Erythnul

The Many, God of Hate, Envy, Malice, Panic, Ugliness, and Slaughter

Symbol: A half-demon, half-boar mask
Home Plane: Pandemonium (Citadel of Slaughter)
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Portfolio: Hate, envy, malice, panic, ugliness, slaughter
Worshipers: Barbarians, fighters, rogues, looters, outlaws
Cleric Alignments: CE, CN, NE
Domains: Trickery, War, Death
Favored Weapon: Morningstar

The deity of slaughter, Erythnul (eh-rith-null), is a terrible sight to behold. He usually appears as a human with knotted muscles and a blocky frame. His skin is mottled and ruddy, almost as though blood oozes from his pores. In battle, his features change between human, gnoll, bugbear, ogre, and troll. This mutable form is reflected in his title, The Many. He wields a two-handed morningstar in battle. This weapon has a perforated stone head that makes frightening sounds whenever Erythnul swings it.
Erythnul (eh-RITH-nul) is the undisciplined counterpart to Hextor, possibly predating him and losing worshipers to his ordered and intelligent rival. His title comes from his appearance in battle, as his features change between human, gnoll, bugbear, ogre, and troll, and his spilled blood becomes an allied creature of like type. His symbol is a red blood drop or a hideous mask.

Appearance, Manifestations

Erythnul, is a terrible sight to behold. He usually appears as a 7' human with knotted muscles and a blocky frame. His skin is mottled and ruddy, almost as though blood oozes from his pores. In battle, his features change between human, gnoll, bugbear, ogre, and troll (his spilled blood is said to transform into similar creatures). This mutable form is reflected in his title, The Many. His dull-green eyes are filled with the madness of war. He typically wears red fur and red-dyed leather, and carries a stone-headed morningstar. A hole in the head of the morningstar creates a whistling noise as Erythnul swings it; the keening howl of the morningstar has been known to send those who hear it fleeing until they collapse from exhaustion.

Relationships & History

Erythnul has a long-standing rivalry with Hextor, fighting over the portfolio of War. He sponsored Roykyn's ascension to the status of demipower. He is allied with Kurell. Erythnul is often worshipped in association with Karaan, though the latter deity is far more obscure.
Erythnul's favorite choice for herald is a balor. His follower are howlers, glabrezu demons, and nalfeshnee demons. Erythnul is credited with creating the windblades and garngraths, races of fiends native to Pandemonium.

Dogma

Destroy anyone who would take what is yours away from you. Covet that which you do not own. Blessed is he who can take something from a rival. Maim those you cannot destroy, and cause fear in the hearts that you cannot maim. Bloodshed for its own sake is reason enough, and if you can shed the blood of a hated enemy, so much the better. When Erthnul’s gift of blood rage comes upon you, be sure to use it well. Any site where great bloodshed has occurred is considered a holy place by the church.
Erythnul is a brutal deity who delights in panic and slaughter. In civilized lands, his followers (including evil fighters, barbarians, and rogues) form small, criminal cults. In savage lands, evil barbarians, gnolls, bugbears, ogres, and trolls commonly worship him.
The chaos of battle is the sacred charge of the worshippers of Erythnul. In all the myriad forms of terror and suffering that war creates, there is a strange kind of unity. This is part of the reason that Erythnul is called the Many. Battle is a test of merit and strength, and living and dying by the sword is the definition of the good life.
Many of Erythnul's worshippers believe that blood spilled in battle feeds their god, increasing his madness and bloodlust. Chaotic neutral worshippers believe that non-combatants and weak opponents are meaningless, and that killing them does nothing to satiate their god or prove their ability; killing those unworthy of a warrior's death even angers Erythnul, they believe. Chaotic evil worshippers, who are far more common, disagree, believing that all slaughter is a sacrament, and that the dying screams of innocents are music to Erythnul's ears, hymns in the church of the battlefield.

Clergy and Temples

In civilized lands, Erythnul's followers (including evil fighters, barbarians and rogues) form small, criminal cults. In savage lands, evil barbarians, gnolls, bugbears, ogres, and trolls commonly worship him.
Anything that creates mass slaughter or mass hysteria pleases Erythnul, so his followers might finish off the dying on a battlefield, make sure a shaky cease-fire falls apart, or simply pillage the countryside, killing or maiming everyone they find.
Many factions of Erythnul's cult exist, fighting one another as often as they fight nonbelievers. They maintain a low profile in most civilized lands, typically fomenting rebellion and unrest. In savage areas, members of the priesthood are known as bullies and murderous tyrants, and often lead groups of bandits.
Erythnul’s clerics are cruel, sadistic, and hateful. They foment rebellion, murder, and riots in civilized areas, lead troops of bandits, raiders, or nonhumans, and commit murder when they grow bored. They maintain a low profile in most civilized lands. In savage areas. members of the priesthood are known as bullies and murderous tyrants. They deface beautiful things and disfigure attractive people for fun. They aren’t above betraying their own allies to suit their own motives or protect their own hides. They travel to bring ugliness and strife to pleasant places or to escape those that would persecute them.
Erythnul's clerics wear rust-colored or bloodstained garments. On ceremonial occasions they wear white robes, the better to display the bloodstains on them. They wear stylized masks symbolizing Erythnul's many aspects.

Hierarchy

The ranks of Erythnul's priesthood are, from lowest to highest, Raider, Marauder, Reaver, and Incarnate.
Clerics of Erythnul get most of their training in large temples (where they'll witness live sacrifice after live sacrifice) or in the army (where they'll witness the horrors of war). A higher-level cleric looks over a number of novice clerics, trying to frighten them into rejecting the path they've chosen. Those who don't flinch after repeated tests become Erythnul's new clerics.

Temples

Anyplace where great bloodshed or a spectacular act of cruelty has occurred is considered a holy site and an excellent place for a temple dedicated to Erythnul. In the countryside, Erythnul's followers build squat, unsightly fortresses in places where battles, ambushes or massacres have occurred. In urban areas, Erythnul's temples are usually hidden in seedy sections of cities, preferably on sites where horrible crimes have happened.
In the wilderness, his worshipers build squat, ugly fortresses where sacrifice after sacrifice takes place. Erythnul's profane altars are built on platforms reachable by steep flights of stairs.
Erythnul's priests raise massive altars quickly at battlefields, where their followers slaughter in the name of their god. If the tides of war take them elsewhere, they may abandon their altars, leaving the area unhallowed, desecrated, and a prime lair for other evil creatures.

Holidays

Harvester 8th is a day of fear for outlying communities, for it is Erythnul's major holiday. Marauders raid small farmsteads and isolated communities, slaughtering everyone they find as a sacrifice to their god. Cults of Erythnul's worshippers will attempt to capture as many strangers, homeless and indigents as possible and offer up a grand sacrifice to the God of Slaughter. If they can get away with it, they will leave the corpses somewhere that will cause a spectacle. Many communities learned they had a cult of Erythnul operating in their towns when they awoke on Harvester 9th and found bloody sacrifices on the doorstep of the town hall.

Rituals

In the least violent services to Erythnul, shrill reed instruments are played discordantly while gongs clash and drums pound. During major rites, a fire is built and victims are sacrificed. One famous rite is the Bloody Howl, when soldiers captured from the previous battle are killed in order to bring Erythnul's favor just before the next one.
Erythnul favors simple rhyming chants - and the gorier the subject matter, the better. "First we slay and then we flay!/From skin to bone, you beg and moan!"

Orders

In cities, worshipers that are less overt form a nebulous organization known as the Temple of Carnage. This group tends to sow chaos and random acts of evil throughout the city.

Divine Classification

Intermediate God