In the early ages of the world, death was a simple thing. Creatures lived, and when the span of their life ended, they fell still. But some things did not accept this ending. Some bodies clung to animation through force of will or curse. Some flesh refused to decay, held together by magic or desperation. Some souls so fiercely rejected their own ending that they persisted in the corpse's ruins, neither alive nor properly dead.

The other gods observed this disorder with concern. Death was not yet death if the body would not complete its return to the world. If the flesh would not rot and feed the soil, then something had broken in the natural cycle. If souls would not release, then Sheol received neither the departed nor the closure the living needed.

In conference, the gods came to understand that death itself needed a steward. Not a god of mortality—that was the province of many, in their way. But a god of the process, the inexorable completion of what the mortal span had begun. A god who honored the work that had to be done: the breaking down of what was, the stripping of flesh from bone, the transformation of matter into food and soil and memory.

And so Damballa came into being, not celebrated but necessary. Birthed from the collective will of the gods to maintain the order they governed, understood immediately and forever as something other than his siblings. Damballa was not invited to the great feasts. No mortals prayed to him in joy. But they called to him in the hour of need, when the dying needed release, when the dead required proper ending, when the work of death had to be done by someone, and it fell to those who had neither the privilege nor the power to refuse.

His earliest followers were not saints. They were the gravediggers, the executioners, the women who washed corpses, the men forced to dispose of plague dead when every other god's temples had closed their doors. They understood what Damballa knew: someone must do this work, and if no one else will, we will. In that acceptance lay the seeds of his faith—not worship built on love or fear, but worship built on necessity and honesty.

Over the ages, Damballa's followers fragmented into tribes, each understanding the process of death through a different lens. Some saw the breaking of bone as the soul's release. Some saw the flight of carrion birds as divine messengers. Some found god in the work of insects, in the patient decomposition, in the silent transformation of death into life. These differences, born from regions and practices, hardened into sects. But all honored the same principle: the cycle must complete, and we are those who ensure it does.

Damballa offers neither comfort nor salvation. He offers completion.

The followers of Damballa speak of things most ignore, with clarity most find horrifying:

(See also: claw/Soul_Coins_and_Divine_Economy)

Damballa gains power through the completion of death—souls properly released, bodies properly returned, the cycle functioning without interruption.

Damballa has no temples, by doctrine. His sacred spaces are the places where death is actually happening: gravesites, plague houses, battlefields, charnel grounds, the places where bodies gather and the work of decomposition must be managed.

When Damballa's followers gather for worship, they do so at these sites. A graveyard in active use becomes a place of worship simply through the presence of those who tend it. A plague house becomes sacred through the work of those who remove and release the dead within. A decomposition ground—a place where bodies are left to the elements and to scavengers—becomes holy ground through the acceptance of what occurs there.

Some regions have established gathering grounds: sites dedicated to the work of death, with areas for the practice of soul-release rituals, spaces for the tending of corpses, areas where permitted scavengers gather. These are not temples in any traditional sense. They are working spaces, and their sanctity comes from the honesty of what is done there.

The absence of grand architecture is not incidental. Damballa's followers do not build to awe the living. They work in the spaces death creates, and they make those spaces clean, tolerable, and properly serving their function.

The Damballan priesthood is organized around tribal affiliation, each focused on a different aspect of death's completion. The four primary tribes are:

The Hyena Tribe believes the soul's release is located in the breaking of the skull and the destruction of the brain. They are associated with violent or sudden deaths, with the work of exposing bone, with the practice of skull-crushing in formal soul-release rituals.

The Vulture Tribe understands the heart as the seat of the soul's binding. They specialize in the extraction of the heart and its symbolic destruction—tearing it from the chest and crushing it underfoot. They work most often with deaths from disease or slow endings.

The Bluebottle Fly Tribe finds sacred work in the process of insect decomposition, particularly the activity of flies in breaking down soft tissue. They tend corpses in open spaces, protect the work of insects, and teach that the fly is Damballa's messenger and agent.

The Conqueror Worm Tribe focuses on the slow work of underground decomposition—the breaking of bones by soil microbes and worms, the return of matter to earth. They maintain burial grounds and work with bodies that will be returned to soil.

These tribes sometimes compete, sometimes cooperate, but all are understood as necessary expressions of Damballa's will. A priest is born into or initiated into one tribe, and their practices and beliefs are shaped by that tribe's understanding of death's work. The tensions between them—particularly between the Hyenas and Vultures, whose methods are most different—are accepted as theologically productive, not problematic.

Recruitment to Damballa's faith happens in specific circumstances: when someone has encountered death directly and has not turned away, when someone finds themselves abandoned by other communities and drawn toward necessary work others refuse.

Soft entry is isolation. A person begins to work with the dead—cleaning bodies, burying them, learning the practices. No one invites them; they simply begin. Other Dampallans recognize them and, over time, draw them into the faith's actual structure and knowledge.

