Thanatar

The Severed God

In the Dark Garden of Genert Stalked the Devil's Son Tien! Tien! Tien! A name hollered, cried to be feared By all mortal men who saw our Lord. South he fell, south he marched Plundering, eating devouring, A Monster Army Never Seen Since! Till the Grey Sage used wit and guile, And forced the legion back, unsated. Eating a thousand learned men, Tien had the mind, the stalwart thought, That brought Lhankor Mhy to his Pit A meal to feast, to chew for a decade To suck his great mind dry. With equal wit, with equal guile, The cursed Sage escaped to freedom Horrible freedom! Cursed freedom! With rituals Tien marked his quarry And all his legion chanted his doom. In sacred vestibules, in the vacant rooms, Of the shattered World Pinnacle Tien took his fury on the Sage's wife Never has tarnished silver cut so deep, Her head fell from atop, and Knowledge was our Lords.

So in the Dark Hells, a Bull's Son came, "Fight me!" He cried, "I am strong" A battle was wrought, a fierce fight, From Tien's severed neck came the son's demise A darkness to envelop him, to seal him away. His head lost, lying in cavernous Hell, He fled to the Human Realm, A monster with no head Than! Than! Than! A name hollered, cried to be feared. But the head was not dead, For Chaos was it's soul, But the Grey Sage found it, Cast it to a far off water realm, To lie where it could never be found. A traitor to the Sage, years after Dawn, Found the skull, and saw it's might, Awakening it's wrath to the world, Atyar! Atyar! Atyar! A name hollered, cried to be feared. Atyar and Than wished to wed again, Together they met, knit together again, The Severed God, weaker than past whole, Thanatar! Thanatar! Thanatar! A name hollered, cried to be feared.

An excerpt from the Book of Drastic Resolutions.

