Nava-Verse Archives #50: Monsgnarl Pantheon

These are the Primal Deities that make up the Monsgnarl Pantheon, a group of evil deities that has maintained a firm domination of the Omega Octant planet Proolycoles, and its humanoids, the Huplegrars, for all of recorded history, back to before the Relative Calendar was invented. These deities are particularly malicious, ruthless and corruptive, as well as ancient, and there are five main ones, one representing each class of Primal Deity. These five were all present at the Pantheon's formation, and are the only deities who have consistently been part of it ever since. Other Primal Deities have joined the Monsgnarl Pantheon at various points in time, but all of them end up either leaving or being vanquished after some time. Currently, the Pantheon consists of only the main five, and has been this way for over a century. All attempts to retake planet Proolycoles from them, even those involving angels, have failed. The planet and its inhabitants, which are now severely and irreversibly corrupted, are now considered beyond help, and the "Monsgnarls" (as the deities are sometimes called) remain an active and significant threat to the rest of the Prime Galaxy, though they do not currently control any other planets in the same way they do Proolycoles.

• Dif'Elarah: The Elemental–Class deity among the group. Dif'Elarah is an electricity and lightning–based extra–corporeal being that identifies itself as female, though "she" exhibits few to no stereotypically feminine traits and is not associated with sexuality (which most "female" Primal Deities are), actually being the least perverted of the Monsgnarls. Her form stands nearly twenty feet tall, and is partially extra–corporeal and partially sub–corporeal. The sub–corporeal portions of her body are those that appear to be made of blue electric energy, and which are semi–amorphous; the ends of her "arms" can take the forms of either "hands" with multiple "fingers" or singular daggers of energy. Sparking bolts of lightning constantly spout and fume from the top and sides of her head, and her whole body rests upon a floating vortex of red–hot electricity. Physical contact with any part of her body is hazardous to one's health and is not advised. Dif'Elarah has the ability to dissipate into thin air and reappear within seconds at any point of her choosing within several miles. She can also transfer her essence into clouds, of which there are lots floating around the skies of Proolycoles at all times, which she then takes control over and induces the phenomenon of lightning in. She frequently commandeers clouds either to strike people down (something that only divine beings have the right to do), or to clear out patches of land for use as agricultural fields or sites for buildings, in a practice reminiscent of the ancient agricultural technique of "slash–and–burn". Dif'Elarah is considered the "guardian" of the planet Proolycoles from intruders who wish to overthrow the Monsgnarls, and whom she strikes down from the clouds (although she has also been known to do this to Huplegrars who are either "nonbelievers" or are otherwise considered liabilities, and possibly to random Huplegrars simply for fun), and also the goddess of agriculture, even though she is still a destructive force rather than a creative one even when she helps clear out fields. The durability value of Dif'Elarah's body is 15,000.

• Mias'Cento: The Mage–Class deity among the group. Mias'Cento is "male", and has a very humanoid form almost resembling that of the Aspimean, and a headpiece that represents the "head" of this facsimile of a mortal body. He has four independently–floating arms, although the lower pair could alternatively and easily be seen as representing legs. Instead of his entire headpiece being organic and vulnerable, the only truly living part of Mias'Cento's body is the exposed "brain" within his head. He speaks in a mischievous–sounding and moderately high–pitched voice, which emits through the grinning "teeth" on his upper–upper body, despite him having another, separate set of "teeth" immediately above these. Of course, neither are actually used for eating, which a Primal Deity is "above" the need to do. The purple glow surrounding the floating parts that make up his body is particularly bright and strong.
Mias'Cento's voice is indicative of his type of personality, but does not convey the extreme nature of this personality: he is a malicious trickster and prankster who often goes around casting harmful spells upon unsuspecting Huplegrars, most of which alter the bodies of their victims in some way, usually permanently. The effects of such spells range from non–beneficial mutations and severe scarring to (sometimes deadly) sickness and even transformation into inanimate objects (in which case the victim's consciousness remains alive within the object they have been turned into, only being released when the object is destroyed to a sufficient extent). Despite the horrific nature of some of these spells, to be changed by Mias'Cento is considered an "honor" by the Huplegrars. He even has a spell that can turn Huplegrars into other humanoid races, though the effects of this particular spell are temporary, and even then it is one of the hardest spells for the deity to cast, as it is so drastic and complex. Note that the greater the preexisting influence of Primal Deities on an individual, the more vulnerable they are to Mias'Cento's magic; since the Huplegrars are so utterly dominated by the Monsgnarls, he can do practically whatever he wants to them, but it is much harder for him to affect non–Huplegrars, and those who are closest to God are virtually immune.
To compensate for his openly antagonistic nature towards his own subjects, Mias'Cento is very open to granting "wishes" in exchange for favors and offerings that are less substantial than what most other wish–granting deities would demand for the same services.
Mias'Cento has been quoted several times as saying that he knows a dark secret relating to humanoids in general, and he laughs out loud whenever he mentions this. However, he has never revealed to anyone else, including his fellow deities, exactly what this alleged secret is.
Mias'Cento's (or rather, his brain's) durability value is 15,000 (making it one tough freaking brain!). This durability value is the same as Dif'Elarah's, and the two are fairly evenly–matched in other areas as well.

