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Jergal - DM Artemis - 10-08-2017
Lord of the End of Everything, Scribe of the Doomed, Seneschal of the Crystal Spire, the Forgotten One, the Pitiless One
Demipower (formerly Greater) of Hades, LN
PORTFOLIO: Fatalism, order in death, proper burial, guardian of tombs, protector of the names of the dead
ALIASES: Nakasr
DOMAIN NAME: Oinos/Crystal Spire
SUPERIOR: Kelemvor (formerly Cyric, and previous to that Myrkul)
ALLIES: Amaunator (now dead)
FOES: Cyric, Velsharoon
SYMBOL: A jawless skull and a writing quill resting on a scroll
WOR. ALIGN.: LG, NG, LN, N, LE, NE
Jergal (JER-gull), Lord of the End of Everything, is responsible for keeping records on the final disposition of all the spirits of the dead. He is the fatalistic undertaker who strives for order in death, anticipating the ever-encroaching termination of all things living. Jergal strives for an orderly accounting of the fate of the world as it slowly sinks into death. Few mortals are even aware of Jergal's existence except for a few sages studying ancient history.
Jergal was Myrkul's predecessor as Lord of the Dead, although he apparently voluntarily relinquished that position to the Lord of Bones many centuries ago. Some sages believe Jergal held the portfolios of Bhaal and Bane at that time, as well, and was venerated as Nakasr by the Netherese survivor states. After stepping down from his position, Jergal becamse the Seneschal of Bone Castle, assisting Myrkul in the execution of his duties. In the intervening centuries, Jergal has become the Forgottem One and faded into Myrkul's shadow.
Jergal played no part in the Time of Troubles, but when Cyric succeeded Myrkul as Lord of the Dead, the Scribe of the Doomed continued to serve as the Seneschal of Bone Castle. A core component of his very being makes Jergal absolutely loyal to the current Lord of the Dead, regardless of who holds that office. From Jergal's actions during Cyric's tenure, however, it is apparent that while Jergal is utterly loyal to the office of Lord of the Dead, he does have the freedom to subtly undermine the current officeholder if she or he is not true to the position's responsibilities.
Jergal seems to find working with Kelemvor, the new Lord of the Dead, much more to his personal satisfaction. The Forgotten One serves the Judge of the Damned as seneschal by maintaining careful records of all who enter the Crystal Spire, Kelemvor's new abode built on the rubble of the Bone Castle. It is possible that Jergal will regain some of his former prominence serving Kelemvor, but it is equally likely that the Seneschal of the Crystal Spire will pass on into death himself, having found a suitable successor to his old position. Regardless, the Scribe of the Doomed has little apparent interest in the living save for recording their final fates.
Jergal retains a fondness from Netheril's heyday for the long-vanished Amaunator, valuing that ancient god's adherence to law and order, but he otherwise has few allies aside from Kelemvor, and even fewer friends. Following the events of the Cyrinishad debacle, Jergal has nothing but scorn for Cyric, the former Lord of the Dead, considering him anathema to the orderly dissolution of the universe. In the aftermath of Velsharoon's divine ascendance, Jergal spends much of his efforts in the Realms combating the Necromancer's efforts to prolong life into undeath and to thwart the orderly procession of death in the Realms.
Jergal never angers, and always speaks with a disembodied, chilling voice that echoes with the dry whisper of a long forgotten crypt. His tone is always bland, his words fatalistic, and his demeanor excessively formal. Most mortals find the Forgotten One a shadowy, sinister figure who leaves a vague feeling of unease and enervation in his wake. Jergal is totally focused on death and perceives life as momentary existence before death's eternity. A few bards have noted that Jergal's philosophy and actions resemble a mortal attempting to tidy up his affairs and accounts before his imminent death.
This monstrous scribe is depicted in his religion's art as a smooth gray face holding no features other than a pair of bulging yellow eyes. His body is nothing but a shadow-filled gray cloak which rises and falls as if buffeted by an unseen wind, and he wears white gloves that are supported by invisible hands and arms.
