The Midget's Deity-A-Week Thread!
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I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
EADRO
The Water of Life
Alignment: Neutral
Worshipers: Merfolk, Locathah
Domains: Animal, Protection, Water
Favored Weapon: Shortspear
Home Plane/Domain: The Outlands/Deepfont
Pantheon: Greyhawk
Divine Rank: 15 (Intermediate)
Classes: Bard, Ranger, Cleric
Portfolio: Water, Song, Fish
Salient Abilities: (17) Alter Form, Alter Size, Area Divine Shield, Avatar, Call Creatures (Fish), Control Creatures (Fish), Create Object, Create Greater Object, Divine Creation, Divine Shield, Divine Water Mastery, Energy Burst (sonic), Energy Storm (sonic), Irresistible Performance, Shift Form, Speak with Creatures (Fish), True Knowledge
Special Possessions: The Sounding Spear, a screaming, sonic burst shortspear; The Liquid Crystal Mirror, which can show any underwater scene on the material plane at Eadro's bidding.
Alternate Domains: Community, Fishes (as Scalykind, but with regards to piscine creatures)
Symbol: A spiral
NOTES
I've changed the favored class of the Locathah from Barbarian to Ranger in this description, mostly because their racial alignment (neutral) wouldn't usually lead to the Barbarian class (requiring chaos). The merfolk remain unchanged.
DESCRIPTION
From Defenders of the Faith: "He rules the deep oceans and watches over the races he created."
Eadro can appear as a locathah or a merfolk, but prefers his 'natural' form, that of a watery ooze with eight pseudopods looking something like a blobby octopus of transparent goo. He also occasionally takes the form of a common fish of some sort. He usually sparkles with an inner radience, and his forms are often translucent, with ripples, waves, and eddies flowing accross their liquid-crystal form.
DOGMA
Protect what you have made. Honor your maker. Respect the oceans, and defend them. And always be wary of purity.
Eadro charges his worshipers with guardianship and deference, and he returns it with the same. He defends them, as long as they defer to him. Eadro is very much a hands-off deity, who wishes to see his races as pure examples of aquatic beings, not tainted pseudo-elves or goblins with gills, but true epitomes of what the deeps can offer. Eadro also encourages his people to similarly retreat from the world around them, to maintain purity and to not destroy unity.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
Not surprisingly, the methods of priests and temples vary depending upon the race worshiping Eadro.
The locathah keep their faith a personal thing, with local priests serving wide-ranging tribes from their home, which is usually at the deepest extent of the locathah's range. Few clergy range far, and those who do usually do so only to bring aid and succor to distant relatives. There are no formal temples, but locathah often decorate themselves with scale-paints in honor to him. To the locathah, Eadro is wherever there is water.
The merfolk cherish Eadro in evocative songs and dances that carry far in the still waters they like to dwel in. The priests organize immense choirs to offer up prayers during times of high tide, or at nightfall, preferably in grottos and caverns rich with an echo. They make these very private affairs, and often demand that the entire village turn out for it.
Eadro is equally pleased with both, because it represents their own take on him, and he wants them to be true and pure to themselves and their people first of all.
RITES AND RITUALS
Massive rites are rare for any creature worshiping Eadro, mostly because it is preached in both that Eadro is ubiquitous and omnipresent, so a specific enaction to catch his attention would not be nessecary. Also, any great event in Eadro's name would have to have the cooperation of both the merfolk and the locathah, and their societies certainly aren't warm to each other. There is little mobility or migration in the merfolk or the locathah, though the latter do have a feast something like a family reunion once every five years or so. Merfolk attend seemingly inoccuous events (food, the sunset, a birth) with song and dance that equal any elven party for flamboyance and emotional outpouring, though the locathah are considerably more reserved in their natural outlook.
Individually, those who devote themselves to Eadro often carry fish companions with them as representatives of Eadro, or paint or tatoo spirals onto their skin in reverence to the deity. Many offer a prayer when drinking (when they're out of water) as well, thanking Eadro for his creation of Water.
MYTHOGRAPHY
The most intriguing aspect of Eadro is how he is one god for two very different people. As if in defiance of how most sages speculate deities arise (as the concept of an entity lording it over some aspect of the lives of those who worship them), Eadro is worshiped by two divisive people, who only really share a protection of the young and their racial integrity between them.
One possible explanation is that Eadro is actually a powerful planar lord, perhaps from the Elemental Plane of Water originally, who has been elevated in times past into a deity. Certainly, many creatures worship abyssal lords and such that have little in common with them (the Ixixachitl worshiping Demogorgon, for one; or any human priest worshipping Juiblex for another), and this would certainly explain Eadro's diverse priesthood. The only problem is that Eadro is remarkably dispassionate and nonplussed about worshippers or belief. As far as he is concerned, as long as his people guard what they make, defer to those who made them, and maintain the purity of race and environment, they can do whatever they want.
The most popular current theory is that, far from being a young god, Eadro is actually a very old god, whose age is reflected in his natural form. Some elders of the races that worship him say that he created eight forms of sea life, one for each tentacle he possessed. However, they quickly moved to new gods or abyssal usurpers because of Eadro's allowing and permissive nature, and perhaps because those allowed them to keep purity. Amongst Eadro's original creations, the locathah and the merfolk cite the sahagin, the ixixachitl, the dolphins, the kraken, the tritons, and the sharks. Since then, the sharks have become bestial, and the dolphins, sahagin, and tritons have gone to worship specific racial gods. The ixixachitl and the krakens are currently being seduced by fiendish lords. The locathah and the merfolk (who may soon be seduced away by a god of music, Stillsong) are the only creatures still loyal to the Bather of Gills to this day.
