Erebus, God of Self-Destruction (PEACH)

[Leliel]

It is a terrible thing, to wish for one's own annihilation.

What causes this dark desire? Is it insanity? Self-loathing? Grief? A pain so great that only the termination of the self can end it? Or something more?

The answer, unfortunately, is "all of the above". Whether it be simple madness, hatred of one's self, the desire to be with a loved one, inner turmoil, supernatural influence, or a mix, there are many ways a person can walk the road to nihilism and desire for death.

And with all things, this desire has consequences.

The people called for their doom. And a dark god answered.

So was Erebus brought into being, born from the desire to end the suffering of life, with only a single goal in his bleak existence-To destroy it.

Erebus, He Who Lives For Death

Portfolio: Nihilism, Sorrow, Suicide.

Domains: Destruction, Death, War.

Alignment: Chaotic Evil, though he allows Evil clerics and paladins as well.

Tenants:

*Work towards the destruction of others, so that you may release them from the endless pain of existence.

*Love no one and nothing, for losing the object of your affections is the surest path to sorrow.

*Make others suffer as you have, so that they may understand the true meaninglessness of living.

Worshippers: The devotees of Erebus are understandably few and far between. Unfortunately, what they lack in numbers, they make up for in guile and intelligence. They are a subversive force, slowly working their way into the hearts of communities, with the express intention of making others suffer. They alone command the Shadows, beings created from the dark sides of those who lack the ability to control them. What's more, many of them did not need to be inducted into the cult to learn of Erebus-When the Bleak One senses a person who believes that existance is so horrible that even suicide would not allivate it's pain, Erebus sends an aspect into that person's dreams. There, he slowly warps that man's desires until he desires destruction for others out of a twisted sense of mercy, at which point Erebus himself inducts him into the cults. The sad part is, none of this warping is caused by Erebus' presence alone-he does absolutely nothing to the future cultist other than egg her on, and should the person stray from her dark path, Erebus will leave. Of course, the Bleak One is not particularly keen on losing a potential devotee, so he will arrange events so that the future cultist will have his nihilistic opinions reaffirmed.

So, do you like him?

It should be noted that I was heavily inspired by Persona 3:FES when I created him, specifically by the fluff behind the final boss. Who, it should be noted, isn't at all defeated for good-The game specifically says that as long as even a small part of humanity wishes for it's own death, Erebus will live on.

[Chokuto]

What a cool idea!

I think you should make him a little more sinister thou. His true goal, since he is the incarnation of suicidal despair, is to kill himself, right? As a deity, this should be a simple task, no? Perhaps there is so much suffering in the world that he is too powerful to even destroy himself? What if, instead of gaining power from worshipers, he gains power everytime a mortal sacrifices himself via the above criteria, and the divine energy is permanent. This would put him at extreme odds with the lords of Baator as he could easily steal away souls meant for an archduke as the victim takes their own life. I enjoy this twist....

And instead of egging his worshipers to eventually kill themselves or "free" others from their suffering, he charges them with spreading despair across the material plane so that eventually all mortals will take their lives so that he may one day be powerful enough to end himself and all the planes along with him...

hmmm... the more I think, the more I like this God. I may, with your permission, have to "steal" this diety as a central campaign element for my new homebrew. :smallbiggrin:

[Juhn]

Minor nitpick on his alignment. If he's a nihilist, in love with suicide, etc, then he should probably be Neutral Evil rather than chaotic evil. He has no desire to see chaos - in fact, I'd argue that he'd rather see the end of it. I don't have my DMG handy, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember the plane that was all about bleakness and depression being the Neutral Evil plane.

[Leliel]

What a cool idea!

I think you should make him a little more sinister thou. His true goal, since he is the incarnation of suicidal despair, is to kill himself, right? As a deity, this should be a simple task, no? Perhaps there is so much suffering in the world that he is too powerful to even destroy himself? What if, instead of gaining power from worshipers, he gains power everytime a mortal sacrifices himself via the above criteria, and the divine energy is permanent. This would put him at extreme odds with the lords of Baator as he could easily steal away souls meant for an archduke as the victim takes their own life. I enjoy this twist....

And instead of egging his worshipers to eventually kill themselves or "free" others from their suffering, he charges them with spreading despair across the material plane so that eventually all mortals will take their lives so that he may one day be powerful enough to end himself and all the planes along with him...

hmmm... the more I think, the more I like this God. I may, with your permission, have to "steal" this diety as a central campaign element for my new homebrew. :smallbiggrin:

Yes...Sounds good.

And you have may permisson to yank him

And Juhn-Evil was my first choice, but since he's a 4E diety, I thought the new definition of the CE alignment fit better-"Entropy and destruction, beliving themselves to be the only being that matters, destroying anything that dosen't contrubute to their intrestrests". If that dosen't sound like him, nothing will.

[Athistaur]

Hmm, i do not know the source where this god is coming from, but several thoughts run through my head when reading this.

If he is a God of suicide, maybe indeed he tries to kill himself. Born out of the hatred and desire of beings to end their own life. But as been said he can not. But i would rather that he is too weak to kill any god including himself. As well he is rejunivated continually with every suicide.

I'll draft a two types of followers:

The despaired, these people endure suffer and sorrow. They want to kill themself, but do not have the courage to do so. They devote themself to Erebus, hoping that he will kill them. Those followers are seldom a thread. It's more likely that PC would have to convince those to embrace life again.
The immortals, much like those desribed in the OP. Those beings still want to end their own existence but Erebus denies them their own death. The seed of the dark good keeps them sentinent whatever they do. An immortal was raised as an undead when he killed himself (already bearing the dark seed). Maybe those beings are much like a lich, and their soul is bound to an phylactery. The immortals are unaware of their own undead nature and unaware that they have a phylactery. They frequently kill themselves but they try to spread their own suffer and pain as well. Most immortals aren't looking too much like an undead and can easily be mistaken for a living person. Immortals can be quite dangerous and if killed they reform after 1d10 days near their phylactery. Their phylactery are often the tools they first used to kill themselfes, knifes or maybe a usual stone in the lake where they drowned.


The followers of the god triy to die. And Erebus is will gladly kill them all if he can be sure that his own death is certain as well. So his goals could be:

Channel the life sparks, souls or any energie to Erebus, to give him the power to kill himself.
The extiction of all sentinent beings, because without those Erebus may finaly fade away.


This is maybe a different approach, would it be a different god?