Zon-Kuthon
Embrace misery in this world and the next, forget all that is not suffering, and tune your mind so you understand the pleasures of pain. —Umbral Leaves
The Midnight Lord, the Dark Prince
Zon-Kuthon is a twisted, cruel, jealous god who defiles flesh to bring pain and misery. He represents ever-present pain, emotional darkness, consuming envy, and debilitating loss. Unrepentantly evil, he finds only brief joy in the pain he causes others. His very existence is a corruption and parasite upon the world. His alien mind constantly seeks new ways to oppress, humiliate, demoralize, and destroy others. While his true goals are incomprehensible, his stated desire is to flay every living thing until the entire world is an intertwined mass of bleeding flesh writhing in pain-wracked ecstasy. He whips the minds of serial killers, guides the hands of torturers, and plays the nerves of the suffering like a master bard.
Zon-Kuthon offers no great wisdoms, no promises of universal truth, no guarantee of rewards in the afterlife. His strange mind sees little difference between this life and the next, and he tortures living flesh and dead souls alike with hideous pleasure and delicious pain. It’s possible that this bleak nihilism may be part of some more elaborate master plan incomprehensible to even his greatest priests, but so far the method and message is that existence itself is pain. His faith is lawful, following the natural hierarchy of the strong preying upon the weak, whether for food, entertainment, sex, or proof of dominance.
Zon-Kuthon’s direct intervention in the lives of mortals is usually brief and ambiguous, with the price often outweighing the benefit. A slave under the whip who prays for relief might experience sexual pleasure but find the pain is heightened. A craftsman who seeks perfection in his work achieves it only after his obsession drives away all he loves. A count who prays for help against invading orcs may gain the help of a cruel warlord who takes over the orc lands as his own and becomes an even greater menace. Despite these hidden poisons, depraved or despairing mortals continue to pray to Zon-Kuthon for help, and he has countless minions devoted to listening for these requests, watchful for those who might be tempted by the Dark Prince’s umbral embrace.
Zon-Kuthon’s true appearance varies, and there is no consistent depiction of him, but the overall image is easily recognizable. His flesh is pale and bloodless and usually hairless, though he sometimes has wispy blond hair on his scalp. Contrasting with the pale skin are bloody red wounds, many of which are held open with hooks, straps, or splints, some appearing partially healed and reopened. Sometimes his skin is completely gone in places, revealing bare muscle or even bone. He frequently has piercings, sometimes through muscle and bone, with bits of jewelry or remnants of his victims dangling from them. Even his face doesn’t escape this attention, with spikes and hooked straps pulling it into strange configurations, his lips removed to show bloody teeth, one eye removed and replaced with a strange crystal, or the entire back of his head gone, revealing skull and brains. He is usually shown wearing a vertical metal crown that pulls his flesh back into an obscene sunburst halo. Parts of his body that lack wounds are usually covered in blood-soaked black leather, often sexualized or used to manipulate the wounds in an obscene manner. Absent this orchestra of mutilation, Zon-Kuthon might appear human, but brief glimpses of his unaltered parts set the maimings into sharp, horrifying contrast. Mortal representations of him are usually simplified to a pale man in black with one significant wound. Different cults of the church may venerate one version of his image over others (going so far as to duplicate that image in their own flesh), but these cosmetic differences are irrelevant in the faith’s pursuit of pain and darkness.
Zon-Kuthon’s favored weapon is the spiked chain, a versatile tool both in battle and in the deepest dungeon, and as a result his symbol is a skull with a spiked chain threaded through the eye sockets. Most of his priests are clerics, but there are several orders of corrupted paladins who inflict pain in his name, and certain primitive tribes worship him under the tutelage of adepts. In Nidal, where the church of Zon-Kuthon is the state religion, the clergy are often shadowcallers, government agents raised to the worship of Zon-Kuthon since childhood and trained to use both arcane and divine magic in his service. Zon-Kuthon is called the Midnight Lord and the Dark Prince. His most recognizable servants are erinyes, kytons, and hellcats comprised of unfathomable darkness.
Today, Zon-Kuthon has little to do with other deific entities. He has no desire to create alliances, no need to wage war, and no interest in playing diplomat between rival powers. Although he aided in the imprisonment of Rovagug in youth as Dou-Bral, this was his last cooperation with his peers. The only deity seemingly safe from Zon-Kuthon’s sick intentions is his half-sister Shelyn, though her followers have no special protection against him or his, and she limits their contact to brief visits in person with powerful defensive magic at the ready.
