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Writer's pictureUncharted North

Qlippoths - An Introduction


           

Introduction

James:                         Hema

Freeman:                     Aph

Reading List:                See Website

·         New style, new format

·         Qlippoths – primordial beings, with an appearance that effects the minds of others

·         New emphasis on combat, so we actually have an opinion, take it away Cam



Qlippoths General Lore


The Great Beyond: Planes of Existence & the Multiverse

<1. The Great Beyond - GMC.png>

Art originally published in Rage of Elements and reprinted in GM Core.


Bottom left planes are Overlapping with each other while the Top Left planes are layered.

All together they made the Inner Sphere, held within the Outer Sphere.

Notable changes in the Remaster:

·         Material Plane = The Universe

·         Positive Plane = Creation’s Forge

·         Negative Plane = The Void

·         Shadow Plane = The Netherworld

·         Planes of Metal & Wood are newly included

·         Abyss = The Outer Rifts


·         This last one (The Outer Rifts) is the key to our topic of Qlippoths

·         When the Proteans discovered they themselves were forms of life separate from the Maelstrom, they realized other forms of life must exist. They discovered the Maelstrom did not go on forever, but instead almost rested upon an Abyss. Which they regrettably cracked open to find alien societies that were already ancient when they got there.

·         This was the Outer Rifts and the Qlippoth.


·         Described like a corrosive rot in roots, or an antithetical reality.

·         The Rifts are a place of pure horror, malice and destruction.

·         It has countless regions that uniquely form around types of chaos and ruin.

·         The strong survive, the weak suffer or are destroyed.

·         It is no wonder this place is ruled by Demons.

·         Natives to this plane are self-destructive and chaotic, fractured and disorganized at best.

·         The rulers there fight over dominion of the plane as much as they invade other planes to spread the chaos and destruction.

·         But even before Demons ruled, the alien and nightmarish original natives to the plane were the Qlippoth.


·         Ruling the Outer Rifts “long before demons” (in what is probably immeasurable time as it is), the Qlippoth ruled.

·         Primordial is an appropriate term, since they predate Asmodeus creating Hell itself, or any deity paying attention to Golarion. Before all Mortal Life and most immortal life to boot.

·         In fact: the Proteans (creatures born of the primordial chaos of the Maelstrom) claimed that when the Outer Rifts first opened to the rest of the Great Beyond, the Qlippoths were already there.

·         The shift in power occurred when Mortal Sin was introduced. Sinful souls interact with the Essence the Outer Rifts and produces Demons.

·         So, the Qlippoth were pushed in the deepest reaches where they “seethe with rancor at the loss of their realms.” They consider themselves the rightful rulers after all. Born of the plane’s essence. No Sin require.

·         Rather than focus on warring with the Demons though, they instead have dedicated themselves to the destruction of Mortal Sin itself: the source of demonic power and dominance.

·         That is to say, the destruction of every creature capable of committing Sin.

·         To do this, they infect their prey, and transform them into something incapable of discerning right from wrong, thus alleviating them of the potentials of sin.

·         Quite literally, the transformation causes them to be unjudgeable within Pharasma’s courts. Which means they cannot become fiends of any kind. And in turn cannot join the ranks of Demons.

·         (It specifies fiends, so it reads to me as a bit of a catch-all strategy. No sin means no souls send to Abaddon or Hell either. But no right or wrong so seems to extend to Heaven, Nirvana and Elyisum as well. Perhaps only Axis remains a viable afterlife, if it can without Pharasma’s influence in sending a soul there.)

·         A great many creatures, mortal, immortal, divine and anywhere in between, beneath or above all consider this to be far worse than the conditions of any potential afterlife.

·         What’s more, it seems to threaten the power of several planes and perhaps the entire chaotic balance of the Cycle of Souls as well.

·         It really stands to reason that Qlippoths are “antithetical to reailty”. They seek a destruction that would disrupt the balance of the Cycle of Souls. Without seeming to care that said balance would be lost.


