Nerull is the Neutral Evil deity of the death, darkness, murder, and the underworld.
About
Nerull's clerical domain is death. His responsibilities include slaying living and un-dead, watching over and/or torturing departed souls, and maintaining the balance between life and death. Known for being harsh and demanding at his best, and reckless and bitter at his worst, Nerull often found himself subject to human selfishness and greed which caused him to act foolishly.
Nerull is the God of Death, darkness, murder, and his native home plane is Carceri, though presently he resides in the Shadowfell.
Nerull is also known as The Reaper. Other titles include "Hater of Life" and "Bringer of Darkness".
Nerull's symbol is a skull and scythe. His iconic weapon is the "Life Cutter" which instantly ends the life of a creature and moves its soul to the afterlife.
Nerull is often times the favored patron of Assassins and Thieves, but they only make up a splinter of a great clergy of philosophers who understand the vital importance of death and try to make sure death comes at the right time and is never cheated.
Nerull's shrines are typically in subterranean vaults and other ossuaries.
Murder to Nerull is not an evil act, nor a good one, but a natural end to the force of life.
Nerull uses a necklace of strangulation, bag of devouring, and rug of smothering, employing them like an assassin. It is rumored that his other items, like his trade mark scythe, are used to move souls to the afterlife, and channel a powerful divine magic that only Nerull has control over.
Nerull's ceremonies in his temples are done in full darkness with a ghastly litany full of worship of death and the vitality of suffering as the meeting of life with darkness.
Human sacrifice isn't unheard of in most Nerull temples.
The God of hatred, pain, and murder, Nerull was a powerful (and arguably near omnipotent) deity who had the power to slay cities and crush continents only by speaking their name. His hatred was so strong, in fact, that he was in a constant state of fury and discomfort and constantly lashed out at the other members of the pantheon.
Nerull was absent during the period of time known as the Holy Wars, a period in which the gods made themselves present among mortals first time since the ancient Infernal Emergence.
Nerull's faithful believe they will be rewarded for acts of murder. Many funnel these murders into doing good for the realm, while others will cold bloodedly kill just to appease their god.
Nerull can travel any of the Lower Outer Planes, the Astral and Ethereal Planes, and the Elemental and Prime Material Planes as well.
In the aftermath of the Holy War, Nerull is known to have placed a curse on all 1,043,014 known dragon corpses to prevent their disturbance by powers trying to bring them to life.
In the CR era, the gods were often forgotten or worshipped as distant, non-present deities. Nerull grew bored of this, and attempted to regain a physical form through the dark magic of a branch of his cult in the city of Ravendean. This was thwarted when a group of teenagers were able to banish all magic from the area, but it's doubtful that he has given up entirely.
Beliefs & Tenant
- Nerull supports murder. Mercy isn't a factor, and unpleasant deaths are his favorite.
- This is one of the most cut and dry parts of a Nerullite's faith. In a majority of instances, it would be blasphemy against Nerull to save the life of someone that is dying.
- Resurrection is blasphemy against Nerull's portfolio of death. Clerics of other faiths who are capable of resurrection are one of Nerull's favored targets, and preventing the resurrection of a great hero or a lord might be a task for a small cults.
- Stay your hand only when it sharpens the scythe. -- Nerull's followers aren't obligated to kill every living soul they encounter, but every time they don't, they're calculating why it makes more death possible. They will avoid killing if it means staying undetected, allowing for more murder at a later date. A blackguard follower of nerull might have a child because they can raise that child to be a consummate killer.
- For Nerull followers who infiltrate other churches (a common activity among cult cells) it's ok to save a life, as long as you're posing as an initiate priest of Pelor and putting yourself in a position to end a hundred lives down the line. A cleric of Nerull might willingly allow herself to be resurrected if the killing she could bring into the world would outbalance the act of resurrection. Though this incurs a debt, as Faith goes, and the follower would obligate themselves to follow through. Failure to do so means a particularly unpleasant afterlife.
- Death is Inevitable -- This code is a constant reminder and guidance for how a Nerull worshiper should act in any situation, it counsels patience, biding one's time for a particular event. A given individual is going to die... it's just a question of when. As such, a cleric of Nerull probably isn't going to walk into a village market and start murdering. Rather that energy would be better spent figuring out how and when to kill so it creates hysteria, fear, suspicion, and MORE death. An unsightly number of wars have been started in secret by Nerullians following this tenant.
