The Black Sun is one of the most feared gods of Pent, often ill-understood. He is the dark shadow of Yu-Kargzant, who led the trolls out of the Hellcrack into the surface world and who rules over the power of the Bad Death, the death of impurity which curses the dead and burdens them with suffering. Pentans pray to keep him away, for his touch invites disease and his power spreads hunger.
And yet, despite this, there are those who seek him out. Basko is the dark brother of the divine shamans, the Midnight Shaman who guards the dawn and intercedes with the spirits of the night. His counterpart is Golden Bow, the shining archer of the Good Death, but they are not enemies. Basko is the Left Hand of Death, aiding North War Wind and working closely with his ally and brother, Golden Bow.
While Basko is an ancient god, one of the first sons of Yu-Kargzant and Galana, he was not acknowledged at first. He was born in the shadow of Yu-Kargzant, and he went unseen, for his star is the Black Sun and it burned dark in the sky, unknown to the world. He was lost and forgotten, for the light would not touch him. Only his father and mother knew of him, and they sent him into the Dark Place, that he might not terrify the people of the world.
Basko went to the house of Lozarl, who ruled the Dark Place, but even his uncle could not see him in the darkness. He traversed the Underworld, seeing all but seen by none. The only creatures that welcomed him were the things of Darkness, who did not need to see - the trolls, the darkness spirits, and the stranger things below.
While he was in the Dark Place, Basko learned of a new thing, a terrible thing. He followed the rumors of it back to the surface, for the new thing, the Black Sword called Death, was taken there by North War Wind. Basko saw the world plagued by disease spirits, unbound by the evil Malia, and he saw the impurity spreading through his father’s lands. He took it upon himself to do as the trolls had shown him - to rule the impurity with terror and power, to bring it into himself and purge it in the hole of Darkness.
Thus did Basko become the Midnight Shaman, the dark intercessor with the spirits who gathers up the impure dead and evil spirits alike and forces them to obey the ways of the world. His torments of the impure dead are not out of malice, but to purge them of impurity in the only way he can - by subsuming it in darkness.
Basko looked out and saw Golden Bow teaching the people the ways of the Good Death, and among them he saw a few touched by Darkness, people in the First Herd who shunned the ways of other gods. He gathered them to him, teaching them the secrets of the Bad Death and how to deal with it. These became the first of the Black Shamans, who deal with the midnight spirits and the impure things that the rest of the First Herd shuns.
Basko has never been beloved by Pent. He is a friend of the trolls, and when Yu-Kargzant died and passed into the Underworld, Basko led his old friends to the surface, showing them the path to the Hellcrack and absorbing his father’s light so they were not burned in their escape. He is honored by the trolls still, and his followers are among the few Pentans that can actually get along with trolls. This, among other things, adds to his bad reputation with most Pentans.
And yet, none can deny him. He keeps the hated Malia at bay, for he understands the powers of disease, of impurity. He purges Chaos in his all-consuming darkness, and he guards the people against the worse things of the Darkness, of which there are many. He was honored by Yu-Kargzant at the Dawn, for Basko stood firm against Chaos and evil, and he bound many demons and evil spirits to fight Chaos. He guarded the darkest hours, and that allowed the Dawn to come. Now, his shamans and priests continue the work of binding evil against evil, of consuming impurity and pain to leave behind what is good.
The cult of the Black Sun exists on the fringes of Pentan society, providing a place for those people who are touched by the power of Darkness. Their numbers are always small, for few Pentans generally possess the Darkness Rune, but Basko’s cult is the only home available to them. Their duty is simple: to fight and bind evil, to turn its power against itself. They are therefore the group most often relied on to negotiate with the hated trolls. The cult itself is run almost entirely by the Black Shamans. Basko has priests, but they are considered lower in rank than shamans, for so much of Basko’s work is in the spirit realm.
Most tribes possess almost no members of the Black Sun, but a tribe with a priest or shaman of the cult will often end up with a small group, often sent by their original tribe to serve in the cult. Members of the cult are considered unlucky to be around without the guidance of a priest or shaman. Every Basko cult is essentially independent of the others, as all shamans are considered of equal rank, with deference only offered to one’s teacher. Likewise, all priests are considered of equal rank - above the basic initiates, but below the shamans.
