Anubis
Anubis
(pronounced Uh-NYOO-Bis)
Judge of the Dead
Lesser Deity
Worshippers, Clergy, Temples | Dogma | Appearance | Relationships & History | Quick Descriptions
Anubis
Anubis is the Egyptian god of mummification and the afterlife as well as the patron god of lost souls and the helpless. Anubis guides the souls of dead mortals to the halls of judgment, supervises their weighing on the scales of Ma'at, and protects them on their journey. In addition, he guards cemeteries from grave robbers and other defilers.
Worshipers, Clergy & Temples
Followers of Anubis practice rigorous disciplines to hone their minds and spirits, preparing themselves for the eventual journey to the afterlife. Anubis's clerics are few and not especially popular, given their close association with funerals and the necropolis (graveyard).
Vestments
Male clerics of Anubis shave their heads while female clerics wear their hair long. They dress in white robes. Most of Anubis's clerics are male.
Temples
Anubis's temples are always located next to cemeteries and follow the general layout of most Pharaonic temples. They are funeral chapels, embalming centers, and guarded repositories of sacred and magical knowledge.
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Dogma
We stand to protect those that have died. We prepare the dead for their journey to the land of the dead, where they must be weighed and measured. For the living, prepare thyself, for there will be a time to be judged - your actions measured and your worth tallied.
Appearance, Manifestations
Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized regeneration, life, the soil of the Nile River, and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming. Anubis is portrayed with a dog or jackal's head, but with grey or white fur. He dresses in a white knee-length kilt, a decorative scale mail breastplate of glittering gold, and a number of bracers and armbands. He typically carries either a scepter or a true ankh. He can use his Shift Form ability to take on the form of a jackal.
Relationships & History
Anubis is associated with his brother Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dog's head or in canine form, but with grey or white fur (historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined). Anubis' female counterpart is Anput. His daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet. His parents are Set (Seth) and Nephthys.
Quick Descriptions:
Deity
Anubis has the head of a jackal and the body of a human, with black fur and skin. He wears a white knee-length kilt, a gold scale mail breastplate, and a number of bracers and armbands. He is carrying a gold scepter.
Temple
Cleric
Source: Deities and Demigods
Temple
The temple, located right next to the cemetery is a somber, dimly lit building, or solid sandstone bricks. The smell of death and embalming is in the air. The entrance is adorned with statues of Anubis, beckoning the living to "weigh themselves" after death. Wall scones are scattered along the walls of the long room, and various stone outcrops are adorned with skulls and urns. A large sandstone altar sits against the far wall, etched with a representation of the scales of Ma'at and Anubis' role.
Cleric
The mostly male clergy are wearing white robes and have their heads shaved. They wear a gold armband on their left arm, and brancers on both. Many have a dagger in a scabbard on their leather belt.
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Anubis
EDIT
3e
1e
Anubis, the Guardian of the Dead
Anubis
(Lesser)
Basic information
Title(s)
God of Judgement and Death
Guardian of the Dead
Judge of the Dead
Pantheon
Pharaonic pantheon
Gender
Masculine
5e
3e
2e
1e
5th Edition Statistics
Alignment
Lawful neutral
Symbol
Black jackal
Domains
Death, Grave
Channel divinity
Touch of death
Path to the grave
Manifestations
Favored animals
Jackal
Favored minerals
Onyx
Favored colors
Black
Anubis was the god of the dead in the Pharaonic pantheon, who judged the souls of worshipers in the afterlife. Unlike other members of the pantheon, who traveled to Toril on the ship Matet as manifestations to liberate kidnapped worshipers and went on to become the Mulhorandi pantheon, Anubis was among those who chose to remain behind.
Contents
Description
Personality
Powers
Spells
Possessions
Realm
Activities
Relationships
Worshipers
History
Appendix
Gallery
External Links
References
Connections
Description
The avatar of Anubis typically took the form of a man with the head of a jackal or dog, with a mane of straight black hair falling over his shoulders, and the tail of that respective animal. This avatar would be garbed in a kalasiris, a decorative gold breastplate of scale mail, as well as a number of armlets and bracers.
Personality
Anubis held a great enmity towards thieves, especially tomb robbers, as well as those who tried to raise the worshipers of Pharaonic deities from the dead.
Powers
A black jackal, the holy symbol of Anubis.
The avatar of Anubis had a number of innate abilities. These included being able to shapechange into a jackal, teleporting without error at short distances like a blink dog, casting charm monster twice simultaneously, preventing a soul from returning to its body when a cleric is trying to raise its body from the dead, and animating any statue of himself. He could also animate any object that was located within a tomb he could sense, no matter the size, as if casting animate objects.
As he presided over death in his portfolio, Anubis instantly sensed any sealing or violation of a tomb and any casting of raise dead or similar spells upon the bodies of those who worshiped a Pharaonic deity. His avatar could will itself to perceive anything within 6 miles (9,700 meters) of Anubian worshipers, Anubian holy sites, objects sacred to Anubis, or any location where his name or one of his titles had been spoken in the last hour. He could perceive up to five such instances. The avatar could also block the sensing powers of deities for up to two locations at once for a period of up to 6 hours.
