Rakash
Rakash is the god of death and of the dead, known as the Gatekeeper, the Heartless One and the Reaper of Souls. His domains are death, life, knowledge and the undead, and his symbol is a flaming heart.12
Rakash is a god wholly without emotion, concerned only with doing his duty. It falls to the Heartless One as well to safeguard the veil between the realms.3
Everything dies, and every dead thing must pass The Gate. Every soul must go there, and nothing should return from there.3
The Gatekeeper
Within about a minute of death, the souls of the dead reach The Gate, the last threshold before the afterlife, and there Rakash meets them. He is neither judge nor executioner, but the first judgement of a soul begins at his gate.45
Those who actively rebelled against the gods, or sold their souls to beings of the lower planes, cannot pass through. Rakash sends them straight to hell, which vile fiends control. The rest pass into the Waiting Halls of Haraat, kept by Haraat, an archangel of Rakash, until the servants of the gods come for them.4
Rakash never releases a soul that has gone through his gates.4
The heart of Rakash
Ages ago, Rakash taught mortals the art of necromancy, and Alarath punished him for it. At Alarath's command, Zeolet, the goddess of magic, removed Rakash's heart and wore it on her ankle as a piece of jewellery. Long afterwards, when the punishment was over, she offered the heart back, but the god of death did not take it. For a god without a heart, the duties of death are easier to perform.3
He is described as a god who lost his heart so that his judgement could come from reason and not from emotion, and he is generally held to be a neutral power.2
Rakash and resurrection
Bringing someone back from death is rare and perilous in Teneris. Not every mortal is willing to take a soul from Rakash's grasp, for whoever does so will one day pass through the same gates and face him.6
A soul called back to its body before it reaches his domain is said by scholars to have suffered only a "little death", and does not draw the god's anger. Once a soul has crossed the Gate, Rakash may not wish to give it back, and he does not forget those who steal souls from him: rites that pull a soul back from beyond the threshold invoke his wrath, and his influence is strongest against the mightiest of them.5
Clerics of Rakash have always been the hardest to persuade to use reviving magic, and they are known to hunt those brought back without their lord's permission. The one exception the clergy allows is the Call of Rakash, a grim and dangerous ritual attempted only twice in the Empire's history, made to bring captured and claimed souls back to the mortal world. During it an avatar of Rakash is said to appear in the shadows: a grim reaper with a skeletal face, in a dark grey robe, with a lantern holding the soul of the dead tied to its scythe.7
The forgotten
Those who died violently, those with unfinished business and some who are gripped by a curse cannot move on to the Gate. Among those who walk again are some whose minds are not veiled and who remember everything. Scholars call these unfortunate souls the forgotten: forgotten by death, and forgotten by Rakash.8
Worship
The Church of Rakash is a relatively new institution. Mortals long avoided worshipping a callous god of death who brought them no benefit. Priests of Rakash were first chosen to manage funerals and cemeteries, and young priests have been trained in his ways ever since. Even now there are no rites of worship beyond properly arranging funerals and praying for the dead.3
In the year 83 ZGS, a high priest named Jozan founded the Church of Rakash with the permission and blessing of the Gatekeeper.3
Death is met with fear and suspicion throughout the Empire, and those whose work revolves around it, from executioners and grave diggers to the highly respected priests of Rakash, often find themselves pushed to the margins of society.9
The Gate and the Gatekeeper by Jozan Chanticleer is a collection of ancient writings about Rakash and death ceremonies.10
Among the hunters of the Frann and giant cultures, a slain prey is wished a smooth passing to the Halls of Rakash.11
Rakash and the other gods
Rakash is one of the Greater Gods bound in their own way to the old rule of giving something in return for what one receives.12
The axe Raven’s Wing is a weapon of Rakash, and it carries a curse from him.13
Notes
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, pp. 25, 31
- ↑BookBook of Dead, p. 108
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 31
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 22
- ↑BookBook of Dead, p. 134
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 23
- ↑BookBook of Dead, pp. 108, 109
- ↑BookBook of Dead, p. 12
- ↑BookBook of Dead, p. 27
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 49
- ↑BookBook of Dead, p. 103
- ↑BookShadow Over Vansreik, p. 24
- ↑BookShadow Over Vansreik, p. 71
Sources
This article draws on:
Images in this article
Lands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide (Bad Badger Games, 2024), p. 31. Art by the Bad Badger Games team.
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