• Set'Ibutal: The Guardian–Class deity among the group. Set'Ibutal is extremely masculine and is one of the most distinctly humanoid Primal Deities ever, having a full, grounded body with both arms and legs. His form stands more than twenty feet tall, and is hunchbacked. Unlike most Guardian–Class deities, Set'Ibutal does more than just going around looking for challengers who seek to claim his artifact, the Gnarly Sword of Bursting, a large two–handed blade that, in addition to being supernaturally sharp and durable, sometimes creates small, controlled explosions upon impact with a foe's body. He is the leader of Proolycoles' warrior caste, which is equivalent to a military, and personally puts all Huplegrar warriors, who are assigned to that caste at birth based on being the most physically fit and promising among the population's infants by Junt'Vubis, through a rigorous, harsh and sometimes deadly training regime starting at the tender age of just four years. Set'Ibutal teaches them to be pitiless, vicious and brutally pragmatic in battle, and makes them push their bodies beyond their natural limits in order to build them up to great strength. Were he an angel and had more compassion, he would probably be the universe's greatest personal trainer. However, as it is he is evil and cruel like the other Monsgnarls, and frequently ends up getting his subjects killed, which he feels no remorse for, believing that they deserved to die for being weak and failing to live up to their destiny as warriors, and teaching his other subjects to think in the same way. At the age of fourteen, every young Huplegrar warrior who has survived all of Set'Ibutal's torturous training over ten whole years must face one more, final test from him to earn freedom and the respect and honor of being a full–fledged warrior: facing the deity in combat. During these fights, which are fought unarmed by both participants, Set'Ibutal deliberately uses only a fraction of his true power, and ends the fight when his opponent and subject has either fared well enough against him and landed enough blows to prove their worthiness, or is dead. Less than half of all Huplegrars who are assigned to the warrior caste survive all of Set'Ibutal's training; the majority of those who don't die during the final test of fighting him.
Set'Ibutal also personally leads all fully–qualified warriors who have survived his training during times of actual war, which are rare on Proolycoles, but which he actually, personally fights in when they do happen.
When he is not busy training warrior youth or fighting off planetary intruders, Set'Ibutal seeks those who believe themselves powerful and worthy enough to challenge him in full–out combat to the death, in which the deity does not hold back, over the Gnarly Sword of Bursting. He has "died" seven times, being defeated in one–on–one combat by freakishly powerful Huplegrar warriors who then claimed his artifact six of those times, and being slain by angels, who were later overpowered and killed by the other Monsgnarls and their forces, the other time. Like other Guardian–Class deities, Set'Ibutal is reborn when the individual who has defeated him and inherited his weapon dies and their soul becomes part of his consciousness. When he was killed by angels, said angels actually destroyed the Gnarly Sword of Bursting, hoping that doing so would vanquish the deity completely. However, he and his sword resurrected three years, two cycles and sixteen days later. This was subsequently discovered to be the "respawn time" for all Guardian–Class deities whose artifacts and bodies are both destroyed.
Set'Ibutal's durability value is 20,000.

