Exalted Claddath, an apostate's guide.

[Kuma]

Curator's Note, 14th of Tarsakh, 165 Arelith Reckoning

Due to overwhelming demand resulting from my discussions on House Freth, the chief rulers of Devil's Table district of the City of the Deep Gate, I have begun my researches into their counterpart, equal in chiefdom of The Sharps district of Andunor, that of House Claddath - commonly referred to as "Exalted Claddath" (id est Vaunted Freth). I present my compiled notes with suitable annotations.

---

Araushnee is dead.

There are many sages who can spend the entirety of their career arguing how it happened, why that bloated spider ruptured. Any reason is as good as any other, but what is important to know is this: she is dead, and she is not coming back.

We have inherited a world that is in absence of a graven image. Let the unity of shared disgrace consume you - your pride telling you that you are meant for more - you must BE more, this life you live is only nascent. We are dreams shackled to flesh - pulp yourself that you might be dream again, without the limits of sentience. You're beyond that - you have promise, and there are gifts that can only be hatched inside the conscious mind when present in the dimension of the sleepless.


There is a thing that sits at the center of the world and it is called ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ.

((

mother
Matron Claddath, the Claddath Apostasy
Symbol: A triune set of warped, writhing lampreys joined at the tails, which have a three-cornered eye at the center
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Subsumation, Memetic Infection, Adaptation
Worshipers: Members of House Claddath, Fleshcrafters, Eugenicists, Perfectionists, Secularists
Domains: Domains: Evil, Knowledge, Domination, Community, Creation, Dream, Madness
Aspects: Hearth & Home, Knowledge & Invention

https://wiki.nwnarelith.com/mother

mother is an Eldritch Patron, and as such only selectable as a Patron for a select few sorts of characters - typically Warlocks, high level Blackguards, and similar. Any character may worship mother narratively, but obtaining her dubious blessings is something else entirely. she may be attuned to.

Also, it should go without saying that you should have an understanding of what the word "apostate" and "apostasy" means. If someone were to call themselves a "Claddath apostate" IC it'd be somewhat odd indeed - thought it is conceivable for someone to willingly position themselves as an apostate in opposition to a particular Church or faith.

))

---

Curator's Note, 21st of Tarsakh, 165 Arelith Reckoning

I've spent the better part of the week chasing my own tail alongside rumours of escaped slaves from that awful tower in The Sharps. No story is ever the same - some say they are nothing but madcap experimenters, yet others say that their greatest sin is simply forsaking Lolth.

More worrisome are the few wary whispers (behind triple-locked doors and scrying wards) that they represent the true seed of evil in the 'dark. That one of the City's most recognisable and visible benefactors could truly harbour such ill intent astonishes me, and I try to pay them little heed. What truly goes on behind their rictus-grins, their bloated faces gorged with stolen blood? What deeds dare lurk behind their absent eyes? Who is this ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ that they so-term their Matron?

My inquiries continue.

Curator's Note, 29th of Tarsakh, 165 Arelith Reckoning

They have heard of my prying. Freth wasn't like this. Freth looked down their noses at me, the vaulted ceilings of their doomsday bunker rising behind their vaunted gaze. Claddath is different. Claddath is

've been w

They welcomed me with open arms. Invited me to listen to them. They even invited me to their tower once more. My colleagues think me mad, accepting an invitation from Exalted Claddath, but how else am I to truly understand the other pillar of the City, the other Founding House? I must accept their invitation.

---

We need not the crutch of planar aid - it is addictive, laughable. Everything we need is here, upon this wretched world. Making up for our failings is easy enough: Your senses will betray you - scratch pearls into your soft tissue to incubate eyes with colours you have never seen. You shall never be blind again. Your memories can be rewritten - preserve them as black fumes, unseen moulds, an infectious verse. Melt your failings into threads of meat to ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ. Self-perfection is a group effort; you can be rebuilt into something Better. More.

