Cult of Urgathoa
Those who worship death, revere disease, and are insatiable gluttons who demand experience without repercussion are the primary followers of Urgathoa. Her worshipers care less about spreading her faith than they do about increasing their pleasure in her name. They may start at one of the gateway churches—a place devoted to pure sensation, in which life is an orgy of feasts and flesh, drugs and stimulants—but most discover that ordinary delights soon begin to pall, and seek to satisfy ever-darker hungers.
Most of Urgathoa’s worshipers are dark necromancers, undead, or those who hope to become undead (such as servants of vampires, spellcasters pursuing the path of the lich, and so on). Her faith is illegal in most lands, and shunned in most societies that do not ban it outright. Occasionally, a gluttonous prince or merchant may secretly keep a shrine in the goddess’s name, praying for bounties of food, drink, sex, or other physical pleasures. In some lands, desperate folk pray to Urgathoa to relieve symptoms of plague, and necromancers who prove themselves useful by putting undead to rest or controlling them so that they do not harass the living may find a measure of tolerance from mortal communities.
In Geb, the Pallid Princes is worshiped openly, and her faith is practically an official religion. Vampire barons, ghoul counts, and various undead nobility pray to her in chapels at midnight, requesting that she keep them safe from the bright day, peasant uprisings, and abominations from the Mana Wastes. Public temples are often guarded by bloody skeletons—usually called “sons of Urgathoa” because like her they leave bloody footprints where they walk—who act as counterparts to the powerful, intelligent daughters of Urgathoa.
The church is organized as a matriarchy, with a powerful cleric, usually female, at the head of each temple; if the priestess is a daughter of Urgathoa, the entire temple is considered especially blessed. Priests who can create undead, either through magic or through the passing of their own undead taint, are called Necro-Lords, and receive extra privileges. Congregants are divided into two castes. The higher caste is known as the ghula, which consists of privileged members who may or may not be members of the priesthood. They are served by the famished: initiate members attempting to prove themselves worthy of recognition by the church. Rank inside the congregation may sometimes be an inversion of rank outside it, and if one of the famished is of higher social status outside the church than a ghula, the ghula treats the famished respectfully in public to preserve the church’s secrecy. Like most evil cults, the secret church is scattered and cell-based, and contact between congregations is infrequent.
Prayer services to Urgathoa consist of susurrant whispers, quiet chants, and eerie moans. Drums may be used to announce visitors and mealtimes, but otherwise music is rarely a part of the proceedings. Worshipers usually consume a ritual meal—which could be anything from a sweetmeat to bread and gravy to human flesh, depending on the congregation. Wealthier churches provide lavish feasts for the faithful (sponsored by wealthy patrons or paid for by selling spells or undead labor), and it’s not unheard of for a priest to move to a starving village and offer intoxicating foods to layfolk to gain followers.
Marriages within the church do not include vowing “until death parts us,” as the undead members stand as proof that vows can persist beyond death. The Pallid Princess supports the institution of marriage and other long-term romantic commitments, as sharing pleasures can enhance them, and she blesses even unions between the living and the undead, as long as the living partner plans to follow his spouse into undeath, or the undead partner plans to extend the living partner’s life somehow. Urgathoa cares not about procreation or the genders of the people involved, only that the commitment is true. Divorce is frowned upon, as it shows disrespect to the partner and to the goddess herself. Murdering a spouse is an acceptable alternative, however, especially if the dead spouse remains in or near the home as a skeleton, zombie, or mummy.
The Pallid Princess also supports adoption, particularly by predatory undead who kill living parents and raise the offspring as their own; this increases the number of creatures worshiping the goddess. Many temples keep a “blood mother,” a woman whose role is to bear children, either to raise them as members of the church or to offer them as sacrifices. The church allows contraception among its living members to keep pregnancy from interfering with hedonistic pursuits, and has no opinion on abortion or infanticide.
Urgathoa’s rivalry with Pharasma has made the goddess of undeath particularly spiteful toward expectant mothers of that faith, and she teaches her priests minor curses and hexes that can harm or kill a fetus or birthing mother.
The church does not prohibit suicide, and old priests with no means to turn themselves into undead may offer their spirits to the goddess while offering their flesh to the living. Though suicides are usually the purview of the minor goddess Naderi, this ritualistic self-sacrifice invokes the power of Urgathoa. Devout worshipers expect to be raised as undead of some kind, either at their own expense or as a reward for their service.
