Sunday, June 16, 2013

Religion and the Hill Cantons Part Two: the Outlier Deities

Following up from the last post on religion and the HC campaign, the remaining two “outcast” deities of Solarism and the pagan old gods of the Pahr. The last post will finish the series up with the myriad godlings and inimical gods (and an “Appendix N” of all the various half-baked sources in the cosmology mix).

Habeka the Celestial Lady
A spurned and feisty female deity (also called the Lady, She Who We Shall Not Mention, or the Triple-Goddess) whose now-heretical followers seek to restore her place in the Divine Family. While her relative divine status is disputed, her location and lack of mobility is not: she is currently chained to the Great Hearth constellation—a situation she and her followers greatly resent, naturally. Men of learning attribute the nourishing twice annual Blood Rains to the Lady's periodic revenge beatings of the Sun Lord with her star-forged silver chains.

Her followers are divided among three bickering secret societies: the Evening Star, the Morning Star, and the Starry Void lodges. The first two societies are mostly moderate and socially egalitarian factions with a strong base artisans and denizens of the Borderlands. The Starry Void is a zealous, secretive, and lotus-addled crew who are rumored to dabble with the Mysteries of the Outer Void.
A: Neutral (Evening Star), Chaotic Good (Morning Star), Neutral to Chaotic Evil? (Starry Void)
B: Darkness 15' foot (3), Commune (7), Meteor Swarm (15)
C: All classes but Clerics and Druids. Magic users, Monks and Assassins only for the Starry Void.
D: Co-Ruler of All Creation, Mystery, Motherhood
William Blake's The Night of Enitharmon's Joy (often called Hecate)

The Antagonist, The Fallen Demiurge, Ha-Vul
A third malicious yet lawful entity, carefully never called directly by its true name, is often attributed to the Solarist religious grouping. Some in the borderlands believe that the god has no real substance and is merely a folk legend maintained by the Sun Lord's spiritual lords to scare some moral purity into the dullard minds of Corelands folk. Others say that this entity is the collective spirit of that fell domain known as the Anti-Cantons and a brave few maintain that he may even be a wayward, malicious aspect of the Sun Lord himself.
A: Lawful Evil only
B: reversed spells only. Cause Light Wounds (2)
C: (Anti) Clerics
D: Rigidity, Corruption, Being a Dick

Pahr “Old Gods”
The gods worshiped by the Pahr people of the Overkingdom and Kezmarok before their conversion.

Svat the Four-Faced
Distant, vaguely warm Father Figure god, head of the Pahr Pantheon but greatly diminished in power to the point of his fading from existence outside of the four-faced wooden pillar shrines. It's unclear what we does all day and when he gets home he sits by the fire, smiling distractedly. 

A: Chaotic Good in some aspects, Neutral in others.
B: Pass Without Trace (2)
C: Druids, Fighters
D: Formerly all things. Unclear what current domain is other than his veneration by the unemployed and harassed Pahr fathers.

Radegast
Old Pahr name Radhošt. He is still widely revered during harvest rituals throughout the cantons as a folklore symbol even by Sun Lord worshipers.
A: Chaotic Good
B: Resist Drink (1), can voluntarily elect to drink three times as much as normal without becoming inebriated. Friends (2). Cheat Fate (5): Reroll a single die roll. Otto's Irresistible Dance (15)
C: Fighters, Rangers, Thieves, Mountebanks, Magic-Users
D: Hospitality, Games, Ludic Activity, Generosity, Fermented Drinks and the “Dionysic Soul”.


Storm-Child
Reputed by certain esoteric orders to be merely the half-human offspring of one of Radegast's many dalliances with the female half of humankind, he is undoubtedly the most beloved of the Lord of Hosts' children and his cult flourishes to this day in the backhills of the borderlands. His followers' abodes are instantly recognizable by the littering of children's toys, many teeth-marked, throughout their living space. Not one for subtle interventions Storm-Child demands the attention of mortals he encounter. Many of the “touched” ruffians, mountebanks and picaros that style themselves “adventurers” spread too-consistent tales of hearing the godling's howls carried by a far wind while deep in the Weird.

A: Chaotic Good
B: The Squalling (2), Shocking Grasp (4)
C: Fighters, thieves, half-ogres
D: Thunderstorms, Willfulness, and Dice



2 comments:

  1. "one of Radegast's many dalliances with the female half of humankind"

    Nicely done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great posts. Love the Mucha artwork.

    ReplyDelete