God of Deception
Phenax is the masked patron of lies and cheats. He is Heliod’s ethical antithesis, governing the spheres of gambling, deception, and betrayal. Phenax was once a mortal who was trapped in the Underworld, but he learned how to forsake his identity to prevent Erebos from detecting what he was doing. He crossed back over the Rivers That Ring the World wrapped in the tattered cloak of Athreos, the River Guide, who ushers the dead to their final rest. Hidden by illusion as he was, neither Athreos nor Erebos could find Phenax and bring him back.
Able to play whatever role the situation calls for, Phenax is a consummate actor. His incisive wit and cunning enable him to read the desires of his marks, adjusting his approach to suit the moment. In his rare moments of candor, Phenax is calm and calculating, always looking toward his next scheme.
Phenax is a shadowy and mysterious figure. When appearing before mortals, he prefers the form of a willowy humanoid with ashen gray skin, clad in elegant robes. He has also been known to appear in a variety of animal forms, including the shapes of asps, mockingbirds, or rats. Regardless of his shape, a mask forever conceals the blank face of the first Returned.
Phenax’s Influence
Subtlety and manipulation—of mind, word, and deed—are the cornerstones of Phenax’s power and his influence over mortals and immortals alike. Even gods enjoy hearing what they prefer to hear instead of the truth, and Phenax is happy to give them what they want.
He takes pleasure in finding ways to subvert or corrupt champions of law, order, and justice, turning them to his cause. Whether by feeding the hubris of a champion of Heliod or subverting the moral code of a stalwart of Iroas, he tempts mortals by confronting them with seemingly inconsequential decisions, each of which offers an opportunity for the person to compromise their principles. One by one, these acts move the needle of a person’s moral gauge by a small amount. Over time, these choices accumulate until the individual’s fall from grace is complete.
Phenax’s Goals
Phenax doesn’t want to rule Nyx. He is the perennial outsider, existing only to disrupt the plans of his fellow gods. Every lie, every betrayal, delights him as it sows discord in the world. He respects a well-planned and executed grift or heist, sometimes rewarding able followers with opportunities to serve as his champions.
As the metaphorical progenitor of the Returned, Phenax also takes time to provide shelter and opportunities for his children to disrupt the mortal world.
Divine Relationships
It stands to reason that the god of secrets, deception, and betrayal isn’t close with the rest of the pantheon. This is not to say that Phenax doesn’t have active relationships with others in the pantheon, but his position as the patron of lies doesn’t lead to close, lasting friendships.
Erebos and Athreos despise Phenax, which delights him to no end. Phenax revels in the fact that, as a lowly mortal, he was able to outwit both the Lord of the Underworld and the River Guide. Still bitter over Phenax’s deception, Erebos concocts ways to torment the upstart god. Were he to discover a method to slay Phenax and return him to the Underworld, the god of the dead would pursue it over all other goals.
Phenax finds Heliod and Iroas overbearing and insufferable. Both represent ideologies diametrically opposed to Phenax’s, and both have followers who regularly try to foil his schemes. In turn, Phenax does his best to upend their plans through lies and deception. After all, a fair fight isn’t worth fighting.
Nowhere is Phenax’s commitment to upending the status quo and angering his fellow gods more evident than in his role in the rise of Xenagos, the now destroyed god of revels. Xenagos’s attacks left many of the gods disconnected from their followers, inciting a panic in Nyx. Phenax, basking in the chaos of Xenagos’s plot, found myriad ways to covertly aid him until the satyr’s apotheosis. Helping another mortal ascend to godhood was, to Phenax, the ultimate subversion of authority.
Worshiping Phenax
Every lie is an homage to Phenax. Because his most devout followers are criminals and gamblers, his influence is keenly felt in gambling halls and dens of thieves. But everyone has their own reasons to stray from the truth at times, and thus, they also find small ways to seek Phenax’s favor as they go about their daily lives.
Formal services to Phenax are conducted at night, with the most sacred rituals performed on nights of the new moon. Offerings are made to attract Phenax’s favor, with valuables from successful robberies, parchment filled with lies, or loaded dice being thrown into deep crags or buried at crossroads. Such sacrifices often vanish soon after, claimed by the god or his servants. Devout criminals often offer Phenax stolen goods as part of their preparations for premeditated crimes.
Phenax is worshiped openly in the necropoleis of Asphodel and Odunos, though the Returned who are loyal to Erebos’s agent, Tymaret, refuse to worship the god they’re hunting (see chapter 3). Somber ceremonies are intoned to bless the golden funeral masks the Returned wear.
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