Initiation is performed at a death-site before witnesses from one's chosen tribe. The initiate witnesses a soul-release ritual and then participates in it, breaking the final bonds that hold a soul to its corpse. The work is bloody and difficult; completion of the ritual is understood as proof of the initiate's commitment to continue.

What marks someone as outside the faith: Refusal to accept death. Attempting to preserve the dead unnaturally. Harming those who do Damballa's work. Profiting from the work without honoring it. Those who treat the labor of death-priests as beneath them, or who call for the work while despising those who do it.

A devoted Damballan priest is recognizable by their steadiness in the face of things that disturb others.

Date: Darkest night of the year.

On this night, Damballa's followers gather at major death-sites to perform mass soul-release rituals for the corpses that have accumulated through the year. It is the only time Damballa's followers gather in large numbers, and the scale of the work is immense. The rituals are performed tribe by tribe (Hyenas crushing skulls with ceremonial clubs; Vultures extracting and breaking hearts; Bluebottles tending the insects released on bodies; Conquerors marking graves), each executing their portion of the sacred work. The gathering is not joyful, but there is something like satisfaction in the completion of work necessary and well-done.

Date: The last three days of any month.

During these days, followers minimize speech, minimize distraction, and spend time in meditation at death-sites or in presence with the dying. The Vigil is understood as a time to contemplate mortality, to accept one's own eventual death, to prepare the soul for what must come. The faith teaches that the more thoroughly the living accept death, the easier the final moment becomes.

The central ritual, performed whenever a body is new and a soul must be freed from its corpse. The method varies by tribe:

Hyena rite: The priest approaches the corpse and, with a ceremonial club, strikes the skull until the bone is shattered. As the bone breaks, a prayer is spoken: "The house of thought is unmade. The soul is released."

Vulture rite: The priest opens the chest cavity and extracts the heart. Holding it aloft, they speak: "The seat of longing is severed. The soul is released." They then crush the heart underfoot, sealing the release.

Bluebottle rite: The priest ensures access to the corpse for insects, particularly flies. They tend the early stages of fly colonization and lay hands on the corpse as the insects begin their work, speaking: "The living world claims what it is owed. The soul is released."

Conqueror Worm rite: The priest oversees the placement of the corpse in a grave or decomposition ground and ensures proper conditions for soil microbes and worms. Over months and years, they tend the grave, watching the slow transformation. The release is gradual, completed when only bones remain.

Performed when an intelligent undead creature has been encountered or when a corpse refuses natural decomposition due to magical preservation. The ritual involves identifying the nature of the bond (magical, voluntary, infernal) and systematically destroying it. For vampires, this may mean exposure to elements that weaken them; for magically preserved corpses, it may mean destroying the enchantments; for liches and their phylacteries, it may require lengthy investigation and destruction.

Damballa's followers wear clothing suited to the work of death—practical, washable, unadorned by excess.

A long, heavy robe in dark brown or black, made of material that can withstand contact with decomposing flesh and can be thoroughly cleaned. The robe often bears stains that no amount of washing fully removes—a mark of the work's honesty.

A mask carved from bone, often animal bone, worn during ritual work. The mask serves practical purposes (protection from the smell of decay) and symbolic ones (the face of the priest becomes the face of death itself). Different tribes use different masks: Hyenas use skulls of predators; Vultures use bird skulls; Bluebottles use insect exoskeletons; Conquerors use mole skulls or other burrowing creatures.

A necklace made of small bones and teeth, each piece representing a different aspect of death and decomposition. The chain is added to throughout a priest's life—new pieces earned or crafted following significant ritual work. The weight and length of the chain marks seniority.

A small glass vial worn at the neck, containing soil from a grave or ash from a cremation. The vial represents the priest's commitment to the work of return—that all things, including themselves, must one day decompose and nourish the earth.

A leather belt with multiple pouches, each containing tools and materials for soul-release work: ceremonial clubs, bone-working tools, herbs used in rituals, soil from significant death-sites, ash, cloth for wrapping.

Mogumbo was a tribal seer who, in the early days of Damballa's worship, faced a crisis: a great leader lay dying, and the whole tribe gathered, hoping for miracle or reprieve. But Damballa brought neither—the dying man's time had simply come. Mogumbo understood what must happen: the soul must be released, the body must be returned to earth, and the tribe must accept this and continue.

He performed the first formal skull-crushing, speaking the words that would become ritual: "The house of thought is unmade. The soul is released." What he discovered through that brutal act was theological: the moment the bone broke, the dying man's face—which had been strained, twisted—became still, peaceful, released.

Mogumbo understood then what Damballa already knew: that death's work, properly done, is the greatest mercy. His insight that the brain was the seat of the soul's binding became doctrine for the Hyena Tribe, and his example of facing necessary brutality with clear eyes became the standard for all Damballa's followers.

Centuries after Mogumbo, Cankun the Vulture Seer came to a different conclusion about where the soul's binding was seated. Through meditation and observation, he concluded it was the heart—the seat of longing, of attachment, of the will that kept a soul bound to the corpse it should have left. His method of extraction and destruction became doctrine for the Vulture Tribe, and the theological disagreement between Hyenas and Vultures began.

