Editing The Elemental Gods
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A character knows the following with a successful Religion check: | A character knows the following with a successful Religion check: | ||
− | * '''DC 20''' | + | * '''DC 20''' |
* '''DC 25''' - ''Calling Home the Weary Sailors'' - Daily in his innermost sanctum, Annwyn practices a ritual of power, the only thing that brings the dead safely to his black ships and from there to his realm. If he failed to perform this ritual, the dead would remain in Scalgard and who knows what might happen then? There are some who claim that, though very secret, the ritual is not hard and a very skilled mortal necromancer might master it; a good thing, should Annwyn ever fall, or a terrible temptation to his power. | * '''DC 25''' - ''Calling Home the Weary Sailors'' - Daily in his innermost sanctum, Annwyn practices a ritual of power, the only thing that brings the dead safely to his black ships and from there to his realm. If he failed to perform this ritual, the dead would remain in Scalgard and who knows what might happen then? There are some who claim that, though very secret, the ritual is not hard and a very skilled mortal necromancer might master it; a good thing, should Annwyn ever fall, or a terrible temptation to his power. | ||
* '''DC 30''' - ''Dust, Ashes and Forgot'' - The Prince of Dust calls many souls guests in his house. One of these, his name now lost, was (or would have been) a sixth god, his purview the Shadows. If he knows the name of his slayer(s) and what has become of her, he has whispered it only to Annwyn. Who now, if anyone, controls his shadows is similarly a mystery. | * '''DC 30''' - ''Dust, Ashes and Forgot'' - The Prince of Dust calls many souls guests in his house. One of these, his name now lost, was (or would have been) a sixth god, his purview the Shadows. If he knows the name of his slayer(s) and what has become of her, he has whispered it only to Annwyn. Who now, if anyone, controls his shadows is similarly a mystery. | ||
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Mother Crow is a goddess of permanence and stasis. She has found, in Scalgard, a perfect place, and she wishes that it would never change; she would cover the world in the stasis of her bitter cold, and rule forever as its queen. She has already begun, for far to the north, past even the frosty shores of Orcheim, the goddess lives in a palace made of crystal. So cold and still is her domain that not even Mannanan's winds can reach her - they die in silence while clouds fall to the ground as snow. A thousand frozen statues of men dot the approach to her home, testament to her implacable will. | Mother Crow is a goddess of permanence and stasis. She has found, in Scalgard, a perfect place, and she wishes that it would never change; she would cover the world in the stasis of her bitter cold, and rule forever as its queen. She has already begun, for far to the north, past even the frosty shores of Orcheim, the goddess lives in a palace made of crystal. So cold and still is her domain that not even Mannanan's winds can reach her - they die in silence while clouds fall to the ground as snow. A thousand frozen statues of men dot the approach to her home, testament to her implacable will. | ||
− | In her goal, though Beira stands opposed by every god, the last laugh may yet be hers; Beira's interest in an endless time gives her the gift of prophecy | + | In her goal, though Beira stands opposed by every god, the last laugh may yet be hers; Beira's interest in stillness and an endless time gives her the gift of prophecy. The Queen of Frost can tell what the future holds; she may tell a petitioner, but the furthest futures always end with ice. For this reason alone, despite the dangers it brings, many are the lords of Scalgard who have asked one of Beira's priests to advise them. |
Beira is an older, serene woman with painfully sharp features and bluish skin and hair. She wears a mantle of furs above her gown, and cradles a crystal scepter in her arms. On her regal brow she wears a crown of icicles. Her priests are called '''Rime-hags''' and are most often Devoted Clerics, and their powers do Cold damage rather than Radiant. | Beira is an older, serene woman with painfully sharp features and bluish skin and hair. She wears a mantle of furs above her gown, and cradles a crystal scepter in her arms. On her regal brow she wears a crown of icicles. Her priests are called '''Rime-hags''' and are most often Devoted Clerics, and their powers do Cold damage rather than Radiant. | ||
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A character knows the following with a successful Religion check: | A character knows the following with a successful Religion check: | ||
− | * '''DC 20''' | + | * '''DC 20''' |
− | * '''DC 25''' - ''The School of Ice'' - | + | * '''DC 25''' - ''The School of Ice'' - In her palace of cold north of Orcheim Beira is mistress of the Jokulholme, a school where she teaches 10 of her Rime-Hags the greatest rituals of frost for one year. At the end of that year, though, only nine of them return to the world of men. The tenth, the strongest, remains behind as Beira uses her final, most secret ritual to seal away his heat and life, and uses it to fuel her own frozen might. |
