Hylocephone

Hylocephone is the goddess of death, rendered blind and deaf to all but the final moments of a mortal’s life. She is popularly depicted as a pale angelic figure with soot-black wings trapped in a deep cavern, feeling her way blindly toward an unfortunate spelunker to offer them comfort, and her divine realm takes this same form; a maze of pitch-black caverns and tunnels that seem to shift to confound anybody within. Indeed, this is very much the case; unlike most deities’ divine realms, Hylocephone’s is not controlled by her, it is instead her prison.

## History

In time immemorial, Hylocephone is believed to have been a goddess of fertility or agriculture, but the tale of her origin states that she grieved so greatly for every mortal life lost that her concern for bringing new life eventually faded, and she began obsessing over death - in particular, how to prevent it. When the other gods became aware of her plot to eradicate the concept of death itself by providing ‘life’ after death; a concept known now as Undeath, the gods clawed out her eyes and tongue before banishing her to eternal imprisonment within the moon to maintain the natural order.

Hylocephone is incapable of communicating directly with her faithful, except in their dying moments. Instead, Hylocephonian priests partake in astrology and astronomy in an attempt to divine her wishes. As such, other than a near-universal agreement that she desires freedom and an end to mortal suffering, Her sects are extremely varied, tending to be small and decentralised.

While Hylocephone has a Herald, the Sandman, he has never been clearly seen. He is believed to have originally been a powerful oneiromancer who managed to make contact with Hylocephone by inducing a coma through a mix of potent drugs and powerful magic. Other than this tale and his name, the Sandman has never actually been witnessed and therefore cannot be confirmed to even exist, though he is believed to occasionally offer relief to those suffering by allowing them to drift into a restful sleep. His lack of presence is typically presumed to be due to spending much of his time researching ways to free his mistress and allow her to walk the earth like the other gods.

### Hylocephone and the Death Domain

Due to the impositions of the other gods, Hylocephone is incapable of creating Undead, and therefore she cannot grant spells to Her devotees to do the same. Hylocephonian Clerics with the Death domain replace *Animate Dead* with *Speak with Dead*, *Create Undead* with *Antilife Shell*, and *Create Greater Undead* with *Symbol of Death* as Domain Spells.

## Edicts & Anathema

Hylocephone's Edicts are unknown, due to her imprisonment. Thus, each worshipper must interpret them for themselves. The only thing universally agreed upon is that one of Hylocephone's Edicts is to attempt to free her so that she can end mortal suffering. The exact methods by which Hylocephone can be freed are entirely unknown and, once again, is typically interpreted by the worshipper or their sect.

Other examples of Edicts a worshipper might believe Hylocephone to declare include:

* Create intelligent undead from the bodies of those who are willing or who died tragically.
* Shelter intelligent undead from those who would persecute them, wherever reasonably possible.
* Alleviate the suffering of the living, either by lending aid or by granting them a swift and painless death.
* Destroy mindless undead, as their lack of free will makes them a false and twisted impression of true post-mortality.
* Combat or work against the other deities to weaken their power.

Hylocephone's Anathema are, in no particular order:

* Bring undue suffering to another person (living, undead, or otherwise).
* Purposefully kill a sapient being before their time has come.
* Desecrate a corpse or tarnish the memory of a dead person without due cause.