Worshers of Nevesh are all about spreading Corruption and controlling the undead. The lies and tricks people play aren't enough for Nevesh. His methods are methodical, thought out, and generally planned for years to come. With most things Nevesh is a patient God. Being able to see the end result of careful planning that takes years to complete is worth the wait in his eyes. But if you make a deal with him and you don't follow through, the instant the contract is up you will be his. He may not kill you right away, he might just start using you to his own gains, he might make you part of his faction of undead beings, or he might steal your soul on the spot. Nevesh will carefully watch those that come close to him before allowing interaction, but because of his careful eye he is quick to try and strike a deal or make a contract with those seeking him.
The God of Corruption has his hands in everything. From government and politics, to city guards and watchmen, to the lowly hermit abstaining from society. If something or someone can be corrupted he has something in the works to make it that way. Politics and government officials are a group of people that seem to come running towards him. Officials in high ranking positions seem to corrupt easier than those of a lower stature, but it is those of the lower rank that tend to come to him to make the higher ones turn. His hand in this is deep.
The God of Necromancy and Undeath is the most vile side of Nevesh. He has found a way to slip past guards of other realms for a split second and steal souls. For if you are a priest of Nevesh then when you raise the dead you raise it with its original soul, if one is skilled enough. This is no mere animation of a corpse. One using Nevesh as a catalyst to raise the dead will rip the soul out of its resting place and bring it back into the body. When doing so, you also corrupt the soul if it wasn't already. The presence of the original soul does make for a more difficult being to control. They already knew their body, already know how to control it, so taking orders from an outside source isn't something they are willing to do most of the time.
Due to the nature of his Undead beings, this has made Nevesh a target by Symmat the God of Death. Symmat feels cheated by the teachings of Nevesh, and how he rips the soul out of its eternal resting place to be forced back into its capsule. Because of this, Symmat has warned the rest of the Gods. They were told to keep a watchful eye on their strongest of followers, for their secrets can be extracted in death. Some Gods have taken this to heart and have created special resting places for their strongest of priests, fighters, and magic users. Making it even more difficult, if not impossible, to even attempt to steal their souls without that god knowing.
The Aspect is always chosen carefully by Nevesh. He is always a person in power, but smart enough to never show to any outsider where his or her true loyalties lie. While the Aspect is corrupt beyond belief, they are generally given what they are promised. Keeping an Aspect happy is a fundamental part with any God and Nevesh is no different. He also tends to put them in places he wants them to be in order to use them without their knowledge as well.
The Aspect is always chosen carefully by Nevesh. He or she must be able to handle controlling his power should he need to take the body. This means he must be able to access the necromancy realm with ease. He is also a person that is put into power, smart enough to never show any outsider where his true loyalties lie, and cunning enough to get what he wants from those around him. The Aspect is completely corrupt and does what he has to in order to get what he wants as long as it doesn’t go against Nevesh’s wishes.
Keeping an Aspect happy is a fundamental part with any god and Nevesh is no different. Nevesh will go out of his way to keep his Aspect in a position of power. Giving them wealth, power, anything he can give in order to keep them on their leash. Part of this is also damage control, covering up any sort of outburst that may have happened to make sure no one else knows who his aspect is. As this is an important part of everything, the closest around the Aspect are also priests of Nevesh.
Nevesh tends to be able to use people, including those in people in his triumvirate. Since his Aspect is a person in power and usually has a great deal of pull in political settings, he uses them to his own gain making them think it is their own will. This is his deceit side, always able to get away with his lies when he applies himself to the situation.
As far as being able to control necromantic powers, the Aspect is second to the Magus. He is made to practice every single day, on the promise that he will lose his seat if he doesn’t gain enough magical prowess. So he or she usually practice till they pass out from the experience. This is more for the conditioning of the body and not as much about the actual magical ability. So while the aspect may be able to control a small army of undead, they may not be able to summon undead demons or do the many unimaginable things the Magus can. Nevesh wants to make sure the body is able to withstand the massive necromantic power he possesses if he should need to take over the body, without having to condition it himself.