Zon-Kuthon’s evil nature and vile practices make him a target for good-minded faiths, though he is as likely to ignore attacks on his minions as to retaliate. From time to time agents of Asmodeus strike deals with his lieutenants—especially in Nidal, in which the Kuthite government acts as a vassal of Hell-allied Cheliax—yet while the diabolists may see this as proof of the Archfiend’s superiority, most Kuthites believe the Dark Prince is simply biding time and laying a trap. The hordes of Lamashtu also engage in buying and selling knowledge and slaves with the Midnight Lord’s faithful, but their interactions are always at arm’s length because of his people’s propensity to experiment on their allies. His faithful see those who follow other gods as insects, and scoff at their pitiful attempts to prove their lives have meaning and purpose. While their lord may refrain from attempting to harm Shelyn, his followers see no need to extend that courtesy to her faithful, and may especially enjoy creating canvases from the stretched skins of the Eternal Rose’s worshippers.
Dominik the Unquenchable: Once a rapacious Kuthite lieutenant, Dominik fell prey to a vampire and rose as an undead predator. Members of his own church captured and tortured him. He is a handsome middle-aged man with stark blond hair, prominent canines, and long elegant hands lacking fingernails. His entire abdomen is ripped open and empty—a wound his formidable regeneration has strangely never healed. When he drinks blood, it drains just as quickly out of his wounds. As a result, he is continually ravenous, and is prone to falling upon helpless foes to drink them dry. If conjured, he appreciates creatures he can feed on, large supplies of blood, or magic that can temporarily sate his hunger.
The Prince in Chains: This horrid amalgam of exposed flesh and writhing chains shaped like a wolf serves as Zon-Kuthon’s herald. Originally a noble spirit-wolf who, according to legend, sired Dou-Bral, the Prince in Chains has been reduced to a travesty of its former self by the attentions of the Midnight Lord. Once noble, the Prince in Chains seems to revel only in pain—its infliction and its receipt—and sees in it a fundamental truth of life’s very existence. It delights in the pain experienced by sentient beings more so than the sufferings of dumb animals, but is not above torturing and slaying a beloved pet or animal companion for the nourishing reward of anguish caused to its owner. The Prince in Chains wanders the depths of the Plane of Shadow and patrols the lightless steel labyrinths of Xovaikain, seeking others with whom to share its epiphanies of pain. If summoned to the Material Plane by a servant of Zon-Kuthon, the Prince in Chains enjoys given human flesh to consume after a bit of playful torture. Kuthite clerics view a wound bestowed by the Prince of Chains as a near unparalleled blessing, though few can hope to survive such an honor.
Vreet-Hall: Also known as the Fiend Whose Wounds Are Like Wombs, this creature is an unnaturally tall and lithe kyton evangelist whose weapons continually abrade and slice its own flesh to reveal half-formed eyes, wagging tongues, and cysts that drop living maggots. This elf-like thing never touches the ground with its feet, wrapping itself tightly from the calf down so that its pallid flesh never touches bare earth or stone. Vreet-Hall speaks through a permanent wound in its throat. It has a fondness for wines, exotic drugs, and living slaves. Nobody knows its gender, and it may have surgically removed any evidence long ago.
Zon-Kuthon offers no great wisdoms, no promises of universal truth, no guarantee of rewards in the afterlife. His strange mind sees little difference between this life and the next, and he tortures living flesh and dead souls alike with hideous pleasure and delicious pain. It’s possible that this bleak nihilism may be part of some more elaborate master plan incomprehensible to even his greatest priests, but so far the method and message is that existence itself is pain. His faith is lawful, following the natural hierarchy of the strong preying upon the weak, whether for food, entertainment, sex, or proof of dominance.
Zon-Kuthon’s direct intervention in the lives of mortals is usually brief and ambiguous, with the price often outweighing the benefit. A slave under the whip who prays for relief might experience sexual pleasure but find the pain is heightened. A craftsman who seeks perfection in his work achieves it only after his obsession drives away all he loves. A count who prays for help against invading orcs may gain the help of a cruel warlord who takes over the orc lands as his own and becomes an even greater menace. Despite these hidden poisons, depraved or despairing mortals continue to pray to Zon-Kuthon for help, and he has countless minions devoted to listening for these requests, watchful for those who might be tempted by the Dark Prince’s umbral embrace.
