Siarus

Also known as: the Cycle God, the Beginning and the End, the Endless
One of the trio that make up the Great Gods of Genesis, Siarus is the god of life and death (generally referred to as the Cycle) as well as natural cycles, duality, symmetry, and healing. He's the only one of the true gods to be aligned with both light and dark. His sacred color is red.
While he's not seen as easily swayed, Siarus is thought to be a sympathetic god who recognizes the hardship and struggle of mortal lives even if he cannot allow it to stay his hand. He's not feared despite his associations with death, and many of the people of Genesis and the magical communities of the Old World consider him the most beloved of the Great Gods.

Depictions

Siarus is most often depicted as a slender young man in hooded white robes, with pale skin and silver hair. He carries a scythe and a thick leather-bound book, which is often shown floating open in the air before him with his hand resting on the open pages as though pointing to a name. While it's not included in all representations of the god, paintings and other two-dimensional imagery often shows him with a silver circle around his neck from which thin silver chains trail into mist surrounding him; this shows him bound to his Pale Riders as they are bound to him.
While it's not always possible, depictions of Siarus are generally composed in such a way as to make them as balanced and symmetrical as possible.

Divine Realm

Though it's understood that Siarus's realm is the place where all souls go after their life is done, nothing is known about the place itself. Even individuals such as The Reaper who the gods generally hold in close confidence don't know what awaits a mortal after death; while Siarus's undying servants probably know the truth, it's not information they'd ever share with the living.
Despite the total lack of knowledge about what the afterlife entails, the people of Genesis don't hold any great fear of death beyond what might be expected. The general thinking is that Siarus isn't a cruel god, and that as such there's little chance of his realm being a place of torment or punishment.

Followers

As the god of something as vital as life and death, Siarus is widely worshipped and has many mortal followers. In addition to being the most common household god, his temples are widespread and he has a large number of followers who serve a dual purpose as priest-healers. He's also devoutly worshipped by many mages who consider him the source of the life-energy that fuels magic, the chronically or terminally ill, farmers and herdsmen, and judges and executioners.

Chosen Servants

Most of Siarus's servants are dead themselves, befitting their roles in dealing with souls and the afterlife. The vast majority are shades, the spirits of people who died by suicide; with every mortal allotted a time to die in Siarus's great book, suicide upsets the balance and causes complications, and those who kill themselves prematurely enter into the god's service for the remainder of the time that their natural life was intended to take. These low-level servants are present at the moment of each mortal's death, to make sure that nobody dies truly alone and help escort their soul to the afterlife. They appear largely as they did in life, with no ceremonial outfit or tools other than the silver band/collar connecting them to Siarus, and don't yet have enough strength to make themselves visible to the living. Once a shade's time is fully played out, they are given the option of continuing on to the afterlife themselves or entering permanently into Siarus's service as a Pale Rider.
Far more powerful than their brethren in Siarus's service, a Pale Rider has chosen to dedicate themselves to the god for eternity. Masked and veiled, draped with chains and with with a silver band/collar around their neck binding them to the god and letting them draw on his power, they ride a ghostly white or gray horse and can manifest physically in the real world in a way that suicides cannot. Pale Riders are Siarus's agents and messengers, guarding the realm of death and carrying out his will in any way he sees fit to use them. They're extremely powerful, capable of tearing the soul from a living body or summoning a thick fog that opens the way to the Dreamroad and spiriting their enemies out of the world entirely.
Finally, Siarus's most powerful and rarely seen servants are the bonewalkers, giant constructs made of bone and magic and existing only to bring destruction. They've been seen only a handful of times in recorded history, but herald the downfall of whole civilizations. Bonewalkers are seemingly capable of manifesting anywhere they're directed, clawing their way out of the earth to bring ruin to all around them; they're near-unkillable and near-unstoppable, using their sheer mass and raw magic to deadly effect.

Worship Practices and Holy Days

Most of the population prays to Siarus daily, upon waking and before sleeping, as well as potentially visiting a shrine or temple dedicated to him to make offerings approximately once a week; offerings can involve incense, monetary donations to help support his healers, or black or white bird feathers (all birds are sacred to Siarus, with swans and ravens being the most sacred). While not everyone has the innate magical talent for healing, many of the god's worshippers choose to volunteer their time in his temples several times a year to assist the healers in their work.
Temples and shrines to Siarus are always built in perfect symmetry, often being built with one half of pale stone and one half dark stone. The same principle is followed in household shrines, and any symbols of devotion carried by his followers are perfect halves or perfect unified circles. It's a common practice to inscribe a perfect circle over the threshold of a home.
Siarus's four days are the quarter points of the year; the summer/winter solstices which mark the height of light and darkness, and the spring/fall equinoxes which mark the turning points as one season merges into the next. However, due to the solstices being holy days for the other Great Gods (Alarand on the summer solstice, and Lore on the winter solstice), celebrations for Siarus tend to fall on the equinoxes instead. His festivals are fairly restrained compared to many held by the other gods; his temples are cleaned and decorated with flowering branches in the spring and bare branches in the fall, and all followers are expected to visit the temple and offer their prayers. Siarus is also indirectly celebrated on All Hallow's Eve, due to the holiday's associations with remembrance of the dead. This particular celebration is less ceremonial in nature, involving feasting, dances, and a general sense of otherworldly presence, but many revelers offer quiet prayers to the god after the festivities of the night are done.

Associated Mythology

THE BOOK OF DAYS
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THE BONEWALKERS
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Holy Symbol

SIARUS
god of life and death
light & dark aligned