The Midget's Deity-A-Week Thread!
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I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
ILSENSINE
The Overmind
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Worshipers: Illithids, Psions, Sagest
Domains: Evil, Knowledge, Law, Madness
Favored Weapon: Tentacle
Home Plane/Domain: Sheol/The Caverns of Thought
Pantheon: Illithid
Divine Rank: Greater Deity (18)
Classes: Telepath, Bard, Wizard, Seer, Loremaster
Portfolio: Illithids, Mentalism, Psionics
B]Salient Abilities[/B]: (23) Alter Form, Alter Size, Alter Reality, Avatar, Call Creatures (Illithids), Clearsight, Control Creatures (Illithids), Create Object, Create Greater Object, Divine Blast, Divine Blessing (Intelligence), Divine Creation, Divine Inspiration (Dread), Divine Recall (new discoveries), Extra Domain (Madness), Extra Sense Enhancment (ESP, Sight, Sound, Touch), Know Secrets, Mass Divine Blast, Possess Mortal, True Knowledge
Special Possessions: None
Alternate Domains: None
Symbol: A glowing, two-tentacled green brain
DESCRIPTION
Ilsensine takes the form of an immense brain, with two tendrils flailing out from it, glowing spectrally green. It drifts silently in the air, communicating only through telepathic conversation, drifting it's tentacles accross anything putting out mental energy almost as if tasting it. The Overmind is capable of consuming things by absorbing them through its tentacles, which seem to dissolve the very essence of physical being with a mere touch. The god-brain is considered incorporeal in most all dealings with it.
DOGMA
Domination and supremecy are the commandments of the Overmind. The mind flayers must never succumb to any other life force, and must always strive to dominate and enslave all others, because all others are weak and ineffectual. The illithids are the natural peak of existence, and the Overmind their own natural peak. The world must be made to realize this -- especially those who think that they are superior to the illithids through some foolish virtue of kindness or benevolence. This is a laughable quality, fit only for those who truly lack intelligence -- cattle, to feed the growing illithid empire.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
Proper clerics of the Overmind are few. It is worshiped by mind flayers in general, and thus by many psionicists by extention. Also, the odd human cultist pays this deity of dark and forbidden knowledge much honor. The true cleric of Ilsensine generally doesn't reveal his allegience, except in the company of illithids. Here, the clerics are considered no more key to the enlightenment of being than wizards, bards, or psionicists. In fact, clerics are often seen as rather lesser, persuing goals other than pure attainment of psychic perfection. They tend to create cloistered societies where extreme forms of devotion are practiced -- clerics are likely to try to provide ways for the brain to survive out of the body, for instance, or to attempt to go into self-sustaining trances, or travel the Astral plane and leave their body to rot and die, simply as the experience.
Temples to the Overmind, because of the experimental nature of the clerics, tend to be elaborately macabre and hideous compositions of metal, fluids, glass, and stone. They are something out of a mad scientists' nightmare, in general. Less extreme temples don't commonly exists, as the Overmind is seen as being more or less omnipresent, just like thought itself, and so needs no special house or sacred ground.
RITES AND RITUALS
Worshipers of Ilsensine show their homage in many minor ways, offering their dreams to the Overmind, as well as their discoveries and knowledge, and that of their enemies. They often spend the better portion of their resting time in a zoning trance, or perhaps trying to arrive at a way to liberate thought from mortal flesh (the ultimate form of which is the illithid's method of extracting the brain, freeing it...and then consuming it for their own domination). They enjoy 'mind-liberating drugs', which they often push on companions (often spiking various foods and drinks even if the companion would rather remain a slave to the flesh).
In more massive gatherings, worshippers will engage in simultaneous mass halucinations (often led by a cleric, for the magical power they can provide), or sometimes they will prepare the sacrifice and acquisition of a particularly intelligent or knowledgable scholar.
MYTHOGRAPHY
Ilsensine, though the mind flayers would like to think of it as startlingly original and unique, is, in truth, part of many larger themes in religious belief.
One of the major themes is that of spirit vs. flesh. The illithids, as a very mind-based race, have always struggled with the dichotomy between the free, unfettered, uncontrolled thought, and the seemingly limited fleshy form. Illithids preach that they have the ideal physical form for mental persuits, but they have yet to completely liberate themselves from their bodily needs...which is why they worship and devote themselves to any god at all. Ilsensine, to them, is a tool that can lead their people to further greatness, or a greatness from which they have descended, to exact the deity's will.
It is this resistance to a fleshy form that has caused Ilsensine to take on such an idealized, metaphorical form, depending less and less upon substantial being to support it. Thus, even the physical form of Ilsensine is insubstantial and incorporeal.
They have also cleverly solved the philisophical dillema presented by their rigid hierarchy and order of the world (as evidenced by their placement at the peak of everything) combined with their persuit of something as typically free as liberating thought from flesh. The mind flayers see it as two forms of servitude...one can be a servant to their bodily forms -- the fleshy bags that lesser beings wield ineptly -- or one can be a servant to the one true mental form, Ilsensine. Illithids thus "liberate" the mind from the body (quite literally), and consume it themselves (putting it to work for a superior being), considering this greater slavery a gift. This, odly, is the origin of the euphamism that many illithids enjoy employing when threatening lesser beings, calling their method of diet a "gift of freedom."
LEGENDS
Not entirely surprisingly, there are few legends about Ilsensine, as it is seen more as a passive entity of insubstantial nature, rather than an active personification of anything in particular. Events in illithid history are not allegoricized like they are in other cultures, so Ilsensine hasn't inherited the status of a racial god quite like others -- for instance, the rebellion of the Gith is not considered a revolution of the Gith lords from Ilsensine, but a true failing of the flesh of the mind flayers themselves, not their god (who is beyond such concerns as slavery, since all minds join it's essence eventually, in death if not in life). Even creation myths are not directly attributed to the deity, in general, the mind flayers espousing themselves as incarnations of the deity's own sentience (and so something of an avatar in and of themselves), or as trying to attain that form (and thus beginning as something else). Ilsensine thus has little personality or substance, which, the illithids assert, is exactly the point.
