Skar

It is generally understood that all deities will eventually find a niche through which they will be loved and worshiped. Even Dvatnir, for all of their pensions of cataclysms and tragedy, has active, reverent followers, who believe their ideals, and express them in physical form within the world. The only exception to this rule, however, is Skar. Most common folk despise the things Skar represents, and otherwise fear the forsaken god. His followers, however, despise him. Despise what he represents, what he has done to them, what he endeavors to do to them in the future. Skar seems to relish and thrive on this hate, and rewards those of his clergy that hate him most of all. Only The Morinfrüe Dominion allows the worship of Skar, while other nations outright ban his presence. What most countries don’t seem to notice is that Skar seems to enjoy this state: after all, his greatest work lies, as ever, in the shadows. While Skar employs the use of manifestations, as do all gods, their functions seem inherently different. As opposed to being three, cooperative parts of a whole, Skar’s aspects are constantly scheming and fighting each other, vying for control over the whole. This self-flagellation is a constant in most cults of Skar, and the deluded that follow in the footsteps of this cruel and vindictive deity are often the most fragile, and the easiest to take advantage of.

### The Silent Master

The first of Skar’s manifestations is the Silent Master. The Master is representative of Skar’s power over control, and it holds dominion over defiance, tyranny, and rebellions. This manifestation’s representation is an odd one. Most murals or paintings don’t focus on the Silent Master, they focus on the being it shadows: Alreida. The images show Alreida, in her form as the Exiled Queen, constantly being followed by a hunched, broken figure, which clutches the pommel of a twister, gnarly dagger. They always seem to imply that Skar is seconds away from stabbing the other deity, and usurping her place. The actual churches of Alreida find these representations deeply, deeply insulting, and seek to destroy them whenever they can find them.

### Shadowhood

The second of Skar’s manifestations is what most people would consider to be the ‘mildest one’: Shadowhood, the patron saint of torturers and executioners everywhere. Shadowhood holds dominion over torture, cruelty, and schemes, and takes the appearance of a massive man wielding a gnarled, bloody axe, an executioner's hood pulled over the face. The only official church of Skar in the world, the Hangsmen, in the Morinfrue Dominion, worships this manifestation, and all of the clergy consists of murderous psychopaths, who have what they perceive to be the clearly enviable task of executing enemies of the state. Not to be understated, however, worshipers of Shadowhood also happen to be the most proficient torturers in the world, a skill which the Morinfrue Dominion supposedly admonishes and refuses to make use of.

### The Lord of Night

The final manifestation of the Forsaken God is the Lord of Night, a scarred and scabbed human being whose skin looks as if it has been covered in tar and who smells of burning, rotten flesh. The Lord of Night holds dominion over the aspects of hate and envy. Its followers consist of those displeased with their stations in life, like greedy nobles or downtrodden commoners. Skar aids these people achieve success in life, but then entirely abandons them once they’ve succeeded, for their success no longer pleases the Lord of Night. This creates a vicious cycle of hate and envy, which plays quite nicely into the manifestations goals.

As has been stated, the worship of Skar is outlawed nearly everywhere in the world. That hasn’t stopped a slew of cults from rising, however, each of which revere a different aspect of the deity. The Church of Sin is the first, a massive organization which makes its home somewhere in the Lower Steeps, away from the gaze of normal mortals. The Church of Sin is tied to the Silent Master, and they do everything in their power to discredit the powers of civilization, destroy the hopes of kin, and cause general chaos. Their most excitable activity is the destruction of prized relics and cultural heirlooms, and the ruins of Rhaedyris in the Lower Steeps allows them to do this in ample measure. The second of these cults is the Crimson Chorus, dedicated to the Lord of Night. This roving band of madmen, murderers and killers has no organization, no structure: they simply roam the countryside, killing, pillaging, and stealing. When they arrive at a village, they slaughter its armed inhabitants, and then force families to kill each other. The Crimson Chorus that currently exists is not the first one: many, many others have popped up all across the world, and most have been eradicated by armed forces or heroic adventurers. It only takes a few months, however, for another Chorus to arise, and no one knows how such a thing happens. Thankfully, however, there is only ever one chorus at a time. The current one consists of about 1,000 people, and roams the wilderlands of the Free Cities. The Archmagi, unwilling to allow their people to be mercilessly slaughtered, have attempted to use their magic to halt the advances of the Chorus, but seemingly to no avail: some higher power is keeping the murderers hidden and away from sight, and someone else will need to step-up to take care of this damning threat.