Pantheon: The Keeper

Lady of the Dead, Keeper of the Dead, the Revenancer, the Mistress of Vengeance

Kiaransalee, the Lady of the Dead, or known more simply as The Keeper, is a deity whose portfolio includes vengeance and the undead. The Keeper is a cruel, twisted and vengeful deity. The Lady of the Dead became insane ages ago; however, she managed to keep her cunning and she could still clearly remember every slight or insult towards her, whether it was real or imagined. The Keeper is swift to anger, powerful, and has plotted a dark revenge to all who have wronged her. The Keeper prefers company from the mindless undead she can manipulate at will, over sentient beings that are possessed of independent thought. She rarely trusts anyone else to do justice to her vision and thus prefers to settle her problems herself. In this way, she has become the patron deity for all those who feel wronged and desire revenge.

Whispers of legend tell that Kiaransalee was once mortal and the lover of Kali Kaal, but spurned him when he chose to keep arcane secrets from her, and ascended to divinity in order to demonstrate her greater mastery of death than his. Whether this is true or not, The Keeper's clergy are constantly on the lookout for Kali's activities and constantly look to subvert or outright defy them.

Clerical details

Domains: Dark, Death, Vengeance

Weapon: Stiletto (dagger) or mace

Worshipers, Clergy & Temples

The Keeper's clergy is comprised of orderly regimented cells, but the faith lacks in overall organization. The Revenancer's clerics are mostly found in small communities or in special enclaves, and act constantly in secret. Her clerics are agents of vengeance who plot against anyone who ever slighted the faith. They regularly organize slaying missions to acquire corpses for animation, and are very active in persecuting slaves. A few of the church also join the Cult of the Wyrm and become Wearers of Purple, but are expected to always defer to The Keeper's agenda where it conflicts with that of the Cult's. Eventually, most became undead themselves. The clergy of The Keeper includes both living and undead, and tends strongly more towards female clergy.

Vestments

The Keeper's priestesses dress in loose black robes with hooded cowls stitched with bone and ivory. They wear gray skullcaps on their shaven heads and thin silver rings on every finger save the thumb. and sporting at least one silver ring in each hand. Some spread a grayish paste made of the ashes of incinerated corpses over all uncovered skin. Their ranks are primarily clerics, with a healthy mix of pale masters and necromancers.

Priests of The Keeper are forbidden to wear any sort of armor, preferring to trust their own magical defenses and the combat skills of their undead bodyguards. Many priests substitute a silver ring of protection for one of their ceremonial rings to supplement their defenses. Members of the Revenancer's clergy are trained in a wide variety of weapons, but most favor slim poisoned blades, garrotes, and maces so as to minimize the damage to bodies that could later be animated.

Hierarchy

The Keeper's clergy are known collectively as the Crones of Thanatos. High ranking priestesses are called Yathrinshee. Novices are known as the Commanded. All other members of the clergy are known as Nighthags. Titles used by the Lady of Death's priests vary widely across temple hierarchies, but those used at the Acropolis of Thanatos include Bones of the Dead, Flesh of the Zombie, Terror Touch of the Ghoul, Chill Touch of the Shadow, Raking Claws of the Wight, Life Leech of the Wraith, Rot of the Mummy, and Spirit Harvest of the Spectre.

As one might expect, many of the Lady's faithful are transformed into undead servitors either by their own hands, by the hands of other priests, or--in very rare cases--by the hand of the goddess herself. High-ranking priests may become banshees, liches, vampires, or—-if truly favored—-Kiaranshee, banshees who retain their spellcasting powers, whether they were necromancers or priests.

Temples

The Keeper is worshiped in solitary secrecy in simple shrines hidden away from prying eyes. Such shrines are often black marble sarcophagi adorned with carved depictions of the dead rising up to take their revenge on the living, but in more modest settings black stone (or even black-painted walls) suffice. To venerate the Lady of the Dead, a priest of The Keeper simply lies within her personal sarcophagus while holding her holy symbol clasped in two hands across her breast. According to legend, if a living priest of the Revenancer is disturbed while so engaged, The Keeper grants her the powers of a vampire for the next 24 hours.

While the only true temple of the Lady of the Dead is the Acropolis of Thanatos (a city of legend rumored to have been completely obliterated and its inhabitants all killed), smaller chapels exist in the wilds, particularly in the dark caverns of the Underdark. Such chapels are typically small caves in which the skulls and bones of countless long-dead creatures have been partially absorbed by the walls, roof, or floor of the cavern. The Keeper is said to guide small bands of worshipers to such sites far from the prying eyes of the Arawn's priests, where they can worship in secret and plot their vengeance on their kin, former associates, or anyone else upon whom they seek retribution.

Rituals

Clerics of The Keeper prayed for their spells at midnight, the time of day in which spirits are most restless. Each individual cleric performs a handful of minor devotions to Kiaransalee each month.

Festivals

The Graverending: The single annual holy day of the faith is called the Graverending and was celebrated each Midwinter Eve. The Graverending is an individual ritual, where each cleric animates as many undead as she can handle. These undead revenants are known as Vengeance Hunters and are consumed with a desire for revenge against those that ended their lives. They look to hunt down the killer, and most do so unerringly within 24 hours. If a Vengeance Hunter is destroyed it does not rise again. These undead returned to their graves after either their vengeance has been wrought, or their 24 hours has expired, whichever comes first.

Orders

Legion of Vengeful Banshees: These banshee knights' sole purpose is to take vengeance on those that have wronged The Keeper or her faithful. The Legion is deliberately kept small, operates covertly most of the time, and almost always disperses after each mission. But when the time calls, the Legion assembles, the Legion's Wail begins, and it will not cease until their mission of vengeance--often a brutal and violent affair--is complete.

Dogma

Death comes to all and cruel vengeance will be exacted on those who waste their lives on the petty concerns of this existence. True power comes only from the unquestioning servitude of the once-dead, mastery over death, and the eventual earned stature of one of the ever-living in death. Hunt, slay, and animate those who scorn the Revenancer's power, and answer any slight a thousandfold, so that all may know the coming power of The Keeper of the Dead.