Characters / Codex Equus The Four Terrors

Here is a list of tropes pertaining to the Four Terrors, the surviving loyal children of Temnobog.

To return to the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon's page, click here.

To return to the main character index, click here.

---

The Four Terrors

Classification: Elemental/Ethereal

Portfolio: Depravity, Misery, Excess, Violence, Evil

Rank: Divine (Tier III/Intermediate)

"We hope we did our father proud!"

The Four Terrors (their group entry here) are the infernal hybrid divine children of Temnobog, the Bogolenya Deer God of Suffering, Evil, and Darkness, and Ispita, the Draconequus Spirit of Temptation. Despite their nature as Evil deities, they are unique in that they are directly related to the "Evil" half of the god who could have sired them. Long before the Four Terrors were born, their paternal grandfather, High King Irminsul, used a divine purification ritual on his then-unborn son to erase his flaws in a well-meaning yet foolish and arrogant attempt to create a god that embodied all that is good in mortal Deerkind. This resulted in the birth of Belyolen and Temnobog, and the twins' bisected existence would have a profound effect on whatever children they would have. When Temnobog decided to settle down with Ispita, then a "good" Draconequus goddess who punished the wicked for giving into temptation, his innate Evil would ensure that the Four Terrors would be born dark and corrupted as him, their remaining good traits and the concepts they embodied twisted irrevocably by their own natures.

Originally, the Four Terrors were part of eight children, called the "Eight Terrors". Like their father, all eight of them practiced "constructive" Evil, testing the heroic strength and will of mortal Deerkind by committing horrific acts of evil. However, when Ispita sided with Discord and betrayed her own principles to become a Fallen goddess, her relationship with Temnobog fell apart, and she drove half of her hybrid children into following the philosophy of "diabolical/careless" Evil. The actions of these four nameless children would cause Temnobog to punish them in accordance to his beliefs - two of them were devoured and sealed away in his stomach for siding with Ispita, while the other two were reduced to immortal playthings for the Four Terrors as punishment for committing unspeakable crimes, their powers and identities stripped away.

The family schism would greatly traumatize each of the Four Terrors, who would briefly fall one by one to the "darker" sides of their Evil domains, and leave behind death, destruction, and suffering in their wake. However, thanks to the efforts of Temnobog, their uncle Belyolen, and other deities of the Bogolenya Deer pantheon, the Four Terrors would gradually recover in their own ways and return to normal. Nowadays, they continue their divine duties as the sowers of Evil and tester of heroes, though their experiences with Ispita have left them with an undying grudge against their Fallen mother, each of them wishing to punish her for what she had done to them and others based on their own portfolios.

The Four Terrors consist of Pokhot, the Damsel of Desire; Phykti, the Baroness of Torment; Bolezn, the Master of Pestilence; and Yarost, the oldest of Temnobog's children and the Prince of Murder. Due to their roles, they are feared yet respected and welcomed by their mortal worshipers among the Erobreseg Deer herds, who live in harsh, unforgiving lands and thus need to be tested in order to stay physically, mentally, and morally strong to oppose Evil. Outside of their roles, the Four Terrors are quite amicable people who are tolerated/treated like family by their fellow Bogolenya deities, including their own great-cousins, Zmluva, Medik, and Mentálne, who understand what they do and hold no ill will for it. And despite their Evil natures, the Four Terrors are fond of Golden Scepter, an antediluvian Alicorn Emperor who met Temnobog during one of his travels across Equus, and treated him kindly. It's because of this that the Four Terrors would closely interact with Golden Scepter's nineteen demi-divine sons years later, just as their own fathers had done.

While it is not known what the birth order is, due to the absence and erasure of their four genuinely evil siblings, Yarost is the oldest son and child, while Phykti is the oldest daughter. Bolezn, meanwhile, is the second-youngest son, and Pokhot is the youngest daughter and child.

