In bygone millennia, aquatic monsters known as alghollthus used their occult powers to conquer and rule vast parts of the world. Their empires contained countless mortal slaves treated as little more than cattle. Alghollthus shaped their slaves and other creatures using mental manipulation and physically transformative magic. Aberrant horrors from faceless stalkers to mimics can be traced back to this meddling. The rulers of the alghollthu race, the so-called veiled masters, further shaped entire societies by assuming the forms of those they controlled. From the heights of power to the shadows of poverty, the veiled masters manipulated these societies according to their own dark designs, enslaving, killing, or horrifically transforming those who discovered their plans or acted against them.