Samael

Samael is the embodiment of absolute evil without regard to law or chaos. His titles include The Grim Reaper and Death, and The Enemy. He exists as the absolute ruler of The Gray Wastes of Hades, nightshades, and shadows. He grants his clerics the domain of Death.

Samael has been known and feared under many different names since time immemorial. He is revered by some hermits, outlanders, sages, and soldiers who believe in an end to things.

Discovery
Samael appears on the prime material plane more often than any other primordial being. As such, he was always assumed to be ancient but his nature as an extra-planar being was missed. Indeed, his ability to be in many places at once should suggest some extent of his considerable power. As the Consensus came to terms with the true nature of the planes, Samael's nature also became apparent. Most gods of death and the undead are now considered to be different aspects of him. The ascended god Vecna is considered to have been possessed by him.

Appearance
Samael's avatar has never been seen in Hades. Presumably he inhabits the deepest reaches composed of pure negative energy. Those few explorers hardy enough to reach those depths have only every reported an almost irresistible desire to die in the darkness that there defies normal understanding of time and space. More often than not, Samael's avatar stalks the prime material plane invisible and silent but those who can see the invisible have reported him appearing as an animated skeleton of considerable height with glowing red eyes. The figure is usually seen wearing black robes or armor, carrying a powerful scythe which he uses to reap the souls of the living, and is sometimes seen with large bony wings. When he needs to appear human, he usually appears to be an extremely thin and pale hairless man. His symbol is the top of a square with a single vertical line bisecting to its center, the same as Hades. His followers sometimes use the skulls of their animal or humanoid sacrifices as an icon for him. His clerics wear items of purple on dark often tattered clothing and carry a small vial of their own blood as a spellcasting focus. As a result of this blood letting, they tend to sport various scars hidden under their clothing.

Worship
Samael demands a level of nihilism and single-minded devotion to destruction from his followers that few other than monsters and the thoroughly insane find attractive. Worship of him is reversed in that it entails denigrating the belief of others, rather than celebrating their own dark god. After slaughtering creatures in sacrifice to Samael, they will defile icons of the gods of those they kill, sometimes replacing their heads with skulls or graffitiing them with blood and refuse of the murdered.