Skiggaret

Skiggaret was the bogeyman of the bugbear race, a god of fear that was as nightmare-inducing to them as they were to others.

Description
Skiggaret appeared as a pitch-black bugbear, about tall, with hands and feet as red as the lips that formed his half-crazy smile.

Personality
Skiggaret was a partially insane god thought by the bugbears to be a hateful being that enjoyed terror, torture, and death.

Powers
Skiggaret was more powerful than most demigods, power granted to him by the other bugbear gods. His avatar was always surrounded by a cloak of fear and could generate effects mimicking darkness, ray of enfeeblement and radiant chill in a radius around himself, each twice per day for one minute. He himself was immune to the effects of fear, cold and paralysis, could see through magical darkness and could slay the living once each day.

Possessions
Skiggaret was known to possess an enchanted dagger of venom and wand of fear.

Divine Realm
Skiggaret shared his realm, the 241 layer of the Abyss known as Palpitatia, with another bugbear deity, Grankhul. It was a gloomy realm of never-ending darkness and fear populated by shadows and spectres.

Activities
Skiggaret stalked worlds like a prowling predator, driving bugbears to commit destructive acts by fostering aggression in them through fear. Often he served as messenger for the rest of the pantheon, bringing dread in order to inform the recipient of the terror that they had displeased the pantheon as a whole.

Relationships
Aside from serving as messenger for the bugbear gods, Skiggaret had little to no relationships. He did have some alliance with the Stalker, albeit one of mutual toleration more than active cooperation.

Worshipers
Skiggaret had no priests because bugbears didn't truly worship him, wanting nothing to do with their god of fear and avoiding him whenever possible. His omens were sudden chills, particularly a spine-chilling feeling, raising fur, and magic pools of darkness; in broad terms, bugbears believed that whenever they felt fear, it was because Skiggaret was haunting them. This typically occurred when they believed themselves to be in mortal danger and their self-preservation instinct kicked in, forcing them to perform any craven act to survive. This feeling was by no means enjoyable for them, so on the rare occasion when they had to speak of Skiggaret, they did so in whispers and tried not to talk about what they did when they thought they were under his influence, afraid that speaking of it could summon him back.

Despite being terrified of Skiggaret, bugbears believed him to be a kind of necessary evil whose frightful presence brought strength to those who survived. They tried to propitiate him with sacrifices, particularly by torturing prisoners, and sometimes did so in times of direst need in the hopes that the dark god would hear their pleas and drive off their enemies.