This case makes more sense, but means that Eadro is truly ancient, and that a god who once created eight races can actually loose power by loosing those to others...and, perhaps more surprisingly, the god seems to not care much about it. Certainly, he holds no grudges, though some of his priests will bemoan thigns like the sahagin and dolphins having relations with the sea elves, destroying their pure race for one tainted by land.
LEGENDS
Because Eadro is an inactive deity, not many legends and tales exist of him. The merfolk tell a few tales of how he was a wandering minstrel at one point, travelling accross the seas and delighting sailors, teaching humans to sing, but also punishing those who did the sea wrong. Though he has since retired from those adventures, his exploits form the basis of many merfolk hymns (involving the destruction of evil land creatures, or the purifying of a polluted sea).
The locathah have a more silent tradition, played out in solemn acts of story and action. They are long tales, though there are few of them, and they are quite well-preserved throughout the ages. Locathah priests often serve as something of a family historian for the tribe, and many tribes will trace their lineage back to Purity and Protection, the first two locathah that Eadro made after he screwed up the merfolk by giving them a human torso. Of course, the merfolk say that the first two merfolk, Song and Scale, were created before the locathah, and the locathah do not show proper reference to their elders, who Eadro was trying to imitate with the locathah, only to end up twisted, with feet instead of a tail.
ETC.
PrC's
· Sounder: A bard that uses sonic energies in new ways: echolocation, bursts of stunning sound, to communicate over miles, etc.
· Deep Diver: A PrC focusing on illuminating the deapths like a shimmering fish, with powers of light, sight, pressure resistance, lures, etc.
Plot Hooks
· Purity: A local locathah tribe has found a traitor in their midst...one of their people has consorted with a sahagin, and given birth to a hideous hybrid. It would be bad enough if it were just that, but the sahagin has inspired many aggressive attempts to find and kill both it, the child, and the one who helped concieve it. Can the PC's ease racial tensions? Do they want to after the sahagin nearly kills them for interfering? And can they afford to miss the prophecy of the creature's other half, a dolphin child who will bring the Lowest Tide?
· Siren's Call: The PC's sail a ship through some rocky isles, and hear an alluring singing...alluring enough for their precious cargo or leader to leap overboard. The PC's need to find the object/NPC quickly, but they also need to deal with the merfolk in the region, who seem reluctant to let them just kill the sirens. Perhaps there is more here than there seems at first, and perhaps it has to do with the mysterious song that has been lingering in the air in the center of the island, where a temple is being built...
The Water of Life
Alignment: Neutral
Worshipers: Merfolk, Locathah
Domains: Animal, Protection, Water
Favored Weapon: Shortspear
Home Plane/Domain: The Outlands/Deepfont
Pantheon: Greyhawk
Divine Rank: 15 (Intermediate)
Classes: Bard, Ranger, Cleric
Portfolio: Water, Song, Fish
Salient Abilities: (17) Alter Form, Alter Size, Area Divine Shield, Avatar, Call Creatures (Fish), Control Creatures (Fish), Create Object, Create Greater Object, Divine Creation, Divine Shield, Divine Water Mastery, Energy Burst (sonic), Energy Storm (sonic), Irresistible Performance, Shift Form, Speak with Creatures (Fish), True Knowledge
Special Possessions: The Sounding Spear, a screaming, sonic burst shortspear; The Liquid Crystal Mirror, which can show any underwater scene on the material plane at Eadro's bidding.
Alternate Domains: Community, Fishes (as Scalykind, but with regards to piscine creatures)
Symbol: A spiral
NOTES
I've changed the favored class of the Locathah from Barbarian to Ranger in this description, mostly because their racial alignment (neutral) wouldn't usually lead to the Barbarian class (requiring chaos). The merfolk remain unchanged.
DESCRIPTION
From Defenders of the Faith: "He rules the deep oceans and watches over the races he created."
Eadro can appear as a locathah or a merfolk, but prefers his 'natural' form, that of a watery ooze with eight pseudopods looking something like a blobby octopus of transparent goo. He also occasionally takes the form of a common fish of some sort. He usually sparkles with an inner radience, and his forms are often translucent, with ripples, waves, and eddies flowing accross their liquid-crystal form.
DOGMA
Protect what you have made. Honor your maker. Respect the oceans, and defend them. And always be wary of purity.
Eadro charges his worshipers with guardianship and deference, and he returns it with the same. He defends them, as long as they defer to him. Eadro is very much a hands-off deity, who wishes to see his races as pure examples of aquatic beings, not tainted pseudo-elves or goblins with gills, but true epitomes of what the deeps can offer. Eadro also encourages his people to similarly retreat from the world around them, to maintain purity and to not destroy unity.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
Not surprisingly, the methods of priests and temples vary depending upon the race worshiping Eadro.
The locathah keep their faith a personal thing, with local priests serving wide-ranging tribes from their home, which is usually at the deepest extent of the locathah's range. Few clergy range far, and those who do usually do so only to bring aid and succor to distant relatives. There are no formal temples, but locathah often decorate themselves with scale-paints in honor to him. To the locathah, Eadro is wherever there is water.
The merfolk cherish Eadro in evocative songs and dances that carry far in the still waters they like to dwel in. The priests organize immense choirs to offer up prayers during times of high tide, or at nightfall, preferably in grottos and caverns rich with an echo. They make these very private affairs, and often demand that the entire village turn out for it.
Eadro is equally pleased with both, because it represents their own take on him, and he wants them to be true and pure to themselves and their people first of all.
RITES AND RITUALS
Massive rites are rare for any creature worshiping Eadro, mostly because it is preached in both that Eadro is ubiquitous and omnipresent, so a specific enaction to catch his attention would not be nessecary. Also, any great event in Eadro's name would have to have the cooperation of both the merfolk and the locathah, and their societies certainly aren't warm to each other. There is little mobility or migration in the merfolk or the locathah, though the latter do have a feast something like a family reunion once every five years or so. Merfolk attend seemingly inoccuous events (food, the sunset, a birth) with song and dance that equal any elven party for flamboyance and emotional outpouring, though the locathah are considerably more reserved in their natural outlook.