ETC.
PrC's
· Brainmaster: They focus on more and more efficient ways to strip the brain from the flesh, eventually able to do it to multipule beings simultaneously with their mind blast.
· Husker: A class that focuses on meditation, learning less and less reliance on the phsyical form, developing psionic and monkish abilities, eventually becoming merely a disembodied mind.
Plot Hooks
· I don't know it, but I do: There's one piece of knowledge the mindflayers need before they can achieve a level of transcendence and power heretofore unknown...and it resides in the mind of an ex-wizard who splintered his personality and disabled his body in a magical experiment gone awry. Can the PC's prevent the tentacles of the illithids from getting this insane man? Can they keept the secret themselves after he lets it slip?
· Ghosts of the Known: A town has reportedly been infested by illithids who seem to be insubstantial, passing through walls, coming through cielings, attacking the populace...only, they seem strangely ineffective, unable to extract brains, and frustrated at this. The truth perchance lies in the artifact they used to gain enlightenment, and it's connection to the powerful local necromancer -- perhaps the Illithids have taken a decidedly negative turn on their path to mental energy?
The Overmind
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Worshipers: Illithids, Psions, Sagest
Domains: Evil, Knowledge, Law, Madness
Favored Weapon: Tentacle
Home Plane/Domain: Sheol/The Caverns of Thought
Pantheon: Illithid
Divine Rank: Greater Deity (18)
Classes: Telepath, Bard, Wizard, Seer, Loremaster
Portfolio: Illithids, Mentalism, Psionics
B]Salient Abilities[/B]: (23) Alter Form, Alter Size, Alter Reality, Avatar, Call Creatures (Illithids), Clearsight, Control Creatures (Illithids), Create Object, Create Greater Object, Divine Blast, Divine Blessing (Intelligence), Divine Creation, Divine Inspiration (Dread), Divine Recall (new discoveries), Extra Domain (Madness), Extra Sense Enhancment (ESP, Sight, Sound, Touch), Know Secrets, Mass Divine Blast, Possess Mortal, True Knowledge
Special Possessions: None
Alternate Domains: None
Symbol: A glowing, two-tentacled green brain
DESCRIPTION
Ilsensine takes the form of an immense brain, with two tendrils flailing out from it, glowing spectrally green. It drifts silently in the air, communicating only through telepathic conversation, drifting it's tentacles accross anything putting out mental energy almost as if tasting it. The Overmind is capable of consuming things by absorbing them through its tentacles, which seem to dissolve the very essence of physical being with a mere touch. The god-brain is considered incorporeal in most all dealings with it.
DOGMA
Domination and supremecy are the commandments of the Overmind. The mind flayers must never succumb to any other life force, and must always strive to dominate and enslave all others, because all others are weak and ineffectual. The illithids are the natural peak of existence, and the Overmind their own natural peak. The world must be made to realize this -- especially those who think that they are superior to the illithids through some foolish virtue of kindness or benevolence. This is a laughable quality, fit only for those who truly lack intelligence -- cattle, to feed the growing illithid empire.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
Proper clerics of the Overmind are few. It is worshiped by mind flayers in general, and thus by many psionicists by extention. Also, the odd human cultist pays this deity of dark and forbidden knowledge much honor. The true cleric of Ilsensine generally doesn't reveal his allegience, except in the company of illithids. Here, the clerics are considered no more key to the enlightenment of being than wizards, bards, or psionicists. In fact, clerics are often seen as rather lesser, persuing goals other than pure attainment of psychic perfection. They tend to create cloistered societies where extreme forms of devotion are practiced -- clerics are likely to try to provide ways for the brain to survive out of the body, for instance, or to attempt to go into self-sustaining trances, or travel the Astral plane and leave their body to rot and die, simply as the experience.
Temples to the Overmind, because of the experimental nature of the clerics, tend to be elaborately macabre and hideous compositions of metal, fluids, glass, and stone. They are something out of a mad scientists' nightmare, in general. Less extreme temples don't commonly exists, as the Overmind is seen as being more or less omnipresent, just like thought itself, and so needs no special house or sacred ground.
RITES AND RITUALS
Worshipers of Ilsensine show their homage in many minor ways, offering their dreams to the Overmind, as well as their discoveries and knowledge, and that of their enemies. They often spend the better portion of their resting time in a zoning trance, or perhaps trying to arrive at a way to liberate thought from mortal flesh (the ultimate form of which is the illithid's method of extracting the brain, freeing it...and then consuming it for their own domination). They enjoy 'mind-liberating drugs', which they often push on companions (often spiking various foods and drinks even if the companion would rather remain a slave to the flesh).
In more massive gatherings, worshippers will engage in simultaneous mass halucinations (often led by a cleric, for the magical power they can provide), or sometimes they will prepare the sacrifice and acquisition of a particularly intelligent or knowledgable scholar.
MYTHOGRAPHY
Ilsensine, though the mind flayers would like to think of it as startlingly original and unique, is, in truth, part of many larger themes in religious belief.
One of the major themes is that of spirit vs. flesh. The illithids, as a very mind-based race, have always struggled with the dichotomy between the free, unfettered, uncontrolled thought, and the seemingly limited fleshy form. Illithids preach that they have the ideal physical form for mental persuits, but they have yet to completely liberate themselves from their bodily needs...which is why they worship and devote themselves to any god at all. Ilsensine, to them, is a tool that can lead their people to further greatness, or a greatness from which they have descended, to exact the deity's will.
It is this resistance to a fleshy form that has caused Ilsensine to take on such an idealized, metaphorical form, depending less and less upon substantial being to support it. Thus, even the physical form of Ilsensine is insubstantial and incorporeal.
They have also cleverly solved the philisophical dillema presented by their rigid hierarchy and order of the world (as evidenced by their placement at the peak of everything) combined with their persuit of something as typically free as liberating thought from flesh. The mind flayers see it as two forms of servitude...one can be a servant to their bodily forms -- the fleshy bags that lesser beings wield ineptly -- or one can be a servant to the one true mental form, Ilsensine. Illithids thus "liberate" the mind from the body (quite literally), and consume it themselves (putting it to work for a superior being), considering this greater slavery a gift. This, odly, is the origin of the euphamism that many illithids enjoy employing when threatening lesser beings, calling their method of diet a "gift of freedom."
