Zon-Kuthon (Zahn-KOO-fawn)

LE god of Darkness, Envy, Loss, and Pain

The Midnight Lord

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 embodies and glorifies pain, shadows, and mutilation, and he is one of the most twisted and malevolent gods on the face of Tengaria. Once known as Dou-Bral, he crafted the immense Star Towers that still help keep Rovagug pinned in his prison, lending his own skill and ability to the great deific alliance to bind that evil entity. Yet a divine argument between him and his sister Shelyn resulted in the god departing for parts unknown. Zon-Kuthon traveled beyond the edges of the multiverse and stared into the face of the incomprehensible things that dwell there. No one knows what he found in that place, but he returned—changed, but claiming to be strengthened by what he had endured.

Zon-Kuthon teaches that torment is the ultimate pleasure and sacrament, and that inflicting and enduring pain is the truest strength. Experiencing pain and learning to embrace it allows one to purge the weakness of their body and spirit. After all, much of mortal creatures’ fear is rooted in the struggle to avoid pain in one way or another. If a follower can learn to embrace that pain instead, the chains of fear fall away, becoming a tool to be wielded. Worshippers thus endeavor to inflict as much torture and misery as possible on themselves and others; they look to the cruel outsiders known as velstracs for inspiration, including the use of spiked chains as a primary weapon.

The anguish Zon-Kuthon teaches is not limited to physical injury. Zon-Kuthon teaches his followers to understand, overcome, and revel in psychological pain as well, breaking down morality and twisting compassion into numb pragmatism. This is best exemplified by his troubled relationship with his sister Shelyn, who hopes to redeem him despite all evidence as to the impossibility of this task, and his chaining of his own father, breaking the deity’s spirit and transforming him into the hateful servitor now known as the Prince in Chains.

Some worship Zon-Kuthon out of necessity, especially in Nidal, where veneration of the Midnight Lord is heavily interwoven into the culture and political landscape, and where deviation from this dark norm generally leads to tragic results. Outside those borders, some contemptible individuals gravitate toward a faith that allows them to embrace and practice their own sadistic desires. Still others find that Zon‑Kuthon provides a level of understanding in the face of inescapable pain: to some, the bleak faith offers a means of finding release when faced with an inability to feel.

Zon-Kuthon is cruel, but he is patient, willing to collaborate with others, and unlikely to provoke conflicts with other gods. He keeps to himself, though one might argue that this is more a case of other deities keeping their distance from him. Likewise, his followers tend to keep their own counsel, perhaps seeming aloof to others, but they have no qualms about working with others to achieve shared goals. The god, his church, and his nation on Panaria all operate within a strict, unyielding hierarchy that followers understand and uphold, each playing their part as dictated by the Midnight Lord’s teachings.

Regardless of the worshipper or their reasons for following the Midnight Lord, his worship is terrible and merciless, often bloody, and sometimes deadly. The faithful are often easily identified by their countless scars—many of them self-inflicted in the course of regular prayers—and frequently piercings and other body modifications, though tattoos are relatively rare among Kuthites. More profound, perhaps, is the cold, detached gaze of a truly faithful worshipper, their unflinching calm in the face of imminent danger, and their rapturous acceptance of any harm that befalls them.

Though priests of Zon-Kuthon hold positions of power and respect within Nidal, they are few and far between beyond its borders. Somewhat more common are the infamous shadowcallers, who practice divinely inspired wizardry and other sorts of magic, and vicious itinerant clerics and champions who scour the land in an inquisition, seeking out naysayers and rebels.

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 Panaria 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 goodminded 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 Q'ormi 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 ofhis 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 worshipers.

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.

Tenets of Faith

Edicts bring pain to the world, mutilate your body
Anathema create permanent or long-lasting sources of light, provide comfort to those who suffer
Follower Alignments Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil

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 beliefis 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 nonessentials 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.

Aphorisms

The following phrases are common among the cult of Zon-Kuthon.
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.

Religions

• Gods of Tengaria
• The Midnight Church