Demon, Sabnach ‘The Wormworn Protector’

Originally from The Book of Fiends

Designed By Aaron Loeb, Erik Mona, Chris Pramas, and Robert J. Schwalb

The Wormworn Protector

Layer: Restarion, the Rotting Palace
Areas of Concern: Cities, walls, protection, vermin, disease, laziness
Domains: Chaos, Disease, Evil, Protection
Favored Weapon: Heavy pick

Other spellings: Sab Nac, Sabnac, Sabnach, Sabnack, Sabnacke, Salmac, Savnock.

Sabnach is unusual for a demon prince in that he is honored widely in an aspect that only touches on his true nature. At the most superficial level, masons and architects view him as embodying protection through edifice, a brilliant extraplanar strategist who urges the strengthening of walls and reinforcement of natural defenses as the best fortification.

More canny practitioners of the masonic arts know Sabnach represents the duality of fortifications and the natural forces of decay that work against their permanence. Walls and redoubts are sworn to the Wormworn Protector in hopes of prolonging their longevity and protection while at the same time recognizing (and hopefully placating) those natural forces that might work against them. Walled cities, the most obvious symbols of Sabnach’s teachings, represent the apogee of mortal achievement in the masonic arts, and hence Sabnach has gained a role as a patron of civilization.

Devotees of the most perverse, most genuine aspect of Sabnach’s cult, however, know that the demon prince urges the construction of walls and the development of cities because he also gains power from disease and laziness. The spread of civilization into wild lands brings with it a glorious promulgation of diseases upon the virginal landscape. They believe the safety of cities breeds overconfidence and laxity of defense, which in turn results in more prayers to Sabnach, as the desperate hope to make up for their masters’ oversights by making ill-considered pacts with the underworld. Whether the city stands tall or is threatened by barbarians, Sabnach profits.

Sabnach has three favored forms, using each to communicate with a distinct body of followers. Those who honor the Wormworn Protector as a guardian of fortifications see him as an elegantly aging, heavily mustached human gentleman in well-crafted but battle-worn armor. Those who praise his civilizing aspect see a similarly armored figure, but with a thickly maned feline head. Sabnach’s most devoted followers, who know his true agenda, see him as a gargantuan, corpulent rat sitting atop a mound of shattered columns. All three forms bear a simple iron crown atop their heads.

The whole of Sabnach’s small Abyssal layer is taken up by Restarion, doubtless one of the largest castles in the multiverse. For millennia, the Wormworn Protector and the souls and demons sworn to him have toiled upon the unthinkably huge fortress. The work has gone on so long that portions of the castle have fallen into utter disrepair while construction begins on brand new levels and towers miles away. So much of Restarion has decayed that the castle has become known as the Rotting Palace. Tiny worms infest the entire fortress, tunneling their way through wood and stone and weakening the whole. Rats (normal, dire, and fiendish) roam Restarion with impunity, spreading so much disease throughout the fortification that the entire layer is harmful to those not immune to illness. Sabnach favors hezrou and nalfeshnee guardians, who protect the castle as best they can from the adventuring souls and mortals drawn by legends of fabulous treasure chambers secreted beneath Restarion’s ever-increasing bulk.

To the average observer, Sabnach appears to have very few devoted followers, although incantations are often said to him even by clerics of other faiths to bestow protection upon a given locale or to bless a newly built redoubt, wall, or battlement. In fact, Sabnach’s cult thrives in the cities of the mortal world, spreading disease and sloth under the shadows of civilization. Those advocating the expansion of city walls or national borders to include substantial wild lands, those pressing for more construction and the accommodation of more serfs and refugees within the populace of the city, and those calling for innovation and industry at the expense of the natural world’ all speak, intentionally or not, with the voice of the Wormworn Protector. Many cultists infest municipal government, often forming ‘secret societies’ of tradesfolk to effect slothful city life and expand civilized borders through aggressive trade and exploration. Followers of Sabnach honor worms, vermin, and rats as the natural agents of their liege and do whatever they can to avoid harming such creatures. Those thaumaturges who summon a familiar generally choose a rat or some type of vermin.

Obedience

A thaumaturge in service to Sabnach must spend an hour devouring live rats or vermin. Earthworms are a favored delicacy, and it is considered a good omen for an earthworm to crawl from the thaumaturge’s mouth, up through his throat, and out the nostrils. At the end of the ritual, the thaumaturge’s spell complement is replenished.