Temple of Id, "Egg-o" and Thanatos.

[Havard]

Sparked by the Year 500 thread, I started thinking about the Temple of Id and its inhabitants.

I have previously suggested that the members of the Temple of Id are followers of Thanatos. In addition to the fact that Thanatos is a big bad deity, the fact that both Id and Thanatos are terms from psychology. Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor hints at various links between the Cultists of Id and the Egg of Coot, bringing us another psychological term, Ego ("Egg-o").

I don't know about these coincidences, but they are sort of funny. Anyway, In My Campaign, the object of the Temple of Id in the Year 500 was to awaken the Egg of Coot. Since they were destroyed, the Egg was not awakened untill much later, ultimately being raised from its sleep by the magical energies released during the Mage Wars.

The Egg of Coot is a dangerous foe indeed, but one can only imagine what dangers it could have presented if it had become an instrument of the Id Cult. I believe that this group did not only want to awaken the sleeping Egg, but control it and use it to further their own destructive goals.

What other resources might that order have had at its disposal? Coming from the Mystara community, I have always associated Thanatos with the Dimension of Nightmares (comparable perhaps to the Far Realm in later era D&D).

Creatures serving Id might include denizens of Nightmare listed here as well as Displacer Beasts.

For this reason, I always believed the Malfera Woods were important to the Cult of Id (Malfera being specifically described as Nightmare Creatures).

I think it could also be interesting to include some connections to the Burrower Wars. Could there still be Neanderthal Burrower Cultists servin the Temple of Id?

-Havard

[finarvyn]

This is good stuff. What we need to collect all of the canon and "semi-canon" stuff together into a single Blackmoor Gazeteer or something like that.

[RobJN]

Perhaps the brute-men/neanderthals were but the first generation of Id Cultists. Maybe the Temple was one of Thanatos' first efforts to revive the Burrowers, and in so doing, they discovered (or drew the attention of) the EGG, only to be defeated before bringing about its rising/awakening?

[Havard]

This is good stuff. What we need to collect all of the canon and "semi-canon" stuff together into a single Blackmoor Gazeteer or something like that.

That's a really nice compliment! Thanks!

But yeah, compilations is a good idea. So much work to do...

-Havard

[Havard]

Perhaps the brute-men/neanderthals were but the first generation of Id Cultists. Maybe the Temple was one of Thanatos' first efforts to revive the Burrowers, and in so doing, they discovered (or drew the attention of) the EGG, only to be defeated before bringing about its rising/awakening?

This fits extremely well with what I was thinking too!

With the "Sleeping Ones" concept, I introduced the idea that the Egg is just one of several such beings so not everything has to be about the Egg, but I definitely see a connection between the Brute-Man Burrower worshippers and the Id Cult.

Thanatos might not care too much if it is a Burrower or an Egg of Coot that is awakened. However, it would have been preferable to him if the Egg was awakened under the control of his own servants. As it ended up, the Egg is now working towards its own goals. In the long run, Thanatos will always win, but at least on the short term, that is something the heroes of Blackmoor can use to their advantage.

-Havard

[Yaztromo]

I love this digging of terms associated with psychology 8)