Name: Sleeth Rethrah (SLEETH reehth-RAH)
Other Names/Titles: The Old Man, Death's Darling, The Eyeless Watcher, The Great Slayer, The Grinning Headsman
Gender: Male, however, is known to change his form frequently when interacting with mortals
Appearance:
Height: 13'
Personality:
Passionate and Mercurial: All the Sleeth Rethrah feels, he feels strongly. His manifestation as the God of Murder links him intimately with the passion of thinking creatures. Men kill primarily because they feel and those emotions become uncontrolled. This drives Sleeth to be both the most jubilant and first to laugh when he is happy, and also, the first to resort to bloodshed when he is offended. Sleeth Rethrah has very little gray area when it comes to his state of mind seeming to bounce suddenly from one exreeme to the other, often with odd mixtures of the two. This mixed emotional state has led to his title as The Grinning Headsman as he can often be ecstatically happy about something while feeling murderous rage or frustration, the emotion manifesting as an eerie hybrid.
Ambitious: Many kill for power, and, Death's Darling is no different. He looks at all around him and tries to find ways to make that power work for him. Sleeth does not desire to rule all the Heavens and cosmos if he doesn't have to, but, he's not willing to let it fall to someone who might use it poorly. He seeks to elevate himself and his supporters while tearing down all those who oppose him.
Cunning: The greatest killers are those that kill without anyone knowing who it was, or, turing their blame to another. This aspect of Sleeth Rethrah is easy to ignore, most writing him off as a raving maniac. Of course, this is by design. Sleeth is often disregarded because of his passionate nature as just a silly lunatic, a reputation long cultivated by The Eyeless Watcher. In truth, The God of Murder is sly and cunning, playing to the fears and preconceptions of those around him in order to make them look and do what he wants through subtle or overt manipulation. A careful look at the favorites of Sleeth Rethrah and who most often gets his blessings tells the keen observer exactly what kind of mind the Great Slayer has.
Major Domain: Murder
Minor Domains: Vengeance, Schemes/Plots/Conspiracies
Weakness:
While Sleeth Rethrah is a being of deception and betrayal any actual oaths sworn by the God are utterly binding to him and he can not personally break them. This does not stop him from trying to undermine such things through cleverness and technicality, but, he can not break his oaths once given.
Your Avatar:
Rhahkoreth, The Dark Mind of Man
The Dark Mind of Man stands at thirty feet tall and has a minor version of all of Sleeth Rethrah's powers aside from his weapons and can not detach his hands. He also has incredibly sharp claws. Rhankoreth can not speak but he can push his mind into any less powerful sapient creature he can see and make them speak for him. He also has an aura that works similarly to that of the wraith, pushing men to give in to their darker and ambitious urges. The Dark Mind of Man is not as overtly powerful as many other avatars but its ability to move undetected compared to most avatar.
Stance: Sleeth Rethrah is an anti-monarch. He does not support anyone trying to get the throne under their total control, instead, seeking to plant the seeds of a united council of Gods who rule through vote as opposed to the supreme word of one. However, he makes none of that known, instead, putting forth a mercenary attitude of support and playing the part of the despot.
Loyalty During the Rebellion: Neutral, secretly opposed both sides.
Center of Power:
The Slayer's Eye: A solid red eye that swirls with ribbons of black deep within it.
Relations:
Mortals: Sleeth Rethrah is the patron deity of spies, assassins, conspirators, executioners, and, bloodthirsty maniacs.
Gods:
Allies:
Koritomo, Goddess of War
Naqqash, God of Pain and Loss
Legio, God of Mankind
Asmoday, God the Underworld
Friendly:
Tothoth, God of Knowledge
The Twins, Gods of Fertility
Leoric, God of Lust
Astru Nogliath, God of Undead
Typhonne, Goddess of Storms
Unfriendly:
Artheon, God of Predators
Skaahn, God of Monsters
Hostile:
Hurrian, God of Justice
Aela, Goddess of Life
Goddess of Nature
All not listed are neutral.
Powers:
Invisibility: Perhaps the most treasured and useful ability to Death's Darling is his ability to vanish from sight. The worst killer is the one never seen or found Sleeth Rethrah is the greatest killer of them all.
