Sundragon2012
First Post
This is how my descriptive text for Orcus, who is the primary god of undeath, in the setting I am writing. I know there are Orcus lovers here and I thought some of you might enjoy it. It's rather long but it is the kind of write up all the deities in my setting are going to get. In any event....enjoy! 
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Orcus
Intermediate deity (chaotic evil)
Names:
General Appellations: The Goatfoot God, Lord of Abominations
Dwarven: Zadûl, Corruptor of Tombs
Dawn/Spirit Elven: Mirthor, The Binder
Night Elven: Gondrar, Father of Horrors
Turan: Shaboun, Corpse Lord
Symbol: Orcus’ symbol is a fanged ram’s skull.
Orcus wasn’t always the grim and terrifying being that he is today. Prior to the War of the Gods at the end of the Age of Birth, Orcus was a noble deity who was a friend and ally to Andariel and helped her in those ancient days craft the forms of animals and found great joy in the horned beasts, the stags, the bison, the antelope, the elk. In them he saw strength and gentleness and it is said that he would run with them reveling in their speed and power. To him, it was these creatures that best represented the power of the life force that pulsed through the world.
Andariel allowed him his joyful union with the horned creatures and named him their steward. Overjoyed at this, he chose the form of a beautiful human male with the head of a ram when he would commune with his charges. The faevari embraced Orcus as a kindred soul and in those ancient days he would eat and drink with them, regaling them with the stories of the gods and telling them of events in the Spirit Wood for the faevari missed deeply their kin in the Spirit World.
Orcus’ existence continued in this way for many thousands of years, during which time he grew closer and closer to the heart of Andariel, who grew more and more like a wife to him. Her mothering nature was very pleasing to him for Ankhara, his mother, had grown somewhat distant as she had set to the task of adorning the blackness of the cosmos with many spinning worlds like this one he had grown to love as his true home.
Orcus’ great virility caused Andariel to give birth to many great spirits of all kinds. Though he and his beloved took great joy in the spirits they had brought forth though all of the gods were not so pleased with the happiness they had found. The goddess Elvarra, who had already fallen for the lies of Beherim and had traveled to his twisted realms, saw the love between Andariel and Orcus and grew envious. She always relished Orcus’ virility and had been his lover prior to his exclusive bond with Andariel.
On a day when Andariel was called away by the Queen of Heaven and Orcus was alone wandering the ancient primeval forests, Elvarra came to him. Using her overwhelming sensuality and beauty as well as his own weakness for the females of his kind, Elvarra seduced Orcus into her embrace and convinced him to journey with her to the Endless Night. Andariel would not see him again until the outbreak of the War of the Gods millennia later.
When the War of the Gods erupted, having grown tired of Elvarra and her empty sexuality and never having fallen out of love for his beloved, Orcus came again to Andariel. He sought for her to join him so that she would not be slain by his sire and those gods like him who had chosen the path of evil. Andariel responded to his entreaty with horror and revulsion for both his character and his form were transformed from their prior nobility to something out of nightmares. His head was similar to that of the form he once wore but his features were now distorted and fierce with great fangs, a mane of wiry black hair, and eyes that gleamed with a hellish red light. His body was similar to its old form, but had grown more satyr-like for his legs were now those of a goat with matted hair and cloven hooves. Most striking perhaps was his body which had been strong and virile had become grotesquely obese, his deep crimson flesh crawling with maggots.
Orcus was enraged, not just because Andariel had rejected him but because she had apparently taken Antereus as a lover, for he reclined with her amidst the flowers, and evidently had born him a child who even now played with the animals that gathered around them.
Filled with a great rage, Orcus attacked the goddess with a fury that took both she and Antereus by surprise. Never before had they been attacked and this allowed Orcus an advantage. Orcus had battled the fiends of the Endless Night in preparation for war against those of his kin still loyal to his mother Ankhara so was well seasoned in battle. Striking Antereus savagely and knocking him aside Orcus’ great clawed hands wrapped around the throat of Andariel. The Endless Night had corrupted Orcus’ connection to the life force of Æonus and turned it instead to death. As the life of the goddess flowed from her form into him, he lover Antereus, having regained himself, attacked Orcus fiercely driving him from Andariel’s chilled throat.
Orcus was stunned by the ferocity of Antereus’ assault and in that moment realized that he was no match for him. Impotent fury rose within Orcus as he saw that what was once his was lost to this strong, noble and handsome god, a god who represented all he once was but was no longer.
Instead of attacking Antereus, Orcus turned his wicked gaze onto the god’s son who was even that moment, overcome by the divine terror radiating from the monster that Orcus had become, was running madly from the conflict. In a flash of balefire, Orcus was upon the god child and in terrible wrath looked upon Antereus saying that now he would take from him something that he loved forevermore. Before either Antereus or Andariel were able to reach Orcus, he had gone with their child to the depths of the Eternal Night.
Thus the eternal enmity between Antereus, Andariel and Orcus began.
Deep in the Eternal Night, Orcus tortured the child god until his mind and form were broken. Though unable to capture the young gods soul for its light could not be constrained or bound by any magic or power available in the abyss, Orcus had his body. Using the most terrible of enchantments mouthed in the Dark Speech developed by and taught to him by his dread sire, Beherim, Orcus used the skull of the child god as the centerpiece of a dread scepter that would strike fear into the hearts of other gods. This scepter, named Tar’gotha (Death’s Head) in the Dark Speech, would eventually be known as the Wand of Orcus among those who refuse to utter its name for fear it would draw the attention of its master.
During the War of the Gods, Orcus battles both Andariel and Antereus and is struck down and nearly slain. With his divine essence rapidly dwindling, Orcus flees to the spirit world in order to escape these two implacable enemies. Seeking to flee to the material world where he believed that he would be able to hide amidst the chaos spawned by the divine conflict he speeds away from the outer planes. Having been weakened nearly unto death and rapidly losing consciousness, Orcus never makes it to the material plane. His nature has been so connected to death and suffering that his essence is drawn inexorably not to the material plane but instead to the Land of Sorrows. This plane within the spirit world was infused with the sorrow of loss, the rage of impotent vengeance and the obsession of greedy attachment and so instinctively drew the dwindling god.
Waking to find himself in this new realm, Orcus arose to find himself healed and whole though transformed somehow into something more and less than his divine brethren. The Land of Sorrows had renewed him by placing him in a state somewhere between life and death. He had become an undead god, in a realm of unquiet and wretched spirits. He discovered that his power was absolute in this place and he renamed it The Eternal Sepulcher and crafted a mighty keep of spirits and stone. He also found to his endless anger and frustration that he was now bound to this plane. Gripping his dread scepter and deciding that his imprisonment would one day end, he began the work required to make his realm fit for a being who was both prisoner and king.
Associations
Orcus is the god of undeath, obsession, vengeance, rage and is the patron of Necromancers. He is worshipped primarily by those that delve deeply into dark necromancy and those that seek to prolong their lives beyond the years naturally allotted to mortal folk. Even though his worshippers are relatively few in number in comparison to the numbers had by other gods, those who secretly whisper prayers to him are legion. Those violently obsessed with a love lost or with vengeance, those who are impotent with rage over real or imagined slights, and those who with a fixation on death and dying all offer reverence to the Goatfoot God whether or not they acknowledge him by name.
Though he, like the other Dark Gods, has no sovereignty over creatures of the natural world, he is, among his worshippers, associated with vultures, carrion crows and rams. His actual mystical association is with undead animals of all kinds. His worshippers commonly reanimate the corpses of small animals like cats, ravens, rats, snakes and lizards and allow then to freely roam his temples as a constant reminder of their lord’s power.
