Ideals & Flaws
Considered by many mortals to be the most powerful of the Endless, Carthus is the god of death, life, disease, and medicine. Few challenged Carthus for his domains in Deus Gloria, and in the end those minor gods who he devoured were the first to be reaped, their blood becoming the
River of Crux where his divine essence makes its domain and judges souls before they are sent to their final destinations.
Carthus is depicted as a great, rotting tree covered in mushroom shingles which all the birds of the air come to rest upon. His followers and disciples are often those drawn to the ministry of the body and soul. Clerics, druids, healers, alchemists, doctors, and shamans all revere the power of this divine reaper, and through his guidance and patience help ease the suffering of others.
Silent, merciful, and unyielding, Carthus is a god who demands nothing for his eternal work. There are those who would try to cheat him of his prize, those who would hope to live forever, those who would try to escape his scythe but in the end, one way or another, he will have them all and those that tried to escape their fate are believed to be harshly judged upon his scale. In grief and in times of plague many mortals curse his name but if the god of death finds offense in this none can know for certain. Carthus rarely communicates even to those who devote themselves to his domains. There is little in this world which appears to bare any concern to him, and for this reason he has extraordinarily few true followers. He is respected, and feared, but none could say they truly admire or love Carthus. He is in the end a necessity to life, and in truth many are thankful that he chooses silence to do his great works.
Domains
- Death
- Necromancy
- Nature
- Disease
Reincarnation
Alchemy
Life
Medicine
Temples & Priesthoods
While temples are built to honor Carthus, these are monuments he neither requests or appears to care for and thus they feel much like tombs themselves. Empty, quiet places full of mourning and dread of the unknown. Instead, shrines to Carthus are found on great battlefields, in cemetaries, and sometimes built to honor those slain unjustly or who took their own lives. They are usually meager shrines. An iron latchbox filled with black candles to be lit as one remembers the dead, or simply a black altar with a skull placed upon it. As Carthus has few followers and thus priests these shrines are ususally created by those who have suffered a particularly devastating loss and maintained mostly out of tradition by those who visit the shrines regularly.
Those who call themselves priests or followers of the god of death wear clothes of green, black, and white in his honor. When they are called upon for services it is ususally to help heal the sick, or ease someone's transition into Carthus' embrace by numbing their pain, or sparing them a long and agonizing death.
It is very rare, but when Carthus has summoned those faithful to his cause it has often been in pursuit of destroying the unholy, and the unnatural. Carthus abhors the undead and often seeks to punish those who attempt to achieve immortality. Even more rare than these calls to action are the deaths in the world so sorrowful or unjust that Carthus may personally deem the pepetrators of such a crime be brought to him before their appointed time to be judged. This may come in the form of an assassin of his faith being sent upon a mission, a monsterous reaper being unleashed, or, if all else fails, an outbreak of plague.
Sacred Icons
Sacred icons are symbols which often are meant to depict the Endless, infer their blessings, or denote their followers. The Endless have many sects and are worshipped throughout Orr in a variety of ways but these icons represent the most common symbols associated with them:
- A Sickle
- Mushrooms
- A Black Candle
- Feather and Scales
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