| Category | Heroes |
| Region | Hells Womb |
| Race | Beholder (Eye of the Deep, Death Tyrant) |
| Gender | male |
| Title | Forge Master of Valefor Deathworks |
| Alignment | neutral evil |
| Deity | none |
| Birthplace | Green Nebulous |
| Born | ?? |
| Died | ?? |
| Undead | ?? |
Netharum is an ancient eye of the deep residing at a great forge at the heart of Valefor. This forge is the Valefor Deathworks. His time in this place began when Valefor was a hold of the hobgoblins. He was a source of amusement for residents and visitors. This status as oddity in a a tank of water began after being captured in the Green Nebulous. His aboleth captors sold him some illithids who in turn sold him to a drow merchant on his way to Valefor. He ended up being sold for a small fortune to Valefor's reigning satrap. Netheram was dumped into a large basin that fed into a glass-colored pool. This glass pool served as the floor of the central palace chamber.
Emissiaries and visitors gawked at the pool beneath their feet, with some wetting themselves when the pincers of Netheram hit the glass underneath them.
- from an Zeymah'kein diplomatic log - "The Pool of Valefor"
When Valefor was overrun by rampaging demons, Netharum was set upon by a pack of runehounds. Although he was not killed, he was severely wounded, losing his central eye and suffering grievous wounds. He made pleas to many gods for any sort of aid to keep him alive, but only one answered. Tarâk, more interested in continued suffering than real help, sent a Mîmêk dissector/necromancer to fix him up. This "fixing up" resulted in Netheram being partially paralyzed and then operated on. The Mîmêk removed the destroyed central eye of Netharum and replaced it with a special device given to him by one of Tarâk's avatars. This device was a Tiwa'erra Void Sphere - a sphere of annihilation formed when Ptah blew up Tiwa'erra.
The edges of a Tiwa'erra Void Sphere are surrounded by crystallized quintessence. This makes the sphere useless to those who seek to control its movements, but when used to destroy magic items, it traps the magic inside it where it can then be drawn out later and used to aid in the enchantment of other items.
- Taranorn, from her tome - "Ebon Spheres of Nothingness"
Netharum was then turned into a death tyrant eye of the deep. His pincers were removed and replaced with forging implements - a forging hammer and tongs. With these attachments, and the inherent magical properties of the Valefor Deathworks, he became a master smith over the next century or so. His hammer attachment is removable and can be replaced with other tools that Netharum has made for himself. Netharum has created or helped forge many items with two of the most well-known being the Eye of Garn and Deathguard Plate.
Netharum sometimes remembers that he was once a creature of the water. When this happens, he wails and screams "I'm drowning", whereupon he jumps in the wretched waters of the Pool of Valefor and then bobs about. During this time, he is pretty much useless for help at the forge.
Although Netharum is wickedly evil, one thing that he is fair about is undertaking a forging for a hefty sack of gold. He has redeemed evil items for neutral parties acting on behalf of god parties, and tore apart minor good artifacts for evil customers. When it comes to business, he cares nothing of alignments or the morality of what he does at the forge.