---

General

• Abusive Parents: Subverted. Like their father, Temnobog, they would sire children of their own with many Deer and non-Deer (or sometimes each other), and encourage their children's inner evil as per their nature. However, aside from that, they are respectful and loving parents who praise their children for their accomplishments. Many of their sons and daughters, collectively known as the Deti Uzhasov, deeply love their parents back and follow their beliefs and ideals as a result.
• Affably Evil: Justified. Despite being children of the living embodiment of mortal Deerkind's inner Evil, all members of the Four Terrors have good traits that humanize them and make them well-rounded individuals with thoughts, behaviors, and emotions of their own, despite their own inner Evil. This is because their grandfather, High King Irminsul, tried purging his then-unborn son's flaws in a well-meaning yet foolish and selfish attempt to make him a God of Good, causing his son to split in the womb and be born as Belyolen and Temnobog. As a result, when Temnobog had a family of his own years later, his children's inner Evil would pervert and twist whatever good traits they had. Golden Scepter treating Temnobog and his children kindly during the former's stay in the Bogolenya Deer pantheon would endear the Four Terrors to him, leading to them interacting closely with Golden Scepter's nineteen demi-divine sons years later.
• Animal Motifs: All of the Terrors' chimeric traits were based on what sins they embodied.
  • Yarost's chimeric traits are based around bloodthirsty and dangerous animals that maim and kill their victims viciously, such as dragons, wolverines, hawks, wolves, sharks, and (ironically) dinosaurs.
  • Phykti's chimeric traits are based around poisonous animals that inflict pain and suffering with their venom, such as snakes, scorpions hooded pitohui birds, salamanders, and poison dart frogs.
  • Bolezn's chimeric traits are based around animals that are treated as gluttonous pests and harbingers of diseases, such as locusts, cockroaches, centipedes, and flies. In addition, he has maggots living in his body.
  • Pokhot's chimeric traits are based around "beautiful" yet deadly predators such as spiders, Arctic foxes, Margay cats, and shrikes.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Justified. While they're pretty evil themselves, they're constructively Evil deities who seek to test mortals and make them strong enough to oppose Evil. Their mother, Ispita, was once like them but became a Fallen goddess and thus, in her children's eyes, she not only betrayed them as their mother, she also became no different than those who practice "careless" Evil. Both the Terrors and Temnobog now hate her, and their father's standing order for Ispita and other beings like her is essentially "Kill on Sight".
• Brother–Sister Team: The Four Terrors consist of two brothers and two sisters working together to test heroic mortals by committing horrific acts of evil.
• Card-Carrying Villain: All of the Four Terrors openly embrace their role as constructive evil, testing the heroic resolve of mortals so they would be strong enough to oppose various evildoers, and don't even hide the fact that they're doing horrible things to maintain the balance of Good and Evil.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Played with. Much like their father, Temnobog, the Four Terrors exist so they can uphold the Balance of Equus, and test the heroic strength and will of mortals with evil and suffering. Despite their roles, they ultimately mean well, and they drag souls of the wicked into Temnobog's domain (as well as their own domains) so they can be tortured for eternity. That being said, while the Bogolenya deities accept them as family, they are rightfully feared because of their horrific actions.
• Deal with the Devil: Much like Temnobog, they specialize in this, too, granting boons to those who summon them in exchange for a certain price. And like Temnobog, dealing with the Terrors is a sign of moral weakness that would surely condemn them to eternal punishment in their hell-fiefs after death.
• Divine Conflict: They are utterly opposed to Ispita and her Draconequus children, who are their half-siblings, both because her betrayal destroyed their family and because she betrayed her own principles as a "constructive" Evil goddess and Fell to follow "careless" Evil that would destroy Equus if left unchecked. In the Terrors' eyes, this made their mother no better than the mortals she used to punish, and constantly work to kill her.
• The Dreaded: They are feared by mortal Deerkind, second only to Temnobog himself; for reference, the lands they touch and raze remain accursed and forbidden generations later. However, they are also respected, especially by the Erobreseg Deer herds, who understand the necessity of being morally tested and use the Terrors as prime examples of why Good Needs Evil.
• Embodiment of Vice: Each Terror embodies a pair of sins, due to each being a reflection of mortal failings. In the eyes of Erobreseg Deer herds and Temnoist followers, this is a good thing, as the existence of sin and vice motivates heroic individuals to stay heroic.
  • Pokhot represents Deerkind's lust and pride. Much like how Deerkind would both desire and indulge themselves in things to an unhealthy degree, she strokes the egos of her victims and seduces them into sinful excess.
  • Phykti represents Deerkind's cruelty and despair. Much like how Deerkind would abuse and sabotage their peers out of sheer spite and/or amusement, she constantly devises ways to break her victims so she could get the maximum amount of suffering from them.
  • Bolezn represents Deerkind's gluttony and greed. Much like how Deerkind has the tendency to selfishly hoard and/or consume material and abstract goods, he masterminds catastrophic schemes that lead to the ruin of entire Deer realms so his thirst for sinful souls and wealth would be satisfied.
  • Yarost represents Deerkind's fury and hatred. Much like how Deerkind would destroy things during moments of anger and hold grudges out of pettiness, he is an extremely bloodthirsty deity who desires nothing than to bathe the lands in blood and carnage. Ironically, he tries to restrain himself by being The Stoic outside of work, but it's also related to another aspect of Fury - that of mortal Deer hiding their worst traits with carefully-crafted facades.
• The Empath: All of the Terrors inherited this power from Temnobog, except they use it to tempt mortal Deerkind into indulging in the sins they each embody - Yarost tries to stoke his victims' inner Fury and Hatred, Bolezn tries to encourage people into becoming hoarders/consumers of material things, while Phykti uses her empathy to try make people as cruel as she is and even make them realize that they secretly do enjoy being cruel. Pokhot uses her empathy to stroke people's egos, inflating them to unhealthy degrees, while making them lust after both material and abstract objects, including herself.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Despite being Evil deities who embody each facet of mortal Deerkind's flawed nature, they're still individuals with thoughts and desires of their own. They love each other, their father, and their relatives dearly, and, as shown with their interactions with Golden Scepter and his sons, this applies to their friends as well.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Played straight with their adoration of Temnobog, their biological father. They each want to make him proud, and proceed to do so by punishing the wicked and orchestrating catastrophic incidents of Evil so they could weed out genuinely wicked individuals from the genuinely heroic.
  • They also love and respect each other as siblings. While their love is twisted by their innate evil and horrifying by both mortal and divine standards, they actually behave like a loving family.
  • Deconstructed with Ispita and their four lost siblings. It's gradually revealed that the Four Terrors dearly loved their mother and siblings, despite all of them being evil by nature. But after Ispita betrayed her role as a "constructive" Evil goddess and became a Fallen deity, the incident and the resulting schism was noted to have traumatic effects on those children who survived because the betrayal came from one they loved and trusted the most. Notably, Yarost became a psychological wreck for a while after immersing himself in so much fury and hatred in a vain attempt to bury his grief, while Bolezn attempted to keep his grief a secret so he wouldn't incur his family's wrath, but fortunately Temnobog caught him before it got worse. It's even noted in Bolezn's entry that had he not learned what would happen to Equus if "careless" Evil was left unchecked, he would've sided with Ispita and his elder twin sibling in a heartbeat.
  • They also love their own children, the Deti Uzhasov. Despite encouraging their children's evil as per their nature and participating in various depravities with them, all of the Terrors love them in their on ways. In turn, their children love them back.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Justified. The Four Terrors practice the philosophy of "constructive" Evil, and because of this, there are certain limits that they adamantly avoid. The biggest limit everyone avoid is practicing "careless/destructive Evil", since that would lead to not only Equus' destruction, but also itself.
• Evil Counterpart: Radost's entry reveals that the Four Terrors are this to the Four Comforts, the children of Belyolen. While the Four Terrors embody vices and the 'constructively evil' sides of all concepts, the Four Comforts embody virtues and the 'constructively good' sides of all concepts. And while the Four Terrors tempt mortals into sin and damn those who don't change, the Four Comforts save, protect, and inspire those they can reach. It's justified as both the Comforts and Terrors are children of Belyolen and Temnobog, who are the living halves of High King Bogolenya, who was divided in the womb and killed by High King Irminsul in his attempt to make his son completely benevolent and without flaws.
• Evil Nephew: Played with. The Four Terrors are Belyolen's nieces and nephews by virtue of their father being Belyolen's younger twin brother and the Bogolenya Deer pantheon's resident God of Evil. But in spite of their evil, the Four Terrors are just as feared and respected as Temnobog himself because of their constructive use of evil, and Belyolen still loves them like family all the same. Their other siblings, on the other hand, are straighter examples, since they were genuinely evil and were punished for their deeds.
• Evil Versus Evil: Like their father, Temnobog, they oppose those who see evil as "freedom from restraints" since that kind of evil will eventually destroy Equus and possibly the universe. This is also why they hate their Draconequus mother, Ispita, for becoming a Fallen goddess. To them, she became no different than the wicked mortals she used to torment. Their various demon servants, warriors, and Ascended champions also oppose "careless" Evil, and will hunt down anyone who betrays their role as testing forces to participate in it.
• Four Is Death: They're called the Four Terrors. When Temnobog sends them to a Deer kingdom, it means that said kingdom is utterly irredeemable and must be punished for its people's actions.
• God of Evil:
  • Subverted with them. Much like Temnobog, their father, the Four Terrors are unapologetic about what they do, yet they see evil and suffering as forces that test heroic mortals, and commit horrific acts to ensure that the mortals are strong enough to oppose evildoers, including them. They don't care if they lose against the heroes or not, so as long as they're doing their job. Outside of work, they're amicable people with good and benevolent traits of their own, even though said traits are irrevocably corrupted and twisted by their inner Evil.
  • Their four other siblings play it straight, however - two sided with their fallen mother, Ispita, and were devoured by Temnobog. The other two committed crimes so heinous that they were stripped of their powers and names, and turned into their family's eternal playthings.
• Godzilla Threshold: In-Universe, the Four Terrors are regarded as this. In Deer culture, the presence of the Four Terrors in a kingdom is a sign that said kingdom has become utterly irredeemable. While the good people are evacuated by Belyolen and the other Bogolenya gods, Temnobog would send his children, the Four Terrors, to obliterate the fallen kingdom and collect the wicked souls, leaving nothing behind. Because the results of the Four Terrors' actions are so horrific, "Calling the Terrors" is naturally labeled an absolute last resort, and mentioning them is usually enough to make sinful Deer atone for their ways.
