Gruumsh, the Ruiner is the chaotic evil god who commands hordes of barbaric marauders across Exandria to destroy, pillage, and slaughter.[1][5]
Worship[]
Appearance[]
The Ruiner's primitive, usually clay, representations can be found in his worshipers' communities. They depict him as a hulking behemoth of an orc with an eye missing since the Calamity that has shifted and is now central to his face, bearing a close resemblance to a cyclops.[6][5] Some zealous hill giants ritualistically tear out one eye in worship to the Ruiner; others simply wear an eyepatch.[7]
When he appeared with the rest of the pantheon in their convocation to discuss the Rites of Catatheosis, he took the form of a squat, dark, furious being with a jaw full of teeth and a bleeding eye.[8]
Influence[]
The Ruiner's blood did grant orcs endurance and strength, but didn't convey his evil.[9] However, those who actually serve the Ruiner, including many orcs, are sometimes hypnotized by their god's gaze from beyond the Divine Gate and fall into a strange bloodlust.[6] The Commandments of the Ruiner instruct his followers to conquer and destroy, and to feel nothing but fury or joy.[1]
Tal'Dorei[]
His most devout servants in Tal'Dorei are the Ravagers, a roving death cult who slaughter innocents across the Dividing Plains.[10] Through the Ruiner's blessings, the Ravager Slaughter Lords can cast several spells.[10]

Fan art of the Shrine of the Ruiner in the Dreamseep, by Clara.[art 3]
The Ruiner is also worshiped by some in the Stormcrest Mountains,[11] including the Shivergut tribe living in the Frostweald. Their annual coming-of-age ritual involves a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Ruiner in the Dreamseep Marshlands.[3]
As of 812 PD, a small number of orcs worshiped the Ruiner at the "Empty Socket", the smallest temple in Westruun's Temple Ward.[12]
Wildemount[]
Worship of the Ruiner is illegal in both the Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty, as is worship of all other Betrayer Gods.[13] In the Clovis Concord, only public worship of Betrayer Gods is banned.[14]
Some clans of humanoids and beasts across Xhorhas worship the Ruiner.[1] Among them are the Koshtask clan in the Iothia Moorland.[2]
The Jez-Araz are a Gruumsh-worshiping set of nomadic orcs who roam the Rime Plains and the base of the Flotket Alps.[15]
Commandments of the Ruiner[]
Commandments of the Ruiner
Ruin. Ravage. Kill.
The weak exist to be crushed by the strong. Be the strong.
There are no emotions but fury and joy. The rest are weakness.
Known worshipers[]
- An unnamed champion, defeated in single combat by Marydra Skysplitter.[16]
- Arakki, chosen of the Ruiner among the Koshtask clan[2]
- Garthok, a member of the Clasp
- Kalydria Darkeye, one of the slaughter lords of the Ravagers located in a fort within the Bramblewood Forest.[17]
- The Fist of the Ruiner, a gang from the Hellcatch Valley that mark themselves with tattoos of blood under their eyes to honor Gruumsh[18]
- Vusono, a powerful goliath cleric[19]
History[]

Official art of The Lawbearer and the Platinum Dragon battling Asmodeus and the Ruiner at Vasselheim, by Kent Davis from "Exandria: An Intimate History" (Sx61) at 3:53.[art 4]
During the Age of Arcanum, Archmage Vespin Chloras released the Betrayer Gods from their prisons. From their new capital of Ghor Dranas in Wildemount, the Betrayer Gods spread their influence and eventually made an assault on the bastion of Vasselheim. The battle lasted twenty days and nights but, with the divine aid of the Prime Deities, Vasselheim and its inhabitants stood triumphant, if battered, at the end.[20]
The gods prepared for war.[21] The Betrayer Gods each forged a sentient weapon with the life force of a greater fiend: the Arms of the Betrayers.[22] Gruumsh, for his part, crafted Ruin's Wake from the bone of an ancient gold dragon, instilling in it the life force of a bloodthirsty balor named Yarrowish.[23]

