Setosh

Summary/Background
Once the ruler of the gods of Coznakk, Setosh was a stern and unrelenting champion of fate and cosmic indifference so long as it preserved the fabric of Creation. One of the few deities to establish their divine realm in the Material Plane, Setosh and his followers ruled over the Great City of Setat before its reformation into Imperial Rocia. These followers, consisting of his clergy and the High Templars, held much the same role as the modern Church of the Many Divines, but were less concerned with moral concerns than they were in enforcing the Pantheon's supremacy. After thousands of years of dominion over Coznakk, Setosh's death in The Godfall was sudden and shocking, and directly led to the Succession War.

Unique Worshiper Options
Divine Blessing feats are a special category of powerful feats that reflect the unique abilities granted by deities in pursuit of their portfolios and agendas. Only a divine spellcaster or a character with a Paladin or Antipaladin Aura can take a Divine Blessing feat, and they must worship the indicated deity and remain in good standing with their faith in order to use the feat’s benefits. Once a character has obtained a Divine Blessing feat with one deity, they cannot gain a Divine Blessing from any other deity without converting to the new faith. A character who converts to another religion must retrain the feat as normal and does not typically get to replace it otherwise.

Deity Description
Setosh was depicted throughout Coznakk's recorded history as a colossal Celestial resembling a Solar whose body was obscured by blinding sunlight, leaving only an impression of heavy Celestial armor angelic in design but sinister in appearance. Though his face was impossible to see beneath his onyx-studded crown of silver and black gold, his posture was always suggestive of sternness and he was moved by neither compassion nor sympathy. Setosh's six wings were not clearly attached to his body, their base lost in the sun-bright light of his form, but they darkened to "a darkness blacker than night" by the time they reached the tips of his feathers. Unlike many deities, Setosh either could not or refused to change forms when he made his presence known, and there are no known depictions of Setosh in any other shape.

As one of the eldest Celestials, Setosh lacked many humanoid personality traits, and was almost as alien to other deities as he was to mortals. Setosh had no use for humor or social niceties, and was indifferent to the challenges of mortal life or other personal concerns - when Setosh gave a command, he expected obedience and nothing else. While he was never actively cruel, Setosh's concerns were so far removed from morality and ethics as to be effectively as evil as it was good - if the integrity of fate and the fabric of Creation demanded one death or a billion, there was no difference to Setosh. This, more than anything, fed the shock and surprise surrounding The Godfall that led to the Succession War, as the gods largely understood that if Setosh were to choose between risking Creation's future with his death or saving N'Ekar, then they expected he would sacrifice N'Ekar, not out of selfishness but out of his sense of unyielding duty. Whether Setosh was aware of something the rest of the Pantheon still does not know about remains distressingly unclear as the Succession War rages on.

Relations with the Many Divines
Most of the gods and goddesses of the Many Divines did not particularly like Setosh, but they respected his role in the Pantheon and obeyed his commands when he bothered to intervene in the affairs of other gods. Pendaryion had a sense of admiration for Setosh's devotion to duty, but his callous indifference to moral concerns prevented that admiration from being anything greater than mild approval of that one aspect. Setosh himself was as indifferent to the Many Divines as he was anything else, though he sometimes clashed with Keragyxin's particularly free-spirited interference and chaotic meddling with fate and prophecies. Despite elevating the Seven Saints to godhood, Setosh's relationship with them was as aloof and uncaring afterwards, although the Seven Saints maintained a healthy respect for the god who empowered them.

Relations with the Gray Faiths
Of all the Gray Faiths, Setosh found a measure of kinship only with The Soulkeeper, a fellow Celestial unconcerned with morality and ethics so long as the cosmos continued to function. Setosh also sometimes counseled with Chronis, but whether their relationship was purely goal-oriented or involved friendship is as murky and unclear as the rest of the Chronan faith to the peoples of Creation. Setosh had an estranged relationship with Seliir, as her ascension as a sun goddess followed the murder of her husband Tacitus Solis at the hands of the Scarlet Queen. Seliir demanded bloody and fiery vengeance against the goddess of death, and she was not satisfied with Setosh's divine curse lain upon the Queen of Vampires, and the matter remained contentious to the day of Setosh's own death.

Relations with the Dark Pantheon
Setosh largely did not care about the Dark Pantheon, so long as they did not interfere with the continued functionality of Creation. He did, however, greatly dislike the Scarlet Queen for her defiance, the murder of Tacitus Solis, and the resulting troubles with Seliir. Few earned Setosh's ire more than Asmodeus, though, as the latter Celestial had worked inextricable corruption into the fabric of Creation that would cause more damage to excise than to leave alone. Setosh honors the terms of their prior agreements, but steadfastly refused to repeat his past mistake, and whether this resulted in Azmedriel's vendetta against them both is unclear. Setosh kept more destructive deities of the Dark Pantheon under close scrutiny, and although they hated him they feared him more and thus obeyed his commands when given, at least more often than not.