Zon-Kuthon’s true appearance varies, and there is no consistent depiction of him, but the overall image is easily recognizable. His flesh is pale and bloodless and usually hairless, though he sometimes has wispy blond hair on his scalp. Contrasting with the pale skin are bloody red wounds, many of which are held open with hooks, straps, or splints, some appearing partially healed and reopened. Sometimes his skin is completely gone in places, revealing bare muscle or even bone. He frequently has piercings, sometimes through muscle and bone, with bits of jewelry or remnants of his victims dangling from them. Even his face doesn’t escape this attention, with spikes and hooked straps pulling it into strange configurations, his lips removed to show bloody teeth, one eye removed and replaced with a strange crystal, or the entire back of his head gone, revealing skull and brains. He is usually shown wearing a vertical metal crown that pulls his flesh back into an obscene sunburst halo. Parts of his body that lack wounds are usually covered in blood-soaked black leather, often sexualized or used to manipulate the wounds in an obscene manner. Absent this orchestra of mutilation, Zon-Kuthon might appear human, but brief glimpses of his unaltered parts set the maimings into sharp, horrifying contrast. Mortal representations of him are usually simplified to a pale man in black with one significant wound. Different cults of the church may venerate one version of his image over others (going so far as to duplicate that image in their own flesh), but these cosmetic differences are irrelevant in the faith’s pursuit of pain and darkness.
Zon-Kuthon’s favored weapon is the spiked chain, a versatile tool both in battle and in the deepest dungeon, and as a result his symbol is a skull with a spiked chain threaded through the eye sockets. Most of his priests are clerics, but there are several orders of corrupted paladins who inflict pain in his name, and certain primitive tribes worship him under the tutelage of adepts. In Nidal, where the church of Zon-Kuthon is the state religion, the clergy are often shadowcallers, government agents raised to the worship of Zon-Kuthon since childhood and trained to use both arcane and divine magic in his service. Zon-Kuthon is called the Midnight Lord and the Dark Prince. His most recognizable servants are erinyes, kytons, and hellcats comprised of unfathomable darkness.
Relations with Other Religions
Ages ago, Zon-Kuthon was Dou-Bral, half-brother to Shelyn. Little is known of his original powers or the extent of their relationship, but at some point they argued, and Dou-Bral abandoned Golarion for the far dark places between the planes. Shelyn grieved for her lost brother, but was more horrified by his return. The church of Shelyn contends that before he left, the siblings shared custody over what is now her portfolio, yet during his travels in the void, some unfathomable entity found and possessed the young god, driving his original self into a tiny prison within his own essence. This alien presence filled the void of Dou-Bral’s godly power with twisted versions of the things he used to watch over and protect—beauty became mutilation, love became misery, music became screams, and the art of creation became the craft of torture. When Shelyn reached out to her lost brother, he pierced her hand with his black nails. Again the siblings quarreled, and he responded with violence to her tears and pleading. Only after she wrested Dou-Bral’s weapon, a golden glaive, away from Zon-Kuthon did they reach a tenuous peace of silence and avoidance. For countless centuries, Shelyn has tried to find ways to make her brother remember who he is—all with little effect. Zon-Kuthon acknowledges that he and Shelyn were once siblings but has nothing else to say on the matter.Today, Zon-Kuthon has little to do with other deific entities. He has no desire to create alliances, no need to wage war, and no interest in playing diplomat between rival powers. Although he aided in the imprisonment of Rovagug in youth as Dou-Bral, this was his last cooperation with his peers. The only deity seemingly safe from Zon-Kuthon’s sick intentions is his half-sister Shelyn, though her followers have no special protection against him or his, and she limits their contact to brief visits in person with powerful defensive magic at the ready.
Zon-Kuthon’s evil nature and vile practices make him a target for good-minded faiths, though he is as likely to ignore attacks on his minions as to retaliate. From time to time agents of Asmodeus strike deals with his lieutenants—especially in Nidal, in which the Kuthite government acts as a vassal of Hell-allied Cheliax—yet while the diabolists may see this as proof of the Archfiend’s superiority, most Kuthites believe the Dark Prince is simply biding time and laying a trap. The hordes of Lamashtu also engage in buying and selling knowledge and slaves with the Midnight Lord’s faithful, but their interactions are always at arm’s length because of his people’s propensity to experiment on their allies. His faithful see those who follow other gods as insects, and scoff at their pitiful attempts to prove their lives have meaning and purpose. While their lord may refrain from attempting to harm Shelyn, his followers see no need to extend that courtesy to her faithful, and may especially enjoy creating canvases from the stretched skins of the Eternal Rose’s worshippers.