Individually, those who devote themselves to Eadro often carry fish companions with them as representatives of Eadro, or paint or tatoo spirals onto their skin in reverence to the deity. Many offer a prayer when drinking (when they're out of water) as well, thanking Eadro for his creation of Water.
MYTHOGRAPHY
The most intriguing aspect of Eadro is how he is one god for two very different people. As if in defiance of how most sages speculate deities arise (as the concept of an entity lording it over some aspect of the lives of those who worship them), Eadro is worshiped by two divisive people, who only really share a protection of the young and their racial integrity between them.
One possible explanation is that Eadro is actually a powerful planar lord, perhaps from the Elemental Plane of Water originally, who has been elevated in times past into a deity. Certainly, many creatures worship abyssal lords and such that have little in common with them (the Ixixachitl worshiping Demogorgon, for one; or any human priest worshipping Juiblex for another), and this would certainly explain Eadro's diverse priesthood. The only problem is that Eadro is remarkably dispassionate and nonplussed about worshippers or belief. As far as he is concerned, as long as his people guard what they make, defer to those who made them, and maintain the purity of race and environment, they can do whatever they want.
The most popular current theory is that, far from being a young god, Eadro is actually a very old god, whose age is reflected in his natural form. Some elders of the races that worship him say that he created eight forms of sea life, one for each tentacle he possessed. However, they quickly moved to new gods or abyssal usurpers because of Eadro's allowing and permissive nature, and perhaps because those allowed them to keep purity. Amongst Eadro's original creations, the locathah and the merfolk cite the sahagin, the ixixachitl, the dolphins, the kraken, the tritons, and the sharks. Since then, the sharks have become bestial, and the dolphins, sahagin, and tritons have gone to worship specific racial gods. The ixixachitl and the krakens are currently being seduced by fiendish lords. The locathah and the merfolk (who may soon be seduced away by a god of music, Stillsong) are the only creatures still loyal to the Bather of Gills to this day.
This case makes more sense, but means that Eadro is truly ancient, and that a god who once created eight races can actually loose power by loosing those to others...and, perhaps more surprisingly, the god seems to not care much about it. Certainly, he holds no grudges, though some of his priests will bemoan thigns like the sahagin and dolphins having relations with the sea elves, destroying their pure race for one tainted by land.
LEGENDS
Because Eadro is an inactive deity, not many legends and tales exist of him. The merfolk tell a few tales of how he was a wandering minstrel at one point, travelling accross the seas and delighting sailors, teaching humans to sing, but also punishing those who did the sea wrong. Though he has since retired from those adventures, his exploits form the basis of many merfolk hymns (involving the destruction of evil land creatures, or the purifying of a polluted sea).
The locathah have a more silent tradition, played out in solemn acts of story and action. They are long tales, though there are few of them, and they are quite well-preserved throughout the ages. Locathah priests often serve as something of a family historian for the tribe, and many tribes will trace their lineage back to Purity and Protection, the first two locathah that Eadro made after he screwed up the merfolk by giving them a human torso. Of course, the merfolk say that the first two merfolk, Song and Scale, were created before the locathah, and the locathah do not show proper reference to their elders, who Eadro was trying to imitate with the locathah, only to end up twisted, with feet instead of a tail.
ETC.
PrC's
· Sounder: A bard that uses sonic energies in new ways: echolocation, bursts of stunning sound, to communicate over miles, etc.
· Deep Diver: A PrC focusing on illuminating the deapths like a shimmering fish, with powers of light, sight, pressure resistance, lures, etc.
Plot Hooks
· Purity: A local locathah tribe has found a traitor in their midst...one of their people has consorted with a sahagin, and given birth to a hideous hybrid. It would be bad enough if it were just that, but the sahagin has inspired many aggressive attempts to find and kill both it, the child, and the one who helped concieve it. Can the PC's ease racial tensions? Do they want to after the sahagin nearly kills them for interfering? And can they afford to miss the prophecy of the creature's other half, a dolphin child who will bring the Lowest Tide?
· Siren's Call: The PC's sail a ship through some rocky isles, and hear an alluring singing...alluring enough for their precious cargo or leader to leap overboard. The PC's need to find the object/NPC quickly, but they also need to deal with the merfolk in the region, who seem reluctant to let them just kill the sirens. Perhaps there is more here than there seems at first, and perhaps it has to do with the mysterious song that has been lingering in the air in the center of the island, where a temple is being built...
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
THE GREAT MOTHER
The Optical Queen
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Worshipers: Beholders, Cultists
Domains: Chaos, Death, Evil, Strength
Favored Weapon: Bite
Home Plane/Domain: The Abyss/The Eye Hive
Pantheon: Beholder
Divine Rank: 17 (Greater)
Classes: Cleric, Wizard
Portfolio: Magic, Fertility, Tyranny, Vision, Death, Birth
Salient Abilities: (22) Alter Size, Annihilating Strike, Avatar, Call Creature (beholders), Clearsight, Control Creatures (beholders), Divine Blast, Divine Storm, Energy Storm (cold), Extra Domain (Death), Frightful Presence, Hand of Death, Increased Damage Reduction, Increased Energy Resistance (cold), Increased Spell Resistance, Indomitable Strength, Life and Death, Life Drain, Mass Divine Blast, Mass Life and Death, Rejuvenation, See Magic.
Special Possessions: None
Alternate Domains: Community, Creation, Destruction, Magic
Symbol: An egg with an eye in its center
DESCRIPTION
From Defenders of the Faith: "Her areas of influence include magic, fertility, and tyranny, while she is also interested in the defense of behodlers -- particularly against drow enemies."
