Deities and Legends for Everyone

[Bohandas]

I'll have to look into that.

Or rather they're explicitly right in Planescape/Spelljammer as it pertains to the Toril/Realmspace system. In PS/SJ every sub-setting, including Faerun, is in the great wheel cosmology and uses its mechanistic system of consignment of the soul after death. The wall is therefore a signicant artificial deviation from the natural destination of departed souls. Furthermore most judges of the dead, while already by nature a deviation from the baseline, only have clear jurisdiction over those who followed their pantheon in life

[Max_Killjoy]

Or rather they're explicitly right in Planescape/Spelljammer as it pertains to the Toril/Realmspace system. In PS/SJ every sub-setting, including Faerun, is in the great wheel cosmology and uses its mechanistic system of consignment of the soul after death. The wall is therefore a signicant artificial deviation from the natural destination of departed souls. Furthermore most judges of the dead, while already by nature a deviation from the baseline, only have clear jurisdiction over those who followed their pantheon in life

So from a PS/SJ perspective, a deity like Kyrpech would be somewhat justified in wanted to undermine / subvert an FR-like pantheon's actions regarding the souls of the dead.

[noob]

So from a PS/SJ perspective, a deity like Kyrpech would be somewhat justified in wanted to undermine / subvert an FR-like pantheon's actions regarding the souls of the dead.

So does it means someone can convince Kyrpech to help get rid of the wall of the faithless?

[Max_Killjoy]

So does it means someone can convince Kyrpech to help get rid of the wall of the faithless?

It's at least implied in the post describing her that if she's used in an Realms or Realms-derived setting, that's exactly what she'd be up to without any need for convincing.

In fact she started out as a direct shot at that horrid little part of the FR cosmology, at the very notion of people being condemned to oblivion or damnation for the "crime" of not being religious enough, but as I wrote her out she grew into something that can be dropped into other settings more readily, with an even more strict and exacting and regimented "celestial bureaucracy and hierarchy" pantheon as the implied background.



As a general note, I really like these idea threads, and I'm hoping we'll see more contributions... I'm debating starting a separate thread for Kyrpech instead of having her take over this one.

[Max_Killjoy]

Snip great ideas for Kyrpech's necromancy aspect.

Or rather they're explicitly right in Planescape/Spelljammer as it pertains to the Toril/Realmspace system. In PS/SJ every sub-setting, including Faerun, is in the great wheel cosmology and uses its mechanistic system of consignment of the soul after death. The wall is therefore a signicant artificial deviation from the natural destination of departed souls. Furthermore most judges of the dead, while already by nature a deviation from the baseline, only have clear jurisdiction over those who followed their pantheon in life

So, since there's not a lot going on in this thread at present, might as well go on with a couple things.


First, I'm trying to think of different ideas about what Kyrpech might have been the deity "of" in the beginning, before the other gods made their soul-allocation arrangement and established the Divine Law, and she was "forced" to become in effect the deity of rebellion, desecration, contradiction, anachronism, lawlessness... and irony*? What sort of deity would have been opposed to the "convenient agreement" that she accuses the other gods of having?

(* The irony being that as much as the other deities would like their faithful to forget she exists, she's enough of a threat that they have to preach against her and declare her followers "outlaws", and every time they warn the faithful to beware her, they make her stronger via promoting mortal belief in her as a sort of "demon queen" or "boogie", and furthermore she's taking advantage of every horrible thing they say about her by accepting the power the mortal belief in those "true lies" grants her and twisting it around to use against the other gods... and by embracing those layers of irony, she seizes "irony" as part of her portfolio... it's just irony all the way down after that. Why do you think she's always smirking?)

(And if used in an "Realms-like" setting, what's even better yet as far as she's concerned, is that the whole "she's an evil spirit or demon queen, not a god" thing... just helps make her expect from the rules that normally apply to gods there, about needing the souls of their followers!)

Is one of the layers of irony that she actually was/is an evil deity, but now a sort of divine anti-hero, at least in her own estimation? Was she actually "the deity of freedom" all along? A deity of knowledge/truth who didn't like mortals being lied to? Or was she always the "lady of lies" who is now ironically fighting to break the biggest lie ever?



Second, to get the thread going again -- anyone feel like creating one of the deities she's opposed to? How would you leave open the question of who's actually right here, or at least leave a lot of room for mortals to see that god as good and Kyrpech as evil?

[Bohandas]

Came up with a bunch of minor quasi-deities who could be minions of a god of rogues

Lamec, the God of Smoking- Appears as a four armed man wearing a leather jacket and holding cigarettes in at least two hands. Teaches that smoking will make you cool. Prayed to by people looking for smokes or something to light their smokes. His sacred animal is the camel. Domains: Fire, Temptation (fc1), Popularity (see below)

Ovibe, The god of leather jackets. His torso is made entirely out of layers and layers of leather jackets. His sacred animal is the bull.

John Crime (character originally described by shadow_archmagi)- God of crime. It was he who first introduced crime to the world. Domains: Trickery, Greed

Popularity Domain
Granted Power: Add Diplomacy (redundant for clerics) and gather information to class skills. Gain bonuses to these skills equal to divine spellcaster level divided by 5 (round up)

1.) Charm Person
2.) Eagle's Splendor
3.) Clothier's Closet (MoE) (or Glibness if you don;t have Magic of Eberron)
4.) Mass Charm Person (DR#312, RoD)
5.) Charm Monster
6.) Nixie's Grace (SC, DR314)
7.) Interplanar Telepathic Bond (SC)
8.) Mass Charm Monster
9.) Sympathy

[Max_Killjoy]

Came up with a bunch of minor quasi-deities who could be minions of a god of rogues

Lamec, the God of Smoking- Appears as a four armed man wearing a leather jacket and holding cigarettes in at least two hands. Teaches that smoking will make you cool. Prayed to by people looking for smokes or something to light their smokes. His sacred animal is the camel. Domains: Fire, Temptation (fc1), Popularity (see below)

Ovibe, The god of leather jackets. His torso is made entirely out of layers and layers of leather jackets. His sacred animal is the bull.