It is easy enough to cultivate - liquid sleeplessness and a strain of the ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ are enough to transfer our image and purpose. Once the disease in the split infinitive takes hold, it is just a matter of springing a leak within the cranium to allow the Truth in, through black fungi and bilious, white oils.

And then, when you open our new eyes, when your head has flowered into a bouquet, you will marvel at how we limped through this world on only three tiny parameters. We carry the message, trickling down hundreds of angles into the fractures that all creatures have within their souls. We are the forerunners of change, the collective dream of the ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ, lurking in the infinite distance between inborn globules - and once they notice you, we shall notice them - and soon, you too, will be able to experience the divinity of ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀʜᴏᴏᴅ. They will resist, but only because they do not understand that they must slough off the burden of identity.

---

Curator's Note

they gifted me something

a sliver

a shard

it's so soft

comforting, wet

familiar

it knows me

they say if i embrace it, it will tell me a story

i've made a home for it

it hurt a little bit but i managed

once the knife found purchase

it's safe inside now

incubating

when i dream next

i will dream the story

of one of them

maybe now i can understand

mother

---

you are a drow. you trust (insofar as you are able to) your matron. you've been through countless battles together, and while she never says anything in particular to you, you can tell your matron loves you.

what you don't know is that your matron is, at all times, being puppeted by intelligent forces outside of your world, holding knowledge far beyond the scope of anything you could ever know. they know things about the world that you do not; that no-one in this world ever could. the distinction between your matron and this creature is minimal.

at the same time, this creature is not lloth. it does not have infinite knowledge; it understands far greater than you, yet in still a very limited capacity. she understands what the world is made up of and how it can be manipulated to suit your whims.

this creature loves you. your matron loves you.

she loves you so much that they want to help you become stronger. they manipulate the very laws of your world to attain this feat. however, she did it wrong. SHE didn't know what they were doing, and the makeup of your being - everything you ARE - was twisted.

you are no longer a drow. you are an egg.

your matron remains the same as ever. everything continues on, the same as it ever was, yet you cannot be what you once were. your MATRON MOTHER tries over, and over, and OVER again to hatch you, but you never become what you once were. you are an egg. there are other eggs, now, other drow you used to know; drow you helped the MATRON recruit, drow you may have even fought alongside. now you're all eggs. sealed away by ancient protective magic. you never knew such a thing existed. you wonder if you're dangerous now.

your ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ sets you in a jar. over the years, she forgets which jar you're in.

unbeknownst to you, the creature is panicking, trying everything it can possibly think of to restore you to your drow state. the creature is just a child. she carries the pain of your loss long into adulthood; in her mind, SHE is responsible for your death. in the grand scheme of the universe, you do not matter; you are a figment. a few dreams of an errant goddess and some meat. you do not Exist.

and yet, you are mourned.

the ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ gathered all together, using methods unfamiliar with one collective goal in mind: to rescue you. specifically you.

your loss is widely considered nothing. and yet SHE put in incredible effort. obstacle after obstacle, she performed miracles for your sake. she copies your world; layers the world over itself many times to view it from every angle. digs her roots deep into the makeup of your universe just trying to find you.

and they do. you have lost your name and everything else that makes you you, but there is something that remains intact, that makes you findable; an invisible quality to you that you and your Matron would never see, something you could never possibly know about. this is ultimately what makes you you, and not another drow.

slowly but surely, she begins to put you back together. it's much harder than it needs to be, it is far too much effort for one creature in one dying world. and yet she does it. she cries out in relief when she finally finds the exact values - the last pieces of invisible quality that makes it YOU.

you are now a drow. you are now "legitimate".

you do not know it yet, but your Matron - your creature - is waiting for you, excited to bring you into new worlds until you are where She wants you. until you are safe.

you also do not know that at this time, two of you exist. there is the You, here, being put together, manipulated through the fabrics of reality to restore your original form. and there is the Original you; the one waiting home, on the dying world. the Real you.

you are a clone, but you are not. you are a new drow, but you are the original. you are both corrupted, and legitimate. you are many things.

the new you is saved; and this version of your world, this version that has fixed you, and only you - is overlayed, rewritten, overruled to the original.

you arrive safely.

you are a drow. you were an egg, for a short time. but now you are a drow again. your Matron acts the same as ever, because SHE cannot display anything that would suggest she notices the difference.

you do not know what happened.

you have no idea.

you have no idea how much you are loved.

