Null
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| Null | ||
|---|---|---|
| A circle divided diagonally into white and black semicircles or a draconic skull | ||
| Alignment | Lawful Neutral/Lawful Evil | |
| Divine Rank | 1e: Deity 2e: Lesser/Intermediate Power |
|
| Pantheon | Draconic (Faerunian) | |
| Portfolio | Dragons, Death, the dead, decay, exhaustion, energy draining, fatalism, judgment, necromancy, undeath | |
| Domains | What Cleric Domains it bestows. | |
| Home Plane | Outlands/Carceri | |
| Worshippers | Dragons, Gravekeepers, Necromancers, Dracoliches | |
| Favoured Weapon | What faithful worshippers consider best to protect themselves with. | |
Null is the dual-aspected draconic deity of death and undeath, revered variously as a neutral (of the "benignly indifferent") custodian of the souls of dead dragons and as an evil patron of draconic necromancers and dracoliches. This is because Null is really a result of the Forgotten Realms screwing up and somehow conflating Chronepsis and Falazure. He debuted in the original Draconomicon and was then expanded upon in the Cult of the Dragon.
Draconomicon Lore
Null (NULL) (Deathwyrm, Reaver, Guardian of the Lost) Deity of Death and the Dead Greater Power of Gehenna, LE/LN Symbol: A circle, divided diagonally into white and black semicircles
Null, the draconic god of death and the dead, is worshiped in two seemingly contradictory aspects.
As Reaver, god of death, he is Lawful Evil and is worshiped by many evil dragons. In this aspect, Null enjoys the taking of life, and he blesses others who serve him in this capacity. Null works according to a plan and a schedule, however, which has been set before him by Fate, and so he is not his own master.
As Guardian of the Lost, Null is the Lawful Neutral guardian of the dead. As such, he shepherds the animae (souls) of dragons to their respective planes when they die, and he ensures they are no longer troubled by enemies they may have had while alive. In this aspect, Null is worshiped by dragons of all alignments; individuals who've just lost someone close to them will sometimes make offerings to Null to speed the dearly departed's animae to its final resting place.
Null appears as a region of impenetrable blackness in the shape of a huge dragon. He is surrounded by an aura of numbing cold, and it is said that to touch Null is instant death.
Cult of the Dragon Lore
Null (Death Wyrm, Guardian of the lost, Night Dragon, Reaver) Intermediate/Lesser Power of the Outlands/Carceri, LN/LE PORTFOLIO: Death, the dead, decay, exhaustion, energy draining, fatalism, judgment, necromancy, undeath ALIASES: Faluzure, Chronepsis DOMAIN NAME: Outlands/Mausoleum of Chronepsis and Minethys/Mausoleum of Pain SUPERIOR: Asgorath ALLIES: Kalzareinad (dead) FOES: Bahamut (Xymor), Hlal, Tamara, Tiamat SYMBOL: A circle divided diagonally into white and black semicircles or a draconic skull WOR. ALIGN.: Any (Guardian of the Lost) or LE, NE, CE (Reaver)
Null (NUL) is the draconic god of death in all its myriad aspects. He is venerated by dragons of all alignments to some degree in his role as Guardian of the Lost. Many dragons of evil alignment - particularly shadow dragons and dracoliches - venerate Null in his aspect as Reaver, the Death Wyrm. Null is also known in some obscure texts as Chronepsis or Faluzure, but those aliases may simply be the names of draconic deities of other worlds or his names in other crystal spheres.
As with most draconic deities of Faerûn, Null's faith has been slowly dwindling for centuries, and, as of the Fall of the Gods, he had but a handful of devoted adherents (some of whom were undead). Since the Time of Troubles, Null has begun to make inroads among the Sacred Ones of the Cult of the Dragon. Null's motivation is in part due to a desire to staunch his gradual loss of power and in part to counter Tiamat's recent attempts to incorporate the Followers of the Scaly Way into her own faith. A few ill-regarded members of Sembian Cult cell have begun to whisper that Null is the Dead Dragon who shall rule the world entire with the Sacred Ones as his worldly vassals, but it is unknown if Null has made any such claim himself.
