Minor: Zombies, Pain, Fear Primary Deity: Grsyrd Secondary Deities: Onsprungennes, Cwealm, Lrnes, Massere Holy Symbol: Diamond Skull Representative Animal: Locust Representative Weapon: Scythe Description: The Death Lords have power and influence throughout the world, but take no worship from specific societies as do other religions. The Death Lords have, through history, become part of a variety of mythos where god characters have either been shared or confused. For example, the Cwealm the Rager is often believed to also be Erlik from the Mongala pantheon. Death is not inherently good or evil, and the gods of this domain generally reflect this. The primary deity of Death is Grsyrd. He expresses dominion over the collection process of souls. Grsyrd is the provider for the soul trade, and he collects souls in a method similar to human agriculture. Souls are like wheat in that they both are placed in a structure to gather nutrients and grow. When they reach ripe maturity, they are cut from their root and brought to a market. While wheat is planted into earth to grow as its nutritious structure, souls are planted into bodies to grow. When the souls reach ripe maturity, they are cut from the bodies, gathered together, and brought to the Soul Trade. Grsyrd has control over the raising and removing of souls, but has no influence in their planting. Life gods (not enemies of the death lords) are usually responsible for planting the seeds of souls, and collaborate with death lords on their raising. Grsyrd does not manage all this work by himself but constructs his own lords who aid him. Each lord of Grsyrd is given a certain amount of land that they are to gather souls from. The more souls they reap, the more land they are given. These lords often fill the legends of the Grim Reaper, but are more recently referred to as Death Knights. The more powerful a lord (Bealdor) becomes, the more land he is given in reward. Bealdres have souls, but they are always rotting souls, which gives Grsyrd power over them. When the Bealdres reap souls, they take some of the energy from the soul to keep themselves operating. There comes a time when even a Bealdor must die, usually because its soul has fully rotted to the point of absolute corruption. At that time, the Bealdor will be defeated in combat, and the remainder of its soul thrown into the ethereal plane to become food for creatures there. Other gods of death have developed in the Necromantic Pantheon. The most powerful lords under Grsyrd are Cwealm and Onsprungennes. Under Onsprungennes is the Necromantic Lord Lrnes, and under her is Massere, the Soul Trade Auctioneer. Cwealm, the Rager, is regarded as the necromantic god of violent death, torture, and massacre. He is not motivated by economic gains, such as Grsyrd, but by his rage. In the soul trade, Cwealm is known to buy particularly cheap and rotten souls, and place them in new bodies. These people, living almost without a soul, perform terrible deeds for seemingly no reason. The people these nearly soulless kill often have underdeveloped souls themselves, which Cwealm in turn buys cheap. He is the most likely of the Necromantic Lords to send avatars to mortals, but when he does, he rarely aids. Assassins, Barbarians, and the mentally unstable often worship Cwealm, or his other representations, openly. He is also the god of Volcanoes. Onsprungennes is the Necromantic God of the Eclipse, the dying, and the mostly dead. She is the kindest of the Necromantic Lods, occasionally keeping death away when it seems to be near. She is also known as the God of second chances, based on her trading record in the Soul Trade. She prefers to buy souls that were underdeveloped before their reaping and put them in old bodies to continue growing. She does not accept bodies that are degenerating, but fresh live ones. However, these bodies typically have a soul in them already, so she removes the less prefered soul from the body and puts the soul she bought earlier in its place (she typically sells the worthless soul she gathers to aspiring Necromancers or Cwealm to torture). The soul continues to grow in the new body until it becomes very powerful and ripe, at which time she reaps and places the soul in a greater body to serve her. She prefers female gendered souls as warriors/Hunters and male gendered souls as servants and builders. The terminally ill, some drow, and those who seek immortality often worship Onsprungennes. Lrnes is the god of pointless death, hopelessness, futile causes. Lrnes is the least predictable of the necromantic lords, and she is also the poorest. She is the only Death Lord that does not create undead. She is actually directly opposed to the creation of undead because she feels that recycling used souls to be unnecessary when there are plenty of fresh souls to harvest. Lrnes is directly opposed to any action taken that might create change, and she awards actions that purposely stall or prevent progress. The actual goals of Lrnes are fairly unclear. She does not wish for change, yet she actively supports causes that delay change, thus changing the circumstance of the issue, creating change. She encourages futile action, but provides rewards for meaningless action, thus making meaning. Her scholars have debated meaninglessness, if supported by a god, therefore has meaning. Though this would seem to defy Lrnes, she actually awards such conversation because it creates futile arguments. His is worshipped by prisoners, english majors, and the insane. Massere is the immortal auctioneer of souls in the Soul Trade. He was actually a human once, but ascended to minor goddom through achieving recognizable greatness for his mercantile skill. He is also regarded as the first mortal to invest in the Soul Trade with Wergild.