The Great Mother appears as a collossal beholder covered in eyes and tentacles, with a horrible maw descending from it. She drips constantly with a fluid like tears, each of her horridly red eyes oozing. From behind her jaw, and immense tube of chitinous flesh runs, out of which a constant supply of beholder eggs are disgorged, in varying sizes, shapes, and colors, producing creatures of every beholder type.
DOGMA
The Great Mother is hardly consistant in what she demands of her worshipers. Though she wishes to protect beholders, she will occasionally let populations nearly die out in some lands, while being upset at one death in another. Though she wishes magical might, she may destroy great libraries in a hungry rampage. Though she produces millions of offspring, she sics them on each other, watching them fight and argue in an attempt to prove their superiority.
One may say that this is, in fact, her entire dogma. The Great Mother wishes to reproduce, and to have what she has created kill, slaughter, and maim each other all for her affections. Of course, she also reviles each of her offspring, but perhaps that is part of the belief that only hatred and loathing can produce anythign that is a true representation of survivable power. Only under the harshest of conditions can true might flourish. And true mgiht is what the Great Mother desires above all else.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
Those who worship the Great Mother are a special kind of insane. They believe that they can exact her will, though she loathes them as passionately as she loathes anything else. The beholders who worshiper her use that as a tool to emulate their superiority, and the Great Mother may grant them spells in the hope that they kill off as many of their deformed brethren as possible, but it is hardly a sign of affection. The beholders who worship her are on shaky ground as well, because they are easier to dispose of should she grow displeased with them, for failing to kill or failing not to kill, or just because she's in a bad temperment this day. She is still worshiped as the originator, and some beholders respect her for that. Others view her as an archaic throwback that is obviously a lesser version, a precursor for the true power (them).
She also keeps a contingent of human cultists, insane individuals spouting off a doctrine of vision, destruction, mortality, and birth. They see the Great Mother as something of an originator of all life, and see the Beholders as her divine agents, testing and destroying those unworthy to continue. The human cults rarely get dangerous, unless they start to adopt the behaviors of the beholders themselves, and so the Great Mother has been known to give them spells once in a while.
Temples to the Great Mother are few. Beholders rarely spend the time and effort, as they need no structure or building to live in. The cultists are generally cleverly hidden, as their faith is usually quite unwelcome in civilized lands. Even if they could build temples, they would be disinclined to: the weather is another of the Great Mother's tests.
RITES AND RITUALS
Priests dedicated to the Great Mother, if they are beholders, will often adorn themselves with religious trappings stolen from other races. Cloaks, rings, neclaces, phylateries, various types of jewelry and other adornment decorate the stalks and the orb itself, often bearing the symbols of other religions, sometimes amalgamated in a haphazard fashion that would probably revile clerics of those respective faiths. To a beholder, it doesn't matter, it is all in hornor of the Great Mother, and is subsumed in to the superiority of the Beholder faith. There are few mass rituals for Beholders, as, almost inevitably, whenever two or more beholders meet they tear each other to threads until only one is left.
Human cults are slightly better organized, specializing in wearing crowns, helms, and other headgear adorned with eye motifs, spots, or tentacles. They often keep crystal balls as divinitory objects, calling them the Eyes of the Great Mother. They are also capable of greater rituals, but still rarely partake in them. The birth of a new beholder species, or driving a beholder to rulership are the things that they revel in.
MYTHOGRAPHY
The interesting thing about Beholder religion is that they seem to be the one great success case of the trend of worshipping Abyssal lords. The Great Mother, and, indeed, the entire beholder race, was merely another demon in the abyss when conceptualized and written into creation. The Great Mother came first, able to mate with anything and produce a beholder creature bearing that creature's charactaristics. Then, her offspring, varied and snarling, hatched into being, worshipping her as a goddess. The great Hive Mothers were born, and the Beholder races spread to a multitude of worlds and lands, casting their wicked shadow over all, growing more numerous, and at least paying lip service to the creature that birthed them, still sitting in the abyss. In this way, the Great Mother became a greater deity, and her offspring became nativized onto the material plane (along with others, of course).
An additional unique element is that Beholders are remarkably hostile toward each other, and yet manage to form a cohesive religion. Many of the more open-minded scholars have taken a cue from that to mean that even highly devisive and wicked beings (as the beholders are) can come together underneath one deity. Of course, many of these scholars ignore the fact that the beholders and the Great Mother share such hostile and violent dispositions that it certainly isn't the compassionate love that most mortal creatures and their deities show, but a mutual hatred, built out of their own chaos, with loathes everything about everything except themselves.
LEGENDS
The most populous legends of the Great Mother tell of her many consorts, and the wicked spawn born from them. Gehreleth or Tanar'ri lords have been the victims of her amorous advances, producing unique beholders representative of evil to an extreme. She was even said to once mate with a Yugoloth, giving birth to the only other beholder god that exists, Gzenmid.
Human cultists are slightly more creative, but no less emphatic about the xenophobia. They tell stories of great Beholder-kings and royalty that existed in bygone days, vassals of the original creator of all, the Great Mother. Of course, this is almost 100% concocted in their own heads, as the beholders are too fractuous to ever form kingdoms that last for more than few months before the peasants are devoured or they are overthrown.
ETC
PrC's
· Broodguard: A beholder that bears eggs, and has powers to protect them and use them to her advantage.
· Eye Master: A beholder that grows new eye-stalks with new abilites.
Plot Hooks
· The Unwilling King: A beholder cult has succeeded in placing a beholder at the throne of their kingdom. The only problem is that the Eye Tyrant doesn't want to be there. He was perfectly happy eating drow in the underdark, and now he's forced to rule a kingdom. Are the PC's willing to help him escape? Particularly after it's revealed that since he has stopped attacking the drow, the dark elves are growin in power and prepared to launch an assault?
