Velsang

Velsang
Bloodthirst; Death Dealer; Grim Hunter; Patron Saint of Killers

Symbol: A helmet with all but the mouth area covered, with forward-facing horns thrusting out near the cheeks
Home Plane: Acheron
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Cleric Alignments: Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Revenge, hunting, bloodshed, vampirism
Worshipers: Killers of all sorts, lycanthropes, vampires
Domains: Death (Murder), Destruction, Retribution, Strength, War (Blood)
Favored Weapon: Falchion

Physical Description:
Tall and grim, Velsang is a terrible figure on any battlefield, a commanding, terrifying presence taking the form of a powerfully-built, well-muscled warrior covered in many scars. Velsang's exact race varies depending on who is looking at him, as does his sex, though he is usually male, and he is always tall, muscular, and terrifying for whatever race he might appear as. While Velsang goes almost naked except for a brief loincloth, most of his head is encased in a solid pot helm with horns that curve around, projecting outward near his cheeks, throwing shadows onto his mouth (the only part of his face not covered by the helmet). His eyes gleam with a steady, red inner light. Always he carries a huge falchion with him, its surface dull while its edge is razor sharp. This, it is rumored, is the first and most powerful vorpal weapon, and the model from which all lesser ones are crafted.

Description of Nature, Personality, and Dogma:
Cold, cruel vengeance is all that matters to Velsang now. Nothing else is of any importance. At one time, he may have had other concerns, mortal concerns, or concerns about his place in the universe, but those are all gone now. All that remains to him is a lump of hatred where his heart used to be, a hatred that drives him forever onward. It is said that Velsang will continue to hate until every mortal creature has forgiven the wrongs inflicted upon them by others, and mortals cease to deliberately harm each other.

Until that day, the dogma of Velsang is simple and bloody: revenge. If you have been wronged, seek satisfaction. Never forget a fault, and never forgive until you have dragged out the last dregs of proper suffering from the object of your hatred. This does not always require those who worship Velsang to be bloody-handed killers, but it does lead them to be exacting in their retribution. Nimbus is the deity of mercy and forgiveness, and there are many who subscribe to her views. But Velsang is the deity of revenge, and there are a great many who prefer his way to the path of mercy.

Clergy, Places of Worship, Important Rituals, and Servitor Races:
The clergy of Velsang are not chosen by him, per se, but rather demonstrate a natural affinity for his ways. They are without exception executioners, bounty hunters, assassins, and similar dealers of death for the sake of vengeance, be that vengeance on the law's account, or a matter of personal vendetta. Each of these clergy feel the flow of cold vengeance through them, and this empowers their abilities, filling them with the divine magic that Velsang bestows through his existence.

There are very few places that any worshiper of Velsang would call a proper holy site or place of worship. Truthfully, Velsang has few worshipers, or at least those that would call him a patron deity. Most of the worship that he receives comes from those who would have him turn his icy hate away from them, having him overlook the many reasons for why vengeance should come upon them and not someone else. If Velsang does have holy sites or places of worship, it would be an executioner's gibbet. All societies of Therafim recognize the desperately important need to punish those who cause harm to others, and the death penalty is not at all uncommon. If the demand of justice alone is not enough to drive societies to do so, then the threat of Velsang usually does. If a people or society fails to exact vengeance upon the guilty, Velsang's attention will be drawn to them, and the vengeance they did not exact on the guilty among their people will be meted out to the entire society instead. Thus, executions are important for all people of Therafim, and the only holy act that is known to keep Velsang at bay.

Beasts of Velsang (same statistics as Beasts of Malar from Monsters of Faerun) are creatures infused with the raw hatred of Velsang, and this drives them constantly with a desperate need to hunt and to slay the guilty. On Therafim, these creatures only hunt intelligent creatures, or in other words creatures that are capable of committing sin, and are completely unable to attack any creature who has never wronged others, or who has been truly forgiven by all those that person may have wronged. The first vampires are said to have arisen because of Velsang's own rising from the afterlife, which tore open a momentary hole between this world and the next, allowing dark and bloodthirsty spirits to inhabit the bodies of the recently dead who had been wicked in life, and then to spread their curse by calling similar spirits to inhabit the bodies of those that they slay with their draining powers. Because of this, all vampires owe some allegiance to Velsang, and few are willing to hinder someone in a quest for vengeance, and if that vengeance is directed against themselves, then vampires are usually willing to meet such seekers of revenge in person, rather than letting their minions handle the job alone (they usually do bring their minions with them, however).