• Graceful Loser: They're totally fine with losing against a hero because like Temnobog, they believe that evil and suffering exist to test good-minded people, so it's all part of the job. Some people believe that this trope actually makes them even more dangerous than the villains they drag to their father's domain.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Belyolen knows the Terrors would be ostracized by other deities, especially the Elternteil Deer Pantheon, for being "bastard" hybrids on top of being Evil deities like their father, Temnobog, who's also his brother. This is why he tries to keep his parents and other siblings away from his nieces and nephews so the harmful attitudes wouldn't affect them. In one such incident where it did happen, Irminsul said horrible things about them during a heated argument with Belyolen and Temnobog. Golden Scepter overheard this, and flew into such a rage that he deeply terrified the High King by revealing his true divine form, and giving him a vicious "The Reason You Suck" Speech. Irminsul now avoids visiting the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon out of fear of bumping into Golden Scepter again because of this.
• Intergenerational Friendship: The Four Terrors are Tier III-ranked gods and goddesses of Evil, while Golden Scepter's nineteen sons are all Alicorn demigods, the equivalent of infant deities by divine standards. They would both end up closely interacting with each other after their fathers became good friends, though Golden Scepter's sons initially were weirded out by the Four Terrors' Evil Natures before they slowly warmed up to them
• Interspecies Friendship: The Four Terrors are divine Deer-Draconequus hybrids who sow Evil for constructive purposes. They are friends of Golden Scepter's nineteen sons, who are Alicorn demigods. They ended up interacting closely together because their fathers befriended each other despite being as different as night and day, with Pokhot being fond of testing the Terran Princes with "games" of temptation. It's mentioned that some of Golden Scepter's sons are weirded out by the Four Terrors due to their Evil natures, but have slowly warmed up to them.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Played with. Out of Temnobog's eight children, only the Four Terrors followed his philosophy on evil and suffering as necessary forces to balance out good and happiness. The other four were genuinely evil and were severely punished for it — two were eaten, while the other two were turned into nameless playthings.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Being half-Draconequus, all of them are divine Deer with chimeric traits from other animals, with said traits usually referring to their divine portfolios.
• Noble Demon: Like their father, the Four Terrors follow the philosophy that evil and suffering are necessary to maintain the Balance and counteract good and happiness. So they commit horrific acts of evil that normally would have gotten them wiped off the face of Equus many times over. They're even willing to restrain themselves and/or sabotage their subordinates efforts if they're being too good at being evil, so the heroes will be given a chance to succeed.
• Odd Friendship: It's mentioned that during one of his adventures across Equus, Golden Scepter would come across the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon and strike a friendly rapport with Temnobog by treating him kindly, which would naturally endear him to the Four Terrors. Golden Scepter's own sons would find extremely odd due to him being a holy and pure god while his friends are a bunch of Evil gods. This trope is partially the reason why Pokhot enjoys playing "games" of temptation with Golden Scepter's sons — in her eyes, she's being friendly to the children of an ancient god who befriended her father despite their differences. It's also rumored In-Universe that the Four Terrors' friendship with Golden Scepter was what led to them helping him create the first Terran Chapterknights.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: As "constructive" Evil deities, they follow this philosophy just like their father, dishing out punishments towards the wicked and others they have successfully tempted, as giving in to sin leads to eternal damnation unless one successfully resists being tempted.
  • When a group of fanatical and morally puristic divine followers of Poena tried and failed at killing the Terrors in addition to assassinating Temnobog, the Terrors gleefully took part in their father's punishing of them, with Belyolen's full permission.
• The Problem with Fighting Death: As shown with Night Terror's story, trying to avoid the Terrors is a bad thing to do, with their punishments usually becoming worse for it. This especially applies to Yarost, who hates oath-breakers.
• Red Baron: Pokhot is the "Damsel of Desire", Phykti is the "Baroness of Torment", Bolezn is the "Master of Pestilence", and Yarost is the "Prince of Murder". Collectively, though, they're known as the "Four Terrors" due to always working together in fours.
• Secret Test of Character: Much like their father, a lot of the Four Terrors' deeds is to test the heroic strength and will of mortals. Whoever manage to resist their efforts earn their respect, while those who fail are dragged to Temnobog's home to be tortured for eternity. Even fighting the Four Terrors themselves is considered a test in itself, as succeeding in defeating them means that a hero managed to overcome their trials and become strong enough to oppose evil. If the heroes die in the process, the Terrors give them their respect and let their souls go to heaven, instead of dragging them down to hell to be tormented unjustly like other evil gods do. However, if the Terrors discover that they're being too good at being evil, then they're willing to be relenting and even sabotage their subordinates' efforts so the heroes will not end up failing a test that's too hard to complete.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Zigzagged.
  • While the Four Terrors could normally be called "evil" due to their horrific actions, they actually exist to test heroic mortals so they'll be strong enough to protect Equus from evildoers, so deep down, they mean well. Their other siblings, however, were either treacherous beings who sided with their fallen mother, Ispita, or they committed crimes so heinous that they were eternally condemned by Temnobog to be the Four Terrors' playthings.
  • On the other hand, the Four Terrors could be contrasts for each other. Pokhot lures in wicked Deer by seducing them and appealing to their baser lusts, allowing her to trap them in excess and hedonism, while her sister Phykti is an open sadist who outright physically and mentally tortures people. Bolezn is the nicest and most modest of the Four Terrors, but he is also a schemer who thinks of ways to bring as many wicked souls as he could to satisfy his own gluttony, while Yarost is an extreme Blood Knight who likes nothing more than to bathe a Deer realm in blood and carnage when not being The Stoic.
• Soiled City on a Hill: What happens after the Terrors visit a particularly depraved kingdom - the Terrors unleash all the horrors upon wicked Deer for their sins that everything, including the buildings and the surrounding lands, are reduced to nothing but charred spots that remain that way even after several generations. This trope is part of the Terrors' job of punishing the wicked, but it's only if a place has become completely irredeemable that the other Bogolenya deities let them handle it.
• Token Evil Teammate: Much like their father, Temnobog, the Terrors stand out in the Bogolenya pantheon because they're unapologetically evil and indulge in depravities that would understandably horrify anyone. However, the Terrors are loyal to their father and, by extension, the Bogolenya pantheon, and they use their evil for constructive purposes. The Bogolenya deities also use them as a method to purge the evil from mortal Deerkind and help guide them onto a better path, but what they do is so horrifying that they're treated as an absolute last resort - only unrepentant Deer realms would earn the honor of being visited by the Terrors. However, compared to their four other siblings, who were genuinely evil and treacherous, they're decent people.
• Tragic Villain:
  • Despite being unapologetically evil deities, the Terrors are still people with their own thoughts and feelings, and can still be hurt emotionally like any other person. Ispita's betrayal and the loss of their four siblings hit them all hard, resulting in them snapping and doing things related to the sins they embody to unhealthy degrees until their family helps them recover.
    • Yarost used his fury to mask the fact that he is actually grieving for the loss of his mother and four lost siblings, and went on an extremely violent rampage where he left behind a trail of destruction and death in both mortal and divine realms. When he was finally confronted and stopped, he proceeded to burn himself out and suffer an emotional breakdown that took a while for him to recover from.
    • Phykti would furiously torture the damned souls in her hell-fief so she could derive satisfaction from their suffering and make herself feel better. This would lead to her ignoring Yarost's emotional problems until he snapped, leading to his rampage. She later felt so guilty over what she had done that when she visited Temnobog, she was so depressed that she lay herself on a couch and didn't want to get up.
    • Bolezn felt saddened over losing his mother and four of his siblings, knowing that they deserved to be punished, yet he couldn't understand why they were punished despite being "evil" themselves. He would keep his feelings on the matter a secret for fear of how his family would react, and presumably, like his surviving siblings, he dealt with this by indulging in his inner evil, consuming everything he could find.
    • Pokhot felt alienated around even her own family because she resembled Ispita the most in terms of personality, causing her to fear that she might be persecuted by proxy. It didn't help that some mortals would compare her to her Fallen mother out of ignorance. She initially tried separating herself from Ispita by completely restraining her darkest urges, but it backfired when her control lapsed and she sneaked off to the mortal realms to participate in a massive orgy, which led to an emotional breakdown once she realized what she had done. And when Yarost and Temnobog brought her back home, she would angrily lash out at her family, accusing them of treating her less like her own person and more as her mother's clone.
  • It's noted in their entries that if their grandfather, Irminsul, had not tried purging his then-unborn son of his inner evil, the Terrors would instead become benevolent deities who embody the positive aspects of their current portfolios (a brave and heroic commander, a gentle and encouraging psychologist, an intelligent and inventive scientist, and an imaginative and creative artist). Now, as the children of the divine embodiment of mortal Deerkind's Evil, their portfolios are twisted and corrupted into extremes because of Irminsul's actions. Learning of this even devastates Pokhot to the point where she made a critically-acclaimed yet extremely tragic play, and was later found crying in her dressing room by Belyolen and Temnobog.
• Undying Loyalty: They're loyal to their father, Temnobog, who they adore, and carry out his will in testing heroic mortals. They're also loyal to each other.
• Villainous Lineage: Justified. Iriminsul's well-meaning yet foolish and vicariously selfish attempt to turn his then-unborn son into a God of Good by magically purifying him of his inner Evil resulted in the birth of divine twins, Belyolen and Temnobog. Because of this, whatever children they would have would be affected by their parents' natures - in Temnobog's case, being the living embodiment of mortal Deerkind's worst traits would irrevocably corrupt and twist the Four Terrors' remaining good traits and ruin their potential of what they could've been instead. Pokhot discovering this part of Temnobog's history would both motivate her to create a play based on her and her father's life, and cause her to break down sobbing afterwards, as she was traumatized by the fact that she and her immediate family came to be because their grandfather harmed his unborn son with his incredibly twisted ideas of perfection.
• Villain Respect: All of them respect those heroes who died trying to fight them off, and allow them to claim their rewards in the afterlife.
• Warrior Prince: Bolezn and Yarost are Temnobog's loyal surviving sons and powerful deities themselves, and are both known to manifest as villains for the heroes to fight. It's prominent with Yarost, who is a Blood Knight that embodies Deerkind's wrath and hatred, and his epithet is "Prince of Murder". And as sons of one of the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon's co-leaders, their standing in that pantheon is akin to royalty.
• Would Hurt a Child: On the receiving end of this when a hotblooded group of Poena's divine allies tried to kill them on their second attempt to assassinate Temnobog. Fortunately, they were stopped. The Terrors would then gleefully join their father in punishing the offenders, with Belyolen's full permission.
• Wowing Cthulhu: Pokhot and Phykti were both impressed by how Alragbah tormented a poor couple who sought to sell their daughters into slavery to escape poverty.

