Fiction:The Firmament/Shurin Rodin

"And in the dark pits of terror, where nightmare walks like man, the great five-eyed god grins with his fanged teeth. There, he dreams fear into the world of flesh and bone."

- Irkallan Epitaph, describing Shurin Rodin

Shurin Rodin is the demon lord of fear, cruelty, reptiles and nightmares.

Appearance
Shurin Rodin resembles a terrifying purple-scaled reptilian beast, somewhat reminiscent of a wingless dragon. His head is adorned with a crown of horns which includes a shining red crystal, and he possesses a total of five eyes; two at each side of his skull and one at the very center of his forehead. Innumerous writhing tendrils extend from his back and his tail ends in a massive stinger.

History
Shurin Rodin is an old demon, ascending through the ranks of his kind by devouring any foolish enough to stand in his path. Primordial ruins state he was involved in the Great Gap as one of the demon lords unleashed into the Material Plane by Varagarash Narahil's planar breach; they tell of a gigantic reptile whose blackened tendrils defiled the landscape and choked the lives of innocents as they slept, until he was banished back to Irkalla with the rest of demonkind by the greater gods.

Realm
The realm of Corruptus is the abode of Shurin Rodin, a dark and cavernous lair where the most terrible nightmares of mortals are made manifest. Shurin Rodin rests at the deepest reaches of Corruptus, watching and studying what causes the most fear in mortals so that he may devise the most traumatic of nightmares.

Personality
A creature of untold cruelty, Shurin Rodin is said to be among the most vile of the demon lords. He delights in tormenting mortals and devouring their souls, to the point he does not accept anyone but him doing so. He is bad-tempered and picks up fights with other powerful demons often, and is credited for the destruction of at least a dozen other demon lords in ages past; every time he kills a powerful opponent, he unmakes their souls into their most primal fears and uses them to empower his realm of Corruptus, turning it more and more evil each time.

Cult of Shurin Rodin
Most of Shurin Rodin's servants are demons within Irkalla, and his following in the Material Plane is among the smallest of the demon lords. Those who worship the Lord of Nightmares are generally insane spellcasters, corrupted by the demonic influences of Irkalla, who attempt to spread this corruption further in their societies. Paladins of Aldirei have, over the years, curbed many such cults before they could become large-scale problems, though they are remarkably difficult to truly destroy; each time the servants of Shurin Rodin are defeated, they seem to return with greater strength while chanting their mantra: We will never end.