Iuz is the demigod of Deceit, Evil, Oppression, Pain, and Wickedness. Iuz is variously called "the Old One" and "Old Wicked," among other titles. Unlike most Greyhawk deities, Iuz makes his home on Oerth, where he rules a broad swath of the Flanaess known as the Empire of Iuz. His symbol is a grinning human skull, or a human skull with blood-red highlights.
Description[]
Iuz is the half-fiend or cambion demigod son of Graz'zt, a demon lord of the Abyss, and the human witch Iggwilv. Originally described as very handsome, Iuz now appears either as an old man with poisonous spit, or a big, red, hulking demon-like creature. His weapon of choice is the whip and greatsword. He is referred to as "The Old One" or Iuz the Evil, and worshiped as the God of Deceit, Pain, Oppression and Evil. He is considered the enemy of every sane and free person in the Flanaess and every religion, except his own and holds a particular hatred for Zagyg, Vecna and St. Cuthbert.
Dogma[]
"The strong should exploit the weak, for such is their right. Deceit and guile are the proper tools of the enlightened ruler. Iuz, who is the strongest and most deceitful of all, is the rightful and destined ruler of all of Oerth. The infliction of pain and suffering is a delight comparable with none other. No atrocity committed in the name of Iuz is so sickening, no trick so cruel, that it does not meet with the Old One's approval."
Worshipers[]
The worshippers of Iuz seek to further the expansion of their master's empire. Outside the Empire of Iuz, his worship is uncommon and usually suppressed by the local government. Even if a community espouses tolerance toward the Iuzian creed, his followers prefer to remain a secret, as befits the worshipers of the god of deceit.
Clergy[]
Clerics of Iuz are commonly known as Liars or Oppressors among the faithful. These titles are accepted as the honor it is intended to be; the twisted culture that Iuz cultivates considers these words to be flattering. Often they are multi-classed wizards or fighters.
Iuz's clergy believe in the survival of the fittest, and so battle one another as often as they battle the enemies of their lord. They travel the Flanaess in disguise, seeking powerful magic and captured creatures of great good (or simply their skulls) as trophies to prove their worthiness. They adopt inconspicuous garb outside the Empire of Iuz, but among the faithful they dress in rusty black or white streaked with rust-red stains of blood. Some adorn their robes with bones. Most learn to use greatswords, though whips and flails are greatly approved of for their ability to inflict pain.
A priest of Iuz, as depicted in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (2000).
The Boneheart[]
The Boneheart is divided into two tiers, the Greater Boneheart and the Lesser Boneheart. Each tier is populated by six evil spellcasters who use their magic to serve the will of the Old One. Among them are the high priestesses Althea and Halga, who at the top of Iuz's priestly hierarchy. He once had a High Priest, Patch, who was destroyed by the armies of Furyondy during the Greyhawk Wars.
The Boneshadow[]
The Boneshadow are spies and secret agents. They are six in number: Obmi, Keak, Gleed, Sunifarel Brightrobe, Griswald Hairhand, and Lord Dorag.
Notable Worshippers:[]
Temples[]
The Old One builds great temples to himself within his empires, but elsewhere his places of worship are small and secret things. Iuz's temples and shrines must be old, filthy, and dark. His altars are built of bones and include many skulls.
In forbidding wilderness terrain, far from the eyes of the forces of Good, Iuz maintains sites for mass rituals, sacrifices, and other foul deeds.
Rituals[]
The ceremonies of Iuz include the burning of dung and other noxious substances, the beating of drums, and the clang of bronze bells. Blood sacrifice is practiced as often as practical, in as painful and horrific manner as the priests' creativity allows.
History[]
Iuz was conceived around 460 CY, shortly after his mother Iggwilv imprisoned the demon lord Graz'zt. In 479 CY, Iuz would rise to prominence when a warlord in the Howling Hills left control of his land to his "son". By the end of his first year on the throne Iuz had assimilated the three surrounding fiefs. In less than three years, that territory was expanded, creating a small kingdom. Refugees from his conquests told tales of a road of skulls leading from the hills to the capital of the land, Dorakaa. They told tales of Iuz being the son of a demon and a necromancer, being a 7ft tall demon driven by destruction. They claimed he had an army of evil men, terrible wizards and savage orcs, and worst of all, fiends. It was about this time Iuz used a dark ritual to steal power and life force from many victims, making himself a demigod.
In 505 CY Iuz vanished. Many of the orc clans who had served him for years, as well as some of his human followers, claimed he has ascended to full godhood. They began worshipping him, and began being able to use divine magic based on their worship. In reality, Iuz was trapped under Castle Greyhawk by the Lord Mayor of Greyhawk, Zagig Yragerne in the Mad Archmage's own quest for godhood, entrapped in a cration of Zagig's by the name of The Godtrap. In the cambion's absence, several "false Iuzs"—illusionists, demons, and demodands with delusions of grandeur—began dividing the empire between them. Further south, the landholders of Iuz's former lands dedicated themselves to the worship of Nerull, Anthraxus, and the Lords of the Nine.
In the meantime, the orcs of the northlands had named him the Old One, and their worship helped increase the demigod's power. Loyal and opportunistic humans joined the cult, and soon some were rewarded with clerical powers in spite of their patron's imprisonment. Uneasy with the growth of Iuz's faith, the southerners joined together to form the Horned Society, making Molag their capital.During this time, some of his more opportunistic followers and a few of his fiends broke away to form the Horned Society.
