Venstariss Character in Kelbonnar | World Anvil

Venstariss

One of the most nefarious of the Divines, Venstariss is the god of lies and deceit. Venstariss revels in the creation of the most fantastical lies, which have driven people to their deaths, wealthy lords to beggars and nations to war.

Divine Domains

  • Lies 
  • Deceit

Common Worshipers

  Given his divine domains, Venstariss is most commonly worshipped by those engaged in criminal enterprises. However, a large number of the urban poor across the Material Plane have been drawn into his worship, through false or highly embellished promises of riches, security and even just basic access to food and water.  

Priesthood

  A strong priesthood of Venstariss does exist, though almost exclusively in urban areas. Clergy of Venstariss move around poor areas, offering rewards in exchange for servitude, which inevitably lures people into joining criminal organisations. Whilst many of Venstariss’ clergy advise gang bosses and support illicit activities, many are criminal lords in their own right.   As with almost all of the more malign deities, there is no formal training or selection process to become a cleric of Venstariss, save for attracting the god’s attention and reflecting and exemplifying the traits or actions that he finds most desirable.  

Temples

  Whilst they tend to be secretive, or off the beaten track, temples to Venstariss do exist and they are generally to focal points of organised criminal activity. As a result, they tend to be located in large towns or cities, almost always in less affluent or slum districts.  

Activities in the Divine War

  In the opening stages of the Divine War, Venstariss remained neutral, though this was a choice forced upon him, as neither the Astartians, nor the Polephemites, nor later the Siblings trusted him enough to admit them to their respective alliances.    This did not trouble Venstariss though, as he gleefully spent the first several hundred years of the war adding to the chaos by speeding lies and rumours on all sides. Eventually, as the war dragged on, he began to feel that with the right application of wit and force, he could achieve what the other Divines could not. He therefore formed an alliance, known as the Dark Pact with the goddess of pain and suffering Fokrella and has been causing chaos and misery with her ever since.  

Family Tree of the Divines

 
Family Tree of the Divines
Divine Classification
God
Age
Unknown
Circumstances of Birth
As recounted in The Origin of the Divines.
Children
Gender
Nonbinary

Divine Sigils and Symbols

  Venstariss is most commonly represented by the symbol of a serpent. He is also represented by the symbol of a black, hooded cloak.  

Divine Links and Progeny

  He is the son of Lormaniss and the brother of Hissh, though he and his brother have no mother. They are instead the result of a powerful duplication spell that Lormaniss cast, in order to pull off a rather spectacular trick, which went rather badly wrong, producing two younger, identical versions of Lormaniss who are completely independent of him, and who embody the much darker sides of his personality, rather than a pair of clones under his control, as was the god’s intent.   He is a member of the divine alliance known as the Dark Pact.  

Mortal Creations

  Venstariss is not responsible for the creation of any of the mortal races, but he takes great pride in corrupting them. He views his own lies as a creation in the same way that one of the other gods might view a race they created. That is not to say that Venstariss is delusional. Far from it, his lies and deceits often create groups or organisations focused around a particular ideal or goal which is completely fake, or his lies create wars on the Material Plane, sparked by a pure fiction poured into the right ear.


Cover image: by Chris Pyrah

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