LEGENDS
Not entirely surprisingly, there are few legends about Ilsensine, as it is seen more as a passive entity of insubstantial nature, rather than an active personification of anything in particular. Events in illithid history are not allegoricized like they are in other cultures, so Ilsensine hasn't inherited the status of a racial god quite like others -- for instance, the rebellion of the Gith is not considered a revolution of the Gith lords from Ilsensine, but a true failing of the flesh of the mind flayers themselves, not their god (who is beyond such concerns as slavery, since all minds join it's essence eventually, in death if not in life). Even creation myths are not directly attributed to the deity, in general, the mind flayers espousing themselves as incarnations of the deity's own sentience (and so something of an avatar in and of themselves), or as trying to attain that form (and thus beginning as something else). Ilsensine thus has little personality or substance, which, the illithids assert, is exactly the point.
ETC.
PrC's
· Brainmaster: They focus on more and more efficient ways to strip the brain from the flesh, eventually able to do it to multipule beings simultaneously with their mind blast.
· Husker: A class that focuses on meditation, learning less and less reliance on the phsyical form, developing psionic and monkish abilities, eventually becoming merely a disembodied mind.
Plot Hooks
· I don't know it, but I do: There's one piece of knowledge the mindflayers need before they can achieve a level of transcendence and power heretofore unknown...and it resides in the mind of an ex-wizard who splintered his personality and disabled his body in a magical experiment gone awry. Can the PC's prevent the tentacles of the illithids from getting this insane man? Can they keept the secret themselves after he lets it slip?
· Ghosts of the Known: A town has reportedly been infested by illithids who seem to be insubstantial, passing through walls, coming through cielings, attacking the populace...only, they seem strangely ineffective, unable to extract brains, and frustrated at this. The truth perchance lies in the artifact they used to gain enlightenment, and it's connection to the powerful local necromancer -- perhaps the Illithids have taken a decidedly negative turn on their path to mental energy?
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Ooo...
Very nice, KM, very nice. Too bad my illithid NPC is already pushing up the daisies, as this would have been useful.
Demiurge out.
Very nice, KM, very nice. Too bad my illithid NPC is already pushing up the daisies, as this would have been useful.
Demiurge out.
Doc_Souark
Explorer
I like this K.M. , but where's the Halfling God/dess of magic 
Renaissance Man
First Post
Thank you thank you thank you, Kamikaze Midget! The brain-sucking squid-heads in my campaign just found GOD! Expect a nasty note from my players... 
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
METRA
The Scion Queen
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Worshipers: Formians
Domains: Community, Law, Nobility
Favored Weapon: Javelin
Home Plane/Domain: Mechanus/The Center
Pantheon: Formian Queens
Divine Rank: 0 (Formian Queen)
Classes: None
Portfolio: Law, Formians, Society, Slavery, Crafts
Salient Abilities: None
Special Possessions: None
Alternate Domains: Charm
Symbol: A disc with an ant in the center
SACRIFICES
To attain the spellcasting abilities of a domain, for one week, a cultist of Metra must make a sacrifice corresponding to the domain they choose.
Community: Solve at least one dispute between individuals in the same unit.
Law: Commit the death of one lawbreaker to Metra
Nobility: Assist in the implementation of one decree from a noble.
*Charm: Relegate one enemy to slave status
DESCRIPTION
Metra, the Formian Scion Queen, takes the form of an immense, bloated worm with jaws, several miles long, rippling and white. She is an immense creature, immobile save for some periodic writhing, unable to act, but very able to think.
DOGMA
Law. Order. Domination. The formains under the scion queen all adhere to the same dogma, and that dogma is their own conquering of all sentient life, and their place at it's head. The formains believe that life has become too chaotic, too random, too uncontrolled to be focused in any useful direction. They have started on the long, arduous path towards focusing all of the chaotic energy of the mutliverse into once useful goal. Though the goal remains undisclosed, all formains are undoubtedly in persuit of it, as anything nearing dissention amongst these creatures would be alien and unheard-of.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
The Scion Queen has few clergy, and fewer temples. She is honored mostly by formians, who have no need and desire to worship an entity that is the logical ruler of all of existance by becoming clerics, specifically. If they were to ever become clerics, they would have been created that way, after all. More often, she is worshiped by the odd human cultist, who pays her homage in the form of sacrifices, and gains some ability from that. Many of her cultists are servants in the formian hive-cities, something of a link between the harsh-seeming ant-centaurs and the fleshy people they rule over. The priests serve as comforters and ministers to the mistrustful and wary people newly enslaved. Though many accuse the formains of brainwashing to create these clerics, the priests seem to genuinely enjoy doing what they do, finding a happy slavery better than a dangerous and chaotic life. Many clergy dress in silvers, whites, and blues.
RITES AND RITUALS
Those few cultists who worship the Scion Queen generally keep their rites simple and functional, not wishing to do anything superfluously, wastefully. They make rituals of honoring the sacrifices they must make, and some (such as the execution of a criminal) can become truly frightening affairs. After all, the more clerics there are, the more criminals they need, and the better they do their job, the harder it is to find criminals, and so the more petty infractions start becoming punishable by death. Many also attend to the Scion Queen's various satellite queens, located throughout the planes, as emmesaries and missionaries. Either way, a communal and group-related focus is taken on many of their missions. There are no individuals, to a Scionist, merely a splintered whole.
MYTHOGRAPHY
The most intriguing thing about the religion of the Scion Queen is the phenomena of a 'willing slave.'
It seems that, in most any case, being a slave is a bad thing. You are taken from the life you know, and forced into a new existence, whether you like it or not. You are not free to choose how to live your life, and often you are relegated to a position of unimportance and no effect, merely another cog in the great machine, whose name isn't important enough to remember.
