Hermaeus Mora

Basic Information

Great Old One

Titles:

• One Who Knows
• Gardener of Men
• Lord of Secrets
• Great Eye

Alignment:

• True Neutral

Symbol:

• Eye surrounded by tentacles
• Black goo (appears in entities touched by him)

Domains:

• Knowledge, Trickery

Worshippers:

• Scholars
• Warlocks

Personality

Hermaeus Mora is mostly a gentle Great Old One. Of course, this does not mean much when it comes to such otherworldly entities, but Mora is still comparably tame. While he would not blink a single of his endless eyes at the thought of obliterating entire civilizations in the pursuit of knowledge, he generally prefers to sit back and observe, while his minions do the busywork.

Mora loves to ‘follow’ interesting people. Many mortals pray to him in search of answers, and while those prayers are almost never answered, they still manage to reach him. If Mora thinks a mortal is particularly amusing, or that they might collect new knowledge, he’ll watch them until he gets bored of them.

DM Note

Sometimes he might even extend an offer to such mortals, lending a fraction of his power to them, asking in return only for complete control of their minds and souls. Unbeknownst to the mortal, Hermaeus Mora will dig his tentacles into them, watch through their eyes, listen through their ears, and slowly corrupt their minds until they are nothing but empty shells, husks of their former selves.

Powers

Hermaeus Mora’s domain is the mind. As such, he can exert his influence over and around anyone who’s mind he has entered. He’ll appear inside their head to communicate, and use their body as a vessel to interact with the physical world.

Even without a vessel, Mora is still a Great Old One. If necessary, Mora can make use of his tremendous powers to directly influence the world in whatever way he wishes, willing things into existence, or causing massive destruction. This however, requires some degree of effort, as Mora needs to penetrate the barrier separating Apocrypha from the rest of the universe. Due to this, and the fact that Hermaeus Mora has absolutely no interest in the universe beyond its knowledge, he much prefers to use stand-ins. Such stand-ins can include, as previously mentioned, thralls, but also objects such as his ‘Black Books’, or his servants, described below.

Realm

Hermaeus Mora catalogues all the knowledge he amasses in his own realm, called Apocrypha, where servants collect and catalogue everything they can find.

He sometimes lures mortals into his realm using ‘Black Books’, tomes of forbidden knowledge displaced from time and scattered across the world. Most mortals who gain access to the secrets within Apocrypha are driven insane by unending revelations.

In Apocrypha, stacks of books form mazes and spiralling pillars that can reach as high as the illuminating green sky. Intricate ruins and monstrous carvings can be found among the stacks. The plane is covered in a sea of ink and roiling tentacles, while Hermaeus Mora is omnipresent over all, taking glee in tormenting mortals from his realm.

Dogma

Hermaeus Mora has but one dogma, and has upheld it ever since the dawn of time: “Knowledge at all costs”. He respects people that share the same beliefs, yet can see through anyone pretending such.

Gallery

Hermaeus Mora’s emblem

Hermaeus Mora in his full form

Hermaeus Mora as he usually shows himself to mortals.