In 570 CY, a group of adventurers lead by Lord Robiliar freed Iuz and he returned to his throne.
Iuz was deceived and imprisoned in 581 by a powerful rival, Vecna. Absorbed into the powerful lich, Iuz served to fuel Vecna's ascension into a Greater Deity. Vecna was eventually thwarted by a group of adventurers, freeing Iuz in the process and allowing the Prince of Pain to renew his warring on Oerth. Iuz holds a deep hatred for Vecna as a result of his humiliation.
In 582 CY, a band of barbarian heroes—Stumred Barduran, Baern Barraeth, Fenestir "Swifthand" Galander, Ingrid Hashandir, Sabrala Starbreaker, and Helden Stormfist—reunited the legendary Blades of Corusk. The mage Karasten Meldraith arranged them in an alternating pattern, uncovering a spell hidden in the runes of the blades. Before he could finish reading the spell that would awaken the lost god Vatun, however, Iuz manifested in Vatun's guise, scattering the blades to the four corners of the world. The whole episode had been a set-up by the clever Fiend of the North. With a guileful tongue, Iuz convinced the rulers of the Fruztii, Schnai, and Cruski, and the raiders of the Hold of Stonefist, that he was the Great God returned. At his direction, the Fists invaded the Duchy of Tenh, decimating its armies and driving the Duke and Duchess to exile in the County of Urnst.
The alliance did not last long. The Suloise barbarians resisted "Vatun's" orders to invade the Bone March and Ratik. Eventually they refused to believe Iuz was their Great God at all, but the damage had already been done: Stonefist was firmly allied to Iuz's cause.
Iuz returned to Dorakaa in 583. During his absence, his chaotic empire had already begun to disintegrate. Iuz responded by executing the exiled Furyondian nobles who had been his vassals and replacing them with things from the Abyss—nabassu, cambions, vrocks, hezrou, and mariliths. His mother, using her Nethertome, summoned many demons to bolster her son's armies, but this resource soon ended when she attempted for the second time to summon Graz'zt himself. This time Graz'zt was prepared for her arts, arriving in her protective circle with a device that disrupted it. Smiling wickedly, Graz'zt seized the shocked Mother of Witches and dragged her back to his Abyssal realm to torment her at his leisure. Iuz continued to gate in summoned demons, but from then on he did so only with the permission of his demon lord allies Pazuzu and Graz'zt. Graz'zt had the upper hand in these dealings, holding Iuz's mother hostage as he did. Yet Iuz knew that Iggwilv craved only her own power, and might well have turned against him had she been free, so his feelings on the matter were complex. Iuz dealt regularly with Lolth as well, though they made no formal alliance. Lolth's ambassador to Iuz's court, Eclavdra, served Lolth and Graz'zt simultaneously at the time, with all parties involved being well aware of this.
On the night of the Blood Moon Festival of that year, Iuz struck against the Hierarchs of the Horned Society, his agents slaughtering all but two of them (who were away at the time) and adding the Horned Lands back to his growing empire. With the hobgoblin warriors of the former Horned Society bolstering his own troops, Iuz swept into the Shield Lands in the Flocktime of the following year. Perhaps the Shield Lands could have resisted, but they refused to allow the Furyondians to aid them, fearing re-annexation by their former Furyondian rulers. The Shield Lands were conquered, and Iuz moved on to the borders of Furyondy. Worse yet for the forces of Good, Iuz had managed to acquire an alliance with Ket, who had long born a grudge against the peoples of the Sheldomar Valley. With Ket flanking them on one side and Iuz attacking on another, the defenders were hard pressed to resist. At the same time, Lolth manipulated hordes of giants into invading Geoff and Sterich, distracting the peoples of the Sheldomar still further. Somehow, despite losing much of its northern territories and the Vesve, Furyondy managed to hold. With tens of thousands of his troops slain, Iuz agreed to the sign on to the Pact of Greyhawk. He would consolidate his gains for a time before striking anew.
Before this could happen, however, Iuz's armies were hobbled by the Crook of Rao, directed by Canon Hazen to perform a miracle no one, least of all Iuz, had dreamed it capable of. The vast majority of the fiends in Iuz's armies were banished for a hundred years. After the Flight of Fiends, as it became known, many of Iuz's generals and subjugated populations rebelled, in an event known as the Great Northern Crusade. Furyondy gained back most of its territories and Iuz neglected the Rovers of the Barrens and the Bandit Kingdoms to war against Furyondy.
In 597, Iuz attempted to invade the Free City of Greyhawk using a passage in the Underdark leading from his lands all the way to the caverns beneath Greyhawk Castle. Before his plans could be completed, however, he was trapped again in Zagyg's Godtrap by a simulacrum of his mother Iggwilv, who hoped to use his power to make herself into a true living being. Iggwilv's simulacrum was defeated by a party of adventurers, however, and a weakened and chastened Iuz returned to his lands to plot anew.
Behind the Scenes[]
References[]
- CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0
Iuz. Great Library of Greyhawk, GreyhawkOnline.com. (view authors)
Citations[]
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External Links[]
- "The Shadow of Iuz" at Canonfire!.
- Iuz at Wikipedia.