Hmmm, hippie necromancer...I could reanimate myself a rock band....
I'm leaving a dot here for future reference.
Hopefully I'll be able to contribute to the list as well.
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Baron Samedi is a very cool suggestion. It's not hard to picture a Samsaran going for a loa as a divine patron, as being 'ridden' by the patron during a ritual or ceremony might be spiritually similar to communing with a past life / former incarnation, with the whole 'multiple spirits in one body' thing.
Plus the Baron can be delightfully eccentric and intentionally perverse, flouting customs and scandalizing viewers, which could make for some fun role-playing (with the right audience).
It's a real world faith, yes, but you know better than I if anyone at your gaming table is a practitioner and would find it offensive.
I second Baron Samedi, but I also approve of Ereshkigal and Ishtar as options.
Baron is a good suggestion. He is one of a whole family of spirits in Vodoun- the Ghede, or the dead.
Papa Ghede is another "boss death" who has a similar sphere of influence as Baron. Papa Ghede has an interesting origin story, as well. He is the first man to ever have died, a sort of deified Adam. As a Samsaran, your character might have a lot in common with a diety like this, whose power springs from the experience of death.
Each of these spirits is considered a family unto itself- there are several Ghedes and multiple Barons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghede
Baron's counterpoint, his Persephone, if you will, is Maman Brigitte. Red haired, shit-talking queen of the dead, she's Erishkigal as a naughty red-head. Who can say no to that? Fire and Death domains.
In keeping with the West African diaspora theme, there's also Oya, who rules storms, chaos and graveyards. Weather, Chaos and Death domains http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oya
What no love for the Kalevala? How about Loviatar?
She's one bad lady. Definitely a bit evil though. There is some suggestion she and the witch Louhi were not as separate as later translations allow. Louhi might be more your speed - much more of a trickster-death type. Anyhoo, the wiki page above has some nicely depraved ancient stuff.
Great thread - love the Ishtar/Inanna zombie plague reference, and the Lawful Good hopi death god who is "not nice" sounds extremely intriguing.
Speaking of Finnish myth, what of Tuoni? Then again, I know very little about him...
The thing you have to remember about Odin is that while he is King of the gods, unlike most other pantheons he's not king of everything. He cant make laws for Giants or apparently just order the dwarves around. So when he breaks a deal with them the "its lawful because I AM THE LAW!" doesn't apply.
Speaking of Finnish myth, what of Tuoni? Then again, I know very little about him...
Loviatar is Tuoni's daughter...
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CZERNOBOG. You get the best of a dualistic religion, with a dark god whose name is only spoken in whispers to scare children. I second Anubis (for the serious magic and death aspect), and also submit the celtic god Dagda (fun loving god of life and death), the aztec god Mictlantecuhtli (a very day of the dead type god, for fun theatrics), and of course Baron Samedi (add some style to your necromancy).
All good suggestions. I'd thought about the Baron - and a chance image search for Him even led me to my new webcomic of choice!
Any thoughts what Samedi's domains/weapon would be? I'd thought before of the blowpipe, in emulation of his cigar.
Thought about Thanatos, too - kind of generic-feeling as death gods go, but there's something to be said for that, too.
Knew about Forgotten Realms Loviatar, did not know she was an actual Finnish goddess beforehand - knew about the origin of Ilmater, though, for what it's worth (though what they did with Her was a little weird - they made a Forgotten Realms Jesus-equivalent and gave Him Her name :P).
Goodness, I'm starting to get overwhelmed here.
There is also Chemosh in Dragonlance pantheon.
Nyx?
CG Vampire Goddess of Night, Earth and Magic.
Well if you won't go with Isis, go with Baron Samedi.
Blast this at every opportunity.
Since no one took you up on Domains, I'd suggest: Healing (Restoration and Resurrection subdomains.), Repose (Souls subdomain ONLY), Death, and Luck (Curse subdomain ONLY).
Blowgun seems like it could work as a favored weapon, yeah.
If you wanted to go a little off-kilter, you could say he has Favored Weapon: Improvised Weaponry (especially bottle of rum).
What would the Baron's alignment be, though?
This is not a problem. I have a whole host of Faerunian deities, more than you can shake a stick at.
So many, in fact, that you are going to have to be more specific.
What domains do you want it to have? You said you wanted an alignment one step away from CG or CN. Easy to do.