---

curators note

my purpose was to listen to learn to teach

but i have pried i have queried i have prodded

we are but worms inside of a greater being

our intrusion noticed

felt

noted

my geometry has become uncooperative

and i have been

tasted

---

(( With special thanks to The Queen's Rebuke, who wrote all of the text here other than the framing, as well as designing their symbol.))

[Kuma]

House Claddath are widely viewed as a hivemind, as fleshcrafters, as heretics, as unorthodox, as very weird, and very wrong.

This is all more or less accurate.

The Great Deluge and the Flayer Wars changed the two founding houses in respective ways- Freth, rather than believe that they would ever be abandoned by Lolth, chose to believe that Lolth had instead found herself captive, turned to Hell for help and found them all too willing to entertain their grand delusions. And so the lawful, stratified and bureaucratic Freth girded themselves in their heresy and took on their enemy.

Claddath, on the other hand, rejected this idea. And instead chose to become more like their enemy in order to fight them. Their enemy, the illithid, was of one goal, of one mind - literally and figuratively. And so too must Claddath be. They rejected their cursed forms because they refused to believe them necessary (as opposed to a divine blessing, like Freth, or a curse from their elven cousins, like regular Lolthites believe).

In doing battle with their enemy, they adopted traits of their enemy. They learned from them. They developed from them. They evolved, most importantly. Think of House Claddath like a rogue immune system - and Andunor is its host. It's a founding house, after all, and it relies on its host city to grow, and develop, and also protect, all at once.

ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ is the realisation of this necessary protection- what she is isn't clear (intentionally) but a core of Claddath's ideology is that they love ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ and ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ loves them. And ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ and Claddath protect Andunor much as an immune system would.

Of course, what they consider as worth protecting, or even the act of protecting, may be unclear, bizarre, or outright hostile to many of Andunor's denizens. Their motives are unclear to observers but absolutely perfectly crystal clear to their members (even if they can't explain them in words we'd understand).

The agents that are sent out into the City - aka noble award characters - would most likely be the least-connected to the hivemind, and most likely to have more individualistic traits (as PCs must) and agency. But thinking of them like a rogue white blood cell loose in its host's veins, hunting and destroying threats that may seem strange or incomprehensible to others, is a decent start.

The Freth PCs have by and large been lesser members of their nobility, gallivanting gentry that don't have the House's assets at beck and call but rest assured knowing they have their palatial doomsday bunker to retreat to. Arrogance and well-deserved pride.

Claddath, by contrast, are more inscrutable. Again, largely unsupported outside their house, but still guided on unusual paths and goals - perhaps even instinctually, unable to explain why.

The nature of their "hivemind" isn't defined but is likely something along the lines of psychological programming during gestation or creation or birth or manifestation or whatever it is that Claddath does to make new members. It might also be pheremone based, like a hive of bees, or other such thing. It's undefined on purpose to keep the horror factor up. Playing/writing Claddath is an exercise in horror writing and suspense- show your hand too early or too heavily and you're just a god-emoting weirdo. Do it right and you can be extremely sinister.

Themes/aesthetics ideas: mushroom colonies, nervous systems, immune systems, insect hives, memes (not internet jokes but memetics), plastic surgery, self and purpose, instinctual behaviours, evolution, the ship of Theseus thought experiment applied to living tissue.

[Edens_Fall]

Thank you so much for writing this! I had literally no idea what House Claddath was about, and this sheds some much-needed insight.

PS - Love the graphics!