But an amazing phenomena happens in the hive cities of the formians -- the slaves are actually generally happy with their position. They are well fed, with frequent breaks, and are stoutly defended against any possible attack. They need not worry about crops or family (as they are often paired up with people for impermantent affairs), and all they need to do is put in a day's worth of work in constructing one of the great works of the formians, and they are left to their devices. Some individuals actively welcome the coming of the formians into their territory, seeing a slave's life under these outsiders as infinately preferable to a dangerous and brutish life outside.
Of course, not all are welcoming of the formians, despite this seeming joy the slaves have. Often, cities that are well off enough without the bugs will put up protracted campaigns against them, as they see nothing that the formians need to save them from. Elves seem especially nervous around the creatures, seeing the domination as mind control and manipulation, nothing more. Of course, mind control magic would work, but attempts at dispelling have just as often come up for naught as they have been effective, leading many shcolars to theorize perhaps darker means have been used. Of course, many of the mouthpieces of formian society simply say that it is a happiness of the slaves, that a good life is truly led under the formian yoke. Unfortunately, those who protest the slavery have little evidence that this is not true -- the only unhappiness seems to be that they are dominated. Otherwise, life is definately good for a formain slave.
LEGENDS
There is only one story told of the formians by those who worship the Scion Queen: the tale of the Great Shift. It was once said that the scion queen Metra lived in the lowest deapths of the plane of Arcadia, deep within it's blissful passages. There, it met some human philosophers who told the story of their organization, and their goal. These three red-armored individuals told a story of order and law, and how these can be used to institute a paradise of bliss, without crime, without pain, without suffering. Their goal was to eventually bring this dream to all the worlds. Of course, there would be resistance, but, the philosophers reasoned, those who wouldn't accept the order would either be made to accept the order, or destroyed. It would not be a happy event, but it would be a nessecary one, for the good of all those who did accept the order.
The Queen was persuaded by their honeyed words to join forces with them, on her own plane. The two teams worked well together, these Harmoinous Humans and the formidable formians. Only, the humans started introducing elements that many formians didn't like, such as joining up with Devils, or the emotionless and cruel Modrons, or even creatures like hobgoblins or worse -- any creature that would respond to order. These beings seemed much more interested in achieving a high position for themselves than in serving the world through order and rigament. The Queen was, however, accepting of these, as the harmonious humans convinced her that these were all for the greater good.
And then, the Shift occured. The home of the Scion Queen suddenly wasn't deep beneath the ordered glades of Arcadia, but instead was in the turning gears of Mechanus, a step away from goodness and a step closer to Law. This occured, legends say, at about the same time that the entity known as Orcus was revealed to be illustrating a great and destructive march of Modrons accross the planes. Though the march was stopped, and Orcus stepped away from the modrons to his original home, the mechanical creatures that were once the most ordered beings in the multiverse now experienced more chaos than ever. The rate of rogues and rebels went skyward, and the most ordered beings in existence became less so. It seemed that, to those who worshiped the Scion Queen, her way was chosen over that of the formians. She took over the center of Mechanus from the mechanical shapes, and has now ruled there for millenia, slowly bringing the entire plane, and things beyond it, into her grasp. To those who worship her, this was the true goal of her and all formians. There was a rivalry, however, between Metra and her sister, a formain queen named Clarity who stubbornly refused to move in the exodus that followed the shifting of the layer. Since then, there has been a cold hostility between the formians of Mechanus, and those of Arcadia, with the latter desiring a return to more holy and goodly ways, less concerned with domination and enslavement, and more concerned with purity and holy order. Of course, Clarity has no love of the creatures known as the harmonious humans, seeing them as the corruptors and destroyers of the once-great formian land.
Etc.
PrC's
· Slavemaster: An enchantment specialist who focuses in domination, enslavement, and rulership of other creatures.
· Linemaker: One who focuses on dispelling and destroying elements of chaos, randomness, and sloppy indefinateness in creatures both great and small.
Plot Hooks
· I Don't Wanna Go Home!: A young lady's brother has been stolen and kept captive amongst a nearby formian hive-city, and she petitions the PC's to go and save him. The twist is that he's quite happy where he is, and doesn't want to come home. The girl is determined enough to risk her own life to save him, if she must...is there a dark force keeping him happy, or perhaps a darker force motivating her?
· Army Ants: Recently, a group of planar clerics calling themselves the Harmonium have entered the region, preaching their method of obedience and order as the ultimate paradise. They have not been overly well-recieved, but many are nervous about the great hive city that has seemed to accompany them. Is this a formian army to back up their threats that ill things will befall those who don't obey? Or perhaps their threat is more related to the reported sightings of devils in the area, and these formians are here to destroy an evil order?
The Scion Queen
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Worshipers: Formians
Domains: Community, Law, Nobility
Favored Weapon: Javelin
Home Plane/Domain: Mechanus/The Center
Pantheon: Formian Queens
Divine Rank: 0 (Formian Queen)
Classes: None
Portfolio: Law, Formians, Society, Slavery, Crafts
Salient Abilities: None
Special Possessions: None
Alternate Domains: Charm
Symbol: A disc with an ant in the center
SACRIFICES
To attain the spellcasting abilities of a domain, for one week, a cultist of Metra must make a sacrifice corresponding to the domain they choose.
Community: Solve at least one dispute between individuals in the same unit.
Law: Commit the death of one lawbreaker to Metra
Nobility: Assist in the implementation of one decree from a noble.
*Charm: Relegate one enemy to slave status
DESCRIPTION
Metra, the Formian Scion Queen, takes the form of an immense, bloated worm with jaws, several miles long, rippling and white. She is an immense creature, immobile save for some periodic writhing, unable to act, but very able to think.
