Urgathoa
Seize what you can, tear it apart, and savor its sweet, bloody taste, for existence is dull without the blessing of sensation. —Serving Your Hunger
The Pallid Princess
Urgathoa is an utterly amoral, hedonistic goddess, concerned only with satiating her own desires regardless of the consequences others suffer. Like Desna, she strives for experience and a full appreciation of the world—but her appreciation is utterly selfish. She was once a mortal woman with a tremendous appetite for life, one who rebelled against the notion of being judged by Pharasma and losing the joys of living. Somehow in death she found the strength to tear herself from Pharasma’s endless line of souls and return to Golarion, becoming a divine being and the world’s first undead creature. Her existence is a corruption of the natural order; some say her first divine footprints upon the soil of the Material Plane birthed plague and infection, and that the first shadows and wraiths were born of her breath.
The goddess’s half-rotted form limits the sensations she can experience, so she makes up for this lack with gluttonous depravity—she’s tasted the brains of human infants to savor their innocence, torn the heart from the last living member of a race just to feel the sensation of its hot blood on her hands, and inflicted boils and leprosy upon handsome princes just to see the unique patterns they form on royal flesh. To her, the dull existence of a dead soul is pointless and tedious compared to the vibrant intensity of mortal or undead sensation, and creatures should cram as much sensation into existence as possible. Asceticism is repugnant to her, and she particularly loathes those who follow the strict taboos of the Prophecies of Kalistrade.
Urgathoa is usually depicted as a beautiful, raven-haired woman from the waist up—much like her mortal self, though she’s as pale as a hungry vampire. Her lower half is rotted and withered, decaying farther down until only blood-covered bones remain at her feet. When she walks, she leaves bloody, skeletal footprints. Although she sometimes manifests nude in the faithful’s visions, she usually appears wearing a sheer red or black gown. From neck to toe, the gown is stained with hideous patches of black, brown, and red. On rare occasions, she assumes a monstrous shape similar to those of the hideous undead creatures known as daughters of Urgathoa, with one huge arm covered in fanged mouths and a tail made of multiple fused spinal columns.
Urgathoa’s realm in the Great Beyond is a cluster of cities in a wasteland part of Abaddon, filled with undead residents indulging all of their mortal vices in great excess. The daemons of that realm observe Urgathoa and her followers, but leave them alone and untouched—the main threat to her realm is attacks from Pharasma’s minions, who intend to repatriate undead souls to the Boneyard and restore them to their proper destination in the afterlife.
Though the Pallid Princess’s church is interested primarily in undeath, some cults focus on her gluttonous aspect, indulging in decadent feasts of food, alcohol, and drugs, as well as lavish orgies. Unfortunately, in many cases these “dilettante” cults decline into more depraved practices, eventually embracing necromantic profanities and conversion to ghouls, vampires, and similar creatures.
When Urgathoa is pleased, common food tastes delicious, water turns to fine wine, and meals are never so filling that the diner feels uncomfortable. There are also stories of starving worshipers unexpectedly finding injured or freshly killed meat (in some stories, the meat is humanoid). She rarely uses animals as messengers, but sometimes sends a death’s head moth to lead a devout worshiper to a reward, or clouds of biting flies to warn away or punish a mortal. Female clerics who serve her particularly well may be transformed into daughters of Urgathoa. When she’s angry, food and water taste like ash and fill the belly with gnawing hunger that cannot be sated, and the target of her ire may be afflicted with rotting or swelling diseases that make it difficult to eat or speak. She has been known to paralyze an offender’s legs so the victim must crawl, or reverse the taste of his food so that garbage and sewage are the only things he can bear to swallow. The afflicted can alleviate the condition by making a large sacrifice to Urgathoa, either at a temple or by providing some gluttonous feast, drug experience, or other orgiastic excess in her name. On rare occasions, the only way to alleviate the curse is by willingly engaging in cannibalism, an act that taints the offender’s soul and all but guarantees eternal allegiance to the Pallid Princess.