The date on which a worshiper becomes undead is called ashenmorn, and is commemorated annually like a birthday. For many, it’s the last time that they will see daylight. Ashenmorn is a solemn day of lone personal reflection, though a particularly sentimental undead who can create spawn may choose to convert a loyal minion on her own ashenmorn as a gesture of affection.
In theory, Urgathoa’s faith is about breaking and surpassing taboos, and thus nothing is ever forbidden. In practice, however, turning one’s back on the church, renouncing the path of undeath, and exercising asceticism and altruism instead of gluttony are sure ways to draw the ire of the Pallid Princess.
Most of Urgathoa’s priests are clerics or necromancers (particularly sorcerers with the undead bloodline), as well as a few similarly inclined witches. Antipaladins are also drawn to her faith, as are barbarians prone to excess, bards seeking sophisticated channels for their primal appetites, warriors who wish to command respect from beyond the grave, and miscellaneous undead who rise to positions of power in the church regardless of magical ability. Most priests are skilled in Diplomacy, Heal, and Knowledge (religion). A slight majority of her followers are women, and the proportion is closer to three-quarters in cultures and lands where women’s paths to power are otherwise limited. Priests generally have few official duties beyond mutual protection and aiding aspiring undead, for Urgathoa is satisfied when mortals excessively consume in her name, and she is content with the slow rate at which undead propagate. Occasionally, though, her cults concoct aggressive plans such as converting entire towns to zombie slaves or feeding grounds for undead. Clergy often conceal their allegiance and find employment that allows them frequent access to dead bodies, such as working as gravediggers, mercenaries, or butchers. A priest with strong culinary skills might find work as a chef at a noble’s manor, in a general’s retinue, or even in a restaurant. The luckiest find a wealthy patron, giving them the luxury to create rich, fattening, delicious meals that encourage gluttony in those who consume them. Only in undead-controlled lands such as Geb do Urgathoa’s priests practice their faith openly. There they serve in traditional clerical roles, such as spiritual advisors, healers, government officials, and so on.
Commoners usually avoid priests of Urgathoa, fearing their association with vice and undeath, but may seek them out for advice on how to bury a corpse to prevent it from rising as an undead on its own and how to protect it from predators. Clergy may pose as clerics of Pharasma, offering blessings and funeral rites to communities lacking a true priest of the Lady of Graves, and malicious members use this ruse to provide commoners with “newly invented” wards against the undead that prove useless after the priests direct undead allies to these communities for easy hunting. In lands suffering from plague, they may pass themselves off as knowledgeable healers, treating some of the sick and leaving others to die, or perhaps curing uncomfortable but harmless illnesses while infecting patients with quiet and deadly diseases. Urgathoa’s priests rarely make demands in return for their services, preferring to use people’s own desires to drive them to depravity.
Most of Urgathoa’s worshipers are dark necromancers, undead, or those who hope to become undead (such as servants of vampires, spellcasters pursuing the path of the lich, and so on). Her faith is illegal in most lands, and shunned in most societies that do not ban it outright. Occasionally, a gluttonous prince or merchant may secretly keep a shrine in the goddess’s name, praying for bounties of food, drink, sex, or other physical pleasures. In some lands, desperate folk pray to Urgathoa to relieve symptoms of plague, and necromancers who prove themselves useful by putting undead to rest or controlling them so that they do not harass the living may find a measure of tolerance from mortal communities.
In Geb, the Pallid Princes is worshiped openly, and her faith is practically an official religion. Vampire barons, ghoul counts, and various undead nobility pray to her in chapels at midnight, requesting that she keep them safe from the bright day, peasant uprisings, and abominations from the Mana Wastes. Public temples are often guarded by bloody skeletons—usually called “sons of Urgathoa” because like her they leave bloody footprints where they walk—who act as counterparts to the powerful, intelligent daughters of Urgathoa.
