The Keres
Daughters of Nyx
The lineage of the Keres traces back to Nyx, the primordial goddess of the night, a being feared even by Zeus, the king of gods. Born of Chaos, Nyx was a deity of such grandeur and dread that even the mighty Olympians shied away from her dark veil and treated her with both respect and fear. As one of many creations that came from Nyx’s secret research spaces, the Keres inherited a portion of this awe-inspiring dread, becoming entities that even the gods could not easily sway.
They were created for Hades, and were considered a part of his court. Though these strange creatures were not human, they were clearly sentient. In their natural form they were faceless beings of darkness that took eerie female shape, usually with wings or claws, being able to phase between corporeal and incorporeal states. However within Hades’ court they covered themselves with robes and porcelain masks. Different patterns denoted different daughters, though they chose no names. Often their masks were cast in mournfully frozen expression, and were ornately decorated, always with Nyx’s three crescents among the design. They were capable of speech, but rarely did. At least not with mortals.
Nyx bound these daughters to different duties. Those tied to the court were arbiters of Hades’ will, and acted as his spies within it, and as symbols of his power outside it. They were often sent to claim the souls of Hades’ enemies and were regarded as spirits of death, dragging the penitent to Hades for judgement. Though notably a Keres could not harm or kill a human herself, they had the ability to pluck on fate and hasten the likelihood of bad luck, thus they were very ill harbingers. The silent stare behind their masks was a reminder that Hades was always watching, and death was always waiting.
The personality of one the Keres was as cold and unyielding as their appearance. They were not swayed by pleas or offerings, nor did they revel in their grim task. They were the personification of violent death, devoid of personal desires or emotions, and their actions were not driven by malice or pleasure, but by the inexorable call of fate, a duty they fulfilled without hesitation or remorse.
When they were free of their humanising vestments and left to their own devices, they were known to haunt battlefields for the fatally wounded, as well as murder scenes and epidemics, where they feasted on the most violent of deaths. Often they were unleashed during war, for human blood seems to be the payment Nyx negotiated with them.
Some of these daughters were secretly bound to Tartarus as a fail safe against escapees, for when they have the scent of a soul they are relentless in their pursuit. Ultimately, the Keres fell with their gods — all of them but the daughters tied to Tartarus, for they existed there in hibernation. Or they did, until in the First Age Thalia Milton used the One Power to unlock a soul-cell, and inadvertently released them back into the world.
Confused, they will likely first seek out the souls most familiar to them: those of Nyx and Hades.
The black Dooms gnashing their white teeth, grim-eyed, fierce, bloody, terrifying fought over the men who were dying for they were all longing to drink dark blood. As soon as they caught a man who had fallen or one newly wounded, one of them clasped her great claws around him and his soul went down to Hades, to chilly Tartarus. And when they had satisfied their hearts with human blood, they would throw that one behind them and rush back again into the battle and the tumult.
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