· Hatchlings: Far beneath the earth, a clutch of several thousand beholder eggs has just hatched, releasing a wave of the eye tyrants accross the city. And these odd beasts seem more concerned with killing mortals then with killing their own kind. The numbers are overwhelming -- can the PC's find a way to thwart the rampage without having to hack apart each one? Perhaps they can use the xenophobia of the beholders to their advantage, and turn them against each other?
The Optical Queen
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Worshipers: Beholders, Cultists
Domains: Chaos, Death, Evil, Strength
Favored Weapon: Bite
Home Plane/Domain: The Abyss/The Eye Hive
Pantheon: Beholder
Divine Rank: 17 (Greater)
Classes: Cleric, Wizard
Portfolio: Magic, Fertility, Tyranny, Vision, Death, Birth
Salient Abilities: (22) Alter Size, Annihilating Strike, Avatar, Call Creature (beholders), Clearsight, Control Creatures (beholders), Divine Blast, Divine Storm, Energy Storm (cold), Extra Domain (Death), Frightful Presence, Hand of Death, Increased Damage Reduction, Increased Energy Resistance (cold), Increased Spell Resistance, Indomitable Strength, Life and Death, Life Drain, Mass Divine Blast, Mass Life and Death, Rejuvenation, See Magic.
Special Possessions: None
Alternate Domains: Community, Creation, Destruction, Magic
Symbol: An egg with an eye in its center
DESCRIPTION
From Defenders of the Faith: "Her areas of influence include magic, fertility, and tyranny, while she is also interested in the defense of behodlers -- particularly against drow enemies."
The Great Mother appears as a collossal beholder covered in eyes and tentacles, with a horrible maw descending from it. She drips constantly with a fluid like tears, each of her horridly red eyes oozing. From behind her jaw, and immense tube of chitinous flesh runs, out of which a constant supply of beholder eggs are disgorged, in varying sizes, shapes, and colors, producing creatures of every beholder type.
DOGMA
The Great Mother is hardly consistant in what she demands of her worshipers. Though she wishes to protect beholders, she will occasionally let populations nearly die out in some lands, while being upset at one death in another. Though she wishes magical might, she may destroy great libraries in a hungry rampage. Though she produces millions of offspring, she sics them on each other, watching them fight and argue in an attempt to prove their superiority.
One may say that this is, in fact, her entire dogma. The Great Mother wishes to reproduce, and to have what she has created kill, slaughter, and maim each other all for her affections. Of course, she also reviles each of her offspring, but perhaps that is part of the belief that only hatred and loathing can produce anythign that is a true representation of survivable power. Only under the harshest of conditions can true might flourish. And true mgiht is what the Great Mother desires above all else.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
Those who worship the Great Mother are a special kind of insane. They believe that they can exact her will, though she loathes them as passionately as she loathes anything else. The beholders who worshiper her use that as a tool to emulate their superiority, and the Great Mother may grant them spells in the hope that they kill off as many of their deformed brethren as possible, but it is hardly a sign of affection. The beholders who worship her are on shaky ground as well, because they are easier to dispose of should she grow displeased with them, for failing to kill or failing not to kill, or just because she's in a bad temperment this day. She is still worshiped as the originator, and some beholders respect her for that. Others view her as an archaic throwback that is obviously a lesser version, a precursor for the true power (them).
She also keeps a contingent of human cultists, insane individuals spouting off a doctrine of vision, destruction, mortality, and birth. They see the Great Mother as something of an originator of all life, and see the Beholders as her divine agents, testing and destroying those unworthy to continue. The human cults rarely get dangerous, unless they start to adopt the behaviors of the beholders themselves, and so the Great Mother has been known to give them spells once in a while.
Temples to the Great Mother are few. Beholders rarely spend the time and effort, as they need no structure or building to live in. The cultists are generally cleverly hidden, as their faith is usually quite unwelcome in civilized lands. Even if they could build temples, they would be disinclined to: the weather is another of the Great Mother's tests.
RITES AND RITUALS
Priests dedicated to the Great Mother, if they are beholders, will often adorn themselves with religious trappings stolen from other races. Cloaks, rings, neclaces, phylateries, various types of jewelry and other adornment decorate the stalks and the orb itself, often bearing the symbols of other religions, sometimes amalgamated in a haphazard fashion that would probably revile clerics of those respective faiths. To a beholder, it doesn't matter, it is all in hornor of the Great Mother, and is subsumed in to the superiority of the Beholder faith. There are few mass rituals for Beholders, as, almost inevitably, whenever two or more beholders meet they tear each other to threads until only one is left.
Human cults are slightly better organized, specializing in wearing crowns, helms, and other headgear adorned with eye motifs, spots, or tentacles. They often keep crystal balls as divinitory objects, calling them the Eyes of the Great Mother. They are also capable of greater rituals, but still rarely partake in them. The birth of a new beholder species, or driving a beholder to rulership are the things that they revel in.
MYTHOGRAPHY
The interesting thing about Beholder religion is that they seem to be the one great success case of the trend of worshipping Abyssal lords. The Great Mother, and, indeed, the entire beholder race, was merely another demon in the abyss when conceptualized and written into creation. The Great Mother came first, able to mate with anything and produce a beholder creature bearing that creature's charactaristics. Then, her offspring, varied and snarling, hatched into being, worshipping her as a goddess. The great Hive Mothers were born, and the Beholder races spread to a multitude of worlds and lands, casting their wicked shadow over all, growing more numerous, and at least paying lip service to the creature that birthed them, still sitting in the abyss. In this way, the Great Mother became a greater deity, and her offspring became nativized onto the material plane (along with others, of course).