A very small number of trolls have joined the cult and, through doing so, been accepted very tentatively as Pentans - perhaps ten in all of recorded history. It is said that the trolls of the north and northeast maintain their own cult of Basko which is quite different.
Basko’s Rider Aspect is depicted as a purple man in black clothing, with a blazing black aura around his head and black eyes. There is a single point of gold on his forehead, and he often has blood on his hands or around his eyes. Often he bears a heavy mace or club. His Mount Aspect is a jet black horse with a mane of purple flame and blood-red eyes.
Basko is the sole Darkness god in the Pentan pantheon, and the sole means by which Pentans can access the magics of Darkness. His power over Death is through the Bad Death, the deaths that leave people impure and which curse souls to wander or to suffer in the Underworld. He is not approached directly through the Spirit Rune, but is instead associated with it as the source of one of the shamanic traditions of Pent.
DARKNESS: Basko is the main source of Darkness magic for Pent, but he is limited in his command over it compared to some gods. He wields physical darkness and the spiritual darkness of impurity, but lacks some of the deeper powers that trolls are aware of. Initiates have been known to, among other things, use the Darkness Rune to extinguish light, placate or negotiate with trolls, terrify or command creatures of the Underworld, consume poisons safely, intimidate others, summon or command Darkness beings, control the movement of shadows, move unseen and unheard, detect spiritual impurity, make others impure, or transfer disease from someone into themselves. Those strong in the Darkness rune tend to be secretive, calm, and cruel.
DEATH: Basko is the bringer of Bad Death, the lord of blood and impurity whose touch curses ghosts to wander and souls to suffer. Initiates have broad access to the Death Rune and have been known, among other things, to use it to fight with swords or maces, to destroy or trap undead, to cause fear or terror, to make others vulnerable to disease, to sense Unlife, to sever spirits from the body, to control the movements of their own blood or blood outside of bodies, to send dead things to the Underworld, to bring victory in battle, or to make undead fight each other. Those strong in the Death rune tend to be patient, ruthless, and brave.
SPIRIT: Basko does not provide magic through the Spirit Rune. Instead, cultists with a Spirit Rune of at least 1W belong to the Black Sun Spirit Society and may call on charms, which often take the form of practical but well-made goods that reflect the charm’s nature.
Basko is the Midnight Shaman. He knows the secrets of the spirit world, stalks its shadows and patrols the borders of life and death, keeping that which should not be from threatening the brighter world. He taught his secrets to the few who, like him, were outcast from the light, making the first Black Shamans. Even those of the cult who do not pursue the title of shaman may join his personal force of spirits, though, so long as they have the Spirit Rune. They join the Midnight Tradition of Spirit Magic, allowing them to use charms directly rather than as augments, letting them make charms for others, and even letting them take some of the free spirits of the Bad Death’s society as allies. They may also join other spirit societies, provided they meet any prerequisites to do so.
All spirits within the Basko Spirit Society are the personal aides, followers or servants of Basko. They tend to be dark and monstrous spirits, terrifying but useful. They are always associated with the Darkness or Death Runes. While the Black and Gold Shamans have access to a wide array of spirit societies that mix day and night, the Basko Spirit Society may not be joined by the Gold Shamans or anyone associated with the Golden Bow cult. It is the most purely Midnight of the spirit societies of Pent.
Members of the Basko Spirit Society must participate in the rituals of their tribe and devote time to assisting the tribe on matters related to spirits, and are required to take part in all funerals of the tribe. They are forbidden to take part in wedding rituals other than those involving members of the Basko cult. They may also never forget a debt they owe, whether to human or spirit.
Luck Eater (DARKNESS) is a rat spirit and one of the camp guards of Basko, watching over the treasures and secrets that the god wants concealed. He grants the power Curse With Bad Luck. His taboo is Never Give Anything Away For Free.