Among the major races of Æonus, Orcus can count none of them as primarily his own. Most races, even the most cruel or barbaric find him repellent and avoid his worship and worshippers like plague. This is not to say that there are not individuals in all races who devote themselves to him for they do exist. Most of Orcus’ worshippers are morbid, death fixated fanatics who see living others, even of their own race or species, as either non-entities or potential sacrifices. Moderation of purpose or intent is unknown to those who worship Orcus. The obsession that drives these zealots is ultimately the fear of death or more accurately the fear of what awaits them after death.
Where there is no organized church, cabals of Orcus’ worshippers usually arise with a single charismatic leader who holds out the promise of eternal life to those who sell their souls to her dark god. The promise of immortality easily creates blood crazed fanatics who will even sacrifice their own children to slake the endless blood lust of their terrible god. This cabal usually swells rapidly with the ranks of the power-hungry, mad, and cruel until it reaches a critical mass and overflows into an army of madmen that lashes out against neighboring communities. In most instances, these cultists find that their enthusiasm is vastly more than their might and that their wickedness is punished by annihilation at the hands of their justifiably outraged neighbors.
This cycle repeats itself constantly amongst those that serve Orcus because it pleases him to have them slain en masse before conscience, fear, doubt, or ennui turn them from his path. In this way the Goatfoot God provides a steady stream of souls for the Great Sepulcher to be crafted into both greater and lesser undead in his service.
Orcus has no allies amongst the Last Gods and is bitterly and violently opposed by both Antereus and Andariel due to his cruel murder of their child. Where he once felt deep and abiding love for Andariel, Orcus now feels only the purest seething hatred. His loathing of her is so intense that in moments of great frustration he will summon forth the agonizing death shrieks of her long dead child in order to bring himself peace.
Though his most visceral hatred is revered for the The Green Lady and The Protector his works are most stymied by The Shepard of Souls who has effectively made certain that Orcus’ influence doesn’t spread much beyond The Great Sepulcher on the spirit world. However it hasn’t been this deity’s efforts alone that have prevented Orcus from either increasing his influence amongst the planes and realms within the spirit world. Perhaps more than anything else, Orcus is content where he is both because he is all powerful within the boundaries of his realm, but also because his father is unable to dominate and manipulate him as he is his other dark children who remain trapped outside the inner planes.
Among the wyrmkings, Orcus has alliance of convenience with both Ghauloroth and The Nameless One both of whom find benefit in his influence among their worshippers. The depth of necromantic knowledge possessed by Orcus’ worshippers is unrivalled and often sought by the servants of both wyrmkings both to empower their own necromantic Art or in the quest for lichdom, vampirism and other undead states.
Description
When he chooses to take a form, Orcus is a horror to behold. He stands a towering 80 feet tall, his head is that of a wickedly fanged ram with blazing red eyes. His body is taunt with iron hard sinews and parchment thin crimson flesh through which one can see every vein, muscle and tendon. His lower body is goatlike with cloven hooves but unlike that animal his tail is long and serpentine in aspect always seeming to move nervously even when he is at rest. The fur of his face and lower body is covered in short, wiry black fur. Two great crimson batlike wings sit astride his back and when extended fully grant him a wingspan of 50 feet. The fingers of his hands are capped by wickedly curved black talons.
Once long ago, Orcus was a grotesquely obese creature whose form seemed reminiscent of a being lost to the gluttony of his passions both physical and emotional. Theologians believe that his more recent form has been chosen as it more closely represents the lean, powerful and ravenously hungry creature that he has become in the long millennia that he has been king, warden and prisoner of the Last Sepulcher.
Though Orcus usually shows himself in a form reminiscent of his violent and monstrous nature, he can appear charming, sophisticated and urbane. When communicating amongst worshippers who are enamored with vampirism and the allure of immortal youth, power and sexuality he takes the form of a strikingly handsome, androgynous human, elf or half-elf male in the most elegant clothing available in the culture of the audience. His manner is knowledgeable, charismatic, conceited, and overwhelming sensual. In this form he promises the deceived all that they imagine is truly glorious about undeath and has, in the past, personally transformed such mortals into vampires. It is often only over long centuries of loneliness, guilt, emptiness, and predation on the folk they once belonged to that these monsters realize the truth of their condition. Others however embrace this state with a passion that in turn inspires others to feel Orcus’ touch.
Orcus’ manifestations always take place at night and generally take the form of a freezing cold breeze that snuffs out all natural illumination up to and including torch light. An eerie crimson ambience suffuses the area and with it comes an overwhelming odor of decay. Sometimes a ghastly, shuddering breathing is heard as well. The breath is, among his worshippers and theologians in general, known as the Death Rattle and often precedes a time of Orcus’ focused attention upon a person or area. This attention seems to be rather localized and has never been known to extend beyond a region the size of a hamlet or village at most.
Within the context of his worship, Orcus’ manifestations are far more horrifying. Among the Dark Elves and the folk of the Hollow Lands for example, it is a common practice for the high priest or priestess to choose a relatively fresh, well kept male corpse and use this corpse as the centerpiece of the Rite of Initiation for those new to the faith. During the rite, the corpse becomes the vehicle for Orcus’ manifestation upon the world. Then in an unspeakable act of commitment to the dark god all initiates copulate, sometimes willingly, sometimes not so willingly, with the possessed cadaver.
Sometimes it is only with the terrible reality of what is to occur that the initiate realizes the true depths to which they have sunken but once the corpse arises upon the altar, there is no turning back. Unfortunately, it is all to frequent that the full fury of the god’s brutality is expressed in congress with this unfortunate leaving the unwilling initiate dead. The corpse of an initiate killed in this manner is considered a sacred relic by Orcus’ worshippers and, if male will be preserved for the next series of initiation rites. If the victim was a female, portions of the body are shared amongst the worshippers as a sacramental meal and what remains is given to the ghouls commonly kept in temples as guards and waste disposal. If the corpse is not disposed of through consumption or destruction by flame or decapitation, it will rise again, usually as a mindless zombie.
Alignment
Orcus is chaotic evil. His worshipper’s alignment is either neutral evil or chaotic evil. Only the truly desperate or truly evil will willingly enter service to he who is certainly one of the most demonstrably wicked deities in the pantheon. Those of lawful evil alignment usually find the philosophy and worship of Orcus’ church too arbitrary, chaotic and frenzied for their tastes. Those who are not of evil alignment cannot bear the church or its teachings.
However, amongst many races and peoples, there are those who find Orcus and his worshippers morbidly fascinating and even romanticize him and his creations, the undead. These types, usually younger folk who are disenchanted by their lives and lost in fantasies of immortal life and love usually grow out of these reveries. Sometimes they learn too late just how horrifying the truth behind the tales really is.
Motivations
Orcus is driven by two things only, hate and obsession. Orcus loathes his servants, worshippers and the undead he empowers to walk both the spirit and material worlds. No thing that exists, that cannot serve as a tool or a weapon has any value to him. Orcus is mildly amused by those delusional and mad folk who actually feel love for him. It is for these that he has the greatest contempt because at least those who come to him for power, vengeance or immortality without the pretensions and idiotic romanticisms know the truth of things. If there is anything in the universe that Orcus actually respects it is directness for he is a creature beyond airs and politicking and wearies rapidly of intrigues though he allows such amongst his servants when it is to the ultimate benefit of him or his church.