− | * '''DC 30''' - ''Standing On Native Snow'' - Of the | + | * '''DC 30''' - ''Standing On Native Snow'' - Of the gods, Beira alone was born within Scalgard. Her history is sung in the howling of the winter wind and written in the patterns made by snow drifts. Learning the whole of this history would undoubtedly grant insights into the sources of her sorcerous power, and how possibly to usurp it. |
==Cerithwen - the Lady of the Moon== | ==Cerithwen - the Lady of the Moon== | ||
− | Sister Hart is the mistress of the new. In other spheres, she dreamed of the world that Scalgard could be and she | + | Sister Hart is the mistress of the new. In other spheres, she dreamed of the world that Scalgard could be, and she longs to shape it to her dream. In her mind she sees crumbled towers not just made whole, but built up as spires of marble and silver, testaments to her glory. She will heal men of hurt and illness, or inspire inventors to new heights, all in the name of her dream. But a dream to some is a nightmare to others, and not all of the moon-beasts she makes have mankind's interests at heart. Her world is primal, and dangers would lurk there; worse, for her dream to become reality, the Scalgard we know today must fall, so its nations have much to fear from the Lady of the Moon. |
The gods' worst rivalry traces a regular path across the night sky, where Cerithwen makes her home. Month by month the moon waxes full and wanes, pursued, sometimes covered over, by storms. Mannanan chases Cerithwen through the night, and Stormlords make cruel jokes of their patron's lust for the comfort of her full breasts and his willingness to hold them by force. Annwyn's Cerements, a more scholarly lot (who nevertheless hold no love for the goddess who would unmake all of the lore they have collected), point out that a god so devoted to destruction would be naturally opposed to a goddess who sought to renew. Mannanan's chaos will never be complete so long as Cerithwen still lives. | The gods' worst rivalry traces a regular path across the night sky, where Cerithwen makes her home. Month by month the moon waxes full and wanes, pursued, sometimes covered over, by storms. Mannanan chases Cerithwen through the night, and Stormlords make cruel jokes of their patron's lust for the comfort of her full breasts and his willingness to hold them by force. Annwyn's Cerements, a more scholarly lot (who nevertheless hold no love for the goddess who would unmake all of the lore they have collected), point out that a god so devoted to destruction would be naturally opposed to a goddess who sought to renew. Mannanan's chaos will never be complete so long as Cerithwen still lives. | ||
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A character knows the following with a successful Religion check: | A character knows the following with a successful Religion check: | ||
− | * '''DC 20''' | + | * '''DC 20''' |
− | * '''DC 25''' - ''Early Birds Better Late'' - Ever seeking the new, Cerithwen was the first of the gods to come to Scalgard. Though she did not mean for them to see, | + | * '''DC 25''' - ''Early Birds Better Late'' - Ever seeking the new, Cerithwen was the first of the gods to come to Scalgard. Though she did not mean for them to see, the others followed her light to find the way. A skilled astrologer might be able trace her courses through the sky and find a path to the land from which the gods arrived, but reaching that land once a path is found might prove... difficult. |
− | * '''DC 30''' - ''Birthing the New Flesh'' - The | + | * '''DC 30''' - ''Birthing the New Flesh'' - The magical beasts of the world (the bulette, the chimerae, the otyughs and more) are not natural. No, they are the creations of Cerithwen's priests, who receive visions of a new world from their goddess's mind and use a ritual of their order to turn that which was into that which is new. But the Lady of the Moon's mind waxes and wanes throughout the month, and while sometimes those visions are things of beauty, just as often they are aberrant terrors. |
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A character knows the following with a successful Religion check: | A character knows the following with a successful Religion check: | ||
− | * '''DC 20''' | + | * '''DC 20''' |
− | * '''DC 25''' - ''The Hungry Throne'' - Few | + | * '''DC 25''' - ''The Hungry Throne'' - Few are Annwyn's black ships that Mannanan has driven to the bottom of the sea, but he has made every soul aboard them count. |
