The Lord of Undead

The King of Ghouls is the deity of the undying. He represents the desire to persist in the physical world beyond the grave, the unnatural craving to preserve one’s personality after life. The god symbolizes the power of the mind over the needs of the spirit and body. As such, he is the devourer of souls and cannibal of the dead. His dark will first changes and ultimately consumes the human body after death. The god loves venom, putrefaction and decay; his heralds are the worm, vulture, and hyena.

The priests of this god, also known as Charnelists, worship all undead as an embodiment of their deity. Even the most humble animated skeleton is a symbol of his power and must be treated with respect. The Charnelists are protectors and allies of undead; some groups chose a single undead form and revere it as a sacred icon of their god. Others seek to create new undead to serve their deity, or to convert existing undead to his worship. Those who refuse to convert are destroyed, their dust scattered to the winds as a warning to others. This evil and destructive priesthood is only appropriate for NPCs in the campaign.

Alignment: The God of Undead is lawful evil, but his priesthood may of any evil alignment (neutral and lawful types predominate). Worshippers are usually neutral or evil in alignment.

Minimum Ability Scores: Intelligence 13, Wisdom 14.

Weapon Proficiencies: Charnelists employ bludgeoning weapons common to most priests, preferring the spiked mace and flail in melee (they prefer to fight two-handed, if Dexterity permits). They may also learn the warhammer, staff, sling, and club.

Dress/Armor Allowed: These priests favor somber plum robes, limned in silver thread, worn over blackened plate or chain mail. Instead of a helm, they wear an ornate silver circlet that is fashioned like a crown of worms. They may not use any form of shield.

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Required (this new wizard skill takes 1 slot only): necrology. Recommended: (General) herbalism (poison manufacture), etiquette, heraldry; (Wizard) anatomy; (Priest) herbalism, reading/writing, religion, spellcraft. (Rogue): disguise, reading lips. Forbidden: none.

Role: The King of Undead, known by some as Thasmudyan, is only publicly worshiped in a few cities isolated from mainstream civilization by tall mountains, the forbidding desert, or the trackless sea. In these backward locales, the main temple serves literally as a charnel house where the bodies of the dead are deposited by the citizens as an offering. There the cadavers rot and decay until they are consumed by the King’s avatar and his fanatical clergy. These cities almost always have a dark and sinister reputation, one that is quite well-deserved for what should be obvious reasons. Worship of the Ghoul God is strictly forbidden in most civilized nations, forcing the religion to operate there like a secret society.

Each separate priesthood of the Lord of Undead has its own agenda of magical research related to death and the undead. Despite this division, or perhaps because of it, the individual temples communicate effectively with each other, either by spell or magical item. Some priesthoods investigate deadly poisons that will create new forms of undead; others try to mate and crossbreed humans with other venomous creatures, attempting to create a superior race of undead beings.

A few temples operate like the Cult of the Dragon in the Forgotten Realms, which seeks out evil dragons and converts them into dracoliches, the focus of their religion. Others, like the Cult of Worms described in Chapter Nine of this book, strive to spread knowledge about attaining lichdom to any interested person. Whatever their specific role, the Charnelists are yet another potential nemesis for the campaign.

Spheres of Influence: Major Access to All, Astral, Charm, Necromantic, Summoning, Thought (TOM). Minor Access to Combat, Divination, Protection, and Sun.

Granted Necromantic Spells: 1st: invisibility to undead, skeletal servant, spectral senses, undead alacrity; 2nd: aid, resist turning, slow poison; 3rd: animate dead, death’s door, feign death, life drain, negative plane protection, speak with dead; 4th: cause insanity/cure insanity, poison/neutralize poison; 5th: dispel good, imbue undead with spell ability, slay living, scourge, undead regeneration; 6th: asphyxiate, summon undead; 7th: death pact, destruction, energy drain, mindkiller (TOM), wither; Quest: undead plague (TOM).

Granted Powers: Charnelists have great authority over any undead they encounter. Starting at first level, they affect three times the regular number of creatures per successful turning attempt (this translates to 6d6 undead, plus 6d4 extra creatures when denoted by a * on Table 47 on page 67 of the DMG).

Once a priest reaches 6th level, he or she gains the ability to fashion exceptional undead; any skeletons or zombies which are animated (either by skeletal servant or animate dead) gain an additional +1 hit point per hit die.

Starting at 9th level, the priests learn all of the secret rites that create powerful undead. They first learn how to make ghouls or ghasts (9th level). Then, at 12th level, they learn to create ju-ju zombies and mummies. Finally, at 16th level, they learn the secrets of vampirism and lichdom. All of these rites require numerous sacrifices (from 1–20 fresh corpses) and vast amounts of wealth in the form of rare components (1,000–20,000 gp). Even if both were available in unlimited quantities, the ritual can still only be performed once a month and creates but one undead creature.

Eventually, once a priest has received permission from his or her deity (usually after performing some notable deed or quest for the benefit of the religion), the priest will undergo the process of performing the transformation upon him- or herself, joining the mighty Lord of Undead in (potentially) everlasting undeath. This is the ultimate dream for many such priests.

Other Limitations: The Ghoul God is a ravenous deity, demanding constant sacrifice. Usually dead bodies (the more recently dead, the better) are preferred, but exhumed cadavers can serve as a substitute in times of need or persecution (which happens as often as one might come to expect of such a morbid cult).

Thasmudyan’s worship is rumored to include several obscene rituals, the least of which includes cannibalism of the dead and necrophilia. Charnelists are accordingly forbidden from marrying or engaging in any intimate relations with the living.

Possible Symbols: The Vulture, the Hyena, Skeletal Hand, Crown of Worms.

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