• Junt'Vubis: The Serpentine–Class deity among the group, the leader of the Monsgnarl Pantheon, and also, appropriately, the most powerful Monsgnarl. Junt'Vubis is very large and heavy, and has a corporeal, organic form rather than one made of enchanted, possessed stone. He was always a Serpentine–Class deity, and never an Idol. He resides at all times in his throne room at the top of a 200–foot–tall golden–plated ziggurat that was built for him over a millennium ago at the center of the Huplegrars' capital city of Yeppus, which was also constructed under the Serpentine's supervision. Physically, Junt'Vubis is noted for the peculiar position in which he sits upon his belly, and for his very long, blue–haired neck. He has four arms, the lower pair of which has hands on both ends, and six symbolic dead insect wings on his back. His main power is telekinesis; in this very picture he is shown levitating several stones with the power of one arm, but that does not even begin to adequately illustrate the extent of his powers. If he wanted, Junt'Vubis could lift the entire golden structure atop which he sits into the air, tearing it out of the ground in which it is deeply and securely rooted. He can also telekinetically move living things and their body parts, both external and internal, and can indeed cause the internal organs of any normal humanoid within several miles of him to explode on a whim. Junt'Vubis can speak both externally and telepathically, and he has complete knowledge of every single word in both the English and Proolignarlish languages.
He is effectively the emperor of planet Proolycoles. All newborn Huplegrars are brought to him to be judged and placed into one of six castes: slave, peasant, citizen, aristocrat, prince or warrior. The first five of these castes are linear ranks, in order from lowest to highest, while the "warrior" caste is special. Any child that Junt'Vubis deems unfit for even the "slave" caste is devoured by him on the spot, being swallowed whole and dissolved instantaneously by his stomach acids, which are exponentially stronger than those of any mortal being. It has been suggested by multiple sources that he sometimes eats babies not because he actually considers them unfit to live, but because he likes to do so and/or because they are particularly satiating to his supernatural hunger. Aside from infants, Junt'Vubis also eats many other "foods", including both actual foods and inedible objects. Five meals are delivered to him daily by his personal slaves.
Junt'Vubis possesses a durability value of about 40,000. It would be accurate to call him the single most infamous Primal Deity in the Nava–Verse.

• Ness'Qilob: The Idol–Class deity among the group. Ness'Qilob is considered the weakest of the main five, and is certainly the dumbest. It is also the only completely genderless Monsgnarl, and the only one with Tikis: Frustration, Hunger and Violation. Its body is decorated mainly in greenish and purplish colors, and it has four tentacles coming out of its sides which serve as "arms", can extend and stretch to several times their natural length, and have millions of microscopic feelers on them. Its offensive abilities include laser beams of strength on par with the most advanced current humanoid–made energy weapons.
Ness'Qilob's "house" is a silver–plated altar in the center of a forest just to the West of Yeppus. A pathway has been cleared out through this forest leading up to said altar, where the Idol loiters around most of the day, often wandering off into other parts of the forest to eat the animals and chew on the trees. Huplegrars occasionally give or leave it offerings, which are absorbed into the deity's essence via route of consumption through its large, gapingly open mouth. Sometimes, random objects, usually food, come back up out of the mouth for people to take after multiple offerings are placed into the mouth at once. However, these objects are always of lesser value than the things that Ness'Qilob was just given.
Ness'Qilob is, as mentioned above, not very smart. It lacks the devious cunning and comprehensive, obscure knowledge that most Primal Deities possess, instead being a simple creature with simple, carnal desires that is content to act as a mere servant to Junt'Vubis, who uses it as a pet and enforcer. Its altar was deliberately built so that it would be just within the range of Junt'Vubis' telepathy, allowing him to summon Ness'Qilob at his leisure. The leader of the Monsgnarls frequently calls to it and orders it to bring him seemingly random things that he wants but which are located far away and would be difficult for his Huplegrar servants to fetch (not that they wouldn't be willing to try). Ness'Qilob is particularly ideal for fetching unusual things because of its photographic knowledge and memory of Proolycoles' entire layout, including where various things can generally be found, despite otherwise being lacking in the mental area. In exchange for doing him these periodic favors, Junt'Vubis gives Ness'Qilob free access to all female Huplegrars among the slave caste, and allows it to molest them with its tentacles, which they usually enjoy due to their own innate perversion which is a result of the Monsgnarls' general corruption. Surprisingly, Ness'Qilob only takes advantage of this privilege occasionally, rather than all the time.
Ness'Qilob has a durability value of 18,000.