Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
(Also posted to the General Board)
I am playing a Cleric of a God found in the George R. R. Martin series called Song of Fire & Ice (SOI&F)(a great series, by the way).
I am interested in developing a new PRC based on this devotion (or adapting an existing PRC, if appropriate). The purpose of the PRC is not power-gaming, but role-playing (though it wouldn't hurt if he could handle himself well). I am looking for powers that would provide good role-playing opportunities for a woshipper of the Drowned God.
Just for the record, Elec is a 4th level cleric. Also, the Drowned God is out of context in this campaign. For example, the campaign includes many races (and Elec is an elf, with bow proficiency swapped for throwing axe proficiency), not just humans. And the magic system is standard D&D, not SOI&F. The world is also not directly from SOI&F, though I have brought the Iron Islands into it a bit.
Anyway, here is his background so far. Any advice would be appreciated:
Elec Greyjoy
Elec is a stoic, proud man. His few joys in life include battle, meditation, and the ocean. He is an elf, born a member of the Ironmen, and a devout cleric of the Drowned God.
Physical Description
Elec is an elf of aquatic heritage (though not a pure aquatic elf). His skin has a bluish-green tinge to it, and his hair is blue-white, worn long and in braids made from ropes of dried seaweed. His fingers and toes are partially webbed (though not enough to assist him in swimming). He generally wears seawater robes, mottled green and gray and blue. He rarely goes anywhere without his trident (symbol of the Drowned God), several throwing axes (being fond of the Finger Dance), and a waterskin filled with seawater.
The Ironborn
For thousands of years, raiders from the islands (called Ironmen by those they raided) have been the terror of the seas, known wherever men could smell salt water or hear the crash of waves. Eventually, their island homes became known as the Iron Islands.
The Iron Islands
The Ironborn are born on one of many in a string of islands called the Iron Islands. There are seven islands: Pyke (Capital, three islands and a dozen stacks of towering rock, containing the Great Keep, Kitchen Keep, Bloody Keep, and Sea Tower, each on its own island. Pyke also includes the villages of Iron Holt and Lordsport), Old Wyk, Great Wyk, Harlaw (a day's sail from Pyke), Saltcliffe, Orkmont, and Blacktyde. Each island had its own rock king and salt king (though it is said that every captain is a king aboard his own vessel, and so the Islands are often called the land of the ten thousand kings). The High King of the Isles is chosen from among their number. The Greyjoys, the current rulers of the Iron Islands, claim descent from the Grey King of the Age of Heroes, who was supposed to have ruled the western isles and the sea itself, taking a mermaid as his wife. The Greyjoys rule from the Seastone Chair, a massive block of oily black stone carved in the shape of a great kraken, which was reputedly found on the shore of the mainland by the First Men when they first came to the Iron Islands thousands of years ago. Though the Iron Islands have great influence over the shores, it is an insignificant backwater when compared to the rest of the mainland kingdoms. Communication between islands, and with the mainland, is often by use of carrier ravens.
Life is mean and meager on the islands. Men spend their nights drinking ale and arguing over who has the worse lot, the fisherfolk who struggle with the sea, the farmers who try to eke out a living from the poor thin soil, or the miners who break their backs underground. Even the feasts of the High King are meager, plain fare of salted fish and fish stews, unspiced goat, and black bread. The mines of the Islands turn out only base metals, and iron ore is the chief commodity of the Iron Islands, along with tin and lead. There are slaves in the Iron Islands, despite the fact that slavery is illegal in most of the mainland (called “the green lands” by the Ironborn). The hovels in which the smallfolk live use sod for the roofs. These difficult conditions are why the Ironmen of old turned to raiding.
Ironmen Personality
The Ironmen pride themselves on their fierceness in battle and their sacred freedoms. Ironmen do not bend their knees often or easily, but are respectful to lords who have earned it. The Ironborn captains are proud and willful and do not go in awe of another man's blood. Ironmen of old were often blood-drunk in battle, so berserk that they felt no pain and feared no enemy. Reaving songs tend to be loud and stormy, telling of dead heroes and deeds of wild valor.
The Ironborn have a game they call the finger dance, entailing throwing short-hafted axes at one another. The trick was to catch the axe or leap over it just right. The name comes from the fact that the game usually ends with a dancer losing one or more of his fingers.