There are drawbacks to the person in this position. The side effects aren’t visible to someone who doesn’t know what to look for though. The most obvious one is that with all of the necromantic power running through the body, they tend to age a little faster than they should. This is usually hidden by being in a powerful position, so people tend to ignore the sign saying that it is a stress issue. Their hair goes gray faster than normal, they lose weight easier, and their face wrinkles sooner than usual. Underneath their skin is a different story, having a piece of Nevesh inside of you and accessing his rip in the realm makes you go necrotic if you use it too much. Nevesh is aware of this issue and makes a protective barrier around his piece but eventually, as their body is able to handle it, that barrier becomes thinner and it leaks through. Another drawback is that when a mortal is put in a place of power and is full of deceit they tend to get greedy. This sometimes end up leaving a lot of “clean up” for the priests around him. Nevesh learned quickly that when giving power he couldn’t give them absolute power, that is why they would never be given the title of king, queen, emperor, ect. They are a step or two below those highest spots, that way they aren’t the ones directly looked at and it is slightly easier to cover up their deeds when their greed gets out of hand, and they are put back in their place by Nevesh.
The Magus of Nevesh has been the same soul since the beginning. Through research and the help of Nevesh, the Magus has learned how to anchor his soul to a new body. The stronger the body, the more difficult the anchor, but the greater the rewards are. The body must be prepared before the time of death. In order to prepare the body, the soul of the target must be corrupted to the point it WANTS to leave the body. In some cases this can take many years, in others it only takes a few points in the right direction.
The Magus of Nevesh is a particularly interesting individual. Through research and pure greed he has found a way to anchor his soul. He is also the strongest mortal user of the necromantic realm, and is an expert at corruption.
The Magus has been the same soul for as long as the position has been filled. He has gone by many names over the centuries, been through many bodies, and many species. He has found a way to anchor his soul to a specific point or body at death. This took many tries over the beginning times. Nevesh had to steal his soul a few times in order for him to get it right in the end. In order for him to fix his soul he must have a prepared body ahead of time. The first part of that process is to corrupt the subject to the point of their soul WANTING to leave. For some this takes years to do, for others it may only take a few points in the right direction.
The biggest mistake he had made over the years is that the stronger the body, the more difficult it is to take over. Which means taking over the body of a massive being like a dragon is pretty much impossible. Taking over a child that is pure and not corrupted is also impossible with his tactics. For these reasons the subjects he uses are meticulously sought out. Only the perfect ones will do. This idea was taken by how gods use their Aspect. So in order to tie himself to another body he must give up a part of his soul to the new body while both are still alive. In order to do that the receiving body must have a soul that is willing to escape so there is room for his part. That way when his body dies, his soul searches for the missing part to become whole again. Then it is stuck in the new body. The high seats of the church are the ones that help search for his new bodies.
The drawbacks for this are great. Every time he switches bodies he has to retrain it to use the realm like he had with his previous body. This takes more time the weaker the body is. This also makes him a lich, so he is completely undead. Which isn’t really seen as a drawback to himself, but some could see that as a detriment. He does retain his memories though, so this makes him a very dangerous person to cross. The other issue is that if he hasn’t had enough time to get a body ready, he won’t have something to tie to so it would mean the end. So when he gets a new body he is usually off the radar for some time before he resurfaces to continue his work.
The work that Nevesh has his Magus working on is all for the future. He is raising an army of undead for Nevesh to use should he need to ascend to the realm. For this reason his location is kept a secret and only those seated high in the church know how to contact him should they need to.
Many different people of all walks of life tend to seek out the Magus. Some of them know what he is but most don’t. The people searching for him usually only know that he has been around since the great war. This means he has been around during the biggest times of the lands. They come to seek knowledge from him and they think they will find out what truly happened during the time they are asking about. This has been a way to pass the time over the years for him though. He is willing to tell them what they want to hear, for a price. So he ends up using these people as pawns to get what he needs for his experiments. Wether it be fresh bodies, special materials, or an adventuring party’s help to kill off a past target or two he will do anything to hide his own power and at the same time corrupt other people through any acts he can think of.
The Sword of Nevesh is slightly different from others, in that he or she tends to act as a general or commander. While the Sword has trained in fighting for the entirety of their status, if not before, they have at their command a small army of Undead. The Magus is the one that provides such an army though, as the Sword has spent his or her time on aspects of fighting and battle tactics. And as for battle, the sword is formidable. Having and endless supply of undead to fight and slay in learning to hone fighting skills means that the Sword is battle hardened and has killed many before they ever even set foot on a battlefield.
