Shuliak

Shuliak, God of Science and Magic; patron of Kraken-kind, chemists and physicists, and of all users of magic across the multiverse.

Shuliak, perhaps one of the most popular Forbidden Gods, is the god of science and magic. Perhaps the most influential of the Forbidden Gods, Shuliak has been a threat and major player in the world since its foundation. Rising out of his realm of Shu-Azalac, Shuliak brings both curses and blessings, creation and destruction, life and death. Ultimately, necromancy is derived from his being, as well as Krakens and the Purple Dragons of the East, making him one of the most 'native' gods to the world. He is the father of the former-demigod-now-deity Merovech, and the creator of the Golem-God Al-Hader.

History
Shuliak has always been, it seems. As the god-king of Shu-Azalac, considered one of the greatest Dark Spheres, Shuliak is extremely mighty; and it shows, as he has had such a great hand in much of the world's history that Shuliak is generally considered the most influential god in most of the world; so much so that in some countries, like Merovech, he is considered the King of the Gods and Head of the Pantheon.

The Age of Creation is rather lacking in Shuliak-related instances, up until the Year of Wrath. As all the gods had physically manifested on the world to do battle for who it would belong to, Shuliak had come as well. A walking mountain of chaos, Shuliak strode into battle against the gods, particularly Dahar and his Dahari, crushing millions under his tentacles and spearing dragons and phoenixes with tridents of murky magic. During this age, Shuliak gifted his favour, and his magic, to a disgraced healer; the healer synthesized the chaotic energies of Shuliak with the life-preserving magics of healing to create the now eponymous Necromancy.

In the closing times of the Year of Wrath, Shuliak dove deep into the seas, and took hold of a cephalopod who's form he would twist into the first of the Krakens, mighty half-spirit squid-like beasts with the intellect to rival the dragons and Dahari themselves. Likewise, he took a a sliver of ice from the heart of the now-shattered Great Glacier, and carved from it the body of Al-Hader, the god of golems and of winter.

As the father of Merovech, he is most influential in the various floodplains and swamps and coastal cities of Merovech (the country), having the largest cult following in Merovech; he is considered the patron god of all Merovech peoples along with his son Merovech. Fathering Merovech upon a mollusc-gathering tribeswoman, he inadvertently created the famous famous single individual in history; a being of horrific countenance, but heroic heart, who destroyed utterly the empire of Kagina and created the longest-lasting empire the world has seen since the Age of Creation. Merovech, the country, has lasted over two ages under the gaze of Merovech and Shuliak so far; it appears that Merovech will never fall at this rate.

Appearance
Shuliak is a veritable shapeshifter, never assuming the same form twice. During the Age of creation, Shuliak manifested as a glowing betentacled entity that glided deftly through the skies like a squid would through the ocean depths, who shaped the world at large and who's driftings set the ley lines in position; creating magic as the world knows it. However, during the Year of Wrath, Shuliak assumed a wildly different form: a massive, spidery monstrosity, as tall as a mountain, covered in tentacles and bearing a horrifying set of jaws more like a flower with overly-long petals than an actual set of mandibles or jaws. In the modern ages, Shuliak is commonly in the form of a vaguely feminine androgynous figure with eyes of blazing violet flame, or of a empty hooded robe (at times, with a mass of wriggling worm-like tentacles instead of a person or void inside).

Shuliak's depictions are varied to the extreme, ranging from squid-headed idols in the habitable regions of Qumu Dabrutu, to a highly-stylized painting of the form he took in the Age of Creation on the side of the High Palace of the Empire of Merovech and on the side of the mausoleum of Merovech, to the unholy pillars found in the deep caverns under the continent of Merovech. Krakens depict Shuliak as a monstrously large member of their kind, with many more tentacles than any Kraken can naturally develop and hundreds of purple stars for eyes; dragons view him as a long serpent that encircles the world and gives them life through magic; the beings that dwell under the crust of the earth in cyclopean caverns caverns say that he is a titanic, yawning cave mouth, from which comes both amazing wonders and terrible evils.

In the Light Spheres, Shuliak is generally considered such a horrible being that speaking his name will get you disgusted stares, gasps, etc. However, the Dark Spheres are happy to hear the names of one of their gods, and have many altars and temples dedicated to him. As the Spheres Beyond are at times home to beings radically alien to the world, the depictions of Shuliak are quite varied, some are so strange and abstract that they are beyond interpretation.