Anubis was capable of creating a variety of magic items, but they would never exceed a market value of 30,000 gold pieces.
Spells
The avatar of Anubis was capable of casting a variety of spells, though he particularly liked biting at foes with his canine head. The spells his avatar was capable of casting included the following:
antimagic field, calm emotions, charm monster, deathwatch, death ward, destruction, dictum, dispel chaos, dispel magic, gentle repose, hold monster, identify, imbue with spell ability, magic circle against chaos, Mordenkainen's disjunction, Nystul's undetectable aura, order's wrath, protection from chaos, protection from spells, shield of law, slay living, speak with dead, spell resistance, spell turning, summon monster IX (law domain), surelife, undeath to death, and wail of the banshee.
Possessions
The avatar of Anubis typically carried an a scepter, a +5 disruption heavy mace, and an ankh. This ankh was 1 foot (0.3 meters) in length, weighed 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms), and made of bright blue stone. It could enact a true resurrection upon the corpse of any creature by making physical contact with it. And any non-divine being that tried to touch it would be afflicted by horrid wilting.
Realm
Anubis made his home on the Astral Plane and was the sole deity in the multiverse to do so.
Activities
On very rare occasions, if a tomb held an image Anubis within it and was being robbed, he would send his avatar to kill the tomb robbers.
A slightly more common activity of Anubis, though still quite rare, was forcing people to go on some quest with the purpose of increasing the power of his local Church if they had dared to raise a worshiper of Pharaonic deities from the dead.
Relationships
Anubis was the son of the Pharaonic deities Nephthys and Osiris. He was served by hound archons that had the heads of jackals.
Worshipers
Compared to the other Pharaonic deities, Anubis had few clerics and they were often unpopular due to their close associations with cemeteries and funerals, the latter of which they often officiated. In preparation for the afterlife, his worshipers practiced rigorous disciplines in order to hone both their minds and spirits.
The temple layouts and priestly vestments of the Anubis faith were typical of Pharaonic deities. His temples were always located next to cemeteries and acted as embalming centers, funeral chapels, and guarded repositories of both magical and sacred knowledge.
History
When the Pharaonic deities that would become the Mulhorandi pantheon traveled to Toril, Anubis sent with the goddess Nephthys a cadre of his hound archons to serve her, among them one who was known as Thah Rahalar.
Some time after this, it was believed by many planar travelers that Anubis had distanced himself from the Pharaonic pantheon and became a guard of the dead powers that floated in the Astral Plane, becoming what was known as the "Guardian of the Dead Gods". However, there never ceased to be an Anubis in the Pharaonic pantheon. Some believers of the former tried to rationalize this by claiming Anubis was replaced by a deity of the same name or that he had split his divinity into an aspect.
Appendix
Gallery
Anubis stands beside Hermes, Odin, Zeus, and other deities as they watch a chariot race of horses and panthers on the cover of Dragon #153.
External Links
Anubis article at Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
References
Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford (2014). Player's Handbook 5th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 299. ISBN 978-0-7869-6560-1.
James Ward, Robert J. Kuntz (August 1980). Deities & Demigods. Edited by Lawrence Schick. (TSR, Inc.), p. 45. ISBN 0-935696-22-9.
Skip Williams, Rich Redman, James Wyatt (April 2002). Deities and Demigods. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 136, 140. ISBN 0-7869-2654-6.
Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins, James Wyatt (2014). Dungeon Master's Guide 5th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 97. ISBN 978-0786965622.
Sean K. Reynolds (2005-02-09). Hate of the Cobra. Magic Books of Faerûn. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2016-08-16. Retrieved on 2016-05-19.
Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes, Bruce R. Cordell and JD Wiker (March 2005). Sandstorm. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 47. ISBN 0-7869-3655-X.
Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 87. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.
James Ward, Robert J. Kuntz (August 1980). Deities & Demigods. Edited by Lawrence Schick. (TSR, Inc.), p. 121. ISBN 0-935696-22-9.
Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford (2014). Player's Handbook 5th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 298. ISBN 978-0-7869-6560-1.
Eric L. Boyd (September 1997). Powers & Pantheons. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 94. ISBN 978-0786906574.
Skip Williams, Rich Redman, James Wyatt (April 2002). Deities and Demigods. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 140. ISBN 0-7869-2654-6.
Skip Williams, Rich Redman, James Wyatt (April 2002). Deities and Demigods. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 141. ISBN 0-7869-2654-6.
Jeff Grubb (July 1987). Manual of the Planes 1st edition. (TSR), p. 60. ISBN 0880383992.
Skip Williams, Rich Redman, James Wyatt (April 2002). Deities and Demigods. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 135, 140. ISBN 0-7869-2654-6.
Wesley Schneider (September 2007). “Class Acts: Forgotten Faiths”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #359 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), pp. 121–122.
Children