Servants
Orcus is served by undead of all kinds, as well as undead fiends of unique type. At the foot of his throne crafted of the mystically solidified souls of those worshipers who have failed him, he is often attended by two particular beings of great power. Both of these beings are demigods, though they have no temples of their own and are only worshipped within the context of Orcus’ faith.
The first is Annanórë, The White Queen, the first vampire. This stunning elven beauty was an ancient elven chieftain of the Írthil Syldar who, millennia ago, during the Long Walk, fell in love with a great hunter amongst her people. This warrior had already taken a wife and wished no other lover and scorned her advances shaming her amongst her people for her persistence. Her fury was great and she secretly conspired with the wyrdrin who had already embraced the worship of Ghauloroth to murder the warrior’s woman and child. The plot was hatched and the murders committed. However, instead of keeping her secret, the wyrdrin of Ghauloroth in a bid to supplant her as chieftain for one of their own, tied her directly to the killings while slyly exonerating themselves.
Though many of her people had embraced the worship of the Darkener, they were outraged by such a betrayal of their own by one they held in such esteem. A wyrdrin council passed sentence on her and that sentence was banishment from her people to wander the ice alone. Knowing that this was in truth a death sentence, Annanórë cursed her folk and left their fires knowing that her doom would come amongst the unforgiving stone and ice of the lands they tread.
Her ration of food and water did not last long and soon she found herself, due to the weakness of starvation, succumbing to both the bitter cold and her desperate hunger. Consigning herself to the bleak eternity of the Land of Sorrows, for she new that her spirit would no longer be welcomed amongst her kind in the Spirit Wood, she closed her eyes and awaited death.
Death however, did not come, instead she found herself swept up in the embrace of a handsome elven warrior of great strength who told her that she need not die and wander forever the Land of Sorrows as a restless shade. Instead, she could choose to live eternally, forever rejecting the call of the spirit world and could have her vengeance upon those who had betrayed and forsaken her. She could, he claimed, even have the great elven hunter she so longed for as her husband.
Accepting this stranger’s offer, she accepted his embrace and was transformed into a being of eternal beauty and predatory evil. She had become the first vampire. She returned to her tribe in fury, slaughtering not only those who were involved in her banishment and betrayal, but everyone. No thing that lived in their camp escaped her wrath that day save the great hunter she so desired. The hunter sought to put an end to her and fought valiantly nearly slaying her with his blessed blade but in the end she defeated him and embraced him, offering him no choice, so that he became her slave and consort.
It is said that one morning, when he was able to slip away from her gaze he cast himself into the light of the sun, destroying himself so as to be free of his cruel mistress. Others say that somehow he escaped and to this day wanders both the world of mortals and spirits hunting her. Only Annanórë knows the truth and she is silent on such things.
Annanórë is the patron goddess of vampires. She seeks to spread the myth of the romanticism of undeath and will from time to time enter the dreams of those enamored with the sensuality of vampirism so as to prompt them to actively seek the embrace of her charges.
The other who stands at the foot of the throne of Orcus is Suvara, a dusky human beauty once hailing from the lands now occupied by the land of Turan. This woman though appearing wholly alive, if somewhat ashen, and dressed in the finest raiment of silk and satin reminiscent of the lands of Turan and the nomads of the Sighing Desert. Suvara radiates an unearthly; bone chilling cold and her eyes gleam with an unholy red light for she is the first of the great necromancers to discover the secrets of lichdom.
Suvara Khandan was vizier, and daughter, to king Bhutan Faraz of the now extinct kingdom of Kamala which stood amidst the tropical jungles that once covered the lands that are now named Turan, the Bandit Wastes and the Sighing Desert. In those ancient days, Kamala was a great and prosperous mageocracy. No wyrmking lay claim to the lands or peoples of the region and the folk of Kamala largely rejected the idea of gods. Instead the common folk worshipped their ancestors for at least they could be certain that they existed. The mighty Archwizards of Kamala, of which Suvara was one, encouraged such beliefs and often would cast spells to simulate the effects of divine magic, even going so far as to raise the dead for the most devout so that the priests and wyrdrin of true divinities were turned away.
For centuries the folk of Kamala lived under the harsh rulership of the Archwizards, this was until the Nameless One decided that mortals so close to his Dominion should worship him and not their moldering ancestors. Semanyana, childre of the Nameless One came among the folk of Kamala showing them the true power of the divine magic. Semayana’s miracles astounded Kamalans and her power was such that the Archwizards were unable to stop her either by spell or by hired blade.
Suvara went to the king arguing that the reign of the Archwizards would end within a generation if the prophetess of the Nameless One was not stopped. Her father agreed that something would have to be done but was uncertain how Semayana could be stopped for it was apparent to all that divine power flowed freely through her.
Suvara tired of the endless discussions and wizard’s councils that, to her way of thinking, were nothing more than muttering greybeards arguing much and doing little. Suvara, desperate, actually began to pray to her ancestors for guidance in her researches for she had come from a long line of Archwizards who were great masters of Art. To her great surprise, she received a response from her grandsire who was, like herself, a great master of necromancy though long deceased. He told her that the only way in which she could transcend the limitations of her power was to transcend her humanity and embrace a state that would allow her, and those she would eventually teach, to achieve a mastery over life and death great enough to challenge the divine magic of Semayana and the wyrdrin who were her apprentices.
Her grandsire told her that he dwelt in a place where the true Art of transcending death was known and that he could teach her, but that the secrets of such great necromancy could only be learned at the feet of the true master of this realm. She knew the legends of the lands of the spirit world and dreaded the god associated with the path of Art she had chosen but was no theologian and listened intently as her grandsire spun his deception. Though she had long been a necromantic master, her Art was that of research and theory, not that of the outlawed practitioners of the Art that made the evil dead walk to slay the living. The mindless dead had their uses of course she thought, but the Art that brought forth free willed horrors imbued with wicked and restless spirits corrupted its practitioners.
Her grandsire countered her thinking by agreeing that indeed such Art corrupted all who practiced it, unless one becomes a true master of the Art of life and death. Her hungry ears devoured the bits of secrets divulged by the apparition until she decided she could learn no more from him and, following his instruction, decided that she would learn at the foot of the true master of Necromancy who dwelt in the Great Sepulcher.
Crafting a great portal to the Great Sepulcher in secret away from the prying eyes of other Archwizards, Suvara entered the grey wastelands of the Great Sepulcher and stood before the throne of Orcus and was awed by both the horror and the power of him. He offered her a choice; she could choose to learn the secrets of necromantic immortality or be slain, he spirit being free to journey to the Land of the Young where she would have eternal peace and joy. The one thing she could not choose was to return home as a normal mortal. Accepting the choice presented to her, she chose what she believed would allow her to return to Kamala with the knowledge needed to save her homeland from the heretical beliefs being spread by Semayana and her wyrdrin. She chose to learn the secrets of necromantic immortality.
When Suvara returned to Kamala years after she had left, she was transformed. She was a lich, the first lich to walk the world. Being vain, she used her great magic to preserve the beauty of her physical form and the illusion of warmth from her body. She approached her father the king and the other Archwizards, with a demonstration of her power. All were greatly willing to learn the Art she promised them for they had grown desperate in the intervening years for the cult of the Nameless One had grown powerful within the land.
Using the great Art taught to her by Orcus she wove a great and terrible spell, a spell that took the great Counciltower of the Archwizards into the Great Sepulcher where all within save Suvara herself were set upon by the horrors of that realm. Suvara, as part of her pact with Orcus struck down her father the king and delivered him dying to the feet of her lord. Orcus, in an exceedingly rare act of generosity, transformed the dying king into a lich who would eternally serve his daughter. To this day, the tragic figure of king Faraz roams the lonely corridors of Orcus’ halls carrying out the duties assigned to him by his daughter and her cruel lord.
