Sunday, April 15, 2018

Belphegor, Beastmen, Fleshcult, Goatreich

Belphegor was dissatisfied with earth's animals and tore them apart and remade them better. The Goatreich spanned the earth for millennia. They were refined in their own ways but held contempt for both men and animals, being superior to both, and kept them in slavery. Inclining naturally towards worship of demons, their cathedrals to Urizen and Belphegor were fortresses of terror, their floors paved with glassinated gore, children poured into pits for the cygor, fires fed with fat from human bishops, and natural beasts cut into shapes the beastmen preferred; while the demon lords returned the favor by infesting human civilization with witches and the birth of beastchildren to women. Even today common man fears the coming of the goatchrist, whose birth heralds the subjugation of whatever kingdom he inhabits. Among cities annihilated by the goatchrist are Beryali and Cormra, whose population were eaten entirely.

An alliance between people, elves, and dwarves led to a long war with the Goatreich. The King Of All Horns and the King Of Hunger were slain on their thrones and the last beastmen driven into the wilderness, where they multiplied and filled the forests and wastes. The Fleshcults of Belphegor continue to spread through civilization and sometimes gain prominence and worship also Fenrath the Wolf and Izorides the Witch, and capture human clerics of these religions to be tied to the skulls of screaming one-eyed she-goats the size of houses and forced to perform miracles, and wardings against the spells of other gods.

The beastmen labor to end human civilization and hasten an end to speciation. In their opinion, all humans must die, and each animal should be unique unto itself. They labor in the wilderness creating new life, and their warlords battle each other for control of the wastes, and their armies seek human virgins to impregnate, so to hasten the birth of their new kings. One will be known by the span of his horns, as wide as the full moon, and one will be known by the depth of his throat, as deep as stars are far. Some say they have been born already in civilization, and need only be found by the beastmen and brought together to create the Goatreich anew.