Norgorber

Norgorber

(Deity)

Titles

Reaper of Reputation
Father Skinsaw
The Gray Master
Blackfingers
King of Thieves

Adjective

Norgorberite

Realm

Duskfathom, Axis

Alignment

Neutral evil

Areas of Concern

Greed
Secrets
Poison
Murder

Worshipers

Thieves, assassins, murderers, spies

Edicts

Keep your true identity secret, sacrifice anyone necessary, take every advantage in a fight, work from the shadows

Anathema

Allow your true identity to be connected to your dark dealings, share a secret freely, show mercy

Cleric Alignments (1E)

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Domains (1E)

Charm, Death, Evil, Knowledge, Trickery

Subdomains (1E)

Daemon, Deception, Espionage, Memory, Murder, Thievery, Thought

Cleric Alignments (2E)

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Domains (2E)

Death, secrecy, trickery, wealth

Favored Weapon

Short sword

Symbol

One-eyed mask

Sacred Animal

Spider

Sacred Colors

Black, gray

Images of Norgorber

Source: Inner Sea Gods, pg(s). 108–115 (1E)
Gods & Magic (Second Edition), pg(s). 36–37 (2E)

Ⅰ

Ⅱ

Norgorber (pronounced NOR-gore-ber) is an Ascended Taldan deity of thievery, assassination, and secrets, and is often worshiped as one of four aspects focused on one such purpose. He remains an enigma to most, his true motives are unknown, and many of his own followers remain ignorant of his plans and designs. Norgorber is the only evil deity amongst the Ascended.

History

Norgorber's mortal past before he ascended into godhood through the Test of the Starstone in 1893 AR is unknown to most, and his followers go to great lengths to keep it a secret. Some believe that if his origins became known, the god himself would become undone.

Few know that he was born in Vyre. While the city is a center of his worship in the Inner Sea region, his cult there maintains a strict level of secrecy.

Appearance

Norgorber is most frequently depicted solely by his religious symbol, a featureless black mask. While other depictions present him as an ordinary humanoid figure dressed in black or gray clothing, with his face either partially or completely obscured, Norgorber actively interferes with any artist's attempt to depict him.

Home

Norgorber lives in Duskfathom, the undercity of Axis. His minions frequently prey upon the city above, and his criminal activities are tolerated as a necessary evil by the other deities, for there would be no need for law without crime. Even their unreliable nature is considered part of the predictable nature of Axis, as they are reliably and consistently unworthy of trust. Norgorber's servants in Duskfathom bend Axis' laws to suit their ends but do not directly disrupt the Eternal City's harmony, and are considered at least in function to be the largest thieves' guild in the Great Beyond.

Relationships

Norgorber attempts to stay neutral in dealings with other gods. Six of the deities prominent in the Inner Sea, however, view him with particular disdain and refuse to speak to him. Abadar views his thievery as an aversion to the laws that society is based upon and as undermining commerce and the acquisition of honest wealth. Cayden Cailean considers him a coward and a villain, Erastil distrusts him due to the many lives he and his followers have ruined, Iomedae believes him to have evaded justice for too long and to be somehow involved in the death of Aroden, Sarenrae has been burned too many times by Norgorber feigning remorse and redemption in order to further an evil plot, and Torag sees the activities Norgorber promotes as a cancer that can destroy even the most well-protected city from within. Gorum is contemptuous of Norgorber's honorless methods of murder and assassination.

A deceptive deity, Norgorber has aided deities who do not support his ideals as long as the end result is to his benefit—including those who do not speak to him directly but are willing to work with his intermediaries. Before his demise, Aroden disliked Norgorber in all his aspects, despite being indirectly responsible for his ascension. Father Skinsaw is allied with Achaekek, while Norgorber is generally welcoming of Gyronna and Sivanah. Calistria also considers him an ally.

Unsurprisingly, other deities do not fully trust him due to his penchant for betrayal and sabotage. There is a slight rivalry between the followers and Norgorber and Irori, as the Master of Masters feels that Norgorber's use of a magical artifact to achieve godhood is cheating. Norgorber holds a fascination for the archdevil Mephistopheles due to the latter's portfolio interest in secrets; Norgorber wonders what information is really held in the archdevil's mind. Scholars suggest that Norgorber might have a secret accord with the elemental lord Hshurha, Duchess of All Winds, who is also an inveterate schemer.