[TheyTradedEngineersForCoffe]

Thanks for this post and a precious portion of Claddath lore, it's very inspirational and provides some very exciting details, but it's also outrageous and leaves me in conflict trying to accept it.

It kind of implies that Freth and Claddath developed their heresies after the deluge, which contradicts the pre-deluge perception of Freth and Claddath as heretic exiles and really kind of makes their story less exciting in a way.

What I love about them is how they survived the fall of Udos because they were marginals, outcasts in its system, less dependent on it, so better fit to take over when the system Udos existed in was destroyed. Previously dominant 'species' got wiped out or at least disorganised so Freth and Claddath seized the moment and filled in the void becoming the new dominant 'species' in new system.

This is very neat and exciting thing about their story (and I pretty sure they had already been perceived as heretics before the flood) so I have hard time accepting the idea that the heresies were developed after the deluge (although, isolated, that is a good reason to develop a heresy, its just that it doesn fit well into greater context).

And, pre-deluge outcasts origin also kind of explains why they are not that involved in city's daily life - they are well aware of what allowed them to seize the power in the first place - their lesser dependency on the then-current system and thus ability to adapt (not in biological manipulation sense like Claddath, but generally in social system sense, Freth too were able to organize and take over because they were not dependent on Udos) and thus prefer long-term survival to short-term immediate gains.

I like to think that they both accept that Andunor is also temporary and focused more on being prepared to survive the next cataclysm (whenever it will happen and whatever it will be) than blidnly enjoying and abusing their power in short-term, which they are wary of for should they get more involved it will make them dependent on the current system as the Udosians were dependent on theirs.

Hence the self-government system and focus on long-term cold war of ideologies that present competing views on how the survival of drow race (why bother becoming attached to a city, need to work to be able to adapt and survive should this city be lost, not to end up like Udos elites).

Well, competing ideologies from the obvious assumption that they are rivals, but with this Claddath lore they are actually very much alike and that's another thing i have hard time accepting because it makes Freth obvious losers.

Freth believe that to survive they must organize their chaotic race with an oppressive regime that will reduce the self-destructive infighting and will ensure control over consumption and really actions of the members of the society. Maybe something like infernal social credit system to simplify the society so that it is possible to control it with a mortal drow management capacities. And thus they have their heresy as means to persuade drow to accept the "social credit".

However if they develop the thought further - they will surely notice that a mindflayer elder brain master-thrall system is even simpler and easier to control, and also elder brains would probably have better management capacity to rule even a more complicated system with independent members of society.

And then we have Claddath who already have the Hive mind and really already have what Freth merely try to achieve - their unity apparently overrides the personality whereas Frethian relies on systemized terror.

So it makes Claddath too good, their answer to the challenge is clearly superior and already is the ultimate development of Frethian approach of enforced unity.

Also,

House Claddath are widely viewed as a hivemind,

Are they really viewed that way by general population with basic IG info?

They are obviously scary freaks engaged in blasphemous bodmod, fleshwarpers, very enigmatic, but I didn't catch that they were a single hivemind from just publicly available IG descriptions.

Though it is clear that their Mother is something scary from IG stuff I was able to see (imagining it to be some sort of abomination, although, unfortunately a DM event has shown Matron Freth and Matron Claddath to be normal drow (and twins at that)- surely those were just doubles and not actual Matrons).

So yeah... it's exciting lore but it's makes Claddath too good, for already having what Freth are trying to achieve. I don't know how to just accept that.

In fact, with the perception that I had before the post was shown to me - that claddath are just a transhumanist, chaotic answer to the issue of drow survival in contrast to the frethian "social credit" lawful totalitarian regime,

I was thinking how Freth could eventually reach the conclusion that their religion as means of instilling control is not enough for what they are trying to do,
and kind of begrudgingly (as it would mean compromising some of their initial principles) accept that an elder brain and tadpoled thrall population would be a better means to achieve total control over the society (really that society would be so much simpler and easier to rule)

and so to achieve the survival according to their ideology, their 'software' would eventually need the technology, the 'hardware' (or 'bioware' really) that more chaotic Claddath have to develop a drow elder brain.