Blood Thief (DARKNESS) is a horsefly spirit and hunter serving Basko, fighting the disease spirits of Malia by binding them away in stones or trapping them in animals. She grants the power Transfer Disease. Her taboo is Sacrifice A Bowl of Blood From Every Patient You Treat to Blood Thief.
Shadow Wrestler (DARKNESS) is a shadow demon, a monstrous warrior serving Basko. They spread fear, terrorizing and attacking people, particularly children, with darkness and shadow figures to keep them away from dangerous or impure places. They grant the power Make Terrifying Shadows. Their taboo is Always Take The Opportunity To Frighten Children.
Dishonor’s Sword (DEATH) is a sword spirit, a warrior of Basko who casts down traitors. He preys on criminals, bandits and liars, tormenting them with aches and pains. He grants the power Cause Terrible Pain To Liars. His taboo is Never Let A Lie You Recognize Go Unpunished.
Red Tide (DEATH) is a blood spirit, a guardian against the undead and messenger serving Basko. She warns of the coming of vampires, who are her most hated enemies, as well as assassins and other wielders of secret death. She grants the power Reveal Hidden Killer. Her taboo is Always Hunt Down Vampires When You Find Their Traces.
Pain Singer (DEATH) is a raven spirit, one of the spirits appointed by Basko as tormentors of wandering ghosts. She takes great pleasure in tormenting the impure dead so that they will flee the living world and sending nightmares to the living so they avoid this fate. She grants the power Cause Tormenting Nightmares. Her taboo is Offer No Kindness Without A Touch of Cruelty.
To join the Pentan Midnight Tradition you must have a Spirit Rune. Most such people are descended from specific bloodlines associated with the spirits or shamanic practice, but occasionally it appears in other groups, and is particularly associated with descent from the Horse Masters of the east. Initiation into the tradition is only through the cult ofBasko, performed by a Black Shaman. Generally, they are willing to do this in exchange for a term of service as an assistant and student. This grants the Pentan Midnight Tradition tied to your Spirit Rune.
Members of the Pentan Midnight Tradition can sense spirits. Spirits reveal themselves to members regularly, and when they do, members can speak to them. They can see other spirits in the world around them but lack any power to force them to listen. If you do not belong to a spirit society, you can only use your charms as augments, but essentially all members of the tradition belong to the Basko Spirit Society.
Basko opposes the runes of Fire and Life.
Basko is a loyal son of Yu-Kargzant and Galana, though his brothers and sisters do not generally appreciate his presence. He will serve Kargzant and West King Wind when called on, but neither is a friend. His closest friends are North War Wind, to whom he is sworn as left hand and oath-brother, and Golden Bow, his bright counterpart. Together, the trio are unstoppable, terrifying and unending in their deadly power, which is why they do not come together often. Basko is one of the sole Pentan gods to have friends among the troll gods. He is friendly with Jakaboom the Dancer, perhaps even lovers, and maintains a friendship with Argan Argar.
Even he cannot forgive Zorak Zoran, however, for abusing the power of demons to animate the dead. Many of his kin consider Basko an enemy, for he so resembles the dark forces they fight. Indeed, only a few Pentan gods outside his closest friends tolerate him - Gor Gorma and Lozarl, mainly, who understand the power of the Underworld’s monstrosity. Basko’s greatest enemy is the disease goddess Malia, for he binds and steals her power, turning it against her.
While it is loosely organized, the cult of Basko does have a definite hierarchy. The shamans sit at the top, commanding the rest of the cult, but are all considered of equal rank, with no additional authority over each other save that earned by age, local expertise and experience. It is considered wrong to contradict or oppose one’s teacher, but not one’s teacher’s teacher.
Priests are the second tier under shamans. If a tribe has multiple priests, the most senior will be considered to the high priest and outrank the others, but this is rare. All priests must obey the orders of all shamans, so long as they do not require betraying the orders of the tribal khan, but priests have no official authority over any priest outside their tribe.
Below the priests are all other members of the cult, who must obey the orders of all priests or shamans, so long as they do not require betraying the orders of the tribal khan.
