Nypoloita (nee-poh-lee-tah)
God of Rest
Nypoloita is the deity of sleep and of death. She is depicted as a humanoid figure wrapped in a loose cloak, typically black or a deep purple, her “true” form obscured beneath. Her symbol is a four-pointed star surrounded by four smaller four pointed stars. She is a member of the Theonínta.
More than anything, Nypoloita is a deity of transitions. Day to night, consciousness to dreams, life to death—Nypoloita acts as a guide through each of these things. As such, when the Theonínta initiated their rebellion and sparked the beginning of the transition from the Age of Wildfire into the Age of Gods, Nypoloita stood with them. Similarly, when the Age of Mortals dawned it was she who offered her stars as the foundation for the heavens, shepherding the deities to their new realms while doing the same to the mortals to their afterlives when their time on the mortal realm ended.
Nypoloita could be argued to have the most worshippers of all the Kossic deities, if only because of the near-universal concepts of sleep and death. A quick prayer to Nypoloita is often said before sleep and upon waking, and those who die in their sleep are often said to have failed to follow Nypoloita back to the waking world. Similarly, graves and tombs are constructed to ensure that the bodies of the dead can be found by Nypoloita and guided to the afterlife, whether that be one of the heavens should the shade have sufficiently pleased a particular deity, or to the Megaron Mori for the rest.
Unlike most of the other deities, Nypoloita does not have a heaven of her own. Instead, her most devoted worshippers are enlisted into her service, becoming her Nypolites, and are tasked with retrieving the shades of the unburied. The shades of the unburied often fester and become violent monstrosities, either haunting their place of death, hunting down those who wronged them, or transitioning into the Shadowfell; a lifeless reflection of the mortal realm where most of the Nypolites engage in their grim work. Unsurprisingly, the prospect of an eternity battling undead abominations is not particularly appealing to many mortals, leading to many praising the God of Rest but stopping short of becoming one of her champions.
Cults to Nypoloita are few, but can often be found tending to graveyards for those who cannot afford the construction of a great tomb or do not have one tended to by their family, or following armies to ensure the fallen receive proper burial. Individual clerics of Nypoloita often travel to perform funeral rites or aid those suffering from insomnia. While temples to Nypoloita are uncommon, tombs themselves are often considered holy sites to Nypoloita and can be used interchangeably for rituals that require temples or shrines.
Worship of Nypoloita is not limited to death and sleep, however. Any time of great change—be it societal like a shift in political power or personal like a time of transition—fall under the domain of the God of Rest, and her guidance through these periods is sought by many in Koss and beyond. Divinations from the stars are often thought to come from Nypoloita, and thus it is not uncommon for oracles to claim her as the source of their insight.
Ostensibly the partner of Zole, Nypoloita—perhaps as a part her being a deity of change—is somewhat notorious for trysts both among other deities and with mortals, leading to several gods and demigods tracing their lineage back to her throughout history. As the guide of shades she shares a positive relationship with most of the other deities, particularly Ptourge, and a powerful enmity for Fytanke who would trap shades in their endless cycle of destruction and rebirth.
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