Preternatural Physicality: Sleeth Rethrah is not the strongest, fastest, or toughest of all the Gods, however, he is above average for the Gods in all of those aspects. Man's constant need to slay each other in cold blood makes him capable of standing against any God, at least for a time, in a contest of arms.
Mercurial Form: Sleeth Rethrah does not like the mortals who might meet him to know who he is, he would rather live as a legend in whispered tones. He can take the form of any mortal who he has seen before with perfect accuracy. Any mortal, or God, that Sleeth has killed himself he can take the form of, as well as, mimic their mannerisms and personality perfectly.
Assassin's Eye: When The Old Man looks on something that can be destroyed, he sees how it can be done. When he looks on an ancient dragon he sees its weakest scales. When he sees an alien beast he knows where the organs it needs to live are. There is nothing that can be killed that Sleeth does not know how to kill just by looking at it.
Hands of the First Murder: Sleeth Rethrah's hands are actually the hands of the first sapient to ever commit a murder, the symbol of Sleeth's first spark of concept. The hands are bound to his wrists tightly with enchanted cloth wrappings stained with blood. The hands themselves can be removed, moving around with the will of their master. The Hands can see, hear, and feel as though they had all the organs needed to do exactly that. If the Hands, either attached or not, grab the throat of something, and, can fit around it properly, they are impossible to remove and squeeze like vices until the creature is dead or the master wills them to release.
Godly Equipment:
Treleshkrah: A two handed ax that stands tall enough to reach just under Sleeth Rethrah's chin. The handle of the long ax is old deep brown wood with no adornment at all. The head of the weapon is a thin, unnaturally sharp, single bit broad ax head, the kind used by executioners and some bodyguards. The head itself bears no fanfare or distinguishing marks either, the whole weapon seeming to be rather mundane in appearance aside from its prodigious size. This weapon is far from ordinary though. The ax itself pulses with unsettling power each time someone in the world is killed by execution or murdered. Looking directly at the weapon causes whispers in the mind of the viewer that prey on the darkest and most violent impulses, urging them to action and conspiracy. The other terrible power of this weapon is in its use. Treleshkrah, is the bane of life and any can be slain with it, man or God. While a blow from the weapon will not guarantee death, any wound given by the ax seems to cut through armor like it was not there and a mortal wound to a mere man will be just as mortal to the divine beings who made them. The wounds caused by this ax seem not to heal properly, they bleed much more than they should, and woe to the healer who sees to one of these injuries as they will find that the flesh will not knit well and medicines seem to lack potency.
The Eye of Conspiracy: While The Slayer's Eye rests in one of the God's empty sockets, The Eye of Conspiracy sits in the other. This eyes is a dark yellow in color, glowing weakly like topaz lit by a dying candle. The pupil of the eye is vertical like that of a snakes and stands ever vigilant. The Eye of Conspiracy allows Sleeth Rethrah to see through the bandages he has over his eyes as if they were not there, however, it also allows him to see through anything that might otherwise impede his vision such as additional blindfolds, mist, fog, darkness, and, illusions. Beyond allowing the God to see when he should not the Eye grants him insight into the relationships of others. He sees thin strands connecting those around him giving him insight into how others interact and how strongly they are connected.
Sloret: The thick great coat that The Old Man wears is more than just something to keep the cold and rain away. It was once not a coat at all but instead a cloak made of human skin. Now, in keep with the fashion of the day, Sleeth has turned the skin of the dead inward as the lining of his coat but the effect remains the same. Anything placed in the coat vanishes. The items are undetectable and seem to exist somewhere outside of space until the master calls the item back by reaching into the coat and thinking of what they need. The item then appears again either from a pocket, sleeve, or the inside of the coat as though it had been stored there all along even if the stowed place seems as though it would be impossible to store such a thing there.
Demi Gods:
Julera Perfori: Aspect of Political power or tyranny.
Background: Julera is the daughter of Sleeth Rethrah and a powerful Matriarch and Republican of the Perfori family. A family that has had a long standing and strong tie to Sleeth Rethrah. The family itself is one of the patrons to the great Temple of Sleeth Rethrah in the Capital of Braceleth. Julera was born with from her mother when she supplicated before Sleeth Rethrah and offered her body as sacrifice to the God. He did not kill her, as he was struck with her beauty and passion for him. Instead, he blessed her with a child of his blood who would grow to be powerful and champion her family as well as his will in Braceleth. Julera is now an adult and her House's scion. She has not married as many fear her and her power, her height does not do her any favors either in the quest for a human mate.