Rather than resolving the disagreement, Damballa's followers understood it as productive: different souls required different forms of release. The work of death was varied, and the variations honored different truths about mortality.

How they refer to themselves: the Skull-Breakers or the Quick Release

The Hyena Tribe understands death as something to be broken through—sudden, violent, final. They work primarily with deaths that are sudden (violence, accident) or deaths that must be swift (plague, disaster). Their method is the crushing of the skull; their doctrine is that the soul's attachment is in thought, in the mind, and that the swift destruction of that seat produces immediate release.

Hyenas are the most direct and the least patient of Damballa's followers. They work in conditions of chaos, where speed matters. They are often first to the battlefield and last to leave.

How they refer to themselves: the Heart-Breakers or the Deep Release

The Vulture Tribe believes that the soul's true binding is emotional and spiritual—that it clings to life through longing, attachment, the will to persist. Only by destroying the heart, the seat of this longing, can true release occur. They work primarily with diseases that destroy the body slowly, giving time for the ritual to be performed with care.

Vultures are more contemplative than Hyenas, more willing to take days or weeks with a body if the work requires it. They are philosophers of death, and their practice is more meditative.

How they refer to themselves: the Living Intermediaries or the Quick Return

The Bluebottle Tribe understands decomposition as the work of countless living creatures—insects, microbes, scavengers. Rather than viewing death as something to be broken, they view it as something to be invited, enabled, protected. They facilitate the work of flies and other insects, understanding these creatures as Damballa's direct agents.

Bluebottles are the most nature-connected of the tribes, the most willing to work outside, the most protective of the scavengers other communities despise.

How they refer to themselves: the Patient Tenders or the Long Release

The Conqueror Worm Tribe believes that death is not a moment but a process, one that unfolds over months and years as soil and microbes slowly break the body down. They tend burial grounds and maintain the conditions under which worms and microbes can work most effectively. Their practice is less ritual and more stewardship.

Conquerors are the most likely to be farmers or gardeners alongside their death-work, understanding soil fertility as inseparable from the work of decomposition.

How they refer to themselves: the Preservers or the Eternal Keepers

This heretical sect claims that Damballa has jurisdiction not only over the body's decomposition but over the soul itself—that souls can and should be bound to places or objects for purposes of judgment, preservation, or continued service. They perform rituals to bind souls, preventing their release.

The orthodox faith sees this as an inversion of Damballa's core purpose. The soul must release; that is the whole foundation of the faith. Those who prevent release are not followers of Damballa; they are his enemies.

How they refer to themselves: the Preservationists or the Eternal Form

This group directly violates the taboo against interfering with natural decomposition by practicing embalming and mummification. They argue that preserving the body allows for extended contemplation of death's mysteries, that the body's form is sacred and should be maintained.

The orthodoxy considers them blasphemers. A body that will not decompose is a soul that cannot release; they create the very prisons Damballa works to break.

How they refer to themselves: the Soul Wielders or the Resurrection Path

While Damballa's tenets strictly forbid the creation of intelligent undead, this sect believes that necromancy can be used in service of Damballa's goals—that undead can be created to teach the living about the impermanence of life, to carry messages between the living and the dead, or to prevent certain souls from being lost.

The faith finds this a fundamental corruption of Damballa's nature. Creating undead is creating precisely the thing Damballa most opposes: souls trapped in decomposing flesh, unable to release.

How they refer to themselves: the Deepening or the Collective Return

Members of this cult take the Conqueror Worm Tribe's veneration of insects and worms to an extreme, maintaining massive colonies of flesh-eating insects and using them in rituals that some describe as torture and others as transformation. They believe that exposure to live decomposition—allowing insects to feed on living tissue—is a form of sacred communion with death.

Even other Damballa followers find this cult extreme. The orthodox faith permits the insects their work on the dead; the cult permits them access to the living.

How they refer to themselves: the Scavenger's Path or the Animal Return

This cult reveres scavengers—hyenas, vultures, jackals—to the point of near-worship, considering them to be higher agents of Damballa than humans. Members live among packs of wild scavengers, leaving corpses exposed for their consumption, and sometimes assisting the animals in their feeding.

The cult is small, often nomadic, and widely feared. Other Damballans see them as having lost the core understanding of what death-work is: a responsibility that mortals must shoulder. The Carrion Cult has inverted this, placing the burden on animals and positioning themselves as merely facilitators.

How they refer to themselves: the Mercy Keepers or the Hasteners

This cult believes that the moment of death itself is the most sacred aspect of Damballa's domain—that the transition from life to death is more important than the subsequent decomposition. They position themselves as "mercy killers," hastening the death of those who are suffering or (in their view) morally compromised.

The cult is universally condemned, both by orthodox Damballa followers and by secular law. They have created more harm than any other Damballan faction, and their actions are understood as blasphemy: they have claimed authority over life and death that belongs only to natural law and Damballa himself.

(See: Cosmology/Physical Realms/The Shattered Domain)