Dread Gods

Revision as of 16:40, 26 April 2012

The Dread Gods are ancient serpentine deities that continue to speak to monstrous priests in the current era. Weakened by the worship of younger gods by younger races, they constantly call for blood sacrifice to keep up their power, but in return for the rigorous killing duty they grant hideous powers to their followers. Pictured above in their 'true' Snake form, the images beneath are of their most common avatar when speaking to their cultists.

"Before Tiamat was split to form the earth, before the sun scorched the wastes, before the genesis of the lesser races, there was a time of monsters and Gods. The Dread Gods are the few who survived the war in the stars, just as the monsters living today owe their ancestry to the violent genocides of our early history." - Yaga Xoshawv

Elohanna

A goddess of flame and cruelty, she grants her followers blood-lust and an unfeeling disposition in war. She seeks the destruction of civilization and the obliteration of tame society. Her dogma appeals to Gnoll priests, whose ill-tempered dispositions are already well suited to her purpose. Her hard-core cultists are easy to spot due to the fetid sores covering their bodies and their uncontrollable rage.

The Great Black

A god of multiple forms, his most common avatar is that of a great winged wolf known as the Black Beast. He is a god of the hunt, reveling in the sport and competition of war. Violence for The Great Black is done for violence's sake. However, of the Dread Gods, he is the only one with a Code of Conduct for his followers. The Great Hunt is a cult formed for his purposes, and his followers are keen for any challenge but bear the awful scars of self-mutilation that His worship demands.

The Code of the Hunt:

• The young, old, and unarmed shall not be killed, for there is no sport in this.
• After an unsuccessful hunt, it is required of the Faithful to scar their bodies with ink to remember their shame.
• No challenge can be refused.
• Cruelty has no place in the hunt. Thusly, a kill must be swift and clean.
• Never hunt solo; the Great Hunt exists to provide sport, camaraderie, and competition among the members.

Fie'est

The subtle snake, Fie'est is a favoured deity among those monster elements who shape-shift to infiltrate human society and assassins. For the followers of Fie'est, the purpose of killing is to emotionally experiance the death of the fallen and make prophecy. They prefer to do their sinister rites under cover of darkness, and lean to the shadows rather then make their presence known. Some Fie'est cultists gouge out their eyes in order to heighten the emotional rush from killing.

Ares

Wrongly interpreted by pinkies to be a human deity, Ares is the most accessible of the Dread Gods. His dogma is one of victory, self-improvement, and strength. War and killing for the followers of Ares are a chance to prove their individual skill and continue to advance their technique. A solemn and reflective cult, they tend to be quiet and withdrawn when not fighting, but when engaged in combat become loud, boastful, and energetic.