The Pallid Princess appreciates Abadar’s cities for the plagues they foster, and sometimes operates side by side with Calistria, as the lust goddess’s portfolio is similar without overlapping. She often allies with the Four Horsemen, and daemons are popular servants and allies in her church. Zyphus, the Grim Harvestman, keeps his divine realm within Urgathoa’s territory, though he does not belong to her—she makes no claim on him, though she appreciates that his priests often rise as undead to continue their work. The young goddess Naderi, the patron of romantic suicides, believes that love endures beyond death, and Urgathoa is currently trying to take the Lost Maiden under her wing, as she supports this sentiment. Shelyn, Naderi’s former sovereign, objects, and some priests also make vague claims that the goddess of art has taken and hidden something from the goddess of the undead, intensifying their enmity. Urgathoa’s relationships with the ghoul demon lord Kabriri and vampire demon lord Zura are strained—sometimes they are allies, sometimes enemies, and undead worshipers tend to drift between these cults.
Urgathoa’s contempt for ascetics would put her at odds with the patron of Druma’s Prophecies of Kalistrade had they come from an actual deity; instead, she directs mild annoyance at Irori’s strict discipline. Her ire is tempered by his devotion to moderation rather than abstinence, however, and she is intrigued by the idea of tasting his physical perfection. The goddess supports the Whispering Way for its promotion of undeath, but allows her priests to form their own opinions of it, as those adherents who focus on her gluttony aspect may object to it. Urgathoan vampires and ghouls, for example, must feed on the living, and if the cult manages to convert the entire world to undeath, these undead would starve, so they shun the cultists or even work to keep them from becoming too successful.
Urgathoa’s church has little desire to crusade against other faiths, even those like Pharasma’s and Sarenrae’s who actively hunt its congregants, as members would rather spend their time indulging themselves than fighting others. That said, they aren’t above undermining those faiths when opportunities present themselves, and take particular satisfaction in raising members of those faiths as undead when possible. They generally go out of their way to avoid antagonizing Abadar’s church, as cities serve many of Urgathoa’s interests, and work amiably with servants of Calistria when their interests align.
Urgathoans are open to friendly relations with cultists of those Empyreal Lords who revel in swaying their followers to embrace pleasure for its own sake, though followers of virtuous outsiders rarely return the cultists’ overtures. They are occasionally roused to ally with other congregations against ascetic reformers who operate in what they consider their territories. For the most part, however, they prefer to ignore other faiths and their adherents, though if outsiders play some part in satisfying the urges of the faithful, members of the church can become extremely charming and friendly.
Barasthangas: This pale devourer’s undead flesh is so thin and tight that her white bones and gray connective tissues are visible. Her price for service is a suitably powerful creature whose soul she can devour.
Fjarn: This burly Ulfen man is corpse-gray and has an unnerving rictus smile. Once a proud Linnorm King, he was forced to kill and eat his own honor guard following a series of personal tragedies. After killing himself out of shame, he rose as a ghast in the service of Urgathoa. He still retains his barbarian powers, and likes to eat his fallen foes.
Mother’s Maw: This vile giant skull surrounded with buzzing flies serves as Urgathoa’s herald. Mother’s Maw has little interest in the desires of mortals (or of the undead in the mortal world) except insofar as they intersect with Urgathoa’s orders. If it is necessary to eat a hundred members of her cult or to drive an entire city of ghouls into a lava pit, the Maw does it. It can speak but finds little worth talking about, so many assume it is mindless. However, when not on a mission of death, disease, or gluttony, it is a font of knowledge about food, wine, exotic scents, and other strange experiences, and is quite willing to speak on these matters to an interested partyassuming the sight of the enormous talking, winged skull isn’t a distraction to listeners. Because of its innate ability to create undead, the herald is sometimes accompanied by skeletons, zombies, and ghouls, which caper about it, endlessly adoring the emissary of the goddess of undeath. It has been known to ferry allies into battle, or (rarely) to rescue a powerful undead creature, spiriting its passenger away to safety with its bony gullet, and relying on its own defenses to keep its passenger safe. It’s particularly fond of raveners and vampires, and has gone out of its way to aid them when given the choice of several allies.
