Deities of Hearth: Deepwarden

Deepwarden

God of Death

Deepwarden is the god of the ocean, darkness, treasures beneath the earth, secrets, and death. He is the overseer of dying souls who pass through the underworld, the patron god of underground peoples and monsters in dark places, and the merciless deity who stirs up nations to war against each other. Warriors on both sides of battles pray to him for guidance, and he often favors those who sacrifice to him or who have secrets of their own to share with him or tribute to pay his churches.

Deepwarden is depicted as a stern man with ashen skin, eyes that glow like blue embers, and golden armor studded with diamonds. He is often shown holding two black swords or riding his giant skeletal dragon, Kalsedne.

Deepwarden’s Influence

Deepwarden’s loathing of bright lights and living souls led him to claim the depths of the ocean and earth as his eternal domain. He is an extremely patient god, knowing full well that, despite mortals’ fear of him and preference to venerate other gods, eventually all of them will be at his mercy as they journey through the underworld toward their afterlives.

Though mortals fear to speak Deepwarden’s name lest they are cursed to meet their death too soon, his name is often invoked at funerals and in the prayers of mortals who miss their deceased loved ones and wish them safe passage to paradise. It is up to him just how difficult each individual soul’s journey is after death, and his favor may be the difference between an eternity of suffering and one of peace.

Deepwarden despises the undead created by mortals and fiends, as it mocks his authority over the departed. His own minions resemble undead, but are in fact celestial creatures under his control.

Deepwarden’s scion creatures are the mighty kraken and the wraith (celestial).

Deepwarden’s Goals

Deepwarden envies the worship of other deities, begrudgingly acknowledging their necessity alongside him in the Pentatheon, but his ultimate goal is to be universally worshiped and viewed as the greatest god in existence. Though he recognizes the necessity of life in order for death to occur, he wishes for a reality in which all would die and dutifully (and silently) adore him as the only deity. Whenever he can get away with it, he loves to punish the insolent with plagues that bring them to his domain sooner rather than later.

Divine Relationships

Deepwarden most despises Hearthmatron, whose focus on preserving life for as long as possible, spreading life through fertility and health, and raising mortals from untimely deaths he views as intruding on his domain. Her focus on mercy over cold justice is infuriating to him, and he thoroughly enjoys watching her beautiful blooming flowers and plants wither into blackened husks.

Deepwarden also dislikes his brother, Skyfather, whose command over the brilliant sunlight and wide open, loud skies conflict deeply with Deepwarden’s partiality to the cold darkness. Deepwarden also has no respect for Skyfather’s forthright nature and unwillingness to keep secrets from mortals.

Not caring for the feelings of mortals, Deepwarden values the absolute justice that Lawbringer stands for and enforces. He also finds Moondancer and her twilight hunts very much in harmony with his own plans, as well as the importance she puts on keeping secrets.

Worshiping Deepwarden

To many mortals, Deepwarden is primarily concerned not with death, but with the treasures of the earth and sea. Most of his followers downplay his association with death and misfortune, instead praying to him for material wealth. Others pray to him because they want to be more accepting of their misfortune. These individuals see themselves as beyond hope of improving their lot in life, asking only that Deepwarden grant them the strength to endure until they inevitably enter his realm.

Some Deepwarden worshipers actively glorify death. These cultists and assassins congregate in secret in communities across Hearth, engaging in campaigns of violence or poaching animals for sacrifice.

Deepwarden’s Champions

Alignment: Usually evil, usually lawful

Suggested Classes: Cleric, fighter, paladin, rogue, wizard

Domains: Death, Grave, War

Paladin Oaths: Conquest, Secrets (use the Oathbreaker paladin subclass)

Suggested Backgrounds: Acolyte, criminal, hermit, sage, sailor, soldier

Most worshipers of Deepwarden seek to enforce the boundary between life and death, whether absolutely or selectively. They often find grim satisfaction in serving the covetous but patient god, knowing that all will ultimately know their patron’s embrace. Most also respect their ancestors and honor them through tradition, ritual, and memory.

The Five Commands of Deepwarden

• Respect the dead and honor your ancestors.
• Those who disrespect or mock order are not worthy of its protection.
• Let the strongest be ruler among you.
• Keep and respect secrets you are entrusted with.
• Sacrifice today that when you are gone, others can remember your legacy.

Devotion to Deepwarden

Just as every life ends at the same destination, many different paths can lead a worshiper to Deepwarden. As a follower of Deepwarden, consider the ideals on the Deepwarden’s Ideals table as alternatives to those suggested for your background.

Deepwarden’s Ideals

d6	Ideal
1	Tradition. Honor the dead through rites of respect and by continuing their ways.
2	Judgment. Violations against the order of life and death must be set right.
3	Mortality. I will enforce the most important law: anything that lives must one day die.
4	Power. I relish having mastery over life and death.
5	Pragmatism. The ends justify the means; I do whatever it takes to win.
6	Fatalism. Everyone dies. As a result, I may employ their brief lives to further my agendas.