I can also, on top of Forgotten Realms deities, throw all the goofy Cthulhu deities at you, but those are for a system where magic drives you insane, and I kinda doubt you want that.
Send me a private message if you can. I seem to be juggling a lot of threads lately, and recently made a mistake by mixing them up.
What would the Baron's alignment be, though?I'd go for true neutral.
Alignment:
I second True Neutral. But not the detached, pseudo-enlightened True Neutral. True Neutral as providing the necessary detachment to see the humor in all things- especially the lives of mortals.
When Baron rides someone, there's usually plenty of cigar chomping, wise cracking and pelvis thrusting. In Voudon, the Dead (Ghede) are seen as understanding and appreciating the pleasures that life has to offer- perhaps better than the living.
Baron's devotees also include those who "work with both hands," meaning those who perform both healing and harming work.
Weapon:
Baron is often seen with a skull-topped cane or baton (which he uses to simulate a phallus with when pelvis thrusting at passersby.) I'm pretty sure that translates to "light mace" in Pathfinder terms. If "top hat" was a weapon category, I'd go for that.
Wouldn't that be Chaotic Neutral then? Acting on their whims and enjoying life to the fullest extent they can?
Screw the norms, I do what I want!
And actually Light Mace sounds cool.
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WHy The Hell has no one mentioned Nurgle from Warhammer/Warhammer 40k?
He's a god of death/pestilance/disease and while he is defined as a god of despair his nature and the way he treats all is like a caring, jovial grandfather. Play a CN version of him focusing on his undeath aspect and his loving happiness and fondness for all.
Remember: Papa Nurgle Loves you!!
Tuoni is listed as CN in the 1e DDG; Tuonetar (his wife) is CE. Both are very death-oriented, but not magic.
Nobody has mentioned Glorantha yet. Thanatar. Really. Chaotic god of death. As a Doomed Rune Priest of Thanatar (especially a Horn of Atyar) you get to carry your enemies' shrunken heads around with you as enslaved allied spirits. If you can pick up a copy of Cults of Terror, it's got acres of text on Thanatar. Chaotic Evil, in case you hadn't guessed. Chaos, Darkness, Death, Knowledge. Shortsword.
Also from Glorantha, Zorak Zoran. Death and darkness, but really for trolls. Not particularly evil or chaotic. See Cults of Prax.
Greek- Thanatos, Hades, Persephone, Hecate
Egyptian- Osiris
Celtic- Morrigan, Donn
Norse- Odin, hel, freyja
Roman- Pluto, dis pater, Mors
Asian- Mara, Shinigami, Yama, Izanami no Kami,
Other- Azrael (Islam, Sikhism, Judaism), grim reaper (European)
All have death domain, most have fertility or destruction as a secondary. Fertility/ growth more for greco-roman, while destruction is more for European and Asian dieties as secondaries.
What about Charon?
What about Charon?
Not a god of death unfortunately. Was the ferryman for the souls who had the coin to go across. However, can still be used due to his role as ferryman.
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My final decision: I'm going to try to conceptually hybridize Thanatos and Baron Samedi. Still working on a name - maybe I'll split the difference and call Him Azrael, because that's one of the coolest names out there.
Favored Weapon: Scythe
Domains: Death, Destruction, Magic, Madness, Luck
Thanks, everyone!
So, you are not going with the deities I typed out?
I was going to swoop in and suggest Loviatar, since I have a personal connection-type-thing with that goddess, but looks like someone beat me to the punch. :P
As more information about the original Finnish mythology Loviatar, though: she's a blind goddess of death, disease and pestilence, whose nine sons are the nine great diseases that vex the world. She tends to be so closely connected with Louhi, the main antagonist of the Kalevala, that it's hard to tell which myths were about which deity, or if they were just different names for the same one all along. If you look at the myths involving Louhi, you find a powerful and cruel matriarch of the North with impressive magical powers including shapeshifting (her most famous form being the Kokko, a giant thunderbird) and commanding the weather, sun and moon. In at least one poem, she's also described as the mother of wolves. She has a really weird warped version of a fertility aspect: on one hand she is capable of birthing all sorts of fantastic creatures, but on the other she sends plagues and illness to children being born.
You could definitely dig out the Death and Magic domains out of that, not sure about the rest though. Definitely an evil goddess, too - not sure where on the chaos-law axis, though.