Yarost, the Prince of Murder

Classification: Elemental/Ethereal

Portfolio: Fury, Hatred, War, Bloodshed, Evil

Rank: Divine (Tier III/Intermediate)

"Spill their blood! Offer me their souls! Blood and souls for Yarost!"

Yarost (his entry here) is the Deer-Draconequus god of Fury, Hatred, War, Bloodshed, and Evil, and the eldest son and child of Temnobog.

Like the rest of the Four Terrors, Yarost is the embodiment of Deerkind's mortal failings, more specifically the sins of wrath and hatred, and it's his role as a Constructively Evil deity to tempt mortals into embracing to these emotions, punishing those who did gave in while acting as an adversary to be challenged by those who did not.

Within his heart burns a fury and boils a bloodlust that ever seeks to drown the lands of the Erobreseg Deer, if not the whole mortal world in blood and war. And once he almost did, when the mother and siblings whom he loved fell and embraced Destructive Evil, leaving him heartbroken as the other Four Terrors and Temnobog was. In fact, his sorrow grew into pure rage and hatred that made him seek and stoke war and conflict on epic scales in his desperation to forget his pain. When he was finally stopped by his father and his other Divine relatives, only then did he break down and begin to recover from his heartbreak.

Since then, Yarost remained a steadfast member of the Four Terrors and his father's cause of Constructive Evil, though his dark time of aimless, despairing fury left a mark on him, making him realize that to fully pursue his self-anointed duty and let his evil nature run without destroying all, he too must learn to rein in his murderous impulses. Though as all knew, even restrained, he is a force of damnation and carnage to be reckoned with, and whenever his hate and rage are unleashed, few things can stand before the Prince of Murder.