The Drowned God
The Drowned God is the principal god worshipped on the Iron Islands. The Drowned God brought flame from the sea, and sailed the world with fire and sword. When an Ironman drowns, it's said that the Drowned God needed a strong oarsman, and the refrain "What's dead may never die" is used. The Drowned God made the Ironborn to reave and rape, to carve out kingdoms and to make their names known in fire and blood and song. It is said, "the Drowned God makes men, but it's men who make crowns".
Priests of the Drowned God wear seawater robes, mottled green and grey and blue. They wear their hair and bears long and braid ropes of dried seaweed through them. One of the Ironborn might become a priest of the Drowned God after an experience such as nearly drowning.
Priests carry a waterskin filled with seawater. The process of a blessing is that the priest has a person kneel. Using his skin of seawater, he pours a stream of it upon the person's head. As he does this he intones, "Let <person> your servant be born again from the sea, as you were. Bless him with salt, bless him with stone, bless him with steel." Then the kneeling person responds, "What is dead may never die." Finally, the priest closes with, "What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger". Priests of the Drowned God bless new ships, speaking invocations and pouring seawater over prows.
Priests of the Drowned God often perform the ritual executions involving the drowning of victims in seawater if (for example) someone insults the god.
The Old Ways
Some Ironborn still follow “The Old Way”, traditions of the Iron Islands, which many have forgotten, or which have been outlawed or looked down upon by the more civilized of society. The old tales are still told around the driftwood fires and the smokey hearths all across the Islands, even in the high stone halls of Pyke. In The Old Ways, the Ironmen used to carry woman away as prizes, and kept them as wives whether they wished it or not. A man would have his true wife (his rock bride who was of the islands as he was), and he would have the salt wives captured in raids. During reaving expeditions, the prettier women were taken as salt wives while the crones and ugly ones were simply raped and killed unless they had useful skills and did not seem likely to be troublesome; those became thralls. In the old days, the Ironborn did not labor at farming, fishing, or mining. That was the labor for the captives they brought from their raids. The true trade of the Ironmen was warfare. The Ironborn reavers used to carry burning brands, razing the places they raided. In the Old Way, only women could decorate themselves with baubles bought with coin. Warriors wore only the jewelry they took from the corpses of enemies that they slew themselves. This practice was called "paying the iron price”. Ritual executions, involving the drowning of victims in salt water, are made in the Drowned God's name if (for example) someone insults the god. The Old Way extends even to comrades, if one ends their life to save them pain or because they've failed in some matter. Ironmen of old were often blood-drunk in battle, so berserk that they felt no pain and feared no enemy. It is not part of the Old Way to lay siege to castles. Glory can only be gotten by fighting man to man, not by flinging rocks.
Names and Bannerhouses of the Iron Islands
House Greyjoy of Pyke (Kings of Salt and Rock, Sons of the Sea Wind, and Lord Reapers of Pyke)
House Harlaw of Harlaw
House Stonehouse of Old Wyk
House Merlyn of Great Wyk
House Sunderly of Saltcliffe
House Tawney of Orkmont
House Wynch of Iron Holt, on Pyke
House Drumm on Old Wyk
House Blacktyde of Blacktyde
House Sparr of Great Wyk
House Saltcliffe of Saltcliffe
House Farwynd of Great Wyk
House Volmark of Harlaw
House Myre of Harlaw
House Stonetree of Harlaw
House Kenning of Harlaw
House Orkwood of Orkmont
House Botley of Lordsport, on Pyke
Houses Goodbrother of Great Wyk and Old Wyk
Ships
The Ironborn use longships, and each major house of the Islands can probably command 100 ships. A longship can travel twice as swiftly as a merchant cog. Thirty longships can carry about 1,000 men. Longships might be painted in various colors, such as red. At least some longships have iron rams on their bows, shaped fancifully. Longships have high prows, which are sometimes carved. A longship a hundred feet long would have about fifty oars and room for about a hundred men on the deck. There are larger ships in the Iron Islands, belonging to the Lord Reaper of Pyke or other important figures. A woman might well captain a ship in the Iron Islands. It is said of those few who do that the salt and sea give them the same appetites as men. The fleet of the Iron Islands is known as the Iron Fleet, with a Lord Captain at its head who is not necessarily the High King of the Islands.
Mounts
The Iron Islands are too rocky and sparse to breed good horses. Most islanders are indifferent riders at best, being more comfortable aboard their ships. Even lords ride garrons or shaggy ponies from Harlaw, and oxcarts are more common than drays. Smallfolk who are too poor to afford oxen or horses pull their own plows. Most ironborn would prefer fighting on foot or from the deck of a ship over fighting on horse back, and the ironborn lack the discipline to stand against a charge of armored horsemen.