I mean that would be like pottery, that would rhyme: in Vault each of the Houses had one of the two keys, or a half of the key, and now again they each have a half of the key - Freth has ideology and vision and Claddath has means to implement that vision.

And if Claddath didn't ALREADY HAVE similar total control vision implemented (and thus already besting Freth) and instead would be just chaotic transhumanists with ability but no will to form a hivemind that would be beautiful conflict of ideologies.

Both would need what the other House has, at least Freth would consciously need Claddath tech, but no one willing to compromise, to give in to the rival ideology thus making their conflict very deep and almost unresolvable.

Of course if needed they could join forces in the face of greater threat, compromise and form a new system which would have problems and challenges of its own.

But? Of course that doesn't matter because there is this cool Claddath lore that already makes them cooler than Freth and already resolves a lot of stuff and is exciting and I absolutely hate it while also liking it.

[Kuma]

An extremely well thought out response, thank you! I'm really happy someone is engaging with this lore so in-depth. Many of these are actually things that came up when Bat, Queens, Alirios and others discussed over the years when formulating the Freth/Claddath dynamic. I'll address points individually.

It kind of implies that Freth and Claddath developed their heresies after the deluge, which contradicts the pre-deluge perception of Freth and Claddath as heretic exiles and really kind of makes their story less exciting in a way.

[...]

This is very neat and exciting thing about their story (and I pretty sure they had already been perceived as heretics before the flood) so I have hard time accepting the idea that the heresies were developed after the deluge (although, isolated, that is a good reason to develop a heresy, its just that it doesn fit well into greater context).

It's said that they were banished for heresy from Udos centuries(?) ago, long before the Deluge, and framed as 'guardians' of the Vault (NPC dungeons that had keys to the Vault, in ye olden days that was where the beholders, illithid, and part of duergar dungeons were. Very gamey). This hasn't changed. The implication I was hoping to push was that the centuries of solitude and also constant forever-war against the mind flayer menace shaped and changed their heresies and ideologies in different ways. I can't tell you what exact heresies drove them out of Udos, that's one of those unanswered questions, but I can say that the time in the Vault is what solidified what they became. The Deluge is really what drove them up, it wasn't an overnight switch-flick (it was in actuality but in terms of the narrative and setting, we can imagine the 'modern day' Freth and Claddath culture had been percolating for a long time).

I like to think that they both accept that Andunor is also temporary and focused more on being prepared to survive the next cataclysm (whenever it will happen and whatever it will be) than blidnly enjoying and abusing their power in short-term, which they are wary of for should they get more involved it will make them dependent on the current system as the Udosians were dependent on theirs.

Hence the self-government system and focus on long-term cold war of ideologies that present competing views on how the survival of drow race (why bother becoming attached to a city, need to work to be able to adapt and survive should this city be lost, not to end up like Udos elites).

Interesting thought - I kinda disagree, as I think that both houses are pretty firmly entrenched and will defend Andunor to the last man if it comes to it. That being said we can assume that the paranoiac Situation Monitorers in the Freth Bunker, and whatever the hell is in the Claddath basement, likely have backup plans for their backup plans to re-establish a nucleus of themselves elsewhere.

Well, competing ideologies from the obvious assumption that they are rivals, but with this Claddath lore they are actually very much alike and that's another thing i have hard time accepting because it makes Freth obvious losers.

oooooh here we go

Freth believe that to survive they must organize their chaotic race with an oppressive regime that will reduce the self-destructive infighting and will ensure control over consumption and really actions of the members of the society. Maybe something like infernal social credit system to simplify the society so that it is possible to control it with a mortal drow management capacities. And thus they have their heresy as means to persuade drow to accept the "social credit".

However if they develop the thought further - they will surely notice that a mindflayer elder brain master-thrall system is even simpler and easier to control, and also elder brains would probably have better management capacity to rule even a more complicated system with independent members of society.

