However as time passed Tharzdun prison has become less exact; one of the better liked theories is that he was imprisoned using his own power to feed his cocoon. Although their are times when this energy waxes and wanes allowing Tharzidun to provide direction.
It uncertain whether he is aware during these moments or still asleep and his malevolence dreams are seeping into reality.
Yeah the Gygax version was a little bit surreal but otherwise very literal - a big tower. I think a more subtle description involving a freamworld of Tharizdun's own making has more bite.
Of course, you can treat the novels as canon in which case he can be improsioned in a demi-plane linked to Zagyg's Castle in the remains of a destroyed alternate Oerth dimension.
It's a bit cliche or heretical, but he's imprisoned at the center of the Oerth. (Got the idea here, not sure from whom...)
When he awakes, the world will be destroyed. But for now, only distant echoes of his malevolent intent seep through; those whose minds or lives are shattered are the most likely to hear his call.
I doubt that anyone would like the idea, but I always though of him being trapped someware in the etherial plane and his dreams were what made up Ravenloft. But that's just me.
I've used Tharizdun a few different ways in games, including making him not be a single creature entity, but instead "Tharizdun" is a code-word among those-in-the-know that points to the Cthulhu Mythos and their imminent return (obviously in a CthulhuHawk game). That also nicely allows PCs to find rumors about lots of different possible locations for Tharizdun's prison, each of which can then contain a different Greater Old One :D
In other games, I've set his prison as:
another multiverse (he was banished there, and may only return during a Conjunction of the Million Spheres (from Moorcock, of course)
in the demiplane (or plane or whatever) of imprisonment (sometimes varianted a la the Phantom Zone from one of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies)
beneath WG4 where the Black Cyst contains the real Tharizdun!
on the Isle of Lost Souls (who needs Ur-Flan when you've got T!)
in an environment very similar to Gygax's tower, but then placing that tower out in the Seas of Limbo
inside an artifact (again borrowing some from the idea of The Black Sword from Moorcock's Elric/Count Brass books)
I've also simply made Tharizdun a myth that doesn't exist, too. Or, perhaps he's a myth among demons, devils, etc., in the same way that the gigantes are among the Greek myths---nearly forgotten, and likely not relevant any longer.
I've used Tharizdun a few different ways in games, including making him not be a single creature entity, but instead "Tharizdun" is a code-word among those-in-the-know that points to the Cthulhu Mythos and their imminent return (obviously in a CthulhuHawk game). That also nicely allows PCs to find rumors about lots of different possible locations for Tharizdun's prison, each of which can then contain a different Greater Old One :D
In other games, I've set his prison as:
another multiverse (he was banished there, and may only return during a Conjunction of the Million Spheres (from Moorcock, of course)
in the demiplane (or plane or whatever) of imprisonment (sometimes varianted a la the Phantom Zone from one of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies)
beneath WG4 where the Black Cyst contains the real Tharizdun!
on the Isle of Lost Souls (who needs Ur-Flan when you've got T!)
in an environment very similar to Gygax's tower, but then placing that tower out in the Seas of Limbo
inside an artifact (again borrowing some from the idea of The Black Sword from Moorcock's Elric/Count Brass books)
I've also simply made Tharizdun a myth that doesn't exist, too. Or, perhaps he's a myth among demons, devils, etc., in the same way that the gigantes are among the Greek myths---nearly forgotten, and likely not relevant any longer.
I've also changed Tharizdun's sex a few times, FWIW ;)
This is similar to the idea I had for using Tharizdun in a campaign I want to run. Here's a brief synopsis:
In my campaign, round about the time of the Invoked Devastation, there was a secret battle deep in the Hellfurnaces where the followers of Tharizdun tried to release their dark god. He was reimprisoned, but only by an effort of several high-level clerics and mages, which resulted in the loss of the knowledge of Wild Magic from the world, and the near-destruction of elemental schools of magic. Fast forward several hundred years, where the magical imprisonment is weakening. One of the side plots is that the seal can only be reimpowered by a decendent of the original adventurers who sealed it, of which there is only one left. This descendant gets kidnapped by a mysterious cult, all signs of which point to the return of the cult of Tharizdun, but ACTUALLY, they are worshippers of ANOTHER dark god. Anyway, the climax is the party reimpowers the seal preventing Tharizdun from returning... only to find out they were suckered by the other cult. They power they used to reimprison Tharizdun allows GREAT C'THULHU to return to Oerth. Cue the madness. 8) The party is then between a rock and a hard place.... can they stop BOTH evils?
Anyways, a lot of the ideas you have for the Big T are similar to ones I have in mind.
In 2e, there was a certain tendency to hint that Tharizdun was, in fact, the essence of the *Dark Powers* in Ravenloft. Now, the RL fans apparently objected, and TSR dropped the idea.
While this is utterly uncanonical, it might help you a bit more to flesh things out.
(I am sorry that I can bring no proove for this assertion; I read a discussion on this some years ago that involved some RL veterans as well as some of the Kargatane. Can't find the thread any more, though.) _________________ "A Minstrel's Memory": PBPs & Other Games, since 2005.
Yeah, that's apparently the current view on Tharizdun, which I personally prefer to the Ravenloft crossover. It also fits a bit more with what Mr Gygax had in mind, IMO. _________________ "A Minstrel's Memory": PBPs & Other Games, since 2005.
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