Null is said to speak with the dusty croak of the undead. He is arrogant, fatalistic, proud, and totally lacking in any sense of humor. The Night Dragon does not anger easily, but instead slowly nurtures grudges that eventually blossom into undying hatreds for slights and attacks (imagined or otherwise). Null's residences, both mausoleums, are said to coexist in part on the Negative Material Plane and the Demiplane of Shadows; in fact, the two death houses may in reality be one structure that exists both in the Outlands and Carceri.
Null has a long-standing hatred of both Tiamat and Bahamut, who are said to be his siblings. While Null and Tiamat were once allied, some rift in the prehistory of the Realms has driven them into everlasting enmity. Null nurtures a deep grudge against Hlal as a result of an elaborate practical joke that robbed the Death Wyrm of his dignity centuries ago. While the Night Dragon has little patience for most of the other surviving draconic gods, he bitterly resents Tamara's attempts to interfere with the inevitability of death and darkness and hates her with a special passion.
The one deity Null was on somewhat friendly terms with was Kalzareinad, a demipower of draconic magic who was said to have aided Sammaster's creation of the first dracolich, and the loss of this ally has led scholars to speculate that he may soon seek others to replace him.
Null's Avatar
(Great Wyrm Shadow Dragon Dracolich, Necromancer 30, Shadow Mage 30, Cleric 28)
Null appears as a region of impenetrable blackness in the shape of a huge dragon. He is surrounded by an aura of numbing cold, and it is said that to touch Null is instant death and to hear his voice is to suffer the agonizing aging caused by the sight of a ghost. Null draws his spells from all schools and from the spheres of all, astral, charm, combat, creation (reversed only), divination, elemental, guardian, healing, law, necromantic, numbers, protection, summoning, sun (darkness-creating only), thought, time, travelers, war, and wards.
Special Att/Def: Null has all the special attacks, defenses, and abilities of a great wyrm shadow dragon and of a dracolich. He can employ the breath weapon of any nongood dragon (chromatic, gem, fang, etc.) or breath of putrescence in lieu of his normal cloud of blackness. Instead of one of his physical attacks or a magical one, Null can energy drain any creature within 100 feet of his physical form. Null can cast finger of death once per round in lieu of a claw attack. Null is immune to all spells from the school of shadow magic, illusion/phantasm, and necromancy.
Other Manifestations
Null commonly manifests as the shadow of a monstrous dragon of indeterminate race or as the chilling touch of the undead (inflicting 2d8 points of chilling damage and forcing a saving throw vs. paralyzation on any living being successfully touched or it is paralyzed for 2d6 rounds).
Null acts or shows his favor through the appearance or presence of ravens, shadows, vultures, and black sapphires. His most common draconic emissaries are abishai (baatezu), shadow dragons, and dracoliches.
Null's Church
CLERGY: Priest dragons and dracoliches, specialty priests CLERGY'S ALIGN.: LN, N, LE, NE, CE TURN UNDEAD: PD: No, SP: No CMND.UNDEAD: PD: No, SP: Yes
All dragons and dracoliches capable of casting priest spells who venerate Null as well as all specialty priests of the Night Dragon receive religion (draconian) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency.
Null is worshiped in two seemingly contradictory aspects. As Guardian of the Lost, Null is the guardian of the dead. As such, he shepherds the spirits of dragons to their respective planes when they die, and he ensures they are no longer troubled by enemies they may have had while alive. In this aspect, individual dragons who have just lost someone close to them sometimes make offerings to Null to speed the recently departeds spirit to its final resting place. As Reaver, Null enjoys the taking of life, and he blesses others who serve him in this capacity. Reaver supports research into necromancy and those who seek to extend their lives through undeath. It is said that with the Death Wyrm's blessing, the first dragons transformed themselves into shadow dragons, and some claim that it was Reaver who whispered the secrets of creating dracoliches to Sammaster. (Other claim it was Kalzareinad, or that Reaver was gifted with the secrets upon Kalzareinad's passing.)
