Yamaraja

Honor King Yama with the oblation, first mortal ever to die, blazer of the trail from the World into the darkness beneath. Son of the sun Surya, grandson of the demiurge Vishvakarman, he answers the call we code as poetry, inviting dead souls to Naraka for judgment. His four-eyed dogs guard the gates and his Yamaduta messengers guide the dead past flesh-eating ghouls and demons. He is close to Agni, who burns the dead before their souls pass towards him. Lord Chitragupta is his most devoted secretary, and the record keeper for all who ever have died. His emblems are the noose and stick, his mount the buffalo.

Since Yamaraja rules Naraka, many Asian peoples’ shared afterworld, he is as much Shén, Kami, and Pala as he is Devá. Of all the Devá — indeed, of all the Gods, he is busiest and most stressed. His organizational skills and wise judgment make him invaluable to all these pantheons. He wields the Purviews of Yoga, Tianming, Yidam, and Yaoyorozu-no-Kamigami in equal measures.

His Scions, beloved as they are to him, must make appointments with Chitragupta to see him. He has no avatars. They’d take too much time. The king of law points his Scions toward the dirtiest jobs, which even the mighty fear. Paperwork. Caring for the sick and elderly, or those beyond help. More paperwork. Seriously, one might be surprised how much confusing paperwork punching down buildings and founding political movements generates. When the unthinkable happens, when the world falls into confusion, when everyone around them breaks down and falls into their worst habits, there they shine, there they thrive as masters of death and darkness, who bring grace to the things everyone else fears.