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{{Greyhawk Deity|fgcolor=#fff|
image=[[Image:Nerull01.jpg]]|
caption=Nerull the Reaper, as depicted in ''Deities and Demigods'' (2002).|
bgcolor=#000|
fgcolor=#fff|
name=Nerull|
title=The Reaper, the Foe of All Good, King of All Gloom, the Hater of Life, He Who Revels in the Slaying of the Living, the Bringer of Darkness|
home=[[Carceri|Tarterian Depths of Carceri]]|
power=Greater|
gender=Male|
class=Necromancer/ Cleric/ Rogue|
alignment=Neutral Evil|
portfolio=Death, Darkness, Murder, the Underworld|
domains=Death, Evil, Pestilence, Trickery|
alias=Tharoth|
super=none|
}}
'''Nerull''' is the [[Flan]] god of Death, Darkness, Murder, and the Underworld, worshiped on countless worlds. He is known as the Reaper, the Foe of All Good, the Hater of Life, and the Bringer of Darkness. His symbol is a skull and scythe.

==Description==
Nerull is usually seen as a black-robed skeleton with a rust-red body and green, ropy hair. He carries a staff called ''Lifecutter'' that at his command grows a scythe blade made of scarlet energy. He flies through the skies, slaying the living and undead alike, crumbling them to dust with a mere touch of his bony finger.

In the novel ''Artifact of Evil'' by [[Gary Gygax]], Nerull rides a great winged [[yugoloth|daemon]] named Putriptoq.

===Other aspects===	 
Among the [[Bakluni]], Nerull is known as '''Tharoth''' the Reaper. This is unofficial ''[[Oerth Journal]]'' material.

==Relationships==
Nerull has tenuous alliances with [[Faluzure]] and [[Hextor]]. He respects [[Incabulos]], who starts the work that Nerull completes, but has nothing to do with him; their priests do not cooperate unless faced with a common enemy. The Foe of All Good sponsored the ascension of his mortal follower [[Kyuss]] to godhood. Nerull seeks to destroy and reabsorb the power of [[Mellifleur]], who stole divine energy meant for one of Nerull's own servants.

Nerull is said to slay [[Obad-Hai]] every winter.

Nerull possesses the ability to summon three [[demodand]]s of greatest power, who serve him out of fear.

==Realm==
Nerull dwells in [[Carceri]], either in its outermost layer or its innermost. According to ''On Hallowed Ground'', his realm is called the ''Crypt'' and is a city inhabited by the dead and undead. There, Nerull consorts with fiends of all kinds, who wander the realm devouring the shrieking souls trapped under Nerull's power. According to the 3rd edition ''Manual of the Planes'', his realm is ''Necromanteion'', described as a citadel carved from black ice, where the souls of the dead are trapped within the walls, ceilings, and floors. Demonic clerics perform twisted experiments and recite ghastly litanies. Nerull's throne is within a wide hall called the Hidden Temple, and even more unspeakable horrors are said to be buried in tunnels beneath. 

Unlike most inhabitants of the Red Prison, Nerull wasn't banished to Carceri; he lives there because he likes it. 

==Dogma==
Nerull's faithful believe they will be rewarded for acts of murder, for every living thing is an abomination in the eyes of the Reaper.

==Worshipers==
[[Image:Nerull04.jpg|right]]
Nerull is the patron deity of those who seek the greatest evil for their own enjoyment or gain. Most common folk do not worship or propitiate him, although they fear him greatly. It is believed that any form of appeasement will merely draw his attention, something that is at all costs to be avoided by the sensible. Nerull seems, in fact, to draw power from the very avoidance of his name. Some of the peasants of the former [[Great Kingdom]] do propitiate Nerull with minor rites, begging safe passage for the souls of the dead. Among the Flan and in the [[Old Faith]], Nerull is sometimes considered to be the god of winter.

The Reaper is one of the patrons of the [[Horned Society]] and the [[White Kingdom]], and thought to be the will that animates the [[drowned ones]]. A primitive version of Nerull is worshiped by the [[quaggoth]]s.

===Clergy===
Nerull's clerics are feared throughout the lands as cold, calculating murderers. Named clerics of He Who Revels in the Slaying of the Living include [[Delglath]], [[Jipzinker]], [[Andrade Mirrius]], [[Guiliana Mortidus]], and [[Nezmajen]]. They are secretive and often solitary. When not in disguise, they dress in the same rust-red hue as the bones of their god.