Temples of Null are typically dimly illuminated subterranean cavernous vaults cloaked in endlessly shifting shadows. Many dragons of all species and alignments travel to such temples shortly before their deaths, and their shattered skeletons typically engulf any given temple's floor. Interspersed among the piled bones are uncounted coins and gems that once adorned the scales of the departed wyrms. Spirits of the dead wyrms and other spectral guardians defend Null's temples from interlopers who seek to plunder such rich draconic burial pits.
Like all remaining draconic deities of Faerûn, Null has not had an organized priesthood among his draconic followers since the dragon holy wars millennia ago. (Nulls archrival, Tiamat, has an organized priesthood among her human followers, but not among her draconic followers.) Dragons and dracoliches who venerate Null and who are capable of casting priest spells are considered members of Nulls clergy, and they receive the initial knowledge of their priest spells from the Night Dragon. Those few dragons and dracoliches who truly serve the Night Dragon as priests are known as annihilists and are considered to be draconic specialty priests.
Dogma: As the Guardian of the Lost, Null teaches that all things shall eventually come to rest, and, when they do, their spirits pass on into the afterlife. All life eventually leads into death, which is simply a demarcation point marking the change to another existence. True death is final and absolute, and once dragons pass on, the concerns of the physical world must never again disturb them so that they are able to pursue existence in their new form to the fullest.
As Reaver, Null teaches that death and decay are inevitable and omnipresent. Dragons are gifted with the strength to withstand death for so long so that they may serve as emissaries of Reaver in spreading death among the lesser races. To truly become strong, dragons should incorporate aspects of death into their lives. Whether they chose to draw on the energies of the Demiplane of Shadow or the Negative Material Plane, dragons who embrace death in life herald the day when the afterlife will incorporate the living world as well.
Day-to-Day Activities: Nulls clergy occupy their days as do most dragons: endless hours of sleep, avaricious contemplation of their hoards, and plotting of future glories interspersed with brief hunting and mating forays and the occasional battle with interlopers in their lairs. Unlike other wyrms, however, Nulls followers are typically preoccupied with necromantic investigations and the philosophical contemplation of death.
Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: As a result of the millennia-long decline of draconic faiths coupled with the extended lifetimes of dragons, few draconic holy ceremonies have survived to the present day, and those that do occur only a handful of times per century. Nevertheless, at least two such ceremonies continue to be celebrated by those who venerate Null.
A ceremony known as the Drawing Down is held at most once every lunar month beginning on the night of the waning half-moon. Over the next fortnight, dragons of all species consign the spirits of the recently deceased to the Guardian of the Lost in elaborate ceremonies of corporeal internment that culminate with the appearance of the new moon.
Total solar eclipses mark Reaver's infrequent holy day, known as the Nullification. On such occasions, followers of Reaver rampage throughout the Realms, wreaking destruction and leaving naught but death in their wake. It is said that the follower of Null who inflicts the greatest number of casualties on the mammalian races is transformed into the Wyrm of Death (an unique undead form similar to that of a dracolich) and reigns as high priest of Null's faith until the next such eclipse.
Major Centers of Worship: Two Nullist centers of worship of significance are the Well of Dragons and the Crypt of Dragons.
The Well of Dragons is a vast natural cauldron located due east of the Skull Gorge that is concealed by illusory terrain except when bathed in moonlight. Countless dragons have gone to this ancient temple of Null to die over the centuries, some choosing to shatter themselves against the rocks in a fatal dive and others choosing simply to peacefully wait for their imminent denouement. The Dire Dragon, an unusually large undead shadow dragon (although not a true dracolich) who lairs in the Well of Dragons, is said by some to be the current Wyrm of Death and to have been transformed into his present undead state by Reaver himself. Others claim this is simply halfling lies, but whatever the truth, the Dire Dragon has amassed an incredible hoard, even for a wyrm of his age and power. The Dire Dragon is certainly capable of defending himself thanks to his mighty shadow magic, the numerous magical baubles he has gathered from the corpses of dragons who have perished in the Well, and the secrets and stratagems revealed to him by those dragons who prefer to talk away their last few hours.
