Vinex

## Vinex the Blood God

"When your grip begins to slicken with blood. When your heart races beyond that which you thought possible. When you can hear nothing else but the ringing in your ears and the screams of your fallen foes. Then, and only then, will you know that you have become a warrior. Then will you know you have found your purpose."

## Description

Few entities on the continent of Etera can claim to have existed prior to the Verk Empire, as Maddox’s decades long conquest and attempt at deification rendered most of the old texts, histories, and peoples to naught but ash, dust, and misery. Yet throughout all of the bloodshed and carnage, one entity has consistently been able to carve his name into the annals of the strife-borne continent through an eternal cult of warrior fanatics.

Vinex.

He has been known by many names over the centuries. The Lord of Carnage. The Woebound Warlord. The Sanguine Salvation. The Bloodied Ascended. Yet through all of these names, the entity that calls himself Vinex has remained consistent in his ideological practices and what he craves. Unending war. An everlasting crucible for which greater and greater challengers might emerge and test the bounds of what the world can offer those of truest ambition and determination.

Despite being a god of war, Vinex himself carries the ironic fate of being unable to participate in the slaughter he encourages. Through means or reasons unknown he is trapped in his realm, along with the souls of any who follow him. Sealed away with no means of escape and barring all entry from outside forces, The Patron God of the Bloodzerkers brings about his influence through the use of prophets and chosen champions that have occasionally arisen during his cult’s existence over the centuries.

It is said that it is through these individuals, and the misery that they inevitably bring, that Vinex receives some amount of strength or sustenance with each death performed in his name. Or perhaps he lives somewhat vicariously through their monstrous acts. Either way, none can deny that this method, while limited, has spawned some of the most terrifyingly resilient worshipers in all the realms.

## Domains

While usually referred to as a kind of god of war, Vinex's true nature is somewhat more complex. What little the shamans and clerics of yore have been able to garner invoke images of battle taken to its extreme, the blood-lust and destruction that travels with every step of a war, and the utter despair that stalks those who cannot overcome it.

While some have found these kinds of interpretations to be contrary to the intention of the Woebound Warlord, with expressions of despair running counter to his lessons of one finding a 'purpose,' others have contended that such loss and grief is necessary in order to awaken one's true potential.

Regardless of intent, The Bloodied Ascended Domain's are:

**Chaos** (Entropy), **Evil** (Corruption), **War** (Blood), and **Strength** (Ferocity).

## Favored Weapon

On account of the great quantities of blood that can be spilled by it, but also the amount of skill and strength required to wield one, the Bloodied Ascended has inclined the Butchering Axe to be his Favored Weapon.

## Worshipers

The Woebound Warlord is most venerated primarily by his warrior cult, the Bloodzerkers. Their ways and traditions exonerate the teachings of Vinex in practically all that they do and have done throughout the centuries, often guided as they are by prophetic figures and seers. However, there might also be those outside of the Bloodzerkers who seek the blessings and guidance of the Sanguine Salvation.

Desperate knights always on the front lines, war-driven barbarians seeking a challenge, ambitious conquerors desiring more, and even hopeless rebels praying before one final conflict are all examples of those who might try to invoke Vinex's eye to fall upon them.

## Worship (Being Updated)

Vinex demands little from his worshipers. Just a prayer to him and an offering of blood in some fashion weekly. Either from their own flesh or the flesh of others. More frequent offerings are given more frequent blessings generally in the form of an Oath Boon after taking Oath of Sacrifice. Otherwise his worshipers are free to do what they want, potentially even ignoring his own Prophets and Oracles if they so choose, so long as a the end of the day they continue to spread conflict and bloodshed.

## Mythic Patronage

While many entities on Chronus and beyond grant power to worthy supplicants, one would not find the Sanguine Salvation amongst the ranks of these patrons. For Vinex does not grant power outright, but is said to bestow blessings only upon those who are willing to claim it for themselves. It is said by his prophets and seers that the Bloodied Ascended demands that each man strive to his utmost limit in service to his own Purpose, and that only he and he alone is capable of pursuing it with the necessary vigor required.

To have another bestow boons through begging and prayer is anathema. The Woebound Warrior rewards action, and his cult understand this very well.

## Realm: The Blood Marsh

Few have borne witness to Vinex’s domain. Sealed away from the realms beyond by magic that even deities struggle to unbind it is best described as an afterlife away from all other afterlives. Most can only guess as to the nature of what transpires in the Woebound Warlord’s kingdom, but Bloodzerker prophets and seers have proclaimed that it is a land of unceasing warfare and the tireless pursuit of martial glory. It is a marsh, teeming with fearsome combatants where stamina is plentiful and unending, and where the truly worthy are uplifted beyond the mire that lingers in much of the plane. Blood flows freely from the faux wars conducted, as is to be expected, the ichor helping the land grow verdant and crimson colored trees that are said to reach higher and higher with each death.

It paints a violent, but not all too unpleasant place, where murder is of no consequence to the immortal, and the ever present challenge to hone one’s skills is consistently pushed forward. Each man seeking to be better than his fellows.

However, the truth might be something darker. Those planar scholars who have seen it through visions or other magicks into the dimension, many having gone utterly mad, have described it as a place of grotesque rivers and profound barbarism. Where corpses, and not blood, help elevate fleshy-trees and nauseating fauna to prowl the skies like twisted spires. The sights of warriors, twisted by bloodlust into mockeries of the mortal form, throw themselves time and time again into one another in a bloodletting that knows no end, their minds tainted by countless deaths and rebirths having morphed them into monsters.

All about this place is carnage. Yet between these two tellings, one thing remains consistent, that being the sight of a great and terrible rise of stairs. Composed of bone and sinew, it spirals up and up and up, reaching higher than any tree or man to a place beyond sight and reach. It is said that upon this pillar of mortal failings sits Vinex, awaiting a time when one who is worthy might ascend to challenge him.

## Ascension Rite (Being Updated)

Many of those who worship Vinex have a priority goal in mind. Get stronger and challenge the God to take his place atop the hill of corpses. This Rite seems to have been woven into the very essence of his Realm and Being so that if it is not fulfilled, Vinex may never die. Not even another god could kill him permanently without taking his place as the new Blood God. This is due to the nature of Vinex, how his being is not of this world and constantly is ripped apart and scattered across the multiverse. Only in Babel can he have a presence now, as it is a convergence of many worlds.