> [!infobox]+ Zehir > > <div class="infobox-coat-of-arms"> > <div style="text-align: center; padding: 5px;"> > <div class="character-name-container"><div class="character-main-name">Zehir</div><div class="character-epithet">the Cloaked Serpent</div></div> > </div> > </div> > <div style="text-align: center; padding: 0.2em;"> > <img src="ZehirSymbol.png" alt="Zehir" style="max-width: 250px; height: auto;" class="internal-image"> > </div> > <table class="infobox-table"> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Province</td><td class="infobox-data">God of Poisons, Assassins and Darkness, Creator of snakes and serpentkin</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Alignment</td><td class="infobox-data">Chaotic Evil</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Symbol</td><td class="infobox-data">A coiled serpent</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Holy Day</td><td class="infobox-data"><em>None</em></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Type</td><td class="infobox-data">Greater <a href="Deities.md" class="internal-link">Deity</a></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Home Plane</td><td class="infobox-data">Sealed within the Towers of Night, a prison plane adrift in the <a href="Astral Sea.md" class="internal-link">Astral Sea</a>, since his banishment at <a href="Zur-Irqaz.md" class="internal-link">Zur-Irqaz</a> in the <a href="Dawn-War.md" class="internal-link">Dawn-War</a></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Divine Champion</td><td class="infobox-data"><em>Not Known</em></td></tr> > </table> ### About Zehir, the Cloaked Serpent, is the greater god of poisons, assassins and darkness, the creator of snakes and serpentkin, and one of the [[Betrayer Gods]]. A wanderer in the shadows, he has never been a god of armies, preferring to strike from the dark through assassins and poison, and the ancient serpentkin who first worshipped him dragged screaming offerings to their temples in his honour. His worship has been all but extinct since the end of the [[Dawn-War]], yet it has never quite died, and as recently as the 3030s PD his followers came close to bringing him back into [[Aeborhia|the world]]. Since his banishment at [[Zur-Irqaz]], he has been sealed within the Towers of Night, a prison plane adrift in the [[Astral Sea]], from where he still subverts and poisons [[Aeborhia|the world]] in whatever ways he can. ### Depiction Zehir is depicted with the body of a man, six arms and a gargantuan serpentine head, fanged and frilled in aggression. Strands of thick, dark hair sprout from his scaled body, forming layers of swirling shadow that obscure his form. Many forgotten temples were once built to the Cloaked Serpent, and within them his image was worked into the very architecture of their halls. His holy symbol is a coiled serpent, often carved in green stone and banded in gold. ### Divine Domains Zehir's clerics are most often granted powers of Nature, Trickery or Death. ### Holy Day Zehir has no holy day. His worship has always been kept in secret, and his followers gather beneath the cover of night whenever there is need, never on a day their enemies could predict. ### Commandments of Zehir - Keep your acts obfuscated and secret. The night is your greatest ally. - Strike quickly and without reason. Blind the target with their own confusion. - Kill slowly. Agonizingly. Or worse, make them enjoy it. ### Enemies of Zehir The Cloaked Serpent loathes [[Erathis]] and [[Melora]], for he despises life, order and love above all things. His followers have long used poison and fire to undermine civilisation and consume the wilds, hoping to wound both goddesses and cast [[Aeborhia|the world]] into chaos. He holds an equal hatred for [[Pelor]], who razed his city in the [[Age of Founding|Schism]] and banished him not once but twice, and for [[Avandra]], whose champion Elkush led the Cloaked Serpent's slaves to freedom at the end of the [[Dawn-War]]. ### History - #### The Age of Founding In the [[Age of Founding]], Zehir shaped the first snakes and serpentkin, and from them the [[Yuan-Ti]], in the jungles of [[Juaridoz]], where [[Togas]] lies today. While the other [[Deities]] walked openly among their creations, the Cloaked Serpent kept from their light, moving unseen through the shadows of the young world. During the [[Age of Founding|Schism]], Zehir joined the [[Betrayer Gods]] against the Pantheon. Rather than raising armies, he sent his assassins against the leaders of the young mortal peoples, and poisoned the rivers and wells of [[Erathis|Erathis']] cities and [[Melora|Melora's]] wilds. Yet no darkness could hide him from the sun forever. During the [[Crusades of Dawn|Crusade of Dawn]], [[Pelor]] and