Det, the Eater Of The Worthless
"Obedience is survival. Defiance is meat."
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Realm of Influence: Brutality, Predation, Punishment, Waters of Judgment, Shadow Realms
Current Status: Bound Servant of Arevay, Lord of the Neutral Evil Domain of the Shadow Realms
Various form of Det
Summary
Det is the Lawful Evil god of punishment, predation, and obedience, depicted as a colossal, crocodile-headed deity whose presence drips with menace and ancient law. Among the Shadow Realms’ pantheon, he rules the Neutral Evil domain—a plane of flooded oubliettes, sunken chains, and stagnant courts where the weak are consumed and the strong endure. In the brutal creed of Det, obedience is the only salvation, and all life exists in a food chain—spiritual, political, and literal.
Det was once a primeval force of order through violence, worshiped by swamp kings, slave-masters, and high inquisitors. His creed is simple: the strong may rule and devour, so long as they enforce the law. He despises rebellion, chaos, and mercy, viewing them as diseases upon civilization. For Det, the soul that cannot obey is fit only for consumption—a fate he delivers personally in his infamous form as the Crocodile Beneath the Black Water.
Though once unbound and feared across the planes, Det is now magically enslaved by Arevay, the goddess of judgment and shadow. As part of the great divine accord, Det was forced to swear submission in order to retain his dominion within the Shadow Realms. While he chafes under this leash, he also thrives within it—twisting obedience into fear and rule into ritualized terror.
The Drowned Domain of Det
Det’s dominion in the Shadow Realms is called The Drowned Maw—a flooded necropolis of half-submerged courthouses, chained islands, and rotting gallows. Souls who arrive in his domain are judged not by law, but by their capacity to submit and serve. The unyielding are torn apart by obsidian-scaled enforcers, or dragged to the bottom by Det’s followers—the Gullet Judges.
Spiritual predators prowl the black canals, feeding on cowardice, doubt, and resistance. Only those who accept servitude, and offer others in their place, are spared. Temples of Det often feature chained altars and pools filled with blood-stained water—each designed to remind worshipers of their place in the chain of obedience.
His priests teach that drowning is not death, but purification. To serve Det is to submerge one’s will in the deep, and return changed.
Relationship with the Divine Court
Det, like Zarus, was once a free god, feared and worshiped in ancient empires where tyrants ruled from throne-islands and slaves built cathedrals in chains. During the First Age, his brutality drew the attention of the divine coven—particularly Arevay, who sought to bring judgment and structure to Kol’s fractured divine afterlife. Det was one of the two gods slain at the end of the first age by the Nephal Witch Twins - Arevay and Mekhila. Arevay ascended to the Divine Council and Det remained shattered for two ages.
After the Citrinitas Age, Det was resurrected to fulfill a necessary role within the Pantheon. His rampages, however, could threaten the balance of death and rebirth. In response, Arevay bound him with karmic chains, sealing his dominion to serve the greater justice of the Black Church. Though subservient, Det does not resist his role—he sees the leash as a symbol of dominance, and takes pleasure in punishing others in the name of those more powerful.
Det fears Auriel, whom he once mocked, and deeply resents Yan, who represents everything he considers weak and chaotic. However, he respects Zarus, and the two are sometimes depicted together as twin jaws—one crushing by law, the other by fear.
Det's Binding to Arevay
Det may rule over the Neutral Evil domain of the Shadow Realms, but his sovereignty is not his own. Following the devastation of the Carcosa Catastrophe and the end of the Citrinitas Age, when the gods' moral structures collapsed and the afterlife teetered on the brink of becoming anarchy, the divine coven—led by Arevay, Auriel, Ansil, Ceslida, and Mekhila—acted swiftly to prevent a full spiritual collapse. Among the most dangerous threats to balance was a lack of a full pantheon, including evil god.
To preserve the cycle of rebirth, judgment, and karmic reckoning, Arevay bound Det with the Chains of Concord, a set of metaphysical fetters woven from fate, silence, and unbreakable law. The binding was not a prison but a contract—crafted with language so precise, so absolute, that even Det’s will could not bend it. He was permitted to continue his reign over the drowned and the damned, but only in service to Arevay’s greater design. He would become the enforcer of her judgments, not his own.
Though he loathes this servitude, Det views the binding not as humiliation but as a divine challenge—a higher predator forcing submission through superior lawcraft, something even he respects in his twisted creed. Arevay does not taunt him, nor punish him further. She simply remains above him, as a serpent poised above the jaws of a crocodile—silent, unmoving, unassailable.
To this day, Det’s rituals begin and end with a line acknowledging Arevay’s authority:
“Through silence, I am chained. Through chains, I devour.”
Her presence is felt in every one of Det’s temples—not in iconography, but in the absent sound, the heavy quiet that precedes his verdicts. Though Det’s priests never speak her name aloud, they all know this truth: without Arevay, Det is not a god. He is a beast on a leash.
Tenets of Det
Obedience Is Power – The one who kneels survives. The one who defies is consumed.
Predation Is Order – To devour is holy. To be devoured is justice.
Mercy Is Weakness – Offer no kindness. Spare no resistance.
Judgment Lies in the Jaws – All souls must be weighed and tasted.
Chains Are Sacred – The law binds us to purpose. Without chains, we rot.
Structure of the Church of Det
The Church of Det is organized as a strict and unyielding hierarchy known as the Chain of Worth, where one’s position is determined by obedience, strength, and ability to enforce the god’s will without hesitation. Advancement is not earned through enlightenment or compassion, but through demonstration of control, discipline, and ruthless execution of the chain’s doctrines.
Each tier in the Chain of Worth is a link in the predator’s jaw—with those at the top holding the power to devour or judge those beneath.
