Skoteinos

[Phonetic]

Basic Information

• Name: Skoteinas
• Domain: Shadows, Thieves, Secrets
• Title: The Shadow Walker, The Silent Whisper, The Hidden Blade
• Alignment: Chaotic Void
• Symbol: A shadowy figure holding a dagger, with a crescent moon in the background
• Primary Worship Area: Thieves’ guilds, secret societies, shadowy alleyways, and hidden sanctuaries

Physical Description

• Appearance:

Skoteinas is depicted as a shadowy, enigmatic figure. Her form is often indistinct, blending seamlessly with the darkness around her. Her skin is a deep, shadowy black, almost as if made of the night itself, and her eyes are piercing, glowing slits that cut through the darkness. She wears a cloak that seems to merge with the shadows, making her nearly invisible when she moves. Her movements are fluid and silent, like a wisp of smoke drifting through the air. Skoteinas carries a pair of daggers that shimmer with a dark, ethereal light.

• Height: 168cm
• Weight: 68kg
• Distinguishing Features: His most notable features are his piercing glowing eyes, and the cloak that merges with the darkness.

Personality

• Traits: Secretive, cunning, honourable, enigmatic, loyal to those who understand her rules.
• Strengths: Absolute mastery over concealment, misdirection, and stealth. Can pass unseen in any darkness, knows truths hidden even from other gods, and empowers mortals who operate in secrecy with cunning and grace.
• Weaknesses: Struggles to form trust even with allies, often acts alone; her sense of honour is arcane and misunderstood, making her unreliable to those who don’t know her ‘code’. Deeply fears becoming what she was born from—Zilev’s corruption.
• Goals and Motivations: To protect the forgotten, outcast, and unseen; to ensure that secrets, when kept, serve purpose rather than decay; and to preserve the sanctity of autonomy in a world dominated by power and control.

Relationships

Family:

• Alache: Father/ Progenitor, While not a father in the traditional sense, Skoteinas shares a deep, spiritual bond with Alache. She views him with both reverence and sorrow—grateful for her creation, but burdened by the pain that birthed her. They rarely speak, but when they do, it is beneath starlight in moments of quiet understanding.
• Zilev: Mother/ Progenitor, Though not her mother in blood or form, Zilev’s poison is her genesis. Skoteinas resents her and fears becoming her. Their rare encounters are like daggers behind silk—calm, cruel, and filled with hidden threats.

Rivals/Enemies:

• Gahrian: A rivalry born not of conflicting domains, but of unjust judgement. She does not oppose his light, nor his pursuit of justice. But he sees only what shines—never what hides for good reason. His suspicion is ceaseless, his gaze heavy, a constant reminder of the mistrust the broader pantheon has of her.
• Zilev: Though not her mother in truth, Zilev claims her as a creation and seeks to reclaim her. Skoteinas despises this possessiveness. To her, Zilev is a lingering poison—one she has rejected utterly.
• Mercio: Their enmity is philosophical as much as personal. Mercio views Skoteinas as a corrupting force, a disruptor of his golden order. Skoteinas, in turn, sees Mercio as a tyrant cloaked in refinement—an oppressor who hides greed behind civility.

Attitude towards Mortals: Skoteinas does not demand worship—she rewards loyalty, cunning, and those who uphold her ideals in the shadows. To the desperate, the hunted, the secret-keepers, she is a silent saviour. She protects those who live unseen, especially when their secrecy is a form of survival. However, betrayal is the one sin she does not forgive.

Mythology and Worship

• Creation Myth:

In the ancient epochs of Staterum, when humanity was still finding it’s place within the world, a shadow fell upon Alache, God the night. This shadow was born not of his own essence but was cast by the insidious whisperings of Zilev, the Vice of Envy and Trickery. Zilev, driven by her own covetous nature, saw in Alache’s dominion over the night a power ripe for manipulation. She whispered venomous tales into Alache’s ear, tales that twisted his perception, inflaming a deep-seated envy towards his brother Gahrian, whose radiance was celebrated by mortals and deities alike.