* '''DC 30''' - ''Lone Wolves Never Rest'' - The Duke of Thunder is the one who lead the charge to drive the Foimoire from the earth, in the days when the gods still stood together, for he could countenance no challenge to his rule. But now that he and his fellows have turned to fighting amongst themselves, and he has no allies to stand at his back, he is fearful of revenge. The Foimoire, after all, are not dead, only driven into the waves. So Mannanan starts at the quaking of the earth and the tall shadows, thinking always that the Foimoire have returned. | * '''DC 30''' - ''Lone Wolves Never Rest'' - The Duke of Thunder is the one who lead the charge to drive the Foimoire from the earth, in the days when the gods still stood together, for he could countenance no challenge to his rule. But now that he and his fellows have turned to fighting amongst themselves, and he has no allies to stand at his back, he is fearful of revenge. The Foimoire, after all, are not dead, only driven into the waves. So Mannanan starts at the quaking of the earth and the tall shadows, thinking always that the Foimoire have returned. | ||
==Nefain - the Maiden of Steel== | ==Nefain - the Maiden of Steel== | ||
− | The Steady Blade is devoted to equity and justice. She is brave and honest, and expects those her | + | The Steady Blade is devoted to equity and justice for all things. She is brave and honest, and expects those who follow her to be likewise. Nefain is a young god, but an old soul, and unlike the other gods she has never been human and fully mortal. Rather, she was sidhe-kin and raised in her father's kingdom. Stories say that this fosterage, and the pacts she made from it, is the source of her power as a god; if her father's kingdom were ever to fall, so too would she. True or false, the armies her followers field are often peopled with soldiers of the Tuatha-Sidhe, and not always through summoning. |
True to her raising, Nefain dreams of fairy castles, and she would return the kingdoms of the Tuatha-Sidhe to Scalgard, where they will sit side by side with the new kingdoms of men and strive together for justice and glory. Already her dream touches on reality, for in the Low Countries she lives in a castle of illusion with her mortal knights, and the Strange Lords are her frequent guests. | True to her raising, Nefain dreams of fairy castles, and she would return the kingdoms of the Tuatha-Sidhe to Scalgard, where they will sit side by side with the new kingdoms of men and strive together for justice and glory. Already her dream touches on reality, for in the Low Countries she lives in a castle of illusion with her mortal knights, and the Strange Lords are her frequent guests. | ||
− | Nefain appears as a young maid, just entering womanhood, clad in plate armor all of silver. Her hair is gold, her skin silver and her eyes bronze. In her hands she carries a greatsword of the strongest steel, apparently far too heavy for one of her height to wield. Nefain's has no priests save the sorcerer-paladins of the '''Red Branch Knights'''. | + | Nefain appears as a young maid, just entering womanhood, clad in plate armor all of silver. Her hair is gold, her skin silver and her eyes bronze. In her hands she carries a greatsword of the strongest steel, apparently far too heavy for one of her height to wield. Nefain's has no priests save the sorcerer-paladins of the '''[[The_Peoples_and_Nations_of_Scalgard#The_Red_Branch_Knights|Red Branch Knights]]'''. |
A character knows the following with a successful Religion check: | A character knows the following with a successful Religion check: | ||
− | * '''DC 20''' - | + | * '''DC 20''' - |
* '''DC 25''' - ''Bright, With a Fair Hand'' - The most promising captain in the Red Branch is the young Aelfin, Garwyn Fairhand. Greatsword clenched in strong hands, he has lead his men in defense of giant-sieged Low Country town and faced down Saeson drakes, all in the course of two short years. But the Branch's leaders cannot say if he is too full of ambition or of honor; he has more than once refused contracts they have assigned, and given no reason but to laugh and seek work elsewhere. Garwyn is a great knight, but only if the order can rely on his service. | * '''DC 25''' - ''Bright, With a Fair Hand'' - The most promising captain in the Red Branch is the young Aelfin, Garwyn Fairhand. Greatsword clenched in strong hands, he has lead his men in defense of giant-sieged Low Country town and faced down Saeson drakes, all in the course of two short years. But the Branch's leaders cannot say if he is too full of ambition or of honor; he has more than once refused contracts they have assigned, and given no reason but to laugh and seek work elsewhere. Garwyn is a great knight, but only if the order can rely on his service. | ||
− | * '''DC 30''' - ''Keys To a Heart-Shaped Box'' - It was a mortal that brought Nefain to the Phantom World, or love of one at least. She watched him, a swordsman seeking justice, from afar, and every glimpse brought her closer to a mortal's life | + | * '''DC 30''' - ''Keys To a Heart-Shaped Box'' - It was a mortal that brought Nefain to the Phantom World, or love of one at least. She watched him, a swordsman seeking justice, from afar, and every glimpse brought her closer to a mortal's life. Though that paramour is long-dead, she founded the Red Branch in his honor, and the captains of that order always seem to bear a striking resemblance to certain ancient statues the goddess keeps in her halls... |
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[[Legends of the Phantom World]] | [[Legends of the Phantom World]] |