Help me brainstorm Death Totems

[Celebrim]

Spirits and shamans are important aspects of my game world. The ethereal plane is somewhat more a combination of Wraith's Shadowlands and Kara-Tur's spirit world than the misty world normally seen in D&D, and in addition to the gods there are powerful spirits which manipulate the world and offer power to its inhabitants.

In general, these spirits are roughly the rank and role of things like Demon Lords or other Archfiends in standard cosmology, but they occupy all sorts of niches both good and evil, minor and major. Recently I've found I've a need for a spirit with sway over the idea of Death and Undeath. Because the analogue of a grim reaper is already a god, and because I've never particularly liked Orcus who'd be the natural fill-in for the role in the standard cosmology, I'm casting around for some alternate and importantly creative ideas for a spirit of death that could serve as a shamanic totem and potentially a cool NPC.

Notably, I'm not looking here for a totem that symbolizes death as renewal, change, sustenance, or any sort of positive aspect of death. For that I could just use an animal spirit like the lord of Dung Beetles, the Scorpion King, or the Monarch of Ravens. I don't need a pyschopomp, because for one thing I already have in the party a character who serves the cosmologies chief pschopomp. This is intended to be something much darker.

Helpful responses would include the totemic symbol, the form that the spirit takes, and the idea or power that they embody which should be some aspect of death or even just a list of possibilities if you can't think of a fully formed idea. Really helpful ideas would have some sort of scary schtick along the lines of Avatar: The Last Airbender's 'Ko the Facestealer' or MtG's Yawgmoth.

 

[The M'hael]

Is this meant to be an evil spirit, or just a dark, shadowy, death-spirit?

 

[The M'hael]

Erlik

This is an evil spirit inhabiting the deepest layer of the shadow world. His totem symbol is a bear or a wild boar. He takes the form of a monster, having the face and teeth of a pig combined with a human body. Besides his face, he is an old man with a well-built body, black eyes, eyebrows, and mustache. He was created by the gods, but was cast down after he wanted to create his own world. He wants to be equal to the gods, but is inferior. He sends disease to people, and if they do not sacrifice (animals or maybe people) he will make the spirit of the diseased person into his servant when he dies. (need a good reason that the sacrifices appease him, maybe they give him power) He has Nine sons who embody other death aspects and can fill rolls you need. He also has nine daughters who look the same and are not named. They take the form of Succubuses (however you spell that) and tempt shamans when they are trying to commune with other, usually good, spirits.

His sons: (in the mythology he was taken from)

Karaoghlanlar
They are the sons of Erlik.

Karash Han: The god of darkness.
Matyr Han: The god of courage and bravery.
Shyngay Han: The god of chaos.
Komur Han: The god of evil.
Badysh Han: The god of disaster.
Yabash Han: The god of defeat.
Temir Han: The god of iron and mining.
Uchar Han: The god of informants.
Kerey Han: The god of factious'.

replace god with spirit


How's This! I just took it pretty much directly from wikipedia, but still.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlik

 

[Celebrim]

Is this meant to be an evil spirit, or just a dark, shadowy, death-spirit?

It's meant to be a spirit that would seem to have the right to grant a shaman influence over death and unlife. I'm open to any creative ideas about what that spirit would be like. Evil is strongly preferred because 'Animate Dead' for example, has an Evil tag on it in the rules (both mine and the SRD).

Incidentally, you Wikipedia research only confirms that I've done my own Wikipedia research well. Erlik is already on my short list of three core ideas loosely drawn from real world mythology. My big problem with him is that he looks rather like a zombie-pigman, and because of that unfortunate association might not inspire the fear/awe that I would prefer. My lesser problem is that other than being a pig headed replacement for Orcus's sheep head, he's not a particularly pure conception of death (he's literally fertile, for one thing).

We can assume that I've literally looked at every death related deity in Wikipedia before asking for help.

 

[The M'hael]

Baron Samedi (saturday)

This one is less dark, but is a more fun NPC.

Baron Samedi is a spirit of death. While he is not a psychopomp, his brothers are. His totem spirit is a black rooster. He represents the inevitability and finality of death and is a protector of the dead. He is opposed to resurrection and dead raising/zombies.
He is usually depicted with a top hat, black tail coat, dark glasses, and cotton plugs in the nostrils, as if to resemble a corpse dressed and prepared for burial. He has a white, frequently skull-like face (or actually has a skull for a face), and speaks in a nasal voice.

He is noted for disruption, obscenity, debauchery, and having a particular fondness for tobacco and rum infused with hot peppers.

Baron Samedi spends most of his time in the invisible realm of spirits. He is notorious for his outrageous behavior, swearing continuously and making filthy jokes to the other spirits. He is married to another powerful spirit known as Maman Brigitte, but often chases after mortal women. He loves smoking and drinking and is rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth or a glass of rum in his bony fingers.

Also from Wikipedia, look at the other Haitian Baron Spirits as well.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Samedi

 

[The M'hael]

It's meant to be a spirit that would seem to have the right to grant a shaman influence over death and unlife. I'm open to any creative ideas about what that spirit would be like. Evil is strongly preferred because 'Animate Dead' for example, has an Evil tag on it in the rules (both mine and the SRD).

Incidentally, you Wikipedia research only confirms that I've done my own Wikipedia research well. Erlik is already on my short list of three core ideas loosely drawn from real world mythology. My big problem with him is that he looks rather like a zombie-pigman, and because of that unfortunate association might not inspire the fear/awe that I would prefer. My lesser problem is that other than being a pig headed replacement for Orcus's sheep head, he's not a particularly pure conception of death (he's literally fertile, for one thing).

We can assume that I've literally looked at every death related deity in Wikipedia before asking for help.

Ok, well that was where I went first. You could always change it to be a bear head i guess. You could also take out the fertility aspects of him as well.

My other one is also from wikipedia, and is sort of a psychopomp but those aspects can sort of be taken out, especially if combined with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Kriminel this guy.

 

[The M'hael]

Ok just looked at Koh, that is pretty freaky.

but something like that, got it.

 

[Celebrim]

Baron Samedi is a spirit of death. While he is not a psychopomp, his brothers are. His totem spirit is a black rooster. He represents the inevitability and finality of death and is a protector of the dead. He is opposed to resurrection and dead raising/zombies.

The problem with Baron Samedi taken as is, is that he's not really got the right portfolio. He's associated with endings, but not with undead. He's paradoxically a death spirit that is full of life and vivacious. He's the spirit of enjoying life while you have it, as it were. He's not conceived as being evil per se, but as a guardian and trickster. Adopted into my world, I think he's better appreciated as or better seen as inspiration for a Slaad Lord. Baron Samedi is a bit too humanoid for my taste, but Baseraxs or Kluigbul from the link in my Sig would happily appear in the form of something like Baron Samedi, but wouldn't be particularly interested in trifling with undead - which are offensive because they are static and unchanging.

The spirit in question has to be happy to let others create zombies. And should have a character to match.

 

[The M'hael]

ok

wasn't super sure what you were looking for.

Ill work on it, see what I can get. I also read a lot of your Slaad lord stuff. That was pretty cool, keep up the good work.

 

[Celebrim]

ok

wasn't super sure what you were looking for.

That's ok. Believe it or not, you are actually helping quite a bit. Even when you present something I don't like, it forces me to rationally assess why I don't like it, which helps zero me in on what I would like.

I'm also encouraged by the fact that you picked up on Erlik as your first attempt to help, because he was on my short list. Thinking about what is wrong with Erlik helps me refine the idea.