Ballan Sur

God of Death, God of Balance, Keeper of the Underworld, Watcher in the ever dark. The first and the last spark of creation.

True Neutral

Ballan Sur origonally has no true form, nor no true name. His existance came into being with the first breath to ever be drawn, to take it back as exhaulation. For the age of gods where no mortals lived, he existed as a formless metamorphic shadow, and was unseen.

Upon the first death of a god, an unknown being whos name is lost to time, he took their body for his own, and from its bones he ripped the skin and muscle, drainned the blood, cut the hair, organs and nails. These he used to forge the creation of the underworld, the resting place of the dead, before their eventual reincatnation. The only entity to never been reincarnated being the god whose physical form he claimed.

Thus his worshipers follow:
Life is meaningless without death as the counterpart. Joy without sorrow, fear without courage. Balance is required to give context and meaning.

-

Ballan Sur's realm of the underworld is surprisingly simular to the mortal world in many regards, at least to a basic level, but with the colours muted and the sound dulled. People and souls who wander the paths in this realm all eventually come, or are drawn, to the keepers of life.

Primordial spirits created at the time of the first mortals by Ballan, they resemble human women, ghostly white and tall. They are three in number, and are the patrons of witches everywhere. The Beautiful Maiden, The Old Crone and The Loving Mother.

It is these three who immerse each soul into the cauldron of remaking (made from the stomach and heart of Ballan Surs shell) for their soul to be cleansed of their previous lifes memorys, and their form destabalized, so that they can move on and be reformed in the next life.

When the soul exits the cauldron they move to The Gateway and randomly fall to the mortal realm as new lives.

Witches revear the ending of life (the cauldron and the soul) and the start of life, and as such are present when no other gods preists come to claim the new borns or the newly dead for their rites. They are there to help the balance, and are giften with knowledge beyond the ken of normal mortals to make the choices that must be made.

Particularly notable individuals may be given a gift by the Keepers of Life to carry on into their next life, and the truely great, may be met by the god of death in person.

He does so love to have company at times.
-

There is an event, rare upon rare, that happens once in a millenia.
The Middnight March is utterly holy in the eyes of those who worship the god of death, and probably the only hope of salvation for those who are eternally cursed.
For it is the one time whereby vampires, ghouls, banshees, spirits and undead can pray to the god of death for salvation, where life unending can be ended, unlife turned to life, and true sins washed away. It is also the one time that past lives can be revisited, and parted souls allowed to meet again for a breif moment.

The Middnight March always occurs on the full moon on the longest night of the year upon which it falls, and begins with the congregation of the worshipers at holy sites near the begining of streams and water ways. These people then march the length of said waterway for a time, until they come across a great body of water of some description. Upon which a candle in a small paper boat is sent out upon the water.

Each candle acts as a gateway for a single spirit, and allows them access to the world of the living for a short time, to talk with those who set the candle out.

After the candles have gone out, all who are not priests or worshipers leave, and the damned congregate at the waterside alongside the preists and witches.

The rituals and magic used here is unknown outside of the clergy of the god of death, and all attempts to access it have resulted in terrible events occuring to those who try. But what little is known is that the Keepers of Life visit the world of the living, to judge the cursed and the damned, taking those who'se time it is to truely die, despite any curse or affliction. This is the duty of The Crone.
The Mother takes those who are to live again and breathes true life into them, in a sense becoming their mother.
The Maiden takes the damned not undead. Ghouls and the like, and restores their innocence, returning them to normal mortality.

After this, dawn comes.

And it is now that people can see the lives they have lived before. Sometimes, this comes with great gifts as abilities and talents lost with death are granted as blessings to the now living.

To see their last life requires a simple ritual utulizing their own blood to draw a circle and the required runes, and is quite popular among the poor and downtrodden.

After these 24 hours (starting at noon and ending at noon) are up, the underworld and realm of the living move away from each other again. It will be another thousand years before the next march, and to gain the blessing of the god of death outside of this time frame requires deeds in the magnitude of those performed by great heros.

--
There is a perculiar situation, whereby a champion or hero cheats death.

Clasically this is from divine intervention, and sometimes rarely the mortals use of power (magical, ki, faith, etc). This changes the balance, but does not, despite apperances. break it.

As such individuals will be followed by a specter or soul collected by Grim Jim until they come time to die again, as the simple minded soul desires to complete its task. Should the individual cheat death again, another specter will start to follow them.

In this way, Death walks alongside all heros.

When the individual eventually dies, the spirits fight over who is to take the soul to the underworld. As such, some heros can cheat death yet again while they are occupied, and such individuals become marked as blessed of Ballan Sur. Anathema to the undead and beings of unbalance, causing such things to flee lest they be dragged to the world of the dead.

As for the spirits who fought over the heros soul, they either become akin to servants (shamans) or fuse into a spiritual stone.
Such stones hold immense value in the magical realm.

Some sects of shaman have managed to abuse this occurance with artificial death to gain their powers, and to make pacts with Ballan Sur to fight against the restless dead.

The Underworld of Ballan Sur can only be entered by the dead and dying. It's a plane of existence that overlays the same under-regions as the prison of Nadir, whose underworld exists in tangible form, belonging to deep caverns far under the earth. During a full moon, the Underworld of the dead will begin to spill into reality, as ghosts and spirits emerge and provide the Jailer company.

This makes the already nightmarish halls of Nadirs prison all the more unsettling to his would-be guests.
--

After the true ascension of Tani the Necromancer, Ballan Sur returned to his home, and became quiet. The soul of Tani, now a god in her own right, was no longer his immediate concern. Even were she to be reaped, the damage she had started would remain.

The Cycle would continue, but factors would have to be changed, additions made. There was much more work now for Ballan to do. For a great length of time he was reclusive, more-so than before, not leaving his domain but to perform his essential duties. When he finally emerged, he carried with him a bone of undistinguished size and shape, changing slightly with every glance. Following him was The Laughing God, a wry and gleeful smile upon his face.

Tani stood prepared when Ballan approached her. This was the first true meeting between the two, but she knew well who he was and all that he had done. She was grateful to him for the knowledge he delivered to her, but well aware of his promise of her destruction.

As the two immortals faced each other The Laughing God observed. Locking his gaze on Tani, Ballan Sur raised the strange bone into the air and at that moment, two dozen souls, long past their times, let loose their final breaths. The bones of the aged and most skilled necromancers, first trained of Tani, merged themselves with Ballan’s staff.

With his new tool, Ballan Sur returned, offering a departing word to the young goddess. “Eventually, all things will come to an end, when it is their time. I am willing to wait.”

The Laughing God slowly took a single bite of salad, and then, as always, he laughed.