The Campaign Builder's Guild

The Church of Zhuud

Zhuud
The Master, The Harsh God
Greater Deity
Symbol: A white skull
Alignment: LN
Core Worshippers: Humans
Favored Weapon: Heavy Mace
Domains: Law, Balance, Death, Deathbound, Renewal, Undeath

A Church of Exiles

"Service in undeath is the greatest glory."
-Banafrit, Priestess of Zhuud

Zhuud was once a powerful warlock-hunter who lead to the executions of several dark and evil spellcasters. Zhuud's hate for all that is evil lead him down dark alleys, leading him to practice dark rites and spells to become more efficient. After a long drawn out fight with an ancient Lich, Zhuud collected the dark mage's spellbooks and returned to his adamantine tower high in the mountains. After decades of pouring over the Lich's rambling notes Zhuud constructed himself a phylactery and crossed the line between life and undeath.

Zhuud turned to his followers (many of whom were shocked at their master's sudden transformation) and he shared with them the skills of creating Undead. After a century of fighting the dark wizards who terrorized the land. Zhuud began to collect many followers who were attracted to his promises of eternal life and the honor of serving Zhuud in undeath. It was this hunger for more and more methods of Undead creation that the Dark Plague struck Stratton, the far away island home of Men. The dead rose from their crypts and graves, the first wave of the Forsaken were born.

The Forsaken were hungry and ghoulish, they were driven by their carnal wants and needs and attacked the living, their saliva would cause the wound to fester and puss, until finally the victim died and rose as an Unforgiven. The Unforgiven are a race of half-Undead/half-living, trapped here in the material world though they remember nothing of life. They are different then the Forsaken that bred them in that they do not carry the Dark Plague with them.

Zhuud saw that the Necromantic force that had created the Forsaken was spreading, taking the long cadavers and corpses that rest in the ground and raising them. Through powerful and ancient epic magic Zhuud created twelve pillars around the Island city of Stratton that stopped the force from spreading all over the world.

After this victory, a paladin of light named Theorys declared that Zhuud had caused the catastrophe that had damned their beloved city. The knight faced off against Zhuud in an epic battle that destroyed the Lich. The Paladin crushed the Phylactery beneath his boot, but during the fight the Lich's followers boarded two ships and set sail.
 [note] Zhuud and You: The Church of Zhuud is the basic human religion. It is there to set the stage for my race of Undead named the Unforgiven. The Unforgiven are created from the disease carried by Forsaken (Ghoul-like undead). Imagine those zombie movies, that's what happened to Stratton. Stratton was a huge metropolis, but now is only home to the undying, unliving, undead. Zhuudists moved to Alacaron (my campaign continent) and founded New Stratton in the hopes of bringing back the golden age of yore.[/note]

For two months the Zhuudists floated through the endless ocean. One of Zhuud's most powerful apprentices took charge of the exiles and took the time on the boats to pen the Holy Book of Zhuud, a 700 page tome covering the life and undeath of his lord. After two months adrift, the Zhuudists finally found Alacaron, a new world away from religious persecution and past mistakes.

The Church of Zhuud in the World

Humans found in Alacaron tend to be Monotheists, worshiping only Zhuud, who promotes the cycles of life. Very few Humans stray away from this teaching, and those tend to be Humans who have lived in mixed communities. The followers of Zhuud tend to be Humans with a few half-elves who favor their Human heritage, it is also not unheard of for an Orc to abandon their faith in the Code and to join the ranks of Zhuudist Paladins or Monks. However, to become a Cleric of Zhuud a player must be Human or at least have Human blood (this includes any Half-Ogres, Half-Elves, Half-Fiends, or Half-Dragons.) A few people find the use of Undead to be deplorable (Especially some of the Elven Druids of the Order of the Volcano) However, the Church uses the unintelligent undead as tools for building cities, guarding homes, and various other tasks deemed as holy work by Zhuud.

Priests of Zhuud are easy to spot thanks to their helms shaped to look like grinning skulls. Paladins and Monks tend to wear skeletal motifs in their clothing and armor, but only a Priest of Zhuud could ever wear one of the Helms. It is punishable by death (with no raising) to ever wear a helm and not be a full fledged priest of Zhuud.

Zhuudist Priests often offer their services as healers, their intimacy with death makes them some of the most skilled medics. However, the cleric will just as often refuse to raise or heal someone because Zhuud demands their death as they will offer their spells to help.

Tenets of Death

To the church of Zhuud, the worst punishment in the world is to be killed with no hope of being raised. Often times those who fail will have their bodies cursed to keep from being turned into any kind of Undead. To Zhuddists, any mindless undead can be a tool for the greater good (Zombies, Ghouls, Wights, etc.) Zhuudist Adventurers will, however, try to control these undead. If they are tainted with evil or too feral to be controlled the priest has no scruples about killing it. Intelligent Undead however (Liches, Vampires, Etc) are given a choice, submit or be destroyed.

Zhuudists hunt evil undead across Alacaron, and usually are sent on missions to either help bolster the power of the church or to put a stop to evil wizards or Undead (or other entities that the Church decrees evil. The church of Zhuud is ruled by three powerful undead, the Mouth of Zhuud (LN female Vampire Wiz 5/Clr 5/Mystic Theurge 8), the Hand of Zhuud (LN Male Lich Wizard 19), and the Heart of Zhuud (CE Death Drinker Demon).

Knowledge (Religion)
DC 10: The Church of Zhuud is a popular religion that focuses on Life, Death, and Undeath.
DC 15: Humans are descendants of Zhuudist pilgrims who escaped from persecution.
DC 20: To Zhuudists, nothing is more wonderful then becoming undead. Those who fail to raise as undead are seen as failures. That's why often Zhuudists will have a Contingency spell cast on them that triggers and raises them as zombies when they die.
DC 25: Most of the more powerful priests in the Hierarchy are Vampires, Liches, and other intelligent Undead.
DC 30: Zhuud is an extension of an ancient Demon Prince.
   

I hope to make some Affiliation bonuses for joining the Immortal Church just like in the complete champion.

I really like the ideas you present here, and if everything else you make is this good, you can continue to rock on as long as you want.  An undead following religion with the potential for evil, but not limited by it, is a fine premises for a world.

I'd like to hear more about your other religions, such as the Orcish "Code" you mentioned.  Even though I'm not fond of core races or ideas, and certainly not gnomes, this religion shows incredible promise, and I'd love to see more, as long as you continue to post it in bite-sized chunks like this one.

And just so you know, thread polls don't work right now. ;)

ahhhh, well thank you! I will post my Elven religion in another thread

At the moment, I can't force the mush in my head to formulate any questions beyond this.

Is Alacaron capped at 20th level? How large is the Church? And is it pronounce Zud or Zood?

I try not to put level caps. It's all up to the DM and what kind of game he wants to run. If he felt that the players had become too powerful he could always start over, but I hope to make the game epic friendly.

I pronounce it ZOOD! but I always yell it, in the hopes that others would yell it with me. I never speak it. ZOOOOOD! its a good battle cry. Zud isn't as fun to say. The history of Alacaron is always shaped by epic NPCs, most historical figures were Epic characters at the end of their careers.