Planar Allies
In addition to Zon-Kuthon’s servitor race, the lampadariuses, the following outsiders serve the Midnight Lord and eagerly answer planar ally spells and similar calling spells from his faithful.Dominik the Unquenchable: Once a rapacious Kuthite lieutenant, Dominik fell prey to a vampire and rose as an undead predator. Members of his own church captured and tortured him. He is a handsome middle-aged man with stark blond hair, prominent canines, and long elegant hands lacking fingernails. His entire abdomen is ripped open and empty—a wound his formidable regeneration has strangely never healed. When he drinks blood, it drains just as quickly out of his wounds. As a result, he is continually ravenous, and is prone to falling upon helpless foes to drink them dry. If conjured, he appreciates creatures he can feed on, large supplies of blood, or magic that can temporarily sate his hunger.
The Prince in Chains: This horrid amalgam of exposed flesh and writhing chains shaped like a wolf serves as Zon-Kuthon’s herald. Originally a noble spirit-wolf who, according to legend, sired Dou-Bral, the Prince in Chains has been reduced to a travesty of its former self by the attentions of the Midnight Lord. Once noble, the Prince in Chains seems to revel only in pain—its infliction and its receipt—and sees in it a fundamental truth of life’s very existence. It delights in the pain experienced by sentient beings more so than the sufferings of dumb animals, but is not above torturing and slaying a beloved pet or animal companion for the nourishing reward of anguish caused to its owner. The Prince in Chains wanders the depths of the Plane of Shadow and patrols the lightless steel labyrinths of Xovaikain, seeking others with whom to share its epiphanies of pain. If summoned to the Material Plane by a servant of Zon-Kuthon, the Prince in Chains enjoys given human flesh to consume after a bit of playful torture. Kuthite clerics view a wound bestowed by the Prince of Chains as a near unparalleled blessing, though few can hope to survive such an honor.
Vreet-Hall: Also known as the Fiend Whose Wounds Are Like Wombs, this creature is an unnaturally tall and lithe kyton evangelist whose weapons continually abrade and slice its own flesh to reveal half-formed eyes, wagging tongues, and cysts that drop living maggots. This elf-like thing never touches the ground with its feet, wrapping itself tightly from the calf down so that its pallid flesh never touches bare earth or stone. Vreet-Hall speaks through a permanent wound in its throat. It has a fondness for wines, exotic drugs, and living slaves. Nobody knows its gender, and it may have surgically removed any evidence long ago.
Holy Books & Codes
Zon-Kuthon’s holy book is Umbral Leaves, and is usually bound in and made of flayed human skin. It contains all known fragments of lore and prophecy spoken by the god’s prophets. The words are scratched into the surface of the leather and stained with blood to make them readable (rather than being painted or inked onto a flat surface). Older copies may have notes trying to interpret some of the more ambiguous phrases. The collection of quotes is extremely disjointed, and no two copies have the exact same order, sorting them by date, topic, or seemingly at random. Through the ravings of madmen, these comments tell the god’s story from his own perspective, speaking of the exhilarating knowledge he discovered beyond the stars.
Holidays
Zon-Kuthon’s church has few holidays, but regular meetings usually take place on the night of the new moon.
The Joymaking: One bizarre cult belief is that the less flesh a person has, the more concentrated the sensation of pain and pleasure is in that remaining flesh—supposedly a legless man experiences greater pain and pleasure than one with two good legs. Privileged members of the church can arrange to have all their limbs amputated and all unnecessary flesh removed (eyes, ears, tongue, lips, and so on), leaving only a writhing head and torso that must be fed and cleaned by others. These “Joyful Things” are the most envied of the faith, as their entire existence is devoted to limitless pain and pleasure. They are normally kept in secure places belonging to the church, where any member of the faith can torture and violate them. The Joymaking holiday has no set date or frequency—a member of the cult who has enough privilege and wealth to deserve and afford this attention may call for the Joymaking ceremony at any point. All available members of the congregation then eagerly convene to assist in the removal of the honored member’s limbs and non-essentials in sections over the course of one night. Often the removed pieces are eaten by the others present in the hopes of gaining an echo of the Joyful Thing’s luck and sensation.
The Eternal Kiss: This holiday takes place on the first new moon of the year. A victim is chosen—usually an enemy of the church but sometimes a favored member of the cult—and pampered luxuriously for a period of 11 days with exotic comforts, fine food, erotic companionship, and so on. The eleventh night’s attention begins as normal, and then suddenly shifts to physical and emotional torture using whatever creative methods the cultists can devise, from fire to blades to poison to drowning and countless others. The cultists use magic to keep the victim alive as long as possible, often pulling the victim’s entrails out and using them for divination (called anthropomancy), looking for signs of Zon-Kuthon’s will. Very rarely, the suffering victim speaks in tongues, conveying phrases in other languages that can be pieced together into a prophecy.
