Class Feature Friday: Demodand Subdomain (Cleric Chaos or Evil Subdomain)
(art by JohanGrenier on DeviantArt, used as actual concept art in Pathfinder!)
And it’s time for another subdomain, and it’s another one tied to a type of outsider, specifically the failed and monstrous creations of the fallen titans, the demodands!
Now, the lore surrounding the titans in Pathfinder is spotty and contradictory, with some sources claiming the rebellious ones were banished to Abaddon and not the Abyss, others claim that the formorian titans were the oldest, others the danava… it’s a whole mess that somebody should go through and sort out at some point.
What does remain consistent is that the wicked, rebellious titans, even after being banished to the Abyss, were still spiteful and envious of the gods, and so sought to make their own worshippers (with blackja-), an outsider clan more powerful than most other divine servitors or mortals, and beautiful and perfect as well.
Whether it was the Abyssal clay used to shape them, the vindictive emotion in the blood they used to bring them to life, or perhaps the fundamental inability of these not-quite deific beings to truly create, (probably a bit of all that and more) their creations: the demodands, were perfect and beautiful for like half a minute before, like an amateur child sculptor’s creation, began to sag and warp, breaking down into ugly, horrific forms. Some sweating foul tar or slime, some sprouting scales, uneven fur, or horribly long skin protrusions, and all breaking down at the seams in some way or another.
But they did not die, and despite the horror and pain of their own existence, they remained loyal to the titans and eager to please (for they had been made to know no other way).
And so were born the demodands, horrors that destroy, torment, enslave, and corrupt the mortals that the gods show their love to and in turn be showered with worship from, loyal only to their creators.
(Which is why it’s really weird that this subdomain is listed as being in Rovagug and Yaezhing’s portfolios. I mean Rovagug I kinda get since I can imagine the titans ordering their creations to go out and answer the call of Rovagug's cult since their interests and goals align somewhat (or are at least useful to their goals), but Yaezhing is a god of brutal but otherwise divine judgement. I doubt he’d ever work with such beings, nor they him.
This subdomain is almost guaranteed to show up exclusively in the anti-theist cults that tend to crop up when corrupted mortals are set back loose on their homeworlds, spreading their hate to try and prepare worlds for invasion by titan and demodand forces and rob mortals of their faith in the gods. There is of course no reward for such efforts, only more servitude or death.
Of course, before we go into what these poor twisted fools actually get from the domain, I would be remiss to not mention the current flux that demodands as a whole find themselves in.
You see, aside from the nebulous and contradictory lore of titans in Pathfinder, demodands are actually another example of a holdover from D&D. Originally, demodands were an artificially created clade supposedly made by combining diabolic and demonic power, experiments by the yugoloth/daemons. These beings were exiled to the prison/like plane of Carceri, where they took to the role of wardens.
That history in various editions of the World’s Oldest Roleplaying Game (with only three unique additions from Pathfinder) means that if and when they show up again, they’ll probably receive a new name and facelift (like what happened to nightshades). Hopefully when it happens they won’t end up looking terrible and boring (like what happened to nightshades).
But with that out of the way, lets see what fell power they have to offer those unlucky enough to have been twisted to their worship!
Rather than the touch of chaos or evil powers, those who tap into this domain gain the ability to utilize a lesser form of the demodand’s infamous faith-stealing power with their attacks, briefly inhibiting the link between a divine caster and their deity.
The spell changes of the subdomain include being able to align their weapons to both chaos and evil, rather than only one. Furthermore, rather than infuse objects with life to cause chaos, these divine casters instead emulate the corrosive slime of some demodands to inflict foes with long-lasting, rapidly-spreading acid.
For both clerics and inquisitors, this subdomain has a fairly unique ability to make them hunters of divine casters, though obviously this is most effective if you have a team to fully take advantage of this shutdown since it lasts such a short time. The spells that clerics can use, on the other hand, makes one of their lower-level options more flexible, and also grants them a genuinely nasty high-damage spell that either punishes foes with high damage or forces them to waste actions to mitigate it.
Now, this subdomain is canonically only available to some of the most broken abuse victims in the entire setting, so unless you’re trying to explore that with a character that starts evil, this domain is almost exclusively going to be villain territory. It could be fun roleplaying a character that could be convinced to return to the light by making them realize that they’re no longer fully in the grip of a power that literally cut them off from their deity and other sources of support. On the other hand, be mindful of your table, and if anyone’s got abuse as a hard no, maybe eschew using it for that campaign.
Sometimes driders who escape drow society learn to look beyond the demonic powers that hold most of their former people in thrall, and call out to something, anything else. Unfortunately for Lunixa, what answered her call was so much worse, twisting her into a servant of the ones that would tear the gods from the heavens.
Normally preferring to fight alongside similarly-aligned clergy, Noctis the ahmuuth psychopomp is forced to seek out the party when a charge he was meant to collect for the underworld was dragged away be a fearsome demodand hunting party and their cleric-slaves. What they want with the wayward soul is unknown, but they know they could not handle such powerful beings on their own.
Presented as a summer retreat for children to learn about the outdoors, Camp Treehack is anything but recreational, founded by a demodand cultist to browbeat entire new generations to make them reject the gods and give up on outside help of any kind: parents, authorities, and the divine, and become as twisted and mean as they are.