Character · Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods

Emberus

God of Sun and Ash, level 250, youngest brother of Taranis and twin of Hellik: blind since he plucked out his own eyes when his favourite son Geyrun was murdered, 'one of the most unhinged of all the pantheon', a locked god no sponsor may buy this season. He walks through the Lacuna shouting for his dead son's puppy, and becomes, by Carl's choice on a falling biplane, Carl's god.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 28 — Emberus
• Chapter 29 — Where the Red God Glows
• Chapter 30 — Get Orthrus
• Chapter 31 — Emberus, summoned
• Chapter 32 — Acolyte of Emberus
• Chapter 34 — Seeding the pond

Arc

The blind god

A flaming giant who walks through popped bubbles crushing villages, shouting 'Orthrus', unable, Elle thinks, to see into sealed ones, yet cooking the people inside anyway (ch. 28). His card: Sun and Ash God, level 250, invulnerable, a locked god no sponsor may buy this season; Taranis's youngest brother and half the sun duology with his twin Hellik; 'one of the most unhinged of all the pantheon'; his eyes plucked out in grief for his murdered favourite son (ch. 31) — Geyrun, by Orthrus's card and the quest (ch. 29, ch. 32). Samantha: her great-uncle and cousin, who once buried a country in lava because a drunk urinated on a torch.

Carl's god

On a death-spiralling biplane Carl chooses him over Grull in the god tab and throws the Skull Empire's Celestial Grenade; Emberus appears as a city-sized bleeding head, takes the plane in the nose, where it explodes, and says, 'Orthrus. There you are. I've been looking for you. I was so very worried' (ch. 31). The cost: a shrine in the saferoom, two sun tattoos, a daily drop of blood and a five-percent tithe, and two quests in his own gravelly voice — find who killed Geyrun, and kill Hellik before the twelfth floor, with a bonus if painfully (ch. 32). The benefit: a boon, a burn, and free access to Club Vanquisher, with an asterisk.