Zon-Kuthon

## History

One of the myths told of Zon-Kuthon, is that at the beginning of time he was known as Dou-Bral, a good deity who shared the portfolio of beauty, love, and the arts with his half-sister, Shelyn. During the Age of Creation, Dou-Bral was among the original gods who battled the Rough Beast 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 talents, he abandoned Fynn for the dark places between the planes, and there was tormented and possessed by an alien being. Upon returning, 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 Dou-Bral would never have been capable of. Shelyn finally wrested the golden glaive known as the Whisperer of Souls 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.

## Appearance

As Dou-Bral, Zon-Kuthon was known for his beauty, but his body now resembles a work of art only to those like-minded individuals who find pain and torture to be the pinnacles of existence. Although his exact appearance is said to often change, he generally is depicted as pale, gaunt, and often hairless. He is often depicted wearing tight, sexualized leather clothing, exposing his many open wounds and body modifications. His lips have been removed, giving him a bloody, haunting grin, and hooks and piercings contort his face into revolting expressions, enhanced by the crystal which rests in the cavity where his left eye once sat. Atop his scalp, a vertical crown of spikes pulls his skin into a disturbing sunburst, and the back of his skull is completely gone, revealing his brain. His hands end in long, knife-like fingernails. His appearance is simplified in most mortal representations of him, showing him as a pale, gaunt human with a single, significant wound.

## Relationships

Zon-Kuthon has little concern for the dealing of other deities. As long as he can play with his many toys, the Dark Prince has no need for any alliances, wars, or diplomatic dealings. While often the target of vengeance from 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. That said, clerics of Zon-Kuthon never harm known clerics of Shelyn—doing so results in harsh punishments that do not end with death—but sometimes they actually try to protect such clerics. This behaviour earns them divine rewards.

## Church

There is no centralized church of Zon-Kuthon, and independent churches are content to cause and revel in the pain and misery they are able to inflict upon their corner of the world. As an ordered faith, however, each sect has a clearly-defined hierarchy, based on physical power, endurance, willingness and ability to endure pain, and similar elements related to church practices.

## Servants

### Worshipers and Clergy

Kuthites run the gamut in their origins and motivations for joining the faith, whether they be evil sadists, demented masochists, or those whose spirits are so wounded that only overwhelming pain distracts them from their sorrows. Others who immerse themselves in spiritual darkness often find themselves drawn to his anthracite embrace.

Clergy tend to take their fervor for pain and agony to higher levels than lay believers, but are also experts at blending in with normal society. Most clergy of Zon-Kuthon are clerics, and the number of blackguards is limited at best. Despite its strict hierarchy, the church has no standardized vestments, although most priests can be identified via their self-mutiliation and love of black leather.

## Temples and Shrines

Temples of Zon-Kuthon are, for all intents and purposes, torture chambers, and often function as such even when not in use for religious ceremonies. Because of the unique and often disapproved-of practices that take place in the church, temporary temples in caves or basements are kept fairly simple with decorations and tools brought in especially for services. The tools are often disguised as farming implements, should the secret cult be exposed. In more remote areas, believers might make impromptu shrines in places where violence and pain have occurred.

## Holy Texts

Kuthites are not bookish worshipers, often choosing to experience their faith rather than study it in a text.

### The Umbral Leaves

The tenets of Zon-Kuthon's faith are detailed in this grisly book, written in blood on pages of flayed skin by a mad prophet.

## Holidays

The faith of the Dark Prince has few holidays but, Zon-Kuthon being the god of darkness, regular worship generally occurs on nights of a new moon.

### The Joymaking

In an effort to concentrate the sensation of pain, this practice allows the wealthiest and luckiest of Kuthites to have their limbs and non-vital organs amputated so that they remain a helpless head and torso, destined to live the rest of their lives as the subjects of limitless torture.

### The Eternal Kiss

On the first new moon of the new year, Kuthites perform a sacrifice. This annual sacrifice lasts eleven days and often involves using the victim's entrails or cries of pain as soothsaying tools.

## Presence on Fynn

Followers of Zon-Kuthon are most often found amongst the Guild of Chains and the more violently disposed slave owners of Fore-Etum and the Federation of Free States. Currently there are no official temples to the Dark Prince in any city on Fynn, though some may exist in hidden caves and such.