Other Manifestations
Jergal can take the form of any undead creature, gaining all its innate abilities in doing so. He also retains his enervation and energy drain attacks, provided that they are not equaled or surpassed by the form he has taken. He can also take the form of a mortal man with a great white beard, bent with extreme age yet holding intelligence and a driving energy within his sunken eyes. Jergal's preferred manifestations is the sound of a heavy tome being closed with chilling finality. This manifestation often occurs upon the death of an exceptionally long-lived mortal, particularly one who has extended his or her life with potions of longevity and like manipulations—such as the magic of an archwizard.
Jergal is served by a wide variety of creatures seen as harbingers of death in various cultures. For example, in Anauroch, the great white-bearded vultures known as N'asr's children (commonly thought to serve N'asr, an alias of Cyric) ferry spirits into the afterlife to their preordained realms at Jergal's behest. The Lord at the End of Everything also exerts his influence through a variety of undead tied to the Negative Energy Plane, such as slow shadows, spectres, and wraiths as well as trillochs, wastrels, and xeg-yi. Jergal has somewhat de-emphasized his affiliation with undead that sap energy since Kelemvor's assumption of the position of Lord of the Dead, but he still is not reluctant to call upon them when their use most efficiently accomplishes a task his superior has set before him—he merely does not dwell upon their use when reporting to Kelemvor.
The Church
CLERGY: Clerics, monks, specialty priests
CLERGY'S ALIGN.: LN, LE
TURN UNDEAD: C: Yes, if neutral, SP: Yes, at priest level +2, Mon: No
CMND. UNDEAD: C: Yes, if evil, SP: Yes, at priest level +2, Mon: No
All clerics, specialty priests, and monks of Jergal receive religion (Faerûnian) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency.
Jergal has only a handful of living worshipers, but it is believed several score of his priests still survive as mummies and greater mummies in long-sealed tombs. These mummies still possess their living intelligence and can cast priest spells. While most are lawful evil in alignment, some favored few tend toward a stricter lawful neutral ethos.
Priests of Jergal existed historically only in very lawful and militaristic societies which did not venerate Deneir or any of the goodly gods. In addition to serving as scribes, funerary workers, and morticians, Jergal's priests kept careful records of births, deaths, and taxes for the kings and rulers they served. Jergal was perceived in such societies as a compassionless steward of death who would visit each mortal at their appointed time and transport them to the appropriate realm in the afterlife.
Jergal's few temples are typically lifeless stone mausoleums or dry, dusty crypts. Animals and plants never live long in these dreary, bleak houses of endless drudgery. Sentients who toil daily in Jergal's dusty temples quickly age and grow weak, yet never die before their appointed time, dooming them to a life of venerability. Rare visitors to such shrines find long rows of scribes dutifully recording the affairs and fates of the short-lived mortals in the surrounding lands.
The clergy of Jergal are known as the Scriveners of Doom. Within their ranks, the high priest of each temple is known as First Scrivener of Doom, but otherwise the faith eschews titles or ranks. The faith has always been evenly split between clerics, monks, and specialty priests, known as doomscribes.
Dogma: Each being has an eternal resting place that is chosen for him or her at the moment of creation. Life is a process of seeking that place and eternal rest. Existence is but a brief aberration in an eternity of death. Power, success, and joy are as transitory as weakness, failure, and misery. Only death is absolute, and then only at its appointed hour. Seek to bring order to the chaos of life, for in death there is finality and a fixedness of state. Be ready for death for it is at hand and uncompromising. Life should be prolonged only when it serves the greater cause of the death of the world. Undeath is not an escape or a reward; it is simply a duty of a chosen few who serve the Lord of the End of Everything.
Day-to-Day Activities: Mummified Scriveners of Doom are chosen priests who continue to serve their lord by delaying their eternal rest to bring order and regulation to the disposition of the dead. Buried in long-forgotten crupts, they do nothing but scribe the fate of all living things on cracked parchments. Some are served by zombies and skeletons, but never by sentient undead. For eons Jergal has whispered to his mummified clergy an unending litany of names and fates that they then dutifully record on scrolls until Jergal grants them eternal rest. It is said that when the world finally grinds to a halt and passes away, the last mummified Scrivener of Doom will lay down its pen and crumble to dust. Such undead priests sometimes attack and sometimes ignore interlopers who invade their dusty tombs, depending upon whether or not such beings have reached their appointed hour of death. They always attempt to drive off and if necessary destroy any being who disturbs their sacred tasks, since order in death is as important as death itself in the teachings of the faith.