Entry Requirements:	The cult of Thanatar is highly suspicious of all who wish to join. Candidates must prove themselves to the cult, and demonstrate prowess that would be useful to the cult. They must then roll a simple contest, with their best useful ability (so Stealth or Manufacture Poisons would count, but not Praxian Needlework) against the Priest's Suspicious target number. Non chaotic candidates must do this at -10 modifier. Success means that they are accepted, failure means they are not. In the later case, non chaotic candidates are slain.
Physical Abilities:	Shortsword and shield fighting, Garrotte attack, Be as Hidden as the Darkness, Move without sound.
Mental Abilities:	Know value, Mythology of Tien, Mythology of [sect], Deceive, Read/Write Darktongue, two academic knowledge skills.
The Sects:	All members belong to one of the three sects of Thanatar. This must be selected upon initiation. Whilst still an initiate, one may choose to change sects, but lose any affinities gained from the other sect, and should they later move back again these affinities must be purchased and raised once again (do not return to their previous ratings). Once devoted to a particular sect, however, they may never change. All sect's have their own affinities, and secrets, but share the subcults.
Atyar's Affinities	Knowledge (Sense Books, Recognise Secrets, Claim Secrets (D+20 to learn someone's secrets), Devour Book (The book is destroyed, and the worshipper gain's APs to a particular knowledge skill, once used they are gone), Sense men of learning) Beheaded (Survive Beheading (D+20), Survive Without Breath, Survive Without Blood, Garrotte of Tarnished Silver)
Atyar's Secret	Consume Mind. The Atyari can Consume someone's Mind. This takes some time, and is normally used in a ritual in the temple to boost the Atyari's Secret rating. The Atyari engages in a simple contest of their secret against either the character's best magic resistance, or their highest mental skill. The skills that can be stolen are all mental skills and all non-mystic magical keywords. If the Atyari is successful, the character loses that skill, and the Atyari gains it at a rating depending upon the result. The ritual continues either until a result signals otherwise, or the victim runs out of skills to consume: Complete Victory: Atyari gains the mental skill at a rating equal to the rating the victim had it at. Major Victory: The Atyari gains the skill at either the rating the victim had it at, or the rating of the Atyari Secret, whichever is lower. Minor Victory: The Atyari gains the skill at either half the rating the victim had it at, or the rating of the Atyari Secret, whichever is lower. Minor Defeat: The skill is not gained. The ritual continues, however, and the Atyari may attempt to steal another skill. Major Defeat: The skill is not gained. The ritual now ends and the victim is dead. Complete Defeat: The skill is not gained. The ritual ends, and the victim is dead. The Atyari is unconscious for a number of days equal to the number of skills she attempted to gain.
Than Affinties:	Undead (Animate Corpse, Assemble Skeleton, Create Zombie, Detect Undead, Enhance Undead, Feel Life) Darkness (Shadows of Than, Hear the Darkness Talk, Ignore Darkness, Tomb of Cold, Tendrils of Shadow)
Than's Secret:	Create Head. This is a ritual that can be used to create a Thanatari Head. This is the most feared magic of the Thanatari cult, for the victim's knowledge is contained within their head, as is their soul, to remain tormented and conscious until the eventual release as nothing more than an insane, gibbering ghost. The ritual is conducted as a simple contest between the Than secret and the victim's highest magical resistance, magic keyword, or mental skill (whichever is higher) plus 20. The result determines the rating of abilities within the head and how long the head lasts until decaying. All non-mystic magical abilities and mental skills are stolen. Complete Victory: The head will endure for a century or so. The skills and magic are at ratings equal to either the victim's rating or the rating of the secret, whichever is lower. Major Victory: The head will last a handful of decades. The skills and magic are gained at either the victims rating at -5, or the rating of the secret, whichever is lower. Minor Victory: The head will last for a few years. The skills and magic are gained at either half the rating the victim had, or the rating of the secret, whichever is lower. Minor Defeat: The head lasts for a handful of days, with ratings as above. Major Defeat: No head is made, but the victim dies. Complete Defeat: No head is made, the victim dies but their soul travels to their correct afterlife, rather than being condemned to Thanatari Hell. A Thanatari may have a number of heads equal to two plus two more for each mastery in the secret. The Thanatari has access to the skills and magic as long as the head remains intact. Heads which decay, or which are destroyed, release the souls contained within as Thanatari Head Ghosts. These insane souls are then left to wander the world. They generally congregate at Thanatari temples and are used as guardians. They do not attack Thanatari cultists, and those who are given special charms to protect them. They have Might equal to their highest Magic Keywords (see Anaxial's Roster p. 231).
Thanatar's Affinities:	Otherside (Create Urgarugar (D+20), Summon Dadami, Summon Xenthi, Summon Dehori) Spirit (Command Mad Head Ghosts, Command Urgarugar, Command Dadami, Command Xenthi, Command Dehori, Frighten Soul, Resist Spirit)
Thanatar's Secret:	Create Guardian. This is used to summon a guardian from the Place of Waiting to possess a specially prepared victim's body. The difficulty is 20 plus the Might of the spirit being summoned. The guardian will awaken with the physical skills of the victim, plus all keywords of a Thanatari cultist equal to it's Might with magic keywords equal to half it's Might. The sect it belongs to (Atyar, Than or Thanatar) should be randomly determined. It does not immediately aid the summoner, and unless Hero Points are used to cement it the Guardian departs to do its own thing. Guardians may count as allies or followers depending upon its power relative to the Thanatari making it.
Personality:	Suspicious, Cruel, Hate Lightbringers.
Worshippers:	Thanatar is worshipped by broo, ogres, bagogi and all types of sentient chaos creatures. Non-chaotic creatures sometimes join, for the lure of the power contained within the Thanatari cult can be almost irrestible. The cult is difficult to join, both for the requisites involved, the regimentation of the cult (unusual for a chaos cult) and some of the despicable acts are too depraved for even some creatures of chaos! Worshippers normally join for power, often to be dissappointed by their failure, trapped in a hierarchy plagued with internal intrigue. The cult is known in Kralorela, Peloria, Ralios and Maniria.
Other Side:	Thanatar has an Other Side realm in the Godworld. It is known as the Place of Waiting where all the dead souls of Thanatari go, to be brought back to life as familiars and guardians. From here worshippers can travel to the Greater Darkness and the Grey Age.
Other Connections:	Thanatar has few connections with other cults, what is convenient at the time is the only reason it will ally itself with anyone. Other chaos cults are not shunned, but not seen as allies, perhaps more as tools that are easier to manipulate than most.
Disadvantages:	The Thanatari cult is rife with internal political deathtraps. Worshippers must contend every day with being assassinated for posing too much of a political threat, being allied to someone who poses too much of a political threat, being sent on a suicide mission to aid the cause of a Thanatari who is a political threat, to be manipulated unknowningly into becoming a political threat to be a scapegoat to divert attention away from the real political threat and... so on. Many of the Secrets of the cult require ritual support, or are aided by ritual support, but little support can be gathered. Why aid someone who will later become a block to your own power? Loyalty is a relative term in the Thanatari cult.