Divine Magic
Yes, all magic is inherently derived from Shuliak, but not all magic is Shuliak's dominion. Healing is not the domain of Shuliak, nor fire or the sun or even darkness; nay, Shuliak's gifts are of murky waters and dark streams, magic relating to the hidden depths of the seas and what lies there, necrotic blasts of unnatural watery energy, and to things mortals cannot grasp. Necromancy is part of his realm, and is simply a perversion of the flesh-soothing magics of healers into flesh-reanimating magics.

Hadalomancy is the common name for Shuliak's magics. While his magic can synthesize well with that of hydromancers and of umbramancers, it is opposed to heliomancy in the minor degree and to pyromancy in the major degree; the cold darkness of the seas is at peace with water and darkness, but it cannot be cold and dark if the sun lights the water and fire boils it. Sea life is enhanced by the presence of Shuliak and his magic, and the Krakens, mighty as they be, are suffused utterly with it. Other sea life, such as the Urraan, are known both for their worship of Shuliak and for their usage of his magic.

Shu-Azalac
Shu-Azalac (The C is pronounced somewhere between a Ch and a J) is the Sphere of Shuliak. A series of endless, strange islands; they float endlessly through the void. There is no air, and the only liquid is diabolic poison; the whole of this realm is not for life. The few entities that can survive here are the Spinners of Shuliak and their derivatives; and Krakens, Dragons, and Phoenixes, who are given the power to explore the Spheres. The highest servants of Shuliak can directly parley with the god in this realm. Massive tunnels are bored into the stone islands, and are filled to the brim with the Spinners of Shuliak.

The voids between the floating islands are bridged by the webs spun by the Spinners of Shuliak, and if any poor sod manages to fall off of the islands or webways, they will fall directly into an infinite nothing above which Shu-Azalac is suspended. In the East (or rather, any direction that you could define as east, as Shu-Azalac is not bound by space in the usual manner), there lies a great, glowing city. This shining mass of metal and crystal is the only part of Shu-Azalac that mortals can inhabit, and is populated by a strange species of sentient beings bearing great resemblance to fungi.

Spinners of Shuliak
The Spinners of Shuliak are the most common inhabitants of Shu-Azalac, and the direct minions of Shuliak. All of them appearing as a mass of brain held by a collection of spidery limbs, the Spinners are one of the most gruesome entities in the Dark Spheres. While as big as a human head in the first stage of development, they quickly expand in every direction until they easily dwarf most creatures; too large to support themselves on their thin legs, they quickly begin the creation of a mechanical platform on which they can move; these platforms are commonly outfitted with large limbs for grabbing, and these limbs with gatling guns that fire harnessed magic. As creatures of the god of magic, they are able to easily use magic even when they are small, being capable of unleashing bolts of flame or lightning against their targets; their webs are infused with pure magic and are commonly deadly to those that are trapped in them.

Even in their larger stage they do not cease expansion, as evidenced by the utterly massive Aesmadaeva, a Spinner grown to such size and power that it has become a full god. In particular, some Spinners of great power and intellect are used by Shuliak as the overseers of his realm, and are given the divine authority to command any being in his realm; particularly Jaraxxus, who attempted to invade the world for his master in the Age of Kagina, and who unleashed the Jkraal on the world before being banished.

Stalkers, aka Visitors, aka Intruders
Stalkers are strange, gigantic humanoids with gangly limbs, ungodly strength for something of their thinness, and the ability to rapidly teleport and phase into other realities and Spheres; for this, they are called Visitors or Intruders. With their abilities, they commonly enter other Spheres or the world simply to observe, silent and unseen. Those that make the mistake of staring into the glowing eyes of a Stalker are rarely heard from again, or even seen, as the Stalker will most likely teleport to them and violently murder them. Due to the inherent problems in interacting with Stalkers, they are generally considered the most alien of Shuliak's servants.

Wise Ones, aka Secret Demons
Whereas the rest of Shuliak's servants are just beings from Shu-Azalac, the Wise Ones are plain and simple demons. From the foulest of Spheres, Shet'eru, the Wise Ones are brilliant minds with the personality of friends, the morality of serial killers, and the bodies of literal nightmares; the Wise Ones are dealers in knowledge, all knowledge. They gather secrets, ancient books, people, anything of knowledge; they take it to Shuliak and to those who pay in kind. Otherwise, the Wise Ones are simply wanderers, drifting through worlds like their master during the Age of Creation.

Trivia
One book in circulation is an erotica/romance novel, in which Shuliak and Dahar are boyfriends torn apart by circumstances beyond their control. Both gods, and their cults for the matter, have attempted to destroy all copies of it and illegalize its printing. This has not worked.

Pretty obviously the squid-headed idols are just straight up references to Call of Cthulhu. looks like this