History and Relations:
There are a number of legends about the rise of Velsang to godhood. Some of them may even have elements of truth. All of these stories speak of a mortal who was wronged in the most grievous fashion, and then left to die in a slow and agonizing manner, so that he had all the time in the world to consider how he had been wronged. When this mortal reached the afterlife, he (or she in some versions) could find no place, for hate filled the mortal's heart, a hatred so intense, so overwhelming, that it defied all the gods themselves. No one had ever hated as this mortal hated, and from the power of that hate, Velsang forced his way back among the living, this time filled with the power needed to exact vengeance, bloody and terrible. There was a price to be paid for revenge, however, as there always is. In this case, it was Velsang's mortality. In the process of defying all of creation with his hatred, Velsang had become a god, and could never find peace in the afterlife. Now Velsang is forced to travel from conflict to conflict, forever involved in the vengeance of others, pausing only briefly to exact vengeance in the worlds after mortality, torturing the souls of the damned in his fortress built of iron and hate.

Velsang owes nothing to the other gods, and seldom interacts with them. He is respected by Dan Dao, who gave him his vorpal weapon as a gift when he first sensed the presence of a being who could properly make use of such a weapon. Talus tolerates Velsang, and sometimes the two have been known to work together where justice and vengeance intersect, but Velsang's bloodthirsty nature keeps him and Talus from ever having any closeness or consistency in their relations, and Talus frequently acts to keep Velsang's hate from being unleashed on mortals without consideration for justice. Nimbus is horrified at the very thought of Velsang, and not only urges others to have nothing to do with him, but also works constantly to protect good-aligned mortals from his wrath as much as possible, her clergy often preaching against the evils of seeking revenge. Lugscar, on the other hand, is enthusiastic to assist Velsang in the many bloodbaths the Grim Hunter's passing always bring, and his followers find nothing wrong with keeping shrines to Velsang as well. These, however, are all how other gods react to Velsang. As for Velsang himself, he cares little one way or the other. If a god hinders him, he works through or around the hindrance as needed. If a god assists him, he accepts the help with little to no acknowledgement. Velsang is a creature of cold hate, a fury so frigid that it chills the hearts of all around him, so cold that not even Hell could light a fire hot enough to burn it out of him. There is no peace for Velsang, and no joy in what he does. There is only vengeance.

Favored Offerings and Justifications for Direct Intervention:
Every time someone is executed, justly or not, in public or in private, it is an offering to Velsang. Velsang demands regular bloodshed in the name of vengeance, and very often if a criminal is not caught for a crime committed, a surrogate will suffice among people that worship Velsang, so long as somebody receives the vengeance for what was done. Executions that are considered acceptable as offerings to Velsang are those where some damage is done to the neck of the victim, either by decapitation, by breaking the neck, slitting the throat, or hanging until dead. The cessation of blood and breath are very important to Velsang, and these things are symbolized most strongly by the carotid arteries and trachea.

Nothing draws Velsang's cold fury like someone who escapes vengeance. This does not have to be a matter of justice, but only vengeance, so long as the cause is one in which the person seeking vengeance believes strongly enough. When Velsang's attention has been gained, his most common course is to empower the person seeking vengeance so that they become very hard to defeat in battle, and also gain incredible abilities to find and stay with their quarry with relentless doggedness, so long as they are directly hunting an object of their vengeance, or fighting direct obstacles in their way to that object of vengeance. Alternatively, if a person has no chance, even with divine empowerment, to slay the objects of vengeance, then Velsang has been known to empower others, monsters or heroes, and grant them similar power in the stead of the one who wanted revenge, but could not gain it. There is almost always a price for such power, however, and it is almost always the death of the one who sought vengeance, which either comes shortly after revenge has been taken, or else gradually, during the course of the vengeance. If the price is not death, then the one who sought vengeance usually wishes that it was, for there is something far worse in store.