Vidileth

The powerful vidileths are the insidious veiled masters of the alghollthus. These manipulators of mind and body alike lead their species in the open, using their ability to change form to walk among and deceive humans and other sapient species. Many veiled masters are even more powerful than the typical specimen presented here and can use a wide range of arcane or occult spells and rituals. While veiled masters command significant combat prowess and impressive magical skills, the greatest danger they pose to others is their uncanny ability to infiltrate into societies much different than their own. The most paranoid of adventurers and conspiracy scholars worry that every major city has been infested by secret cabals of vidileths, while others dismiss this as hogwash and fearmongering. The truth is likely somewhere in between, but it doesn't take many veiled masters pulling the strings behind the scenes to wreak havoc upon an entire nation!

In bygone millennia, aquatic monsters known as alghollthus used their occult powers to conquer and rule vast parts of the world. Their empires contained countless mortal slaves treated as little more than cattle. Alghollthus shaped their slaves and other creatures using mental manipulation and physically transformative magic. Aberrant horrors from faceless stalkers to mimics can be traced back to this meddling. The rulers of the alghollthu race, the so-called veiled masters, further shaped entire societies by assuming the forms of those they controlled. From the heights of power to the shadows of poverty, the veiled masters manipulated these societies according to their own dark designs, enslaving, killing, or horrifically transforming those who discovered their plans or acted against them.

In time, the alghollthus grew frustrated with their increasingly upstart slave societies and sought to wipe the slate clean-both starting anew and punishing those who had become too willful and rebellious. They used incredible magical power to call forth a cataclysm, hoping to destroy the rebellious societies they'd manipulated. Yet they miscalculated the strength of faith and will to survive of their pawns and slaves, and in time the world and its empires recovered and grew strong once again-this time without alghollthu influence.

Today, the alghollthus have retreated from their mass-scale manipulation of the surface world, and they have mostly remained within the deep aquatic realms where they still rule without question. Yet they have not abandoned their plots entirely, and the reemergence of servitor races like ugothols points to a frightening possibility-that the alghollthus have turned their hateful eyes to the surface once again.