Hel - Maiden of Death

When the Himlingr’s first ascended to godhood, Hel was haunted by a sudden cacophony of whispers, screams and wails through her first days; as though the entire world cried out to her at once. It was not for many weeks after, that she came to understand the sounds were in fact the rampant agony of the deceased whose souls were not afforded to wander Syelden, yet cursed to walk upon the featureless Spirit Plains that existed in tandem with Minera’s physical form. They were the accursed, the vagabonds, murderers, usurers and thieves whose souls were not granted passage to the afterlife, but forced to walk in penance upon the ghostly plains until their souls were reborn or they earned their penance in death. When Hel realised this, she began to regularly commune with the souls around her, learning of their names, nature and crimes in their past lives. To them, she afforded her own judgement, beyond the judgements of Namneri or the other Tharameni. For their truth, Hel would bound some to reincarnation, giving them a second chance to live honourable lives, or send them to her own afterlife in a pocket dimension she had carved for herself: Helheim. Thus she begat her own army of the damned, loyal servants who blindly followed her tug of the leash by promises of reincarnation and redemption for their next lives. Recently, it has become clear to Hel that her father spoke truth of their ascension to godhood, and she realises with each day that her powers are dwindling. Now she aims to empower herself through other means, through indoctrinating her followers further into despair, demanding sacrifices from them in order to fulfill her duties as their goddess. Yet she will soon be faced with a difficult dilemma, as the populations dwindle and cannot match her demand for sacrifices, as their morale and faith dwindles.