The priests of Basko are known as the Blood Tenders. They are relatively rare compared to shamans, and their duty is to organize and care for the members of the cult, who are often outcasts in Pentan society due to their Darkness nature. They are expected to lead the cult’s membership to help fight monsters, undead, and evil spirits, and to perform any rites of darkness or evil-binding that the tribe requires. Blood Tenders must not have or adopt any children after they take up the role, to bind themselves to death, must never enter sacred places of light or fire, and must take part in funerary rites, gathering up the ashes of the dead and ritually consuming them to take the impurity into themselves and the infinite well of darkness. Many rituals they lead are dedicated to consuming or absorbing impurity or evil.
There is no leader of the Basko cult, though when multiple priests or shamans gather in a single tribe, the most senior generally takes on a leadership role and have authority over the others. Initiates are expected to respect and obey their teacher over others, as well. Each tribe maintains their own traditions on the treatment of shamans generally, and control of holy sites to the spirits can lead to conflict between tribes.
The most spiritually sacred part of Pent is the range of the Sky King Mountains, where the Starlight Ancestors were created. Mountains in general are considered to be sacred to the shamans as places where the earth meets the sky, but the Sky King Mountains are doubly sacred as markers of the line between past and present through the Starlight Ancestors. The Black Butte is similarly sacred to the shamans as the birthplace of the Wind Riders.
Boundary places are generally sacred, for the shamans guard boundaries, particularly the boundary of life and death. Mountains, caves and similar places are sacred. The Hellcrack is also sacred in this way, especially to the Black Shamans, who revere it as the place in which Basko’s glory was shown to the trolls.
An initiate of Basko must possess the Darkness Rune. One of their Darkness, Spirit or Death runes must be 1W or higher. Initiates of Basko do not receive any special protection against becoming impure whatsoever, but also are generally not required to maintain their ritual purity for any of their cult magic.
To become a Black Shaman, an initiate must have the Spirit Rune at 11W or higher. Their teacher in the cult brings them to deep plains, far from any camp. At sunrise, they are taken into the spirit world and abandoned, told to find the true Darkness. If they survive (overcoming a major plot obstacle), they discover that as the sun reaches its height, the darkness within them grows and extends, darkening and expanding with their shadow. They return with their awakened fetch, which has revealed the secret truth to them: the Dark is born of the Light, made stronger by it. They must now guard that birth of Dark from Light, which is the rebirth of life from death.
The fetch of a Black Shaman is their Shadow, a Dehori darkness demon born from the shadow cast by their inner soul. It is unlike other Dehori, for it is born from inside a person, and it is tied to the shaman, animated by the parts of their soul which they keep in darkness, not allowing others to see them. Most Dehori are spirit-beings that exist freely, wandering the world as living darkness, impure and terrifying but natural creatures.
The Shadow has a much deeper understanding of people, and it serves as the bodyguard for the Black Shaman. When they send their soul to other worlds, the Shadow enters their body, laying a trap of all-consuming darkness for any spirit being that might dare to invade. With the aid of the Shadow, a Black Shaman can immediately escape from the Spirit World with a simple contest against a resistance never greater than Moderate. When fighting spirits or other discorporate entities in the physical world, the Shadow steps in to help its master, rendering them immune to multiple opponent penalties.
Uniquely, a Black Shaman may call on their Shadow for its dark power. Each fetch has a unique shamanic ability related to its nature. Some are able to sense the darkness in the souls of others, revealing the dark urges they suppress, while others are able to consume objects, turning them into shadows which only exist in the spirit world, and others are able to turn the shaman into shadow briefly, allowing them to move wherever their shadow touches another. In all cases, the Shadow cannot leave the shaman’s body - at most, it can enter their physical shadow. A given Shadow has only one power, which must somehow be related to either physical or spiritual darkness or to endless hunger.
The shamans say that the mythical Ash Man who was part of West King Wind’s band of Lightbringers was himself a shaman, albeit one who suffered terribly by all he witnessed, and who so awakened both his own Ash Man and Shadow, which both merged with him. This, they say, is why he was able to enter the Underworld, but also why he was driven mad by what he saw and experienced at all times.