Qlippoth & Demons

·         Let’s not gloss over the change in rulership of the Outer Rifts.

·         It was a long and brutal war.

·         The Qlippoths were more powerful and better established when it began.

·         But the Demon hordes were effectively endless and, more importantly, spawned at a much faster rate (thanks to those pesky mortals sinning all the time like a bunch of greedy pigs).

·         The shift was slow. Agonizingly slow. But inevitable. And now the Qlippoths barely cling to what little territory they have left.

·         Hence the shift in strategy from all-out war, to targeting the sinners.


Qlippoth Realms

·         With incalculable territory lost, the Qlippoth still maintain vast lands in the Outer Rifts (just extremely little on the relative scale of the past). These are within the deepest depths of the plane

·         Conversely, some sages have posited that the Qlippoth may in fact still hold more territory than the Demons. And because the Demons are so directly linked to Mortal Souls, mortals have mostly interacted with the layers they control.

·         Thus, we have assumed it to be the majority of the plane’s lands.

·         And the truth may be that the Qlippoth have endless swarms of their own, waiting for the eventual move against Mortal life.

·         As always, no one knows for sure.


Qlippoth & Mortals

·         As you can imagine, Qlippoth have no love or even desire for understanding Mortal Life.

·         To them, they are simply the source of demonic power. And the demons must be starved of it.

·         They have no concept of influencing Mortals to avoid committing sin. So instead it must be death and total extermination.


Judaism


Kabbalah

·         A school of thought in Jewish mysticism

·         Definition varies according to its followers

·         Original meaning ‘reception/tradition’ – referring to any sacred writing after the five books of the Torah

·         Today, the Bahir, the Zohar, Etz Hayim are recognized as Kabbalah works


The Zohar

·         First time the Qlippoths are mentioned

·         Books that include an insight into the mysticism of the Torah

·         Foundational text of Kabbalah

·         Contains theories on the nature of God, structure of the universe, nature of souls, etc

·         First published: 1240-1305 CE, Moses de Leon

·         Some believe the Zohar is his work, but Leon claims that Shimon bar Yochai wrote them


Shimon Bar Yochai

·         2nd century sage

·         One of the disciples of Rabbi Akiva


Qlippoths

·         Klipot, Klippot, Qliphoth, Kellipot

·         Klipah – negative shell

·         AKA; husk, skin, rind, peel, etc.

·         First mention I was able to find was in the Beresheet A (Genesis) 110

So Klipot upon Klipot were created, ONE ABOVE THE OTHER, to conceal the inner part. All this OCCURRED to complete THE LIGHT OF the inner part, BECAUSE WITHOUT A SHEELL NO FRUIT CAN BE HAD. This is the reason why IT IS WRITTEN:
“Let there be lights, without Vav, WHICH MEANS A CURSE, BECAUSE OF THE KLIPOTH THAT EMERGE DUE TO THTE DIMINUTION OF THE LIGHT OF THE MOON. All this was done for the perfection of the world. Therefore, it is written: “To give light upon the earth”, AS THESE KLIPOT EMERGED IN THE SSECRET OF THE SHELL THAT PRECEDES THE FRUIT

·         Klipot, is the most used in the text, and seems to be neutral

·         Created by God to function as a shell for spiritual energy

·         Some of them, specifically those created under the moon, are representations of evil


Specific Qlippoths

·         Listed as foils to sephirot (“emanations”), 10 channels through with God reveals his will

Samael – Iniquity

Mashchith – Destroyer

Aph – Anger

Hema – Wrath

Tohu – Fire

Tehom – Deep

·         Supposed to be 1:1, but Zohar didn’t seem to give names to all Qlippoth


Samael

·         Akin to Satan in the Book of Job

·         Not necessarily evil as destruction was his job

·         Angel of death in Jewdaism

·         Even helped encourage the fall of Adam and Eve, though he rode a snake instead of was a snake


Outro

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