---

• Animal Motifs: His chimeric traits are based around bloodthirsty and dangerous animals that maim and kill their victims viciously, such as dragons, wolverines, hawks, wolves, sharks, and (ironically) dinosaurs.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Justified. While he's pretty evil himself, he's a constructively Evil deity who seeks to test mortals and make them strong enough to oppose Evil. His mother, Ispita, was once like them but became a Fallen goddess and thus, in Yarost's eyes, she became no different than those who practice "careless" Evil. He follows without question his father's standing order for Ispita and other beings like her, which is essentially "Kill on Sight".
• Anthropomorphic Personification: He's a Deer-Draconequus god who embodies Fury, Hatred, War, Bloodshed, and Evil.
• Ax-Crazy: What he is once his stoicism comes off. His entry notes that when sowing Fury and Hatred among mortal Deer, he openly behaves like a spiteful, bloodthirsty monster that slaughters his victims indiscriminately and revels in the carnage he causes. This is to show people the consequences of fully giving into their anger without proper restraint, though it also caused them to rightly fear him, never knowing if Yarost is more dangerous when he's calm, or when he's outwardly angry.
• Battle Cry: Some of his mortal followers are known to shout certain battle-cries in tribute to him, which Princess Stitching Times and Emperor Golden Scepter both found strangely familiar...
  Yarost Cultist: BLOOD! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
• Beware My Stinger Tail: His chimeric tail is that of a clubbed dinosaur tail, which was said by his entry to have been "speculated to have come from a certain ancient species of club-tailed dinosaurs". When swung, his clubbed tail can shatter bones if it lands successfully. His entry also notes that his tail is a huge irony, since dinosaurs in Codex Equus are often associated with peace due to the Sauropodans, but it also speaks of their incredible potential for violence and destruction.
• Big Brother Instinct: He was noted to be a fiercely protective yet somewhat bossy older brother as a fawn, and would take charge of his younger siblings even if they didn't appreciate it. After losing his mother and four of his siblings, his protectiveness towards his surviving brothers and sisters had increased a little. Notably, when a disdainful deity from the Elternteil pantheon made Bolezn cry by calling him a "walking, talking trash can" among other things, Yarost was so angry that he literally went into a burning rage and pursued said deity, even managing the punch the deity in the face despite being stopped by the Bogolenya pantheon, which reportedly made Temnobog grin. He got away with it because Belyolen, though greatly displeased, admitted that if it was Temnobog who was insulted, he wouldn't hesitate to come to his brother's defense like Yarost did.
  Yarost: (to Belyolen) I would rather be tortured a thousand lifetimes than let my siblings be tormented even for one moment by those bastards who call themselves 'benevolent'.
• Blood Knight: Justified and exaggerated to horrific extremes; he's the living embodiment of Deerkind's Fury and Hatred, so being bloodthirsty and violent is in his nature. However, this was deconstructed in his youth - Ispita and his four nameless siblings betraying their roles as "constructive" Evil deities to follow "careless" Evil had left such an emotional impact on him that he willingly gave in to his own fury just to bury his grief. However, once Temnobog and his relatives were able to properly restrain him, Yarost's fury ran out, leading to an emotional breakdown that exposed him as a psychological wreck who just wanted his mother and lost siblings back. The trope would eventually be reconstructed as, with help from his family and relatives, Yarost would recover to some degree, except he would save his innate bloodthirstiness for when he's working to sow Evil among the Deer realms and tempt mortal Deer into giving in to their inner fury. Outside of work, however, he keeps his emotions on a tight leash with stoicism so he wouldn't repeat his past atrocities again. He does, however, participate in the carnage that the damned souls in his hell-fief are forced to endure as punishment, to the extreme horror of said souls and the excitement of his demon servants and Ascended champions
• Bloody Murder: He has some skill with blood magic, and can either use the blood of his victims, or his own blood. In the latter case, he must periodically drink blood in order to replenish his own reserves. He doesn't really use this as often as his fire magic, and only saves it for when his enemies think they've backed him into a corner.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Implied but unproven with Pokhot, whom Yarost is closest to as siblings and frequently spends time in her domain to 'have fun', which given Pokhot usually involves sex, drugs and other forms of 'taboo' depravity. Given their inherently evil and depraved natures and many instances of incest among gods and royalty throughout the ages, this was not considered too surprising, at least among their own worshipers.
• Burning with Anger: It's noted by his entry that he turns into a fiery stag whenever he gets fully angry, thanks to his fire magic. His stoicism means this doesn't happen often, however.
• Cain and Abel: As of late, he has an undying grudge against his Draconequus half-siblings that his mother, Ispita, sired with Discord, especially Zmatek, the King of Confusion, whom Yarost hates for siding with Ispita despite still harboring affection for the Terrors.
• The Comically Serious: Implied; it's mentioned that his stoicism often makes him the target of Phykti's puns. Apparently she finds his reactions hilarious.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was once a hot-tempered yet passionate fawn who deeply loved his mother and younger siblings, until Ispita betrayed her role and principles as an "constructive" Evil goddess by siding with Discord, and participating in "careless" Evil. Four of Yarost's siblings followed suit by either siding with Ispita, or committing extremely heinous crimes, after which Temnobog harshly punished them by eating two and turning the other two into nameless damned shades to be tormented for eternity. Yarost attempted to bury his grief by immersing himself in his own fury and hatred, and either participated in bloody wars and conflicts, or instigated them himself, until his father and relatives confronted him. Temnobog, having seen in his son the same emotions he felt when he became genuinely evil for a time, had Yarost restrained until his rage cooled down. Yarost had an emotional breakdown trying to free himself, exposing himself as a broken individual who cried for his mother and siblings, and it took for a while for him to recover since Mentálne wasn't born yet. Once he was in a better state of mind and saw the destruction he had wrought on the Deer realms, he was so horrified that he started reining in his own emotions with stoicism so he wouldn't repeat his actions again.
• Embodiment of Vice: Yarost represents Deerkind's Fury and Hatred. Much like how Deerkind would destroy things during moments of fury, he is an extremely bloodthirsty deity who desires nothing than to bathe the lands in blood and carnage. Ironically, he constantly tries to suppress his own darker urges by wearing a stoic facade outside of work, as the last (and only) time he gave in to his fury, he nearly devastated all the Deer realms and possibly the divine planes, too.
• Emotion Suppression: He constantly represses his emotions so he wouldn't give in to his darker urges - the last time he did, it was out of grief over losing Ispita and four of his siblings, which resulted in both the mortal and divine planes being devastated with destruction and death. He was so horrified that he resolved never to create a similar incident again, resulting in him becoming The Stoic outside of his duties.
• The Empath: Has inherited this power from Temnobog, who uses it to prolong Suffering. As the embodiment of Fury and Hatred, he uses his empathy to stoke these particular feelings among mortal Deer and tempt them into sin, in order to weed out the wicked/morally weak from those who are genuinely heroic. He can also exude a hateful, furious aura that causes people to get angrier just by standing near him, though he can turn it off if he wants to.
• Et Tu, Brute?: He really didn't take the betrayal and Fall of both Ispita and four of his siblings very well, so much that he immersed himself in Fury and Hatred, the very emotions he embodied, and carved a path of destruction and death in both the mortal and divine planes in an attempt to forget his grief. Once he recovered and saw what he had done, he became The Stoic so a repeat disaster wouldn't happen again.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • He always wears a stoic facade outside of work because the last time he gave in to his inner rage, he nearly devastated the Deer realms with bloody wars and fights in a vain attempt to bury his grief over the betrayal of Ispita and his four nameless siblings. After he learned of what he had done, it would be the only time he would act that way again. It's because of this that he has often responded to many evil War deities' attempts to embrace his darker urges with a fist to the face.
  • He hates betrayers and oath-breakers with a passion, as it reminds him too much of Ispita and his four nameless siblings, who betrayed their roles and principles as "constructive" Evil deities to indulge in "careless" Evil. Consequently, his various demon servants and Ascended champions have his explicit permission to hunt down and punish their peers if they do the same thing, especially if Yarost is too busy to do it himself.
• Genius Bruiser: While a violent seemingly brutish War god, he's very intelligent, and has pulled off many awesome feats in battle because of it. Temnobog even made him the commander of his infernal armies. This is justified in that he learned under Válka, who taught him he knew about war strategies and the like, and his great skills today is a testament of his mentor's lessons.
• God of Evil: Subverted. Much like Temnobog, his father, he's unapologetic about what he does, yet he sees evil and suffering as forces that test heroic mortals, and commits horrific acts to ensure that the mortals are strong enough to oppose evildoers, including him. He doesn't care if he loses against the heroes or not, so as long as he's doing his job.
• Graceful Loser: He's totally fine with losing against a hero because like Temnobog, he believes that Evil and Suffering exist to test heroic people, so it's all part of the job. Some people believe that this trope actually makes him even more dangerous than the villains he drags to his father's domain.
• Hell Is War: What his hell-fief, "The Agon", essentially is: an endless maze of battlefields, coliseums, trench-lines and fighting pits filled with death traps and roving demon-warriors, where mortal Deer damned by their wrath and hatred are condemned to forever butcher each other in insensate fury while being butchered in turn. Sometimes Yarost himself joins in the fun and carve his way through the dead, much to the horror of the damned and excitement of his servants and champions.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Despite his seemingly brutish tastes and personality, he has great appreciation of fine art, especially Pokhot's. The various murals of horrifying violence and carnage that cover his citadel's walls were done by his sister, after Yarost commissioned her to decorate his citadel's walls in the style of ancient Cyclopean art. He was so impressed with the end results that he spent several nights with her in her hell-fief as a reward.
  • Unlike the other Terrors, who go around testing mortals with the evil things they embody because it is in their nature, Yarost's duties in testing mortals with Fury and Hatred hold more weight with the fact that he has personally experienced what it's like to fully give in to his own darker urges, and genuinely wants others to not repeat what he had done by teaching them the dangers of unchecked Fury and Hatred.
  • It's speculated (even by Temnobog himself) that for all his rage and bluster, Yarost still wishes on some level that his family was reunited and whole, working as a constructive Evil force like they used to be.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Yarost gets along the most with his youngest sister Pokhot, the Damsel of Desire, who embodies lust of Deerkind on top of pride. So close, in fact, there are speculation that their relationship goes deeper than mere familial bond. The fact that incest has been common among royalty and divines lends some truth to it.
• Karma Houdini: Justified. Despite him punching an Elternteil deity in the face for making Bolezn cry and Belyolen and Temnobog arguing about the potential repercussions, they ultimately don't punish Yarost for his actions because he was only trying to defend his brother. Belyolen would admit that he wouldn't hesitate to defend Temnobog if he was insulted, too, though he did warn Yarost to be more careful next time.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Since he's often the target for Phykti's puns, he understandably reacts negatively... though often in extreme ways.
  • He once reacted to Phykti's puns by jumping off a cliff. Even more hilarious was the fact that he told Phykti that he was going to do it if she told one more pun in his presence, which Phykti did anyway. Phykti's entry notes that the cliff he fell from was named "Yarost's Fall".
  • Pokhot's entry reveals that he once tried to escape Phykti's puns by jumping through one of Pokhot's best stained-glass windows. This got Pokhot mad at her oldest sister for provoking him to act that way.
  • During an interview, Phykti cracked yet another pun at his expense. He responded by howling and smashing his way through a wall, crushing a snobby noble's carriage in the process.
• Meaningful Name: His name means 'Fury' and 'Rage' in Russian.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: His chimeric traits are based on hostile and/or bloodthirsty predators: His left antler is a long, sharp dragon horn; his teeth are that of a shark's; his left front leg is a wolf's leg with wolverine talons; his right hind leg is a dragon's leg; his eyes are that of a hawk's; and his tail is a clubbed reptilian tail, which is speculated to have come from a certain ancient species of club-tailed dinosaurs. The last part is an Irony as dinosaurs are associated with the peacefully neutral Sauropodians, but the fact that Yarost has a clubbed tail speaks of their hidden potential for destruction and violence.
• Modest Royalty: It's noted in his entry that his bedroom is rather Spartan, having only a trophy wall for his memorable kills, a rack for his personal favorite weapons, a small bookcase, and a simple bed. The rest of his citadel looks more like a dark Cyclopean-inspired palace with walls lavishly painted with beautiful, yet horrifying murals of war, bloodshed, and carnage. Yarost justifies his room's sparseness with the fact that it's much harder to find things he wants if he filled his room with more furnishings, unlike Bolezn's room which is filled to the brim with hoarded treasures.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The rampage he went on while suffering a breakdown over the breaking of his family horrified even him. Since then, he had kept his emotions and nature much more firmly in check out of fear of losing control again, to the point of becoming The Stoic outside of his duties.
• Noble Demon: Despite being a Blood Knight incarnate and the embodiment of Deerkind's wrath and hatred, he follows his father's philosophy of Evil and Suffering as constructive forces that maintain the Balance and counteract Good and Contentment. So he commits horrific acts of evil that normally would have gotten him wiped off the face of Equus many times over. He's even willing to restrain himself and/or sabotage his pawns, subordinates, and even himself if they're being too good at being evil, so the heroes will be given a chance to succeed.
• Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: After he punched an Elternteil deity for making Bolezn cry, Belyolen would confront Yarost on the matter, being highly displeased with his nephew's actions. Yarost would state simply that he would rather "be tortured a thousand lifetimes than let my siblings be tormented even for one moment by those bastards who call themselves 'benevolent'." This caused Belyolen to acknowledge that he wouldn't hesitate to defend Temnobog if a similar situation occurred, so he ultimately let Yarost off scot-free with only a warning to be more careful next time.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Temnobog noticed during a fight with a rage-filed Yarost that his son's feelings of hatred, resentment, sorrow, and self-loathing were exactly how he felt when he snapped from the Elternteil Deer Pantheon's emotional abuse and genuinely became evil for a time. This is what motivated him to have Yarost restrained until his rage cooled, because he didn't want to hurt his son while trying to stop him.
• One-Winged Angel: His ultimate form is an enormous, hulking, bloodthirsty dragon-like monster with black and red scales; rows of teeth literally made of sharp swords; long, spiraling horns; a spiky clubbed tail; two pairs of wings; and spikes made of flames. In this form, Yarost's physical strength and endurance are both enhanced tenfold, and his proficiency with fire magic increases, making him an absolutely devastating powerhouse that could potentially bathe Equus in blood and fire if he chooses to. However, this form is not only taxing, leaving him utterly exhausted when it's used up, but it also makes him sensitive to emotion and thus more prone to acting in unrestrained fury, destroying everything in his path. Yarost doesn't like using his dragon form for this reason, as it would mean a repeat of the destruction and death he had previously caused in his grief, and only saves it for absolutely dire situations.
  Yarost: I would rather fight my enemies in my weakest form first, than go all out and devastate the Deer realms with just a few strikes.
• Playing with Fire: He is a skilled and powerful fire mage, which is rather appropriate since he embodies Deerkind's Fury and Hatred. Among his capabilities are Fireballs, fire breath, surrounding himself with heat, and summoning pillars of flame. When extremely angry, he covers himself in flames. It's noted by his entry that his fire magic is tied to his emotions, so by constantly repressing them, Yarost can control it better.
• The Problem with Fighting Death: In one notable incident, Night Terror tried to escape Yarost's grasp by making a secret second deal with Ispita, Yarost's mother, which landed him in the dream world upon death. This infuriated Yarost when he found out, as he hated oath-breakers, and presumably aided Princess Luna and Tenya in confronting him. Once Night Terror was defeated and thrown into the real world, Night Terror discovered that he's not only rendered powerless, but a furious Yarost had been waiting for him the whole time. It's rumored that Night Terror's ultimate fate was being Yarost's plaything, but it's likely that his actual punishment, especially since he broke his first deal by making another one, was far more severe.
• Red Is Violent: His entry describes him as a red-pelted Deer, whose fur color was rumored to have been colored by the blood of his enemies and victims. He's also the Deer god of Fury, Hatred, and War who sows Evil in the various mortal Deer realms so he could test them.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • During a visit to Pokhot's hell-fief, he jumped through one of Pokhot's best stained-glass windows just to get away from Phykti's puns. Pokhot got mad at Phykti as a result.
  • He also invoked this trope with Golden Scepter; when the latter asked him what puns are, having never heard of a thing in his time, Yarost warned Golden Scepter to leave as fast as he can so he wouldn't attract Phykti's attention. He heeds the advice, leaving Phykti rather disappointed she wasn't able to introduce the antediluvian Alicorn Emperor to puns.
• The Stoic: This is how he behaves outside of work. It's justified; in his youth, he fully gave in to his inner fury and hatred in an attempt to bury his grief over losing his mother and four of his siblings to "careless" Evil, and caused lots of deaths and destruction in both the mortal and divine planes. Once he recovered from this and saw what he had done while in a better state of mind, he was so horrified that he keeps his emotions constantly reined in to prevent another incident. It's later deconstructed when Válka pointed out that constant repression of one's emotions is just as bad as overly indulging in their darker urges, which means that Yarost would eventually be doomed with another breakdown that's similar if not worse than the one he had previously. So sometime after Mentálne's birth, Yarost began seeing his grand-cousin so he could receive therapy on his issues regarding Ispita and learn how to handle his emotions better.
• Super Window Jump: Pokhot's entry reveals that during a stay in his youngest sister's hell-fief, he would jump through one of Pokhot's best stained-glass windows as soon as Phykti, who was also staying, started telling puns. Pokhot got mad at Phykti as a result.
• Talk to the Fist: Many belligerent and malicious War deities have tried making him embrace his inner rage and darker urges. Having done that once in his grief, he responds with a strong hoof to their faces instead.
• Tragic Villain: After Ispita's betrayal and the fates of four of his siblings, he used his fury to mask the fact that he is actually grieving for the loss of his mother and four lost siblings, and went on an extremely violent rampage where he left behind a trail of destruction and death in both mortal and divine realms. When he was finally confronted and stopped, he proceeded to burn himself out and suffer an emotional breakdown that took a while for him to recover from. It was after he saw the destruction he had caused that he turned into The Stoic, keeping his emotions on a tight leash at all times to prevent a similar catastrophe from happening again. Temnobog speculates that underneath all his rage and bluster, Yarost wanted his family to be how it was like before - united and working as a force of constructive Evil.
• Underestimating Badassery: Many people think that, due to being an evil War god who also embodies Deerkind's Fury and Hatred, he would be The Brute similar to Khakiston - all strength and no cunning to go with it. One Elternteil War god made the mistake of thinking himself superior to Yarost and utterly got thrashed for it.
• Undying Loyalty: He's loyal to his father, Temnobog, who he adores, and carries out his will in testing heroic mortals. He's also loyal to his siblings. This is what makes him hate his Draconequus half-brother, Zmatek, who still loves his half-siblings despite willingly following Ispita; Yarost just sees it as pathetic indecisiveness and demanded that Zmatek "make up [your] damn mind already" during their fight.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: While still evil by nature, it's noted in his entry that he was much more open with his emotions, prone to angry outbursts yet was deeply loving and passionate towards his family. Ispita and his four siblings' betrayal and Fall changed all that.
• War God: He embodies War like Válka does, though unlike his mentor, who embodies the best aspects of soldiers and warriors, he embodies the absolute worst aspects of them. Ironically, he is also The Stoic, due to having made the mistake of giving into his own darker urges once, and then resolving never to do it again afterwards when outside of work. Many truly belligerent and evil war gods have tried persuading Yarost into embracing said darker urges, and have received a strong hoof to the face instead. Despite being seemingly brutish, Yarost is an excellent fighter who is capable of using all kinds of weapons as well as a talented strategist, and his entry notes that many of his victories came from using his intelligence in tandem with his fighting ability, which resulted in Temnobog making him the supreme commander of his infernal armies.
• Warrior Prince: Implied; being one of two surviving sons of Temnobog, one of the Bogolenya pantheon's co-rulers, makes him royalty among deities, and he's known to manifest as a villain for the heroes to fight. It's especially prominent with him, since he behaves like a monstrous Blood Knight that embodies Deerkind's wrath and hatred during work, and his epithet is "Prince of Murder", though he keeps his darker urges restrained with stoicism when not working.
• Villainous Breakdown: When his mother and forgotten siblings became Fallen and the family fell apart, Yarost did not taken it well. He took it so badly in fact he went on a rampage in mortal and divine planes, starting wars, picking fights and massacring anything in sight in a desperate attempt to forget his despair and sorrow. Only when he was stopped by his father and relatives and restrained long enough to cool off did he finally break down completely and began to recover.
• Villain Respect: While he may not show it openly due to his stoicism, he's delighted whenever mortals resist his attempts to lure them into damnation through their inner fury and spite, and instead channel said emotions for nobler pursuits.
• Worthy Opponent: He sometimes clashes with the evil Alicorn, Blood Fang, whenever he's visiting the hell-realms, and Blood Fang respects him due to being someone who can give him a genuine challenge. The feeling is presumably mutual.

