Behemoth
Emperor of the Earth; Great Tarasque; Slumbering Titan
Symbol: A pair of crossed tusks
Home Plane: The Beastlands
Alignment: Neutral
Cleric Alignments: Any neutral
Portfolio: Living creatures of the earth; the living earth and its changes
Worshipers: Hunters, rangers, druids, barbarians, those who make a living from animals
Domains: Animal, Destruction (Rage), Earth, Strength (Ferocity), Weather (Seasons)
Favored Weapon: Greatclub
Physical Description:
Since it is said by many that Behemoth is the first tarrasque, it comes as no surprise that he looks like a tarrasque of truly immense size, large enough to swallow whole cities in a single gulp, and for this it is fortunate he almost never appears on the Prime Material Plane. Behemoth differs from other tarrasques (aside from his size) in that he has a crown-like crest on his head, a visible mark of his status. Usually Behemoth can be found asleep, and is treated by many as a part of the landscape on the Outer Planes, though when he wakes up, untold levels of casual (for him) devastation occur.
Description of Nature, Personality, and Dogma:
All living things that live upon the face of Therfim are Behemoth's concern, though he pays most attention to those creatures that do not use tools. The balance, abundance, and diversity of life are the things over which Behemoth has power, and for which he has great responsibility. Behemoth himself is a sleepy deity, and not terribly bright as gods go, but he tends to be fairly affable and agreeable as long as his anger is not aroused in any way. When he is angered, however, Behemoth becomes completely unreasonable and will not listen to any entreaties as he enters a furious berserker's rage, which can cause damage to everything, even the things Behemoth intended to protect.
As a god of the earth's living things, Behemoth's followers respect and revere life and understand the interconnectedness of all things. This doesn't mean that they are peace-loving vegetarians by any means - far from it! - but it does mean that they appreciate the truth that, in order to live, all that lives must feed on the life of others, and so all life should be treated with respect and not wasted. Hunting is a holy act to Behemoth, and so hunting for sport only, with no intention of eating the flesh of whatever is killed, is sacrilege. Most people make sure to give Behemoth some respect, and the closer they are to the source of their meat, the more respect they give him.
Clergy, Places of Worship, Important Rituals, and Servitor Races:
For anyone to become a cleric of Behemoth, they must first serve as food for the animals that they eat. The acolyte is taken up in a dream-quest, away from standard reality, and there that acolyte is overpowered, torn apart, and devoured by all the ground-based animals of the part of the world where the acolyte lives. During the course of this dream-quest, the acolyte might also take on the body of other animals and go through their normal patters of life for a while. After this experience, acolytes who are too horrified by this experience cease to make progress, and some go insane. On the other hand, acolytes who grasp the meaning behind this experience find that they are able to call on Behemoth for divine magic, some of them becoming druids while others become clerics.
While Behemoth does not have any temples, per se, small shrines to Behemoth find their way into civilized lands, looking much like the shrines of other gods, though Behemoth has little interest in such puny attempts by city dwellers to gain his favor. Proper altars to Behemoth are made of the bones of animals killed for the needs of the people making the altar. These bones must be unbroken and in good condition, and they are then stacked together into the shape of an altar, and finally coated with special resin, lacquer, glue, or some other hardening substance that protects and preserves the bones and binds them together firmly while still making them clearly visible. These bones are sometimes painted in a variety of colors and patterns, though they are never carved or shaped in any way.
The tarrasques that slumber across and beneath the face of the planet are all the servitors of Behemoth. Usually only one is active at a time, though more can be awakened in case of planetwide threats or, rarely, because of mortal tampering. Their primary purpose is to ensure that civilization never gets too out of hand and overwhelms the natural world. All normal animal life will also listen to Behemoth's commands without hesitation or concern for their own lives.
History and Relations:
The first tarrasque created by the gods, Behemoth is concerned with the protection of Therafim itself, and his divine authority was given to him to ensure that he would be able to enforce the decrees of other deities in protecting Therafim from threats to its living creatures. However, because of the dire need for his presence originally, the gods poured too much power into Behemoth, and so later somewhat corrected this mistake by ensuring he would spend most of his time in a state of hibernation, along with all the other tarrasques that he created afterward.
Behemoth is on somewhat neutral terms with the draconic gods, because while they created him, they also placed heavy limitations upon him which he finds frustrating when he bothers to think about it. This is thankfully seldom, and so he is willing to answer their entreaties for the most part, so long as it involves protecting Therafim's living creatures in some fashion. Tumulus and Behemoth get along tolerably well, though Behemoth is nowhere as intelligent as Tumulus and tends to be like a foolish but affable younger sibling to the Mountain King. He has a similar relationship to Phoenix and Leviathan, these four being the chief deities of living creatures, and hence being very closely tied. Since the creatures over which Behemoth has dominion need plant life to live, Behemoth maintains a cordial relationship with Gun who, thankfully, is rather easygoing about such things, which also means that Gun is able to call on Behemoth's aid in times of extreme need. Lugscar's endless rages disturb Behemoth's slumber quite regularly, and so he hates Blind Rage quite deeply, which is why few animals will cooperate with Lugscar's typical followers, such as orcs. Frenzy is Behemoth's hated enemy for corrupting the natural life of Therafim, but she is also the only creature that can cause something akin to fear in Behemoth, and so while he tries to undermine her with as much subtlety as he can manage (which, admittedly, isn't very much), he does not dare to confront her directly.
Favored Offerings and Justifications for Direct Intervention:
Most of Behemoth's offerings involve clubbing an animal over the head. The size and expense of this animal can vary quite a bit, as can the species of the animal - evil-aligned worshipers of Behemoth have even been known to use sentient sacrifices, and Behemoth does not seem to care one way or the other so long as he receives sacrifices. As long as the animal is one that walks on the earth, it is acceptable. The animal is then buried in the living earth and allowed to moulder, returning back to the earth from which all living things spring and fertilizing the ground in the process.
There is little need to get Behemoth's direct attention, and it is generally considered unwise to do so. If a species of land animal is in danger of dying out completely, at least in a particular region, Behemoth can be partially roused from his slumber, sufficiently enough to send the wrath of the earth on whatever is causing the threat of extinction. Sometimes Behemoth rouses too slowly to save a species in such danger. When this happens, he rises to a slightly more wakeful state, enough to focus some actual attention onto the problem, which can result in truly massive devastation, and not-infrequently the awakening of at least one tarrasque, depending on the extent of ecological damage done. In both cases, Behemoth's wrath (excluding the awakening of a tarrasque, that is) consists of animals suddenly turning against all who have aroused Behemoth's ire, normally unintelligent creatures becoming astonishingly organized and focused in their attacks. Meat around the offending creatures will come alive again, which can be truly agonizing if it is already eaten, and the earth itself will sometimes turn to quicksand, trying to suck those who have angered Behemoth into it, then hardening again to seal them in the earth. The threat of Behemoth's ire is one of the major reasons why the ecology of Therafim has remained so diverse and healthy despite the presence of so many sentient, city-building races. The extreme nature of his responses to petitions for aid is also why he does not usually get involved in mortal dealings.
