Asphyx the Slayer

Asphyx the Slayer is one part of the triumvirate of dead gods known as the Three-Headed Serpent. They are the god of death, master of beasts, divine spirit of war, assassination and death, patron of killers and bodyguards.
Asphyx is also the embodiment of the divine order of the Ophionic Empire, the brutal font of a cruel and oppressive law. In this, they stand seemingly opposed to Stygis the Fearmonger and Sythis the Betrayer, and yet was subservient to the former in the pantheon of the Great Ophionic Empire, and to the latter in the new order. Stygis ruled with cruel whim and Sythis with ruthless manipulation, while Asphyx enforces with brutal loyalty, somewhere between an executioner and an administrator. Their cult has ever been responsible for transforming the cruel excesses of the ruling god's chosen into something approximating a working polity, and in particular with control of a military that might otherwise be a greatr threat to itself than any foreign enemy or rebel.
Asphyx is depicted as a massive, powerful Virin-yal of the phortsan aray or Sagass form. Their wrists are wrapped in lengths of chain. They wear armour on their humanoid torso and carry a yanak, a short staff with a straight-set scythe blade at each end that is the characteristic weapon of an Ophionic enforcer and favoured by Asphyx's hard-working priesthood.