Phykti, the Baroness of Torment

Classification: Elemental/Ethereal

Portfolio: Cruelty, Despair, Sadism, Evil

Rank: Divine (Tier III/Intermediate)

"In this world, is the source of mortal-kind's suffering governed by some transcendent force of despair? Is there like a hoof of a cruel divine hovering above? Well, at least around these parts, I am the answer to that second question..."

Phykti (her entry here) is Temnobog's eldest daughter, a member of the Four Terrors, and the Bogolenya Deer-Draconequus goddess of Cruelty, Despair, Sadism, and Evil.

---

• Animal Motifs: Her chimeric traits are based around poisonous animals that inflict pain and suffering with their venom, such as snakes, scorpions hooded pitohui birds, salamanders, and poison dart frogs.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Played with; while she's Temnobog's oldest daughter through Ispita, she's younger than Yarost, Temnobog's oldest son and child overall. That being said, she loves tormenting him with puns because his stoicism makes his reactions funnier, as she had done after she and Yarost took down a rogue Dragon that tried plundering the Erobreseg Deer realms of its riches.
  Yarost: Phykti, how did you eviscerate that rogue Dragon? I must learn it for the future.
  Phykti: I have no I-DEER!
  Yarost: STOOOOOOOOOP - !!!
• Antagonistic Offspring: Justified. While she's pretty evil herself, she's a constructively Evil deity who seeks to test mortals and make them strong enough to oppose Evil. Her mother, Ispita, was once like them but became a Fallen goddess and thus, in Phykti's eyes, Ispita became no different than those who practice "careless" Evil. She follows without question her father's standing order for Ispita and other beings like her, which is essentially "Kill on Sight".
• Anthropomorphic Personification: She's a Deer-Draconequus goddess who embodies Cruelty, Despair, Sadism, and Evil.
• Benevolent Boss: She's highly revered and beloved among her demonic servants and Ascendant champions, because she's always willing to help them and take their emotional needs into account. She even has an office in her home where she serves as a psychologist for those who feel tempted to participate in "careless" Evil or just wants some cheering-up. However, she's still quite feared by the damned souls in her hell-fief, and rightly so, since her task is to punish them for indulging in Cruelty and Despair.
• Big Brother Instinct: Gender-inverted; when she learned of the abuse that her younger half-sister, Cudnost, suffered at the hands of Ispita as well as her biological family, Phykti vowed to make her Fallen mother's punishment(s) as painful and hellish as Cudnost's life had been, one for every physical and emotional scar that had been inflicted on the Draconequus goddess of Purity.
• Brother–Sister Team: She and Yarost often work together in fighting enemies of the Bogolenya pantheon, and tormenting the damned souls of the wicked. This is because their divine portfolios are intertwined, as unchecked Fury leads to acts of Cruelty that ultimately result in Despair. She also teams up with Bolezn and Pokhot when not working with Yarost, since acts of Cruelty often spawn from unchecked emotions like Gluttony, Greed, Lust, and Pride.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: For some reason, the "day-bed" couch in her office is magically enchanted so that whoever sits or lays down on it for too long will literally turn into a potato. Phykti would discover this by accident, which gave her an idea to set a timer as a warning to her followers not to be on her couch for too long.
• Embodiment of Vice: She represents Deerkind's cruelty and despair. Much like how Deerkind would abuse and sabotage their peers out of sheer spite and/or amusement, she constantly devises ways to break her victims so she could get the maximum amount of suffering from them.
• The Empath: Like her surviving siblings, she has this power. She mostly uses it to sense developing inclinations for cruelty in mortal Deer, and to try tempting them into indulging in cruelty unless they resist her.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • While she normally revels in Deerkind's Despair, as she embodies it, she couldn't bring herself to look at Yarost as he experienced an epic Villainous Breakdown at the end of his hate-filled rampage, his despair causing her to feel guilt over ignoring her older brother's emotional problems over satisfying her own, and not catching his inner pain quickly enough.
  • She also disapproved of the "Konets Izhi" plot that King Rovnyy, his wife, and his brother cooked up, and manipulated things so that then-Prince Strazha would expose and execute his parents and uncle for their crimes. She would drag their souls down to the hell-realms afterwards.
  • She was furious with Stækka for emotionally abusing Hnignun and driving her into self-imprisonment for embodying Death. In her eyes, this made Stækka no different from High King Irminsul, who emotionally abused Temnobog for being born "evil" despite doing nothing to warrant it. In her "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards her nephew, she points out that while she lost family members like Stækka did, she never once abused her surviving family for it.
• Evil Laugh: Reports told of an enigmatic doe who winked approvingly at then-Prince Strazha Svetilo for killing his parents and uncle, then cackled as she dragged the souls of King Rovnyy, Queen-Consort Milyala, and Prince Pobeda down to Temnobog's hell-realms.
• Facial Horror: Underneath her masks, her face is covered in multitudes of hideous scars, either from self-infliction or from getting injured in battle. She does have the option to heal them via her divine healing factor, but she chooses to keep her facial scars as victory trophies, and to remind herself that she's alive.
• Freudian Couch: She has a "day-bed" couch in her personal office so it would make her patients feel relaxed enough to make them be more receptive to opening themselves up to her. This was came about when, after developing depression from guilt and watching Yarost's breakdown, she lay down on a couch while visiting her father, Temnobog, and talking about her issues. By the time she went back to her hell-fief, she felt much better. However, she warns that people who sit on her couch for too long will turn into (literal) couch potatoes.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • When she was younger, she would often look out for her siblings and subordinates because she wanted to make up for ignoring her family's emotional issues following Ispita's betrayal and the family schism. This would eventually stop when, after Phykti nearly ran herself ragged trying to accommodate Yarost's needs, Yarost confronted his sister, forced her to finally admit her guilt and shame, then forgave her and urged her to "become better".
  • An inversion came when she suffered an emotional depression from the family schism and guilt over ignoring Yarost's issues, and plopped herself down on a couch while visiting her father, Temnobog. As it turned out, lying down made her more receptive to revealing her problems to others, so when she went back to her hell-fief, she felt much better. It would also inspire her to have a couch ready for when her servants and champions are too depressed to do anything and just want to lay down, so they'll be more receptive to talk out their problems with her.
• The Gadfly: As Phykti embodies Cruelty and Despair, she makes puns so bad that hearing them is akin to being tortured. While she does use it to punish the damned souls of the wicked in her hell-fief and agonize them, she also torments her family with her puns, especially Yarost, as she believes that his stoicism makes his reactions funnier.
• God of Evil: Subverted. Much like Temnobog, her father, she's unapologetic about what she does, yet she sees evil and suffering as forces that test heroic mortals, and commits horrific acts to ensure that the mortals are strong enough to oppose evildoers, including her. She doesn't care if she loses against the heroes or not, so as long as she's doing her job.
• Graceful Loser: She's totally fine with losing against a hero because like Temnobog, she believes that Evil and Suffering exist to test heroic people, so it's all part of the job. Some people believe that this trope actually makes him even more dangerous than the villains she drags to her father's domain.
• Making a Splash: She's an excellent water mage, which allows her to run across bodies of waters, make weapons out of water, and create gigantic floods. Because of the infinite potential in water magic, she often combines it with the elemental magics of her siblings', such as making storms with Pokhot's wind magic.
• Misery Poker: Deconstructed here.
  "Suffering isn't a competition to see who has the most wins or losses. Nor is it some grand pedestal to see who is the most righteous. Suffering is a part of life, and every-creature has a right to feel validated, no matter how small or big their problems might be."
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Her chimeric traits are based around poisonous animals: She has the tail/stinger of a scorpion, the wings of a hooded pitohui bird, the eyes and fangs of a black mamba snake, the colorful right front leg of a blue poison dart frog, and the left hind leg of a fire salamander.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She was so hurt by Ispita's betrayal and Fall that she would furiously torture anyone she set her eyes on, including the damned shades in her hell-fief, so she could derive pleasure from her victims' suffering and make herself feel better. This would lead to her ignoring the emotional problems Yarost would face, which eventually led to her older brother snapping and going on an extremely destructive rampage across the divine and mortal planes. She would eventually realize her mistakes when Yarost was stopped and went through an emotional breakdown upon burning out his fury, and felt so depressed about it afterwards that when she visited Temnobog, she just lay herself down on a couch and didn't want to get up.
• Noble Demon: While she's the cruelest and most sadistic member of her immediate family, often bragging about her wicked accomplishments and torturing herself as much as she does others, her goals in helping mortal Deerkind grow are ultimately altruistic. She's also the kindest and most affectionate of the Terrors - as Despair leads to emotional intimacy and Kindness is sometimes shown through Cruel methods, she's very close to her father and siblings despite their inner Evil, and she's highly revered and beloved as a Benevolent Boss by her demonic servants and champions.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In her "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Prince Stækka, she points out his mistreatment of Hnignun is extremely similar to how Irminsul, his great-grandfather, abused Temnobog for being born "evil" despite him doing nothing to truly warrant it. To hammer it home, she toys with the idea of Irminsul actually liking Stækka for his fanatical devotion to nature, despite being a self-righteous bigot who dislikes hybrids. This leaves Stækka quite shaken afterwards.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As the embodiment of Deerkind's Despair, she normally revels in the despair she causes with her sadistic cruelty. The only time she didn't, however, was when she watched Yarost reach the Despair Event Horizon by reducing himself to a sobbing wreck while trying to free himself from Temnobog and Belyolen's chains; it was noted in Yarost's entry that she couldn't bear to look at her older brother in his sorry state, feeling guilty that she didn't catch his inner pain right away.
• The Prankster: To celebrate her father and uncle's adoption into the Terran Royal Family by Golden Scepter, she went on a pranking spree with some of the more mischievous Terran Princes (now technically her great-uncles).
• Pungeon Master: Implied in Yarost's entry, and eventually confirmed in her own entry. As the Bogolenya Deer goddess of Cruelty and Despair, she makes puns so bad that it's akin to being tortured, with the damned souls in her hell-fief begging to "make her stop!" Of course, this just motivates her to continue. She also frequently annoys Yarost with puns for her own amusement, as she finds her brother's reactions hilarious. Yarost himself considers puns to be a Fate Worse than Death; when Golden Scepter asked what puns were during his stay in the Bogolenya Deer pantheon, Yarost quickly warns him to leave to "protect" the Alicorn Emperor from Phykti. Yarost also jumped off a cliff after Phykti told him one pun too many (after he explicitly told Phykti what was going to happen if she said one more pun in his presence), with the cliff he jumped off being named "Yarost's Fall".
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She rips into her nephew Stækka for emotionally abusing Hnignun and making his twin sister feel utterly unwanted due to embodying Death, just like how Irminsul abused Temnobog just for being born "evil". It was noted that her words, especially her comparisons between him and Irminsul, his great-grandfather, left him quite shaken afterwords.
  Phykti: You did a good job there, Stækka, breaking your sister's self-worth like that. Making her feel like she doesn't have a place in this world or the natural cycle that keeps it going. All because you couldn't stand that your darling Mommy was taken away so suddenly.
  Prince Stækka: Don't you DARE speak of my Mother in that manner!
  Phykti: What, you think I'm being cruel? I have lost loved ones, too, Stækka! I lost my... my 'parent' and four of my siblings because my 'parent' decided to act like a brat and become Evil for real! But did I abuse my remaining family for it? NO...! Look, I get losing your Mommy hurt really bad. You and Hnignun didn't deserve that. You needed to grieve as much as your sister did. But that still doesn't give you an excuse to act like a self-righteous flankhole towards every-creature else. Did you know that Hnignun intended to IMPRISON herself for eternity? You made her believe she was utterly worthless and unwanted because of what she embodied. JUST LIKE YOUR GREAT-GRANDFATHER.
  Prince Stækka: I...! I am NOT like Great-Grandfather! I was trying to do what's RIGHT...!
  Phykti: And so did he. He tried being a self-righteous flankhole, and he destroyed his own family in the end. Now you're becoming just like him. Helps that you don't look as 'ugly' or 'evil' as your sister or your Papa, doesn't it? I bet Great-Grandfather would like you once he hears of this, and he normally doesn't like any-creature except for himself, his utterly spineless wife, and those who kiss his flanks. Doesn't matter if you're 'evil' or you got those weird and ugly animal parts - as long as you support Life and Growth THAT MUCH, that's what counts for him in the end, right?
  Prince Stækka: "..."
  Phykti: I may be the goddess of Cruelty and Despair, but... after seeing how you behaved the past several months? Even I wouldn't sink that low... You have a lot to think about, nephew.
• Secret Test of Character: As a constructively Evil goddess, she doles these out like her father does. Specifically, she appeals to her victims' inner cruelty by encouraging them to break the spirits of their fellow Deer and delight in their suffering. Those who resist her earn her respect and are spared. However, she's willing to make things easier, even sabotaging her own pawns and worshipers, if the heroes she's testing are having a hard time.
• Sibling Rivalry:
  • She shares a friendly rivalry with her younger brother, Bolezn, and has made it her mission to one-up him with her own plans of torture, despair, and pain. This has influenced their respective demonic servants and champions into having rivalries with each other, creating legends and stories where each side would sow Evil to one-up the other, though never to the point where it'll get out of control and invoke their divine masters' wrath.
  • Pokhot's entry notes that she gets into arguments and debates with Pokhot over the nature of their punishments, and whether exercising calculated restraint would make the punishment hurt more than if there was no restraint at all.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Played with. Her One-Winged Angel form is that of a multi-armed, Deer-headed cobra snake resembling the Naga peoples of Hind, and she's the Bogolenya Deer goddess of Cruelty and Despair who fights with weapons that focus on pain. But she genuinely wants mortal Deerkind to do well, and despite her malicious domains, she uses them to test and motivate heroes, and is the kindest, and most encouraging and affectionate member of her immediate family (at least by their standards).
• Tragic Villain: After Ispita's betrayal and the condemnation of four of her siblings, she would furiously torture the damned souls in her hell-fief so she could derive satisfaction from their suffering and make herself feel better. This would lead to her ignoring Yarost's emotional problems until he snapped, leading to his rampage. She later felt so guilty over what she had done that she couldn't bring herself to look at Yarost during his emotional breakdown, and when she visited Temnobog, she was so depressed that she lay herself on a couch in her father's home and didn't want to get up.
• Undying Loyalty: She's loyal to her father, Temnobog, who she adores, and carries out his will in testing heroic mortals. She's also loyal to her siblings.
• Villain Respect: Like her siblings and father, she genuinely respects those who resist her temptations as well as the temptations of their own inner evil.
  • After then-Prince Strazha Svetilo confronted and killed his parents and uncle, reports spoke of an enigmatic doe, likely Phykti, winking at him approvingly before she dragged down the souls of his victims off to Temnobog's hell-realms, cackling all the way. Phykti's entry also notes that she's rather proud of Strazha in general, as not only the royal stag refused to indulge in the ruthless cruelty that was so common in his family, but he also became The Good King by applying his harsh yet reasonable methods to his ruling after he and his sister, Vesna, inherited the throne of Bitaniya.

