Lore · Gods of the Pantheon
Innoruuk, Prince of Hate
Neriak exists because one god was not invited to a meeting. It is the most dark elf origin story imaginable.
Left out
When the first gods made their pact, Innoruuk was not among them. Brell and the others were too powerful to oppose directly, and so he waited, though his fury “burned hotter than the fires of Solusek Ro.” In a decrepit tower above the decaying alleys of his plane, he stoked his hatred of the gods who had shut him out.
Three hundred years
Then he struck. From Takish-Hiz he stole the first elven king and queen and carried them into his realm of pain, where for three hundred years he slowly tore them apart in body and mind. What remained he rebuilt in his own image, a twisted mockery of Tunare’s children, and dropped these Teir’Dal into the underworld of Norrath. With that act he sowed the seeds of his final revenge.
Hate as creation
Nearly every dark elf calls him “Father.” His faithful believe hate is the creative force of the universe; love and kindness are tools for those too ignorant or cowardly to take what they want; and if they could only hate hard enough, they could destroy Norrath itself. He is the father of the dark elves and champion of destruction, orderly evil, and he appears as a gaunt, hunched dark elf with a clear gleam of hate in both eyes. His weapon is the rapier, his home the Plane of Hate. Rallos Zek and Cazic-Thule are his allies, and Quellious and the Marr twins head the list of his enemies.
The Moon of Blood
His holiest night is the Moon of Blood, which rises once every twenty-seven months. On it every follower of Innoruuk must murder a good being. The dark elf nobility keep a tradition of their own that night: each chooses a commoner to take as a mate, then sacrifices them to the god. The same rite is told of his daughter, Lanys T’Vyl.
His bargains
His reach did not stop with elves. On Kunark the iksar emperor Venril Sathir turned away from his own creator, Cazic-Thule, and made a pact with Innoruuk, feeding the weak, the sick and the elderly of his empire to Innoruuk’s Cauldron of Souls in exchange for the secret of lichdom. Nearer home, Lanys T’Vyl led the dark elf army at Bloody Kithicor.
Temples and faithful
Neriak is the heart of his faith, but not its only home. There Ulazia W’Selo tells newcomers that all Teir’Dal pay him homage and that those who do not are heretics who “surely must die,” and Noxhil V`Sek of the Dead promises that once the Teir’Dal hold the second half of the scroll of G’han, “all Norrath shall be enveloped by His glorious hate.” Priestess Zaxun sends worshippers out to the Spires of Innoruuk. In Freeport the Church of the Dismal Rage houses the city’s growing number of his clerics, and on Kunark the Crypt of Nadox beneath Broken Skull Rock holds shrines to him as god of the Broken Skull trolls.
Defeated in the Plane of Time
In the end mortals came for him in the Plane of Time. “If you thought you knew what hate was before,” he warns them, “I have one last lesson to teach you!” He falls promising, “This cannot be... I will return... somehow, in some way...” Afterwards, at Dulak’s Harbor, Ritald worries that the god’s voice has faded to “merely a whisper.”
Where the sources disagree
The 2001 manual says the king and queen were tortured for three hundred years; the 2002 RPG says “hundreds of years” and places them in the ruling house of Thex.
Sources
[1] Allakhazam: Innoruuk · [2] Library of Erudin: Innoruuk · [3] Library of Erudin: “The History of Norrath” (original EverQuest manual text) · [4] Library of Erudin: EverQuest RPG Player’s Handbook: History of Norrath (2002) · [5] Allakhazam: Venril Sathir · [6] Library of Erudin: Battle of Bloody Kithicor · [7] Library of Erudin: EverQuest RPG Player’s Handbook — Innoruuk (White Wolf, 2002)
Keep reading
Retold in our own words from the sources listed on this page; short quotes are marked and sourced. The illustration is an original AI-generated painting made for this page alone, not from the game.