Earning and Losing Piety

You increase your piety score to Deepwarden when you expand his influence in the world in a concrete way through acts such as these:

• Convincing a group of people to accept misfortune
• Easing someone’s death or assisting with funeral arrangements
• Ensuring the continual remembrance of deceased ancestors
• Burying treasure in secluded locations

Your piety score to Deepwarden decreases if you diminish his influence in the world, contradict his ideals, or make him look ridiculous or ineffectual through acts such as these:

• Bringing the dead back to life or to undeath when unsanctioned by Deepwarden
• Torturing living beings
• Desecrating or looting tombs or shipwrecks

Deepwarden’s Devotee

Piety 3+ Deepwarden Trait

As a devotee of Deepwarden, you have proven yourself an executor of Undergarde's grim laws. You can call on Deepwarden’s favor to cast bane with this trait, requiring no material components, a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

Deepwarden’s Votary

Piety 10+ Deepwarden Trait

You can cast vampiric touch with this trait. Once you cast the spell in this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

Deepwarden’s Disciple

Piety 25+ Deepwarden Trait

When a soul is sent to its rightful place, you can draw on the energy of Undergarde to empower you. When a creature dies within 10 feet of you, you can use your reaction to gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your level.

Champion of the Depths

Piety 50+ Deepwarden Trait

You can increase your Charisma or Constitution score by 2 and also increase your maximum for that score by 2.

Omens of Deepwarden

d8	Omen of Deepwarden
1	The ground rumbles ominously.
2	Nearby plants wither and die.
3	Swirling smoke forms macabre shapes.
4	A gem or a gold coin appears at a character’s feet or in their pocket.
5	A character shows symptoms of a disease.
6	Crows or vultures drop bones in an ominous pattern.
7	The sky becomes unnaturally dark, and nature becomes silent.
8	The world is drained of color and becomes gray.

Deepwarden’s Domain: Undergarde

Undergarde is the realm that lies below the Underdark—a cold realm of darkness and peaceful yet eerie silence. It is a realm devoid of color and strong emotion through which all departed souls pass before they can move on to their respective afterlives. Black rocks in the vague shape of dead trees dot the foggy landscape, and streams of freezing lava ooze out of the ashen ground. A gray haze dimly lights the horizon in every direction, and smoke and jagged mountains extend into the misty distance.

When a soul dies, it spends ten days floating through the Ethereal Plane, unconscious and unaware of anything. If it is not resurrected by the end of that time, it is drawn through a planar veil to Undergarde, where it finds itself walking through a vast canyon under a twilit sky. Once the reality of its demise has sunk in, it passes through the exit of the canyon onto the shore of a huge, black lake. If others petition Deepwarden on the soul’s behalf through prayer or a funeral, the soul finds itself with a single gem under its tongue. From the far side of the lake, wreathed in mist, ferrymen make their way to shore to transport souls to their afterlife, asking for a single gem in return. Those who pay the fare are taken across the lake, judged by Lawbringer, and sent to the realm of the cosmos where they most deserve to be. Such souls are at the mercy of Deepwarden as to how long their journey takes to get there. Clerics and other souls who dedicated their lives to a particular god with particular fervor may have their patron deity petition Deepwarden on their behalf, sending a ship to personally escort them to their realm of paradise without any delay and with no need of payment.

Many souls died forgotten or without loved ones to pray on their behalf. Others have payment for passage but fear the afterlife they might be assigned to, and give their coins away. Such “shades” are stuck on the shores of the lake, doomed to languish or find another way to reach the afterlife. A town is located on the shore of the lake called Quietus. There, aimless shades wile away their time and slowly forget who they are, their former lives becoming little more than a dream as they spend more time dead than alive. Such shades are able to conjure familiar items from the shadows of Undergarde, but only once, and with a limited number at a time. Many shades conjure their favorite food as a comfort, and then can never taste that food again. 

Some shades do not accept their death and seek to return to life on their own. Some shades swim across the lake, ultimately washing away their identities and being reincarnated as a new member of their species. Others make their way backward through the canyon they came from, hoping to fight their way past Deepwarden’s guards and plead their case to him personally to bring them back to life. Still others walk along the shore of the lake into the unknown wastes of Undergarde, some eventually finding a way to move on and others wasting away into ghosts.

Devout worshipers of Deepwarden find a permanent home in Undergarde. They help shades accept their fate and accustom themselves to their new afterlife, sometimes acting as ferrymen or guards in the town of Quietus. Such residents find fulfillment in helping others make peace with death and having a greater control over their fate than the shades do.

Memory Echoes. As an action, a shade can conjure a single item with which it was familiar in life. Once an item is conjured in this way, that specific item can never be conjured again by that shade. A shade can have any number of conjured items at a time, but for each item after the first, the shade must make a Charisma saving throw with a DC of 8 + the number of items currently conjured. On a failure, the new item is conjured but a number of items disappear equal to the number by which the saving throw failed.

Planar Limitations. Shades cannot cast 9th-level spells. All demiplanes (such as those in a bag of holding) are counted as being part of Undergarde. Deepwarden oversees and can prevent teleportation within the realm.