Appearance:
Height: 6'10" (Very short for a demi-god but very tall for a human)
Julera is a lithe and somewhat uncharacteristically straight figured woman given her mother, but, instead, taking heavily after her father and his features. She has stunning green eyes like her mother but the unsettling grin of her father, made all the stranger due to her full lips. She has shorter than the style would dictate brown hair that frames her sharp and imperious features.
Julera tends to clothe herself in the male fashions of the day. She wears tight shirts and pants under a gray coat, her lack of color paying homage to her gray scale father's clothing. She does often wear a hat, but, with the brim tilted to the side in a more feminine fashion. Julera loves the art of cane fighting and carries her fighting cane everywhere with her, a stylish walking stick for her to sway with as she moves about with practiced noble swagger. She also wears a slim rapier on a thick sword belt at her hips in a style that openly balks at her countries prohibition against wearing swords. A fan of dueling, she needs to have a blade at all times.
Skills:
Oratory: Julera is a practiced and talented orator. She is capable of bringing logic, emotion, volume, and silence to her words in just the right measure for nearly every situation.
Cunning: Julera has inherited her father's and her mother's quickness of mind and thought. She has a superhuman understanding of motivations and can easily place someone's loyalties after interacting with them for only a short time, as well as the clairity of thought to put that information to use. She is a quick study in nearly anything she undertakes and has a lust for learning rivaled perhaps only by being who devoted themselves to The God of Knowledge.
Killer Heritage: Julera's mind and body take quickly to the art of slaying. She is blessed with blood and the art of fighting as well as cold blooded murder come naturally to her through her ichor infused blood. Her super human physicality is much like her father's, not the strongest, faster, or toughest of the demi-gods, but, she does not have any obvious physical gaps to exploit.
Heroic Flaw:
Great Pride: Julera expects to be heeded and sees all those as potential tools for her political games. Everyone is there for her to play with and all must submit, in time.
Name of your Land: Braceleth (BRAH-seh-lehth)
Lands: Flora, Fauna, Geography. Whats the land like where you live.
People:
The people of Braceleth most humans but have had some migrants come to the large island looking for their fortune. The people native to Braceleth are typically average in height with a broad frame, wide shoulders, hips, and arms. They have olive and slightly lighter skin tones with earth tone eyes being common as well as darker hair colors. The Bracelian nose is a recognizable feature the world over, coming from the strait and hawkish nose common to many of the people born to the island. Hard and sharp facial features are very common to the people of Braceleth often giving them a reputation for both intimidating glares and alluring gazes. The natives of Braceleth are often considered attractive by many in the world because of their curvy women and hard featured men, as well as many of them being quite wealthy.
While humans make up the primary denomination of the Bracelians they do have a sizable amount of immigrants from other lands and some of the Bracelians have a hybrid or mixed look that might seem strange to other but in the metropolitan Braceleth is generally accepted.
Culture:
Clothing:
The modern style of The Bracelians is to wear tight fitting pants, shirts, and dresses that have many buttons varying from simple wooden to ivory and golden buttons. These tight clothes are often paired with a long coat for both men and women. The colors of the clothing range heavily from poorer people wearing simple blues, reds, and greens with the more wealthy using colors like purple, indigo, and scarlet. Most in Braceleth like hats, particularly those with broad brims and wide bands that can have feathers, flowers, and other ornaments slipped into depending on occasion and mood. Boots with heels are common among men and the tops of the boots tend to be folded over and sometimes rise as high as the knee. Boots for women are similar only not inclusing the heel and often rise higher on the leg compared to men with some wealthy women having boots that rise up all the way to mid thigh. Jewelry is common even among the poor Bracelli. While necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, and bangles made of polished brass are quite cheap and plentiful the rich citizens often have jewel studded variants made of pure gold or silver.
Wearing swords in the cities is highly frowned on and so most people carry knives for both protection as well fashion. Poor Bracelli often carry long bladed knives that resemble a slim spear point while rich citizens carry knives that are more short swords than knives at all. These swords, or psudo-knives, carried by the aristocracy have a wide base that tapers strongly to the point and often has multiple fullers in the blade alongside varying levels of decoration. Another common item carried for both self defense and fashion is the walking cane. Many of these canes actually have a rod of steel, brass, or lead driven into the top of the cane turning the walking stick into an effective bludgeon in a pinch. There actually is a popular and interesting sport engaged in by the nobles of Braceleth that amounts to cane fighting.
