Tsojcanth
| Greyhawk Character | |
| Tsojcanth | |
|---|---|
| |
| Tsojcanth's true form. | |
| Homeland | Unknown |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Half-fiend |
| Age | Unknown (but was active for many centuries before Iggwilv) |
| Class | Illusionist 18 |
| Alignment | Chaotic evil |
Tsojcanth is remembered by most as an Oeridian wizard who fought for the forces of Good, checking the schemes of Orcus, Graz'zt, and Tharizdun, and slaying a wielder of the Hand of Vecna.
This was a facade, a deception. Tsojcanth was actually the half-human son of the demon lord Fraz-Urb'luu, the Prince of Deception himself, and he sought only to eliminate those who worked against his own schemes and those of his father, not to do good.
Description
In his mortal guise, Tsojcanth appeared as an old human man dressed in plain white robes. His eyes were sparkling blue.
In his true form, which he avoided exposing to others, Tsojcanth is over nine feet tall with mottled ash-gray skin, a barbed tail, and a snakelike tongue. His eyes are pitch black.
History
The half-fiend Tsojcanth was the son of Fraz-Urb'luu and the human witch Vilhara, who is said to have been the first to uncover Fraz-Urb'luu's True Name. Vilhara named him tsoj-canth, which meant "little deceiver" in the tongue of her people.
In the 4th century CY, Iggwilv used knowledge she had gained from the Tome of Zyx to summon and bind Tsojcanth, making him her slave for several generations. In 491 CY, Graz'zt suggested to her that she could only stop the spread of a rift between the Prime Material Plane and the Abyss by binding a powerful magical entity to it. She attempted to bind Tsojcanth, but he resisted, and it left Iggwilv weary and drained before she defeated her former minion. Graz'zt attacked her next, and although she successfully destroyed the demon prince's material form, she was left almost powerless afterwards. Still she managed to bind the unconscious Tsojcanth into the planar fabric, sealing the rift for the time being.
Creative origins
Tsojcanth was originally known only from the name of the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth module.
In an interview [1], Gary Gygax said, "I have no file of data dealing with Tsojcanth. I imagined him as one of the exceptionally potent magic-wielders who arise amongst humans every so often. I considered him the channel used by the Good deities for the further abridgement of the actual Tharizdun, as it were. Tsojcanth and a circle of other mages of good alignment, and certainly others of like persuasion and other capacities, assailed and defeated the followers of the avatar Tharizdun, and then by sympathetic means, and empowered by deital power, Tsojcanth (and his associated mages lending their power to him so as he could survive channeling of deital energies) forced the avatar Tharizdun to rejoin its parent entity."
Bibliography
- Gygax, Gary. The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Lake Geneva: TSR, Inc., 1982, ISBN 0-935696-72-5).
- Marmell, Ari, Edward Albert, and C.A. Suleiman. "Iggwilv's Legacy: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth." Dungeon #151. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2007. Available online [2]