DOGMA
Law. Order. Domination. The formains under the scion queen all adhere to the same dogma, and that dogma is their own conquering of all sentient life, and their place at it's head. The formains believe that life has become too chaotic, too random, too uncontrolled to be focused in any useful direction. They have started on the long, arduous path towards focusing all of the chaotic energy of the mutliverse into once useful goal. Though the goal remains undisclosed, all formains are undoubtedly in persuit of it, as anything nearing dissention amongst these creatures would be alien and unheard-of.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
The Scion Queen has few clergy, and fewer temples. She is honored mostly by formians, who have no need and desire to worship an entity that is the logical ruler of all of existance by becoming clerics, specifically. If they were to ever become clerics, they would have been created that way, after all. More often, she is worshiped by the odd human cultist, who pays her homage in the form of sacrifices, and gains some ability from that. Many of her cultists are servants in the formian hive-cities, something of a link between the harsh-seeming ant-centaurs and the fleshy people they rule over. The priests serve as comforters and ministers to the mistrustful and wary people newly enslaved. Though many accuse the formains of brainwashing to create these clerics, the priests seem to genuinely enjoy doing what they do, finding a happy slavery better than a dangerous and chaotic life. Many clergy dress in silvers, whites, and blues.
RITES AND RITUALS
Those few cultists who worship the Scion Queen generally keep their rites simple and functional, not wishing to do anything superfluously, wastefully. They make rituals of honoring the sacrifices they must make, and some (such as the execution of a criminal) can become truly frightening affairs. After all, the more clerics there are, the more criminals they need, and the better they do their job, the harder it is to find criminals, and so the more petty infractions start becoming punishable by death. Many also attend to the Scion Queen's various satellite queens, located throughout the planes, as emmesaries and missionaries. Either way, a communal and group-related focus is taken on many of their missions. There are no individuals, to a Scionist, merely a splintered whole.
MYTHOGRAPHY
The most intriguing thing about the religion of the Scion Queen is the phenomena of a 'willing slave.'
It seems that, in most any case, being a slave is a bad thing. You are taken from the life you know, and forced into a new existence, whether you like it or not. You are not free to choose how to live your life, and often you are relegated to a position of unimportance and no effect, merely another cog in the great machine, whose name isn't important enough to remember.
But an amazing phenomena happens in the hive cities of the formians -- the slaves are actually generally happy with their position. They are well fed, with frequent breaks, and are stoutly defended against any possible attack. They need not worry about crops or family (as they are often paired up with people for impermantent affairs), and all they need to do is put in a day's worth of work in constructing one of the great works of the formians, and they are left to their devices. Some individuals actively welcome the coming of the formians into their territory, seeing a slave's life under these outsiders as infinately preferable to a dangerous and brutish life outside.
Of course, not all are welcoming of the formians, despite this seeming joy the slaves have. Often, cities that are well off enough without the bugs will put up protracted campaigns against them, as they see nothing that the formians need to save them from. Elves seem especially nervous around the creatures, seeing the domination as mind control and manipulation, nothing more. Of course, mind control magic would work, but attempts at dispelling have just as often come up for naught as they have been effective, leading many shcolars to theorize perhaps darker means have been used. Of course, many of the mouthpieces of formian society simply say that it is a happiness of the slaves, that a good life is truly led under the formian yoke. Unfortunately, those who protest the slavery have little evidence that this is not true -- the only unhappiness seems to be that they are dominated. Otherwise, life is definately good for a formain slave.
LEGENDS
There is only one story told of the formians by those who worship the Scion Queen: the tale of the Great Shift. It was once said that the scion queen Metra lived in the lowest deapths of the plane of Arcadia, deep within it's blissful passages. There, it met some human philosophers who told the story of their organization, and their goal. These three red-armored individuals told a story of order and law, and how these can be used to institute a paradise of bliss, without crime, without pain, without suffering. Their goal was to eventually bring this dream to all the worlds. Of course, there would be resistance, but, the philosophers reasoned, those who wouldn't accept the order would either be made to accept the order, or destroyed. It would not be a happy event, but it would be a nessecary one, for the good of all those who did accept the order.
The Queen was persuaded by their honeyed words to join forces with them, on her own plane. The two teams worked well together, these Harmoinous Humans and the formidable formians. Only, the humans started introducing elements that many formians didn't like, such as joining up with Devils, or the emotionless and cruel Modrons, or even creatures like hobgoblins or worse -- any creature that would respond to order. These beings seemed much more interested in achieving a high position for themselves than in serving the world through order and rigament. The Queen was, however, accepting of these, as the harmonious humans convinced her that these were all for the greater good.
And then, the Shift occured. The home of the Scion Queen suddenly wasn't deep beneath the ordered glades of Arcadia, but instead was in the turning gears of Mechanus, a step away from goodness and a step closer to Law. This occured, legends say, at about the same time that the entity known as Orcus was revealed to be illustrating a great and destructive march of Modrons accross the planes. Though the march was stopped, and Orcus stepped away from the modrons to his original home, the mechanical creatures that were once the most ordered beings in the multiverse now experienced more chaos than ever. The rate of rogues and rebels went skyward, and the most ordered beings in existence became less so. It seemed that, to those who worshiped the Scion Queen, her way was chosen over that of the formians. She took over the center of Mechanus from the mechanical shapes, and has now ruled there for millenia, slowly bringing the entire plane, and things beyond it, into her grasp. To those who worship her, this was the true goal of her and all formians. There was a rivalry, however, between Metra and her sister, a formain queen named Clarity who stubbornly refused to move in the exodus that followed the shifting of the layer. Since then, there has been a cold hostility between the formians of Mechanus, and those of Arcadia, with the latter desiring a return to more holy and goodly ways, less concerned with domination and enslavement, and more concerned with purity and holy order. Of course, Clarity has no love of the creatures known as the harmonious humans, seeing them as the corruptors and destroyers of the once-great formian land.
Etc.
PrC's
· Slavemaster: An enchantment specialist who focuses in domination, enslavement, and rulership of other creatures.
· Linemaker: One who focuses on dispelling and destroying elements of chaos, randomness, and sloppy indefinateness in creatures both great and small.
Plot Hooks
· I Don't Wanna Go Home!: A young lady's brother has been stolen and kept captive amongst a nearby formian hive-city, and she petitions the PC's to go and save him. The twist is that he's quite happy where he is, and doesn't want to come home. The girl is determined enough to risk her own life to save him, if she must...is there a dark force keeping him happy, or perhaps a darker force motivating her?
