Incabulous
Title(s)
The Evilsent, Lord of Plagues, The Black Rider, Bringer of Woe
Alignment
Neutral Evil
Symbol
A green eye in a yellow, star-shaped formation with a red pupil, representing disease, nightmares, and decay. His followers often use this symbol as a mark of fear, inscribing it on places they have cursed or carried as a pendant.
Domains
Death, Evil, Trickery, Destruction
Followers and Clergy
Incabulos's followers are few but fervent, often including those who delight in causing suffering or wish to wield power over life and death. His clergy consists of disease-bringers, blight-speakers, and nightmare cultists who revel in the spread of pestilence and despair. They typically wear black robes trimmed in sickly orange and moss green, resembling the god’s own garb. The hierarchy within the faith is loose and paranoid, as followers often work in secret to avoid persecution. Clerics of Incabulos travel the world seeking to discover or unleash new diseases, blight crops, and feed off the suffering of others. Common folk who fear Incabulos may make offerings of black, guttering candles in hopes of avoiding his wrath.
Worship Practices
Services to Incabulos take place in darkness, often lit only by fat, black, smoky candles. His worshippers chant droning hymns and conduct rituals designed to evoke fear and suffering. Celebrations may involve the intentional spreading of diseases, invoking curses upon enemies, or sacrificial rites to bring about famine and drought. Ritual implements are crafted from bloodstone, carnelian, or aged bronze. Temples to Incabulos are hidden in remote or desolate areas, such as underground caverns, abandoned ruins, or amidst blighted lands, where his followers can conduct their vile practices in secrecy. Those who seek to placate Incabulos may also participate in offerings designed to delay his attention.
Character and Doctrine
Incabulos embodies suffering in its most terrifying forms: disease, famine, nightmares, and hopelessness. His teachings emphasize that life is inherently cruel and that those who worship him should embrace the inevitability of decay. Power and joy come from inflicting pain, spreading blight, and creating despair. Incabulos does not promise salvation; rather, he offers his followers the chance to wield misery as a tool. The weak perish, while the strong grow more powerful through cruelty. His followers are taught to cherish their afflictions as signs of his favor, and they are encouraged to embrace the darkness within themselves.
Manifestations and Interventions
Incabulos appears as a horrifying figure with a deformed body, skeletal hands, and a nightmare-inducing face. His skin is a diseased blue, and he wears a filthy black robe lined with sickly orange and trimmed in moss green. He rides a nightmare steed and is often accompanied by night hags or hordlings, spreading terror and plague wherever he goes. Anyone who meets his gaze is stricken with nightmares, and his staff causes wounds that fester and flesh that withers. His interventions are marked by the onset of plagues, famines, or waves of terror, leaving those who survive in a state of despair. He is known to empower his followers with the ability to spread disease or cause supernatural fear.
Divine Relationships and Stories
Incabulos despises all other deities except for Nerull, the god of death, who completes the work he begins. His relationship with Nerull is one of indifference, as they share a mutual respect for each other's domains. Incabulos holds no alliances with other gods and is even feared by demon lords and archdevils. He harbors enmities with deities who promote health, life, or nature, such as Pelor and Ehlonna, and is viewed with contempt by those who stand for hope and goodness. One legend recounts how he cursed a tribe of hill giants, transforming them into the diseased rot giants. Even the Lords of the Abyss and the rulers of Hell are cautious when dealing with him, fearing the depths of his malevolence.
Sacred Items and Symbols
Incabulos’s sacred items include disease-ridden artifacts, cursed relics, and instruments of torture. Bloodstone and carnelian vessels are used in his rituals, along with dark robes and nightmare-inducing masks. His followers use candles made of black tallow, inscribed with his symbol, as focal points during worship. The staff of Incabulos, which causes seeping wounds and withering flesh, is considered the most iconic of his sacred items. Anything associated with decay or despair, such as plague masks, pestilent water, or blighted crops, is treated with reverence by his followers.
Temples and Shrines
Temples dedicated to Incabulos are hidden in remote or desolate locations, such as underground caverns, abandoned buildings, or diseased swamps. These places are often filled with the stench of decay, lit only by guttering black candles, and decorated with symbols of pestilence and fear. Shrines to Incabulos may appear in cursed lands or blighted fields, marked by his green-eyed symbol. Some shrines take the form of altars surrounded by dead vegetation or diseased animals, with offerings of foul-smelling herbs or spoiled food left to appease the god. His temples and shrines are places of dread, where followers plot the spread of their god’s misery and practice rituals to invoke greater suffering.
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