Divine Domain: Bealdor
Bealdor are the lords of Grsyrd charged with the responsibility of reaping souls from their bodies. Most of the responsibilities of a Bealdor are passive and do not involve combat. They ride from death place to death place to reap the souls of the dead in their section of land. They often wear thick black hoods to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves. Bealdor do not revel in battle, nor do they kill unnecessarily, however, when charged to take the great souls from still living bodies, they reveal their true power. Bealdor will occasionally kill to avoid onset effects of consumption deprivation, however their pride forces them to seek targets who are able to defend themselves, so they rarely attack peasants. The more souls they reap, the more land they are given as reward. A Bealdor is an undead lord itself, and thus it employs undead helpers to aid in his goal of self progression. Bonus Proficiencies: Armor: Heavy Armor, Sheild Tool: Mounts (Land)
Level Spells 1 Cause Fear, Cause Wounds 3 Gentle Repose, Righteous Shield 5 Animate Dead, Holy Vigor 7 Blight, Guardian of Faith 9 Raise Dead, Dominate Person
Channel Divinity: Reap At 2nd level, the Bealdor can use channel divinity to reap the soul from the creature it just killed. This use of Channel Divinity is a swift action. A reaped soul is kept in a soul gem and sent to Grsyrd in a time of rest. The more souls the Grsyrd reaps, the further it can leave its summoning origin. Channel Divinity: Fear Aura At 7nd level, a Bealdor can channel Grsyrd to radiate an aura of fear for a number of rounds equal to their priest experience level. Any creature that starts its turn within 5 feet of the Bealdor must make a successful Wisdom saving throw against the Bealdors spell casting DC. A failed save forces the creature to run in the opposite direction for a minute. Dread Commander: At 20th level, all undead the Bealdor controls treat their hit points as double for the purpose of resisting turn undead.
Divine Domain: Rager
Description: The Rager is a priest of Cwealm. He is usually a mortal cursed with a rotten soul given to him by Cwealm. His/her mental instability and diabolical nature make him/her totally unreliable and untrustworthy. However, their power and courage makes them useful temporary allies. Be warned, to satisfy their their soul rot, many have turned to cannibalism. Bonus Proficiencies: Skill: Athletics Level Spells 1 Cause Fear, Burning Hands 3 Flame Blade, Hold Person 5 Animate Dead, Protection From Energy 7 Blight, Divine Power 9 Raise Dead, Disintegrating Smite
Channel Divinity: Rage At 2nd level, a Rager of Cwealm can enter a blessed rage. He gains a number of temporary Hit Points equal to his cleric level. While enraged, a Rager gains +1 to damage for every creature he kills until the end of rage. While raging, he can still cast spells that directly harm an opponent. Rage last for 1d6+ cleric level, or until one round after he has either not been dealt damage or not dealt melee damage to a creature. A Rager cannot differentiate between friendly and hostile targets well while enraged, and he/she will attack whatever attacks him/her first. If nothing is striking the Rager, he/she will attack the closest creature to it. A Rager of Cwealm will continue fighting if in rage after loss of all hit points, and even all hit dice. However, after rage if a Rager has lost all their Hit Points he will fall unconscious immediately. If they have lost all Hit Dice, the Rager dies, and is unrevivable. Pandemonium: At 20th level, A Rager can draw the berserker out of others. Once a day, the Rager can let out a cry, the voice of Cwealm himself, forcing all in hearing radius (including himself/herself if the Rager wants to resist), in around a 50 yard radius, to make a Wisdom Saving Throw DC 15 or become enraged. Those enraged gain a temporary +2 to Strength and -4 to Wisdom, and they attack the creature closest to them for 20 rounds. If the Rager fails the Saving throw, he gains Rage as normal.
Divine Domain: Hunter Description: The Hunter is a female priest of Onsprungennes, charged with collecting worthy souls for her God. Hunters are the only specialty clerics of the death gods that posses still-maturing souls instead of rotting souls. The souls of Hunters often come from the bodies of the dying whose souls are not developed as much as they should be. Onsprungennes pulls the souls from their lame bodies and puts them in fresh ones, saving them from cycling in the Soul Trade. Unlike a Bealdor, a Hunter does not have to reap the souls from all the dead in an area, nor is she confined to a specific area. The Hunter is much like a bounty hunter for Onsprungennes. She relays her target to the Hunter and she must seeks, destroy, and reap the soul of the target. These targets always possess souls of great value, which means they are usually attached to difficult foes. This extra freedom comes at a cost. If she does not complete her contract, other Hunters destroy and reap her soul. Hunters are the most likely of the death lord clerics to cooperate with a party. Hunters never work with other Hunters, however. Bonus Proficiencies: Skill: Stealth
Level Spells 1 Disguise Self,Hunter's Mark 3 Gentle Repose, Hunter's Veil 5 Animate Dead, Speak with Dead 7 Blight, Death Ward 9 Hold Monster, Raise Dead
Channel Divinity: Reap At 2nd level, a Hunter may choose to channel Onsprungennes to reap the soul from the creature she just slew. This use of Channel Divinity is a swift action. A reaped soul is kept in a soul gem and sent to Onsprungennes in a time of rest.
Channel Divinity: Marked for Death At 12th level, A Hunter can Channel Divinity to prepare a single foe to be slain. A physical black skull blemish surfaces on the creature's skin/hide for 10 rounds. During this time, all magical abilities of the creature are disabled. Any critical hit scored against the marked creature by the Hunter instantly slays it if it is under 60 HP, or it deals 60 damage + normal weapon damage.
Greater Body: At 20th level, the Hunter's soul has reached optimum ripeness, and Onsprungennes places her soul in a perfect body. Choose any three ability scores to improve by 2 points, with no limitation.