The Icosantheon is a host of twenty deities bound not by a common origin, but by a united conservatorship of the immaterium that forms the sides and edges of the material plane.

19. Garuuhl

Garuuhl is also known as the First Lich, the Bringer of Bottled Sorrow, and (especially where his veneration is allowed in major cities) the Preserver and the Fermented One. He is always depicted as a roughly 4-foot tall, lean, humanoid, desiccated corpse with a long, slender, pointed nose, bright white points of light for eyes, and durable clothing of resin-impregnated leather. His gauntlets are light gray leather and fingerless, with twisted mithral and adamantine thread at every seam and cuff. Though his throat, chest, and abdomen are normally covered with a leather work-coat, when opened it is revealed that fungus and mushrooms grow in his flesh at these places.

It is believed that this depiction of Garuuhl is so clear and consistent because, unlike most deities, he still visits his temples and shrines from time to time. All these places remain working distilleries, dairies, apothecaries, canneries, and herbalist shops, and the Preserver has been known to come to have some new discovery or process explained to him, or to loan out his gauntlets to a worthy student, or to set a cask or vat to ferment in a cave beneath a dread monastery for a few centuries, or to pluck a fungus from his flesh, and set it to grow in a corpse laying in the yard, and command it be left to grow. None of these events are frequent, but every few decades Garuuhl appears at some place that reveres him.

The First Lich is just that, the first mortal to achieve lichhood. What his species was prior to this is unknown, and it has been suggested he is anything from a shrunken human or elf or a thin dwarf, to a gnome, goblin, or halfling. When asked, the god himself just notes he is a lich, and it’s hard to argue with that. During his original life Garuuhl invented beer, ale, yogurt, wine, spirits, jam, and cheese, all while seeking a way to preserve his body forever (which eventually lead to his creation of the lichification process).

It has been suggested that in his mad dash to exist forever, Garuuhl invented the things needed for civilization entirely by accident. He created uses for the caves beneath the earth, the things that grow in it, fire for cooking and tanning and fermenting, cold for freezing and drying. He is a god of dread and terrible knowledge, but also the wonders it can create.

There is no question that Garuuhl is evil. He cares only for his own researches and discoveries (and safety), and happily sacrifices anyone and anything that slows his desires. But there is also no question that his temples and monasteries are sources of great teaching, knowledge, and, and medicine. While most other gods oppose him (though Karrackar continues to simply try to convince the Fermented One to stop being a deific ass, and Tazoteot doesn’t much care what Garuuhl does as long as the First Lich keeps Tazoteot and their worshipers well-supplied with narcotics as desired), they also accept that his contributions are more beneficial than harmful. But Garuuhl also demands he be credited as the primary source of any discovery made by him or his followers, and rains horrors down on those who don’t acknowledge him.

From great evil can come knowledge that can be used for good. This neither changes that it was created through evil, nor that it’s main uses may be benevolent.

Even in lands where it is illegal to openly worship Garuuhl, as he is an evil deity, it is sometimes allowed to cautiously venerate him. His monasteries and temples sometimes operate openly even where his worship is forbidden, staffed not by “priests” but by “cantors” and “curates.” And, in truth, as long as they do his bidding, Garuuhl does not care if those he empowers and protects worship him, or not, though mostly to gain his divine power one must be willing to sacrifice all other entities at his command, which requires at least a non-good alignment.

*Garuuhl is Neutral Evil. He accepts the devotion of entities of any alignment, but only non-good creatures can truly worship him. Some alchemists and wizards do study and venerate him as the source of much knowledge, while at the same time opposing his and his followers’ excessive experiments.
*Garuuhl’s colors are red, black, and white.
*His favorite weapon is alchemist’s fire.
*His favored animal is the bee.
*His servitors are alchemical inevitables and fiendish undead.
*His holy symbol is a knot of red fire, black ice, and white hide.
*His areas of concern are preservation, invention, discover, experimentation, and self-important.

Pathfinder 1st Edition Rules:
*His domains are Death (undead), Earth (caves), Fire (smoke), Magic (alchemy), Plant (decay), and Water (ice).

His priests can take the “bombs” section of the alchemy feature of alchemists in place of channel energy, and gain appropriate bomb-related discoveries as feats. Spellcasters and alchemists who venerate, but do not worship him, can learn formulas to duplicate any spell from his granted domains as spells or extracts, but must never destroy or suppress knowledge of his church’s work, regardless of whether they try to stop it.

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