The Dead Saints of Lorya

Foreword

Lorya has been swallowed by fog. Its residents slowly losing their Humanity and becoming Forlorn. In their despair they have found a cycle of 7 Saints that govern death. It is unknown whether the Saints bring a peaceful end or are using the worship as a front to collect more souls. These Saints were created as a challenge to myself to create a super edgy pantheon/setting. Are they cool? I dunno. I hope they're edgy tho.

The Dead Saints of Lorya

For the Forlorn death and the loss of their Humanity is inevitable, a fact reflected in the Saints they choose to worship.

Each member of the Dead Saints is believed to govern a different facet of death, each willing to claim the lost souls of Lorya after their final dregs of Humanity are drained away and they are finally allowed to break free of the cycle.

The origin of these Saints is unknown, and they are depicted as faceless and nameless, each known only by their symbology and titles. Despite this mystery, faith among the Forlorn reaches fervorous heights, often leading to conflicts between different sects of the same Saint.

If you can't choose when death arrives, the best you can do is try and choose how.

The Lady of the Lantern

Symbol: Lit Lantern Emitting Rays of Light

Domains: Light, Grave.

Depicted as a hooded figure with feminine form and indeterminate age, The Lady governs peaceful deaths from natural causes and old age. Considered kindest of the Dead Saints, she has the largest following amongst the denizens of the Lorya, she provides a hope of euthanasia to a people who die too often in fear and violence.

She guides the souls granted to her with her lantern light, granting safe passage through the Veil.

Corpses consecrated by the Lady and her clerics do not form undead, an invaluable asset in the Dead City. 

Her followers view both the conduction of burial affairs and the exorcism of restless spirits as the highest forms of worship in her name.

The Old Man of the Woods

Symbol: Deer Skull

Domains: Nature, Death.

Depicted both as a hunter with a bow and the hunted deer, The Old Man governs deaths in the interactions of predators and prey. Hunters know that He lays claim to the souls of the quarry they hunt, just as they know He will lay claim to their souls when they finally become the prey.

His claimed souls stock his divine hunting ground, for them to feast upon each other for eternity.

Followers of the Hounding Death provide game and furs to the habitable enclaves of the Lorya, while more militant followers hunt after the horrors that prowl the alleys. 

However, the most fanatical of his followers are indiscriminate in their quarry, becoming beasts that will prey on the flesh of their own kind.

The Queen in Bloom, Thrive in Death

Symbol : Skull covered in mushrooms.

Domains: Life, Death

Depicted as a woman clothed in sheets of fungal growths and a crown of flowers, The Queen governs growth, disease and decay. 

She lays claim to the souls that die wracked in disease, returning them back into the Cycle, creating new life from the corpse of the old.

Her rot farmers provide a constant source of food in the twilight of the Lorya and the fungal thralls act as a disposable work force and militia.

The Weaver of Fates

Symbol : Spider in the centre of a cobweb.

Domains : Arcana, Knowledge, Death, Order

Depicted as a blind woman at a loom, or a cocooned spider, The Weaver governs arcane knowledge and deaths predicted by prophecy. 

Those who die in the pursuit of knowledge and the ability to change their fates find themselves in the domain of The Weaver, where She is trapped as they are in the Webs of Fate.

She empowers those who would seek to know the arcane and curate the mystical, and she conveys hidden prophecies for those who know how to perceive them.

The Forged in Flame

Symbol : Sword and Hammer crossed in front of a flame.

Domains : War, Death, Forge.

Depicted as an armoured warrior or a smith at work, the Flame-forged governs the arts of craft and war.

Souls in his domain are given the opportunity to endlessly hone their skills with one another in an unending contest.

His followers produce the necessary weapons and armour required to survive in the Lorya, while more martial followers may protect communities or destroy them in pursuit of conflict.

The Rat King

Symbol : 8 spoked wheel

Domains : Trickery, Death.

Depicted as 8 rats tied together by their tails, or a hunched figure wrapped in rags with a hidden dagger, The Rat King governs thievery, stealth and murder.

He is said to teach his true followers the methods to access the hidden passages and alleys between all the other Afterlife domains, allowing them to pass undetected even under the eyes of Saints.

Residents of the Lorya offer him a silent prayer when travelling from place to place, hoping to remain hidden from the dangers that lurk.

Organisations

-The Borrowers

-The Alleywalkers

The Cloaked in Storm

Symbol : Upside down boat

Domains : Tempest, Death.

Depicted as a man wreathed in clouds and wind, the Storm governs weather, storms and death at sea.

Souls claimed by the Storm sail the Seas for eternity, only returning to land to do the biddings of a god.

An unpopular god in Lorya due to its landlocked nature, some still revere him due to his dominion over the relatively safe waterways cobwebbing the city.

Clerics invoke his powers to both summon fog to hide from enemy sights as well as summon lightning to smite invaders.