Olix: Conceived during an Urgathoan new moon ritual and transformed into a fiendish vampire before his twentieth year, this priest transforms into shadow rather than smoke, can appear in two places at once, and hates any light brighter than candlelight. He prefers to carry messages or cast supporting magic on his mortal allies rather than engage enemies directly.
The goddess’s half-rotted form limits the sensations she can experience, so she makes up for this lack with gluttonous depravity—she’s tasted the brains of human infants to savor their innocence, torn the heart from the last living member of a race just to feel the sensation of its hot blood on her hands, and inflicted boils and leprosy upon handsome princes just to see the unique patterns they form on royal flesh. To her, the dull existence of a dead soul is pointless and tedious compared to the vibrant intensity of mortal or undead sensation, and creatures should cram as much sensation into existence as possible. Asceticism is repugnant to her, and she particularly loathes those who follow the strict taboos of the Prophecies of Kalistrade.
Urgathoa is usually depicted as a beautiful, raven-haired woman from the waist up—much like her mortal self, though she’s as pale as a hungry vampire. Her lower half is rotted and withered, decaying farther down until only blood-covered bones remain at her feet. When she walks, she leaves bloody, skeletal footprints. Although she sometimes manifests nude in the faithful’s visions, she usually appears wearing a sheer red or black gown. From neck to toe, the gown is stained with hideous patches of black, brown, and red. On rare occasions, she assumes a monstrous shape similar to those of the hideous undead creatures known as daughters of Urgathoa, with one huge arm covered in fanged mouths and a tail made of multiple fused spinal columns.
Urgathoa’s realm in the Great Beyond is a cluster of cities in a wasteland part of Abaddon, filled with undead residents indulging all of their mortal vices in great excess. The daemons of that realm observe Urgathoa and her followers, but leave them alone and untouched—the main threat to her realm is attacks from Pharasma’s minions, who intend to repatriate undead souls to the Boneyard and restore them to their proper destination in the afterlife.
Though the Pallid Princess’s church is interested primarily in undeath, some cults focus on her gluttonous aspect, indulging in decadent feasts of food, alcohol, and drugs, as well as lavish orgies. Unfortunately, in many cases these “dilettante” cults decline into more depraved practices, eventually embracing necromantic profanities and conversion to ghouls, vampires, and similar creatures.
When Urgathoa is pleased, common food tastes delicious, water turns to fine wine, and meals are never so filling that the diner feels uncomfortable. There are also stories of starving worshipers unexpectedly finding injured or freshly killed meat (in some stories, the meat is humanoid). She rarely uses animals as messengers, but sometimes sends a death’s head moth to lead a devout worshiper to a reward, or clouds of biting flies to warn away or punish a mortal. Female clerics who serve her particularly well may be transformed into daughters of Urgathoa. When she’s angry, food and water taste like ash and fill the belly with gnawing hunger that cannot be sated, and the target of her ire may be afflicted with rotting or swelling diseases that make it difficult to eat or speak. She has been known to paralyze an offender’s legs so the victim must crawl, or reverse the taste of his food so that garbage and sewage are the only things he can bear to swallow. The afflicted can alleviate the condition by making a large sacrifice to Urgathoa, either at a temple or by providing some gluttonous feast, drug experience, or other orgiastic excess in her name. On rare occasions, the only way to alleviate the curse is by willingly engaging in cannibalism, an act that taints the offender’s soul and all but guarantees eternal allegiance to the Pallid Princess.