The small cult of living Scriveners of Doom spend their days maintaining and extending vast archives of scrolls listing how sentients under their purview passed away and their destination in the afterlife. Despite their near hopeless task, they toil on undaunted, knowing they have eons to complete their appointed task. In Thay, where the tiny cult of Jergal is relatively prominent compared to elsewhere in the Realms, most members of Jergal's clergy are employed by individual Zulkirs or Red Wizards to oversee their slave records. In addition to fulfilling a necessary task for society, this gives the scribes crucial access to records detailing large numbers of sentient beings.
Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: Jergal's faithful have little patience or need for holy days or religious ceremonies, viewing them as unnecessary distractions. The one small ritual Jergal's priests are required to perform is called the Sealing. After recording each and every creature's demise, form of death, and destination in the afterlife, Scriveners of Doom are required to sprinkle a light dusting of ash and powdered bone over their inscribed words to blot the ink and mark another step toward the world's end.
On the last night of the year, the 30th of Nightal, Jergal's clergy cease their endless toil for a full night. On this holy night, known as the Night of Another Year, the priests read every name whose death they ahve recorded from the scrolls they have carefully inscribed over the past year. With a cry of "One Year Closer!", all the scrolls are then burned, and work begins anew.
Major Centers of Worship: Jergal's cult has undergone a small renaissance in Thay where death is a daily fact of life. The Crypt of Imminent Death in Bezantur, Thay, is a small onion-domed structure of gold-veined black marble. Dyhna Zhyborrin, the temple's mistress, oversees the temple's small staff, leads worship services in the city, and maintains close ties with the clergy and worshipers of Kelemvor. Cultists of the Forgotten One journey throughout Thay recording deaths for the annuals of the Crypt library.
Godswalk Keep in the Barony of Great Oak in the Border Kingdoms region has become a sacred site for the church of Kelemvor as well as the scattered cultists of Jergal. The Meeting of the Three (also known as the Howling) happens at certain times during the year when Garagos the War God, the Dancing Lady (Sharess), and the Forgotten One (Jergal) all wander through the ancient castle. Jergal seems to wander the ruins aimlessly, ignoring Garagos's attacks and the Dancing Lady's alluring smile.
Affiliated Orders: The Jergali church has grown exceedingly small, and it no longer sees a need for a fighting branch of the faith or other affiliated orders. All creatures shall die at their appointed time whether or not the clergy of Jergal assists in that process or not, so the Scriveners of Doom spend their days toiling at the more important task of recording the fates of the dead rather then actively delivering death themselves.
Records of the Jergali church speak of two now-extinct affiliated groups: the Companions of the Pallid Mask and the Hand of Jergal. The Companions of the Pallid Mask were a group of Jergali priests who specialized in combating or commanding the undead. They eliminated undead creatures whose existence was not sanctioned by the church or who had proved to be troublesome. They also supervised nonsentient undead work crews that the church sometimes ran for profit long ago. The Hand of Jergal was an elite group of fanatic priests who led others under their command to avenge slights upon the church of Jergal at the direction of a high priest. They acted against those of other faiths who raised or resurrected someone without paying due tribute to Jergal or who violated or looted a tomb under the protection of the church.
Priestly Vestments: Jergal's clergy shave their heads smooth and garb themselves in unadorned gray robes and long, white gloves. At all times they carry a satchel of scrolls, inks, and quills. They also carry a desiccated human skull with the openings plugged that they use to contain the simple mixture of ash and powdered bones employed in Sealing rituals. This skull also serves as their holy symbol.
Adventuring Garb: Jergal's priests only very rarely adventure, and then only at Jergal's bequest. Adventuring Scriveners of Doom seek out those who attempt to prolong their lives beyond their appointed time through magic and then terminate their existence. Jergal's priests may wear any armor that they wish to protect themselves—it is irrelevant to the Lord of the End of Everything since every living eing will die at its appointed time, regardless of what protections it takes to the contrary. Jergal's priests are trained in bludgeoning weapons so that they can powder the bones of their opponents for use in future Sealing rituals.