This episode is sponsored by Dice Dungeons!
Hey everybody Jorphdan here the PH is silent.
Gather round and prepare your minds as we discuss the Great Old Ones.
The Warlock Patrons that are so weird and twisted it defies imagination.
The Great Old Ones are hidden away in the D&D universe, some are sleeping, some are
imprisoned, some stay isolated in the Far Realm.
But their energy seems to leak into the Prime Material plane, allowing warlocks to tap into
this as a resource.
You might make a deal with one of these creatures, but more often than not they are so out of
touch with your reality you simply find a way to harness their power.
They might not even know you are doing this.
The great old ones cover a variety of beings.
Elder gods not really worshiped anymore, in traditional ways.
Some stranger beings were recharacterized as primordials in 4th edition and could be
considered for a great old one pact.
Finally creatures generally hailing from the Far Realm.
So let’s talk about the Far Realm for a minute.
I covered it a bit in an earlier video talking about the D&D planes of existence.
The Far Realm is so “far” from the regular planes that it isn’t seen in the standard
cosmology much.
It is outside the known multiverse and some believe it to be its own separate universe
with unique physical and magical laws.
It may just be the space beyond the planes.
It is so alien even to study or heaven forbid observe the Far Realm can lead to madness.
A normal mind can’t accept what it sees without somehow becoming damaged.
It’s outside creation, existing in the theoretical realm of timeless infinity.
Whenever the Far Realm touches our reality weird geometry and transformations occur.
The power of the Far Realm influences the Prime Material plane warping reality into
horrifying corruptions.
Sometimes even the birth of squiggling aberrant monstrosities.
It is thought that certain creatures came into being from the Far Realm touching the
Prime Material Plane, or that these creatures came from the Far Realm itself.
Mind Flayers, Aboleths, and the Beholder are some examples.
The Far Realm consists of an infinite number of layers.
These layers could be anywhere from an inch thick to a mile separated from each other
by a ten foot thick viscous wall.
The layers are transparent and to be in the Far Realm is to observe a blurry infinity.
The layers evaporate, divide, spawn, all at the will of the Abominations that live there.
Moving through the Far Realm is to see, hear, and think in a way that mortal brains were
never designed for.
You might grow tiny hands on top of your regular hands.
Or extra eyes around your body, even tentacles.
Insanity will occur if one visits the Far Realm.
Still, where there are beings of power there are mortals trying to gain that power.
Pacts with these creatures are probably never advised, but the resulting warlock will be
a strong one.
Some of the larger entities from the Far Realm infected stars in the sky.
This confuses me a bit, and I think there was a Dragon Talk where Chris Perkins even
admitted that 4th edition didn’t take into consideration earlier editions before launching
this lore.
But certain stars are infected by Far Realm creatures and their madness shines down on
Toril.
Powerful Entities like Caiphon, Acamar, Delban, Gibbeth… the well known Hadar from Arms
of Hadar and Hunger of Hadar.
Unlike fixed stars these creatures moved around occasionally, they didn’t have a stationary
place in the heavens.
Moving across Realmspace.
These creatures were, or are associated with entities known as the Eldest.
They were aboleths of massive size, and were some of the oldest in existence.
It goes without saying but a lot of the elder gods, these stars, and weird creatures that
inflict madness just by looking at them are all associated with HP Lovecraft’s fiction.
D&D is many things, many genres and the Far Realm and the Great Old One Pact is directly
influenced by Lovecraft.
Here are some other beings that you might choose to make as your patron.
Ghaunadar, known as That Which Lurks is actually a drow deity, the deity of abominations and
slimes.
It is believed that he somehow was touched by the Far Realm.
Being also the god of outcasts and rebels, slimes and abominations might be an after
effect of his experience with the Far Realm.
I speak more about him in my Drow Pantheon video, and a quick YouTube search will pop
up other videos about him as well.
Give them a watch.
Tharizdun the Chained god!
Tharizdun isn’t technically Forgotten Realms Lore but in dealing with the Far Realm, ancient
deities, and the planes of existence I hope we can make an exception.
He originated on Oerth and in his mythology created the Abyss.
The Obyriths, which were ancient demons gave him a shard of pure evil to poison and corrupt
the Astral Sea.
Although Obyriths are ancient demons they have certain qualities with the Far Realm.
After Tharizdun interacted with them his mind was touched with madness and he went insane.
He threw the Shard of Pure Evil into the elemental chaos and it dug down like a hot nail in snow.
This grew into the Abyss and the act forced his fellow gods to imprison him.
Cults of Tharizdun pop up every so often, his callings to his followers in their sleep.
Currently Tharizdun is trapped in another universe, left in tact with all his powers,
he is too mad to even plot escape.
Perhaps he works through his warlocks to bring about his return to the Prime Material Plane.
I’ve got a few more I’d like to talk about but first I want to thank Dice Dungeons for
sponsoring this video.
They’ve got a new kickstarter for their Character Coins.
One inch sized coins with class icons on one side and an different indicator on the other
side for downed PCs.
This is a great alternative to miniatures if you want to easily keep your character
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You can get a set of 12, one of each class, or 12 of one particular class; which could
be good for DMs out there wanting NPC monster tokens.
They have loads of stretch goals including monster coins as well, so check out their
kickstarter today, and let them know I sent you.
Dendar the Night Serpent is an ancient power that in 4th edition received the term primordial.
This was done to both him and Kezef the Chaos Hound.
Feared by the gods these creatures were imprisoned by them.
Dendar the Night Serpent supposedly slumbers near Chult, and his awakening may bring about
the end of the world.
Kezef the Chaos Hound is an undead looking mastiff with maggots in his fur.
He has since broke free by Cyric’s actions and he roams the Outer Planes.
Your warlock could easily have come across some ancient text about these two beings and
perform a ritual to create a pact with them.
I imagine having a warlock of Kezef, Tharizdun, or Dendar and creating a new religion.
Perhaps your warlock misinterprets his power he receives; and thinks of it like that of
a cleric.
Dendar doesn’t want to destroy he wants to protect, and I’ll protect you with my
powers.
Kezef only hunts those unworthy of his power.
Become worthy and follow Kezef!
I hope you enjoyed this video on the Great Old Ones, I really want to play all the different
kinds of warlocks.
They just seem so much fun.
Thanks again to Dice Dungeons for sponsoring this video, be sure to check out their kickstarter
links in the doobly do.
I’ll see you all next week with another episode of Forgotten Realms Explained.