An additional unique element is that Beholders are remarkably hostile toward each other, and yet manage to form a cohesive religion. Many of the more open-minded scholars have taken a cue from that to mean that even highly devisive and wicked beings (as the beholders are) can come together underneath one deity. Of course, many of these scholars ignore the fact that the beholders and the Great Mother share such hostile and violent dispositions that it certainly isn't the compassionate love that most mortal creatures and their deities show, but a mutual hatred, built out of their own chaos, with loathes everything about everything except themselves.
LEGENDS
The most populous legends of the Great Mother tell of her many consorts, and the wicked spawn born from them. Gehreleth or Tanar'ri lords have been the victims of her amorous advances, producing unique beholders representative of evil to an extreme. She was even said to once mate with a Yugoloth, giving birth to the only other beholder god that exists, Gzenmid.
Human cultists are slightly more creative, but no less emphatic about the xenophobia. They tell stories of great Beholder-kings and royalty that existed in bygone days, vassals of the original creator of all, the Great Mother. Of course, this is almost 100% concocted in their own heads, as the beholders are too fractuous to ever form kingdoms that last for more than few months before the peasants are devoured or they are overthrown.
ETC
PrC's
· Broodguard: A beholder that bears eggs, and has powers to protect them and use them to her advantage.
· Eye Master: A beholder that grows new eye-stalks with new abilites.
Plot Hooks
· The Unwilling King: A beholder cult has succeeded in placing a beholder at the throne of their kingdom. The only problem is that the Eye Tyrant doesn't want to be there. He was perfectly happy eating drow in the underdark, and now he's forced to rule a kingdom. Are the PC's willing to help him escape? Particularly after it's revealed that since he has stopped attacking the drow, the dark elves are growin in power and prepared to launch an assault?
· Hatchlings: Far beneath the earth, a clutch of several thousand beholder eggs has just hatched, releasing a wave of the eye tyrants accross the city. And these odd beasts seem more concerned with killing mortals then with killing their own kind. The numbers are overwhelming -- can the PC's find a way to thwart the rampage without having to hack apart each one? Perhaps they can use the xenophobia of the beholders to their advantage, and turn them against each other?
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Author's Note: The following god is one I have surprisingly few sources for. I'm assuming she's originally Greyhawk-specific, and some of the information below may contradict her Greyhawk incarnation, since I don't really have it available. None of my own 2e sources (Montser Myth, On Hallowed Ground, Legends and Lore) have her, and the 3e sources (Defenders, Monster Manual) are scanty on the details. So the stuff I didn't know, I made up. If you play in Greyhawk and this doesn't conform to the way she's presented there, have no fear -- the name could be changed to be any passionate elemental lord of conflict and devestation, really. Truly, Kaelthiere as I have presented her is a savage goddess of barbarians and destruction, which fits nicely in almost any campaign. 
-- JD
KAELTHIERE
The Dark Flame
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Worshipers: Cultists, Salamanders, Efreet, Azers
Domains: Destruction, Evil, Fire, War
Favored Weapon: Shortspear
Home Plane/Domain: Elemental Fire/Devouring Radience
Pantheon: Oerth
Divine Rank: 9 (Lesser)
Classes: Barbarian
Portfolio: Fire, Anger, Entropy, Hunger
Salient Abilities: (11) Avatar, Battlesense, Divine Blast, Divine Fire Mastery, Divine Rage, Divine Weapon Focus (shortspear), Divine Weapon Specialization (shortspear), Energy Burst (fire), Extra Domain (war), Increased Energy Resistance (cold), Increased Spell Resistance, Mass Divine Blast.
Special Possessions: Ignition, a flaming burst short spear.
Alternate Domains: Scalykind
Symbol: A torch with a black flame, shaped in a point.
DESCRIPTION
From Defenders of the Faith: "She represents the destructive aspects of fire, caring nothing for its usefulness."
Kaelthiere is a savage goddess of devouring flame and destruction, cutting a swath of primal rage accross the countryside. When she appears, it is as a serpentine being of pure flame, often wielding a flaming shortspear in her talons of white-hot coals. She often scintilates in a spectrum of firey shades, blues, greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and violets all dancing beautifully, concealing her body of charred stone with a viel of dessicating warmth.
DOGMA
Burn. Destroy. Consume. Be forever eager to obliterate, and leave nothing usable in your wake. Be an elemental force of destruction as merciless and heartless as flame itself. Burn all that get in your way, and rage out of control. Only cease when you run out of things to obliterate.
Kaelthiere desires her worshipers to be incarnate forces of rutheless nature, and to propriate her as the generator and provider of their burning passion and power. Of course, one need not be wild and uncontrolled to be destructive, and a slow, methodical burn form the inside can be just as potent, if not more so.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
Those who devote themselve to Kaelthiere, whether human, salamander, or efreet, dress themselves in sparkling and scintilating garb that shimmers with a variety of shades and dances loosely in the wind. Being colorful is important to them, often to the point of garishness. Within the societies, they serve as a galvanizing force, getting those warriors they desire to wage battle in a frenzy, emotionalizing the situation, and 'heating the metal' so to speak, so that when the leaders and organizers speak, the flames can leap up to devour the enemy.
Temples of Kaeltheire are often around hearths in small villages, or deep within volcanic caverns for more permanent abodes. Since many of her faithful are simply sometimes-visitors to the material plane, it can be surmised that larger and grander temples exist on the Plane of Fire, forged of more bizzare materials.
RITES AND RITUALS
The faithful will normally keep a flame lit by their sides at all time, casting protective spells over it, transfering it to new sources, etc. The flame is bestowed upon them at the moment of initiation, and they must never let it be extinguished, under the threat of execution. As long as that flame burns, they live. Most faithful enjoy spreading that flame with them as they go, burning patches of grass, campfires, hearths, or simply setting a forest ablaze as they pass, to demonstrate the power of Kaelthiere.
