I find the Aboleth to be an interesting creature, especially considering how early it appears in the Bestiary. It feels like an off shoot of the type of creature that Lovecraft would have written about, while being completely terrestrial. The Aboleth occupies a strange spot in my mind; they feel like they should be a villain in a “cosmic horror” type scenario. But they’re just mean old fish that live at the bottom of the ocean.
Maybe that’s an overly simplified way to describe them… But I can’t help but see them that way.
It’s like they’re aspiring to be Cthulhu, but lack the same type of the “otherness” that malevolent star monsters have. Maybe it’s just because I don’t have an deep understanding, and enduring relationship with them.
I prefer to think of the Aboleth as an outsider that exist in an adjacent Stygian dimension. Somewhere without natural light, and without air. And where the natural orderliness that the human mind requires. I imagine them to be worshiped as gods to some kind of mishapen fish-man race, which is why they take so much joy in subjugating humanoids… And when the opportunity arises they can slip their tentacles through the space between spaces and nab some poor unsuspecting oaf, subjugating them for the rest of their natural and unnatural life.
I feel like it adds an extra layer of “otherness” to the strange, ancient, and intelligent fish monsters, that predate the gods… I also just dislike most “deep sea” things. They bother me. So maybe there’s an unconscious aversion there. Anyway I tried to go with both interpretations for my ideas.
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The island tribe of the Akgaghi people’s talk of the creatures in the night sky, the “Abbu’tukh” they call them. They’re described as terrifying three eyed fish-like creatures that steal people away in the night. They do not discern between good an evil, taking from the tribe at random. Many medicine men have attempted to beseech the great and terrible beings, praying to them, making dark offerings in their name… But to little success. Eventually, as punishment for misdeeds against the tribe, or even transgressions of a spiritual nature, the elders began leaving victims bound upon an altar as tribute to the Abbu’tukh. As of yet none have been spared… Spirited away to whatever dark place the Abbu’tukh reside.
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The coastal town of Saint Barth’s Point has recently been the victim of repeated attacks from the sea. Strange translucent skinned men rising from the water and attacking areas of the town near the waterfront. Although the attacks have been frequent enough to warrant new guard postings, they occur seemingly at random. How do you guard from creatures able to disappear beneath the waves? Despite the attacks only a few people have been killed, most victims have been taken by the amphibious raiders never to be seen again. The leadership of Saint Barth’s Point have consulted their scholars to discern what could be the cause of these aquatic kidnappings. The collective knowledge of the learned point to Stygian slavers from deep beneath the waves.
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An Aboleth’s vast holdings are managed by hundreds or even thousands of slaves, and cruel young Aboleth task masters hoping to inherit a portion of their estate. A dark symbiotic relationship is formed between master and slave, wherein the Aboleth cannot manage their bloated empires without masses of slaves working tirelessly. And the slaves cannot exist without their abhorrent masters preventing them from succumbing to the obscene depths at which the Aboleth exist. The Aboleth favor almost exclusively air breathing races as their work force, to strengthen this systematic dependence on them. For few creatures have the will necessary to drown themselves until they’ve been completely broken. However, stirrings in the slavehouses of Sthal’thulga’thonns inverted tower speak of a human who has managed to become a leader amongst the enslaved races that populate the upper levels of the tower. He believes that if they were to all rise against their inhuman masters simultaneously, they could finally return to the surface.
Art by SpiralMagus on Deviant Art – Drow in the Aboleth City
The Menagerie 