I am playing a Cleric of a God found in the George R. R. Martin series called Song of Fire & Ice (SOI&F)(a great series, by the way).
I am interested in developing a new PRC based on this devotion (or adapting an existing PRC, if appropriate). The purpose of the PRC is not power-gaming, but role-playing (though it wouldn't hurt if he could handle himself well). I am looking for powers that would provide good role-playing opportunities for a woshipper of the Drowned God.
Just for the record, Elec is a 4th level cleric. Also, the Drowned God is out of context in this campaign. For example, the campaign includes many races (and Elec is an elf, with bow proficiency swapped for throwing axe proficiency), not just humans. And the magic system is standard D&D, not SOI&F. The world is also not directly from SOI&F, though I have brought the Iron Islands into it a bit.
Anyway, here is his background so far. Any advice would be appreciated:
Elec Greyjoy
Elec is a stoic, proud man. His few joys in life include battle, meditation, and the ocean. He is an elf, born a member of the Ironmen, and a devout cleric of the Drowned God.
Physical Description
Elec is an elf of aquatic heritage (though not a pure aquatic elf). His skin has a bluish-green tinge to it, and his hair is blue-white, worn long and in braids made from ropes of dried seaweed. His fingers and toes are partially webbed (though not enough to assist him in swimming). He generally wears seawater robes, mottled green and gray and blue. He rarely goes anywhere without his trident (symbol of the Drowned God), several throwing axes (being fond of the Finger Dance), and a waterskin filled with seawater.
The Ironborn
For thousands of years, raiders from the islands (called Ironmen by those they raided) have been the terror of the seas, known wherever men could smell salt water or hear the crash of waves. Eventually, their island homes became known as the Iron Islands.
The Iron Islands
The Ironborn are born on one of many in a string of islands called the Iron Islands. There are seven islands: Pyke (Capital, three islands and a dozen stacks of towering rock, containing the Great Keep, Kitchen Keep, Bloody Keep, and Sea Tower, each on its own island. Pyke also includes the villages of Iron Holt and Lordsport), Old Wyk, Great Wyk, Harlaw (a day's sail from Pyke), Saltcliffe, Orkmont, and Blacktyde. Each island had its own rock king and salt king (though it is said that every captain is a king aboard his own vessel, and so the Islands are often called the land of the ten thousand kings). The High King of the Isles is chosen from among their number. The Greyjoys, the current rulers of the Iron Islands, claim descent from the Grey King of the Age of Heroes, who was supposed to have ruled the western isles and the sea itself, taking a mermaid as his wife. The Greyjoys rule from the Seastone Chair, a massive block of oily black stone carved in the shape of a great kraken, which was reputedly found on the shore of the mainland by the First Men when they first came to the Iron Islands thousands of years ago. Though the Iron Islands have great influence over the shores, it is an insignificant backwater when compared to the rest of the mainland kingdoms. Communication between islands, and with the mainland, is often by use of carrier ravens.
Life is mean and meager on the islands. Men spend their nights drinking ale and arguing over who has the worse lot, the fisherfolk who struggle with the sea, the farmers who try to eke out a living from the poor thin soil, or the miners who break their backs underground. Even the feasts of the High King are meager, plain fare of salted fish and fish stews, unspiced goat, and black bread. The mines of the Islands turn out only base metals, and iron ore is the chief commodity of the Iron Islands, along with tin and lead. There are slaves in the Iron Islands, despite the fact that slavery is illegal in most of the mainland (called “the green lands” by the Ironborn). The hovels in which the smallfolk live use sod for the roofs. These difficult conditions are why the Ironmen of old turned to raiding.
Ironmen Personality
The Ironmen pride themselves on their fierceness in battle and their sacred freedoms. Ironmen do not bend their knees often or easily, but are respectful to lords who have earned it. The Ironborn captains are proud and willful and do not go in awe of another man's blood. Ironmen of old were often blood-drunk in battle, so berserk that they felt no pain and feared no enemy. Reaving songs tend to be loud and stormy, telling of dead heroes and deeds of wild valor.
The Ironborn have a game they call the finger dance, entailing throwing short-hafted axes at one another. The trick was to catch the axe or leap over it just right. The name comes from the fact that the game usually ends with a dancer losing one or more of his fingers.
The Drowned God
The Drowned God is the principal god worshipped on the Iron Islands. The Drowned God brought flame from the sea, and sailed the world with fire and sword. When an Ironman drowns, it's said that the Drowned God needed a strong oarsman, and the refrain "What's dead may never die" is used. The Drowned God made the Ironborn to reave and rape, to carve out kingdoms and to make their names known in fire and blood and song. It is said, "the Drowned God makes men, but it's men who make crowns".