· Army Ants: Recently, a group of planar clerics calling themselves the Harmonium have entered the region, preaching their method of obedience and order as the ultimate paradise. They have not been overly well-recieved, but many are nervous about the great hive city that has seemed to accompany them. Is this a formian army to back up their threats that ill things will befall those who don't obey? Or perhaps their threat is more related to the reported sightings of devils in the area, and these formians are here to destroy an evil order?
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
DIIRINKA
The Deep Lich
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Worshipers: Derro
Domains: Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Trickery
Favored Weapon: Dagger (poisoned)
Home Plane/Domain: Perdition/Savant Caves
Pantheon: Dwarven
Divine Rank: 13 (Intermediate)
Classes: Sorcerer, Savant (Psion), Rogue
Portfolio: Magic, Knowledge, Cruelty, Madness
Salient Abilities: (16) Arcane Mastery, Automatic Metamagic, Avatar, Craft Artifact, Divine Blast, Divine Skill Focus (Knowledge [arcana]), Divine Spellcasting, Divine Storm, Energy Energy Burst, Storm (negative), Extra Domain (Trickery), Increased Spell Resistance, Instant Counterspell, Mass Divine Blast, See Magic, Derro-Lich Qualities*
Special Possessions: Robe of Diirinka*
Alternate Domains: None
Symbol: A disc composed of interwoven spirals of white, black, and gray.
SALIENT ABILITIES
Derro-Lich Qualities: Diirinka is considered to be a derro with the Lich template, which gives him the following abilities: Spell Resistance 18, Darkvision 60 ft, Sunlight Vulnerability (1 Con/1 hr), Blind-Fight feat, immunities (poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, mind-influencing effects, critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, anything requiring a Fort save unless it also affects objects, cold, electricity, polymorph), +5 natural armor, negative energy touch (1d8+5 damage, Will [10+1/2 HD+Cha modifier] halves), Fear Aura (Fear if less than 5 HD fail a Will save within 60 ft.), Paralyzing Touch (Fort negates, permanent), Turn Resistance +4, DR 15/+1, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Cha, No Con, +8 Hide, +8 Listen, +8 Move Silently, +8 Search, +8 Sense Motive, +8 Spot, Phylactery
POSESSIONS
Robe of Diirinka: Made of swirling white, black, and gray strands, the robe acts much like a staff would, except it is worn. It can create the effects of Slay Living, Disintegrate, and Destruction as if Diirinka were casting them.
DESCRIPTION
From Defenders of the Faith: "The patron of the degenerate derro, Diirinka is...a deity of magic, knowledge, patron of the the derro savants, and god of cruelty."
Diirinka appears as a stunted derro with yellowing, parchment-like flesh, hollow eye sockets, hair that comes off in clumps, and various holes and gaping wounds in his flesh. He dresses in his swirling, flashing robe, which hides the worst of his rotting form. He often has a manic grin on his face, which is frequently quite a bad sign. When the god of cruelty is enjoying himself, it can't be a good thing.
DOGMA
There is art in suffering. The composition of a great tragedy or a spectacular act of depressing violence is as wonderous and grand as a symphony or a painting. Both require talent and knowledge. Diirinka desires all to follow his lead in inducing suffering in others, as maliciously and cruelly as possible -- the greater the emotional reaction, the greater the poetry of the pain. Diirinka also desires knowledge and arcane (and psionic) skill, and declares that magic and psionics are the highest form of truth and artistry, and only those who are gifted with the talent can earn his favor -- all else are simply his potential playthings.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
The most common worshipers of Diirinka are the derro, the degenerate race of dwarves who are bred with humans and obsessed with magic. Of these, worship of the Deep Lich is reserved for the leaders of derro society, the derro savants (not to be confused with psionic savants, though they often are of that class, too). The savants are more generally sorcerers or psions than clerics, but clerics occur as well, and are valued members of the knowledgable savants. They use slaves to craft great temples and offering places for thier master, composed of beautifully smooth stone, crafted in hideous and unpleasant images leering out of creavaces and holes within it. The more distrubing and awe-inspiring the better. Temples to Diirinka are grand, opulent affairs, with hidden ugliness and terror lurking inbetween the rich trappings -- plush red carpets may be made of the flayed and still-bleeding flesh of torture victims, sweeping columns may be crafted of rib bones and skulls, leering gargoyles and sigils of black speech are carved on magnificent altars of writhing child's skeletons.
RITES AND RITUALS
The manufacture of a new temple to Diirinka is always a bloody and macabrely entertaining affair for the derro. A great festival is declared, and the entire community goes on a night-time raid of some innocent, distant villiage, gathering the old, the young, the infirm -- the weakest and most vulnerable of the place -- and taking them back to their lair to form the foundation for the temple. The temple is added to as adventurers and family members come against the derro from the outside, and die in the tunnels. The celebration lasts anywhere from a week to a month, and it's quite opulent. At the end, two kept human captives from the town (one of each gender) are forced to serve as breeding stock for those in the town who won fame in the battle. The next festival occurs in about nine months, when the next generation of derro are born, and the two humans who were kept are executed to signal the beginning of a new great hunt.
Individually, clerics of Diirinka often praise the god as the origin and manifester of all mystical energies, and each new spell they learn, each new powre they discover, each new miracle that trangresses is attributed to Diirinka. It is also this god that powers and persuades the worshipers to acts of cruelty themselves.
MYTHOGRAPHY
The derro are an anomoly for several reasons: a race of half-breeds the breed true to each other, savage, mad, and chaotic, highly magical, and, above all, all this in common with being dwarves.
