The Church of Sindra

The Cult of Sindra is wrapped in dark whimsy and secrets. In most places her faithful worship her in secret or at least semi-secret. Even among her faith the secrets continue with each high priest or priestess keeping certain religious rites and practices secret and using said secrets as tests or rewards to mark advancement of the membership. These Secrets also tend to vary from temple to temple with each high priest adding to the layers of an already monolithic cult of secrecy.
Conflict between members of her faith is rather common and comes in many forms after all ambition and power are the main motivations for her faith. The structure of her cults also vary greatly depending on the ambitions of her current high priest with some being academic, others undead centric or any number of structures as her high priests dictate. Those who can take and maintain their power have the right to make the rules after all. What is consistent is the praise of the goddess, the collection of secrets and support of the darker magical arts.

Mythology & Lore

Agents of the Goddess While many dark beings turn to Sindra and she has corrupted and converted many fallen celestials there are some among her planer servants more well known than others.
The Darkest Secrets: Devourers are among her most well known allies, these undead fiends and mages are said to have been created by Sindra luring them to the very realms that spelled their doom and return as undead. The first known as her Darkest Secrets are said to have been servants to Asmodeus, Orcus and the horseman Death who angered her and were led to their doom only to return as devourers and pledge their service to Sindra. These unique Devorers are all CR 20 mythic devourers and the goddess uses them to terrifying effectiveness against those foolish enough to stand against her.
Thangaron Devourer of pride: Was once a legendary pit fiend who served Asmodeus faithfully and when his godhood was rebuffed worked to undermine and corrupt the cult of Sindra. The Result was a schism that caused a bloody inquisition. In an act of revenge Sindra used her influence to convince Thangaron he had found her Dark Tower and to take his armies into the planar voids to seige it. Thangaron and an entire legion of powerful devils returned as devourers devoted only to Sindra.
Uzimarix Devourer of anger: Uzimarix was a Balor of no small might and on his way to becoming a favored servant of Orcus when a desperate cult of Orcus summoned him to the mortal realm to attack the Cult of Sindra. The Balor happily agreed and a bloodbath ensued with hundreds of Sindras faithful dead, their souls ripped out by the Demon. In a fit of anger Sindra whispered knowledge of the demon's true name to a powerful conjurer and promised him a great reward if she bound him on the mortal plane for a thousand years. Next when Uzimarix was summoned he was left imprisoned by a lich archmage. After a thousand years his anger knew no bounds and the Balor claimed he would kill the lich and see his goddess fall. When the thousand years of imprisonment ended Uzimarix was at last free and rushed from his summoning circle to kill his Summoner only to fall into a trap that cast him into the darkest depths of the planes where he would perish and return as a Devourer.
Dolvanothi Devourer of hate: Long ago when the world once stood on the brink of planer invasion due to the activation of the fiend mirrors a servant of the four horsemen came as a herald of the end times. Dolvanothi was a unique deamon who preached that the time of mortals was over. During this time he murdered a powerful sorceress who had Sindras favor. As the Sorceress died she uttered a death curse upon Dolvanothi saying he would serve the goddess to replace her faithful he had killed. Dolvanothi laughed at the dying woman smugly stating no god or goddess had power over him. The army of undead and the six grave knights who later crushed Dolvanothi ripped out his essence in Sindras name and proved him wrong. His essence was then cast into the dark void in the goddesses name where it would be reborn as her third Devourer servant.

Worship

The holy services of Sindra are yet again at the choice of her high priests and can vary from bloody sacrifice to quiet meditation. Nearly every cult leader claims his or her services please the goddess and have the best results. In spite of this some rituals of worship have become common among her faith regardless of its current leader and their ideas as noted.
The Hearts Secret this is a marriage ritual or more often a eloping ritual. Performed for star crossed lovers and the faithful alike this secret marriage rite bonds two people as husband and wife. The couple in question wear masks and vows are exchanged on writing sheets of parchment hidden in ornate boxes. The entire ceremony is done in dim lighting and near silence and made official when the priest or priestess splashs the couple in unholy water.
The Rebirthday Most faiths consider becoming an undead creature a curse but for the church of the dark lady is an excuse to celebrate. When one of her faithful becomes an intelligent undead creature they are brought to an unholy site and a solemn ritual where they are welcomed into the world anew starts. This is at first akin to funeral where their past life is laid to rest. After this symbolic death the undead is anointed and the quiet gathering erupts into a celebration of the undead's new existence. These parties can range from polite get-togethers to raucous debauched parties that spill over into riotous orgies of blood in the streets.
Temples The Holy places of Sindra come in a number of varieties with few exceptions; they are secret academies and gathering places hidden behind false fronts or out of sight. In the few places she is openly worshipped this practice is still kept with a false temple in front and her true unholy place hidden from sight. All of her temples will include a library of some sort to contain secrets and arcane lore. It is also common for her temples to have false paths, hidden doors, dead ends and deadly traps meant to confuse and kill interlopers. Her largest temples also double as places to teach and research the dark arts or act as homes for powerful undead. In some cases the manor of a vampire lord or a nest of ghouls is the facade that hides an altar and cult of Sindra who serve the undead creature or creatures.
Her largest and most open temple is called the Dark Ladies Boudoir and is in the city of Degara. This large temple is fashioned of black marble polished daily to a near mirror sheen. The soaring roof and pillars are reminiscent of older styles of building and within lay countless books on theological and arcane study all accessible to any who would wish to read them. However in truth the real alter of Sindra and her true temple is below hidden in deep and yawning catacombs where the most powerful of her lich-priests, a man known as the Father of Bones rules.