On a grander scale, Kaelthiere's faithful honor her in the bright sunlight, and wage war in the heat of the day by burning away forests, villages, farmlands, and anything else they desire. They do it out of pure worship, and recieve no actual spoils from the battle, except for sacrifices and the charred bodies they consume along the way.
MYTHOGRAPHY
Unlike many of the wicked planar lords or monster gods, Kaelthiere is actively and openly worshiped in many of the more primitive tribes of the world, an acknowledged deity that is as welcome and open as the likes of Pelor. As much as can be said about this, it seems to mostly originate from Kaelthiere's lack of a 'dark' bone in her charred body. She is not a secret, subtle, or wily goddess in the slightest, and open warfare under a harsh sun, full exposure in the smoldering ruins, and obvious domination are more her style. This is unusual, but has lead her to either be accepted outright by authorities, or condemned quite quickly. This easily fosters an 'us' versus 'them' atmosphere where her faith has sprung up, and as many cannily wicked leaders have shown, when it's 'us' vs. 'them', good intentions fall by the wayside in the persuit of victory and vengeance (or 'justice', to put a positive spin on it). It has made her vulnerable, but it has also made her powerful quickly, and very little seems aimed to stop her meteoric rise. It was said that just a few hundred years ago she was a demigoddess. At this rate, by the end of the century she could be an intermediate goddess.
LEGENDS
Very few tales are told of Kaelthiere by those who worship her; more often she appears in the legends of those who have survived an onslaught by the warriors inspired by her. Tales are told of agricultural deities being raped and abused, of water spirits turned to mist, or of gods of the community being slaughtered at her firey hand. Occasionally cultists will invent some legend or another about her, an in this circumstance it is often evident that there is some sexual tension in her human worshipers, in that she is often seen as a usurper or liberator destroying a powerful male god of the sun and war and taking up his mantle. Kaelthiere, obviously, uses this to her advantage when possible, portraying herself as a liberator and freer of women from the harsh bounds of slavery to 'man'-kind. This, of course, creates a catch-22 for the 'them' of this war, the men, who are either seen as the heartless dominating enslavers, or must side with a deity whose morals are questionable at best. Still, these legends only crop up after there is already a dedicated cult following, and one must always take what a cult says about their deity with a grain of salt.
ETC
PrC's
· Fervor: A cleric who specializes in working up troops into frenzies of emotional power.
· Razer: A warrior who uses fire to destroy as much land and property as possible along with her enemies.
Spell
· Flameward: A Sorc/Wiz 4, Clr 3 spell that stops a burning flame from dying out from natural conditions -- no nonmagical wind or dampness can affect it. A lack of fuel still causes it to go out.
Plot Hooks
· Hack and Slash and Burn: A nomadic community of farmers has been following in the wake of a tribe of those faithful to the Dark Flame that has been running through a forest, using the ashes and fertile soil left behind to raise animals and crops on, and relying on the tribe to absorb the brunt of the hostile monsters and natives. Unfortunately, the tribe just cut through an area protected by a group of elves, who blame it on the farming community. A part of these elves has even contacted the tribe (whom they preceive as noble savages of the wood) in an attempt to get them to destroy the village (whom they think has done the burning to create farm land). Can the PC's save the village from the misguided elves, and stop the tribe from destroying both the village and the elves at the same time?
· It's Gonna Be A Bright Sunshiney Day: A curse that has afflicted a land with continual thunderstorm has suddenly and unexpectedly abated. A flamboyantly dressed priest of Kaelthiere has taken credit, attempting to change his deity's image to one of benificence and providing. Only, the sun doesn't go away, and though the people are thankful, a local tribe of druids are getting worried. Admittedly, the druids were the ones who put the curse on the town (when they murdered a heirophant who was stopping them from killing some wolves), but perhaps there is a bit of something to this? Perhaps this is simply a set-up for an eventual take over by the Dark Flame?
-- JDKAELTHIERE
The Dark Flame
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Worshipers: Cultists, Salamanders, Efreet, Azers
Domains: Destruction, Evil, Fire, War
Favored Weapon: Shortspear
Home Plane/Domain: Elemental Fire/Devouring Radience
Pantheon: Oerth
Divine Rank: 9 (Lesser)
Classes: Barbarian
Portfolio: Fire, Anger, Entropy, Hunger
Salient Abilities: (11) Avatar, Battlesense, Divine Blast, Divine Fire Mastery, Divine Rage, Divine Weapon Focus (shortspear), Divine Weapon Specialization (shortspear), Energy Burst (fire), Extra Domain (war), Increased Energy Resistance (cold), Increased Spell Resistance, Mass Divine Blast.
Special Possessions: Ignition, a flaming burst short spear.
Alternate Domains: Scalykind
Symbol: A torch with a black flame, shaped in a point.
DESCRIPTION
From Defenders of the Faith: "She represents the destructive aspects of fire, caring nothing for its usefulness."
Kaelthiere is a savage goddess of devouring flame and destruction, cutting a swath of primal rage accross the countryside. When she appears, it is as a serpentine being of pure flame, often wielding a flaming shortspear in her talons of white-hot coals. She often scintilates in a spectrum of firey shades, blues, greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and violets all dancing beautifully, concealing her body of charred stone with a viel of dessicating warmth.
DOGMA
Burn. Destroy. Consume. Be forever eager to obliterate, and leave nothing usable in your wake. Be an elemental force of destruction as merciless and heartless as flame itself. Burn all that get in your way, and rage out of control. Only cease when you run out of things to obliterate.