It is often said that dwarves became disdainful of magic and it's practice because of these degenerate creatures. Long ago, when Diirinka was merely the coldly interested dwarven god of magic, the worshipers were called savants. In a flame of revolution and indignation, Diirinka turned himself into a lich and waged war on the rest of the dwarven pantheon along with the savants, purging those who would not listen to him. He succeeded, at least in part, and dominated a dwarven villiage. The rest of the pantheon reacted quickly with loathing and ire at this brother, who stole his lore from the illithid god-brain. The rest of the dwarves forsook the derro while they were running from the illithid empire, which, in the minds of the derro, lead to the destruction of one of their brother-gods (Diinkarazan). The dwarves, to make sure none followed in the footsteps of the derro, outlawed and forsook all arcane practices for a time, regarding only divine magic as the true magic without wickedness. This lasted for a long time, and even affected dwarven societal and physical evolution (still resistant to poisons and magic, for instance). Though arcane magic did come back, it is still mistrusted and rarely practiced, and still seen as something of a tempting force of darkness. If a dwarf plumbs deep enough into arcane magic, he will find the derro, and then the only choices are fight, die, or join.
LEGENDS
The most famous of Diirinka's legends regards his split from the dwarven pantheon. Persuing magical knowledge, Diirinka desired to turn himself into a Lich. The rest of the dwarven pantheon railed at the idea -- Undead status would corrupt and destroy the soul of their god of magic, and they couldn't support his actions. So, Diirinka became a rebel in that act, and very quickly accepted both the path of chaos and the path of evil. He saw how much it made the other dwarves squirm, and he found it to be poetic justice that the stoic race would be undone by magic, after they had purged it and him from his system. In seeking aid for his revolution, he approached the god who reportedly gave him the ability to turn into a lich in the first place -- Ilsensine, the god of the mind flayers. Only, he later renigned on his deal and tortured thousands of mind flayers to death, doing it along with his brother and ally in the rebellion, Diinkarazan, a dwarven god of something long forgotten. In wrath, Ilsensine imprisoned Diinkarazan in the Abyss and caused him to become mad. Ever since then, Diirinka has had a wrath both for the dwarven deities and for the illithids. He feels his magical training and skill as a psion will be able to overcome both his foes, because they will never ally with each other to undo him.
Etc.
PrC's
· Derro Savant: A PrC that unifies Sorcerer and Psion skills into stealth and trickery based powers.
· Master Of Cruelty: Like a bard of the macabre, your art can inspire people...disturbingly.
Feat
· Savant Spellcaster: The following spells are cast at +1 caster level, and can exceed the normal limits in power by that +1. The spells are: (0-level)Prestidigitation (1st)Cause Fear (2nd)Blindness/Deafness (3rd)Hold Person (4th)Bestow Curse (5th)Feeblemind (6th)Acid Fog (7th)Power Word, Stun (8th)Horrid Wilting (9th)Wail of the Banshee
Plot Hooks
· Party Time!: The PC's are in the targeted town when the Rite of New Temple is undertaken by the derro. It's them versus an entire city -- can they save anybody, let alone everybody?
· Cruelty in Joy: The derro have something of a sick sense of humor. The PC's discover some writing that says that a local girl was released after being impregnated with some spawned demon, and let return to her husband. The PC's can find the girl, and the husband, happily married and awaiting their child in a few days. Can they get to the distant town in time to stop this horrid birth? Is is really a horrid birth, or did the derro just leave that message there hoping that the PC's would kill the unborn child, who is truly an innocent? And why does the huband seem so against the PC's in this? Perhaps the new corpse unearthed in the hills will shed light on the husband -- if any who try to identify the body remain alive, of course.
The Deep Lich
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Worshipers: Derro
Domains: Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Trickery
Favored Weapon: Dagger (poisoned)
Home Plane/Domain: Perdition/Savant Caves
Pantheon: Dwarven
Divine Rank: 13 (Intermediate)
Classes: Sorcerer, Savant (Psion), Rogue
Portfolio: Magic, Knowledge, Cruelty, Madness
Salient Abilities: (16) Arcane Mastery, Automatic Metamagic, Avatar, Craft Artifact, Divine Blast, Divine Skill Focus (Knowledge [arcana]), Divine Spellcasting, Divine Storm, Energy Energy Burst, Storm (negative), Extra Domain (Trickery), Increased Spell Resistance, Instant Counterspell, Mass Divine Blast, See Magic, Derro-Lich Qualities*
Special Possessions: Robe of Diirinka*
Alternate Domains: None
Symbol: A disc composed of interwoven spirals of white, black, and gray.
SALIENT ABILITIES
Derro-Lich Qualities: Diirinka is considered to be a derro with the Lich template, which gives him the following abilities: Spell Resistance 18, Darkvision 60 ft, Sunlight Vulnerability (1 Con/1 hr), Blind-Fight feat, immunities (poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, mind-influencing effects, critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, anything requiring a Fort save unless it also affects objects, cold, electricity, polymorph), +5 natural armor, negative energy touch (1d8+5 damage, Will [10+1/2 HD+Cha modifier] halves), Fear Aura (Fear if less than 5 HD fail a Will save within 60 ft.), Paralyzing Touch (Fort negates, permanent), Turn Resistance +4, DR 15/+1, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Cha, No Con, +8 Hide, +8 Listen, +8 Move Silently, +8 Search, +8 Sense Motive, +8 Spot, Phylactery
POSESSIONS
Robe of Diirinka: Made of swirling white, black, and gray strands, the robe acts much like a staff would, except it is worn. It can create the effects of Slay Living, Disintegrate, and Destruction as if Diirinka were casting them.
DESCRIPTION
From Defenders of the Faith: "The patron of the degenerate derro, Diirinka is...a deity of magic, knowledge, patron of the the derro savants, and god of cruelty."
Diirinka appears as a stunted derro with yellowing, parchment-like flesh, hollow eye sockets, hair that comes off in clumps, and various holes and gaping wounds in his flesh. He dresses in his swirling, flashing robe, which hides the worst of his rotting form. He often has a manic grin on his face, which is frequently quite a bad sign. When the god of cruelty is enjoying himself, it can't be a good thing.