The halfling god Thamir was first mentioned in historical records soon after Norgorber's ascension, leading some to believe that Thamir's ascension was fueled by the new god. Some halflings theorise that Thamir is actually an older deity who aided Norgorber in the Test of the Starstone. Thamir's followers are often polite to Norgorberites, who in turn find them too murderous, even when unnecessary.

Servants

Norgorber's divine servitors are the karumzeks, spider-like creatures that excel in all the aspects the god is known for: the creation of poisons and other alchemical items, keeping secrets, and murder.

Unique servants

Secret Shade

This divine minion of Norgorber is a fiendish shadow, an incorporeal undead creature that drains the essence of living beings.

Stabbing Beast

Norgorber's herald is a gigantic, black, scorpion-like entity that also takes the form of a darkly armored humanoid with a scorpion's tail.

Venomfist

Venomfist is a large greenish water elemental infused with poison, with the type varying according to its whims at the moment of summoning. The summoner may be able to convince it to use a particular toxin by offering it a sample of a deadly concoction, whether animal venom, potion, poison, mineral sample, or some alchemical creation. It particularly loves to drown creatures within its own body, especially if the victim is naturally poisonous, or has been paralyzed for this purpose.

Yellowtooth

Yellowtooth is a wererat rogue that has the power to transform into an entire swarm of rats.

Church of Norgorber

Worshipers

Rohkar Cindren, a cleric of Norgorber.

Worshipers of Norgorber are considered cultists by nearly all inhabitants of the Inner Sea region. The cult is forbidden in almost every nation; Absalom, where it is tolerated, is one of the few exceptions. His followers tend to be clerics, rogues, bards, assassins, alchemists, and shadowdancers, and wear masks to identify themselves and as a symbol of their devotion to the god unless doing so would dangeroulsy reveal their affiliation.

Some worshipers wear different masks in order to signify different emotions or signals, and remove the innermost masks only in private. Each aspect also prefers masks of different appearance and features related to their focus.

There are cults dedicated to Norgorber in Galt, Mediogalti Island, Nex, Osirion, the River Kingdoms, the Shackles, the Sodden Lands, Taldor, and Varisia, and among Keleshites, Taldans, Varisians, gnomes, halflings, and dromaars throughout the Inner Sea region.

Norgorber's worshipers come from all walks of life and are collectively termed Sons and Daughters of the Mask. Most followers of Norgorber focus their worship on one of Four Aspects, and while these four followings might cooperate on plans orchestrated by Norgorber and his agents, they otherwise pay only marginal attention to each other and exist almost as separate faiths. Cults of all aspects operate within a guildlike structure inspired by the thieves' guilds often associated with the Gray Master.

• Assassins, alchemists, and herbalists follow Blackfingers, the aspect of Norgorber representing alchemy, poison, and experimentation for the sake of knowledge alone. Blackfingers' followers breed poisonous animals, such as spiders and scorpions, to create more potent venoms, vivisect victims to learn the secrets of the flesh, and supply criminals with powerful poisons, paralytic agents, memory-fogging drugs, and lock-destroying acids. They often wear masks of smoked glass to protect their eyes from the substances they work with and to obscure their identities when meeting with each other. Blackfingers' faith includes a few druids and witches who serve him due to his patronage of poisonous creatures.
• The followers of the cult of Father Skinsaw are known as the Skinsaw Cult, and are the most dangerous and extreme. Father Skinsaw's faithful include mass murderers and bandits, who believe that every murder is a prayer and commit brutal killings in their god's name in the belief that this advances their patron's secret plans. Members of the Skinsaw Cult wear masks of human skin that allow them to detect their victims' vulnerable spots.
• Thieves revere the Gray Master, as do extortionists, kidnappers, street thugs, and all who benefit at the expense of others. They are the most likely of the Four Aspects to form organized cults who seek to acquire all they can without any regard for the law or morality. Followers of the Gray Master vary from violent gangs to nearly legitimate organizations, and conceal themselves with pieces of gray or black cloth that hide their faces below their eyes.
• Spies, politicians, archivists, and researchers worship Norgorber as the Reaper of Reputation, and consider him the deity of secret knowledge and manipulation. They often leverage secrets for their own gain, whether by rigging economies, corrupting governments, or subverting other power structures. Followers of the Reaper vary from relatively benign manipulators of politics whose social maneuvering benefits others as well as themselves to groups such as the Ustalavic organization called the Anaphexia, which hoards esoteric knowledge and kills anyone else who would possess these secrets. Worshippers of the reaper typically wear domino or masquerade masks or black spirals that cover their mouths.