Bolezn, the Master of Pestilence

Classification: Elemental/Ethereal

Portfolio: Gluttony, Greed, Pestilence, Famine, Evil

Rank: Divine (Tier III/Intermediate)

"I don't mind if the wicked walk the road to damnation: that means more for me to eat and steal!"

Bolezn (his entry here) is Temnobog's second-youngest son, a member of the Four Terrors, and the Bogolenya Deer-Draconequus god of Gluttony, Greed, Pestilence, Famine, and Evil.

Much like the other Terrors, Bolezn embodies Deerkind's mortal failings, specifically the sins of Gluttony and Greed, and it's his duty to serve as a Constructively Evil deity to tempt mortals into embracing to these emotions, punishing those who did gave in while acting as an adversary to be challenged by those who did not.

According to a few surviving records, Bolezn was originally the youngest in a set of fraternal twins, back when the Four Terrors were eight, but after the family schism, the elder twin's exact name, power, and gender was gradually lost to time. Unlike Yarost, his oldest brother, who attempted to bathe the Deer realms in blood and carnage to forget his grief, Bolezn kept his feelings to himself, not wanting to incur his family's wrath if they learned he was saddened by the loss instead of being angry towards Ispita and his lost siblings' betrayal. Fortunately, Temnobog caught him before it could go far, and helped his surviving son achieve emotional colors by letting him vent.[WIP]

---

• Angsty Surviving Twin: Subverted; at first, he was the only Terror who was hurt and saddened by his elder twin's betrayal and condemnation to being slowly digested in Temnobog's stomach, because while he knows his elder twin deserved being punished for doing bad things, he was still at an age where he was unable to comprehend the true scope of his elder twin's actions and Temnobog harshly punished them despite all his children being "evil". Yet he kept his feelings a secret because he didn't want to incur his family's wrath for being sympathetic. Temnobog sensed his son's grief with his empathy, and comforted Bolezn by letting him cry and explaining to him why he had to punish four of his children and what would happen to Equus if the "careless" Evil that they and Ispita supported was allowed to flourish. Thanks to Temnobog, Bolezn now sees his elder twin as "pretty stupid" for siding with Ispita and regards his lost sibling with disappointed anger, even though he still loves them to a degree.
• Animal Motifs: His chimeric traits are based around animals that are treated as gluttonous pests and harbingers of diseases, such as locusts, cockroaches, centipedes, and flies. In addition, he has maggots living in his body.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Justified. While he's pretty evil himself, he's a constructively Evil deity who seeks to test mortals and make them strong enough to oppose Evil. His mother, Ispita, was once like them but became a Fallen goddess and thus, in Bolezn's eyes, she became no different than those who practice "careless" Evil. He follows without question his father's standing order for Ispita and other beings like her, which is essentially "Kill on Sight".
• Anthropomorphic Personification: He's a Deer-Draconequus god who embodies Gluttony, Greed, Pestilence, Famine, and Evil.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Bolezn, having a similar name to his benevolent uncle, Belyolen, has an inconspicuous and modest temperament compared to his brother and sisters, who are openly evil. Still, he's one of the Four Terrors, and he's capable of committing as much evil as his siblings.
• Big Eater: As the modern embodiment of Deerkind's Gluttony, he is this. It's mentioned both in the Four Terrors' entry and a snippet that Bolezn has an extremely ravenous appetite, which makes him a divine patron of cannibals since he's infamous for eating even mortal Deer. Unfortunately, his appetite even applies outside of his duties; Mentálne complains to Crystal Prism that she has to hide the cookies her mother, Mier, made because otherwise Bolezn would eat all the cookies and she would never be able to have one.
  Crystal Prism: Uh... sorry for eating all your cookies and pastries and stuff...
  Mentálne: Don't worry, my Mom can always make more. And it looks like you really needed the food. Besides, at least you're not Bolezn.
  Crystal Prism: ...Who?
  Mentálne: One of my cousins. He eats so much that some of us thought he's actually a Giant! I had to hide my goodies in really good places because Bolezn can smell food from a thousand miles away and whenever I want a cookie, they're all gone...
• Dark Is Not Evil: Played with. While he's undoubtedly the nicest of the Terrors, being a kind and polite kid, he's still Temnobog's agent in sowing Evil across the Deer realms, and gives rise to horrific acts of Gluttony and Greed by tempting mortal Deer to indulge in those specific emotions, while also visiting kingdoms to either devour their food and steal their riches, infect them with his diseases, or both. Ultimately, however, he wants Deerkind to be medically and agriculturally prepared for the disasters he inflicts on them, and is delighted when they succeed.
• Embodiment of Vice: He represents Deerkind's gluttony and greed. Much like how Deerkind has the tendency to selfishly hoard and/or consume material and abstract goods, he masterminds catastrophic schemes that lead to the ruin of entire Deer realms so his thirst for sinful souls, food, and wealth would be satisfied.
• The Empath: Has inherited this power from Temnobog, who uses it to prolong Suffering. As the embodiment of Gluttony and Greed, he uses his empathy to stoke these particular feelings among mortal Deer and tempt them into sin, in order to weed out the wicked/morally weak from those who are genuinely heroic.
• God of Evil: Subverted. Much like Temnobog, his father, Bolezn is unapologetic about what he does, yet he sees evil and suffering as forces that test heroic mortals, and commits horrific acts to ensure that the mortals are strong enough to oppose evildoers, including him. He doesn't care if he loses against the heroes or not, so as long as he's doing his job.
• Graceful Loser: He's totally fine with losing against a hero because like Temnobog, he believes that Evil and Suffering exist to test heroic people, so it's all part of the job. Some people believe that this trope actually makes him even more dangerous than the villains he drags to his father's domain.
• I'm a Humanitarian: As the embodiment of Gluttony, he has been known to eat mortal Deer, which makes him the divine patron of cannibals, though as a "constructive" Evil deity, he only eats the wicked. Those who get eaten by him are left in constant agony as they serve sustenance for their divine consumer as punishment for Gluttony-related crimes. His various demon servants and Ascended champions can do this, too, and go after anyone who managed to escape being eaten by Bolezn.
• Life Drinker: He can exude an aura of bottomless Gluttony and Greed to do this, causing nearby plants and animals to die. It's also noted in his entry that he has the power to drain the vitality/life-force of things as a form of self-healing, thus temporarily appearing as a healthy hybrid stag with a strong, full body and no insects or open sores.
• The Magic Touch: One of his abilities consist of turning his enemies/victims into beautiful statues of gold and gemstones. He can bless mortals with this as well, either to help them carry out his will or teach them a lesson about unchecked Greed — the latter involved a Deer king whose avarice foolishly led to him wishing for the ability to turn things to gold and other treasures so he could finance his budding kingdom. He ended up turning everything into gold, including one of his beloved daughters.
• Meaningful Appearance:
  • Normally, he looks like an unremarkable stag wearing the tattered cloak of a vagrant. However, once the cloak's off, his true form is a divine Deer/Draconequus hybrid with animal parts coming from pestilence/gluttony-related insects, and his body is emaciated, diseased, and has maggots and other insects living in his rotting flesh. He's a very skilled and intelligent Plaguemaster who creates and spreads deadly plagues/pests so people will be motivated to make medical/agricultural/technological advancements to counter them.
  • However, parts of his body are covered in priceless gems/minerals, and he's been known to sometimes wear priceless jewelry and regalia (which he often jokes that he fished out of the garbage). One of the things he embodies is Greed.
• Meaningful Name: His name is Russian/Roedinian for "disease".
• Mix-and-Match Critters: His chimeric traits are based around animals that are regarded as gluttonous pests and harbringers of disease: He has the eyes of a fly, the mandibles of a locust, the giant wings of a cockroach, and extra centipede legs that he uses to walk in tandem with his Deer legs.
• Nightmare Fuel: In-Universe; while Temnobog explained to him their roles and the differences between constructive and diabolical Evil, he showed Bolezn a holographic image of the results if there was nothing to keep diabolical Evil in check - that of a dead Equus reduced to drifting rocks in space, with no traces of life or hope, and no gods or mortals to help it grow again. Bolezn would admit later that while it helped him understand why Ispita and his lost siblings must be punished, the image would sometimes haunt his dreams years after the fact.
• Noble Demon: Despite being the embodiment of Deerkind's gluttony and greed, he follows his father's philosophy of Evil and Suffering as constructive forces that maintain the Balance and counteract Good and Contentment. So he commits horrific acts of evil that normally would have gotten him wiped off the face of Equus many times over. He's even willing to restrain himself and/or sabotage his pawns, subordinates, and even himself if they're being too good at being evil, so the heroes will be given a chance to succeed.
• One-Winged Angel: His ultimate form is a gigantic version of himself made of thousands of plague-related insects and vermin, with some of them made of precious minerals such as gold-plated roaches and sapphire locusts. In this form, his powers increase tenfold, and he's extremely hard to kill, as various parts of him can fly away to avoid enemy strikes. However, he doesn't think that "one-winged angel" is an accurate term to describe his ultimate form, because if he had truly gone "one-winged", he wouldn't be able to fly at all.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Bolezn once infiltrated the castle of a Deer Prince while a masquerade party was going on, dressed as a plague victim, which would've been a bad thing to do since the kingdom was being ravaged by a deadly plague outside... that Bolezn himself created to punish said kingdom for their blatant disregard for proper hygiene. He also infected everyone inside the castle and made them die slow, agonizing deaths, also a fitting punishment since the Deer Prince in question, Prince Prospero, arrogantly thought he could use Bolezn's plague to Kill the Poor, while the local nobility and royalty would rather hide out in Prospero's castle than help their infected subjects. Bolezn does admit later he felt kind of bad for crashing Prospero's party since he wanted to join in the festives, but "duty calls, I guess".
• Secret Test of Character: As a constructively Evil god, he doles these out like his father does. Specifically, he tempts mortal Deer with the desire to consume and/or hoard material and abstract goods. Those who resist him earn his respect and are spared. However, he's willing to make things easier, even sabotaging his own pawns and worshipers, if the heroes he's testing are having a hard time.
• Sibling Rivalry: Due to his intelligence and constant scheming, he shares a friendly rivalry with his oldest sister, Phykti, who has made it her mission to one-up him with her own plans of torture, despair, and pain.
• Sinister Scythe: He wields a large divine scythe, called Golod in Roedinian, that has an extremely sharp blade that allows for harvesting large groups of enemies and wicked souls, and works best with wide and elegant yet powerful sweeps. If forced to fight in close quarters, Bolezn can transform it into a pair of sickles that have reduced power, but allow for more greater movement and are still just as sharp.
• Sympathy for the Devil: In-Universe; Bolezn felt saddened by the estrangement of his mother, Ispita, and the condemnation of four of his siblings, including his elder twin. But he kept his feelings a secret out of fear towards his family's potential reaction should they find out. It wasn't until Temnobog sensed his son's emotional turmoil and comforted him that Bolezn was finally able to grieve.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: With his cloak on, he looks like a rather unremarkable stag. This is what partially makes him so good at stealth and infiltration.
• Token Good Teammate: Downplayed. He's the nicest and most polite of the Four Terrors, having an inconspicuous shy, and modest temperament unlike his siblings. That being said, he still participates in sowing Evil across the Deer realms to test heroic mortals so he'll ensure that Good doesn't stagnate.
• Undying Loyalty: He's loyal to his father, Temnobog, who he adores, and carries out his will in testing heroic mortals. He's also loyal to his siblings.
• Villain Respect: Like with his siblings and father, those who resist his attempts earn his respect and are spared, though he also gives his respect towards those who impress him through other means.
  • He is delighted whenever people resist giving in to their inner Gluttony and Greed, or if his diseases and vermin lead to medical and agricultural advancements for the sake of being prepared for future disasters.
  • When an Equestrian horror novelist named "Edgar Allan Pony" wrote an In-Universe fictionalized (yet extremely faithful) short story based on Bolezn's interactions with the Deer prince Prospero called Masque of the Red Death, Bolezn loved it so much that he kept it in his personal library to read at his own leisure.
• Walking Wasteland: As the embodiment of Deerkind's Gluttony and Greed, he can exude an aura of bottomless greed and gluttony that is so potent that it causes all sorts of plants and animals to die in his presence as it sucks the life out of them, though it's noted he can turn it off when he wants to.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: A healthy variant. Bolezn is loyal to Temnobog and loves him deeply, so he masterminds catastrophic schemes and creates deadly plagues to make his dark father proud. Being the embodiment of Deerkind's evils who revels in people doing evil things, Temnobog always feels proud of his son and all of his surviving children.
• Your Costume Needs Work: He once attended a lavish masquerade party thrown by Deer royalty and nobility while dressed as a plague victim, which enraged the Deer prince Prospero so much that he chased the disguised god around his own castle trying to kill him. However, it was very intentional, since Prospero's kingdom was being ravaged by Bolezn's plague yet arrogantly believed he could use said plague to Kill the Poor, while his royal/noble peers chose to party and indulge instead of helping their infected subjects.