DOGMA
There is art in suffering. The composition of a great tragedy or a spectacular act of depressing violence is as wonderous and grand as a symphony or a painting. Both require talent and knowledge. Diirinka desires all to follow his lead in inducing suffering in others, as maliciously and cruelly as possible -- the greater the emotional reaction, the greater the poetry of the pain. Diirinka also desires knowledge and arcane (and psionic) skill, and declares that magic and psionics are the highest form of truth and artistry, and only those who are gifted with the talent can earn his favor -- all else are simply his potential playthings.
CLERGY AND TEMPLES
The most common worshipers of Diirinka are the derro, the degenerate race of dwarves who are bred with humans and obsessed with magic. Of these, worship of the Deep Lich is reserved for the leaders of derro society, the derro savants (not to be confused with psionic savants, though they often are of that class, too). The savants are more generally sorcerers or psions than clerics, but clerics occur as well, and are valued members of the knowledgable savants. They use slaves to craft great temples and offering places for thier master, composed of beautifully smooth stone, crafted in hideous and unpleasant images leering out of creavaces and holes within it. The more distrubing and awe-inspiring the better. Temples to Diirinka are grand, opulent affairs, with hidden ugliness and terror lurking inbetween the rich trappings -- plush red carpets may be made of the flayed and still-bleeding flesh of torture victims, sweeping columns may be crafted of rib bones and skulls, leering gargoyles and sigils of black speech are carved on magnificent altars of writhing child's skeletons.
RITES AND RITUALS
The manufacture of a new temple to Diirinka is always a bloody and macabrely entertaining affair for the derro. A great festival is declared, and the entire community goes on a night-time raid of some innocent, distant villiage, gathering the old, the young, the infirm -- the weakest and most vulnerable of the place -- and taking them back to their lair to form the foundation for the temple. The temple is added to as adventurers and family members come against the derro from the outside, and die in the tunnels. The celebration lasts anywhere from a week to a month, and it's quite opulent. At the end, two kept human captives from the town (one of each gender) are forced to serve as breeding stock for those in the town who won fame in the battle. The next festival occurs in about nine months, when the next generation of derro are born, and the two humans who were kept are executed to signal the beginning of a new great hunt.
Individually, clerics of Diirinka often praise the god as the origin and manifester of all mystical energies, and each new spell they learn, each new powre they discover, each new miracle that trangresses is attributed to Diirinka. It is also this god that powers and persuades the worshipers to acts of cruelty themselves.
MYTHOGRAPHY
The derro are an anomoly for several reasons: a race of half-breeds the breed true to each other, savage, mad, and chaotic, highly magical, and, above all, all this in common with being dwarves.
It is often said that dwarves became disdainful of magic and it's practice because of these degenerate creatures. Long ago, when Diirinka was merely the coldly interested dwarven god of magic, the worshipers were called savants. In a flame of revolution and indignation, Diirinka turned himself into a lich and waged war on the rest of the dwarven pantheon along with the savants, purging those who would not listen to him. He succeeded, at least in part, and dominated a dwarven villiage. The rest of the pantheon reacted quickly with loathing and ire at this brother, who stole his lore from the illithid god-brain. The rest of the dwarves forsook the derro while they were running from the illithid empire, which, in the minds of the derro, lead to the destruction of one of their brother-gods (Diinkarazan). The dwarves, to make sure none followed in the footsteps of the derro, outlawed and forsook all arcane practices for a time, regarding only divine magic as the true magic without wickedness. This lasted for a long time, and even affected dwarven societal and physical evolution (still resistant to poisons and magic, for instance). Though arcane magic did come back, it is still mistrusted and rarely practiced, and still seen as something of a tempting force of darkness. If a dwarf plumbs deep enough into arcane magic, he will find the derro, and then the only choices are fight, die, or join.
LEGENDS
The most famous of Diirinka's legends regards his split from the dwarven pantheon. Persuing magical knowledge, Diirinka desired to turn himself into a Lich. The rest of the dwarven pantheon railed at the idea -- Undead status would corrupt and destroy the soul of their god of magic, and they couldn't support his actions. So, Diirinka became a rebel in that act, and very quickly accepted both the path of chaos and the path of evil. He saw how much it made the other dwarves squirm, and he found it to be poetic justice that the stoic race would be undone by magic, after they had purged it and him from his system. In seeking aid for his revolution, he approached the god who reportedly gave him the ability to turn into a lich in the first place -- Ilsensine, the god of the mind flayers. Only, he later renigned on his deal and tortured thousands of mind flayers to death, doing it along with his brother and ally in the rebellion, Diinkarazan, a dwarven god of something long forgotten. In wrath, Ilsensine imprisoned Diinkarazan in the Abyss and caused him to become mad. Ever since then, Diirinka has had a wrath both for the dwarven deities and for the illithids. He feels his magical training and skill as a psion will be able to overcome both his foes, because they will never ally with each other to undo him.
Etc.
PrC's
· Derro Savant: A PrC that unifies Sorcerer and Psion skills into stealth and trickery based powers.
· Master Of Cruelty: Like a bard of the macabre, your art can inspire people...disturbingly.
Feat
· Savant Spellcaster: The following spells are cast at +1 caster level, and can exceed the normal limits in power by that +1. The spells are: (0-level)Prestidigitation (1st)Cause Fear (2nd)Blindness/Deafness (3rd)Hold Person (4th)Bestow Curse (5th)Feeblemind (6th)Acid Fog (7th)Power Word, Stun (8th)Horrid Wilting (9th)Wail of the Banshee
Plot Hooks
· Party Time!: The PC's are in the targeted town when the Rite of New Temple is undertaken by the derro. It's them versus an entire city -- can they save anybody, let alone everybody?
· Cruelty in Joy: The derro have something of a sick sense of humor. The PC's discover some writing that says that a local girl was released after being impregnated with some spawned demon, and let return to her husband. The PC's can find the girl, and the husband, happily married and awaiting their child in a few days. Can they get to the distant town in time to stop this horrid birth? Is is really a horrid birth, or did the derro just leave that message there hoping that the PC's would kill the unborn child, who is truly an innocent? And why does the huband seem so against the PC's in this? Perhaps the new corpse unearthed in the hills will shed light on the husband -- if any who try to identify the body remain alive, of course.
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