Priests of the Drowned God wear seawater robes, mottled green and grey and blue. They wear their hair and bears long and braid ropes of dried seaweed through them. One of the Ironborn might become a priest of the Drowned God after an experience such as nearly drowning.
Priests carry a waterskin filled with seawater. The process of a blessing is that the priest has a person kneel. Using his skin of seawater, he pours a stream of it upon the person's head. As he does this he intones, "Let <person> your servant be born again from the sea, as you were. Bless him with salt, bless him with stone, bless him with steel." Then the kneeling person responds, "What is dead may never die." Finally, the priest closes with, "What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger". Priests of the Drowned God bless new ships, speaking invocations and pouring seawater over prows.
Priests of the Drowned God often perform the ritual executions involving the drowning of victims in seawater if (for example) someone insults the god.
The Old Ways
Some Ironborn still follow “The Old Way”, traditions of the Iron Islands, which many have forgotten, or which have been outlawed or looked down upon by the more civilized of society. The old tales are still told around the driftwood fires and the smokey hearths all across the Islands, even in the high stone halls of Pyke. In The Old Ways, the Ironmen used to carry woman away as prizes, and kept them as wives whether they wished it or not. A man would have his true wife (his rock bride who was of the islands as he was), and he would have the salt wives captured in raids. During reaving expeditions, the prettier women were taken as salt wives while the crones and ugly ones were simply raped and killed unless they had useful skills and did not seem likely to be troublesome; those became thralls. In the old days, the Ironborn did not labor at farming, fishing, or mining. That was the labor for the captives they brought from their raids. The true trade of the Ironmen was warfare. The Ironborn reavers used to carry burning brands, razing the places they raided. In the Old Way, only women could decorate themselves with baubles bought with coin. Warriors wore only the jewelry they took from the corpses of enemies that they slew themselves. This practice was called "paying the iron price”. Ritual executions, involving the drowning of victims in salt water, are made in the Drowned God's name if (for example) someone insults the god. The Old Way extends even to comrades, if one ends their life to save them pain or because they've failed in some matter. Ironmen of old were often blood-drunk in battle, so berserk that they felt no pain and feared no enemy. It is not part of the Old Way to lay siege to castles. Glory can only be gotten by fighting man to man, not by flinging rocks.
Names and Bannerhouses of the Iron Islands
House Greyjoy of Pyke (Kings of Salt and Rock, Sons of the Sea Wind, and Lord Reapers of Pyke)
House Harlaw of Harlaw
House Stonehouse of Old Wyk
House Merlyn of Great Wyk
House Sunderly of Saltcliffe
House Tawney of Orkmont
House Wynch of Iron Holt, on Pyke
House Drumm on Old Wyk
House Blacktyde of Blacktyde
House Sparr of Great Wyk
House Saltcliffe of Saltcliffe
House Farwynd of Great Wyk
House Volmark of Harlaw
House Myre of Harlaw
House Stonetree of Harlaw
House Kenning of Harlaw
House Orkwood of Orkmont
House Botley of Lordsport, on Pyke
Houses Goodbrother of Great Wyk and Old Wyk
Ships
The Ironborn use longships, and each major house of the Islands can probably command 100 ships. A longship can travel twice as swiftly as a merchant cog. Thirty longships can carry about 1,000 men. Longships might be painted in various colors, such as red. At least some longships have iron rams on their bows, shaped fancifully. Longships have high prows, which are sometimes carved. A longship a hundred feet long would have about fifty oars and room for about a hundred men on the deck. There are larger ships in the Iron Islands, belonging to the Lord Reaper of Pyke or other important figures. A woman might well captain a ship in the Iron Islands. It is said of those few who do that the salt and sea give them the same appetites as men. The fleet of the Iron Islands is known as the Iron Fleet, with a Lord Captain at its head who is not necessarily the High King of the Islands.
Mounts
The Iron Islands are too rocky and sparse to breed good horses. Most islanders are indifferent riders at best, being more comfortable aboard their ships. Even lords ride garrons or shaggy ponies from Harlaw, and oxcarts are more common than drays. Smallfolk who are too poor to afford oxen or horses pull their own plows. Most ironborn would prefer fighting on foot or from the deck of a ship over fighting on horse back, and the ironborn lack the discipline to stand against a charge of armored horsemen.
