Zon-Kuthon: It's Your Funeral!


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion

The Exchange

Okay, so I'm wondering what a funeral presided over by a cleric of Zon-Kuthon would be like. What would make it different from a Pharasmanian funeral?

Mourners: check
Corpse: check
Flowers: um....maybe not?

Zon-kuthon is the main god in Nidal, so I'm assuming they'd turn to his clerics for funerals (as the god of loss) first, right? Or would there be some sort of Pharasma-Kuthon fusion?

Help me avoid kuthonfusion!

Oh, and if this death-rites specific stuff will be in the upcoming Gods and Magic book, please let me know.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8

I would imagine that the funeral would be a ceremonial mutilation and flaying of the corpse, with attendees exalting about the new sorts of agony the deceased would now be able to experience.

Dark Archive

After re-reading the Gods & Magic write up of Zon-Kuthon and his followers, I've determined that anyone who worships Zon-Kuthon watched too many Clive Barker movies and is a sick, sick puppy. :)

But seriously, it seems likely that bodies might end up being dissected (as training material for young aspirants) or parts of them saved as memorial tokens (someone might have the flesh of the face removed and preserved, to honor the memory of a former comrade, perhaps even wearing the flesh-mask at certain times when they wish to commune with or channel the spirit of that person).

Any sort of ritual speeches might involve celebrating an end to pain in this world only to be replaced with eternal anguish in the next, describing the torments of the damned as if they were something to be envied and emphasizing how the deceased has been blessed, and may soon know the agonizing touch of experts with centuries, or even millenia, of experience in the sadist's arts.

I would imagine that dying peacefully would be the ultimate 'bad karma' for a follower of this faith, and someone who died in agony, face twisted in a rictus of pain and fear, might be envied, believed to have achieved a sort of transcendent state that elevated them right out of this mortal world and into the next. Much like the stereotypical Viking, dying in one's bed, in one's sleep, would be considered a 'straw death' and not fitting a true follower.

The follower should die with many wounds, having fought and struggled and bled against the inevitable, for to die with many wounds would bring her into a better station in the afterlife than to die without a great struggle.

A follower who dies without visible wounds may be cut open at the service by the attending priest (or family members, depending on the station of the deceased) and the standard 'excuse' is to reveal a torn open heart and praise the deceased for 'carrying their wounds on the inside, sharing their pain only with the dark lord.' As the deceased may have died of something far less 'appropriate' and praise-worthy, such as an intestinal blockage or blood poisoning, the skilled death-surgeon will subtly cut and damage tissues before presenting them. The heart may not be 'wounded' visibly in the decedent's chest, but it will have a spectacular rent when it is drawn forth and presented to the mourners, to show them that this great person indeed suffered greatly and give them the sort of posthumous honor that comes with seeing a painful death as a sign of a brave struggle against the inevitable and a more auspicious 'transition' into the afterlife, with great wounds that would better impress those waiting on the other side.

In cases where 'the inevitable' is known in advance, the soon-to-be-deceased (and / or his family and friends) will take matters into their own hands, and insure that his death is extravagantly painful. The more extravagant the display, the more unbearable the agonies, the more it is believed that the death will attract Zon-Kuthon's notice and that he will personally witness and shepherd the transition.

Even in life, followers of Zon-Kuthon likely use pain and scarification as a focus for attention or a system of remembering things (the old string-around-the-finger trick, only in this case, the string would be tight enough to hurt).


Demiurge 1138 wrote:
I would imagine that the funeral would be a ceremonial mutilation and flaying of the corpse, with attendees exalting about the new sorts of agony the deceased would now be able to experience.
Set wrote:


After re-reading the Gods & Magic write up of Zon-Kuthon and his followers, I've determined that anyone who worships Zon-Kuthon watched too many Clive Barker movies and is a sick, sick puppy.

Yes, Zon-Kuthon funerals IMO would be all thee above! Likely emulating Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" movies as Set pointed out.

Large and small chains with meathooks lashed to Heavy Warhorses at one end and hooked to the flayed(autopsied) corpse wrapped in well-placed barbed wire, at the other end. At the same time the new aspiring acolyte priests of Zon-Kuthon now stand in the grave reaching upward and praying... below the dearly departed (now hooked up to be quartered) so when the corpse explodes into giblets like something out of the Quake FPS game, they would be baptized in the dearly departed's blood!

*rubs hands together* Excellent, his suffering will be eternal! Ok, break for lunch and be back here in an hour. *claps hands and licks lips hungrily*

(Don't EVEN get me started on Calistra! I'm thinking that one would involve a celebration similar to Mardi Gras and a Bondage Porno.)

The Exchange

Thanks guys! These are some great ideas! I don't know if I have the stomach to watch the "Saw" or Clive Barker movies, but your descriptions gave me some good images and ideas. The idea that the death should be agonizing instead of peacefull was especially interesting...Average people in Zon-Kuthon's faith would make dying a big spectacle, like Victorian funerals, only with the soon-to-be-deceased on display, maybe paraded through the streets, and family members actively taking part in sending him/her on to the "last reward." Very voyeuristic.

*grins skeletally*

(I don't have the Gods and Magic book yet, dang it, but now I REALLY want to see what's in it!)

Dark Archive

Zeugma wrote:
Thanks guys! These are some great ideas! I don't know if I have the stomach to watch the "Saw" or Clive Barker movies, but your descriptions gave me some good images and ideas.

*I'm* too squeamish to watch the Saw movies! Saw the Hellraiser ones 'though. Supernatural horror bugs me not at all.


No problem! I've watched pretty much anything you can think of that involves blood, guts, gore, etc. More than happy to help, just ask! :)

I prefer "Suspense Horror" myself, ya know where things randomly jump out at you, yea those. I watch "Gore Horror" like Hellraiser when I need a good laugh, the fact that they are alittle dated probably doesn't help.

If it wasn't for that darn 'no evil' clause that most DMs go by I would probably be making one of these Clerics! It's a toss up between the Hellraiser Masochist and the P.I.M.P. of Calistra. (Paladin In the Management Profession)

Dark Archive

Daniel Moyer wrote:
P.I.M.P. of Calistra. (Paladin In the Management Profession)

Ooh, a professional 'bodyguard' to a sacred prostitute, believing that it's his holy duty to ensure her safety and make sure that her blessed unions are not defiled by vulgar interruptions or 'blasphemers' who attempt to go beyond the holy rites (or exceed their allotted 'prayer time')...

That's just too cool for words.


Zon-Kuthon followers might also play up the blasphemy of the other gods.

They might sell off pieces of the deceased with an Abadar-like ritual.

Eat the deceased while drinking ale blessed by Cayden Cailean.

Use the skin of the deceased as a canvas to paint beautiful pictures of Shelyn on.

Now I envision a graveyard dedicated to Zon-Kuthon as having no actual graves (an insult to Urgathoa and Pharasma) Just statues. Statues in the the most horiific death poses possible.

And of course a closer look would reveal almost all the statues are people who were petrified at the last moment of death.

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