his [[Pelor's Swords|Swords]] hunted the Cloaked Serpent through the jungles of [[Juaridoz]], battling many of the great beasts of the region, until at last they brought him to battle at a city of snakes deep in the jungle. There [[Pelor]] overcame him and bound him to a prison plane adrift in the [[Astral Sea]], beyond the reach of his venomous plots, and the city of snakes was razed to the ground. - #### The Age of Arcanum Zehir spent the [[Age of Arcanum]] imprisoned within the [[Astral Sea]], though the [[Yuan-Ti]] who had served him kept his worship alive in hidden temples deep in the jungles of [[Juaridoz]]. - #### The Dawn-War At the start of the [[Dawn-War]], Zehir was released along with the other [[Betrayer Gods]]. Once again he worked through assassins and poison rather than armies, and [[Yuan-Ti]] slavers sailed in his name, taking captives from the coasts of [[Stacia]] and [[Juaridoz]] to serve and suffer in his temples. Three years into the war, Zehir clashed with [[Melora]] somewhere over the Galaeron Ocean. Caught between them was Velder, a flying city of the [[Age of Arcanum]], which was brought down and lost. His end came at [[Zur-Irqaz]], the colossal mountain fortress of the [[Betrayer Gods]] in [[Vangrallag]], where his [[Yuan-Ti]] and assassins held the shadowed halls. [[Pelor]] and [[Moradin]] led an all-out assault on the fortress, one of the most devastating battles of the [[Dawn-War]], in which thousands of warriors, demons and many of [[Pelor|Pelor's]] [[Pelor's Swords|Swords]] fell before its walls. As the fortress fell, the Cloaked Serpent tried to slip away into the darkness, but [[Pelor|Pelor's]] light found him once more. [[Moradin|Moradin's]] [[Dwarves]] cut down his serpentkin guard, and [[Pelor]] hurled him back into the [[Astral Sea]], sealing him within the Towers of Night. By the battle's end, three of the [[Betrayer Gods]] had been banished: [[Bane]] cast into [[Acheron]], [[Torog]] bound to the borders of the [[Far Realm]], and Zehir hurled into the [[Astral Sea]]. - #### Post Dawn-War In the years after the [[Dawn-War]], a [[Yuan-Ti]] slave named Elkush led his fellow slaves to freedom, founding a colony in [[Togas]] and later becoming the champion of [[Avandra]]. Zehir's worship never recovered, and for nearly three thousand years it was all but extinct, with only a few of his temples left standing, most of them in secret. In the 3030s PD, a sect known as the Scaled Shadow rose with the aim of bringing the Cloaked Serpent back into [[Aeborhia|the world]]. Around 3033 PD, Zehir chose a new champion, known only as the Gilded Serpent, a towering [[Goliaths|goliath]] clad in golden armour who bore a serpent's tail of solid gold as a sign of his god's favour. In 3035 PD, he led [[Yuan-Ti]] cultists in slaughtering the [[Yuan-Ti]] of a temple in [[Togas]], descendants of those Elkush had freed. The sect held to a prophecy: *"Blood and Scales will be united. The Serpent will be free to return, and the Prince shall pave the road."* The Scaled Shadow had allied with the demon lord [[Orcus]]. While his demons assaulted [[Rexsall]], the Gilded Serpent was to open a rift at the summit of [[Mount Rexsall]] wide enough for Zehir to cross the [[Divine Gate]]. The plan was undone when [[Group 8274]] tracked the champion to a hidden temple in the heart of the [[Bartoix Swamp]] and slew him there. Without the champion, only [[Orcus]] could come through, and in the [[Battle of Rexsall]] on the 7^th of Snowmoot, 3036 PD, the demon lord himself was slain by [[Group 8274]]. The Cloaked Serpent remains sealed within the Towers of Night, and the fate of the Scaled Shadow is unknown. ### Modern Worship of Zehir The worship of Zehir is outlawed throughout the [[Stacien Empire]] and [[Rexzaryn]], and what is known of it is closely guarded. In the [[Bartoix Swamp]] and [[Zeshana]], however, all faiths may be followed freely so long as their followers keep the law, and a small temple to the Cloaked Serpent stands openly in [[Bleim]]. Elsewhere his faith survives only in a handful of hidden temples, and the remnants of the Scaled Shadow are thought to linger still. Few of the [[Yuan-Ti]] now follow the god who made them. The descendants of those Elkush freed turned from Zehir long ago, and the survivors of the [[Togas]] colony now live at the [[Gostean Reservation]] outside [[Rexsall]], alongside a community of Aarakocra. ### Known Worshippers of Zehir #### Champions The Gilded Serpent † - A [[Goliaths|goliath]] in golden armour, chosen by Zehir around 3033 PD and slain by [[Group 8274]] in the [[Bartoix Swamp]] before the [[Battle of Rexsall]]. #### Other Worshippers Kez'an - A [[Lizardfolk|lizardfolk]] priest who keeps the temple of Zehir in [[Bleim]].