Dark One

Old Version of the Dark One

Dark One
First Murderer; Wanderer

Symbol: A bloodstained club
Home Plane: The Prime Material Plane
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Cleric Alignments: Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil
Portfolio: Eternal darkness, murder, anarchy
Worshipers: Those who murder for gain, nihilists, the incurably sick
Domains: Darkness, Death (Murder), Evil, Fire (Arson), Nobility (Leadership), Trickery, War (Blood)
Favored Weapon: Club

Physical Description:
The Dark One is a mysterious deity who seldom makes a direct appearance to anybody. His powers are limited after he tried to conquer Therafim, and so he waits and watches and gradually gathers his strength once more. On those few occasions where he is actually seen, usually by his most trusted followers, the Dark One takes the form of a mysterious, dark-robed and hooded man with eyes that never blink and are faintly luminous in complete darkness. He can take the form of any humanoid race, but prefers a human shape, as they tend to provide him with the majority of his followers. Many who have seen the Dark One claim that he carries a still-dripping, gore-stained club with him.

Description of Nature, Personality, and Dogma:
The Dark One wants to bring about the end of everything, bringing every living creature down to his level of eternal misery, and then extinguishing everything that ever was and ever will be. He is said to have inspired the first murder, and the instrument of that foul deed has become his symbol. All that the gods have made is anathema to the perfect order and darkness that this dread being wishes to inflict upon the cosmos. This is a very long-term goal, however, and the Dark One is more than happy to aid others in their temporary quests for power and domination of others, so long as he can use his followers as pawns in his many schemes and plots. He spreads the knowledge of becoming an Ur Priest with great relish, and is himself immune to the divine draining powers of these faux-clerics, delighting in the power that is lost to his rivals with every chant of his often-unwitting followers. For the Dark One, the greatest and most holy acts are those things which weaken, discredit, and destroy the acts of the others gods. His guiding principle, and that of all of his followers, is "don't get caught."

Clergy, Places of Worship, Important Rituals, and Servitor Races:
The Dark One’s clergy are whoever he can gather, and his places of worship are anywhere that can be managed, usually a variety of makeshift locations away from the prying eyes of those not of the cult. The Dark One has a number of powerful magic users-turned Ur Priests in his following, and so these places of darkness very often contain rare and powerful magic items and repositories of magical lore. Clergy for the Dark One are selected from those who demonstrate a combination of resourcefulness, intelligence, and devotion to the Dark One's cause. He selects each of his clerics personally, and anoints them with a gentle touch of his bloodstained club to their foreheads. After this, his clerics develop distinctly luminous eyes in darkness, just like the Dark One himself, and find it incredibly easier to think up ways to commit murder without being caught.

For the worshipers of the Dark One, the single most important ritual that can be performed is murder. The method of murder is not important so much as that it is performed in the Dark One's name. These murders are considered most precious if, by performing them, those who commit the murder are able to profit in some fashion, and more precious still if the murder-for-gain is also an act of betraying one's loved ones.

Though almost nobody knows it, including most members of the organization in question, the Dark One's single most powerful network of worshipers is the Syndicate. One of the Dark Gods’ most vile methods of recruitment is to visit those who are terminally ill of some cancerous rot, usually someone in a position of some minor authority, and then to make a deal, getting the service of the person in exchange for halting the spread of the ailment at the moment when the person first began to worship the Dark One. Even Mummy Rot can be halted in this manner, but the ailment isn’t healed, only stopped, and it resumes the moment that a follower of the Dark God dares to betray him.

Fallen Ones, the blasphemous beings who rebelled against the gods of creation at the start of everything, revere the Dark One as their chief, and work towards his goals whenever they are able, which is seldom, since they are all imprisoned or otherwise incapacitated. He is also served by evil outsiders of all types, even those that are opposed to him in alignment, though most commonly by devils.

History and Relations:
Fallen Ones are the direct result of those beings who once lived in Paradise, the place where the gods and all life originated, who discovered the Light's end goal, namely of allowing these beings each to have an opportunity to make their own choices, including mistakes, and grow from the experience, who then rejected the Light's plan and fell from Paradise, never to return. The reasons why the Fallen Ones rejected the Light's plans are varied, but the two most common are those philosophies espoused by the Elder Elemental Eye and the Dark One. The Elder Elemental Eye felt that the strictures of reality were too confining, and wanted to be allowed to act without any fear of consequences, something which not even the gods can do. The Dark One, on the other hand, felt that this method was far too chaotic, and wanted more rigid control to be instated - with the Dark One as chief manager, of course. All of these varied paths were in defiance of all the natural laws that governed the universe, and so the Fallen Ones and their leaders were unable to remain within the boundaries of the universe at that primordial time, and fell away into the Far Plane, beyond all reason and sanity, where their initial deviation from the right paths led them steadily further and further into forbidden paths, until they are now irredeemably vile and corrupted.

The Dark One emerged in the world as a result of the first desires of mortals to commit murder for gain. Such a truly vile act, at that time the first of its kind, allowed the Dark One to cross over into the mortal realm, where he has remained ever since, and will likely remain for as long as people put profit before the lives of their fellow creatures. While the Dark One is universally hated by all the other deities, for his tendency to steal their power through his Ur-Priests if nothing else, he is also highly adept at avoiding their detection, and enjoys aiding his followers in similar fashion. Worm and the Dark One have an understanding of sorts, where the Dark One regards the Elder Elemental Eye as a useful pawn, while Worm regards the Dark One as a source of information, allowing Worm to act where it might otherwise be impossible.

Favored Offerings and Justifications for Direct Intervention:
Though the Dark One is willing to accept murders of all sorts in his name as offerings, the most precious of all murders for the Dark One are those of one's kin, or those who are in similarly close, intimate relationships with the murderer. A betrayal of trust of this magnitude is like a succulent fruit for the Dark One, since it undermines the most fundamental foundations of the bonds that hold society together.

The Dark One does not intervene personally for any of his worshipers. He makes regular appearances to cull the unfaithful from the ranks, and to root out infiltrators, and to assist in the planning of the most perfect murders and the crimes associated with them. Despite all of this, however, the Dark One never aids his worshipers in actually committing any of their vile acts. This arises from practical concerns rather than the Dark One's desires, because, were the Dark One to directly harm any mortal, the gods would immediately be alerted to his presence, and have an opportunity to corner him and strike him down.