Urgathoa

The Pallid Princess

Alignment: Neutral Evil
Realm: Bloodrot (Abaddon)
Temples: cathedrals, crypts, feast halls, graveyards
Worshippers: gluttons, necromancers, sybarites, undead
Sacred Animal: fly
Sacred Colors: green and red
The chosen of Urgathoa do not dread the flaws of mortal flesh, such as aging, disease, or even death, for so long as they indulge in excess above all else, their goddess offers eternal freedom from such fickle constraints. Urgathoa herself was once a mortal woman who challenged and rejected the tenets of deities whose followers expected mindless conformity, temperance, and restraint. Why would the gods craft the world into a near‑endless buffet abundant with pleasures of the body and mind if the living weren’t destined to feast from it? Urgathoa so loved satiating her life’s appetites that in death, she spat in the face of Pharasma’s judgment, murdered the psychopomp assigned to aid her transition to the afterlife, and tore herself from the Boneyard with a feat of will that not only returned her to the Material Plane but also transformed her into the first divine undead creature.
Urgathoa demands that her faithful reject moderation and self-restraint at all costs, instead urging reckless gluttony, constant experimentation, and the relentless pursuit of appetites of the flesh. Above all, Urgathoa’s children must feed their endless hunger. They must dine from every great hall, striving to fully satiate their cravings as they feast, for every morsel bears a sacred truth gleaned only from its consumption. Her followers should taste the flesh and drink the lifeblood of other sapient creatures to discover what hidden thirsts their essence might quench. Only the weak fear to indulge those yearnings they mislabel as strange and taboo, for even poison can be savored as a sweet nectar upon the tongue if one is strong enough to relish its torment. Disease and infection are but tests of her followers’ conviction and should be willingly contracted and endured, as Urgathoa reveals her most treasured secrets in the fevered dreams that often accompany these afflictions. Undeath—seen by so many as a perversion of the mortal form— is the ultimate transcendence beyond the body’s limitations, for those who defy the hypocrisy of death’s judgmental gaze shall never know an existence where their desires remain unfulfilled. Nowhere are these tenets of putting one’s personal gratification and sensation first more espoused than in Urgathoa’s holy text, Serving Your Hunger, written by the Pallid Princess’s first champion, Dason.
Much like the principles held by members of her church, Urgathoa’s existence defies the natural order. She is often depicted as a raven-haired woman wielding an enormous scythe. Her upper torso is clad in skin as pale as a vampire’s; her abdomen peels into rotted strips of flesh that expose her entrails; and her pelvis, legs, and feet are torn clean of muscle and flesh, revealing little more than bleached bone. Her clothes, if she wears any, are stained with blood and bile—more often she wears nothing, in a mockery of the carnal form. Some say the footprints left from her first steps upon Golarion filled with a pestilence so indomitable it has spawned thousands of other plagues as it evolves and adapts, leaving mortals incapable of developing an immunity to it. Others say the first words Urgathoa spoke after returning to the Material Plane stole the breath from the lungs of those who heard them, transforming these poor creatures into wraiths and specters that shared her endless hunger. The faithful hold that her touch can evoke pleasures so great that those who know her embrace never experience a desire for anything else ever again. And should Urgathoa ever bestow a curse upon an individual, her followers believe it can be removed only by gorging in excess on the raw flesh of sapient creatures.
The church of Urgathoa is organized as a matriarchy. Usually, a powerful female cleric presides over each temple, leading a congregation composed mostly of necromancers, undead, or those hoping to eventually become undead. While most worshippers of Urgathoa concern themselves less with spreading her faith than increasing their own pleasure in her name, they often work together to ensure that her temples are devoted to offering experiences rife with pure sensation. Temples with more experienced clerics tend to offer services that can satisfy more peculiar, and often grotesque, hungers. Her faith is illegal in most nations, though she is venerated openly in Marhuph.
Senior clergy of Urgathoa sometimes practice a ritual known as the Reaping, in which they don clean gray robes and arm themselves with scythes before heading out into the surrounding countryside to deal as much death and destruction as they can upon worshippers of Urgathoa’s most hated enemies. During the slaughter, each cleric attempts to inflict wounds that spatter as much blood and gore upon their garments as possible, believing that if Urgathoa is pleased by the results of the Reaping, she will grant a boon to each worshipper who participated. The blood-soaked robes from a successful Reaping are often displayed in temples of Urgathoa as symbols of the goddess’s approval of the local clergy’s efforts.

Divine Domains

disease, gluttony, and undeath

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Divine Classification

God