At one point in the first century of the war that followed,[24] called the Calamity, in one famous battle said to occur on the hill that would be named the Throne of the Arch Heart, Corellon battled the Ruiner, stabbing out his eye.[6] A witness at the event, Mizphir, the Aching Prince, said the wound emitted scalding hot blood for a radius of a dozen miles.[25] One creation myth holds that when the Arch Heart stabbed the Ruiner, the fallen blood of Gruumsh mutated a number of elves (and possibly humans as well) into orc-like beings, that sometimes are mistakenly seen as the first of their kind.[26][27][28][29] The orcs still call this hill the Fist of the Ruiner.[30] The Ruiner's spilled blood also caused the death of some of the elven Horselords of Lapithas that were fighting for the Arch Heart, merging their bodies with those of their steeds; the Arch Heart rewarded their loyalty resurrecting them as centaurs.[31] Around that same period of time the main pantheon reached a truce to devise a plan to stop Aeor and their anti-divine technology. Following that plan, several gods sent mortal avatars of themselves to infiltrate the flying city and sabotage the Factorum Malleus. The Ruiner sent one as well,[32] a woman named Tishar, who acted as the muscle in the missions they had in the city; she, however, was secretly working with Asmodeus (who had tricked the avatars of the Prime Deities into believing he was the avatar of the Knowing Mistress) to gain control of the anti-divine weapon and use it against their enemies. Thus, the avatar of the Ruiner contained herself and avoided to help too much, although she did destroy the Obtenebrator Engine that the Aeorians used to keep their city hidden from divine scrutiny. The conspirations of the Lord of the Hells led him to obtain the information they needed to control the Factorum Malleus in a scroll. However, he lost the item when the Prime avatars attacked him, and the Ruiner's's avatar, as well as the Spider Queen's, were destroyed by the blast of energy released by the machine they intended to use against other gods.[33]

According to legend, during the Calamity the Ruiner also targeted Cael Morrow, a utopian city on what was then the lushly jungled continent of Marquet. The Ruiner attempted to strike the center of the city with a force intended to destroy the entire continent, but he was blocked by the hero Alyxian at the last second. As a result, Marquet survived, although much of the jungle became desert.[34]
When the orcs' supposed creator Gruumsh was finally banished, many of his now-leaderless armies scattered and fled.[35]
Centuries after the Calamity, a feud between the Gruumsh-worshiping goblinkin and Ki'Nau people of the Lushgut Forest led to the desecration of a shrine to Melora.[36]
A few centuries later, as of 836 PD, many still believe that orcs and half-orcs inherit a supernatural "curse of ruin" (or hgar'Gruum in the Orc language) with the influence of Gruumsh driving them to acts of rage and violence. This is a common but mistaken belief.[37] The Ruiner himself encourages his worshipers to not only spread the idea that his blood influences the orcs, but that the entirety of this race is his creation.[38]