Her payment made for the secrets she learned at Orcus’ feet, Suvara returned to Kamala and instead of fighting Semayana and her cult, allied with her to bring the people of Kamala under the Dominion of the Nameless One. Even more than she had learned mastery of necromancy, Suvara learned that mortals are not meant to be free and that all must prostrate themselves before the might of a true god.
Orcus had long sought a safe haven for his church, somewhere his worshippers would not be hunted to extinction. The Nameless One suffered Orcus’ temples amongst his own within his Dominion. However, price of this bargain was high for Orcus would have to aid the Nameless One in expanding his influence and with the delivery of Kamala into the Nameless One’s grasp, the debt was paid.
In honor of her service Orcus made Suvara a demigoddess; she became the patron of all who would seek the path of lichdom.
The Church of Orcus
Church Structure: Outside of the dominions of Ghauloroth and the Nameless One, a proper Church of Orcus does not exist. In the great majority of areas throughout Arranorne, cabals of Orcus’ worshippers gather in secret cabals led by powerful individuals so as to avoid much deserved persecution.
Orcus’ faith in such areas is as chaotic as the nature of their master with nearly no hierarchy or structure outside of the charisma and power of the cabal’s founder to influence according to her will. The cabal’s sole reason for existence is the securing of both temporal and spiritual power for those involved. It is very common for those within the cabal to have very different understandings of what should be done and how to do it. Some choose to worship Orcus to attain immortality, some out of the promise of power, some seek to vengeance against those who have wronged them, and some imagine immortal love between themselves and another. It is only the power and personality of the cabal’s most powerful priest that can make these of such different motivations work together.
In regions where an organized church exists, its goals of power are similar to those of smaller groups but the manner of accomplishment is more organized and hierarchical. The goals of the organized church are the spread of Orcus’ temporal power and the elevation of the state of undeath as a sacred manifestation of their god’s power and not merely monsters to be destroyed with fire and sword. To accomplish this, the temples of Orcus are often led by vampires or clerical liches of great charm and enthralling manner. In many instances the worship of Annanórë is strongly highlighted for she presents a far more appealing face than that of Orcus whose appearance can easily spoil the romance woven by the priesthood.
In some temples however there is no attempt to impart an illusion to those who seek to serve Orcus. These temples, colloquially known as Charnel Houses are horrid rough hewn barrows half below and half above the earth. Charnel Houses are always earth roofed and appear from the outside to be burial mounds in the style of many ancient human and elven tribes. Few places in Arranorne frequented by mortals are more terrifying than these sanctums of depravity. Within the Charnel Houses the dead are set in awful tableaus imitating life, the skins of those slaughtered in sacrifice are painted upon as canvases for artwork or used as resources for the fleshcrafters who form it into sculptures of macabre beauty and undead both corporeal and otherwise roam freely. Only the priests of Orcus are safe in these dark places though from time to time those awaiting initiation disappear becoming “a holy sacrifice to the children of Orcus.”
Doctrine: The doctrine of Orcus is simple. Worshippers of Orcus are to worship Orcus and his divine consorts with both prayer and sacrifice. They are to, whenever possible, to increase the number of undead walking the nights of Arranorne. They are to see to it that all learn to fear the name of Orcus and offer him prayers to divert his gaze. They are to bring others into the fold whether through the seduction of immortality or fear of the consequences of neglecting to worship the Goatfoot God.
Holy Texts: The church of Orcus has no sacred text that is agreed upon by a majority of temples however an ancient text exists that many believe to have been penned by Suvara herself called the Necronomicon. The Necronomicon is known to exist as fragments throughout many temples and within the private strongholds of great necromancers and liches throughout Arranorne. These individual scraps are invaluable sources of necromantic and magical lore that could greatly assist any wizard in the furthering of his Art and because of this and their status as holy relics, these scraps are greatly prized by their owners.
Legend has it that three copies of the Necronomicon exist in its complete, unfragmented form. These books, rumored to be crafted of the skin of Orcus’ sacrifices and penned in the blood of slain celestials, are rumored to impart incredible necromantic knowledge and power as well as the secrets of communing directly with the Goatfoot God himself.
Common Worship: Orcus’ worship services vary from cabal to cabal, from temple to temple with only certain aspects of devotion being standardized. The two staples of Orcus’ worship are veneration of the undead in which an undead creature, chosen to represent the “gift of undeath.” (Usually this creature a harmless zombie animal with a ram or goat being the preferred choice) and sacrifice. The chosen sacrifice can be of any type of sentient creature. The victim is often culled from the lower classes or from derelicts in urban areas. The worshippers of Orcus do their best to choose those they believe will not be missed. In areas where Orcus’ worship is allowed by the populace there is generally a stock of slaves, both human and otherwise, kept for the purpose of providing sacrificial victims.
Holy Days: The Rending of the Veil is the highest holy day for worshippers of Orcus. Taking place on (insert date in accordance with the Valerian calendar) the Rending of the Veil is believed to be the day that Orcus was reborn within the Land of Sorrows, becoming its king and renaming it the Eternal Sepulcher. On this most sacred of days, the worshippers of Orcus commonly receive omens of instruction from their god and it is said that if the desired task is completed, the supplicant will receive a great boon from the Lord of Abominations.
On this night, as a boon to the most loyal, those priests and priestesses who are vampires will often choose worthy souls from amongst the congregation to embrace and turn into beings like themselves.
Relationship with the Church: Orcus generally loathes his worshippers, seeing them as petty groveling vermin fit only to be called to the Eternal Sepulcher upon their deaths so as to be transformed into undead or demonic beings more suitable to his service. Orcus is disgusted by mortality and sees no redeeming virtue in frail, weak, temporary mortal forms. From time to time a mortal worshipper, through her great service to him, gains his favor. However, in order to keep within his good graces the mortal, no matter what their merits, would do well to seek undeath. Orcus’ patience is very limited and even moreso with the living.
As long as those within his church carry out his will he tolerates them for the more worshippers he has the more influence he has in the material world and the more souls fall into his grasp after they slip their mortal coil. Orcus takes perverse pleasure out of eternally denying those who choose to serve him the bliss of the Land of the Young by trapping them in the form of dreadful incorporeal undead like wraiths, ghosts and groaning spirits.
Due to Orcus’ general disdain for his worshippers, many of the visions, omens and manifestations, blessings and curses visited upon his followers are actually the work of either Annanórë or Suvara who have been tasked to see to his mortal worshippers when he is uninterested with either their praises or their prayers.
As described above, Orcus does take a personal interest in all initiations and uses those opportunities to enjoy the terror and suffering he can inflict upon those foolish enough to call him their lord.
Preferred Weapon: When expecting battle, Orcus carries his dread scepter, the Wand of Orcus. This scepter is crafted of steel hardened and onyx blackened fiend bone. Over its surface dances greenly glowing mystical characters that are of the Dark Speech and seem to move of their own accord chaotically over the length of the scepter. The crowning horror of the scepter is the skull of the child god. The skull is gleaming white and perfect, without marring or mark of any kind. The skull appears a simple capstone for so ornate a rod, yet this simplicity disappears once the scepter is activated.
When the scepter’s powers are invoked the skull glows with a sickly green light and deep crimson, nearly black, blood seeps from the preternaturally dark hollows of the eye sockets. The skull screams with blood curdling death shrieks believed to be those of the child god at the time of his passing. All within 20 feet of the user of the scepter hear a terrifying whispering that speaks to them of their sins and crimes and feel a sensation akin to insects or even maggots crawling over their skin.