The Joymaking: One bizarre cult belief is that the less flesh a person has, the more concentrated the sensation of pain and pleasure is in that remaining flesh—supposedly a legless man experiences greater pain and pleasure than one with two good legs. Privileged members of the church can arrange to have all their limbs amputated and all unnecessary flesh removed (eyes, ears, tongue, lips, and so on), leaving only a writhing head and torso that must be fed and cleaned by others. These “Joyful Things” are the most envied of the faith, as their entire existence is devoted to limitless pain and pleasure. They are normally kept in secure places belonging to the church, where any member of the faith can torture and violate them. The Joymaking holiday has no set date or frequency—a member of the cult who has enough privilege and wealth to deserve and afford this attention may call for the Joymaking ceremony at any point. All available members of the congregation then eagerly convene to assist in the removal of the honored member’s limbs and non-essentials in sections over the course of one night. Often the removed pieces are eaten by the others present in the hopes of gaining an echo of the Joyful Thing’s luck and sensation.
The Eternal Kiss: This holiday takes place on the first new moon of the year. A victim is chosen—usually an enemy of the church but sometimes a favored member of the cult—and pampered luxuriously for a period of 11 days with exotic comforts, fine food, erotic companionship, and so on. The eleventh night’s attention begins as normal, and then suddenly shifts to physical and emotional torture using whatever creative methods the cultists can devise, from fire to blades to poison to drowning and countless others. The cultists use magic to keep the victim alive as long as possible, often pulling the victim’s entrails out and using them for divination (called anthropomancy), looking for signs of Zon-Kuthon’s will. Very rarely, the suffering victim speaks in tongues, conveying phrases in other languages that can be pieced together into a prophecy.
Relationships
Symbol
Edicts
bring pain to the world, mutilate your body
Anathema
create permanent or long-lasting sources of light, provide comfort to those who suffer
Areas of Concern
darkness, envy, loss, and pain
Allies
Urgathoa
Temples
abandoned graveyards, cathedrals, caverns, haunted woodland clearings, laboratories, ruined city squares, torture chambers
Worshippers
the desperate, sadists, shadow cultists, torturers, velstracs
Sacred Animal
bat
Sacred Colors
dark gray and red
Favored Weapon
spiked chain
Domains
ambition, darkness, destruction, pain
Alternate Domains
void
Divine Ability
Constitution or Wisdom
Divine Font
harm
Divine Skill
Intimidation
Divine Classification
God
Realm
Church/Cult
Spouses
Siblings
Shelyn
(sister)
Children
Ruled Locations
Aphorisms
In the face of their master’s endless darkness, Zon-Kuthon’s worshipers gird themselves with simple affirmations of hopelessness.Abandon your tears: In a cult that worships pain, tears are evidence of weakness. When tortured victims cry, it shows they have not embraced their pain, and thus are unenlightened. When cultists are tortured, they love their pain and refuse to shed tears, focusing their energy on savoring the broad bloody line between agony and ecstasy. This aphorism is an admonition to the victim and advice to the faithful.
Experience without limits: This phrase has two meanings. It indicates that the cult seeks physical sensation beyond the normal limitations of mortals, mixing pleasure and pain to reach an experience on a new level. It also means that a Kuthite should not let the rules of normal society dictate limitations to her goals and desires—if she wants to taste her sister’s blood, or open her neighbor’s chest to kiss the beating heart, so be it. There is an unspoken acknowledgment that everyone has this right, and thus the aggressor may later become the victim, for it is only natural that the strong dominate the weak.
Never a rusty blade: Wounds are no rarity to a worshipper of the Midnight Lord, but the faithful know the importance of using properly cleaned and sharpened tools, as well as keeping wounds clean, lest disease cut short the suffering. A secondary reading serves as an admonition against letting too much time pass between practicing the faith’s physical sacraments—letting a blade rust from disuse.
Grasp the chain: A true follower of Zon-Kuthon may experience torments, but they are neither victim nor prisoner within the faith. On the surface, these words remind a worshipper that they are active participants even in their own torture. On a deeper level, this phrase embodies the power inherent in embracing pain and turning it into a weapon—willingly grasping the god’s favored weapon despite the vicious spikes along its length.
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