Thallo's Badger

“Of all the creatures detailed in this tome, no tales report such a moment of impending doom as seeing a badger you were not expecting.”  

- Monsters and Myths of Tordronnen, by Leopold Der Vitner

All Gods have an animal that is sacred to them, whether Kalani and her corvid birds, or Meridon and their serpents, for the Lord of Death it is the badger. Whilst all badgers hold a level of reverence to Thallo one in particular is His own personal accomplice and psychopomp; Iszra. This badger is not bound by the laws of nature and will appear where a person is near the moment of their death, offering to guide their Soul into the afterlife. Upon the approach of that final breath the person has two choices about the journey to come: to go willingly, guided quietly by the gentle animal, or to resist, fighting or fleeing from their fate.

This is not to say that all sightings of Iszra mean certain death. Those who have been close to death but survived report seeing the creature awaiting them, but then turning away. Iszra is reported to be in the form of a huge badger, standing at a meter tall at the shoulder, with the characteristic black and white striped face. They have one eye that glows golden, the Eye of Thallo through which the God Himself can observe what Iszra is seeing.