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Orcus
Intermediate deity (chaotic evil)
Names:
General Appellations: The Goatfoot God, Lord of Abominations
Dwarven: Zadûl, Corruptor of Tombs
Dawn/Spirit Elven: Mirthor, The Binder
Night Elven: Gondrar, Father of Horrors
Turan: Shaboun, Corpse Lord
Symbol: Orcus’ symbol is a fanged ram’s skull.
Orcus wasn’t always the grim and terrifying being that he is today. Prior to the War of the Gods at the end of the Age of Birth, Orcus was a noble deity who was a friend and ally to Andariel and helped her in those ancient days craft the forms of animals and found great joy in the horned beasts, the stags, the bison, the antelope, the elk. In them he saw strength and gentleness and it is said that he would run with them reveling in their speed and power. To him, it was these creatures that best represented the power of the life force that pulsed through the world.
Andariel allowed him his joyful union with the horned creatures and named him their steward. Overjoyed at this, he chose the form of a beautiful human male with the head of a ram when he would commune with his charges. The faevari embraced Orcus as a kindred soul and in those ancient days he would eat and drink with them, regaling them with the stories of the gods and telling them of events in the Spirit Wood for the faevari missed deeply their kin in the Spirit World.
Orcus’ existence continued in this way for many thousands of years, during which time he grew closer and closer to the heart of Andariel, who grew more and more like a wife to him. Her mothering nature was very pleasing to him for Ankhara, his mother, had grown somewhat distant as she had set to the task of adorning the blackness of the cosmos with many spinning worlds like this one he had grown to love as his true home.
Orcus’ great virility caused Andariel to give birth to many great spirits of all kinds. Though he and his beloved took great joy in the spirits they had brought forth though all of the gods were not so pleased with the happiness they had found. The goddess Elvarra, who had already fallen for the lies of Beherim and had traveled to his twisted realms, saw the love between Andariel and Orcus and grew envious. She always relished Orcus’ virility and had been his lover prior to his exclusive bond with Andariel.
On a day when Andariel was called away by the Queen of Heaven and Orcus was alone wandering the ancient primeval forests, Elvarra came to him. Using her overwhelming sensuality and beauty as well as his own weakness for the females of his kind, Elvarra seduced Orcus into her embrace and convinced him to journey with her to the Endless Night. Andariel would not see him again until the outbreak of the War of the Gods millennia later.
When the War of the Gods erupted, having grown tired of Elvarra and her empty sexuality and never having fallen out of love for his beloved, Orcus came again to Andariel. He sought for her to join him so that she would not be slain by his sire and those gods like him who had chosen the path of evil. Andariel responded to his entreaty with horror and revulsion for both his character and his form were transformed from their prior nobility to something out of nightmares. His head was similar to that of the form he once wore but his features were now distorted and fierce with great fangs, a mane of wiry black hair, and eyes that gleamed with a hellish red light. His body was similar to its old form, but had grown more satyr-like for his legs were now those of a goat with matted hair and cloven hooves. Most striking perhaps was his body which had been strong and virile had become grotesquely obese, his deep crimson flesh crawling with maggots.
Orcus was enraged, not just because Andariel had rejected him but because she had apparently taken Antereus as a lover, for he reclined with her amidst the flowers, and evidently had born him a child who even now played with the animals that gathered around them.
Filled with a great rage, Orcus attacked the goddess with a fury that took both she and Antereus by surprise. Never before had they been attacked and this allowed Orcus an advantage. Orcus had battled the fiends of the Endless Night in preparation for war against those of his kin still loyal to his mother Ankhara so was well seasoned in battle. Striking Antereus savagely and knocking him aside Orcus’ great clawed hands wrapped around the throat of Andariel. The Endless Night had corrupted Orcus’ connection to the life force of Æonus and turned it instead to death. As the life of the goddess flowed from her form into him, he lover Antereus, having regained himself, attacked Orcus fiercely driving him from Andariel’s chilled throat.
Orcus was stunned by the ferocity of Antereus’ assault and in that moment realized that he was no match for him. Impotent fury rose within Orcus as he saw that what was once his was lost to this strong, noble and handsome god, a god who represented all he once was but was no longer.
Instead of attacking Antereus, Orcus turned his wicked gaze onto the god’s son who was even that moment, overcome by the divine terror radiating from the monster that Orcus had become, was running madly from the conflict. In a flash of balefire, Orcus was upon the god child and in terrible wrath looked upon Antereus saying that now he would take from him something that he loved forevermore. Before either Antereus or Andariel were able to reach Orcus, he had gone with their child to the depths of the Eternal Night.
Thus the eternal enmity between Antereus, Andariel and Orcus began.
Deep in the Eternal Night, Orcus tortured the child god until his mind and form were broken. Though unable to capture the young gods soul for its light could not be constrained or bound by any magic or power available in the abyss, Orcus had his body. Using the most terrible of enchantments mouthed in the Dark Speech developed by and taught to him by his dread sire, Beherim, Orcus used the skull of the child god as the centerpiece of a dread scepter that would strike fear into the hearts of other gods. This scepter, named Tar’gotha (Death’s Head) in the Dark Speech, would eventually be known as the Wand of Orcus among those who refuse to utter its name for fear it would draw the attention of its master.
During the War of the Gods, Orcus battles both Andariel and Antereus and is struck down and nearly slain. With his divine essence rapidly dwindling, Orcus flees to the spirit world in order to escape these two implacable enemies. Seeking to flee to the material world where he believed that he would be able to hide amidst the chaos spawned by the divine conflict he speeds away from the outer planes. Having been weakened nearly unto death and rapidly losing consciousness, Orcus never makes it to the material plane. His nature has been so connected to death and suffering that his essence is drawn inexorably not to the material plane but instead to the Land of Sorrows. This plane within the spirit world was infused with the sorrow of loss, the rage of impotent vengeance and the obsession of greedy attachment and so instinctively drew the dwindling god.
Waking to find himself in this new realm, Orcus arose to find himself healed and whole though transformed somehow into something more and less than his divine brethren. The Land of Sorrows had renewed him by placing him in a state somewhere between life and death. He had become an undead god, in a realm of unquiet and wretched spirits. He discovered that his power was absolute in this place and he renamed it The Eternal Sepulcher and crafted a mighty keep of spirits and stone. He also found to his endless anger and frustration that he was now bound to this plane. Gripping his dread scepter and deciding that his imprisonment would one day end, he began the work required to make his realm fit for a being who was both prisoner and king.
Associations
Orcus is the god of undeath, obsession, vengeance, rage and is the patron of Necromancers. He is worshipped primarily by those that delve deeply into dark necromancy and those that seek to prolong their lives beyond the years naturally allotted to mortal folk. Even though his worshippers are relatively few in number in comparison to the numbers had by other gods, those who secretly whisper prayers to him are legion. Those violently obsessed with a love lost or with vengeance, those who are impotent with rage over real or imagined slights, and those who with a fixation on death and dying all offer reverence to the Goatfoot God whether or not they acknowledge him by name.
Though he, like the other Dark Gods, has no sovereignty over creatures of the natural world, he is, among his worshippers, associated with vultures, carrion crows and rams. His actual mystical association is with undead animals of all kinds. His worshippers commonly reanimate the corpses of small animals like cats, ravens, rats, snakes and lizards and allow then to freely roam his temples as a constant reminder of their lord’s power.
