They serve Pharasma in the Boneyard as advisors, judges, caretakers, explorers, guides, guards, and even soldiers when needed. Among them are the psychopomps †, who are created from souls whose lives did not pull them toward good or evil, structure or chaos. Pharasma employs a number of immortal beings as servants. Her displeasure is signified by bleeding from beneath the fingernails, an unexplained taste of rich soil, the discovery of a dead whippoorwill, the feeling that something important has been forgotten, or cold chills down the spine. The goddess can sometimes allow a departing spirit to give witness to her murder, send a short message to comfort the living, or haunt an enemy. Black roses are thought by her followers to bring good luck, most especially if the rose bears no thorns. Pharasma's pleasure is often signified through the appearance of scarabs and whippoorwills, both of which can serve as psychopomps to guide a departing spirit to her side. Pharasma herself resides in a Palace, where she judges the most difficult souls that arrive at the Boneyard. Each section is styled after a different outer plane and contains celestials or fiends that look over the souls and assist them to their final destination once Pharasma determines their fate. On top of the spire is a vast necropolis of courtyards, graves, monuments, and forums filled with the newly dead souls awaiting judgement. Pharasma's domain is the Boneyard, which sits atop a great spire rising out of the Outer Sphere and attracts all souls from the Material Plane who pass it. She is alternatively depicted as a mad prophet, a reaper of the dead, or a midwife, depending on her current role. She wears a dark, hooded, robe-like dress and holds an hourglass filled with red sand. Pharasma is most often depicted as an ashen-skinned Garundi woman with white eyes. Some legends say that Pharasma knew the death of Aroden was approaching, but chose not to tell her followers for reasons unknown. It is a time of change for Pharasma and her faith. Many of Pharasma's priests have lost their faith or have gone mad as a result, but those who remain, are finding that Pharasma's hold over prophecy is becoming less important, while her domain over death, birth, and fate, are growing stronger. His death was not prophesied, and once he died, most of the other prophecies in the world started to go awry as well. The death of Aroden, the first of the ascended gods, at the end of the Age of Enthronement, was extremely unexpected. During the tumultous exodus of Azlanti refugees after Earthfall, Pharasmin priests oversaw funerals that conscrated the lands and prevented the dead from rising as undead. Pharasma was a part, albeit minor, of the Thassilonian pantheon, acting as the goddess of death. Sometime after, Urgathoa's escape from the Boneyard and return to the Material Plane brought undead and disease to the world. She magically imbued the Dead Vault with potent wards against escape, to serve as Rovagug's prison. Pharasma is counted among one of the original gods that opposed Rovagug. Along with Yog-Sothoth, she became one of the two anchors of creation, and between Pharasma and Yog-Sothoth, the Age of Creation began with the birth of the Great Beyond. According to the Windsong Testaments, she appeared alone in this new reality and, through the use of the Seal, willed most of existence into being, including the Outer Sphere, numerous planes and the eight earliest gods. She was responsible for shaping the new reality in its earliest days and shielding it from Those Who Remain, who have always lived outside the multiverse. HistoryĪccording to the Concordance of Rivals, Pharasma is the oldest being in creation, the sole Survivor of the previous multiverse's destruction. As the goddess of death and rebirth, she abhors the undead and considers them a perversion. Pharasma is also the goddess of birth and prophecy: from the moment a creature is born, she sees what its ultimate fate will be, but reserves final judgement until that soul finally stands before her. Pharasma makes no decision on whether a death is just or not she views all with a cold and uncaring attitude, and decides on which of the Outer Planes a soul will spend eternity.
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