Those who would become priests of Nerull must undergo an arduous initiation that climaxes in being buried alive for a time.

==Temples==
[[Image:Nerull05.jpg|right]]
Nerull's temples are hidden and usually subterranean except in the most evil lands, as befits the god of darkness and the underworld. One place vile enough to openly host sizable temples of the Foe of All Good is [[Rel Astra]]. Well known cults of Nerull include the [[Shriven Sickle]] in Greyhawk, which seeks, among other things, to undermine the church of [[Saint Cuthbert]] there. The [[Midnight Darkness]], active in the former [[Aerdy]] lands, is led by a mysterious figure known as the [[Hidden Sickle]]. Beneath [[Castle Greyhawk]], followers of Nerull fought a subterranean war with the followers of [[Vaprak]]. In the Hold of the [[Sea Princes]], cultists of Nerull made it their goal to frustrate and destroy [[Jeon II]]. This cult has recently been responsible for a series of extremely mysterious, grisly, and above all scary murders of various servants of good; apart from this they've kept themselves extremely secretive.

==Rituals==
Services to Nerull are ghastly things performed in absolute blackness, featuring litanies of fear and suffering. Murder is done as a homage to the Reaper.

==Holy days==
Nerull has few known holy days:

*'''The [[Blood Moon Festival]]'''. This night, on [[Greyhawk Calendar|Coldeven 11]], is particularly sacred to Nerull.

==Artifacts==
Relics associated with dread Nerull include the ''[[Mace and Talisman of Krevell]]'', named for one of his most infamous priests.

==Myths and legends==
===Quadripartite===
When the [[Oerth]] was still young, beings from the [[Far Realm]] attempted to assert dominance over all reality. They sent minions to destroy the newly sentient, pre-human life that then lived on the surface of the world. Four gods rose to oppose this: [[Pelor]], [[Obad-Hai]], Nerull, and [[Kord]]. Pelor and Nerull had yet to form allegiances to Good or Evil in those days; they were most interested in maintaining the balance between Law and Chaos. Kord was just along for the sake of having something to fight. The four gods each sacrificed a part of their power to create an anchor that would sever the ties of the invaders to their unguessable masters, and so were able to defeat them.

===Nera===
In the lore of the 4th edition ''D&D'' game, a proud and beautiful sorcerer-queen died long ago, and her shade came before Nerull. Nerull was impressed by her power and loveliness, and gave her soul substance so that she could be his consort and queen. Her original name is no longer remembered, but Nerull called her Nera, the feminine form of his own name. In the "core" 4th edition game, Nera killed Nerull and overthrew him centuries ago, calling herself the Raven Queen and becoming the new goddess of death, but in the [[Greyhawk]] setting this doesn't seem to have happened yet, if it ever will. (''Divine Power'', 43)

===The First Shroud===
According to the 4th edition accessory ''Underdark'', the race of [[incunabula]] came into being when the swaddling grave clothes of a child of Nerull were wrapped around the original incunabula ancestor. Who the child's mother was went unmentioned, though it may well have been Nera. (''Underdark'', 126)

===Obad-hai and the coming of winter===
In the litanies of the [[Old Faith]], it is Nerull who ushers in the winter chill every year by slaying Obad-hai, the god of nature, and hanging the corpse from the tree that grew the fruit from which Obad-hai was born. After seven days, [[Pelor]] cuts Obad-hai from the tree and plants them in the earth. [[Beory]]'s tears cause a new sapling to grow, which forms a fruit from which Obad-hai is reborn in the spring.

==Gallery==
[[Image:Nerull00.jpg]]
[[Image:Nerull03.jpg]]
[[Image:Priest of Nerull.jpg]]
[[Image:Priest of Nerull02.jpg]]

==Bibliography==
[[Image:Nerull02.jpg|right]]
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==External links==
*[http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=826 "Gods of the Flanaess: Nerull" at ''Canonfire!''].

*[http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=749 Nerull at ''Canonfire!''].

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerull Nerull at Wikipedia].


[[Category:Characters of Carceri]]
[[Category:Death gods]]
[[Category:Gods of cold]]
[[Category:Gods of darkness]]
[[Category:Gods of murder]]
[[Category:Flan deities]]
[[Category:Human deities]]
[[Category:Seasonal deities]]
[[Category:Undead deities]]