Cryelis
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The Ghost Mother, Queen of the Underworld, She Who Rules The Night

An ancient mystery cult that spread far and wide during the time of the Atalan Empire, the Cult of Cryelis offers continued existence after death - not in a remote home plane of the deity like other gods, but in the Plane of Shadows lurking just below the Material Plane (which they call the Underworld, though technically it only refers to the regions of the Plane of Shadows shaped by her and her minions.)

Her followers become full-fledged ghosts after death, and are able to enter and exit the Underworld at will at certain unhallowed locations where the Material Plane and the Plane of Shadows are - and meddle in the affairs of the living. Their main task while still alive is to spread the extent of the Underworld through ritual sacrifices - their status among ghosts upon their deaths depends on how much they have spread this domain. Their cultists go for quality over quantity in their sacrifices, for the memories of a single well-traveled scholar will be far more useful in making the Underworld grow than several dozens of infants who have never left their native district.

As ghosts, they compete for status and attempt to manipulate events in both the world of the living and the dead to prepare for the prophesied day when the Underworld has covered the whole Plane of Shadows so that the Underworld and the Material Plane merge and the dead can rule the living.

In northern lands, Cryelis also takes on an additional aspect as the personification of cold and winter who takes away all warmth with her embrace.

Cryelis commands her followers thus:

  • Protect the secrets of the dead, and the secrets of the Cult most of all.
  • Give your ancestors their due.
  • Punish those who would desecrate the sacred burial grounds.

Her symbol is a ghostly female figure.

See Also

Adventure Ideas

Designer's Notes & Resources

No fantasy setting can do without a death cult. But here all that death is a tool for a specific purpose: Reshaping an entire plane.

As the cult first came into its own in the Urbis equivalent of the Roman Empire, expect lots of Roman imagery in cult hideouts and rituals.

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