Among the major races of Æonus, Orcus can count none of them as primarily his own. Most races, even the most cruel or barbaric find him repellent and avoid his worship and worshippers like plague. This is not to say that there are not individuals in all races who devote themselves to him for they do exist. Most of Orcus’ worshippers are morbid, death fixated fanatics who see living others, even of their own race or species, as either non-entities or potential sacrifices. Moderation of purpose or intent is unknown to those who worship Orcus. The obsession that drives these zealots is ultimately the fear of death or more accurately the fear of what awaits them after death.
Where there is no organized church, cabals of Orcus’ worshippers usually arise with a single charismatic leader who holds out the promise of eternal life to those who sell their souls to her dark god. The promise of immortality easily creates blood crazed fanatics who will even sacrifice their own children to slake the endless blood lust of their terrible god. This cabal usually swells rapidly with the ranks of the power-hungry, mad, and cruel until it reaches a critical mass and overflows into an army of madmen that lashes out against neighboring communities. In most instances, these cultists find that their enthusiasm is vastly more than their might and that their wickedness is punished by annihilation at the hands of their justifiably outraged neighbors.
This cycle repeats itself constantly amongst those that serve Orcus because it pleases him to have them slain en masse before conscience, fear, doubt, or ennui turn them from his path. In this way the Goatfoot God provides a steady stream of souls for the Great Sepulcher to be crafted into both greater and lesser undead in his service.
Orcus has no allies amongst the Last Gods and is bitterly and violently opposed by both Antereus and Andariel due to his cruel murder of their child. Where he once felt deep and abiding love for Andariel, Orcus now feels only the purest seething hatred. His loathing of her is so intense that in moments of great frustration he will summon forth the agonizing death shrieks of her long dead child in order to bring himself peace.
Though his most visceral hatred is revered for the The Green Lady and The Protector his works are most stymied by The Shepard of Souls who has effectively made certain that Orcus’ influence doesn’t spread much beyond The Great Sepulcher on the spirit world. However it hasn’t been this deity’s efforts alone that have prevented Orcus from either increasing his influence amongst the planes and realms within the spirit world. Perhaps more than anything else, Orcus is content where he is both because he is all powerful within the boundaries of his realm, but also because his father is unable to dominate and manipulate him as he is his other dark children who remain trapped outside the inner planes.
Among the wyrmkings, Orcus has alliance of convenience with both Ghauloroth and The Nameless One both of whom find benefit in his influence among their worshippers. The depth of necromantic knowledge possessed by Orcus’ worshippers is unrivalled and often sought by the servants of both wyrmkings both to empower their own necromantic Art or in the quest for lichdom, vampirism and other undead states.
Description
When he chooses to take a form, Orcus is a horror to behold. He stands a towering 80 feet tall, his head is that of a wickedly fanged ram with blazing red eyes. His body is taunt with iron hard sinews and parchment thin crimson flesh through which one can see every vein, muscle and tendon. His lower body is goatlike with cloven hooves but unlike that animal his tail is long and serpentine in aspect always seeming to move nervously even when he is at rest. The fur of his face and lower body is covered in short, wiry black fur. Two great crimson batlike wings sit astride his back and when extended fully grant him a wingspan of 50 feet. The fingers of his hands are capped by wickedly curved black talons.
Once long ago, Orcus was a grotesquely obese creature whose form seemed reminiscent of a being lost to the gluttony of his passions both physical and emotional. Theologians believe that his more recent form has been chosen as it more closely represents the lean, powerful and ravenously hungry creature that he has become in the long millennia that he has been king, warden and prisoner of the Last Sepulcher.
Though Orcus usually shows himself in a form reminiscent of his violent and monstrous nature, he can appear charming, sophisticated and urbane. When communicating amongst worshippers who are enamored with vampirism and the allure of immortal youth, power and sexuality he takes the form of a strikingly handsome, androgynous human, elf or half-elf male in the most elegant clothing available in the culture of the audience. His manner is knowledgeable, charismatic, conceited, and overwhelming sensual. In this form he promises the deceived all that they imagine is truly glorious about undeath and has, in the past, personally transformed such mortals into vampires. It is often only over long centuries of loneliness, guilt, emptiness, and predation on the folk they once belonged to that these monsters realize the truth of their condition. Others however embrace this state with a passion that in turn inspires others to feel Orcus’ touch.
Orcus’ manifestations always take place at night and generally take the form of a freezing cold breeze that snuffs out all natural illumination up to and including torch light. An eerie crimson ambience suffuses the area and with it comes an overwhelming odor of decay. Sometimes a ghastly, shuddering breathing is heard as well. The breath is, among his worshippers and theologians in general, known as the Death Rattle and often precedes a time of Orcus’ focused attention upon a person or area. This attention seems to be rather localized and has never been known to extend beyond a region the size of a hamlet or village at most.
Within the context of his worship, Orcus’ manifestations are far more horrifying. Among the Dark Elves and the folk of the Hollow Lands for example, it is a common practice for the high priest or priestess to choose a relatively fresh, well kept male corpse and use this corpse as the centerpiece of the Rite of Initiation for those new to the faith. During the rite, the corpse becomes the vehicle for Orcus’ manifestation upon the world. Then in an unspeakable act of commitment to the dark god all initiates copulate, sometimes willingly, sometimes not so willingly, with the possessed cadaver.
Sometimes it is only with the terrible reality of what is to occur that the initiate realizes the true depths to which they have sunken but once the corpse arises upon the altar, there is no turning back. Unfortunately, it is all to frequent that the full fury of the god’s brutality is expressed in congress with this unfortunate leaving the unwilling initiate dead. The corpse of an initiate killed in this manner is considered a sacred relic by Orcus’ worshippers and, if male will be preserved for the next series of initiation rites. If the victim was a female, portions of the body are shared amongst the worshippers as a sacramental meal and what remains is given to the ghouls commonly kept in temples as guards and waste disposal. If the corpse is not disposed of through consumption or destruction by flame or decapitation, it will rise again, usually as a mindless zombie.
Alignment
Orcus is chaotic evil. His worshipper’s alignment is either neutral evil or chaotic evil. Only the truly desperate or truly evil will willingly enter service to he who is certainly one of the most demonstrably wicked deities in the pantheon. Those of lawful evil alignment usually find the philosophy and worship of Orcus’ church too arbitrary, chaotic and frenzied for their tastes. Those who are not of evil alignment cannot bear the church or its teachings.
However, amongst many races and peoples, there are those who find Orcus and his worshippers morbidly fascinating and even romanticize him and his creations, the undead. These types, usually younger folk who are disenchanted by their lives and lost in fantasies of immortal life and love usually grow out of these reveries. Sometimes they learn too late just how horrifying the truth behind the tales really is.
Motivations
Orcus is driven by two things only, hate and obsession. Orcus loathes his servants, worshippers and the undead he empowers to walk both the spirit and material worlds. No thing that exists, that cannot serve as a tool or a weapon has any value to him. Orcus is mildly amused by those delusional and mad folk who actually feel love for him. It is for these that he has the greatest contempt because at least those who come to him for power, vengeance or immortality without the pretensions and idiotic romanticisms know the truth of things. If there is anything in the universe that Orcus actually respects it is directness for he is a creature beyond airs and politicking and wearies rapidly of intrigues though he allows such amongst his servants when it is to the ultimate benefit of him or his church.
Servants
Orcus is served by undead of all kinds, as well as undead fiends of unique type. At the foot of his throne crafted of the mystically solidified souls of those worshipers who have failed him, he is often attended by two particular beings of great power. Both of these beings are demigods, though they have no temples of their own and are only worshipped within the context of Orcus’ faith.