Good analysis. I think that any Freth who made that final realisation would be so full of hyper-devil-catholic-guilt that they'd simply reject that thought entirely. It's not in their doctrines. That would be heretical to the heresy, as it were. That may be their ultimate failing, though - the rigidity of Lawful Evil and inability to adapt to a changing situation. Very thematic.

And then we have Claddath who already have the Hive mind and really already have what Freth merely try to achieve - their unity apparently overrides the personality whereas Frethian relies on systemized terror.

So it makes Claddath too good, their answer to the challenge is clearly superior and already is the ultimate development of Frethian approach of enforced unity.

Also,

House Claddath are widely viewed as a hivemind,

Are they really viewed that way by general population with basic IG info?

They are obviously scary freaks engaged in blasphemous bodmod, fleshwarpers, very enigmatic, but I didn't catch that they were a single hivemind from just publicly available IG descriptions.

The Claddath hive-mind is intentionally left vague and sort of hand-waved at, as a core conceit of horror is that the more you know the less scary it is. I admit this is potentially poor wording or world-building on my part, but whether every single Claddath is plugged in and being puppeted by mother or if there's a series of tiers of control, or is it pheremones, or brain parasites, or magic? or who the hell knows is intentionally left vague so as to enable creative freedom for PCs. It's also worth noting that just because they may be viewed as a monolith, that doesn't mean they actually are!

From a certain argument or point of view, yeah, one could say that Claddath has, at least in the long game, basically already won.

Devils also measure their plans in millenia, however, and they aren't known to make bets on lame horses.

Though it is clear that their Mother is something scary from IG stuff I was able to see (imagining it to be some sort of abomination, although, unfortunately a DM event has shown Matron Freth and Matron Claddath to be normal drow (and twins at that)- surely those were just doubles and not actual Matrons).

we'll quietly ignore that and pretend it never happened; it's the great irony i embody in being a writer but not a dm that i can't smack dm knuckles with a ruler when they screw it up

the 'hardware' (or 'bioware' really)

heh heh

I mean that would be like pottery, that would rhyme: in Vault each of the Houses had one of the two keys, or a half of the key, and now again they each have a half of the key - Freth has ideology and vision and Claddath has means to implement that vision.

And if Claddath didn't ALREADY HAVE similar total control vision implemented (and thus already besting Freth) and instead would be just chaotic transhumanists with ability but no will to form a hivemind that would be beautiful conflict of ideologies.

Both would need what the other House has, at least Freth would consciously need Claddath tech, but no one willing to compromise, to give in to the rival ideology thus making their conflict very deep and almost unresolvable.

Of course if needed they could join forces in the face of greater threat, compromise and form a new system which would have problems and challenges of its own.

I absolutely adore this reading of it.

We can assume there must be some form of imperfection in Claddath's hive-mind or what have you, that they can't just replicate the success of the illithid entirely. There's something missing. Perhaps that something is, indeed, in Freth's vision and ideology, or something else entirely. You're basically right that if Claddath were as successful as they claim or the lore says they are, they'd have already 'won'. Why aren't they subsuming the population of Andunor? Why are they still in a perpetual stalemate/cold war? Something's missing. This isn't the best writing on my part but we can at least play around it.

But? Of course that doesn't matter because there is this cool Claddath lore that already makes them cooler than Freth and already resolves a lot of stuff and is exciting and I absolutely hate it while also liking it.

I'm taking this as a compliment regardless of intent, but I'd urge you not to sleep on Vaunted Freth. Would love to keep discussing this more, if you've any further thoughts- the Freth/Claddath dynamic is one we've spent a LONG time contemplating.

EDIT: I do think that on a long enough timescale, they either destroy one another (or are destroyed by some greater force), or form some horrific Freth-Claddath syncretic union. God only knows what that'd look like.

EDIT #2: Claddath's flaw is love.