Dynam

God of Slaughter, Murder, and Calamity.

Dynam is the son of Pale and Lloth, the twin brother of Kibni, and the half-brother of Maeglin/Ohzoz.

Jealous of the power of the Astral Court, Lloth schemed to steal their power for herself. For centuries she stoked discord between her husband and their sons. Kibni responded by isolating himself and turning to wine and debauchery, but Dynam grew increasingly volatile. 2500 years before the cataclysm, Lloth engineered a terrible argument between Dynam and Pale. The result was Dynam leaving the Astral Court for good, and Lloth, making a show of supporting her son, left as well.

Within two and a half centuries of preparation, Lloth and Dynam were ready to strike. Lloth reached out to Pale and convinced him that Dynam wanted to meet with his father and repair their relationship. Eager to reunite his family, Pale failed to see the trap. To the horror of Adthea and the other elven gods, Dynam slew his father Pale and took his place as the God of Death.

Lloth tricked and bound the dragon god Ohzaz, and encouraged Dynam to slay him in order to help elevate his mortal half brother Maeglin to godhood as well. Dynam took great pleasure in slaying the ancient god, and as Maeglin drank his blood the power of Ohzaz flowed into him. Maeglin ascended to the Eternal throne heralded as Ohzoz made flesh where he reigned as God-Emperor for 350 years. Those were among the darkest days the world has ever seen. The Wars of Terror raged, and with Dynam as the god of death, slaughter and violence reigned supreme. Even the dead had no rest, rather than returning the Field of Souls or being gently guided to their patron god’s afterlife, Dynam brought all the souls he could catch to his twisted domain where he made the dead fight each other and be repeatedly devoured by terrible beasts for his amusement.

Unbeknownst to Dynam, Pale had not been utterly destroyed when struck down by his son. With the last shred of his power, Pale had transported himself to Terra where he was tended to by an elvish healer named Airmed. For three hundred and fifty years she nursed the comatose god back to health, a feat which saw her posthumously elevated to goddess of healing and medicine. Meanwhile, the people of Terra were desperately praying for the return of the kindly release Death had once brought their ancestors. When Pale awoke, the power of combined prayers of mortal kind invigorated him. Pale renewed his alliance with his divine parents and siblings and declared war on his former lover and their son. The forces of the Astral Court marched on the realms of Dynam and Lloth. Gods and angels battle across the astral and shadow planes, and eventually the gods broke Dynam's domain and drove him into hiding in the shadow plane. His mother and brother were also defeated and driven into exile.

Since his defeat, Dynam has not been involved in many major events or had much contact with any of the other gods. With an army of his remaining fiends, he has built a new domain for himself in the shadow plane. From here he launches raids on the mortal realms and on the paths of the dead. He kills for the sheer joy of killing and enjoys watching violence and tragedy. He has been known to create undead so that those he kills, in turn, continue the slaughter. Many souls that fall into his grasp are tortured in the shadow realm until they lose all semblance of their former selves and become demons.

Dynam has few followers among the living, but sometimes desperate or insane mortals pledge their eternal service to him in exchange for the opportunity to kill. Some of these bargainers desire the power to defeat a particular foe, but most do not care who they kill, as long as they get to do it. Cults of these deranged serial killers spring up around the world and are known for their wanton violence and cruelty. The cults tend to be particularly active around the peripheral of war, where they prey on anyone foolish enough to be traveling alone or in small groups.