Thanatos
"To Thanatos, Leveler of Mana. Hear me, O Thanatos, whose empire unconfined extends to mortal tribes of every kind. On thee the portion of our time depends, whose absence lengthens life, whose presence ends. Thy sleep perpetual bursts the vivid bolds by which the soul attracting the body holds : common to all, of every sex and age, for nought escapes thy all-destructive rage. Not youth itself thy clemency can gain, vigorous and strong, by thee untimely slain. In thee the end of nature’s works is known, in thee all judgment is absolved alone. No suppliant arts thy dreadful rage control, no vows revoke the purpose of thy soul. O blessed power, regard my ardent prayer, and human life to age abundant spare." --Raveni Hymn to Thanatos
Overlord of the Dark Gods of the Web Pantheon, Thanatos is the God of Death, Eldritch Magicks, and Hidden Desires. He is the most powerful of the Dark Gods, being their leader, and arguably stands among Tahran and Chrystalis as one of the most powerful of Gods. Though he has had many mortal incarnations, he has existed in some form or another since the beginning of time, a force of primal, elemental evil. He has always stood as primordial foe to Chrystalis, Tahran, and the other Light Gods; and he has always lusted after Chrystalis as much as he's hated Tahran.
Myth and Legend
As with all the Web Pantheon, Thanatos is a child of UL, and his origins are unknown; the most commonly held belief regarding where Thanatos came from states that he came into existence with Chrystalis and Tahran.
Thanatos often appears to his followers as a sign of his favor. One of his two main manifestations is as a tall, incredibly beautiful man with long black hair, faintly tinted deepest violet. He occasionally sports large and soft feathery wings of black in this form. His other, far more hideous form, is that of a grotesque Lich with sunken red eyes and a golden crown set with a large ruby . In either form, he is generally garbed in blacks and rich, deep purples, as they are his associated colors, and he wields an enormous scythe known as Lekythen (sometimes it appears as a massive two-handed sword with a curved blade). He is believed to hold court in the Necropolis of Erebos, in The Place Which Is No More, said to be a land shrouded in perpetual darkness.
Thanatos has always desired Chrystalis, and his various schemes to destroy Tahran and steal her away from him have often been the spark that lit the fires of many of the Web's wars, up to and including the Great War. Whether or not he truly loves her, or merely wishes to possess her because of the power she holds as Goddess of Mana (and the living embodiment of it, depending on whom one asks) has been the subject of bitter theological debate for millenia. Obviously, views differ depending on the affiliation of the holder.
Thanatasians tend to take the view that he is gravely misunderstood (no pun intended), and see the Lord of Death as a tragic anti-hero, doomed to suffer for an eternity because of his unrequited love for a cruel and wanton goddess. Tahranists scoff at this as so much evil propaganda and believe Thanatos to be little more than a lustful, rapacious demon who craves the power Chrystalis holds (being utterly incapable of true love, as a Dark God), and because he cannot have it, seeks to destroy. The truth likely falls somewhere in-between, but no one can know for certain. What is generally agreed upon is that Thanatos is bound by fate in a profound way to Chrystalis and Tahran; the three almost always incarnate together, and these lives almost always end in profound sorrow and bloodshed. Their conflict will likely last forever, and Thanatos would have it no other way.
Religion
Thanatos is seen by many religions, chief among them mainstream Tahranism, as the ultimate incarnation of Evil. His epithets include the Lich God, the Death Knight, and the Dark Leveler. In particular, he is seen as a keeper of forbidden magical lore, and is often worshiped by necromancers and practitioners of similar dark arts. He is associated with ravens and serpents, as well as carrion eaters of varying sorts.
Thanatos' worship has never taken the form of large, well-organized churches, due to the fact that open worship of the Lich God is illegal in most places in the Web. Because of this, Thanatasian worship tends to take place underground by solitary adherents or small cults. Mystery cults devoted to him have flourished and sputtered out all over the Web in various points of history. The Knights Ravenos is one of the most infamous; a group of fallen Tahranist paladins in Baron, they were summarily destroyed after discovery of all manner of nefarious deeds at their motherhouse. In modern times, Thanatos worship tends to be the province of bored, rebellious Tasnican teens looking to shock their parents, small inconspicuous groups or solitaries, or lone madmen who sort of make things up as they go along. Serious priests of Thanatos call themselves the Gingrim, and have been thorns in the sides of many a do-gooder throughout history.
Benign mystery cults surrounding Thanatos have not been completely absent from history, however. Hermetic Thanatasianism, founded in ancient Krace, is chief among such belief systems, believing they honor Thanatos in his intended role as protector of the dead and gatekeeper of secrets among other positive things. However, such cults have always been a distinct minority among Thanatos worshipers, as the Gingrim tend to hunt them down for heresy. Hermetics in particular have been at odds with them for centuries, and as a result tend to keep an even lower profile than other serious Thanatasians, which sadly doesn't do much to help the general reputation of Thanatos worshipers.
There is no central holy text among those who follow Thanatos, however several tomes of forbidden lore are considered particularly sacred. The most famous of these is a Thanatasian grimoire called the Nox Arcanum; it is widely believed to be a hoax, but various mages have reported some success using the magical formulas and incantations found within. The bored teenager set loves to carry this book around to look spooky and shock people.
Incarnations
Sirian Xavier was Thanatos' most well-known mortal incarnation, a Tasnican sorcerer-knight and alchemist. He was a personable, if quiet and overly serious young man, and had a great love of poetry and the bardic arts (he played many instruments, favoring stringed ones such as the lyre, mandolin, and sitar). He was exceptionally curious. Magic in particular fascinated him, especially magic dealing with death and darkness, and he was exceptionally gifted in this area; he was a practitioner of Elementalist magic, specializing with Kethalis and Shade. His fascination with darkness led him to make contact with an aspect of the Kildean Goddess Mullenkamp, and it is said that he was the one and only Sayadin of the Dark to ever exist in the Mana Dimension. Sirian was eventually expelled from his order for delving into areas of forbidden magic long considered soul-imperiling.
Oddly, before his fall, Sirian was best friends with Sir Lucien Avari (then the current incarnation of Tahran) and Zorana (then the current incarnation of Chrystalis). The three grew up together with no knowledge of their divine nature or history of eternal enmity. When Sirian underwent Thanatasian initiation (despite the dire warnings of his friends), he became aware of his true nature and lost his mind. After a time, he achieved lichdom and came to dominate the then-Emperor of the Vandole Empire, but was later killed by Lucien. When Thanatos manifests as a human rather than his Lich form, it is generally Sirian's face he wears.
The Great War and Beyond
It was Thanatos' burning desire for Chrystalis that was the impetus for the Great War. Enraged after her latest rejection of his advances, he declared that if he could not have her, then he would subjugate the Web and make it suffer the way he did. He raised armies, both divine and mortal, and set them against the forces of Light. It was during this period that Thanatos reached what was arguably the peak of his power and influence over the Web: he successfully procured the 8th Ticonderan Rune, the dark stone Sae Krolis, and used it to resurrect the Goddess Tyr and destroy Tahran.
Thanatos was defeated at the end of the War along with the rest of the Dark Gods, and their followers. However, as time has proven again and again, Thanatos can never truly be destroyed (they don't say "Death and Taxes" for nothing). His minions were banished to The Place Which Is No More, bound and imprisoned along with the few surviving Dark Gods and their minions; however, their ultimate fate is unclear.
