Danos, the Crawling End

The Crawling End

Danos is the Devil God of Undeath & Soul Collection. As a child of Cyr, Danos has dominion over his region of Darhalheim, the Underworld. Bone devils and their variants primarily live amongst his realm and govern his will amongst the realm of the dead. He also has the strongest dominion over necromancy & undeath, granting its power to his champions & necromancers alike. Danos took dominion over the Denowraiths after the destruction of Denothis, who collect souls of the recently departed in the Ethereal Plane a.k.a. the realm between realms. The Denowraiths, bone devil soul hunters, and soul predators (on execution missions) hunt down rogue souls that evade their early grasp, going as far as the Astral Fog & the mortal plane to take them back. Their only rule is not to kill the living before their time, but exceptions can be made through magical coercion or Danos' will.

Appearance

Bone Form

Danos initially appears to mortal eyes as a skeletal centipede held together by divine necromancy. However, the maw is made of four thorny-bone mandibles with a porcelain mask/doll-like face. The face talks in a clay-mation style way to unsettle his victims. At the rear of his body, there is a long single-bone stinger, which can rear out at any point.

True Form

Amongst deities, other supernatural beings, & mortals who aren't afraid/incapacitated by his other form, Danos becomes truly horrifying. The skeletal body fills out with flesh and the bone stinger expands into four malleable-to-sharp fleshy bone stingers. From the original maw, a devilish humanoid torso is birthed like a blossoming flower of death, a partially skeletal & partially rotted muscle torso with a four-horned head. Danos either has glowing purple eyes or no eyes, along with anything in between. Danos also presents himself having long flowing flesh hair as a mockery of a living hairstyle; the flesh is poisonous. Danos' adjustable-length torso also sprouts skeletal wings with rotted flesh webbing, shortly below the humanoid torso. Danos has long bone claws that resemble scythes, and each bone leg is now protruding out of a zombie head's mouth, emitting a gagged scream whenever the leg moves. It is said that he keeps the souls he's collected for personal purposes trapped within these heads, adding to their eternal torture.

Champions & Patronage

Death clerics often serve Danos amongst the other deities of the undead pantheon. Some death clerics worship demonic deities as well, such as Dr. Plaezus being a cleric of Neris the Revolting Queen. Clerics of Danos' worship work to spread undead through Gaion through cults and isolated rites, spreading Danos' influence without attracting attention from the societies against necromancy. In Cyregnor, necromancy is openly practiced across borders; many of the ghost towns of the arctic wastes are still rich with the undead citizen wandering or floating through their streets, "serving" their necromantic ruler. Danos does occassionally pick martial champions that he sees fit, preferring to corrupt paladins of demonic, celestial or fey backing and break their oaths. Danos also offers his blessing for powerful necromantic rites, such as the creation of wights, death knights, mummy lords, & lich/dracolichdom, provided that this power remain as a closely guarded secret to those he has blessed; failure will result in their soul being damned to Danos upon their end or his choosing. Danos eternally curses and tortures devils or arrogant mortals/undead that challenge his dominion, like Avernion when he tried to usurp Danos as the god of undeath, or Master Obu should he pursue his nefarious intentions to overthrow Danos.
Bone Wraiths - wraiths formed when a bone devil is slain, but their essence is prevented from dissipating into the dark energy void of Darthalheim. Instead, Danos chooses these bone devils to serve him eternally, concentrating their essence into a wraith of hatred and resentment towards the living. Bone wraiths are sent to collect ghosts & fleeing souls in the mortal realm, Ethereal Plane and Astral Sea. They also act as Danos’ champions against the living, should the need arise for him to take a specific life or soul.
Death Knights - paladins that have sworn divine service in Danos’ name. Paladins who serve Danos generally start as Oathbreakers (he prefers to break existing paladins that have previously sworn allegiance to another deity that defends life), then become Death Knights if they die without atoning or choose undeath as their eternal path to Danos.
Death Clerics - clerics that have sworn divine service in Danos’ name. Clerics who serve Danos start as Death Clerics and continue to serve him after death
Wights - while powerful Daidrin necromancers have learned to casts the rites of wightdom on their own, all others must beseech the blessing of Danos to learn these secrets. As payment, he generally demands a pact of service, their soul upon death, or some other grand favor. If the necromancer plans to create more than one wight, the price is almost always their soul or an eternal pact. Only recently (through the Shadow King’s experimentation with the Daidrin Gaiostone) have wights been created that can retain some of their magic & living memories.
Vampires - only the power of the Daidrin Gaiostone can unlock the rites of Vampirism without the blessing of Danos. All others beseech him for aid, to which he demands a pact of eternal service or their soul upon their final death as payment.
Mummy Lords - given the religious aspects of these rites, only Death Cerics are allowed this path. The Daidrin Gaiostone can unlock these rites without the blessing of Danos, but a connection to Danos or another death deity (lesser or greater) will be needed to complete the process (not necessarily their blessing, just a strong enough sample of their power).
Lichdom - while the power of the Daidrin Gaioforce can aid in the rituals of lichdom, a wizard needs the blessing of Danos to become a lich, even with the power of the Gaiostone. Since wizards tend to do this for selfish/megalomaniacal reasons, the price is always their soul once they are eventually slain.

Undeath: Divine Dominion

During the Elder Wars, Danos fought with several devil & demon deities; gods, archdevils & demon princes alike. By the time of the Divine Accords, Danos had destroyed all divine opposition, only resisted by some archdevils & demon princes. Since they could no longer war across planes (with exception of Hell, their border plane) and it was blatantly apparent that Danos would win the war if it continued, the three factions (Danos, archdevils & demon princes) came to a treaty/license agreement that would roll up into the Divine Accords Master Agreement:
1. Danos would be the sole deity of undeath & receive all divine benefits from it, such as faith-based power & presence-based power. 2. Archdevils wishing to claim undeath would submit to Danos under his devil hierarchy. They can use the power of undeath and receive a cut of faith-based power from their followers that use it, but would surrender the rest & any presence-based power to Danos. 3. Demon princes wishing to claim undeath would submit to Danos under a divine licensing arrangement. They can grant undeath to their followers through pacts & other means, benefiting from the use of undeath for their own demonic ends. However, they claim no dominion, faith or presence-based power from it and cannot represent themselves as a deity of undeath; attempting to do so results in a free pass for Danos to hunt and destroy the offending demon prince.

Divine Domains

Death
The Underworld
The Ethereal Plane (to escort recently departed souls to the Underworld if they are not claimed by another deity or soul contract holder)
Undeath

Holy Books & Codes

The Danocode

Divine Symbols & Sigils

A four-pronged skeletal brittle-star with a siloutetted face in the center.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

To govern the passage of a living soul to the afterlife.
To spread necromancy & undeath across Gaion. 
To collect and torture extraordinary souls for unscruptulous purposes

Mental characteristics

Employment

Lord of the Underworld

Divine Classification

New God

Current Location

Dartheim

Realm

Dartheim

Known Languages

Infernal, Undercommon, Common (primary spoken languages), understands & speaks all languages.