The church is organized as a matriarchy, with a powerful cleric, usually female, at the head of each temple; if the priestess is a daughter of Urgathoa, the entire temple is considered especially blessed. Priests who can create undead, either through magic or through the passing of their own undead taint, are called Necro-Lords, and receive extra privileges. Congregants are divided into two castes. The higher caste is known as the ghula, which consists of privileged members who may or may not be members of the priesthood. They are served by the famished: initiate members attempting to prove themselves worthy of recognition by the church. Rank inside the congregation may sometimes be an inversion of rank outside it, and if one of the famished is of higher social status outside the church than a ghula, the ghula treats the famished respectfully in public to preserve the church’s secrecy. Like most evil cults, the secret church is scattered and cell-based, and contact between congregations is infrequent.
Prayer services to Urgathoa consist of susurrant whispers, quiet chants, and eerie moans. Drums may be used to announce visitors and mealtimes, but otherwise music is rarely a part of the proceedings. Worshipers usually consume a ritual meal—which could be anything from a sweetmeat to bread and gravy to human flesh, depending on the congregation. Wealthier churches provide lavish feasts for the faithful (sponsored by wealthy patrons or paid for by selling spells or undead labor), and it’s not unheard of for a priest to move to a starving village and offer intoxicating foods to layfolk to gain followers.
Marriages within the church do not include vowing “until death parts us,” as the undead members stand as proof that vows can persist beyond death. The Pallid Princess supports the institution of marriage and other long-term romantic commitments, as sharing pleasures can enhance them, and she blesses even unions between the living and the undead, as long as the living partner plans to follow his spouse into undeath, or the undead partner plans to extend the living partner’s life somehow. Urgathoa cares not about procreation or the genders of the people involved, only that the commitment is true. Divorce is frowned upon, as it shows disrespect to the partner and to the goddess herself. Murdering a spouse is an acceptable alternative, however, especially if the dead spouse remains in or near the home as a skeleton, zombie, or mummy.
The Pallid Princess also supports adoption, particularly by predatory undead who kill living parents and raise the offspring as their own; this increases the number of creatures worshiping the goddess. Many temples keep a “blood mother,” a woman whose role is to bear children, either to raise them as members of the church or to offer them as sacrifices. The church allows contraception among its living members to keep pregnancy from interfering with hedonistic pursuits, and has no opinion on abortion or infanticide.
Urgathoa’s rivalry with Pharasma has made the goddess of undeath particularly spiteful toward expectant mothers of that faith, and she teaches her priests minor curses and hexes that can harm or kill a fetus or birthing mother.
The church does not prohibit suicide, and old priests with no means to turn themselves into undead may offer their spirits to the goddess while offering their flesh to the living. Though suicides are usually the purview of the minor goddess Naderi, this ritualistic self-sacrifice invokes the power of Urgathoa. Devout worshipers expect to be raised as undead of some kind, either at their own expense or as a reward for their service.
The date on which a worshiper becomes undead is called ashenmorn, and is commemorated annually like a birthday. For many, it’s the last time that they will see daylight. Ashenmorn is a solemn day of lone personal reflection, though a particularly sentimental undead who can create spawn may choose to convert a loyal minion on her own ashenmorn as a gesture of affection.
In theory, Urgathoa’s faith is about breaking and surpassing taboos, and thus nothing is ever forbidden. In practice, however, turning one’s back on the church, renouncing the path of undeath, and exercising asceticism and altruism instead of gluttony are sure ways to draw the ire of the Pallid Princess.