The Dread Fang
The supreme leader of Det’s faith—always a single figure, chosen only after surviving the Trial of the Crocodile Maw, a ritual in which contenders are submerged for three days with a sacred crocodile spirit. The Dread Fang speaks with Det’s authority and is believed to be partially possessed by his divine will. Their voice is law. Their failure means consumption.
Gullet Judges
The enforcers of doctrine, commanders of temples, and executioners of judgment. Each Gullet Judge oversees a domain of obedience, whether it be a region, military force, prison, or flooded court. They wear heavy chains carved with prayers and often brand subordinates with Det’s sigil. A Gullet Judge’s word overrules mortal law in any territory claimed by the church.
Tide-Clerics
These are the priests and ritual masters who conduct sacrifices, oversee daily worship, and interpret visions from Det’s domain. Tide-Clerics are trained in both law and combat and are responsible for administering the Ritual of Drowned Clarity and other sacred rites. They are chosen from among the loyal who have survived at least one drowning and two successful acts of soul-breaking obedience.
The Chained Brethren
The largest body of faithful—warriors, acolytes, scribes, and inquisitors. Some act as prison keepers, torturers, or bureaucrats in civil structures infiltrated by Det’s faith. Others serve as secret enforcers of Det’s law in foreign cities. They are subject to constant tests of submission and are routinely rotated through trials of fear, hunger, and blood loyalty to break weakness and ego.
The Meatbound
At the very bottom of the Chain of Worth are those who have failed Det’s tests but remain alive as cautionary tools. They are stripped of name and status, bound in ritual tattoos, and serve silently in temples as laborers, sacrifices, or training fodder. Det’s will allows their existence only as a lesson to others: that failure is not always destroyed—sometimes it is paraded.
Dogma and Rituals of Det
The faith of Det is built on the belief that power is not earned through virtue, but seized and preserved through subjugation. Obedience is not a weakness—it is a form of worship. Det teaches that every soul must find its place in the great predatory chain: the strong devour, the weak serve, and the dead are judged by their usefulness, not their goodness.
His clergy, known as the Gullet Judges or Fangs of the Deep, enforce his law with ritual precision. Worship of Det is often fear-based but deeply structured, offering order through surrender and reward through loyalty. His rites are as symbolic as they are physical—each one meant to strip away ego, break resistance, and reinforce the hierarchy of dominion.
Ritual of the Sinking Chain
Performed upon the initiation of a new acolyte, this rite symbolizes the surrender of self to the will of Det. The initiate is bound in iron chains and cast into a sacred, stagnant pool within Det’s temple. Beneath the surface lies a submerged altar where they must recite the Litany of Submission without breath. Should they emerge alive and unharmed, they are considered accepted by Det. If they drown, their soul is judged by the god personally—either devoured or made into a servant-spirit.
Ritual of the Devoured Name
Used to punish oathbreakers, heretics, or rebellious spirits, this grim ritual strips a being of their name, station, and memory. In a public display, the offender is shackled and brought before the altar. A carved effigy of their face is placed in Det’s maw, then devoured by sacred crocodiles or burned in bone-pits. From that moment forward, they are only referred to as “meat” until they are executed, enslaved, or ritually drowned. The devoured name is erased from temple records and karmic ledgers alike.
Ritual of Drowned Clarity
A cleansing ritual meant to break spiritual hesitation or purify dangerous ambition within Det’s followers. A priest immerses the subject in holy brine while reciting prayers to "drown the lies of the surface." Visions often follow—many of them brutal or humbling. Some acolytes return changed, calm, and deeply obedient. Others descend into silence, having seen the Maw of Det and accepted their insignificance. This ritual is also used before declaring war, passing judgment, or choosing a new hierarch within Det’s clergy.
Prayers of Det
1. The Chained Breath
Whispered before drowning rituals or punishments, this prayer is offered as one exhales underwater.
“In this breath, I surrender. In these depths, I am yours. Judge me, Det—eat what is false.”
2. The Gullet Invocation
Spoken when interrogating or sentencing others. Priests of Det often say this with hands submerged in blood.
“Your will is weak. Your chains are rusted. May Det find your marrow worthy.”
3. The Sinking Blessing
A priest’s benediction offered to those entering Det’s service—or execution.
“May your pride drown, may your soul sink, may your name be remembered only by the water.”
Hymns of Det
1. “The Black Water Hungers”
A guttural hymn sung in call-and-response form by chained choirs. Its rhythm mimics the sound of splashing and muffled screaming.
“The black water watches.
The black water waits.
It knows your name.
It seals your fate.”
2. “Beneath the Chains”
A low, droning chant sung during executions, often echoing through temples carved into the sides of drowned cliffs.
“Beneath the chains, we learn our place.
Beneath the chains, we taste disgrace.
Beneath the chains, we rise or drown—
In the belly of the god who frowns.”
3. “The Silence in the Deep”
A quiet, terrifying hymn sung after rituals of obedience or after culling heretics.
“No light. No breath. No surface calls.
Only chains. Only dark. Only Det.”
Sermons of Det
1. “The Jaws That Judge”
This sermon teaches that judgment is not enlightenment—it is consumption. Delivered with violent metaphor, it describes how Det devours sin and hesitation, leaving behind only servitude.
“The law does not reason. It bites.”
2. “Drown the Self”
A cornerstone of Det’s philosophy, this sermon is about the death of ego. To become useful, one must surrender entirely. To rise, one must first drown. This message is spoken over new initiates or war captives.
“You are not worthy. But in the deep, you may become something that is.”
3. “The Crocodile Beneath”
Told as a parable, this sermon warns of the predator that waits under still water. It teaches followers to fear complacency and embrace vigilance. No matter how calm life appears, Det is always watching from below.
“Peace is a lie told by the surface. But the god waits beneath.”
