Zon-Kuthon
Zon-Kuthon teaches that torment is the ultimate pleasure and sacrament,
and that inflicting and enduring pain is the truest strength. Experiencing pain
and learning to embrace it allows one to purge the weakness of their body
and spirit. After all, much of mortal creatures’ fear is rooted in the
struggle to avoid pain in one way or another. If a follower can learn
to embrace that pain instead, the chains of fear fall away, becoming
a tool to be wielded. Worshippers thus endeavor to inflict as much
torture and misery as possible on themselves and
others; they look to the cruel outsiders
known as velstracs for inspiration, including
the use of spiked chains as a primary weapon.
The anguish Zon-Kuthon teaches is not limited
to physical injury. Zon-Kuthon teaches his followers
to understand, overcome, and revel in psychological pain
as well, breaking down morality and twisting
compassion into numb pragmatism. This is best
exemplified by his troubled relationship with his
sister Shelyn, who hopes to redeem him despite all
evidence as to the impossibility of this task, and his
chaining of his own father, breaking the deity’s spirit
and transforming him into the hateful servitor now
known as the Prince in Chains.
Some worship Zon-Kuthon out of necessity,
especially in Nidal, where veneration of the
Midnight Lord is heavily interwoven into the culture and
political landscape, and where deviation from this dark norm
generally leads to tragic results. Outside those borders, some contemptible
individuals gravitate toward a faith that allows them to embrace and practice
their own sadistic desires. Still others find that Zon‑Kuthon provides a level of
understanding in the face of inescapable pain: to some, the bleak faith offers a
means of finding release when faced with an inability to feel.
Regardless of the worshipper or their reasons for following the Midnight
Lord, his worship is terrible and merciless, often bloody, and sometimes deadly.
The faithful are often easily identified by their countless scars—many
of them self-inflicted in the course of regular prayers—and frequently
piercings and other body modifications, though tattoos are relatively rare
among Kuthites. More profound, perhaps, is the cold, detached gaze of a
truly faithful worshipper, their unflinching calm in the face of imminent danger,
and their rapturous acceptance of any harm that befalls them.
Though priests of Zon-Kuthon hold positions of power and respect within
Nidal, they are few and far between beyond its borders. Somewhat more
common are the infamous shadowcallers, who practice divinely inspired
wizardry and other sorts of magic, and vicious itinerant clerics and champions
who scour the land in an inquisition, seeking out naysayers and rebels.
DIVINE INTERCESSION
Zon-Kuthon rarely intervenes directly in mortal affairs, but when he does take a personal interest in a creature, the effect is as terrible as the god himself. Minor Boon: The Midnight Lord turns your blood and pain into chains of midnight darkness to destroy your foes. Once, for 1 minute, whenever you take slashing, piercing, or bleed damage, chains rip forth from your body, affecting creatures in a line from your position in the direction of the attack (or in the direction of your choice for bleed damage or if you deal the damage yourself) with the effect of a grim tendrils spell whose level is equal to half your level rounded up, and whose DC is your highest spell DC (or 10 + your level + your Wisdom modifier if you have no spell DC). Moderate Boon: Each morning, during your daily preparations, scars gather into words on your flesh. The scars function as a scroll of a divine spell of Zon- Kuthon’s choosing. After you use the scroll or receive magical healing, the boon fades for the day, though some or all of the scars might remain as a reminder. Major Boon: Shadows are deeper around you. Darkvision and greater darkvision cannot penetrate darkness within 60 feet of you, but you can see through it normally. Minor Curse: You are surrounded by spectral chains that cause you to always be encumbered and that have the same effects as armor with the noisy trait. Moderate Curse: You share the pain of others, and even minor wounds bring you incredible pain. Whenever you see (or otherwise sense) a creature take damage, you take 1d6 mental damage. Whenever you take damage any other way than from the first part of this curse, you take 1d6 mental damage from increased pain and are sickened 1. Mental damage from this curse ignores any resistance you have to mental damage. Major Curse: Zon-Kuthon steals away your joy, leaving you with only pain. You lose that which you cherish the most forever, and lose the ability to feel joy. You can’t gain benefits from emotion effects based on positive emotions. If Zon-Kuthon feels you are ready to renounce, destroy, mutilate, or torture that which you once cherished most, he might return it to you to allow you to do so.
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