Pokhot, the Damsel of Desire

Classification: Elemental/Ethereal

Portfolio: Lust, Pride, Sex, Deception, Evil

Rank: Divine (Tier III/Intermediate)

"They say 'Pride comes before a Fall', and they always fall harder in throes of lust and lies!"

Pokhot (her entry here) is the youngest member of the Four Terrors, and the Deer-Draconequus goddess of Lust, Pride, Sex, Deception, and Evil.

---

• Animal Motifs: Her chimeric traits are based around "beautiful" yet deadly predators such as spiders, Arctic foxes, Margay cats, and shrikes.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Justified. While she's pretty evil himself, Pokhot is a constructively Evil deity who seeks to test mortals and make them strong enough to oppose Evil in general. Her mother, Ispita, was once like her but became a Fallen goddess and thus, in Pokhot's eyes, she became no different than those who practice "careless" Evil. On a personal level, Pokhot hates Ispita because the latter's horrific actions initially drove her to extremes in trying to make herself different than her mother, only to have her pride broken with the discovery that no matter what she did, she was still indulging in the same Evils she sought to deny out of spite. She follows without question her father's standing order for Ispita and other beings like her, which is essentially "Kill on Sight".
• Anthropomorphic Personification: She's a Deer-Draconequus goddess who embodies Lust, Pride, Sex, Deception, and Evil. It's noted in her entry that out of her siblings, Pokhot's portfolio resembles Ispita's the most, causing her mother (before her Face–Heel Turn) to favor and spoil her, and causing Pokhot no shortage of grief after Ispita's Fall.
• Big Brother Instinct: She is an older half-sister of Cudnost, the Draconequus goddess of Virtue, as the latter was "born" from the absence of Good and Virtue encouraged by Ispita's depravity and desire for "careless" Evil. When Pokhot learned of Cudnost's horrific abuse and attempts to break her pride in order to corrupt her, she was enraged, to the point where her own servants and champions believe that she constantly dreams of breaking Ispita's pride herself as punishment for what she had done.
• Big Brother Worship: She admires Yarost, though due to her Evil nature, it's twisted. As the living embodiment of Lust, she admires Yarost's muscular body, to the point where it's speculated by mortal Deerkind (and strongly believed as truth by Temnoists) that their relationship is incestuous. However, she also admires her brother's strong will and restraint in regards to his handling of his darker urges, since as the divine embodiment of Fury and Hatred, it's very easy for him to slip. Her entry also reveals that much of her closeness to Yarost came from an incident where, after Ispista Fell and broke her family apart, Pokhot tried her hardest in separating herself from mother by resisting her own evil nature, only for her efforts to backfire horribly when she couldn't resist said nature anymore; Yarost would later apologize to his sister for any harm he may have inflicted on her, and assured her that even if she resembles Ispita the most of her siblings, she's still quite different from her mother.
• Blow You Away: Pokhot has considerable power and command over the wind, which is thematically tied to her domains of Lust and Deception. She can make blades of wind to inflict grievous wounds without revealing where she might attack, boosting her jumps and physical agility with wind (even propelling herself with wind when her wings are injured), and using air to mute her presence, allowing her to sneak in and carry objects/people unnoticed. When angered, she can stir up wind-based storms such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and cyclones. In occasions of brute force, she has been known to suffocate and even crush her opponents with wind. In addition, she can make sound-based illusions by carrying the echoes of her own voice through far distances, disorienting her opponents as well.
• Close to Home: Her entry notes that she holds a deep grudge against those who break other people's pride, and gives such individuals her most severe punishments upon death. This comes from Pokhot's experiences with Ispita, who became a Fallen goddess and broke her family apart by luring half of her children she had with Temnobog into "careless Evil". Because she resembled Pokhot the most, Pokhot feared being persecuted by proxy by her surviving family and tried resisting her own evil nature to prove she isn't like her mother. Discovering that she became similar to Ispita after all caused her to fall into despair. Pokhot's hatred of pride-breakers is also the reason why she hates her grandfather Irminsul, who abused Temnobog for existing and defiled his unborn son to fulfill his own twisted ideas of perfection. And when she learned of Cudnost's abuse, Pokhot was enraged to the point where her servants and champions believe that she has dreams of breaking Ispita's pride herself as punishment for her horrific actions.
• Cruel to Be Kind: When she found her older son Touha immersing himself in illusionary fantasies to deal with his grief over killing/damning his wicked father, she tried to intervene so Touha wouldn't fall deep into mad obsession. Touha attacked her to preserve the fantasies he created, which only led to his older/younger siblings moving in to stop and restrain Touha while their mother dispelled the fantasies. While Touha initially hated his mother for denying him of his desires, it also forced him to see the monster his father actually became, allowing him to properly heal and move on.
• Eaten Alive: One of the many ways Pokhot and her demons/worshipers torment the wicked who gave in to lust, albeit not like how Bolezn does it. The damned are turned into drugs and alcohol and consumed like fixes for their pleasure, then reincarnated so it could be done to them again, and again, and again...
• Embodiment of Vice: She represents Deerkind's Lust and Pride. Much like how Deerkind would both desire and indulge themselves in things to an unhealthy degree, she strokes the egos of her victims and seduces them into sinful excess. However, it's noted in her entry that both Lust and Pride do have beneficial purposes, as the former encourages people to pursue higher abstract concepts, and the latter drives people to become "better" in anything they pursue, such as art, music, and literature, so they could produce great works. Pokhot herself also believes that Pride is important since having low self-esteem is just as bad as having an inflated ego.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Literally. On top of Pokhot's positive relationship with Temnobog and her surviving siblings, it had been suggested many of her own subordinates are also actually her children from her own flings with other many beings.
• Extra Eyes: She has the eight eyes of a Black Widow spider, whereas her older siblings have two eyes. To some mortals, this doesn't detract from her overall beauty, and only makes her more alluring and mysterious.
• Forced Transformation: Inflicted this on a doe of the Golden Antlers Autorist faction who'd wasted her whole life persecuting those who she considered 'lesser' than Deerkind and made them bow and grovel before her and Deerkind's 'racial superiority', forcing her to spend her eternal torment shape-shifting into the various sapient races she persecuted for being 'lesser', and being made to bow, grovel, looked down upon and serve others who are her betters.
  Pokhot: Now you'll know what it's like to be forced to bow and grovel to those who are superior to you in EVERY WAY.
• Freudian Excuse: She hates pride-breakers because when Ispita became a Fallen goddess and destroyed the family she made with Temnobog, Pokhot strove to make herself different from her mother by denying her own Evil nature, both to spite her father and surviving siblings on the false assumption that they saw her as Ispita's "clone", and out of fear that she would be persecuted by proxy for resembling Ispita the most in personality. However, she would fall into despair after finally giving into her Evil nature, and discovering that for all her efforts, she was still indulging in the same vices that she sought to deny, and would only recover after Yarost apologized for emotionally harming her and assured his sister that she is quite different from Ispita than she thought. Because of these experiences, Pokhot tends to hand her severest punishments to those who break other people's pride for abusive/malicious reasons, and she has a long-standing grudge towards Ispita, especially after learning that Ispita had severely abused Cudnost for embodying Virtue and tried breaking the white-furred Draconequus goddess's pride many times.
• Giant Spider: Her One-Winged Angel form is a Deer-Spider hybrid, consisting of a gigantic Black Widow but with Pokhot's head.
• God of Evil: Subverted. Much like Temnobog, her father, she's unapologetic about what she does, yet she sees evil and suffering as forces that test heroic mortals, and commits horrific acts to ensure that the mortals are strong enough to oppose evildoers, including her. She doesn't care if he loses against the heroes or not, so as long as she's doing her job.
• Good Parents: As shown in Prince Stoltur's entry, she is a loving mother to all of her divine and demi-divine children despite her own inner Evil, which is a very stark contrast to her own mother, Ispita, who after her Fall became a rather abusive parent and only sees her children as useful tools in her plans to let "diabolical/careless" Evil overtake the world. Notably, it's because of Pokhot's influence that, after hearing of the various crimes that his incredibly depraved warlord of a father did in life, Stoltur swore never to become as evil or depraved as him in any way.
• Graceful Loser: She's totally fine with losing against a hero because like Temnobog, she believes that Evil and Suffering exist to test heroic people, so it's all part of the job. Some people believe that this trope actually makes her even more dangerous than the villains she drags to her father's hell-domain.
• Human Resources: Some of their victims and damned souls suffers torment under Pokhot and her children/demons by being (painfully) taken apart and processed into raw materials to make their artworks and decorations.
• I Am Not My Father: Being the divine embodiment of Pride with also a huge grudge against Ispita, Pokhot hates Ispita for betraying her own principles as a "constructive" Evil goddess, and breaking her family apart by tempting four of her older siblings into diabolical Evil. Because she's the most similar to her mother in terms of personality, she began to feel alienated especially around Yarost, who also developed a massive grudge against Ispita, which motivated her to try separating herself from Ispita in every way, including denying her own evil nature even though it hurt to do so. This horribly backfired when she couldn't resist anymore and sneaked off to the mortal realms to indulge in her nature, only to be found suffering an emotional breakdown afterwards. And after she was brought back home by Yarost and Temnobog, she would lash out violently at her family and relatives for supposedly treating her like a clone of Ispita. She would get better after Yarost apologized for any harm he may have inflicted her and assured her that even if she heavily took after Ispita, she's still her own person at heart, but she would still continue to struggle with whatever traces of self-doubt she might have.
• In a Single Bound: It's noted that she can use her wind magic to boost her own jumps.
• Mad Artist: Has vibes of this, as when she isn't holding back her innate Evil to make some legitimately impressive and magnificent masterpieces of art, Pokhot's creative works generally depict unspeakable horror and depravity. Many of her children and minions are the same, and they often use the damned shades they torment as raw materials to that end.
• Make Some Noise: She can disorient her opponents with sound-based illusions by using her wind magic to carry the echoes of her own voice everywhere, even through far distances.
• Mama Bear: Though an evil goddess, she deeply loves each and every one of her children. Having her children threatened and/or harmed in some way will bring out the worst in her.
  • Pokhot was furious when she learned through one of her elder sons, Prince Touha, that her other son, Prince Lenost, was bullied for being 'lazy' and not actively spreading 'constructive Evil' like they are. After chewing out her children for their hypocrisy, Pokhot let her bullied son Pay Evil unto Evil however he saw fit, which led to Lenost hitting his tormentors with a spell that made them so lethargic and apathetic, they couldn't even enjoy the carnal depravities they loved.
  • During her time as a Sex Slave for a tyrannical cabal of Pony Sorcerous Overlords, Pokhot was Forced to Watch as the sorcerers, especially the Knowledgeable Sorcerer, abused and exploited her identical twin sons, Varázsló and Cselszövő, for their talents in magic and deceptive scheming, respectively. The only things she could do without blowing her cover is heal her sons' wounds from magical accidents and keep them from becoming as depraved as their abusers. The last straw was when the Knowledgeable Sorcerer threw the twins into the 'Well of Eternity' so he could learn its secrets without compromising himself. Though Varázsló and Cselszövő survived, they came back as insane, eldritch gods. That was when Pokhot snapped, shed her mortal form, and unleashed her maternal rage on the cabal of sorcerers. The other Terrors and the rest of her infernal family would shortly join once the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon located her.
  • At one point, Pokhot married an Alvslog Deer King and had many children with him, their eldest daughter being then-Princess Krásná Tradice. Unfortunately, the Deer King was a traditionalist, xenophobic, and puristic bigot who, while a loving husband/father, was emotionally abusive. He imparted toxic lessons onto Krásná and her siblings, and when one of Krásná's younger brothers accidentally outed himself as a Deer-Draconequus hybrid, he murdered his own son without hesitation. This angered Pokhot, who was growing increasingly displeased with her lover's stubborn refusal to change, and manipulated things so the Deer King would slowly become a maddened stag whose depravities would catch the attention of the Elternteil Deer Pantheon. While the Deer King was killed and damned for eternity, Pokhot secretly fled the Alvslog Deer Realms with her surviving children and moved to the more tolerant Erobreseg Deer Realms.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Her name is Russian for "lust", and she embodies Deerkind's lust.
  • Her main weapons, a divine war fan named Strast and a scepter-sword named Gordost, mean "desire" and "pride" in Russian, respectively.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Her chimeric traits are based around beautiful yet deadly predators: She has the right front leg of a Margay cat, the eight eyes and four extra legs of a Black Widow spider, the wings of a Northern Shrike, and the left hind leg of an Arctic fox.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Much like Bolezn, she has extra limbs, though in her case she has the legs of a Black Widow spider. Her One-Winged Angel form also takes the form of a Black Widow spider with the head of a doe. She's also one of the Four Terrors and Temnobog's youngest child, and an "constructive" Evil goddess who encourages the indulging of Lust and Pride in order to weed out the wicked and morally weak among mortal Deerkind.
• Noble Demon: Despite being the embodiment of Deerkind's Lust and Pride, she follows her father's philosophy of Evil and Suffering as constructive forces that maintain the Balance and counteract Good and Contentment. So she commits horrific acts of evil that normally would have gotten her wiped off the face of Equus many times over. She's even willing to restrain himself and/or sabotage her pawns, subordinates, and even herself if they're being too good at being evil, so the heroes will be given a chance to succeed.
• A Party, Also Known as an Orgy: Indulges in this a LOT. With her worshipers, with the damned, with her own family...
• Really Gets Around: As the divine embodiment of Lust and the youngest daughter of Ispita the Temptress via Temnobog, Pokhot is this to truly spectacular levels. She is implied to sleep with her own brother Yarost (which their mortal worshipers strongly believe to be true), and many of her own subordinates are likely her own demi-divine/fully-divine children. However, unlike Ispita, who is an abusive parent and only treats her children as useful tools in her own plans, it's also implied that Pokhot genuinely loves all her divine/demi-divine children and treats them well.
• Red Baron: Among the Erobreseg Deer Herds she is the The "Mother/Queen/King/Father/Prince of Lusts". Among the Alvslog Deer Herds, she is "The Defiler/Corrupter" and "The Whore Spider".
• Secret Test of Character: As a constructively Evil goddess, she doles these out like her father does. Specifically, she tempts mortal Deer by stroking their egos and seducing them into sinful excess. Those who resist her earn her respect and are spared. However, she's willing to make things easier, even sabotaging her own pawns and worshipers, if the heroes she's testing are having a hard time.
  • It's mentioned in her entry that Pokhot enjoys playing "games" of temptation with Golden Scepter's Semi-Divine sons whenever they visit the Bogolenya pantheon, by convincing them to lust after the darker sides of what they embody. This is because they're often worshiped as bastions of virtue in the Terran Empire, and because their divine father, Emperor Golden Scepter, is good friends with Temnobog, her father, so testing Golden Scepter's sons is just Pokhot's way of being friendly. One incident had her tempt Prince Crimson Star, the blind Alicorn demigod of Psionics, History, and Knowledge, into his old ways of studying forbidden knowledge to satiate his thirst for knowledge and to find a way to restore his sight. He shortly impressed her by rejecting her offers after realizing the heavy prices, and ended up walking away with genuine words of praise and a tome containing information on ancient and lost civilizations.
• Seers: Her gigantic Deer-Spider hybrid form grants her limited precognitive abilities, which references the spider being a symbol of destiny and mysticism. This allows Pokhot to predict the outcomes of certain actions. But she prefers not to use it because 1) being able to predict anything will make her fights boring, and 2) because she prides herself in her individuality, she hates ruining the future potential of heroes and champions before they had the chance to properly grow into it, making her no different from the pride-breakers she loathes with a passion like her Fallen mother, Ispita, and her puristic grandfather, High King Irminsul.
• Undying Loyalty: She's loyal to her father, Temnobog, who she adores, and carries out his will in testing heroic mortals. She's also loyal to her siblings.
• The Vamp: As the Damsel of Desire, she serves as Temnobog's chief temptress, seducing people with suspect morality into wickedness. She acts like this so she could weed out the wicked among Deerkind, as those who resist her temptations are spared.
• Villainous Incest: Her entry, as well as Yarost's entry, suggests she admired her brother to the point of sleeping with him; this was neither confirmed nor denied, but it's strongly believed to be the case In-Universe among many Temnobog Cultists. Pokhot's entry also suggests she doesn't limit herself to Yarost and indulges this with her own extended family of demigod and godly children. Her behavior largely stems from being the embodiment of Lust, which she inherited from her mother, Ispita, though unlike her, who only sees her own children as useful tools in her plans to grant the "Darkest Wish", Pokhot genuinely loves all of her children regardless of who she sired them with.
• Wretched Hive: Pokhot's fief in her father's domain is essentially this. On the surface it appears to be a prosperous, advanced and cultured Saddle Arabian-themed empire. Beneath the veneer however the whole fief is appropriately a massive den of decadence, corruption and iniquity, where Pokhot, her children, and her minions/worshippers are the 'upper class' who indulges in endless depravity and debauchery upon the 'lower class' damned shades, treating the latter as little more than their slaves, cattle and toys to feed their ravenous lust and pride as the damned's punishment for their own sins of lust and pride.
• Write What You Know: An In-Universe example. When she learned her father and uncle's terrible history with her grandfather, High King Irminsul, she secluded herself for a while to write a play about a tragic young Doe whose attempts to stay kind and generous ultimately fail because of overwhelming prejudice against her for being the daughter of a vile criminal, as well as any evil traits she may have inherited from her father. The play also implied that her father himself is the ultimate consequences of sapientkind's hubris in trying to get rid of Evil itself. While the play was critically-acclaimed, Belyolen and Temnobog quickly caught on to the similarities between what happened in real life and in Pokhot's play. True to form, they would find Pokhot sobbing in her dressing room after the play was over, traumatized over knowing she and her siblings' future potential and inner goodness were ruined by Irminsul and his twisted ideas of "perfection".

Servants of the Four Terrors

Lady Zolata, the Golden Touch

First introduced in a Drabble, Lady Zolata, the Golden Touch is one of Bolezn, the Master of Pestilence's ascendant archdemoness, known for her theatrical, jovial, social and enthusiastic 'Affably Evil' demeanour whether committing unspeakable evil in service of Bolezn or making friendly acquaintance with both heroes and villains alike.

---

• Affably Evil: Known for being theatrical, jovial, social and enthusiastic, even when committing unspeakable evil or making friendly interactions with heroes and villains alike.
• Twisted Christmas: Inflicted a Hearths Warming version of one of these upon a town which was steadily degenerating into a hive of crime and corruption due to the greed of its denizens. She appeared in the form of a rich philantropist during an impromptu Hearths Warming Eve parade, cheerfully singing Hearths Warming songs and tossing out gifts to the town's denizens from her float. The gifts were greedily taken up by the town's people, only for them to be revealed as cursed by Zolata, inflicting terrible fates such as turning them into gold/gemstone statues, rotting away their food and property and leaving them hungry and penniless in the cold, zapping their vitality and leaving them crippled by age and sickness, among other things. Only those who are selfless and pious enough to decline them or give them to someone else in generosity (which undoes the curse as they are fueled by avarice), although with only so few of them most of the town was devastated. Considering it a job well done, Zolata went back to her hell-fief to celebrate Hearths Warming with her subordinates, mortal family, peers and master afterwards.

The Vermin Prince

The Vermin Prince (first introduced here) is an infamous Ascendant "Tormentor"-type demon working under Bolezn.

---

Bojnia the Bloodlord

"UNNECESSARY VIOLENCE TRIUMPHS ONCE AGAIN!"

Bojnia the Bloodlord (first introduced here) is a champion of Yarost, the Prince of Murder.

---

---