Fan art of Imogen and the Ruiner, by Elaine Tipping.[art 7]
During the Crisis of the Red Solstice of 843 PD the Ruiner sent some followers, including a half-giant cleric named Vusono, to fight against the alliance between the Ruby Vanguard and the Kreviris Imperium since they were working to free Predathos the God Eater. Vusono joined the holy army that traveled to Ruidus ready to re-seal the Red End, if necessary, and when they found Bells Hells accompanied by the entity's vessel Imogen Temult, Vusono stepped forward, declaring that the adventuring party had to die. She used Divine Intervention to ask the Ruiner to smite them. The god's symbol appeared in the ceiling displaying his silhouette through it; however, when faced by Imogen it backed away, realizing that killing her would release the God Eater.[39]
The Ruiner and the rest of the main pantheon attended the meeting in which Bells Hells and the Matron of Ravens proposed to use the latter's Rites of Catatheosis to turn them into mortals and avoid Predathos. Eventually the gods present agreed to the plan and through the Matron's ritual, bound their souls to Exandria itself and were reborn as mortals.[40]
Relationships[]
The Arch Heart[]
The Ruiner maintains a fiery hatred for the Arch Heart long after losing an eye to the elf-god.[6] The Spider Queen, who also detests the Arch Heart, often manipulates the Ruiner's followers into attacking her enemies, so as to spare her drow followers.[41]
Appearances and mentions[]
- Exandria Unlimited: Calamity
- "Fire and Ruin" (E3x04) (first appearance)
- Exandria Unlimited: Divergence
- "Give and Take" (E4x01), mentioned only
- Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep
- Campaign Three: Bells Hells
- "Reunion & Revelation" (3x30), mentioned only
- "Downfall: Part Two" (3x100), mentioned only
- "Reconciliation" (3x102), mentioned only
- "The Red End" (3x120) (via Divine Intervention)
- "A New Age Begins" (3x121)
Trivia[]
- In-universe, the Orcish term for "ruin" is associated with the name of this god. In that language, hgar'Gruum means "curse of ruin";[29] this also implies that Gruumsh's title, "the Ruiner", could be etymologically connected to the name itself.
- In 5th Edition canon Gruumsh is married, his wife being the cave goddess Luthic,[42] whose lore is wrapped up in that of orogs.[43] However, in Critical Role canon there is no evidence of this marriage nor any mention of Luthic.
- The adventure hook Storm Celebration in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, set in 836 PD, involves orcs and orogs among the Boroftkrah tribe secretly having begun to worship the Ruiner, and an orc eye of Gruumsh leads them to attack their Kord-worshiping brethren.[44]
- According to Asha, the Wildmother was always somewhat scared of the Ruiner, even before the Schism.[45]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 139.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, pp. 74–75.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 168.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 35.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 20.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 124.
- ↑ See "A New Age Begins" (3x121) at 0:48:26.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 39.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 249.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 72.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 59.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, pp. 35–36. See also p. 40.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 46.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 115.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 253.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 81.
- ↑ See "Reunion & Revelation" (3x30) at 1:56:03.
- ↑ See "The Red End" (3x120) at 4:38:05.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 6.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 7.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 30.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 277.
- ↑ See "Downfall: Part One" (3x99) at 0:50:08. There is a centaur by then, and the first Exandrian centaurs were created after the Ruiner lost his eye.
- ↑ See "Give and Take" (E4x01).[citation needed]
- ↑ Orwyn was a half-orc living in Avalir on the eve of the Calamity. See "Excelsior" (E3x01) at 1:32:50.
- ↑
Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) on Twitter: "A good eye! “It is said” that was the point of their creation, largely by those without interest in historical interest (the unreliable narrator of history). While that particular event created a number of “vengeful, orc-like beings under the Ruiner”, they indeed predated it." (2022-05-27) — in reply to @DamontEvermore: "So does that mean that isn't true? Or was that an older battle between Grummsh and Corellon that saw the Orcs emerge onto Exandria and I have things twisted up."
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 126. This is contradicted on p. 28, which says orcs didn't walk on Exandria until after the Calamity. See also p. 122, which suggests the creation myth may or may not be entirely accurate.
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 177.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 56.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 122.
- ↑ See "Downfall: Part Two" (3x100) at 2:42:51. Brennan refers to Tishar as The Ruiner.
- ↑ Downfall
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 7.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 112.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 75.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, pp. 177–178.
- ↑
Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) on Twitter: "The Ruiner wishes to take credit for them, and pushed that narrative through his followers. Revisionist history." (2022-05-27).
- ↑ See "The Red End" (3x120) from 4:37:20 through 4:39:11.
- ↑ See "A New Age Begins" (3x121).
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, pp. 20–21.
- ↑ See D&D: Volo's Guide to Monsters, 5th ed., p. 84.
- ↑ See D&D: Monster Manual, 5th ed., p. 247.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 113.
- ↑ See "Downfall: Part Two" (3x100) at 2:45:21.
Art:
- ↑ Symbol of the Ruiner from Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting.
- ↑ Symbol of the Ruiner from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount by Claudio Pozas. (source)
- ↑ Fan art of the Shrine of the Ruiner in the Dreamseep, by Clara (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Official art of The Lawbearer and the Platinum Dragon battling Asmodeus and the Ruiner at Vasselheim, by Kent Davis from "Exandria: An Intimate History" (Sx61) at 3:53. Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of the Ruiner, by Pawthorn (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of Alyxian vs Gruumsh, by Sang (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of Imogen and the Ruiner, by Elaine Tipping (source). Used with permission.
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