Kalugal

"Stand alone and resilient, or forever lean on others waiting to fall."

— Dominus Kalugal

Dominus Kalugal (pronounced kah-lew-GAWL) is known for his unique approach to the role of dominus.  He is the god of isolation and lives alone in his realm, the House of One, in Diabolis. 

History

Displacement

While the other gods wasted their lives battling during the Thousand Year Flood, Kalugal secluded himself. He did not care for the balance of order and chaos; he only cared for himself. He knew that eventually the dust would settle and whatever remnants that called themselves gods after the war would inevitably battle again. To be known just allows an endless cycle of complications; solitude is easier. Kalugal’s solitude and non-action could not save him from the unraveling of the planes that came with the Thousand Year Flood. His home realm was destroyed like most other deities, making isolation increasingly difficult. 

When Archdominus Serallus arrived and offered a new realm on the condition of a pledge of loyalty, Kalugal agreed to the harsh terms. Performing busywork for a tyrant is a small price to pay for a new realm to seclude himself in. 

The Warrior from Another World

Shortly after the conclusion of the war, Kalugal was given the task of holding a mysterious otherworldly warrior.  Serallus apparently had interactions with this warrior in other worlds and knew that whatever this warrior was would be a problem. Kalugal tracked down the warrior and sealed him away in ice.  Kalugal believed that would be the end of his role and no further action was needed. 

When Primus Bahamut arrived in the House of One unexpectedly, Kalugal's attention was locked onto forcing Bahamut out. Kalugal despises all guests, but uninvited guests made him particularly angry. He battled Bahamut and chased the Primus out of his realm, but by then it was too late. Kalugal learned that Bahamut was merely a distraction and the warrior he captured had melted his icy prison and escaped. 

The Order of One

Serallus was furious at Kalugal’s failure to keep the warrior frozen. Kalugal wasn’t curious enough to learn what that warrior did with his freedom. Curious or not, Serallus delivered a punishment to Kalugal far crueler than Kalugal could have imagined: he forced Kalugal to take a companion.  

For millennia, Kalugal sparingly interacted with his followers. When the Dominion crafted their dreadknight orders, Kalugal refused to take part, as taking a legatus meant constant communication and interaction. Serallus demanded that Kalugal create a dreadknight order now or be stripped of his status as dominus. 

Kalugal chose Cyril the Clanless as his legatus, and the two have been forced to work alongside each other ever since. 

Dogma

To be known is to be vulnerable. Kalugal believes that forming relationships with the intent of earning companionship is weakness and leaves one vulnerable. Betrayal at the hands of your companion is inevitable. Your enemies could easily use your companion as leverage to bend you to their will.  

Kalugal abhors relying on your allies to make up for any skills you lack. This allows for complacency and discourages learning a new skill yourself. Strength is never found in numbers; true strength is found when acting alone. 

Relationships

Kalugal refuses to make allies on principle, he thinks relationships are a sign of weakness.  

Neutral Relationships

Kalugal and Dominus Malakeh both share domain over the div.  Kalugal refuses to rule them, so the div solely serve Malakeh instead.  Neither of them holds any objections to this arrangement. 

Enemies

Kalugal’s philosophy on life has earned him many enemies over several millennia. There are very few gods that he doesn’t have a problem with. Kalugal holds a deep hatred for any deity that believes in the strength of communities and working together. He feels the very system of working together to maintain planar balance is deeply flawed and that everyone should simply leave each other alone.  

Due to their hand in the warrior’s escape from the House of One, Kalugal despises each of the Elemental Barons. His followers will seek out members of Elementalist faiths and attack them as an act of vengeance for their dominus. 

Appearance

Kalugal takes the form of a broken statue of a div constructed with crumbling grey stone. The cracks and missing pieces of his body are replaced with solid ice. In his chest is a dark swirling rift similar to a black hole; suspended in this rift are the shattered pieces of a heart made of ice. It is believed that Kalugal is actually the rift, as the statue that makes up the rest of his body often changes. 

Providence

Kalugal is not as meddling as the other deities of Phoenix and doesn’t often show his joy or anger towards others. Most of his interactions with the Material Plane come from the realm of superstition and folklore. If someone experiences an excessive amount of loss in their life, such as death, breakups, disownment, or exile, they believe that Kalugal might be trying to claim them. The chill one feels when lying in bed after losing a partner is believed to be cold comfort from Kalugal. A more unusual example comes from tighter-knit and superstitious communities that believe anyone who prefers to be alone could be a servant of Kalugal. 

Home

Kalugal’s home is the House of One , a realm within Diabolis. It is a wasteland of unnaturally cold winds and stinging snow. Impossibly tall glaciers stretch to unimaginable heights beyond the perpetually stormy skies. Visibility is low, and it is completely absent of life. The realm is full of statues of various types of divs and the frozen shades of the dead that were condemned to Kalugal’s realm. 

Servants

Kalugal has no servants in the traditional sense; however, he can bend the statues and frozen souls within his realm at his every whim. The statues will fulfill roles and behave as the divs they imitate, but they will never speak as they are merely constructs.  

Unlike the other deities, Kalugal refuses to take any praetors; he works completely and utterly alone. 

Religion

Kalugal has no temples where his followers congregate, they would rather be left alone.  They can be found scattered throughout Phoenix, spread out from society as well as each other. 

Worshipers

Kalugal typically attracts loners, the abandoned, the forsaken, and the forgotten.  Historically, Kalugal is never someone’s first choice of faith, many turn to him as a result of a traumatic event. 

Clergy

Clerics of Kalugal will often brave interactions with others for the sake of spreading the faith. They operate in secret as their main directive is to separate and split communities. If they have performed their task successfully, their victims will never know they were attacked by a cleric of Kalugal.  

Clerics often choose tight-knit, small communities where everyone knows each other or families. They will watch members of the family or community for weeks, sometimes months at a time, learning their ins and outs. Clerics will then begin to wear the community down in a variety of ways, with different methods dependent on the cleric. Some of their methods include cutting off food supplies, spreading rumors, utilizing their magic to cause storms and blizzards, and even murdering key members of the community to break down relationships. 

Temples and Shrines

The faithful of Kalugal keep shrines instead of constructing temples. Temples require a level of interaction that Kalugal’s faithful cannot stomach. Shrines are kept in the least traveled room in their homes and adorned with bits of broken statues; sometimes they are given enchantments so that snow and ice can be preserved on them. Unlike most shrines, Kalugal is pleased when his shrines gather dust. Shrines are honored with a sacrifice of an animal that lives in large groups, such as a goat, dog, or goose. 

Favored Animals

Any animal that spends most of its life alone is favored by Kalugal, but he has a strong preference for lynxes. 

Organizations

Order of One

A dreadknight “order” that consists of a single lictor and several thousand constructs.