Doresaine

King of Ghouls

The insatiably hungry Doresain appeals to all creatures whose hunger can never be appeased. The deity looks like an especially thin and wasted ghoul. He has eyes ablaze with a sickly green ghoul-light, and his feet are hoof-like. In contrast with Doresain’s wasted body, he wears an elegant white cloak of supple man-flesh over pale leather armor studded with tiny skulls. A crown of bones rests on his head, and he wields a staff called Toothlust, created from the skull and spinal cord of some past victim.
Ghouls are the primary worshippers of Doresain, and his symbol is a ghoul skull.
Though the King of Ghouls is a powerful entity himself and controls his own layer of the Abyss, he was once a vassal of Orcus. Later, Yeenoghu’s gnoll host invaded, and the King of Ghouls was forced to swear loyalty and pay homage to Yeenoghu. Yeenoghu subsequently lost control of the King’s layer, and more recently, Yeenoghu lost the ability to control the King.

Holy Books & Codes

Each gluttonous act of consumption is, in its way, a prayer to Doresain, even if the eater doesn’t know it.
Doresain sometimes makes an appearance when incautious necromancers meddle with the Negative Energy Plane. Taking such meddling as an invitation, the King appears and forcibly converts all those present to ghouls, often thereby creating new worshippers for himself. While many ghouls are ignorant and godless, those that find religion invariably discover the King of the Ghouls. Creatures other than ghouls that come to worship the King do so with the knowledge that they will be “drawn into the fold” sooner rather than later.

Tenets of Faith

The King of Ghouls teaches to exist is to eat. A fully experienced existence requires the consumption of prey, preferably sentient. Flesh for sacrifice is dear to the King. When life is quenched under tearing teeth and quivering lips, the eater can finally feel true happiness, at least for a time.
Doresain sometimes makes an appearance when incautious necromancers meddle with the Negative Energy Plane. Taking such meddling as an invitation, the King appears and forcibly converts all those present to ghouls, often thereby creating new worshippers for himself. While many ghouls are ignorant and godless, those that find religion invariably discover the King of the Ghouls. Creatures other than ghouls that come to worship the King do so with the knowledge that they will be “drawn into the fold” sooner rather than later.

Holidays

Sharing the sweet flesh of a victim among several ghouls is informally called “passing it around the horn,” and serves as a common rite in remembrance of Doresain.

Social

Contacts & Relations

All ghouls pay homage to the King. Ghoul lore harkens back to a land sacred to the ghouls called the White Kingdom. Though ghouls bound to the mortal plane sometimes create lesser versions of what they believe the White Kingdom to be, it is accepted that the true incarnation of the White Kingdom can be found on the layer of the Abyss where the King rules.