The first is Annanórë, The White Queen, the first vampire. This stunning elven beauty was an ancient elven chieftain of the Írthil Syldar who, millennia ago, during the Long Walk, fell in love with a great hunter amongst her people. This warrior had already taken a wife and wished no other lover and scorned her advances shaming her amongst her people for her persistence. Her fury was great and she secretly conspired with the wyrdrin who had already embraced the worship of Ghauloroth to murder the warrior’s woman and child. The plot was hatched and the murders committed. However, instead of keeping her secret, the wyrdrin of Ghauloroth in a bid to supplant her as chieftain for one of their own, tied her directly to the killings while slyly exonerating themselves.
Though many of her people had embraced the worship of the Darkener, they were outraged by such a betrayal of their own by one they held in such esteem. A wyrdrin council passed sentence on her and that sentence was banishment from her people to wander the ice alone. Knowing that this was in truth a death sentence, Annanórë cursed her folk and left their fires knowing that her doom would come amongst the unforgiving stone and ice of the lands they tread.
Her ration of food and water did not last long and soon she found herself, due to the weakness of starvation, succumbing to both the bitter cold and her desperate hunger. Consigning herself to the bleak eternity of the Land of Sorrows, for she new that her spirit would no longer be welcomed amongst her kind in the Spirit Wood, she closed her eyes and awaited death.
Death however, did not come, instead she found herself swept up in the embrace of a handsome elven warrior of great strength who told her that she need not die and wander forever the Land of Sorrows as a restless shade. Instead, she could choose to live eternally, forever rejecting the call of the spirit world and could have her vengeance upon those who had betrayed and forsaken her. She could, he claimed, even have the great elven hunter she so longed for as her husband.
Accepting this stranger’s offer, she accepted his embrace and was transformed into a being of eternal beauty and predatory evil. She had become the first vampire. She returned to her tribe in fury, slaughtering not only those who were involved in her banishment and betrayal, but everyone. No thing that lived in their camp escaped her wrath that day save the great hunter she so desired. The hunter sought to put an end to her and fought valiantly nearly slaying her with his blessed blade but in the end she defeated him and embraced him, offering him no choice, so that he became her slave and consort.
It is said that one morning, when he was able to slip away from her gaze he cast himself into the light of the sun, destroying himself so as to be free of his cruel mistress. Others say that somehow he escaped and to this day wanders both the world of mortals and spirits hunting her. Only Annanórë knows the truth and she is silent on such things.
Annanórë is the patron goddess of vampires. She seeks to spread the myth of the romanticism of undeath and will from time to time enter the dreams of those enamored with the sensuality of vampirism so as to prompt them to actively seek the embrace of her charges.
The other who stands at the foot of the throne of Orcus is Suvara, a dusky human beauty once hailing from the lands now occupied by the land of Turan. This woman though appearing wholly alive, if somewhat ashen, and dressed in the finest raiment of silk and satin reminiscent of the lands of Turan and the nomads of the Sighing Desert. Suvara radiates an unearthly; bone chilling cold and her eyes gleam with an unholy red light for she is the first of the great necromancers to discover the secrets of lichdom.
Suvara Khandan was vizier, and daughter, to king Bhutan Faraz of the now extinct kingdom of Kamala which stood amidst the tropical jungles that once covered the lands that are now named Turan, the Bandit Wastes and the Sighing Desert. In those ancient days, Kamala was a great and prosperous mageocracy. No wyrmking lay claim to the lands or peoples of the region and the folk of Kamala largely rejected the idea of gods. Instead the common folk worshipped their ancestors for at least they could be certain that they existed. The mighty Archwizards of Kamala, of which Suvara was one, encouraged such beliefs and often would cast spells to simulate the effects of divine magic, even going so far as to raise the dead for the most devout so that the priests and wyrdrin of true divinities were turned away.
For centuries the folk of Kamala lived under the harsh rulership of the Archwizards, this was until the Nameless One decided that mortals so close to his Dominion should worship him and not their moldering ancestors. Semanyana, childre of the Nameless One came among the folk of Kamala showing them the true power of the divine magic. Semayana’s miracles astounded Kamalans and her power was such that the Archwizards were unable to stop her either by spell or by hired blade.
Suvara went to the king arguing that the reign of the Archwizards would end within a generation if the prophetess of the Nameless One was not stopped. Her father agreed that something would have to be done but was uncertain how Semayana could be stopped for it was apparent to all that divine power flowed freely through her.
Suvara tired of the endless discussions and wizard’s councils that, to her way of thinking, were nothing more than muttering greybeards arguing much and doing little. Suvara, desperate, actually began to pray to her ancestors for guidance in her researches for she had come from a long line of Archwizards who were great masters of Art. To her great surprise, she received a response from her grandsire who was, like herself, a great master of necromancy though long deceased. He told her that the only way in which she could transcend the limitations of her power was to transcend her humanity and embrace a state that would allow her, and those she would eventually teach, to achieve a mastery over life and death great enough to challenge the divine magic of Semayana and the wyrdrin who were her apprentices.
Her grandsire told her that he dwelt in a place where the true Art of transcending death was known and that he could teach her, but that the secrets of such great necromancy could only be learned at the feet of the true master of this realm. She knew the legends of the lands of the spirit world and dreaded the god associated with the path of Art she had chosen but was no theologian and listened intently as her grandsire spun his deception. Though she had long been a necromantic master, her Art was that of research and theory, not that of the outlawed practitioners of the Art that made the evil dead walk to slay the living. The mindless dead had their uses of course she thought, but the Art that brought forth free willed horrors imbued with wicked and restless spirits corrupted its practitioners.
Her grandsire countered her thinking by agreeing that indeed such Art corrupted all who practiced it, unless one becomes a true master of the Art of life and death. Her hungry ears devoured the bits of secrets divulged by the apparition until she decided she could learn no more from him and, following his instruction, decided that she would learn at the foot of the true master of Necromancy who dwelt in the Great Sepulcher.
Crafting a great portal to the Great Sepulcher in secret away from the prying eyes of other Archwizards, Suvara entered the grey wastelands of the Great Sepulcher and stood before the throne of Orcus and was awed by both the horror and the power of him. He offered her a choice; she could choose to learn the secrets of necromantic immortality or be slain, he spirit being free to journey to the Land of the Young where she would have eternal peace and joy. The one thing she could not choose was to return home as a normal mortal. Accepting the choice presented to her, she chose what she believed would allow her to return to Kamala with the knowledge needed to save her homeland from the heretical beliefs being spread by Semayana and her wyrdrin. She chose to learn the secrets of necromantic immortality.
When Suvara returned to Kamala years after she had left, she was transformed. She was a lich, the first lich to walk the world. Being vain, she used her great magic to preserve the beauty of her physical form and the illusion of warmth from her body. She approached her father the king and the other Archwizards, with a demonstration of her power. All were greatly willing to learn the Art she promised them for they had grown desperate in the intervening years for the cult of the Nameless One had grown powerful within the land.
Using the great Art taught to her by Orcus she wove a great and terrible spell, a spell that took the great Counciltower of the Archwizards into the Great Sepulcher where all within save Suvara herself were set upon by the horrors of that realm. Suvara, as part of her pact with Orcus struck down her father the king and delivered him dying to the feet of her lord. Orcus, in an exceedingly rare act of generosity, transformed the dying king into a lich who would eternally serve his daughter. To this day, the tragic figure of king Faraz roams the lonely corridors of Orcus’ halls carrying out the duties assigned to him by his daughter and her cruel lord.