- Death IS ALWAYS Inevitable - Nerull followers should strive to seek out and kill immortals. Undead don't matter, but someone who has found a way to gain eternal life, or living things that would never die under normal circumstances (Like Elan) would be a major target for a Nerullite.
- Death mastered. -- Followers of Nerull seek to master the techniques of killing: Strangulation, poison, burning, stabbing, plague, impalement, etc.
- This can go one of two ways, typically. The first is that a cleric of Nerull might take a particular method and perfect it, trying myriad permutations, crafting the tools by hand for that mote of deeper knowledge into how that tool works. They study and explore the psychology of what the victim experiences, and perhaps write diaries on each murder with the chosen tool.
History
Origin
Nerull was born a human during pre-history, and grew up in un-chronicled period of unrest and war (what? unrest? who would have thought? growing up in Quelmar? there's no unrest in Quelmar!)). A strapping young protegee, he was one of the first humans to learn wizardry, with a focus in the domain of transmutation. He was a cunning and thoughtful adventurer, and skillfully manipulating physical properties of himself and his comrades with his well-studied powers. He traveled through out Quelmar with a band of companions, learning about the world and it's many wonders and helping those he could along the way.
However, without healing, Nerull grew frustrated and with watching his friends, allies, and comrades fall needlessly in battle. When his lover fell in a treacherous battle, Nerull abandoned adventuring and changed his course of study and dedicated himself to unlocking the secrets of sustained life, inventing the magical domain of necromancy. Though there is no written evidence of his work, as the written word had not yet been invented, it is believed that Nerull unlocked the secret to infinite life without consequence during his studies.
Nerull's actions did not go unnoticed by the gods. The Original Six Creators ( Mielikki, Gruumsh, Obad-Hai, Moradin, Pelor, and Garl Glittergold) were not pleased with the wizard's blatant disregard for the laws of nature. But Nerull had a plan. He invented a spell that would trick the gods into giving him his greatest wish (immortality and infinite power). When the gods attempted to utilize divine force to stop him, Nerull had already grown too powerful. Though his mortal form fell in battle, he had manipulated the strings of reality so profoundly that his soul was able to ascend into deity status.
Notable Actions and Interventions
Nerull's Message to Eve
When Nerull's own cleric Eve threatened to work together with acolytes of Helm and Lathander to bring back Pelor, Nerull reached out to Eve, who had been trapped in The Mists and relayed this very personal threat.
In the forests of Isonhound, I am there. In the bloodied deserts of the ongoing kreen wars, I pick the flowers of the battlefield. I am what the dragons feared and what the gods respect. I give purpose to all.
When the first living thing walked Quelmar, I was there and waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished. I’ll put the chairs on the table, turn out the lights, and lock the realms behind me when I leave.
I’m not blessed. Or Merciful. I’m just me. I’ve got a job to do and I do it. Even as we speak I am there for the old and the young, the innocent and the guilty, those who die together and those who die alone. I am the embrace at the end.
Every morning, you either wake or you die. But now there is the third alternative. Life with death, death with life. Neither undead nor mortal, neither dead or alive.
We make choices. No one else can live our lives for us and we must confront and accept the consequences of our actions.
You will not win.
You will not break me of my power.
I will hold life as I hold death.
And in time those who suffer the curse of life will understand it as I do. A disease. Death will be begged for. They will come to me, beg for my mercy, beg to feel the scythe. But I will say no. Their sacrifice is the realm's sacrifice. Their deaths will be the dragon's deaths.
And the gods will bow before my glory.
With the warmth in one hand and the cold on the other, I will be the almighty. Both the alpha and the omega.
Followers
Followers of Nerull were typically split into cults. Cults that operated in locations of high population, such as the Nerullian Cult of Galik, were the groups most likely to encounter The Mists, a dark fog that swallowed up murderers and other evil killers of the realm. As many Nerullians get caught up in the whims of these Dark Powers, Nerull did eventually grant certain cults the secrets to the power to escape from the Mists. High Priests of Nerull could perform a costly ritual that returned Nerullian killers back to the Material Plane after they had been swallowed.
The ritual did involve the sacrifice of an elder of the cult, a symbolic trade that indicated to Nerull that the lost soul was worth saving for all the death they can cause in the future. Typically the elder is an established and retired killer or renown to show that the young blood will replace and surpass the deeds of the old blood.