As Alache’s heart darkened under the weight of these deceitful seeds, his dominion over the night began to wane, turning each shadow into a haven for danger and each whisper into a potential betrayal. The balance of night and day, so crucial to the harmony of Staterum, teetered on the brink of collapse.

Statera, the goddess of balance and harmony, witnessed the growing turmoil within her uncle. With a heart both wise and compassionate, she intervened, enlisting Gahrian in a bid to save Alache from the clutches of corruption. Together, they confronted Alache, a meeting charged with tension and the echoing sadness of betrayal.

In the climax of their confrontation, as Zilev sensed her influence waning, she made a desperate attempt to possess Alache, seeking to convert his divine essence into a vessel of her own dark ambitions. But the combined presence of Statera and Gahrian, coupled with Alache’s burgeoning realization of the deceit he had been subjected to, catalyzed a profound transformation within him. In a moment of lucid defiance, Alache expelled the poisonous envy that Zilev had infused within him. Alache bid Gahrian strike him with his heavenly blade, and from this wound Alache drained the poison from his blood.

This expelled essence, charged with the dark energies of deceit and envy yet no longer bound by them, coalesced into a new form—Skoteinas, the Goddess of Shadows, Thieves, and Secrets. Born from the darkest emotions but shaped by the cleansing intentions of her progenitor, Skoteinas emerged as a complex deity. Her essence intertwined the hidden depths of shadow with the cunning necessary to navigate and protect them.

• Major Cults and Religious Practices: Skoteinas is rarely worshipped publicly. Her cults operate from behind veils, under false names, or as embedded agents in larger systems. The most notable is The Shadowed Veil, a clandestine network that spans thieves’ guilds, informant rings, and underground movements. Its members follow a moral code based on discretion, loyalty, and honour among the hidden.
• Festivals: What festivals dedicated to her a mysterious and closely guarded secrets.
• Clergy and Temples: There are no traditional temples to Skoteinas. Her followers in The Shadowed Veil, do not wear robes or display divine power openly. They are informants, assassins, spies, and keepers of hidden truths. The most devoted can hear her whispers in pitch-dark rooms or feel her guiding hand during a close escape.

Significant Historical Impact

• Major Plot Points in World History:
  • Initially, Skoteinas walked a path marred by her origins, her actions echoing the trickery and deceit from which she was born. Yet, over time, her narrative evolved as she grew into a protector of those who dwell in the shadows, guiding thieves towards honor among outcasts and keeping secrets not for malice but as a guardian of confidentiality.
• Artifacts:
  • Eyes of the Veiled Moon: A twin set of jet-black rings that allow their bearer to see through magical concealment, lies, or darkness.
  • The Eclipse Blades: Twin daggers that are said to bypass any armour to strike true against their foe.

Quotes

”Anarchy! Anarchy! I don’t even know what that means but I love it!”

Cultural Reverence

Ratfolk of the Paloto Swamplands

Among the Ratfolk, Skoteinas is more than a shadowy myth—she is a revered guardian of survival, cunning, and silent integrity. One of the most prominent sects within Ratfolk culture, the Shadow Scurriers, is devoted to her worship. Though often viewed with suspicion by outsiders (and even some within their own kind), the Scurrers strive to embody the highest ideals of Skoteinas: loyalty among the hidden, honor without visibility, and the quiet protection of the desperate.

Riben

In Riben, where open religious practice is met with disdain and the upper echelons of society pride themselves on strict order and material dominance, Skoteinas is not merely disliked—she is reviled. To the elite, she represents the embodiment of subversion: a faceless force who empowers the lowborn to move unseen, to take what they “do not deserve,” and to question the very foundations of Ribenese control. She is often painted in propaganda as a seductress of chaos—a trickster who stirs rebellion in the hearts of the poor and whispers treachery into the ears of servants. Yet, despite these efforts, her symbols still appear in alleyway carvings, passed hand to hand on faded tokens, or marked subtly in the patterns of stolen coin. For the disenfranchised of Riben, she remains a symbol of quiet resistance and the hope that power can be reclaimed in silence, not spectacle.