Recreation:
Bracelians are very fond of competition and if they can find a way to compete at something, they will. The most common sports that people engage in lend to both the marine traditions of the people as well as their long standing love of martial arts. Rataretti, the gentlemanly art of cane fencing is one of the most common forms of martial arts as well as sports practiced by the gentleman of Braceleth. The art combines the use of the point of the cane in targeted thrusts like that of a sword as well as swining the head of the cane as a cudgel. Perhaps the second most common form of recreation is the racing of boats and ships. There are entire groups that get together train, design, and race their specialized ships for glory and often money. Also in the aristocracy there is what one might expect there to be, pursuits in painting, poetry, and essay writing.
The poorer people of Braceleth have what is often thought of as less civilized by the nobles of Braceleth at least. The common folk love gambling and are often found betting on noble sports or coming up with any other way they can test their luck. Dice, cards, and sleight of hand games are common. For the people who find more bloodthirsty activities more to their taste there are registered and unregistered fighting pits all over the island. The registered pits are overseen by the government and often have some regulation in when the fight is to end and who may fight. Of course, there are plenty of people who have no taste for such rules and instead just want to get people together and make them fight. These unregistered pits are illegal and often result in wildly unfair fights designed for spectacle rather than fair contest. Many of these fights end in death or permanent injury.
Government:
The ruling class of Braceleth are the Republicans. These are aristocrats that have had power on the island for many generations before the Rebulpic was established and have the money to continue to get elected. The elections are rather complicated and have people divided into voting groups based on region, wealth, parentage, and previous service to the Republic. In general, the wealthier people in Braceleth get to decide the elections with the poor only being needed to vote when there is not a majority already established. Once one is elected to the Senate, they are part of the Senate for life. While they only hold office for two years, they are allowed to enter the Senate when they wish and can even speak once all the elected people have spoken. The Senate is made up entirely of the aristocracy class and can not be entered by the common people. However, the common people elect their own lower house of the Senate known as the Tribunes. These tribunes are allowed to hear the debates of the Senate and they bring them to the public for a yes or no vote. No common folk, aside from the Tribunes, are allowed to speak on the legislation, they only get to vote. However, a Tribune can veto a piece of legislation from the Senate. This means the legislation will have to return to the Senate and be voted on, debated on, and then passed again. Once a piece of legislation has had that done, it must be voted on.
Politics in Braceleth is a game of gathering support and speaking well. This does not mean that money, plots, and violence don't rule though. Often bribes are given rather openly in the city and it is generally expected to grease the wheels of the Senate one must use money. For those more cunning, the right money in the right hands might make a political opponent disappear or suddenly become much more amenable due to well placed assassinations of their enemies. While murder and assassination are obviously against the law they are also accepted as a political strategy and it can be highly effective. Many Tribunes are associated with members of the Senate and often employ gangs of supporters who are little more than thugs who protect the Tribune as well as try to suppress enemy supporters with intimidation and violence.
Religion:
The Bracelians are not a monotheistic people, honoring all of the Gods in one way or another. Often the names of many Gods and Goddesses are invoked when a Bracelian wants something. A lawyer might pray for Justice, a sailor to the Seas, a hunter to Nature, or, a spy to Sleeth Rethrah. The God of Murder has subtly guided his people for milenia, watching them from the shadows and working both for and against them. He does not walk the streets in his godly form but instead hides himself among them to hear what things they whisper about. He does nothing to suppress the worship of other Gods in Braceleth and this has led to the islands attraction to immigrants. Anyone may come to Braceleth and worship how they see fit, as long as they still follow all of the other laws. There are many shrines to different gods and goddesses all over the island and that is exactly how the people like it.
-- The Cult of Sleeth Rethrah:
+Official Religious Orders and Worship:
One could assume, and assume correctly, that a cult dedicated to murder would be frowned on heavily if
not stamped out in practically any society. Thus, the official worship of Sleeth Rethrah is one that
often serves an interesting function for society as a whole. The primary group of worshipers of Sleeth
Rethrah are a group of normally reformed("reformed") murderers that have been set to a specific task.
