 Ibrandul
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| Alias(es): | Lord of the Dry Depths, the Skulking God, Lurker in Darkness |
| Power: | Lesser deity |
| Pantheon: | Faerûnian pantheon |
| Symbol: | Four interlocking silver circles on a dark purple background |
| Alignment: | Chaotic neutral |
| Cleric alignment: | CG, N, CN, NE, CE |
| Portfolio: | Caverns, dungeons, the Underdark, skulks |
| Worshippers: | {{{worshippers}}} |
| Domains: | Chaos |
| Favoured weapon: | Quarterstaff |
| Allies: | Ilmater, Mask |
| Enemies: | Shar, Lathander, Lolth |
Worshipers in Calimshan and other areas of the Shining South claim that Ibrandul (Ih-BRAN-duhl) watches over humans who must venture into hostile underground areas, aiding and guiding those who serve him when they are in need. Ibrandul’s worship began in the prehistory of Calimshan, even before the founding of the Shoon Empire, which is now known as Iltkazar. Some tune after the defeat of the Djen, a tribe of nomadic humans was abducted from the Calim Desert by dark elf raiders from the city of Guallidurth, located deep beneath the desert sands. These humans served the drow as slaves for centuries, unable to flee the subterranean city because of their fear of the all-enveloping darkness.
The humans eventually escaped when a monstrous lizard emerged from the darkness, drove off the dark elf overseers, and led the slaves into the surrounding wilds of the Underdark. Some of the former slaves eventually returned to the surface and brought with them tales of the Lord of the Dark Depths to the tribes of the surface. Others remained in the dark tunnels, living in small, nomadic bands and subsisting by raiding the farms and caravan of the drow of Guallidurth and the humans of the surface. The subterranean dwellers slowly evolved into skulks—a cowardly race of humanoids with chameleonlike abilities—through a side-effect of one of the spells granted by the Skulking God. Both the humans of the surface and the skulks of the Underdark continue to worship Ibrandul, albeit with slightly different representations and sets of beliefs. Since then Ibrandul’s worship has quietly spread to many locations with access to the Underdark, including Undermountain beneath Mt. Waterdeep.
During the Time of Troubles, Ibrandul was spotted wandering the Underdark beneath Waterdeep. Unbeknownst to his worshipers, Ibrandul was killed during the Godswar by Shar. The now-petrified remains of his avatar are believed to lie at the bottom of a vast chasm in a lost level of Undermountain. Shar has always jealously guarded her rulership over darkness and those who work in it, and when Ibrandul was tremendously weakened by being forced into a minor avatar form (as all the powers were) during the Time of Troubles, Shar killed him for daring to subvert followers away from her ranks. When the gods ascended to the heavens, Shar had acquired the power and portfolio of Ibrandul. Shar’s guise as Ibrandul is quite useful to her, allowing her to subvert the worship of her hated enemy Selûne without drawing attention to her most faithful worshipers, the nightcloaks. Shar/Ibrandul enjoys the delicious irony of secretly eroding the power of the Lady of Silver, particularly in the city of Waterdeep, one of the seats of Selûne’s power.
Ibrandul was a taciturn and moody power, and Shar stills plays him as such when she speaks for him or has one of her avatars behave and appear as his used to. He displayed all intense emotions simply by flicking his tongue or blinking his eyes at a quicker pace. He radiated an aura of gloom, darkness, and ages long forgotten. He was always restless, wanting to stalk off into the dark and roam the tunnels of the Underdark searching for those might harm his followers.
Ibrandul (currently played by Shar) favors two forms, the Stalker and the Skulker. The Stalker is a monstrous lizard of the depths that looks like a fire lizard with a long, thick tall. He has a gray-scaled body with a red-and brownmottled back and a reddish underside. He resembles a wingless, elongated red dragon. The Stalker is said to roam the endless caverns of Pandemonium hunting other predators and is the form most commonly portrayed in religious art in Calimshan and the Sword Coast North. The Skulker might he mistaken for a stone golem or earth elemental. He appears to be a humanoid of black and gray stone worn smooth as if long exposed to the eroding force of howling winds. The Skulker has no specific facial features, but his eye patches glow like cool magma in utter darkness. The Skulker frequently shapechanges to alter his appearance, taking the shape of anything from a chisel-featured, bare-chested massive human known to natives of Calimshan to that of a stony roperlike creature known to the drow. The Skulker prefers to appear to mortals while lurking in perfect darkness where he is visible only by his glowing eyes and to aid or hinder others through wit and voices in the gloom.