Black Shamans are considered members of every spirit society associated with the Midnight/Basko Tradition which they qualify for and gain all other abilities unique to shamans. However, they also have the communal expectations of shamans placed upon them: they must lead the spirit rituals of the community and intercede with spirits on their behalf, and they cannot use sorcerous magic or any divine or spirit magic that is not of the Pentan gods while remaining a shaman.
Basko’s holy days each take place on a Wildday. The first in the Stasis Week of Sea Season, representing the weakening of the Dark and the rise of the Light - a dangerous period, as people begin to relax their guard. The cult stands watch against evil spirits until the Wildday of Truth Week of Sea Season, when the Gold Shamans fully take over the duty.
On the Wildday of Fertility Week of Earth Season, the cult celebrates the birth of life from the endless darkness with quiet, secret rituals that celebrate the secrets of birth and unity in Darkness that the beings of Light do not know. Sometimes they are joined by Earth cults that also understand these secrets, but not often. This also marks the transition of Light to Darkness and the growing power of the Dark as the harvest begins to come.
On the Wildday of Fertility Week of Dark Season, the cult begins its second vigil of guardin, for it is the strongest period of Darkness and the time when they must be ready to bind the evils that become too rowdy. This vigil lasts until the Wildday of Stasis Week, when all bindings are renewed and the worst fights are completed.
The most important holy day, however, is the Wildday of Stasis Week in Storm Season. This is the day on which Basko was acknowledged by Yu-Kargzant for allowing the Dawn to happen. It is a day of celebration, and in tribes with a cult of Basko, it is the day on which all other members of the tribe acknowledge the Darkness and give honor to Basko, if often grudgingly.
All sacrifices to Basko include blood, gathered in bowls. Often it is human or horse blood. Basko also loves the sacrifice of internal organs and offal, his favorite foods. He is among the few gods with little taste for the purity of clarified butter, but any other food is an acceptable sacrifice in enough quantity. Any good offered to Basko is first painted black, to represent it being consumed by the darkness.
Devotees of Basko are rare, but possible. They must have the Darkness or Death Rune at 11W or higher and must give up the magic of all other gods entirely, along with initiation in any other cults, as well as any sorcery. This tends to socially isolate them more than even other members of the Basko cult. However, they may continue to use any shamanic powers they have if they are a Black Shaman.
Bringer of Bad Death (DEATH): Basko stalks the battlefield as a terror, and those who look upon him always know fear. When he raises his mace, all know it contains a terrible death. Those struck down by it are lucky if they die immediately, for then they are simply bound as wandering spirits, plaguing the battlefield around them and spreading fear through the ranks of enemies. Those who survive are cursed with wasting, their protection against disease stripped from them. If they die in a state of impurity, they will be cursed to suffer greatly in death. Only a warrior in a state of purity can stop Basko, and only by sacrificing their own purity can they drive him from the field or slay him.
Those who break their oaths to Basko are cursed by the touch of the Basaki, the Nightmare Demons that ride ahead of Basko. Any who betrays Basko’s secrets to outsiders will find no restful sleep anywhere until they atone, and Basko demands blood in atonement, always. Those who betray their sacred oaths break the bindings on evil spirits that the cult has bound face the touch of the Plague Birds, spirits that strip protection from disease from their victims. Basko will allow Erissa to save these people, for he respects her mercy, but will send the Plague Birds after them again should the offense be repeated.
The Dehori are the beings of darkness - some are elementals, some lesser gods, some spirits. All, however, are demons, terrible creatures of hunger and terror. Many serve Basko, some out of loyalty and some out of fear. He accepts only those who will not animate corpses, and many Dehori thus live outside of his power. Worshippers are able to summon the Dehori who do serve Basko, which appear as jet-black worms or insects, or which possess someone’s shadow and move with it. They are always dangerous to use, for they are cruel to enemies, vindictive, and always hungry. However, they are also wise to many secrets and know many ways to defeat other spirits.