Corvus

Corvus, the God of Death, the ash-cloaked, soul-stealer

Corvus was a dark crow who oversaw the transmigration of souls from life into what comes next. He could see and touch the invisible world. Lost and roaming spirits cried out to him to lead them to their rightful reward.

Because he could take something tangible (life) and steal it away to someplace unseen, he was also considered the patron of thieves, liars, and all those who trade in misdirection.

Corvus appeared in the form of a mighty raven whose wings could blot out the sun. His feathers were black of the darkest night sky and his eyes ebony rivers whose cold gaze froze mortals in their tracks. The death rattles of mankind echoed in his caws and sent shivers down the spines of the living. The peck of his beak reverberated in the hammering that builds the gallows, reminding all who heard it of the lonely, gray lands that await the condemned. His beak pierced corpses and tore forth the steaming remnant of their souls. He carried these etheric entrails into the death lands to feed the peeping mouths of his freshly hatched crows and ravens.

Unlike other birds, who were born from Yggdrasil's leaves, it is said that blackbirds of all types came from the lands of death, called forth by Corvus. Just as ravens seek a conspiracy of their fellows and crows prefer a murder, Corvus summoned a parliament of the dead to aid and attend to him.

These doom crows alighted wherever death was imminent. Corvus was not picky, he did not choose who would live or die, he and his blackbirds simply scavenged the dead, claiming their remains and carrying onward their souls. Nevertheless, carrion birds were not protected by Corvus; they had to earn their livelihoods.

Corvus circled over the mad and the insane. His stark ravens flocked to those forlorn souls, waiting for the right time to harvest the morsels of their fear-addled minds.

Gold, silver, jewelry, or whatever items of wealth a community could muster were the only sacrifices worthy of Corvus. These were buried under the earth or stacked in storehouses, a tempting target for thieves. Any thief who could break into these hidden hoards or heavily guarded temples was considered favored by Corvus.

When a community had no real wealth, though, the sacrifice of thieves sufficed - usually by hanging them from a bridge or at a crossroads. In times of plague, the sick were singled out for sacrifice. It was believed that if they came early to Corvus, they would sate his death hunger enough for him to withdraw the disease.

Source: Blackbirds RPG
AI Art by Midjourney

"We never take without giving.
When you steal something, leave something behind,
even if its just a solitary coin or a hex mark.
Theft is a form of death, but nothing ever really dies.
Things just trade places."