My final decision: I'm going to try to conceptually hybridize Thanatos and Baron Samedi. Still working on a name - maybe I'll split the difference and call Him Azrael, because that's one of the coolest names out there.
Favored Weapon: Scythe
Domains: Death, Destruction, Magic, Madness, LuckThanks, everyone!
I reccomend the name Samael. He is an angel of death in Judaism, and those domains would fit him well.
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I reccomend the name Samael. He is an angel of death in Judaism, and those domains would fit him well.
Decent suggestion - it's just that I'm not sure that's quite the case. My understanding (maybe I'm wrong, too) is that "Samael" is the name applied by Gnosticism to the god of Abraham, whom they view as an evil inferior copy (a bit like the Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity) of the ineffable true Creator. I don't know if you (or anyone else) can provide a source?
By the way, while I'm not sure forum rules permit me to schill for most outside stuff, permit me, without providing a link, to point present company to where I just was, a webcomic called "Gods Playing Poker" - it can get preachy, and in my book it's kind of tame and imperfect in its credit-giving (too much to the Abrahamic prophets, not enough to Zeus), but finally, a regularly-updated webcomic I feel is worth sticking with (problem with comics, online or off, is that no matter how good they are, is that they can go from joy to chore if they're excessively prolific and wordy)! Check it out!
Samael I believe is the Old Testament name of Satan (renamed in the New Testament).
Angel of Death was in his job description, but I doubt your character is a Satanist. If he was, Asmodeus is so much cooler. ;)
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*grimace*
1) No Golarion pantheon (granted, Asmodeus isn't entirely chained to that setting)
2) Asmodeus is LE - I've come to aim for something within one step of CN
3) Judaism is truly the religion of litigation and adjudication, in the tradition of the oldest ordered societies of the Levant - in this, Satan is the Adversary, the Accuser, the prosecuting attorney, as it were, in the divine courts that supposedly mirror the earthly, whom one could imagine coming into conflict with YHWH because Satan believes even He should be accountable - not an idea monarchs normally like.
4) You're right, I don't want a "Satanist" character - Satanists are still a variety of Abrahamist. If I wanted an Abrahamic patron, I probably WOULD go with Jesus, because as previously mentioned, he's the necromancer of the bunch and I could reanimate myself a hippie rock band.
Ratfarts. I thought Tartarus was a good one for this guy.
Anyway, how about you check out the Greek/Roman, and Norse pantheons?
Decent suggestion - it's just that I'm not sure that's quite the case. My understanding (maybe I'm wrong, too) is that "Samael" is the name applied by Gnosticism to the god of Abraham, whom they view as an evil inferior copy (a bit like the Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity) of the ineffable true Creator. I don't know if you (or anyone else) can provide a source?I reccomend the name Samael. He is an angel of death in Judaism, and those domains would fit him well.
This dim ruler has three names:
Yaldabaoth is the first.Saklas is the second.
Samael is the third.
He is blasphemous through his thoughtlessness.
He said “I am God, and there is no God but me!”
Since he didn’t know where his own Power originated.
"Apocryphon of John" (just one of several Gnostic scriptures identifying Samael with the Demiurgon; in Hebrew folklore Samael is the Accuser Angel, as you said later). ^_^
If you are a Glen Cook fan, go with Kina. She is a version of Kali, but much more chaotic. Her wish is to bring on the "Year of the Skulls". Her worshipers are called Deceivers and express their worship by strangling people.
Possible domains are Chaos, Evil, Trickery, Madness
Favored weapons: Garrotte and pick-axe.
Late to the party, but I'd go with Thoth or Hekate.
Thoth is obviously associated with magic, but has a big association with death as well. He was believed to be the author of at least part of the Book of the Dead (no, that's not just something made up for The Mummy) and was also the judge of the dead, weighing the hearts of the departed against the feather of Ma'at to determine whether they deserved to live again or should be fed to the Soul Eater. He was instrumental in the resurrection of the gods Osiris and Horus. Probably my favorite god of the Egyptian mythos.
Hekate is too complicated to explain in a single post. See here for more on her: Hekate. (brief excerpt: She is described in this capacity as a mighty and formidable divinity, ruling over the souls of the departed; she is the goddess of purifications and expiations, and is accompanied by Stygian dogs). If you're looking for a not necessarily evil deity with creepier overtones than Thoth, she's a great choice.
I'm saying Samedi or Samael.
What about Wee Jas?
Any relation to Hugh Jas?