Relations with Other Religions
Urgathoa is largely content to indulge her own needs and desires, and most other powerful entities leave her alone to do that; as a result, she has fewer enemies than most evil gods. Pharasma, however, considers undeath an abomination, and pursues Urgathoa and her kind whenever they are found. Good-hearted Sarenrae seeks to “heal” the goddess and her followers, which naturally strains relations between them.The Pallid Princess appreciates Abadar’s cities for the plagues they foster, and sometimes operates side by side with Calistria, as the lust goddess’s portfolio is similar without overlapping. She often allies with the Four Horsemen, and daemons are popular servants and allies in her church. Zyphus, the Grim Harvestman, keeps his divine realm within Urgathoa’s territory, though he does not belong to her—she makes no claim on him, though she appreciates that his priests often rise as undead to continue their work. The young goddess Naderi, the patron of romantic suicides, believes that love endures beyond death, and Urgathoa is currently trying to take the Lost Maiden under her wing, as she supports this sentiment. Shelyn, Naderi’s former sovereign, objects, and some priests also make vague claims that the goddess of art has taken and hidden something from the goddess of the undead, intensifying their enmity. Urgathoa’s relationships with the ghoul demon lord Kabriri and vampire demon lord Zura are strained—sometimes they are allies, sometimes enemies, and undead worshipers tend to drift between these cults.
Urgathoa’s contempt for ascetics would put her at odds with the patron of Druma’s Prophecies of Kalistrade had they come from an actual deity; instead, she directs mild annoyance at Irori’s strict discipline. Her ire is tempered by his devotion to moderation rather than abstinence, however, and she is intrigued by the idea of tasting his physical perfection. The goddess supports the Whispering Way for its promotion of undeath, but allows her priests to form their own opinions of it, as those adherents who focus on her gluttony aspect may object to it. Urgathoan vampires and ghouls, for example, must feed on the living, and if the cult manages to convert the entire world to undeath, these undead would starve, so they shun the cultists or even work to keep them from becoming too successful.
Urgathoa’s church has little desire to crusade against other faiths, even those like Pharasma’s and Sarenrae’s who actively hunt its congregants, as members would rather spend their time indulging themselves than fighting others. That said, they aren’t above undermining those faiths when opportunities present themselves, and take particular satisfaction in raising members of those faiths as undead when possible. They generally go out of their way to avoid antagonizing Abadar’s church, as cities serve many of Urgathoa’s interests, and work amiably with servants of Calistria when their interests align.
Urgathoans are open to friendly relations with cultists of those Empyreal Lords who revel in swaying their followers to embrace pleasure for its own sake, though followers of virtuous outsiders rarely return the cultists’ overtures. They are occasionally roused to ally with other congregations against ascetic reformers who operate in what they consider their territories. For the most part, however, they prefer to ignore other faiths and their adherents, though if outsiders play some part in satisfying the urges of the faithful, members of the church can become extremely charming and friendly.
Planar Allies
Urgathoa’s divine servants are usually undead creatures infused with her power, though some are more outsider than undead. In addition to her servitor race, the sarcovalts, the following creatures serve her as blessed minions, and answer to planar ally and similar calling spells from the faithful.Barasthangas: This pale devourer’s undead flesh is so thin and tight that her white bones and gray connective tissues are visible. Her price for service is a suitably powerful creature whose soul she can devour.
Fjarn: This burly Ulfen man is corpse-gray and has an unnerving rictus smile. Once a proud Linnorm King, he was forced to kill and eat his own honor guard following a series of personal tragedies. After killing himself out of shame, he rose as a ghast in the service of Urgathoa. He still retains his barbarian powers, and likes to eat his fallen foes.
Mother’s Maw: This vile giant skull surrounded with buzzing flies serves as Urgathoa’s herald. Mother’s Maw has little interest in the desires of mortals (or of the undead in the mortal world) except insofar as they intersect with Urgathoa’s orders. If it is necessary to eat a hundred members of her cult or to drive an entire city of ghouls into a lava pit, the Maw does it. It can speak but finds little worth talking about, so many assume it is mindless. However, when not on a mission of death, disease, or gluttony, it is a font of knowledge about food, wine, exotic scents, and other strange experiences, and is quite willing to speak on these matters to an interested partyassuming the sight of the enormous talking, winged skull isn’t a distraction to listeners. Because of its innate ability to create undead, the herald is sometimes accompanied by skeletons, zombies, and ghouls, which caper about it, endlessly adoring the emissary of the goddess of undeath. It has been known to ferry allies into battle, or (rarely) to rescue a powerful undead creature, spiriting its passenger away to safety with its bony gullet, and relying on its own defenses to keep its passenger safe. It’s particularly fond of raveners and vampires, and has gone out of its way to aid them when given the choice of several allies.
