Zon-Kuthon

(Deity)

**Zon-Kuthon** possesses one of the most twisted and evil minds in the multiverse.
His position as *god* *of pain* is well earned, and he has been the root of
countless tortures, murders and worse throughout time.

## Dogma

As a *Kuthite*, you want only to increase the suffering in the world, starting with yourself. Your sense of honor is atrophied and alien, though you protect your toys from others, and will extract revenge if anyone harms those you consider yours. You work to establish new outposts in taste and feeling, drawing others into your circle and slowly revealing the truth that’s found in pain. When a society represses the freedom to practice one’s natural proclivities, especially sexual ones, you see opportunity—you lurk in the hidden establishments where their practitioners can indulge such tastes and tempt them ever further. If their natural states are forbidden by law, but are clearly no danger, why shouldn’t they explore more extreme realms of sensation? You can blackmail your victims, sacrifice them, or welcome them to your congregation—perhaps all three, if you plan carefully. Where possible, you create great works of suffering, both for their own sake and to inspire others to copy you.

## Relations

**Zon-Kuthon** has little concern for the dealing of other deities. As long
 as he can play with his many toys, the *Midnight Lord* has no need for any
alliances, wars, or diplomatic dealings. While often the target of
vengeance from Golarion's good deities, **Zon-Kuthon** himself does little
to instigate conflict. That said, he is not above torturing followers
of other faiths, and does so whenever possible. The only one safe from
his evil ways is his sister Shelyn, though he grants no such immunity to
 her faithful.

## History

At the beginning of time, **Zon-Kuthon** was known as *Dou-Bral*, a good deity who shared the portfolio of beauty, love and the arts with his half-sister Shelyn. *Dou-Bral* abandoned Golarion
 for the dark places between the planes, though, and was tormented there
 and possessed by an alien being. Upon returning to reality, *Dou-Bral*
as he had been known was gone, replaced with the twisted, malevolent
soul known as **Zon-Kuthon**.

When Shelyn saw that her brother was forever changed, and not for
 the better, the two battled, her pleas and tears met with a violence
foreign to the *Dou-Bral* she knew and loved. Shelyn finally wrested the
golden glaive the two had shared a symbol of their power from her
twisted brother's fingers, establishing an tenuous truce, held in place
more by silence and avoidance than any desire to actually coexist.
Seeing the crimes **Zon-Kuthon** committed in 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 *Plane of Shadow* for as long as the sun hung in the sky in exchange for an item from the *First Vault*.
 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 honored his deal, giving **Zon-Kuthon** the first shadow, which *the Midnight Lord* ever since has used to craft *evil creatures* from his realm of *Xovaikain.*