Zon-Kuthon

The Midnight Lord

Alignment: Lawful Evil
Realm: Xovaikain (the Shadow Plane)
Temples: abandoned graveyards, cathedrals, caverns, haunted woodland clearings,laboratories, ruined city squares, torture chambers
Worshippers: the desperate, sadists, shadow cultists, torturers, velstracs
Sacred Animal: bat
Sacred Colors: dark gray and red
The Midnight Lord embodies and glorifies pain, shadows, and mutilation, and he is one of the most twisted and malevolent gods on the face of the world. Once known as Dou-Bral, he crafted the immense Star Towers that still help keep Rovagug pinned in his prison in the heart of the world, lending his own skill and ability to the great deific alliance to bind that evil entity. Yet a divine argument between him and his sister Shelyn resulted in the god departing for parts unknown. Zon-Kuthon traveled beyond the edges of the multiverse and stared into the face of the incomprehensible things that dwell there. No one knows what he found in that place, but he returned—changed, but claiming to be strengthened by what he had endured.
Zon-Kuthon teaches that torment is the ultimate pleasure and sacrament, and that inflicting and enduring pain is the truest strength. Experiencing pain and learning to embrace it allows one to purge the weakness of their body and spirit. After all, much of mortal creatures’ fear is rooted in the struggle to avoid pain in one way or another. If a follower can learn to embrace that pain instead, the chains of fear fall away, becoming a tool to be wielded. Worshippers thus endeavor to inflict as much torture and misery as possible on themselves and others; they look to the cruel outsiders known as velstracs for inspiration, including the use of spiked chains as a primary weapon.
The anguish Zon-Kuthon teaches is not limited to physical injury. Zon-Kuthon teaches his followers to understand, overcome, and revel in psychological pain as well, breaking down morality and twisting compassion into numb pragmatism. This is best exemplified by his troubled relationship with his sister Shelyn, who hopes to redeem him despite all evidence as to the impossibility of this task, and his chaining of his own father, breaking the deity’s spirit and transforming him into the hateful servitor now known as the Prince in Chains.
Some worship Zon-Kuthon out of necessity, some other contemptible individuals gravitate toward a faith that allows them to embrace and practice their own sadistic desires. Still others find that Zon‑Kuthon provides a level of understanding in the face of inescapable pain: to some, the bleak faith offers a means of finding release when faced with an inability to feel.
Zon-Kuthon is cruel, but he is patient, willing to collaborate with others, and unlikely to provoke conflicts with other gods. He keeps to himself, though one might argue that this is more a case of other deities keeping their distance from him. Likewise, his followers tend to keep their own counsel, perhaps seeming aloof to others, but they have no qualms about working with others to achieve shared goals. The god and his church all operate within a strict, unyielding hierarchy that followers understand and uphold, each playing their part as dictated by the Midnight Lord’s teachings.
Regardless of the worshipper or their reasons for following the Midnight Lord, his worship is terrible and merciless, often bloody, and sometimes deadly. The faithful are often easily identified by their countless scars—many of them self-inflicted in the course of regular prayers—and frequently piercings and other body modifications, though tattoos are relatively rare among Kuthites. More profound, perhaps, is the cold, detached gaze of a truly faithful worshipper, their unflinching calm in the face of imminent danger, and their rapturous acceptance of any harm that befalls them.
Priests of Zon-Kuthon are few and far between. Somewhat more common are the infamous shadowcallers, who practice divinely inspired wizardry and other sorts of magic, and vicious itinerant clerics and champions who scour the land in an inquisition, seeking out naysayers and rebels.

Divine Domains

darkness, envy, loss, and pain

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Divine Classification

God