Kaelthiere desires her worshipers to be incarnate forces of rutheless nature, and to propriate her as the generator and provider of their burning passion and power. Of course, one need not be wild and uncontrolled to be destructive, and a slow, methodical burn form the inside can be just as potent, if not more so.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
Those who devote themselve to Kaelthiere, whether human, salamander, or efreet, dress themselves in sparkling and scintilating garb that shimmers with a variety of shades and dances loosely in the wind. Being colorful is important to them, often to the point of garishness. Within the societies, they serve as a galvanizing force, getting those warriors they desire to wage battle in a frenzy, emotionalizing the situation, and 'heating the metal' so to speak, so that when the leaders and organizers speak, the flames can leap up to devour the enemy.
Temples of Kaeltheire are often around hearths in small villages, or deep within volcanic caverns for more permanent abodes. Since many of her faithful are simply sometimes-visitors to the material plane, it can be surmised that larger and grander temples exist on the Plane of Fire, forged of more bizzare materials.
RITES AND RITUALS
The faithful will normally keep a flame lit by their sides at all time, casting protective spells over it, transfering it to new sources, etc. The flame is bestowed upon them at the moment of initiation, and they must never let it be extinguished, under the threat of execution. As long as that flame burns, they live. Most faithful enjoy spreading that flame with them as they go, burning patches of grass, campfires, hearths, or simply setting a forest ablaze as they pass, to demonstrate the power of Kaelthiere.
On a grander scale, Kaelthiere's faithful honor her in the bright sunlight, and wage war in the heat of the day by burning away forests, villages, farmlands, and anything else they desire. They do it out of pure worship, and recieve no actual spoils from the battle, except for sacrifices and the charred bodies they consume along the way.
MYTHOGRAPHY
Unlike many of the wicked planar lords or monster gods, Kaelthiere is actively and openly worshiped in many of the more primitive tribes of the world, an acknowledged deity that is as welcome and open as the likes of Pelor. As much as can be said about this, it seems to mostly originate from Kaelthiere's lack of a 'dark' bone in her charred body. She is not a secret, subtle, or wily goddess in the slightest, and open warfare under a harsh sun, full exposure in the smoldering ruins, and obvious domination are more her style. This is unusual, but has lead her to either be accepted outright by authorities, or condemned quite quickly. This easily fosters an 'us' versus 'them' atmosphere where her faith has sprung up, and as many cannily wicked leaders have shown, when it's 'us' vs. 'them', good intentions fall by the wayside in the persuit of victory and vengeance (or 'justice', to put a positive spin on it). It has made her vulnerable, but it has also made her powerful quickly, and very little seems aimed to stop her meteoric rise. It was said that just a few hundred years ago she was a demigoddess. At this rate, by the end of the century she could be an intermediate goddess.
LEGENDS
Very few tales are told of Kaelthiere by those who worship her; more often she appears in the legends of those who have survived an onslaught by the warriors inspired by her. Tales are told of agricultural deities being raped and abused, of water spirits turned to mist, or of gods of the community being slaughtered at her firey hand. Occasionally cultists will invent some legend or another about her, an in this circumstance it is often evident that there is some sexual tension in her human worshipers, in that she is often seen as a usurper or liberator destroying a powerful male god of the sun and war and taking up his mantle. Kaelthiere, obviously, uses this to her advantage when possible, portraying herself as a liberator and freer of women from the harsh bounds of slavery to 'man'-kind. This, of course, creates a catch-22 for the 'them' of this war, the men, who are either seen as the heartless dominating enslavers, or must side with a deity whose morals are questionable at best. Still, these legends only crop up after there is already a dedicated cult following, and one must always take what a cult says about their deity with a grain of salt.
ETC
PrC's
· Fervor: A cleric who specializes in working up troops into frenzies of emotional power.
· Razer: A warrior who uses fire to destroy as much land and property as possible along with her enemies.
Spell
· Flameward: A Sorc/Wiz 4, Clr 3 spell that stops a burning flame from dying out from natural conditions -- no nonmagical wind or dampness can affect it. A lack of fuel still causes it to go out.
Plot Hooks
· Hack and Slash and Burn: A nomadic community of farmers has been following in the wake of a tribe of those faithful to the Dark Flame that has been running through a forest, using the ashes and fertile soil left behind to raise animals and crops on, and relying on the tribe to absorb the brunt of the hostile monsters and natives. Unfortunately, the tribe just cut through an area protected by a group of elves, who blame it on the farming community. A part of these elves has even contacted the tribe (whom they preceive as noble savages of the wood) in an attempt to get them to destroy the village (whom they think has done the burning to create farm land). Can the PC's save the village from the misguided elves, and stop the tribe from destroying both the village and the elves at the same time?
· It's Gonna Be A Bright Sunshiney Day: A curse that has afflicted a land with continual thunderstorm has suddenly and unexpectedly abated. A flamboyantly dressed priest of Kaelthiere has taken credit, attempting to change his deity's image to one of benificence and providing. Only, the sun doesn't go away, and though the people are thankful, a local tribe of druids are getting worried. Admittedly, the druids were the ones who put the curse on the town (when they murdered a heirophant who was stopping them from killing some wolves), but perhaps there is a bit of something to this? Perhaps this is simply a set-up for an eventual take over by the Dark Flame?
Jolly Giant
First Post
Thanx, KM!
You just saved me a bunch of trouble; I to have been wondering what was up with this firecracker, figured I had to come up with something myself... And there you were, two steps ahead of me again!
How about doing some more "elemental" gods/godesses? Or maybe another giant-deity or two..?
You just saved me a bunch of trouble; I to have been wondering what was up with this firecracker, figured I had to come up with something myself... And there you were, two steps ahead of me again!
How about doing some more "elemental" gods/godesses? Or maybe another giant-deity or two..?
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