That task is execution. The acolytes of Sleeth Rethrah stay in the temple or monetary dedicated to The
Old Man and train in both anatomy of all creatures as well as the use of the two-handed ax that is the
symbol of Sleeth Rethrah along side the Slayer's Eye pendant. These "monks" often serve as the official
executioners of the area where they operate, dedicating the act of state sanctioned murder to their God.
They also often form a ravenous warrior monk corp when called to battle, unleashing their repressed
murderous urges on the enemies of the state. In places where assassination is considered an acceptable
profession, or, if one needs covert agents, a generous offering to the temple often results in one of
the monks being sent to take care of whatever problem the patron prayed about.
+Unofficial Worship:
For every monetary or temple that follows the laws and rules of the world there are ten or more small
groups that have a closer relationship to the God of Murder. These groups often organize themselves into
small cults that perform long lost and elaborate ritual requiring human sacrifice as well as other
unsavory activities to get the God's attention. Many of these groups are professional spies and
assassins, working in the underworld of whatever city or domain they happen to be in. They supplicate
themselves before the visage of Sleeth Rethrah and ask for guidance and protection in their plots and
schemes. Of course, not all are those engaged in some kind of conspiracy or task. Some are mad men who
have an unquenchable thirst for blood and see Sleeth Rethrah as their champion in the heavens. These
groups tend to be short lived, engaging in a single or perhaps a few massacres before they are destroyed
by whatever force of law and order exists around them. While Sleeth Admires these maniacs' devotion he
rarely blesses them with much more than just a feeling of will to undertake these suicidal missions.
They are useful, but, misguided.
Military:
Most of the military of Braceleth is made up of mercenary companies with alignment to either a region, noble house, or faction. However, those loyalties can be swayed through payments of course and often are. In this manner the forces of Braceleth are a professional force that fights in small engagements between noble houses and other nations on a frequent basis, as well as guarding the shipping lanes of their charges. Each city can levy a force of the common folk, but, this is only done when danger is particularly close and generally disliked by the people, obviously.
Technology:
The Republic enjoys a great deal of technology openly trading with anyone willing and integrating what new things they find there. They have well made full plate armor, weapons, and matchlock and wheellock firearms. They have caravel sea faring ships armed with cannon for their formidable navy and merchant fleets.
Capital: Sleethrettia
The great city of Sleethrettia. The buildings are tall and strech upward from the coastal bluffs to the heavens with sharp points. The streets of the city are narrow and clogged with people, merchant stalls, and refuse where it is not as affluent. People live in wall to wall town houses packed in next to shops and shrines to all gods. The bluffs abutting the sea are carved with switchbacks that lead up to the city from the massive docks. The docks are a city all their own. The dock districts of the city are suspended above the waves on strong wooden planks and smells of sea water and fish. The wealthy districts have wider streets and walled mansions inside the walls of the massive metropolitan sprawl. In the center of the city stands the great Senate Hall. The ancient building was once a temple to a forgotten god and now the column line walls of the Senate hold the Republic's leaders. Not far from the Hall of the Senate stands the great Temple of Sleeth Rethrah, the largest of the world. There have been times when the Senate has wanted to remove it from the city, yet, there always seems to be something that stops them or changes their mind.
Beings:
Wraiths: The dark passions of man slowly accumulate into the form of a swirling mass of dark ambition and violence. These energies eventually find the attention of Sleeth Rethrah and he twists them into a dark spirit that serves his will. These dark spirits move through the land and whisper in the minds of men, urging them to do harm to others and take revenge on those who have wronged them. All in service of The Eyeless Watcher.
Grenaleth: The odd frog like creatures of the island have sprung up seemingly from where at all. Their nature is unknown but they are an ever present force on the island of Braceleth. These sapients serve well in the navy and as canny merchants as they have a long sea faring tradition and can even breathe under water.
The Beastmen of Braceleth: The strange power of Murder on the land has turned some of the people away from the path of sapience and toward the primal desire to destroy. These come about mostly from those closely associated from the most fevent followers of Sleeth Rethrah. These beasts are hunted each night by the monks of the temple, yet, they are still loving creation of The Grinning Headsman and he revels in their destruction just as he revels in their own deaths at the hands of his more mortal followers. These creatures also fall under the domain of The God Predators and Monsters, but, Sleeth hodes them for himself. The more devoted and frenzied the follower, the larger and more deviating the beasts are.