Relations with Other Pantheons
The Fey generally feared and avoided notice by Setosh when they could, and obeyed him they could not. Setosh, for his part, had no more interest in the Fey than he did anything else in Creation, but the sometimes-transdimensional nature of the Fey caused him to take closer scrutiny than they were comfortable with. Only the Fey of the Shadow Court actively worked to undermine Setosh's dominion, but they always did so with extreme care lest they provoke the wrath of a being they could not best.

Druids, particularly those who practice the Old Ways, have a tumultuous history with Setosh. For nearly a hundred centuries, at Setosh's command the Pantheon worked to actively stamp out Druidism that refused to yield to the Pantheon's rule, and the Pantheon's cudgel of choice was the High Templars. While Path Druidism eventually emerged from the conflicts with a healthy respect for the Pantheon, the Druids and entities of the Old Ways typically know only loathing for Setosh after generations of unrelenting persecution and rejoiced in his demise.

Few creatures were as adamantly and implacably hostile towards the Demonic Pantheon as Setosh. The Demon Princes and Princesses of the Demonic Realms were agents of destruction seeking to smash Creation from the first moment they set foot in the Eternal Ring, and Setosh responded in kind. Why Setosh did not immediately destroy Arakaena upon her joining the Demonic Pantheon remains a mystery, but every other Demon Prince or Princess to face Setosh in battle neither received nor expected quarter or mercy from the Celestial. Setosh is credited with personally killing some four to five hundred Demon Princes and Princesses, most of them forgotten to history, but his intervention in elevating the Seven Saints at Hinorot is credited as much to him as the now-divine heroes.

Notable Historic Events

 * c.-9500 - The High Templars of Setosh react violently to the expansion of the Scarlet Queen’s influence when Phitan razes the Temple of Nine and declares political and spiritual allegiance to the goddess of death.
 * c.-9400 - Phitan is razed by the High Templars in the cleansing of the Scarlet Queen’s influence on the Crimson Straits.  The city takes centuries to return to its former glory.  The surrounding Human nations are dubbed the Silver Kingdoms due to the ever-present reminders of High Templar power - specifically, banners of the Silver Crown of Setat.
 * c.-9250 - The Scarlet Queen slays High Templar Tacitus Solis in a pique of anger for conveying the command of Setosh that Urnox and Urnox alone is to be her domain.  An incensed Setosh responds by laying the Curse of the Sun's Wrath upon all vampires, condemning them that the light favored by his slain envoy would forevermore burn them to ash with the merest touch.  The Scarlet Queen herself is afflicted as well, but her own divinity protects her from the full fury of the sun, though it reduces her to a charred skeleton in sunlight and causing pain but no other debilitation to her.  The other major gods, vengeful for her influence that led to razing the Temple of Nine, follow suit, laying their own curses upon vampirism, resulting in the classical weaknesses that endure today.
 * c.-8500 - Defiant and spiteful of the Pantheon, the Scarlet Queen finds a unique solution to the Curse of the Sun’s Wrath - kill the sun.  Drawing upon her blend of high arcana and divine power, she weaves a permanent storm of darkness over Urnox, the roiling clouds so thick the sun’s rays cannot pierce.
 * 0 - By divine decree of Setosh during the fall of Sulis, the Gen Occupation of Coznakk is ended and both Gen and mortalkind are forbidden from further retribution.  The decree, brokered by the Djinn and to be enforced by the gods, is named the Djinnpact.  The event is considered the pivot point between history and pre-history by many Human scholars, and the summer solstice of that year is deemed the beginning of the Djinnpact calendar.
 * 3329 - Setosh commands the High Templars (and, by extension, the people of Coznakk) to cease butchering the Durau at the conclusion of the War of the Underworld.
 * 3864 - N'Ekar is teleported to Seedorus.  Setosh is slain stabilizing the extraordinary energies unleashed in the event, throwing the Pantheon into chaos and distracting the gods from mortal affairs. The event quickly comes to be known as The Godfall.
 * 3865 - The Succession War begins in an explosive resurgence of violence in the Eternal Ring as deities war for Setosh's mantle as ruler of the Seedoran gods.
 * 3866 - Holus Sanrim launches a bloody coup in Setat, decapitating rival factions in the Great City in the absence of Setosh and the High Templars.  Sanrim crowns himself Emperor Dominus I and founds the Rocian Empire from Setat, renamed Imperial Rocia.
 * c.3870 - With the Succession War blinding the gods to mortal activity as they battle across the planes, and demigods carving out kingdoms in the Material Realm, the Church of the Many Divines seizes upon the role vacated by the High Templars.  Laying claim to the mantle of arbiters of divine will in their absence, the Church soon becomes synonymous with the Pantheon to many and rapidly expand their political, economic, and magical influence across Coznakk.