What kind of god wishes torment upon his believers? To understand that question, one must first realize that our existence is unnatural. The Gods made us out of Nothing, so it is only fair that Nothing demands due payment. Hence Vanthus serves that role, as the balance between light and dark, creation and annihilation. It is only right for those unworthy of existence to be tithed to the Void.— An unnamed cultist of Vanthus
The youngest child of Selara knew Fear and fought as bravely as he could, but unlike his siblings, he could not draw meaning from his confrontation with Nothing, and grew tired of it. He took a shard of the Celestial Source, and hid in a place where the Far Realms could not see nor hear him, far away from the creations of his Mother and siblings. There he created Sidereum, a realm that would house other weary souls who grew tired of the daily struggles of life. Thus Vanthus became the God of the dead and the patron of the afterlife, giving comfort to those who pass on from the material realm so that they need not face the primordial horror that lies beyond his halls. And once these souls have regained their vitality, Vanthus sends them back to Amalthea to be among their loved ones in renewed life. Amaltheans credit Vanthus with the creation of the stars. While the world curves beneath the feet of the living, it is said that departed souls can follow the guiding light of stars to walk the straight path into Vanthus’s realm and find peaceful repose.
But beyond the Celestial Source, the Far Realms were all, and eventually, Vanthus was found by the Great Old Ones. He pleaded for the nightmares to spare the souls in his charge, offering himself instead as sacrifice; and take him they did, reaching their dark tendrils into his essence, until there was nothing left of what was once a gentle son of Selara. Only a shameful husk remained, unable to feel warmth and love. No matter how much the other Elder Gods wished it was otherwise, Vanthus's corruption is irreversible, and thus one by one his kin came to shun him, for it was easier to blame him for cowardice and betrayal, than to accept there are curses even Gods cannot break. Vanthus, in return, turned his pain to hatred: hatred of the Far Realms, of the other gods, of Creation, and ultimately, of himself. Vanthus became the Great Old One of Undeath, and Sidereum became the Shadowfell, a realm of unspeakable dread. By Vanthus's own hands, his faithful psychopomps transformed into daemons and sakhils that torment and devour resting souls instead of guiding and soothing them; and by his own hands, he slew his Mother Selara, and shattered her into countless pieces. The dead of Amalthea could no longer find peace or return to the living. Instead, it is said that Vethuna secrets them away into a hidden place beyond this cosmos, unknowable to mortals, the Great Old Ones, and even the other Gods.
Vanthus is credited with the existence of the undead, both the mindless and the intelligent. Many of the mad cultists that worship him even consider it an honor to be granted this twisted form of immortality. Vanthus is the god of fear, despair, and corruption, but also of caution and paranoia, said to come from the part of him that is but a frightened child hiding from horrors he could not understand. Today, the people of Amalthea see Vanthus as a despicable deity. Many view his transformation into a Great Old One as a cravenly act, and bitterly resent him for the loss of immortality suffered by all sapient races, and for bringing undeath and horrific fiends into the world. Vanthus is said to hate his kin for their pity and rejection, and wishes nothing more than to reshape the world in his own accursed image, for in a reality where all is horrific and corrupted, none will be hated for it. The horrors of the Far Realms no longer harm him, and from the twisted realm of the Shaodwfell he issues orders to his minions, mortal and immortal alike, to sow discord and despair in the Material Plane.
Vanthus is depicted as a thin young man sitting on a throne of black steel, with the ash gray skin of one drained of all life and color. His features are masked, hiding a twisted black void that drives mortals mad with the eldritch horror within him. In all his depictions, Vanthus is always robed in flowing sheets of darkness that cover a body eaten away by necrosis. Followers of Vanthus are rarely gained through preaching and alliance, for who but the mad would swear fealty to such a god? Thus, he gains his most powerful worshippers through deceit. The promise of power and twisted immortality entice the minds of megalomaniacs and psychopaths, while cults of insane nihilists sing praise to him and hope for him to unleash widespread destruction upon Amalthea.
The Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Each of the Horsemen was once a minor deity in their own right, a psychopomp usher that oversaw vast numbers of souls that passed from the Material Plane to Sidereum and back. When Vanthus was corrupted, these great beings fell to nihilistic madness alongside him, and came to seek the end of all life on the Material Plane. In the modern day, few are aware of the Horsemen's existence. Those versed in esoteric lore have found records of an ancient civilization of mortals and fey that ritually bound and hid them, although it is unknown how secure their prisons yet remain.
Four Horsemen have been recorded to exist:
- Apollyon is the Horseman of Pestilence, depicted as a cloaked man with a ram's skull for a head. Once a psychopomp that shepherded mortal souls that died from disease, Apollyon now spreads virulent infections that resist treatment. Apollyon is also a god of paranoia, rejection of divinity, and the stagnant comfort of suffering, using malicious cults to spread conspiracies against those that seek to heal the sick. After all, when one fears the cure more than the disease itself, the only solace lies in death.
- Szuriel is the Horseman of War, depicted as a black-winged woman with bleeding eyes. Once a valkyrie-like figure that collected warriors that died in battle, Szuriel now represents the worst of war: no glory or cause to speak of, only pointless destruction and genocidal hatred. Szuriel cares not why war is fought, only that it allows mortals to annhilate each other by their own hands, hence revealing what she believes to be their true, irredeemable nature.
