Onthys

Overview

Our Lady the White Wolf, Our Lord the Black Wolf, The Shepherd of Souls, The Fate Weaver
Onthys is one of the original gods created by Ethrys before her Sealing. They were created as a counterpart to Ionid, the Sovereign of Time, as a means to create a direction for the flow of time. They also balanced Elowen, the Goddess of Life, to act as a shepherd for the souls from the Prime Material Plane to the next world.
Depictions of Onthys vary by different cultures, and they are typically presented as a man, a woman, or another non-binary gender according to different accounts. They are referred to by any pronouns.
Domains: Death, Fate, Balance
Clerics: Death, Grave, Life, Twilight, Blood, Unity, Nature, War

Colors and Symbols

Depictions of Onthys typically show them wearing a mask made of a ram skull and carrying a tall black crook. Onthys' holy symbol is a black shepherd's crook inside a white circle. Wolves, dogs, and rams are all sacred animals to them. Unbroken, perfect circles are also considered sacred to Onthys, as well as looms, crooks, and the color black.

Rituals, Holidays, and Festivals

Veil's Day: This is a holy day when followers will visit cemeteries and gravesites, following the paths in and out as their souls will do someday as they join Onthys' Flock. They typically wear black veils, to represent their eventual separation from the mortal world, and will fast for twenty four hours, beginning at midnight. This holy day occurs on the first full moon of winter.
The Fated Feast: At the end of the harvest season, followers will take three full days to prepare an enormous feast celebrating the renewed cycle of life and death that has allowed them to prosper for another year. If possible, they will weave themselves a new article of clothing. This is also a day of remembrance for the people that passed in the year since the last Fated Feast, and it is believed that Onthys will allow these souls to visit the celebration on this day.

Tenets

• All mortals owe a debt to death.
• To deny fate is to deny existence and reality.
• The designs of fate that guide our lives are a gift from the Gods and an opportunity to learn and grow.
• Death is as natural and vital as life -- the undead are an abomination.
• If it is fate for someone to be healed, then they will be healed. If it is fate for someone to die, then they will die. Attempts to intercede in our Lord's fated shepherding of souls must be prevented at all costs.

Temple Clergy and Followers

Onthys' most dedicated followers are referred to as her Flock. Local ministries are led by Denmothers and fathers, and the religion is headed by the Grey Wolves. Conversion efforts are not as prominent as in other religions, as Onthys' followers believe that everyone will join the Flock between life and death, but the church will send their followers known as Fatestrings to smaller territories in missionary efforts. The Flock typically gets along well with other followers of the Old Gods, but is hard pressed to trust the New Gods, especially followers of Tiva, the goddess of luck, who they believe disrespect the eternal nature of fate. They are sworn enemies of Oknus' evil Pantheon.

Artifacts and Sacred Items

The Staff of the Fate Weaver: A black wooden staff shaped like a shepherd's crook, supposedly carved from the first tree that withered in the first winter. It is inlaid with rows of small white diamonds and has a mother-of-pearl grip. This staff adds +1 to a spell caster's DC and has seven charges that are regained at dawn. Casting "Blindness/Deafness" costs one charge, casting "Life Transference" costs two charges, and casting "Circle of Death" costs four charges.
The White Wolf's Circlet: This delicate silver white circlet depicts the head of a wolf with inlaid sapphire eyes. When attuned, the wearer is immune to the fear condition and all fear-based attacks, as well as immune to forced movement effects.

Sects

The Northern Wolves: This splinter group is located in the far northern continent and believes that Death is the only true God that one can trust. They eschew all forms of healing and medical intervention, instead opting to put all their trust in Onthys' loom of fate to determine if someone lives or dies. They purposefully live in dire, survivalist conditions in order to be as close to their God as possible and will frequently fast for days or weeks on end to prove their devotion. These extremists live on a nearly completely carnivorous diet and will go on Hunts that they see as a form of sacrament. The most fanatical of these have even branched out into humanoids in some cases.
The Butcher Souls: Primarily an underground urban-based sect, these cultists revere Death as the most natural, desirable state of being, and believe it is their duty to return as many Souls to Onthys as possible. Their rituals involve some members drinking poison to bring themselves to the brink of death, while others comb the streets for unlucky passerby that are chosen as sacrifices to Onthys.

Type

Religious, Pantheon