Abraxas

Abraxas is a Lord of the Abyss, whose dominion over secrets, written lore, the arcane, occult, and forgeries have earned him the epithet Lord of the Forbidden Lore. He was once a demon, born of the chaos of the Abyss, but has lived longer than some gods and has risen to a commensurate level of power. He claims to have learned a spell capable of undoing the Vergence, adopting the style Keeper of the Final Incantation thereafter. While not widely worshipped by the mortals of Ahren, he nevertheless has followers among morally flexible mages.

A chaotic evil diety, his symbol is a human eye rendered in script. Divine spellcasters inspired by the Lord of Forbidden Lore gain access to the Chaos, Evil, Knowledge, and Magic domains. He has no sacred weapon and holds no one animal in particular esteem.

History

Abraxas's origins are shrouded in the mystery of time and the volatility of his native realm, the Abyss. Abraxas is a Lord of the Abyss whose domain is expansive, and while his cult is extensive and he is generous with his gifts to his followers, the nature of his cults tends to attract opposition from more organized faiths quickly, making large and historic campaigns of her influence impossible. In point of fact, his followers on Ahren tend to be jealous of their lore and are mistrusting of even each other.

Relationships

All of the Lords of the Abyss war with each other constantly, shifting alliances amongst each other in like manner to how mortals shift their clothes. His domain puts him near the Bosom of Creation, a realm of San Verus in the Abyss. Most histories place him as a rival and mentor to San Verus occasionally conspiring with Mestama against him or with him against her, contributing to the chaotic nature of the Bosom of Creation.

Appearance

Abraxas rarely appears before mortals in his true form - A giant so heavily tattooed as to render his original skin tone incomprehensible, robed in arcane glyphs and writings in dozens of spoken and lost languages. Instead, whenshe appears before mortals, he usually takes the form of an elderly scholar of the most appropriate race for the audience.

Realm

Abraxas claims rulership - and give stability to - the Vale of Echoes, a realm of the Abyss which neighbours the Bloodscape and the Bosom of Creation.

Providence

Abraxas is the king of the spoken geas, the master of the incantations of banishment, and the father of languages. His faithful have seen his intervention in the form of the shuffle, the sudden landing on a particular page, or the gibberish that gets stuck in the back of one's mind, just under their tongue.

Servants

Many species of demon pledge their loyalty to Lords of the Abyss, among whom Abraxas is no exception. While Dretches are, as always, over-represented, he is also popular among the Gebralti. The Vale of Echoes is also infested in a rare species of Abyssal Djinn which are said to be his direct creation.

Church

One can hardly call the folloerws of Abraxas a church. Occasionally, a cell of cultists may grow no larger than a half-dozen members in size. Much more often, individual spellcasters, or perhaps a spellcaster and one or two overly-trusting apprentices, may find themselves working together in the service of the Keeper of the Final Incantation.

Worshippers

Abraxas's worshippers fall under many categories. All seek magic. Some come to her on the road paved with the best of intentions, seeking solutions to the magical problems of their time, like the Great Collapse. Others know their doom and seek his influence out of a sense of vegence, hoping to either learn from him or trick him into speaking the Final Incantation and thereby destroying Ahren.

Clergy

A rare few of Abraxas's followers, more often women than not, walk down the twisted roads of knowledge and lore far enough that they come into direct contact with Abraxas or (much more often) his abyssal lieutenants, and so form pacts that make them formal members of his clergy. Warlocks are over-represented in this cohort, but so too are oracles, whom Abraxas delights in creating in ways that blast their faculties of communication. Such oracles are especially esteemed among his followers, who know them as the Truthspeakers.

Temples & Shrines

Raising permanent temples to Abraxas is a dangerous game; her worship is illegal under punishment of imprisonment in the Hearthlands and by death in Bastonia and the Atarlie Empire. Even in the Lordless Lands, where intelligent beings have great latitude in their choice of diety, Abraxas is seen as distasteful at best, and her followers are often driven away from the mainstream bands of the Orcish Nation or Confederacy of Sages at best, or warred against at worse.

Indeed, it is only recently, since the Great Collapse opened up the Shimmering Shore to the influences of the planes and threw the region into chaos, that any effort to organize the church beyond country cults meeting in secret was possible. He is rumoured to have now a temple known as the Inverse Library in the wilds somewhere near Xarthekai which is said to be the Library of Akasha remanifest.

Holy Texts

The Lords of the Abyss consider nothing sacred. No word, much less a facsimile of their word, may be used to bind them. Their only teachings are that which they or their lieutenants or priest pass along to the next generation, and their only law is their current demand.

Church History

Abraxas's church has never been organized enough to be a meaningful historical force.