#Aesdurath

[dailycharacteroption]

Deity Drop 2: Aesdurath

If you’re not familiar with Pathfinder’s daemons with an ‘a’, they’re essentially a group of nihilistic outsiders that want to destroy all of creation because the self-absorbed souls that they were born from hate all of existence instinctively, wanting it all to end and then letting themselves end as well once everything is darkness. The exact reason for this is only touched on briefly because such cartoonishly evil beings can’t really have a motivation that matters too much, but I imagine that themes of jealousy, emptiness, and the like are involved.

In any case, most daemons, big and small, are modeled after some method of death, specifically forms of death that are brutal, ironic, and particularly unfair. Naturally, the more powerful ones like the Horsemen are based on forms of death that are widespread and potentially civilization- and even world-ending: War, Famine, Pestilence, and yes, good ol’ inevitable Death by old age and time.

Between the rank and file and those loftiest of lofties, however, are the daemonic harbingers, those daemons powerful enough to have their own unique form and death-theme and even the ability to grant divine magic to their followers, but not true demigods. These are the equivalent to Hell’s Malebranche and the Abyss’s Nascent Demon Lords.

Today’s subject is Aesdurath, a female daemonic harbinger of immortality, liches, and magical disasters, who appears as a gaunt, skeletal figure that spontaneously manifests bite marks all over her body… and that’s about all we know about her.

We can, however, extrapolate a few things from that. Assuming like all other daemons she is modeled after a particular form of death, then I can imagine that her whole gimmick revolves around how magic is used, intentionally or otherwise, to cause massive amounts of death, in particular in how many rituals to achieve lichdom and other forms of undead immortality call for horrible sacrifices.

Thus, she is the patron of those who seek immortality without regard to the cost, as well as the horrible consequences when those rituals and other powerful works of magic go wrong. She and her servants promise secrets of dark magic to the greedy and foolish, but inevitably, regardless of intention these secrets either call for mass sacrifices or end in catastrophic failure that devastates the countryside. And hey, if a few of these attempts result in nigh-immortal selfish nihilists that have no regard for any life other than their own, then that’s just a perk!

Naturally, the followers of The Pale Dowager would primarily be mages seeking immortality, particularly through lichdom, with a handful of others simply seeking greater magical power without regard to the cost. Inevitably they tend to be either foolish and blinded by the promise of power, or being extremely callous in regards to others. In many cases, the only difference is whether or not they take the time to notice the terrible cost and side effects of the knowledge they are given.

 Aesdurath rules over the domains of Death, Evil, Magic, and Trickery, with the Arcane, Daemon, Divine, and Undead subdomains, revolving in her interest in creating powerful undead like liches, as well as deceiving the foolish into unleashing destruction. Sadly she has not been given any attention in 2nd edition, but we can assume her domains would be similar.

Like other minor demideities, daemonic harbingers do not grant the elaborate abilities seen with other divinities, and so obedience to them only grants a handful of magical abilities. In Aesdurath’s case, these are the ability to absorb the life energy of the dying to heal oneself, basic undead reanimation, and a blast of life-snuffing dark magic.

Daemonic Harbingers haven’t really come up in Starfinder yet, but given that the path to lichdom has evolved into the necrovite in the far future, it wouldn’t surprise me if she was still kicking in that time period. Heck, she probably had or has quite a following on Eox, having both lots of sentient undead, and also a history of apocalyptic-level collateral damage. Then again, plenty of Eoxians, dead or alive probably don’t appreciate whatever role she might have had in that ancient cataclysm. Even if you believe that undeath is superior to life, blowing up your own planet is not pleasant.

 That about does it for today. Minor demideities don’t get a lot of attention, but I do appreciate that they exist, providing a little variety in what evil powers your villains might be calling upon. Check in tomorrow where we’re tackle a very big name in the setting.