Olix: Conceived during an Urgathoan new moon ritual and transformed into a fiendish vampire before his twentieth year, this priest transforms into shadow rather than smoke, can appear in two places at once, and hates any light brighter than candlelight. He prefers to carry messages or cast supporting magic on his mortal allies rather than engage enemies directly.
Holy Books & Codes
Crafted by Urgathoa’s first antipaladin, Dason, Serving Your Hunger is an extended meditation on the greatness to be found by sacrificing all for sensation. It’s a cookbook filled with decadent recipes and instructions for dressing and preparing various humanoid races. It also serves as a primer for taking a conciliatory approach to dealing with the undead, as well as for transitioning into an intelligent form of undead oneself, and focuses mainly on vampires, ghouls, and wights.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Urgathoa’s holy symbol is a death’s head moth, often drawn so the skull-markings are exaggerated, or even depicted as a skull with a moth’s wings, legs, and head.
Holidays
As a goddess who believes existence should be a continual celebration of one’s own power and urges, Urgathoa places no additional significance on particular dates. Her followers have attached special meaning to moonless nights and celestial conjunctions with the undead-filled world of Eox, believing they mark times of the Negative Energy Plane’s greatest influence on Golarion, and on those nights they hold great candlelit feasts to honor the goddess and her divine presence and will.
Symbol
Edicts
become undead upon death, create or protect the undead, sate your appetites
Anathema
deny your appetites, destroy undead, sacrifice your life
Areas of Concern
disease, gluttony, and undeath
Allies
Ghlaunder, Zon-Kuthon
Temples
cathedrals, crypts, feast halls, graveyards
Worshippers
gluttons, necromancers, sybarites, undead
Sacred Animal
fly
Sacred Colors
green and red
Favored Weapon
scythe
Domains
indulgence, magic, might, undeath
Alternate Domains
decay, plague, swarm
Divine Ability
Constitution or Wisdom
Divine Font
harm
Divine Skill
Intimidation
Divine Classification
God
Ethnicity
Church/Cult
Children
Ruled Locations
Aphorisms
Urgathoa cares more for gratification than for words, and the members of the countless cells of her faith—living and dead—have created many different sayings about her tenets. The most common aphorisms of the church are the following.By the blood and the mouth: This is an oath to keep a secret, with the expectation of punishment should the oath be broken. It is usually accompanied by touching a finger and thumb to the sides of the neck (as if choking), followed by kissing or licking the first two fingers of that hand.
Feed your pain: This phrase normally indicates the start of a meal, but priests sometimes say it to encourage layfolk to distract themselves from their problems with food or other excesses.
May you dine forever: Devotees of Urgathoa believe all will be consumed—it’s only a matter of time. Followers of Urgathoa often use this phrase to call upon others to perform acts of wanton gluttony, bestow a rite of passage to an ally, or subtly reveal their faith to other followers of the Pallid Princess.
May you never hunger again: While a fool can mistake this as a benediction, it is a damning insult, often whispered to an enemy just before the victim takes their final breath.
Pay the pox: As a disease runs its course, victims can no longer afford the cost of their own flesh—their bodies wither and die along with their material ambitions. But worshippers of Urgathoa believe themselves above “paying the pox,” as she allows them to evade the tax of mortality through undeath.
Rot in the gut, froth in the mouth: Oft uttered before performing a ritual obedience to the goddess, such as consuming rancid food or eating while painfully full.
Comments