- Trelmarexian is the Horseman of Famine, depicted as a three-headed, anthropomorphic jackal. As a psychopomp, Trelmarexian once gave mercy to mortals that perished from a lack of basic necessities, granting them the illusion of plenty so they may depart in peace. It is said that, when Vanthus fell, Trelmarexian felt such emptiness and despair that he accepted the offering of a Great Old One, who promised him fulfillment if he devoured her. Now, she lives within him as an eldritch parasite, driving him mad with insatiable hunger.
- Charon is the Horseman of Death, depicted as a cloaked grim reaper holding a scythe, and sometimes a ferryman upon a river of souls. Charon once greeted mortals who died of old age as dear friends. Today, they instead represent the complete and final oblivion when a mortal's soul is destroyed, and their life forgotten by those who yet live. Charon believes that existence is utterly meaningless, and some records even claim they seek to usurp Vethuna as the Elder God of Death, so that they could bring their vision of oblivion to all.
Religious Interpretations
As the entity commonly associated with the introduction of evil and suffering to Amalthea, every faith has a place for Vanthus in their theology.
Sybilism
Sybilites believe that Vanthus is the great antithesis of life itself. While he may have once been kind and worthy of worship, by slaying his Mother he has lost all hope for redemption, as told in the epic of
the Sidereal War. Sybilites oppose followers of Vanthus at every opportunity with a burning hatred, and consider the betrayal of Abrazan Koss, Sybilite Grand Inquisitor turned herald of Vanthus, to be the faith's greatest shame. Places with a sizeable Sybilite following, such as Tisoria, condemn the undead to destruction with no trial.
The Elder Faith
The Elder Faith once saw Vanthus as merely another uncaring Elder God, although the recent Scourge has caused many devotees to unite their forces with the Sybilites in opposition to Vanthus. This is even true of the beastfolk refugees fleeing the Gleaming Weald, who consider their hatred of the Scourge and undead to be the only thing they share with the Sybilite Church that oppresses and ostracizes them.
The Sublime Mechanism
The Sublime Mechanism posits that Selara and Vanthus were once a single divine Creator, cleaved in two by echoes that remained from a previous reality. Thus, Selara and Vanthus each have something of the other within them: Life, after all, ends in Death; and Death leads to the beginning of Life anew. Vanthus' corruption, and subsequent slaying of Selara, is an aberration introduced by the cleaving, and the event from which evil entered the current reality.
Cerlanian Folk Religion
Cerlanians call Vanthus the Abyssal Father, and believe his true form to be a great serpentine dragon. Cerlanians believe the Heavenly Mother, their analog of Selara, to be Vanthus's wife rather than mother, and the pair collectively birthed Amalthea and the Spiritual Planes. While the many island cultures of Cerlania rarely agree on anything in terms of faith, they all associate the Abyssal Father with the ocean, perhaps due to the prevalent fear of drowning and the frequency with which undead horrors emerge from desecrated waters.
Kuma Myths
The Kuma believe Vanthus to be the first discordant note in the symphony of Creation, but also believe that dissonance can, when employed properly, coexist with harmony. Kuma dirge singers consider the song of Vanthus (that is, the raising of undead) to be a great taboo, but are not against breaking it in dire circumstances, assuming that proper atonements are made after the act, and the dead are returned to their repose with proper rites.
Ancient Elven Religion
The ancient elves depicted Vanthus in a feminine aspect, whom they called Morivera, the Master of Impermanence. As the ruler of the Ernoxim, their pantheon of the Great Old Ones, Morivera was the embodiment of life and death as an entropic series of transitions, with no clear beginning nor end. Morivera was the inherent transience of all things that a being is, loves, and believes in, and her devout were the only elves in the Undying Empire who willingly died. However, Morivera’s faithful did not see change and loss as negative, for every end, even the end of a life, is a new beginning; and thus, these elves would rise again as undead and return to society, where they were embraced by their immortal kin with open arms.
The Shadow Elves of the current day believe that through the ultimate sacrifice of Nielahath, the masculine aspect of Selara in their ancient faith, Morivera's corruption has been purified, at least in part. The Shadow Elves thus worship an imperfect amalgamation of Nielahath and Morivera, whose domains are darkness, safety, isolation, and the eternal preservation one's existence at the cost of never growing or changing.
Undead Heresies
Most cults of Vanthus are composed of power-hungry madmen seeking undeath. However, not all intelligent undead gain their corruption willingly. Among these sufferers of vampirism, ghoul fever, Scourge curses, and other afflictions, most refuse to accept that the only fate that awaits them in other faiths is true death. And thus, these undead gather in secret and form cults dedicated to Vanthus, seeing him as a protector of the horrific and despised, the only God who understands the pain and trauma of unwilling transformation for he too has experienced it. These cults are disconnected and diverse. Many are mockeries of victim support groups that seek only to enable the undead to indulge in their evil hungers. A rare few, however, genuinely try to provide a safe refuge for their members, and teach them the best way to survive without falling into depravity.
