Who is Torog?

[frankthedm]

The bit about Jailers still messes me up. Creatures that live in caves and people that torture, sure. Like something from the movie Hostel or The Descent. But Jailers? Maybe this is me putting too much of my own worldview in to things but Jailers , and jails, are at least in theory typically good things. They keep bad people from hurting innocents and they imply a culture that cares enough to not just execute or banish their criminals. while I get the thematic relation of cold dark places you can't escape from I can't get my head around guards and warden's paying homage to formless horror of cosmic proportions. Slavery makes a lot more sense. Unless I;m missing some vital piece of the puzzle.

Common folks don't have access to the rulebooks to see who is on the Axis of Evil Alignment and Evil god's portfolios sometimes do have useful aspects to the non evil.

Sure Bahamut will fight the thing if need be, but if you want that Aberration sleeping beneath the black mountain to stay sleeping, a prayer to Torog can save everyone a lot of trouble.

Hail Torog, Binder of the Darkness Below. Your Persecution of the Wicked keeps the World safe. Your Vigilance keeps the Foulness Bound. May we always walk the path of light so that You need not know us


And here is a link for Prison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[coyote6]

Anyways, I just had an idea. The gods joined together to chain Tharizdun, right? Torog was ultimately corrupted by that act. Torog watches the Gate and holds the Key.

I like that. Very Nietzschean -- gazing into the Abyss & all.

Maybe Torog was a tough fellow before, which is why he got to be jailer, but being Tharizdun's jailer hardened him. "Rough" became "callous" which in turn became "cruel" and on into outright sadism. As his essence was corrupted, his form changed as well; tie him back to Urdlen, and maybe eons ago, he was a gnome. Have svirfneblin shown up in 4e yet? The gnomish, vole-like god of the underdark becomes Torog, to keep Tharizdun imprisoned.

 

[frankthedm]

Torog gets a lot of attention in the upcoming Underdark book. He's demented and sad, but social.

Anyways, I just had an idea. The gods joined together to chain Tharizdun, right? Torog was ultimately corrupted by that act. Torog watches the Gate and holds the Key.

Maybe Torog was a tough fellow before, which is why he got to be jailer, but being Tharizdun's jailer hardened him. "Rough" became "callous" which in turn became "cruel" and on into outright sadism. As his essence was corrupted, his form changed as well;

Yes, those mesh together well. Torog being corrupted by his charges seems a delightful idea. A thoroughly evil, but pitiable god.

Even on a small scale, like when Torog is trying to keep a caster in the grave by having vermin devour every last bit of the sorcerer in question. Instead, the caster co-opts the vermin, becoming a Worm that Walks.

 

[Klaus]

MM2 tidbit: centipedes are the sacred animals of Torog.

 

[catsclaw227]

MM2 tidbit: centipedes are the sacred animals of Torog.

And centipedes and millipedes are the creepiest of crawlies... If you have ever seen one of those big centipedes in real life or had one crawl near you it is a goose-bumpy creepy experience. Ewwww.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Man, these are some pretty cool ideas. I suddenly like Torog a lot more. Making him the god of torture, imprisonment and slavery seems a lot more interesting than just being the god of the Underdark.

I'll see to it from now on that any dungeon I create that serves as a prison will be dedicated to Torog.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

Man, these are some pretty cool ideas. I suddenly like Torog a lot more. Making him the god of torture, imprisonment and slavery seems a lot more interesting than just being the god of the Underdark.

I'll see to it from now on that any dungeon I create that serves as a prison will be dedicated to Torog.

Well, from various Underdark excerpts we have many more details on Torog now. He's not so much god of the Underdark as he is trapped there. At some point during the Dawn Age, he got imprisoned in the nascent Underdark. In his rage, he tried to smash out but couldn't, so he "smashed sideways" and - so the story goes - created the network of tunnels and caves that is today called the Underdark.

Torog is the patron god of jailers, slavers, and torturers, but somewhat ironically he, too, is jailed, enslaved, and tortured. He never ascended to the Astral Sea - instead, he has his torture palaces in the deepest reaches of the Underdark.

It seems like the Underdark is an imperfect buffer zone between the world and the Elemental Chaos, and that Torog keeps several very powerful entities - primordials or otherwise - imprisoned there. In addition, it seems like the Underdark has many cracks in reality that let aberrant creatures from the Far Realm into the world.

Hopefully Underdark will detail some reasons for why Torog got stuck in the depths below in the first place. Whatever he did, it was bad, because to this day the elder spirit called the World Serpent will crush Torog if he tries to get out of his prison.

 

[vic20]

I wish I could give XP just for the Torgo reference =/

why can't you? i did.

 

[TerraDave]

"Who is Torog?"

The new Raven Queen.

 

[the Jester]

That Underdark book sounds cool.

In my game any dungeon becomes corrupt due to Torog's influence if it's not maintained. A tower, a tomb beneath a monestary, a cistern beneath a ruined city, a mad wizard's lab - all these will succumb to his influence once they are abandoned. Pools turn into oozes, cracks open up and creatures from the underdark move in, etc. Generally speaking the dungeon takes on a life of its own.

That is a great "dungeon as mythic underworld" approach- I think I'll take it up myself!