If memory serves me, the new (improved?) 3rd edition (?) version of The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth has him as an apprentice of Iggwilv who was, in reality, a demon in disguise...the (cambion?) son of Fraz-Urb'luu. She used his power, against his will, as a type of magical 'stopper' to contain the evil taint of a rift connecting the Prime to the Abyss. He is imprisoned further below, as an added layer of menace, in this newer version of the module. The original has nothing of this at all, much less any reference of Tsojcanth.
He's the half-demon son of the demon lord Fraz-Urb'luu. His mortal form appearance is of an old man with sparkling blue eyes of some sort.
His mother was the witch Vilhara, who named him in her "peoples" tongue Tsoj-canth 'little deceiver'.
The majority of the information on him comes a little from Gygax, but mostly from the article in Dragon issue 151.
As far as a timeline, Iggwilv summoned and bound him in the 4th Century CY in his demon form. The reference I read says he was active many centuries before the appearance of Iggwilv which she appears around the 3rd Century CYI. The Oeridian first appear in the Flanaess per Timeline -457.
If memory serves me, the new (improved?) 3rd edition (?) version of The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth has him as an apprentice of Iggwilv
Not her apprentice, her slave; Iggwilv bound him before she bound Graz'zt, in the early days of her residence in the Yatil Mountains. Tsojcanth likely belonged to an older generation; he had been around for centuries, having performed many great and terrible deeds, before Iggwilv bound him. If you look at the deeds ascribed to him, he likely fought with the Six from Shadow in the last battle against the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, helping to bind the Dark God's last avatar. Since Tsojcanth is also credited with helping defeat a wielder of the Hand of Vecna, he may have helped them defeat the dracolich Ampathzeredes, too, whose destruction I placed (somewhat arbitrarily, but there was an empty spot in the timeline there) in -13 CY.
He was not necessarily Oeridian; he just claimed to be. As the son of the Prince of Deception, there's no reason he should be telling the truth. He also claimed to be human.
Vilhara might not have been Oeridian either.
Here's the exact quote from Dungeon:
Dungeon #151 wrote:
Years ago, but not beyond the reach of a historian’s quill, an Oeridian archmage named Tsojcanth rose to power. The predecessor of more famous wizards, such as Mordenkainen and Otiluke, Tsojcanth was a student of great magic and a protector of the mortal realm. For many lifetimes, Tsojcanth defended Oerth from incursion and assault. He battled the minions of the demon princes, Orcus and Graz’zt, slew a wielder of the horrific Hand of Vecna, and even stood against the forces of the mad god Tharizdun. Yet these battles exhausted him, and the time soon came when even the great Tsojcanth knew he must pass on. Legend says that he made his crypt deep in the caverns beneath the mountains, where he, in his final rest, might serve to dampen the area’s evil energy.
In truth, everything known of Tsojcanth—even his name—is myth and misdirection. The being who called himself Tsojcanth was no human wizard, however powerful, but the half-breed child of an Abyssal prince. A master of sorcery and deception, Tsojcanth learned many secrets from the orders of good. He steered them away from his own machinations, and aided them in fighting both his own rivals and those of his demonic sire. After Tharizdun’s defeat, Tsojcanth determined that he had spent long enough masquerading as a mortal and allowed that identity to fade as he moved on to other diversions.
I like that the canon details are fairly vague with him, gives me lots of scope.
With the name (for me) having a Flan feel to it I'll probably go with something like Vilhara was an Oeridian witch who came with the first Oeridian migrants, perhaps already preganant with her cambion (?) child. She settled with some of Flan around the Yatils who perhaps did not know her reputation as the Oerids did and gave her son a Flan name.
Or ... maybe Vilhara was Flan and having become pregnant by Fraz'Urb'luu used the Oeridian migrants as a perfect scapegoat. Claiming she had been raped by one, hence Tsojcanth's Oeridian connection in the eyes of the locals, she was able to bear her child with little suspicion.
I'd like to flesh out Vilhara a bit more sometime. Witches are my personal favourite figures of note and the Flanaess doesn't have too many of them which makes the ones it does have even more special!
Maybe Iggwilv came to the Yatils in the first place looking for any surviving lore of Vilhara's? (I can't remember off-hand why Iggwilv went ther eint he first place)
Maybe Iggwilv came to the Yatils in the first place looking for any surviving lore of Vilhara's? (I can't remember off-hand why Iggwilv went ther eint he first place)
Iggwilv went to the Yatils to find the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and the mountain now known as Iggwilv's Horn (perhaps it was previously known as Vilhara's Horn? The article just calls it the Horn), in hopes of discovering demonic magic and lore there. She didn't find any, but she had learned Tsojcanth's truename from Fraz-Urb'luu, so she took advantage of the area's Abyssal taint to summon Tsojcanth and enslave him.
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