Temples & Shrines
Each of the Pallid Princess’s temples is built like a feast hall, with a large central table serving as an altar and numerous chairs surrounding it; her hidden temples use this same setup, but with a less ambitious scale. Most temples are adjacent to a private graveyard or built over a crypt, and they’re often inhabited by ghouls (which embody all three of the goddess’s interests). Though the goddess does not use daemons as minions in her own realm, it is not unusual to find daemon servants and guardians in Urgathoa’s most powerful temples. Urgathoa’s largest temple in Mechitar, the capital of Geb, is the Cathedral of Epiphenomena; the priests who staff it include both the living and the undead.Clothing
Ceremonial clothing for a priest consists of a loose, gray, floor-length gown or tunic with a bone-white or dark gray shoulder-cape fastened at the front, often with a brooch or clasp in the likeness of a death’s head moth. Traditionally, the garment is increasingly shredded or tasseled as it approaches the floor, echoing the decay of the goddess’s lower body. Some of these garments are heavily embroidered with tiny skulls and bones, and carefully slashed to reveal glimpses of hidden layers of red and white garments beneath. Clergy may wear corsets under their clothing, either to emulate Urgathoa’s unnatural gauntness or to conceal their growing girth, though some prefer clothes that can accommodate an engorged or pregnant belly. Lay worshipers, or clergy in places where the faith is hunted, may limit themselves to wearing pants or skirts that are unusually shredded and torn, or wear small bone necklaces or death’s head moth pendants.A Priest’s Role
Urgathoa’s faith attracts creatures of passion and vice who believe that the world is their playground, who want experience without limits and repercussions, and who perpetually chase hedonistic sensation. The vices of those who serve her tend to become ever stranger and more demanding as these servants advance in the faith; even if a particular cleric begins by venerating only the goddess’s gluttony aspect, her willingness to help her adherents achieve immortality via undeath speaks to the most basic desires of mortals. As a cleric grows more powerful and increasingly associates with the undead, she may come to feel outraged that something as trivial as death could end her pursuit of experiences. And as the chill of age begins to wither her, serving or allying with a powerful vampire or lich may seem an ever smaller and smaller price to pay for a cold eternity in which she may seek to sate her various pleasures with immortal abandon.Most of Urgathoa’s priests are clerics or necromancers (particularly sorcerers with the undead bloodline), as well as a few similarly inclined witches. Antipaladins are also drawn to her faith, as are barbarians prone to excess, bards seeking sophisticated channels for their primal appetites, warriors who wish to command respect from beyond the grave, and miscellaneous undead who rise to positions of power in the church regardless of magical ability. Most priests are skilled in Diplomacy, Heal, and Knowledge (religion). A slight majority of her followers are women, and the proportion is closer to three-quarters in cultures and lands where women’s paths to power are otherwise limited. Priests generally have few official duties beyond mutual protection and aiding aspiring undead, for Urgathoa is satisfied when mortals excessively consume in her name, and she is content with the slow rate at which undead propagate. Occasionally, though, her cults concoct aggressive plans such as converting entire towns to zombie slaves or feeding grounds for undead. Clergy often conceal their allegiance and find employment that allows them frequent access to dead bodies, such as working as gravediggers, mercenaries, or butchers. A priest with strong culinary skills might find work as a chef at a noble’s manor, in a general’s retinue, or even in a restaurant. The luckiest find a wealthy patron, giving them the luxury to create rich, fattening, delicious meals that encourage gluttony in those who consume them. Only in undead-controlled lands such as Geb do Urgathoa’s priests practice their faith openly. There they serve in traditional clerical roles, such as spiritual advisors, healers, government officials, and so on.
Commoners usually avoid priests of Urgathoa, fearing their association with vice and undeath, but may seek them out for advice on how to bury a corpse to prevent it from rising as an undead on its own and how to protect it from predators. Clergy may pose as clerics of Pharasma, offering blessings and funeral rites to communities lacking a true priest of the Lady of Graves, and malicious members use this ruse to provide commoners with “newly invented” wards against the undead that prove useless after the priests direct undead allies to these communities for easy hunting. In lands suffering from plague, they may pass themselves off as knowledgeable healers, treating some of the sick and leaving others to die, or perhaps curing uncomfortable but harmless illnesses while infecting patients with quiet and deadly diseases. Urgathoa’s priests rarely make demands in return for their services, preferring to use people’s own desires to drive them to depravity.
Adventurers
Those who choose Urgathoa believe that the world is their playground, and that their wants and appetites come first. They understand pain, and even appreciate it in certain instances, but their desires are broader than that. They want experience without limits, and if something so pedestrian as death stands in their way, they overcome it—as did the Pallid Princess—and return to the life of pleasure. They may offer services to powerful undead in exchange for aid, and associate with the unliving in an effort to eventually join their ranks.
Urgathoa’s Champion Code
The champions of Urgathoa are creatures of the night, plague-bearers and bringers of death. They seek to spread Urgathoa’s gifts by the sword and by emulating their goddess. Their tenets include the following affirmations.- The grave opens to us all. We hasten the living on their inevitable path.
- The deathless are the true expression of existence, for they are beyond life and death. I will emulate their ways and destroy those who would defile their timeless perfection.
- I have no duty but to my hunger and my goddess.
- Existence is hunger. Both life and death feed on life. I am an instrument of transition.
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