Lord of all the div, Ahriman is the embodiment of pure destruction. He seeks the utter oblivion of existence itself using his div servants to bring it about.

AppearanceEdit

Ahriman's appearance is terrifying to behold, a combination of various bits of vicious predators that is far more terrible than the sum of its parts. Ahriman's feet are vulture-like, with wicked flesh-rending talons, while his arms look like the claws of a huge tiger^[1] and are capable of tearing a giant clean in two. His body looks humanoid but his skin writhes with living snakes and whipping chains that lash out and poison any who come in contact with Ahriman.^[2] His face looks like that of a lion twisted into a look of pure hatred and crowned with a set of four gnarled horns. Ahriman's maw is one of the most terrifying parts of his being; from it come inhuman screams that are not his own and a darkness that is more than just shadow.^[1] Those swallowed by Ahriman face a horrible fate, left to plunge for all eternity down a bottomless pit filled with the deafening praises and heresies dedicated to Ahriman.^[2]

Habitat & EcologyEdit

Ahriman dwells in the depths of Abaddon. His realm is atop an incredibly tall mountain and is a vast temple carved from fallen monuments while above the sky swirls in a dark, apocalyptic void. It is from here that Ahriman sets his dark designs on the rest of the multiverse. Ahriman's ecology is as unique as he is and is shrouded in mystery and legend. The myths of the genies claim that Ahriman was born with the first act of creation as he was the shadow of its inevitable destruction. Ahriman is both a creature and a force of nature; he is the destruction that must inevitably come to all things in order to keep existence in balance and as such he is the enemy of all creation. Ahriman's hatred of life is so great that any creature he kills is instantly reanimated as a powerful undead (usually a wight) that serves him loyally in his destructive quests. While he hates all life Ahriman seems to harbour a particular hatred for genies; his very servants, the div, are created from the essence of corrupted genie. Beyond this he has served to create foul perversions of genie-kind like the undead ghul. While it might seem a paradox that a creature that is an embodiment of pure destruction creates, he does so only to quicken the destruction of the rest of the multiverse. Ahriman's favourite form of ruin is the corruption of mortal desires, often through the use of manipulated wish spells.^[2]

SocietyEdit

Ahriman is lord of all the div, a race of fiends that revel in destruction and misery. Specifically they seek to destroy the works that mortals create, much like the daemons they share their home of Abaddon with.^[3] Beyond this Ahriman also created the undead ghuls to vex and destroy mortal life^[4] and the despotic fiendish dragons known as azi.^[5]

Despite his abhorence for all life, Ahriman has a cult of mortals on the Material Plane dedicated to him, the Usij. These demented people use Ahriman as a source of power and inspiration for their destructive plots. The Usij, while no longer numerous, are highly insidious, seeking to corrupt and destroy everything around them.^[2]

ReferencesEdit