The Sword is slightly different from other god’s in that he or she can act as a general to a small army of undead. While the Sword has training in fighting for the entirety of their status, if not before, they have at their command a small army of undead that are magically tied to him by the Magus. They are forced to listen to his commands and do as he says. They are very rarely used or seen though.
The Sword himself is taught battle by fighting against the vast amounts of undead the Magus has brought up. This allows him or her to become a formidable fighter and without the hesitations other fighters may have in training with live bodies. The sword is trained against one on one, multiples on one, and even trained on fighting while being surrounded.
The Sword of Nevesh is of a different breed. No one from outside the priesthood would ever guess he is one of the triumvirates. While is name isn’t known along the whole continent, he is widely accepted as a hero. He goes across the land helping people, to hone his skills and spread deceit. For example he will go into a village and slay a demon that is tormenting them and when offered a reward he will tell them to give it to a person or entity that has unknown ties to the church of Nevesh. Or if he will corrupt the townsfolk by telling them that the person behind the demon summoning was an innocent family he just didn’t like because they were too nice or innocent.
The army he controls is on his person. The magus has learned how to put teleport sigils on the bones of the fighters, each specific and tied to their specific sigil of summoning. Those sigils have been placed inside small potion bottles and when the bottles break the sigils are activated and summon/teleport the minion to the location it has been broken. The downside to this is the Sword must visit the Magus any time he needs to replenish the bottles or army bodies. The used undead are also stuck where they were used until they are summoned back to the Magus or they are defeated. If it is vital no one finds out and it is a heavy trafficked area the sword will usually slay them himself and get rid of the evidence unless an elite unite had to be used. The elites can usually hide themselves well enough they can be unseen till the call back by the Magus.
The drawback of being the Sword is that the life expectancy is very low. Due to this, in combination with the Magus, several of the past Swords are now elite undead in his army. But having to go out and be a “hero” means putting your life on the line. This has turned out badly for them, and for Nevesh in the past. For this reason Nevesh only allows the most devout to become his Sword. Above all else the church must come first and above any of his own worldly desires. Only after the church has been met he can tend to himself.
To be a priest of nevesh you must be accepted into the church and show that you are devoted. This means that you are able to put the church above any of your personal issues or desires. If you are accepted then you are able to draw just a little more power than if you weren’t a part of the church.
Most places, the church is a silent and non-spoken kind of thing. There aren’t very many full temples to Nevesh, but each home of every priest has a small shrine even if it is hidden. This allows Nevesh to be able to look in on his church. It also allows the church to worship wherever they happen to be instead of possibly being found out by making the trek to the temple.
To join the church one has to be able to show one or both aspects of teaching. Either he or she must demonstrate their power over undeath or they must be able to show their powers of deceit and corruption. Generally you would think this is an easy thing to prove, but the church tends to make it difficult on purpose. The real test is that they want to make sure you are devoted and won’t give up when things get difficult following the church. The biggest reason for this is that they don’t want just anyone to join and then give away all their secrets and the names of all those involved in the church. This is also the reason that when you become a full member you get abducted in the middle of the night and wake up within the circle of priests of your area that you’re trying to join. None of the new members know that before they woke up they had done something to them. Each of them had a small sigil put on their spine. This sigil isn’t anything difficult to deal with, just a small explosion the size of a firecracker. But being attached to the spine means just a small pop will sever the spinal cord. The upper priests use this in dire times to deal with insubordination and they make an example of it. They will get everyone together and have the culprit up in front of everyone and make the sigil explode, making everyone believe it was a power of the upper priesthood given to them by Nevesh. By the time any of the lower level priests find out what truly has happened to them it is too late because the bone has fused
Be with the object and it is impossible to be removed. These sigils are created by the Magus, in general the church does not teach anyone how to create sigils although that doesn’t mean there aren’t individuals that have gone and learned on their own.
Priest Bonuses:
Bonus to lie/deceive
Bonus to Necromancy?
Bonus to sense undead
Bonus to sense motive
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Priest Detriments:
Hated by Samat and his followers
Death means your soul goes to Nevesh to do what he wishes
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