Tuesday, July 2, 2019

the Ogdoad and Protean

The ogdoads and proteans are exemplars of chaos resembling frogs and snakes, respectively.

The ogdoads originate from Counter Collection: Gold - Ogdoad by  Fiery Dragon Productions, Inc. The proteans originate from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 2 by Paizo Publishing, LLC. Both of them were intended to be replacements for the Slaad, who are product identity of Wizards of the Coast and thus off-limits for third-party products.

The ogdoad and protean take their inspiration from an Egyptian pantheon. The Ogdoad or Khemenu were a group of eight primordial deities worshiped in Hermopolis. They were divided into gendered counterparts: four gods with the heads of frogs and four goddesses with the heads of snakes.

I posit that, like the myth, the ogdoad and protean are complementary races. Both inhabit the realms of chaos and serve the protean lords aka chaos lords a la Moorcock. As of the 5e rules, both would be typed as aberrations.

There are at least four known varieties of ogdoad: annoad, huhhoad, kukkoad, and nunnoad. They haven't gotten much expansion yet.

There are many different known varieties of protean: akizendri, amalgessi, azuretzi, bladecypher, hegessik, ibshaunet, illureshi, imentesh, izfiitar, karygessos, keketar, leuserris, naunet, oshageros, ourdivar, pelagastr, pelagastr, and voidworm.

The ogdoad were reprinted and expanded in the Porphyra campaign setting. The Porphyra materials posit a link between the ogdoad and a number of batrachian races and monsters, such as boggards, grippli, frog fathers, blindheim, and so forth. Porphyra also posits than the ogdoad are linked with Lovecraft's great old ones, and their human descendants the doathi are akin to deep ones. I would go further with this: Tsathoggua the Frog God is a member of the chaos lords, along with the Lord of the Insane and the Lord of Entropy.

I posit that several aquatic human hybrids are actually a single race: deep ones, doathi, gillmen and skum. The gillmen and skum supposedly owe their origins to the aboleth, but I posit this is due to a link between the aboleth and the ogdoad.

Likewise, I would posit a similar link between the proteans and the various reptilian races, including dragons and serpentfolk.

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