Ibrandul commonly manifests as sounds: footsteps around the bend, breathing (which is often mistaken for wind moaning in the caverns), dripping water (often in arid regions of the Underdark), cave-ins (which rumble in understandable words and phrases), and in curious rock formations and erosion patterns. Many adventurers aided by Ibrandul have no idea that they have been visited by him; rather, they find themselves guided to their destinations by avoiding natural hazards and following peculiar-yet-natural signs — typically a trail of warm spots on tunnel walls (visible by infravision and lasting for only a few moments per spot). Ibrandul sometimes works through free-willed earth elementals, horgars (giant sluglike creatures that tunnel through the earth by melting stone), ibrandlin and other lizards of all sizes, skulks, oozes (gray and crystal varieties), and will o’ deeps.
The Church
Any creature who loved the darkness with a passion used to be able to join Ibrandul’s priesthood. Shar (masquerading as Ibrandul) now keeps watch over the sect of Ibrandul and grants his priests their spells. Shar is pleased with her new followers and makes all new initiates specialty priests, although numerous clerics of Ibrandul — about 20% of the total clergy — still exist from prior to the Fall of the Gods. Ibrandul’s clergy members used to include a few gray druids, but since the Time of Troubles they have stopped receiving spells from the Lord of the Dry Depths and now worship dwarf, gnome, or other Underdark deities. In Calimshan and the Shining South, Ibrandul’s worship has declined significantly over the centuries among humans. Ibrandul is still worshiped with great fervor by the once-human bands of skulks who stalk the Underdark in the Calishite region of Faerûn and emerge only to raid the surface. As a result, the Skulking God is considered far more of an evil power in Calimshan than elsewhere in the Realm. In the Sword Coast North, Ibrandul’s faith is a relatively recent arrival. Here the Lord of the Dry Depths attracts worshipers of a wide variety of alignments and races, and his priests emphasize his defender aspect more than his love of darkness. It is likely that Shar will shift this focus in the near future. Before Ibrandul was slam, he provided his priests with spells to modify fire lizards into ibrandlin, the “lurkers in darkness” created in the image of the Stalker, which priests could train to guard Ibrandul’s temples. With Shar’s favor, the ibrandlin are now beginning to breed true. Before the Avatar crisis Ibrandul tended to ignore his followers once they were relatively safe, leaving all his clergy members as clerics and not providing enough divine power to turn the ibrandlin into a self-propagating species. It was probably this inattention to his worshipers and corresponding weakening in his power that led to his defeat by Shar. Novice Ibrandulin (priests of Ibrandul) are called Children of Ibrandul, and addressed as “child” by priests. When initiated into the priesthood, they earn the title Lurker. Senior priests (those above 5th level) are Mysterious Lurkers, and the leader of a temple is an Impenetrable Lurker. Priests often take distinctive personal titles, and the recognition of such title by the Impenetrable Lurker of a temple is all that is required to make them official. Ibrandul's specialty priests are called Darkwalkers.
Dogma
Followers of Ibrandul believe that the Underdark is every bit as vital as the surface world, and darkness is its greatest redeeming quality. In a world without light, there is no tedious and inescapable march of day and night to command the lives of intelligent creatures and no end to the variety of shapes and textures to experience tactilely — something which would be lost by merely looking upon them as surface dwellers do. Followers of Ibrandul believe that nothing is good or evil in the dark unless you consider it so, and such value judgments are frivolous. Initiates to the Enveloping Darkness, as the faith is properly known, are charged: “There is perfect freedom in perfect darkness: independence, individuality, liberty from the judgment of others. Ibrandul protects you and guides you in the dark ways. He drives away those who would do his children harm and from time to time reveals great treasures to those who venture into the depths. Remain steadfast to him, and he will stand by you.”
Day-to-Day Activities
All priests of Ibrandul proselytize among adventurers and the poor folk of cities. Ibrandulin are also expected to build temple fortresses deep in the Underdark to serve as sanctuaries for those who venture in the depths. They are to offer the protection of the Lord of the Dry Depths to those who must hide underground (from justice, their enemies, a plague, severe weather, or an attack on the city) by providing such people with guarded, defensible temples underground to stay in — in exchange for regular rental payments for a bed, food, a niche in the temple, and Ibrandul’s favor. Many of Ibrandul’s clergy members wander in the Underdark as adventurers or aides to them. Their mission is to persuade everyone they meet to remain below the surface and acknowledge Ibrandul as their defender while below ground. Ibrandulin tend to roam alone in the Underdark, celebrating the darkness, which leads to a relatively high mortality rate among the lower-ranking priests. The smarter Ibrandulin stick with groups until they develop their survival skills and priestly powers a bit more. Shar tends to warn and protect higher-level followers of Ibrandul with the same subtle signs and manifestations that Ibrandul liked to use. Each time priests of Ibrandul gain a level of experience, they are expected to throw a tithe of a tenth of their total wealth into a deep pit, where it should remain unrecoverable. All priests and more casual followers should throw a copper piece into any pit they cross as a thanks for safely negotiating it and into any nearby hole or crevice whenever they believe they have witnessed a sign from the Ibrandul.
