Erebos, God of the Dead

Erebos is the god of death and the Underworld, lord of all that has ever lived. He presides over the bitterness, envy, and eventual acceptance of those who suffer misfortune. His hoarding of both souls and the treasures the dead carry into the Underworld see him worshiped by those who desire to collect and keep wealth.
Erebos's very presence is stifling, and those who come face to face with him often depart in despair. He is jealous and tyrannical within his realm, but unlike his brother Heliod, he neither blusters nor tries to expand his influence. He waits patiently, secure in the knowledge that everything belongs to him in the end.
Erebos most frequently appears as a slender, gray-skinned humanoid with two large, outward-curving horns, wielding an impossibly long black whip. He also appears in the form of a black asp, a cloud of choking smoke, or an animated golden idol.
Erebos’s Influence Born from Heliod's shadow and then banished to the Underworld, Erebos claimed dominion over that desolate realm. He sees it as his duty and his right to ensure that those who enter his realm remain there for all time. Within the Underworld, only the relative paradise of Ilysia is sheltered from his influence. In the other four realms of the dead, his will is law.
Mortals typically fear death, yet death is the inevitable end of each one's time in the mortal world. Erebos, having long ago come to terms with his own banishment, teaches his followers to accept the inevitability of death and the often unavoidable tragedies of life.
Although Erebos forbids souls from leaving the Underworld, some escape his clutches. Generally such souls are beneath his notice, but he sometimes sends agents to retrieve those he has particular interest in.
Erebos’s Goals Erebos wants above all to maintain his position of absolute authority over the realm of the dead. He lashes out at anyone who aids souls in escaping from him or otherwise tries to subvert the inevitability of death.
Erebos is patient, usually willing to wait for souls to come to him, but he does interfere in the mortal realm on occasion. When the other gods displease him, he sends mortal agents or Nyxborn monsters to kill the worshipers of the offending gods and spread despair.
Many of Erebos's schemes target those who escape his clutches. He regularly sends agents to retrieve the Returned soul or the wayward eidolon of a hero of great renown who has succeeded in returning to Theros. If any of the dead, renowned or otherwise, escape the Underworld fully intact—without identities erased—Erebos will spare nothing to make an example of the fugitive and any who provided assistance.
Worshiping Erebos To many mortals, Erebos is primarily concerned not with death, but with gold. Most of his followers downplay his association with death and misfortune, instead praying to him for material wealth. Others pray to him because they want to be more accepting of their misfortune. These individuals see themselves as beyond hope of improving their lot in life, asking only that Erebos grant them the strength to endure until they enter his realm at their predestined time.
A smaller but more dangerous group of Erebos worshipers are those who actively glorify death. These cultists and assassins congregate in secret in communities across Theros, engaging in campaigns of violence.
The only major festival dedicated to Erebos, called the Katabasion or "the Descent," features a ceremony in which worshipers make a symbolic journey into the Underworld. The supplicants enter a cave, offer prayers and sacrifices to Erebos in utter darkness, and slowly make their way back to the surface just before sunrise.
Erebos’s Champions Alignment: Usually neutral, often evil
Suggested Classes: Cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard
Suggested Cleric Domains: Death, Trickery
Suggested Backgrounds: Acolyte, charlatan, criminal, noble, urchin
Most worshipers of Erebos seek to enforce the boundary between life and death, whether absolutely or selectively. They often find grim satisfaction in serving the covetous but patient god, knowing that all will ultimately know their patron's embrace.
Erebos’s Favor As Erebos sees it, he already owns the soul of every living being. For him to bestow special favor or power on a mortal would be an act of generosity, and he expects to be compensated for it. Those who rise to the ranks of true champions of Erebos, though, embrace death and their inescapable destiny in the Underworld. Did you pledge yourself to Erebos by joining his priesthood, or did you come to find his favor through a prayer of quiet desperation?

Myths of Erebos Erebos appears in many god-stories, often as a villain or a foil to the other gods. The stories told by his followers emphasize his power, the wealth of the Underworld, and the inevitability of death.
Kytheon’s Escape. Many know the story of Kytheon Iora, an Akroan orphan who took up Heliod’s spear and attempted to kill Erebos himself. The tale ends in tragedy, as Kytheon was struck down along with his friends. Only the high priests of Erebos, however, know that Kytheon’s soul isn’t in the Underworld, having somehow escaped right before Erebos’s eyes. Suspecting that either Heliod or Kruphix knows where Kytheon’s soul went, Erebos will reward anyone who can tell him.
Menelaia’s Song. Long ago, a master lyrist named Menelaia mourned her lover, Pero. She entered the Winter Nexus, a cave on the edge of Setessa that leads to the Underworld, and played a love song to lure Pero’s soul back to the mortal world. When Erebos saw this, he became furious, and he extended his whip to draw both of the lovers back. But Menelaia was beloved of Nylea, and that god blocked Erebos’s whip with vines. The two lovers lived long lives together. Erebos had the last word, however, tormenting both of the lovers in the Underworld. To this day, this turn of events plagues Nylea, who seeks a way to bring the lovers peace.
The Return of Daxos. Daxos of Meletis was a powerful oracle who heard the voices of all the gods. Daxos tragically died at the hands of his lover, the champion of Heliod, Elspeth, through the duplicity of the satyr Xenagos. Daxos’s soul passed into the Underworld, and Elspeth sought Erebos’s help to travel into Nyx. After passing Erebos’s test for admittance, Elspeth demanded an additional reward: she would trade her life for Daxos’s. Erebos, always eager to claim a champion of the sun god, agreed. Elspeth died shortly after her triumph over Xenagos, whereupon Erebos kept his word—but in a treacherous fashion, allowing Daxos’s body to go back to the mortal world as a Returned. Bereft of memories, he wanders aimlessly.
A Shadowed World. Heliod’s followers maintain that their god gave rise to Erebos by casting a shadow in the sun’s first light. Followers of Erebos say that this tale is self-refuting. Before there ever was a sun, the entire world stood in shadow, and the shadow was Erebos—elder to Heliod. Only with the first dawning was Erebos’s form diminished enough that Heliod could overpower him, and the god of the dead has never forgiven his upstart brother. The faithful of both Erebos and Heliod viciously argue the details of their gods’ origins, some risking their lives in battle over which of their gods came into being first.