The Crypt of Dragons is a vast underground cavern-tomb within a day's travel of the town of Hilp in Cormyr. (Although the exact location has been forgotten, the subterranean vault is believed to be located either northwest of the town in the Ring's Forest or due east of the crossroads community under the rolling hills of the high farm country.) This shrine was consecrated ages ago to the Guardian of the Lost (and is believed to be the largest remaining temple dedicated solely to that nonevil aspect of the god), but it has been centuries since the last dragon was interred therein. Orncibl Rhommd, a weaver of Hilp, and his two apprentices stumbled across the ancient temple in the Year of the Worm (1356 DR), and Orncibl later described it as containing several mummified dragon corpses carefully arranged atop piles of gold and gems. Both of Orncibl's apprentices were felled by fields of blue crackling force that slew them when they approached too closely. Orncibl himself disappeared shortly after his astounding announcement, and agents of the Cult of the Dragon have been actively searching the region for the long-lost Crypt ever since.
Affiliated Orders: None.
Priestly Vestments: Null's holy symbol is a black sapphire with a hollow core into which a small white diamond is magically placed. Such holy symbols are known as death rattles after they sound they make when shaken.
Adventuring Garb: None.
Specialty Priests (Annihilists)
REQUIREMENTS: Age category capable of casting priest spells, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 11 PRIME REQ.: Intelligence, Wisdom ALIGNMENT: LN, LE, NE, CE WEAPONS: Any, but normally a dragons natural weaponry ARMOR: Any, but normally a dragons natural armor MAJORSPHERES: All, astral, combat, divination, elemental, law, necromantic, protection, summoning, sun (darkness-creating only), time MINOR SPHERES: Charm, creation (reversed only), guardian, healing, numbers, thought, travelers, wards MAGICAL ITEMS: Same as dragons, clerics, and wizards REQ.PROFS: Reading/writing (Auld Wyrmish), reading/writing (common) BONUS PROFS: Spellcraft, survival (Demiplane of Shadow)
The age category at which a dragon first receives priest spells determines when it can become a specialty priest of a draconic power. This age category is called the first age category. Subsequent age categories are called second age category, third age category, etc. All granted powers are given in terms of the required relative age category of the draconic priest. Shadow dragons, for example, typically can first cast priest spells when they are mature adults. A typical shadow dragon would reach the sixth age category upon attaining great wyrm status. Red dragons, on the other hand, can typically first cast priest spells when they are of venerable status. Thus a typical red dragon could never reach higher than the third age category, which it could achieve upon reaching great wyrm status. Note that in very rare cases, some dragons are capable of casting priest spells earlier than their brethren, and they can thus achieve much higher levels of proficiency as specialty priests.
Annihilists must be shadow dragons or dracoliches.
Annihilists are immune to all death magic spells and spell-like effects (such as death spell; finger of death; power word, kill; etc.).
As with all draconic specialty priests, annihilists can cast double the normal number of priest spells granted to a normal dragon of their age and subspecies.
Annihilists can cast enervation or shadow monsters (as the 4th-level wizard spells) once per day at the first age category. At the third age category this rises to twice per day. At the fifth age category this rises to three times per day.
Annihilists can cast shadow magic or summon shadow (as the 5th-level wizard spells) once per day at the second age category. At the fourth age category this rises to twice per day. At the sixth age category this rises to three times per day.
Annihilists can cast death spell or demishadow magic (as the 6th-level wizard spells) once per day at the third age category. At the fifth age category this rises to twice per day.
Annihilists can cast shadow walk (as the 7th-level wizard spell) or shades (as the 6th-level wizard spell) once per day at the fourth age category. At the sixth age category this rises to twice per day.
Annihilists can cast finger of death (as the 7th-level wizard spell) or shadow dragon (as the 5th-level draconic wizard spell) once per day at the fifth age category.
Annihilists can cast energy drain (as the 9th-level wizard spell) once per day at the sixth age category