The Many
Intermediate Deity
Symbol: A half-demon, half-boar mask
Home Plane: Pandemonium
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Hate, envy, malice, panic, ugliness, slaughter
Worshippers: Barbarians, fighters, rogues, looters, outlaws
Cleric Alignments: NE, CN, CE
Domains: Chaos, Evil, Madness, Trickery, War
Favoured Weapon: “Agony” (Morningstar)
Relics: Executioner’s hood, morningstar of the many
The deity of slaughter, Erythnul (eh-rith-null), is a terrible sight to behold. He usually appears as a human with knotted muscles and a blocky frame. His skin is mottled and ruddy, almost as though blood oozes from his pores. In battle, his features change between human, gnoll, bugbear, ogre and troll. This mutable form is reflected in his title, The Many. He wields a two-handed morningstar in battle. This weapon has a perforated stone head that makes frightening sounds whenever Erythnul swings it.
Erythnul is a brutal deity who delights in panic and slaughter. In civilized lands, his followers (including evil fighters, barbarians and rogues) form small, criminal cults. In savage lands, evil barbarians, gnolls, bugbears, ogres and trolls commonly worship him.
Erythnul admonishes his followers to shed blood for its own sake, to covet what is not theirs and to destroy anyone who would deny them anything. He further urges them to bring ugliness and strife to pleasant locales.
To take something away from someone else — especially from a rival — is an exalted act in Erythnul’s eyes. Foes who cannot be killed should be maimed, and that which cannot be stolen should be destroyed.
Erythnul’s clerics favour rust red or blood-stained garments. They are cruel, sadistic, and hateful. They maintain a low profile in most civilized lands. In savage areas, members of the priesthood are known as bullies and murderous tyrants. They love to deface beautiful things and to disfigure attractive people.
Any place where great bloodshed or a spectacular act of cruelty has occurred is considered a holy site and an excellent place for a temple dedicated to Erythnul. In the countryside, Erythnul’s followers build squat, unsightly fortresses in places where battles, ambushes or massacres have occurred. In urban areas, Erythnul’s temples are usually hidden in seedy sections of cities, preferably on sites where horrible crimes have happened.
Clerics of Erythnul get most of their training in large temples (where they’ll witness live sacrifice after live sacrifice) or in the army (where they’ll witness the horrors of war). A higher-level cleric looks over a number of novice clerics, trying to frighten them into rejecting the path they’ve chosen. Those who don’t flinch after repeated tests become Erythnul’s new clerics.
Anything that creates mass slaughter or mass hysteria pleases Erythnul, so his followers might finish off the dying on a battlefield, make sure a shaky cease-fire falls apart, or simply pillage the countryside, killing or maiming everyone they find.
Erythul favours simple rhyming chants — and the gorier the subject matter, the better. “First we slay and then we flay!/From skin to bone, you beg and moan!”.
Erythnul raises massive altars quickly at battlefields, where their followers slaughter in the name of their god. If the tides of war take them elsewhere, they may abandon their altars, leaving the area unhallowed, desecrated and a prime lair for other evil creatures.
For obvious reasons, Erythnul’s rites are generally sacrificial. Captured soldiers from a previous battle are often sacrificed at dawn before combat starts in a “Bloody Howl” ceremony that inspires Erythnul’s followers to greater slaughters.
A balor is Erythnul’s favourite choice for herald. Allies are howlers, glabrezu demons and nalfeshnee demons.
Source: Deities and Demigods (Page 66), Complete Divine (Page 111)