The Faceless God is an avatar of Nyarlathotep described in a homonymous story by Robert Bloch. It is one of the multiple avatars of Nyarlathotep related to the Sphinx.
Appearance[]
This avatar is shown as a three to five meter tall black stone sphinx, with vulture wings, the body of a hyena and a human head devoid of a face. When this being becomes enraged, two eyes of fire appear in the void of his face that usually cause madness to those who look at them.
Cult[]
This avatar was revered by a branch of the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. The rituals were performed around large black stone idols erected in the Egyptian desert and representing the Faceless God. Little is known about the kinds of rites they performed, but they probably included human sacrifice. When the celebration was over, the faceless god would reward his devotees by sending them forward or backward in time.
Given the perverse nature of this being, his cult ended up being forbidden and his effigies abandoned in the desert, where they remain buried.
The Curse of Nyarlathotep[]
If someone commits the imprudence of unearthing one, the contained fury of the Faceless God will fall upon him and the buried effigies will come to life to start harassing him until he gives up and decides to face his fate. One of the punishments that the Faceless God can inflict on his victims is to bury them and let them be devoured by vultures.
Trivia[]
- Many of the nicknames of the Faceless God have been mistakenly interpreted as names of avatars of Nyarlathotep, although in reality they are only other names given to this same being.