For other meanings of "reaper", please see reaper (disambiguation).

Halflings

Halflings are embarrassed to admit that some among them worship Norgorber: those who have turned to crime and those that are disenchanted with their normal role in life. There are enough such halflings that small halfling-only cults exist. Halflings of Norgorber often retain a loyalty to their halfling communities, secretly aiding them using their dark talents. Most halfling cultists favour the aspect of Norgorber known as the Gray Master, including the rare halfling inquisitors. Others with a penchant for poison follow Blackfingers. Halflings following Father Skinsaw are as rare as they are mad. The halfling god Thamir is also somehow linked to Norgorber.

Clergy

Norgorber's ceremonial colours are black and brown. Cultists' clothes usually follow modern fashions in order to blend in with the common populace but contain many secret pockets, and they often wear masks or bear mask-life motifs as long as their presence does not risk being discovered in places where Norgorber is not tolerated.

His priests are all master imitators and confidence artists, able to assume identities and infiltrate organizations and bring them down from within. Regardless of aspect, most priests of Norgorber train in the arts of disguise, thievery, blackmail, and forgery. Spellcasters among his faithful often focus on illusion, divination, or enchantment, or evocation to misdirect, manipulate, spy upon, or destroy their foes.

Temples and shrines

A priest of Norgorber.

Outwardly, temples of Norgorber are more akin to a thieves' or merchant's guilds than religious sites, with nondescript legitimized fronts hiding their nefarious temples or cultists within. A temple's true nature is usually hidden and transforms at night to be obvious to the faithful. Some congregations designate temporary temples to avoid suspicion or detection. Temples are managed by a guildmaster with several underlings in a military or business-like chain of command.

Shrines are less common as they often add to the risk of discovery, though some members of the Skinsaw Cult consider the public burial sites of their victims to be secret shrines, and some followers of Blackfingers dump alchemical waste in a site to blight it and create a site of tribute.

Holy texts

Seventeen short texts, at least, are associated with Norgorber, all of which have code names and are often disguised as unremarkable books. The anthology of Norgorber's faith is titled The Words Behind the Mask, though no two copies are likely to be the same or interpreted similarly. A minor sect, considered reckless by mainstream Norgorberites, follows an apocryphal text known as the Dark Lure which instructs followers to reveal as many harmless secrets about themselves as possible, so as to dissuade anyone from digging further.

Church history

The struggle for dominance between the churches of Nethys, Norgorber, and Sarenrae triggered the Oath Wars in Rahadoum in 2498 AR. This bloody civil war eventually led to the expulsion of all religions from Rahadoum in 2560 AR and the establishment of the Laws of Mortality.

Holidays

On the 2nd and 3rd of Desnus, his followers celebrate Ascendance Night, the date on which Norgorber completed the Test of the Starstone. There is also a more sinister holiday that takes place sometime in the middle of winter, in which an innocent person is kidnapped and made a live sacrifice with the use of poison in celebration of Norgorber's ascension. Cults that refrain from killing instead plant incriminating evidence on their victim, place a drugged target in a compromising position, or steal something valuable. Individuals might also celebrate the anniversaries of their successes.

Aphorisms

Norgorber's many disparate aspects and cults, along with their preferences for cryptic communication and evading detection, means his followers share few common aphorisms. Only two are known:

• With One Hand I Give: A salutation and warning, as the hand that bears a gift is often paired with another bearing a threat.
• I Wait for a Fair Price: A signal that the speaker knows a secret or possesses an object that they are saving for a time when its value or potential is fully realized.

Favored animals

Gods are often associated with certain animals, either because they possess a quality favored by the god, or because the god's faithful feel a special kinship to them. Norgorber's favored animals include spiders, rats, crows and jackdaws, and poisonous animals.

References

Paizo published a major article about Norgorber in The Price of Infamy.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.