Gifts and Geases of Thanatar

All initiates must take a gift and geas. Akin to Humakti gifts and geases (see Hero Wars p.56) except that they are randomised using a 1d20. Devotees may select more at the rate of one per High Holy Day.

Thanatar's Gifts

1d20	Gift	Required Geases
1-2	Receive a bonus of +5 on all mental skills	3
3-4	Receive a bonus of +8 on all stealth related actions	2
5-7	Receive +5 to Shortsword and Shield Fighting	1
8-9	Receive +10 to Shortsword and Shield Fighting	3
10-12	Receive +5 to garrotte attacks	1
13	Receive +5 bonus when resisting magic from Fire/Sky cultists	2
14-15	Increase any mental skill by 5	1
16	Sproout ram's horns. In two years time they may be used to butt as a rank 3 weapon.	1
17	Skin/fur turns pitch black. Receive abonus of +10 for hiding.	2
18	Skin becomes a rank 1 armour.	1
19	Receive a guardian with Might equal to Initiate to Thanatar/Devotee to Thanatar relationship.	3
20	Cultist may select one gift, and receive random geases	n/a

Thanatar's Geases

1d20	Geas
1	Roll 1d20. On a 1-10 Must eat the flesh of sentient creatures at each meal, on an 11-20 Must eat the flesh of any victim.
2	Roll 1d20. On a 1-10 Must never speak to members of the other two aspects of Thanatar, on an 11-15 Must never in presence of non-Thanatari and on a 16-20 Must never speak to anyone.
3	Roll 1d20. On a 1-10 Must always attack and fight to the death any worshippers of Lhankor Mhy, on 11-15 Must always attack and fight to the death any Storm Bull worshippers encountered and on 16-20 Must always kill any sentient non-Thanatari chaos creatures encountered.
4	Roll 1d20. On 1-10 Must never use minted coins, on 11-20 Must never use an edged weapon.
5	Never ride an animal.
6	Roll 1d20. On a 1-10 They must never go into Sunlight or risk being blinded permanently, on an 11-15 Must never go into torchlight or risk being blinded and on 16-20 Must never go into any non-Darklight area or risk being blinded. The risk is the severity of the light/torchlight/non-Darklight (range it between 14 and 14W3) against the character's Tough or other such skill.
7	Roll 1d20. On a 1-10 Never wear leather armour, on an 11-20 Never wear a helmet (minus one to armour rank).
8-9	Never use fire in any form, including the creationm of Darklight.
10	Gains a useful chaos feature (Narrator's Book p.89) at a rating of either 12 or their relationship to Thanatar minus 20, whichever is higher.
11	Gains a detrimental chaos feature at a rating of either 18 or their relationship to Thanatar minus 20, whichever is lower.
12	Never eat plant life, except Aldryami.
13	Never wear armour not made out of tarnished silver.
14	Never eat the flesh of any cloven-hooved animal.
15	Never lie to a fellow Thanatari.
16	Never harm an undead creation.
17	Never attack with a weapon.
18	Never use magic for offensive purposes, or to enhance offensive skills. This does not include cult Secrets.
19	Roll twice more and take both.
20	Roll 1d20. On a 11-15 Roll three times and take all three geases, on a 16-20 the cultist is favoured by Thanatar and has no geas.

Hero Cults and Subcults

Treack Markhor. This man was the traitorous sage who found Atyar in the Second Age and helped reunite him with Than.

The Doomed Man. This is the title given to the Hero who forged the two disparate parts into one. He teaches the feat of Darklight, which is used in all Thanatari temples. This is cast on any item capable of burning and giving off light non-magically. It ensures that the item gives off a light seen only by cultists. Non-Thanatari see the non-illuminating violet flames of the burning, but cultists see perfectly by it's purple glow.

Notes on Severed Head Generation

Than worshippers who take the heads of another Than worshipper can gain temporary access to all the skill and magic of his heads. This is done by concentrating, and resisting their Secret against a resistance of 18, plus 10 for every additional "generation" they wish to move through. They can then use the skill or magic found for the period of the contest. Multiple generations, in which numerous Than devotees have been killed by other Than worshippers, leaving a lineage of heads, do exist.