Her payment made for the secrets she learned at Orcus’ feet, Suvara returned to Kamala and instead of fighting Semayana and her cult, allied with her to bring the people of Kamala under the Dominion of the Nameless One. Even more than she had learned mastery of necromancy, Suvara learned that mortals are not meant to be free and that all must prostrate themselves before the might of a true god.
Orcus had long sought a safe haven for his church, somewhere his worshippers would not be hunted to extinction. The Nameless One suffered Orcus’ temples amongst his own within his Dominion. However, price of this bargain was high for Orcus would have to aid the Nameless One in expanding his influence and with the delivery of Kamala into the Nameless One’s grasp, the debt was paid.
In honor of her service Orcus made Suvara a demigoddess; she became the patron of all who would seek the path of lichdom.
The Church of Orcus
Church Structure: Outside of the dominions of Ghauloroth and the Nameless One, a proper Church of Orcus does not exist. In the great majority of areas throughout Arranorne, cabals of Orcus’ worshippers gather in secret cabals led by powerful individuals so as to avoid much deserved persecution.
Orcus’ faith in such areas is as chaotic as the nature of their master with nearly no hierarchy or structure outside of the charisma and power of the cabal’s founder to influence according to her will. The cabal’s sole reason for existence is the securing of both temporal and spiritual power for those involved. It is very common for those within the cabal to have very different understandings of what should be done and how to do it. Some choose to worship Orcus to attain immortality, some out of the promise of power, some seek to vengeance against those who have wronged them, and some imagine immortal love between themselves and another. It is only the power and personality of the cabal’s most powerful priest that can make these of such different motivations work together.
In regions where an organized church exists, its goals of power are similar to those of smaller groups but the manner of accomplishment is more organized and hierarchical. The goals of the organized church are the spread of Orcus’ temporal power and the elevation of the state of undeath as a sacred manifestation of their god’s power and not merely monsters to be destroyed with fire and sword. To accomplish this, the temples of Orcus are often led by vampires or clerical liches of great charm and enthralling manner. In many instances the worship of Annanórë is strongly highlighted for she presents a far more appealing face than that of Orcus whose appearance can easily spoil the romance woven by the priesthood.
In some temples however there is no attempt to impart an illusion to those who seek to serve Orcus. These temples, colloquially known as Charnel Houses are horrid rough hewn barrows half below and half above the earth. Charnel Houses are always earth roofed and appear from the outside to be burial mounds in the style of many ancient human and elven tribes. Few places in Arranorne frequented by mortals are more terrifying than these sanctums of depravity. Within the Charnel Houses the dead are set in awful tableaus imitating life, the skins of those slaughtered in sacrifice are painted upon as canvases for artwork or used as resources for the fleshcrafters who form it into sculptures of macabre beauty and undead both corporeal and otherwise roam freely. Only the priests of Orcus are safe in these dark places though from time to time those awaiting initiation disappear becoming “a holy sacrifice to the children of Orcus.”
Doctrine: The doctrine of Orcus is simple. Worshippers of Orcus are to worship Orcus and his divine consorts with both prayer and sacrifice. They are to, whenever possible, to increase the number of undead walking the nights of Arranorne. They are to see to it that all learn to fear the name of Orcus and offer him prayers to divert his gaze. They are to bring others into the fold whether through the seduction of immortality or fear of the consequences of neglecting to worship the Goatfoot God.
Holy Texts: The church of Orcus has no sacred text that is agreed upon by a majority of temples however an ancient text exists that many believe to have been penned by Suvara herself called the Necronomicon. The Necronomicon is known to exist as fragments throughout many temples and within the private strongholds of great necromancers and liches throughout Arranorne. These individual scraps are invaluable sources of necromantic and magical lore that could greatly assist any wizard in the furthering of his Art and because of this and their status as holy relics, these scraps are greatly prized by their owners.
Legend has it that three copies of the Necronomicon exist in its complete, unfragmented form. These books, rumored to be crafted of the skin of Orcus’ sacrifices and penned in the blood of slain celestials, are rumored to impart incredible necromantic knowledge and power as well as the secrets of communing directly with the Goatfoot God himself.
Common Worship: Orcus’ worship services vary from cabal to cabal, from temple to temple with only certain aspects of devotion being standardized. The two staples of Orcus’ worship are veneration of the undead in which an undead creature, chosen to represent the “gift of undeath.” (Usually this creature a harmless zombie animal with a ram or goat being the preferred choice) and sacrifice. The chosen sacrifice can be of any type of sentient creature. The victim is often culled from the lower classes or from derelicts in urban areas. The worshippers of Orcus do their best to choose those they believe will not be missed. In areas where Orcus’ worship is allowed by the populace there is generally a stock of slaves, both human and otherwise, kept for the purpose of providing sacrificial victims.
Holy Days: The Rending of the Veil is the highest holy day for worshippers of Orcus. Taking place on (insert date in accordance with the Valerian calendar) the Rending of the Veil is believed to be the day that Orcus was reborn within the Land of Sorrows, becoming its king and renaming it the Eternal Sepulcher. On this most sacred of days, the worshippers of Orcus commonly receive omens of instruction from their god and it is said that if the desired task is completed, the supplicant will receive a great boon from the Lord of Abominations.
On this night, as a boon to the most loyal, those priests and priestesses who are vampires will often choose worthy souls from amongst the congregation to embrace and turn into beings like themselves.
Relationship with the Church: Orcus generally loathes his worshippers, seeing them as petty groveling vermin fit only to be called to the Eternal Sepulcher upon their deaths so as to be transformed into undead or demonic beings more suitable to his service. Orcus is disgusted by mortality and sees no redeeming virtue in frail, weak, temporary mortal forms. From time to time a mortal worshipper, through her great service to him, gains his favor. However, in order to keep within his good graces the mortal, no matter what their merits, would do well to seek undeath. Orcus’ patience is very limited and even moreso with the living.
As long as those within his church carry out his will he tolerates them for the more worshippers he has the more influence he has in the material world and the more souls fall into his grasp after they slip their mortal coil. Orcus takes perverse pleasure out of eternally denying those who choose to serve him the bliss of the Land of the Young by trapping them in the form of dreadful incorporeal undead like wraiths, ghosts and groaning spirits.
Due to Orcus’ general disdain for his worshippers, many of the visions, omens and manifestations, blessings and curses visited upon his followers are actually the work of either Annanórë or Suvara who have been tasked to see to his mortal worshippers when he is uninterested with either their praises or their prayers.
As described above, Orcus does take a personal interest in all initiations and uses those opportunities to enjoy the terror and suffering he can inflict upon those foolish enough to call him their lord.
Preferred Weapon: When expecting battle, Orcus carries his dread scepter, the Wand of Orcus. This scepter is crafted of steel hardened and onyx blackened fiend bone. Over its surface dances greenly glowing mystical characters that are of the Dark Speech and seem to move of their own accord chaotically over the length of the scepter. The crowning horror of the scepter is the skull of the child god. The skull is gleaming white and perfect, without marring or mark of any kind. The skull appears a simple capstone for so ornate a rod, yet this simplicity disappears once the scepter is activated.
When the scepter’s powers are invoked the skull glows with a sickly green light and deep crimson, nearly black, blood seeps from the preternaturally dark hollows of the eye sockets. The skull screams with blood curdling death shrieks believed to be those of the child god at the time of his passing. All within 20 feet of the user of the scepter hear a terrifying whispering that speaks to them of their sins and crimes and feel a sensation akin to insects or even maggots crawling over their skin.