Holy Days/Important Ceremonies
Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: At 5th level, all priests of Ibrandul must undergo a secret ritual involving ingesting ibrandlin blood and a magical ceremony conducted by an Impenetrable Lurker. As a result of this ceremony, known as elah’ranak (“Protective Armor of Darkness” in Alzhedo), large areas of the wrists, forearms, chest, back, and legs are covered with patches of overlapping scales in a fashion reminiscent of the ibrandlin. Ibrandulin celebrate very few holy days. On cloud-covered nights when there is a new moon and the Land Above is pitch black, Ibrandul’s priests emerge for a ceremony known as the Foreshadowing. Beginning at midnight, this ritual celebrates Ibrandul’s promise to eventually envelop all the land above and below in darkness. Each Midwinter’s Eve, the faithful of Ibrandul give thanks to the Lurker in Darkness for their delivery from the hands of the dark elves. This ceremony, known as the Deliverance Unto Darkness, typically involves the sacrifice of a monstrous spider or some other creature or being intimately associated with Lolth or the drow and the casting of dark path spells. Long chains of Ibrandul’s worshipers then use the abilities granted them by the dark path spells to wander through the Underdark without light sources, trusting their deity to lead them to safety. When turning undead, clerics of Ibrandul do not wield holy symbols. Instead, they reach down and grasp at a handful of earth or gravel and then let it trickle through their fists as if they were reminding the undead of what should happen when something dies.
Major Centers of Worship
Ibrandul can be worshiped anywhere it is dark and anywhere in the Underdark. Ibrandul has shaped elaborate altars out of the natural stone in numerous large caverns throughout the Underdark. They are recognizable as plateaus at least 20 feet across, worn glassy smooth across the top and having steps that ascend from any accessible side. At the very center of the plateau, Ibrandul carves many runes and glyphs of varying texture and shape so that followers can kneel and caress them while meditating. Ibrandul’s largest and newest temple is the Deep Temple of Dark Hope, recently constructed deep beneath the streets of Waterdeep by Thalander “the Mad.” This temple serves as a stronghold and place of sanctuary for adventurers exploring Undermountain and the Underdark—for a steep fee. The subterranean temple can also be reached via a two-way gate from the Dark Gateway (also known as the Upper Temple), a secret shrine to Ibrandul located in the Trades Ward of the City of Splendors.
Affiliated Orders
The Shadows of the Night is a sinister organization based in the Calimshan’s Underdark comprising scattered bands of skulks. These skulks are somewhat more daring than their cowardly fellows and engage in fairly regular raids on the surface, although they still only attack when they have a vast superiority in numbers. It is believed the Shadows of the Night are led by some powerful evil creature—perhaps a renegade dark elf or illithilich. The Knights Fallen is a band of priests, rogues, and warriors who stalk the northern reaches of the Underdark. They serve Ibrandul by seeking out those who have lost their way in the darkness, typically adventurers or daring merchants, and delivering, them to relative safety in exchange for a significant fee. They are believed to be based in the Deep Temple of Dark Hope, but bands of this order have been encountered as far east as Anauroch and as far south as Amn. Legends speak of an itinerant band of wanderers of various races who call themselves the Horgardin. The group is led by a half-dark elf gray druid of Ibrandul who leads his followers along a twisting path through the Underdark said to be created in ancient times by a huge horgar controlled by the Lord of the Dry Depths. Since Shar assumed Ibrandul’s portfolio, orders of her followers have been (oddly) friendly to those of Ibrandul, although they tend to behave a bit condescendingly.
Priestly Vestments
Priests of Ibrandul wear dark purple ceremonial robes covered with a pattern of large, overlapping silver rings and belted with a black sash. The rings symbolize their interdependence (as fellow children of Ibrandul) and also the protective scales of the Lord of the Dry Depths. The holy symbol of Ibrandul is usually carved into a semiprecious stone and carried on a thong or chain, or sometimes formed symbolically from a puzzle ring of four interlinked silver finger rings worn as one ring. In general, followers of Ibrandul have a distinct predilection for black and dark purple clothing with silver ornamentation. One might often mistake them for rogues (which they may be anyway) because they seem to dress as if to blend with darkness. When adventuring, the Skulking God’s clergy members wear reasonable armor that protects them yet enables them to move swiftly in the rough terrain of subterranean tunnels. Such armor is always tinted or dyed flat black or a deep purple so as not to reflect any light and is usually crafted from metals or 1izard skins found in the Underdark. Ibrandulin wield whatever weapons are appropriate and available.