Maddened Arcanist (Basic Lore)

Maddened Arcanist (CR 21)
True Chaotic - Medium - Humanoid (Outsider, Aberration)
It is widely accepted among most intelligent creatures, at a very general level, that the world we all live in is balanced upon the surface of a much larger, darker, and far more terrible reality called the Outer Madness. Most people have little understanding of Planes, and in the minds of most people, Demons, Devils, Aberrations, and most 'weird' monsters are part of this terrifying background reality. However, there are always those who think that 'larger and more terrible' means, 'a convenient way to get power'. As a result, all over the world, in every race, creed, and culture, civilized or not, there are those with far too much greed and far too little wisdom who seek out this Deep Darkness and pledge themselves to it. The Creeping Madness is easy to access, easy to draw upon...and insanely dangerous. A fair number of those who attempt this foolish act are consumed utterly by their very first sup of that dark well, their lives, essence, souls, and flesh consumed entire. Many of those luckless fools do not quietly disappear, however. Maddened Arcanists are those creatures, with the Spark or without, who have reached out to the Madness, and not only survived, they have grown exalted. Arcanists are abominations, horrifically twisted, warped, and mutated, their minds filled with the ecstasy of the Endless Whisper. Some Maddened Arcanists are likely to be Maddened Mages who have survived and grown and been granted greater gifts by the Deep Dark. Other Arcanists were created new and whole, as their exposure to The Deep tears them from humanity to Other in one horrible, ecstatic wrench. Arcanists have warped and grown awful due to their corruption, but they bear their horrible deformities mostly within their minds, as their physical bodies are left almost shaped like their original form...as long as you don't look too closely. If examined in detail, numerous small appendages, extra eyes, ears and mouths, palps, folds, and tumors, short tentacles, protrusions of horn, fistulas, and many other 'small' deformities mar their form. But with a simple mask and loose clothing, a Maddened Arcanist can 'pass' as unmodified without too much trouble. Indeed, some especially bold Arcanists live among the civilized, plotting their vile murders and corruptions almost openly. Despite their passable appearance, Maddened Arcanists, like all of the Maddened, are united in their allegiance to the Searing Shadows, the Pulsing Madness of What Lies Above Heaven. They are not terribly organized, but they act, vaguely and constantly, to tear down civilization, destroy all the structures of the world, material and social, for good and for ill. They lurk and plot, they poison, murder, and ruin, they steal and burn, everything. Maddened Arcanists are subtle but relentless agents of bleak, writhing woe, and they will attack anything, civilized or monster, if they think it will lead them to the Final Truth: All things must fall to the Dark, sooner or later. Maddened Arcanists are tremendously intelligent, and for a Maddened, are very good planners and organizers...which means they get many of their plans almost half-finished before they fall apart. They are wildly inventive, utterly unscrupulous, and terrifyingly powerful. They can and will do such things as build Golems to kill every Vampire in a city, to drive the surviving Thralls into a maddened rampage, and then poison the entire city in the chaos. Just as one wretched example of their depredations.