Azathoth Cult
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Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos - Pathfinder
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No one in their right mind ever wants Azathoth to come to their world, as such a calamity would lead to nothing but destruction. Also, Azathoth itself is blind, idiotic, and incapable of caring about any kind of worship process, let alone responding to it. Azathoth is essentially the bleak, impersonal nature of the universe made into awful, living reality.

Those who want Azathoth’s favor typically go about it by worshiping the Crawling Chaos instead. But there exist occasional outbreaks of those who worship Azathoth directly, despite the lack of obvious benefits. Perhaps a servitor of the Outer Gods orchestrated the irrational worship or perhaps a mortal found a secret she should not have seen, but it only takes one spark for the madness of Azathoth to begin to spread.

The cult of Azathoth, by definition, is composed of lunatics, and will usually call attention to itself eventually. Awareness of Azathoth that spreads too far starts to contaminate people. Madwomen begin to dance frantically in the street. Lunatics shriek and gnash their teeth. Those already insane start to focus their madness on Azathoth and the uncaring, hostile universe around them. This sudden outbreak of contagious madness in a region may come as the result of one of the Crawling Chaos’s plots reaching fruition or of Azathoth being summoned to the area and staying too long. It has no understandable purpose other than its own propagation: insanity for its own sake.

Other Mythos cults have insane individuals in their service, but they usually make an effort to conceal their madness, either by caution or isolation. In an epidemic of Azathoth worship, those affected make no effort to hide their growing psychosis. They may believe they are someone else and loudly proclaim their true identity, experience severe mood swings of mania and stark depression, or descend into dementia, violence, or paranoia. They frequently see visions and hear voices, sometimes real, but other times just from their own minds. Regardless of its apparent form, their lunacy is also channeled into service of the Blind Idiot God.

Usually, the spread of the Azathoth cult burns itself out, typically when the authorities wipe out its members, but it can cause great damage during its duration. If the cultists manage to awaken Azathoth, and bring it into dire reality in our dimension, it can ravage entire lands or even continents. In the worstcase scenario, a whole solar system can be destroyed by an uncontrolled spread of Azathothic knowledge.

Azathoth Cult Gifts

  • Manifest Lunacy: Each worshipper’s madness is amplified and strengthened by Azathoth. For example, a cultist with multiple personalities that generally manifest only as different voices or occasional dissociative episodes might have each personality become a distinct person (via illusory or shapechanging magic), wearing unique costumes and having their own separate class levels. If a cultist hallucinates voices, those voices become actual physical entities that can take action (at least similar to unseen servants but potentially as servitors of the Outer Gods). If a cultist is withdrawn and comatose, she becomes rock-like and impossible to harm or otherwise stimulate (as iron body). Each case is unique and profoundly unsettling.
  • Treasures: Cultists can generally access Abhoth slime, gates, and flutes of the servitors.
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