Priesthood

A priest of Sindra is expected to spread the worship of the lady with whispered words and with the temptation of power. Sindra does not want everyone to follow her, she only desires people of ambition and drive for others who do not amuse her. To this end her priests often pretend to worship other gods, watch and find potentially useful members of the faith to coerce or arrange for them to require the ladies' power.
While most of her clergy do not demand the undead serve the lady, her priests have been known to seek undead to convert to the goddess. They have also been known to seek out particularly heretical or heathenous undead to enslave or be destroyed by the will of the goddess.
Her faith also actively opposes deamon, devil and demon lords who profess rulership of the undead as she refuses to share her beloved with lesser beings. This goes so far that her faithful will infiltrate such cults, steal their most damning secrets and give them to do-gooding faiths. Sometimes even letting the so-called heroes know that their aid came from the goddess of black magic to see how they react.
The faith also takes the teaching and spreading of the arcane arts very seriously. Young mages are expected to quickly develop an understanding of their own limits and how far they can push them. However, they also encourage them to push themselves to dangerous, sometimes lethal limits after all only the strong and best will become great someday.
The faith's inquisitors known as Secret Seekers are often tasked to learn secrets the faith can leverage to gain power. They also seek out cults of fiends who worship who would steal her undead children and work to punish those who hate and opress magic users and undead.
Vestaments Sindas faithful often display a desire for the finer things as befits ambitious desires and their clothing tends to be extravagant with black silks or furs being contrasted by polished silver. These clothes also often exude confidence and are cut to show off the priestess beauty and power. Even lower ranked members of the faith are expected to dress to impress and good hygiene is a hallmark of the clergy. Armor and adventuring garb is equally important and often her clergy seek out finer equipment not just for necessity but because it is a display of power and ambition. Magical items are especially treasured and either shown proudly or secreted away for the personal enjoyment of the priest alone.
Her ritual garb for females is a shear cut black robe with silver thread and a dark haired wig if she does not have dark hair already. For males it is an elegant black suit with silver buttons and if the male priest is not undead a skull mask is worn covering the top half of his face.

Political Influence & Intrigue

Relation with other religions As a Custodian deity most agree that Sindra is intrinsic to the way the cosmos works. Most good aligned gods aren't fond of her but know they can’t really get rid of her. While her mortal faithful may be targeted by crusades more often witch hunts and even outlawed in some regions few if any good aligned gods consider her a true and direct enemy. Trathar is the exception but rather than seek her destruction he understands what she must be and his battle with her is one of words, intellectual conversation and attempted redemption.
Most of the evil gods native to the world see her as a mother figure, a mother figure who they long to have the favor of yet do not trust what so ever. Her clergy often act as advisors and aids to servants of other dark gods but sometimes will engineer their fall or push them to take dangerous actions to feed their ambitions. This has lead to an uneasy trust of Sindras faithful by other servants of dark powers. Yet they also know her faithful provide knowledge and power that is often needed and grudging seek them out.
Most other gods may find her distasteful or hate her undead children for various reasons but understand there is no point in hating her for being a cosmic embodiment of evil is her nature. Some even go so far as to work with her understanding that the risk is worth the reward.
Asmodeus, Orcus, and the various lords of the lower planes who claim they are the masters of evil, rulers of undead or gods of black magic incur her ire like no other. She is the alpha and omega in this universe when it comes to her concerns and her faithful have waged terrible crusades against the cults of alien gods and lower planer cults that dare to usurp her might. These cult wars have cost Asmodeus and Lamashtu their dietyhood on this plane reducing them to mere planer lords and seen the faithful of Orcus driven to near extinction among countless other fiend cults that sought to take her titles. While the gods of evil are her family and she their dark mother who loves them in her own dark way, divine interlopers must bow before her or be ground under her boot heel or subservient to her in her role as the cosmic manifestation of evil.

Deities

• Sindra the Custodian of Evil

Divines

• Sindra the Custodian of Evil