Yshunor (NE)

“The Plagueherald” (pr. yuh-Shoon-or)

Domains: Death, Deathbound, Evil, Gluttony, Hunger, Madness, Pestilence, Slime, Undeath

Yshunor is perhaps the most viscerally disgusting of the four Elder Banes.  The worshippers of the Banes claim that their deities exist as a counterbalance to the so-called “positive” tampering of the other gods in human affairs – if they are allowed to create and destroy according to their concept of what is “right,” others should be allowed to do so as well.  There is little cooperation between the worshippers of the Banes; they are thoroughly evil and degenerate beings and see little to gain in long-term alliances with others.

Yshunor has many terrible forms, but most often appears to his faithful as a bloated, rotting, pus- and blood-encrusted humanoid with the head of a goat or ram or a tall, gaunt, gray-skinned human clad in dark robes and wielding a scythe.  He has no official ideology, though His priests are encouraged to record their rituals, spells and other thoughts for posterity.  Yshunor and his faithful are concerned with encouraging the spread of disease, madness, insanity, entropy and corruption on Gaia.  Yshunor is also aligned with evil undead of all sorts; he encourages worshippers to animate mindless undead and also to recruit intelligent undead such as mummies, specters, vampires and liches to his cause. The priests and worshippers of Yshunor are quite often insane plague carriers, since regular contact with his horrible divine essence can infect the mind and body with all manner of evil diseases.

Yshunor demands absolute devotion and unquestioning loyalty from his faithful.  The horrid evangelism of Yshunor’s clerics takes the form of voluntary or involuntary corruption of the body, mind and spirit of the self and others.  His faithful are sometimes on good terms with those of Irindix, Tyraudon and Ethoar, but in their hearts they seek the destruction of all other deities and religions, even those of the other Elder Banes. 

Yshunor’s faithful have a small but effective presence all over the Planet on every continent.  Yshunor has no official holy symbol, but many of his worshippers have adopted the goat/ram/cow head as his unofficial “mascot.”  Clerics and priests of Yshunor may follow any evil alignment, and there is no particular dress code among the faithful.  His favored weapon is the scythe.

Faiths of Gaia