and the cosmos are fluid.