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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8753671" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 117: March 1996part 2/5The Citadel of Protection: As part of our extended buildup to war in Raven's Bluff, we now get a good look at the temple of Helm, who's just as involved in fighting as Tempus, but from a more defensive viewpoint. Despite one being LN and the other CN, their temples have a lot of similarities in both layout and day to day routine, being designed for defensibility and spending a lot of time training people to fight properly, craft armor & weapons, make sure they have enough supplies to hold up if besieged, etc. The difference is that Tempus will eventually blow it all on a glorious display of battlefield carnage while Helm is happy to turtle forever if nothing happens, which weirdly enough makes him less popular with the common people despite all the charitable work his temple does. (being the cop of the gods during the time of troubles also didn't help with this, as worshippers of pretty much every other god still have grudges about that.) So this shows that they're seen as the stodgy religion who are respected but not particularly liked no matter how hard they try to be responsible and helpful. There are more characters statted out than the previous entry, but each of them gets a relatively short backstory/personality and none of them are particularly unique or rebellious. Like the things it's describing, this article is useful but not particularly interesting, which at least makes it an effective bit of writing on a meta level. Between these and the Forgotten Deities series they're really stepping up the amount of focus upon religion lately.Feather and Claw: The second knightly order to get a full writeup of their own is the Knights of the Griffon. Don't think that just because you manage to join you'll get your own griffon to ride straight away though. If you don't spend a slot on the appropriate nonweapon proficiency you'll be kept in the lower ranks. As I expected, they're somewhat harder to get into than the roosters, requiring you to be between level 5-7 (depending on class, with the fighty ones having an easier time) and have a decent number of chivalry points. You'll also be held to higher standards, being expected to swear an oath to protect the innocent, act honourably at all times and defend Raven's Bluff in times of need. On the plus side, it's a lot cheaper to be one than a rooster, as you not only lack the regular membership fees, but get a 20% discount on weapons & armor and fast tracked resurrections for 10,000gp, plus the possibility of riding a muthafuckin' griffon on adventures. (which I suspect they may wind up nerfing if it turns out to be disruptive to their railroads) It does seem like a definite step up overall if you're serious about the whole knighthood thing. It'll be interesting to see if the higher knightly orders can manage to top that in terms of cool factor and keep people motivated to climb the ranks.</blockquote>

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