Church of Zon-kuthon

Zon-kuthon's faith attracts evil sadists, demented masochists, and those whose spirits are so wounded that only overwhelming pain distracts them from their sorrows. He whips the minds of serial killers, guides the hands of torturers, and plays upon the nerves of the suffering. He is the patron of slave masters, back-alley surgeons, and those driven to madness by envy and loss - people so injured that they come to revel in pain or joyfully inflict the same upon others.

Mythology & Lore

Myths tell that at the beginning of time, Zon-kuthon was known as Dou-bral. The son of of the divine spirit-wolf Thron(link), he was a good deity who shared his appreciation of beauty, love, and the arts with his half-sister, Shelyn(link). During the ███ ██ ████████

/*Age of Creation*/

, Dou-bral was among the original deities(link) who battled ███████

/*Rovagug*/

who sought to destroy Golarion, and were eventually able to contain him in the ████ █████

/*Dead Vault*/

. When Dou-bral grew jealous of his sister's(link) talents, he abandoned Golarion for the dark places(link) between and beyond the planes, and there was tormented and possessed by an alien being(link). Upon returning to our reality, Dou-bral as he had been known was gone, replaced with the twisted, malevolent soul known as Zon-kuthon.

When Shelyn(link) saw that her brother was forever changed, and not for the better, the two battled, her pleas and tears met with a violence Dou-bral would never have been capable of. Shelyn(link) finally wrested the golden glaive known as the Whisperer of Souls(link) the two had shared (a symbol of their power) from her twisted brother's fingers, and established a tenuous truce that held in place more by silence and avoidance than any desire to actually coexist.

---

A second myth speaks of how Zon-kuthon first came into conflict with Abadar. Seeing the crimes Zon-kuthon committed on Golarion, Abadar knew that he must be punished, and made a bargain with the evil god. Zon-kuthon agreed to go into exile on the Shadow Plane for as long as the sun hung in the sky in exchange for an item of his choosing from the First Vault(link). This imprisonment was not meant to be over as soon as it was, though, and when the sun stopped shining upon Golarion during the ███ ██ ████████

/*Age of Darkness*/

, Abadar reluctantly honored the deal, giving Zon-kuthon the first undead shadow(link), which the Midnight Lord has used to craft evil creatures in his realm of Xovaikain ever since.

Tenets of Faith

His church has no overarching organisational tenets beyond bringing pain to the universe, yet it still manages to remain a major presence due to the discoveries of the Joyful Things(link) - voluntary amputees whose lack of limbs or sensory organs leaves them plenty of time to design ever more sinister devices for Kuthite arms dealers (such as shadowdrives(link), which were popular before the discovery of Drift travel among those willing to trade excruciating pain for speed).

Priesthood

His priests, known as the Servants of Midnight, seek to pierce the veil of the Great Beyond and expose themselves to what lies there, hoping to achieve the same apotheosis as Zon-Kuthon himself. His personal divine servitors are the lampadarius(link) velstracs(link), creatures who embrace Zon-Kuthon's love of pain by continuously cutting off parts of their bodies and replacing them with the burning darkness from the Shadow Plane.

Temples

Zon-Kuthon’s temples are torture chambers, both in appearance and function, and worship services always incorporate torture and self-mutilation, blurring the line between pleasure and pain.

Unique Servants

• Dominik the Unquenchable: Dominik is a vampire who was tortured and mutilated by Kuthites, and who is plagued with the inability to quench his undying thirst due to a permanent wound which removed his digestive organs.
• Prince in Chains: A lasting reminder of Zon-Kuthon's decadence, the god's herald is the tormented remnant of Thron(link), the spirit-wolf who sired Dou-Bral and Shelyn.
• Umbral Shepherds: These strange, otherworldly creatures are servants eternally devoted to Zon-Kuthon who use their powers to possess creatures and further the agenda of their master.
• Vreet-Hall: This chain devil(link) is covered in wounds that it inflicts upon itself, and which transform into other organs, each performing their normal function.

Granted Divine Powers

Zon-kuthon and his followers are more concerned with pain than they are symbols of the faith, but clerics are known to summon shadows(link) and erinyes(link) to do their bidding.

Type

Religious, Cult

Demonym

Kuthite

Deities

• Zon-kuthon

Divines

• Zon-kuthon