John Crime (character originally described by shadow_archmagi)- God of crime. It was he who first introduced crime to the world. Domains: Trickery, Greed

Popularity Domain
Granted Power: Add Diplomacy (redundant for clerics) and gather information to class skills. Gain bonuses to these skills equal to divine spellcaster level divided by 5 (round up)

1.) Charm Person
2.) Eagle's Splendor
3.) Clothier's Closet (MoE) (or Glibness if you don;t have Magic of Eberron)
4.) Mass Charm Person (DR#312, RoD)
5.) Charm Monster
6.) Nixie's Grace (SC, DR314)
7.) Interplanar Telepathic Bond (SC)
8.) Mass Charm Monster
9.) Sympathy

Are they intended to be anachronistic, or more for use in settings that blend some modern in?

[Bohandas]

Are they intended to be anachronistic, or more for use in settings that blend some modern in?

Well the beauty is that there's nothing actually inherently anachronistic about them even in a regular setting. Cultivated tobacco and leather have both been around a long time.

Anyway, there's more of these guys

Tuvis- Hod of music and resurrection, and specifically musicians who have come back from the dead. It is foretold that in the future he will resurrect many of the greatest deceased bards for some apocalyptic music related conflict. Domains: Restoration (DLCS), Passion (Eberron), and possibly Undead (Spell compendium)

Marijane- The goddess of marijuana and keen sight. Domains: Plant, Sight (see below)

Tiplub- God of dogfights, chicken fights, and rat baiting. Looks like an anthropomorphic fighting dog with a rooster wattle and a rat tail (both the appendage and the hairstyle). Domains: Animal, Competition (SC), Strength

Sight Domain
Granted Power: Add search and spot to list of class skills. Gain low-light vision (if character already has low-light vision, gain darkvision instead, and if they already have darkvision either increase its range by 15 feet or remove any racial drawback that would blind the character in sunlight)
1.) Low Light Vision (SC, CArc)
2.) Remove blindness
3.) Arcane Sight
4.) Arcane Eye
5.) True Seeing
6.) Visualize Auras (see below)
7.) Greater Scrying
8.) Greater Visualize Auras/Numinous Sight (See Below)
9.) Eye of Power (SC)
--
Visualize Auras

Divination
Level: Sight 6
Components: V, S,
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (self)
Duration: 10 min./ level (D)
Saving Throw: N/A
Spell Resistence: N/A

This spell works like a combination of the Detect Magic, Detect Undead, Discern Shapechanger (SC), and Deathwatch, as well as Detect Evil, Detect Chaos, Detect Good, and Detect Law; except that it works out to medium range, reveals auras instantly, doesn't require concentration, and covers the caster's full normal angle of vision.

It also allows you to Read Magic on a held item once per round.

It can see through anything that Detect Secret Doors can, but does not allow normal vision through these things, only the ability to see auras.

--
Greater Aura Visualization/Numinous Sight

Divination
Level: Sight 8
Components: V, S,
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (self)
Duration: 10 min./ level (D)
Saving Throw: N/A
Spell Resistence: N/A

Like Visualize Auras (see above) this spell works like a combination of the Detect Magic, Detect Undead, Discern Shapechanger (SC) and Deathwatch, as well as Detect Evil, Detect Chaos, Detect Good, Detect Law.

In addition to these, this spell adds the effects of Detect Scrying, Detect Secret Doors, Detect Snares and Pits, and See Invisibility

It also allows you to Read Magic once per round.

It also grants the caster a bonus to spot and search checks equal to half their caster level.

It works out to medium range, reveals auras instantly, doesn't require concentration, and covers the caster's full normal angle of vision.

If the caster does concentrate they can see through solid objects within 20 feet of them as per a Ring of X-Ray Vision

It can see other detectable things through anything that Detect Secret Doors can, but does not allow normal vision through these things except as noted above, only the ability to see auras.

[Max_Killjoy]

BTW, it wasn't a criticism, though I know my tone sometimes makes that hard to tell -- sorry if it came across as harsh. It was just that I read them and the immediate imagery was of bits of 1950s to 1980s America.

Just so I'm clear, you're referencing a 3.x/PF "domains" structure, as opposed to 5e's?

[Bohandas]

BTW, it wasn't a criticism, though I know my tone sometimes makes that hard to tell -- sorry if it came across as harsh. It was just that I read them and the immediate imagery was of bits of 1950s to 1980s America.

Just so I'm clear, you're referencing a 3.x/PF "domains" structure, as opposed to 5e's?

I didn't take it as a criticism, I just felt I needed to explain it a little more. The idea is that while a lot of it is spoofing 20th century culture none of it is intrinsically tied to it; or at least it's more closely tied to rogueishness than it is to the 20th century. The leather jacket guy for example brings to mind the image of a 1950's greaser and but I know that a lot of rogue characters even in a standard setting are probably going to be wearing some kind of leather armor. Or with the smoking guy, while it doesn't make much sense to tie camels and smoking together without camel cigarettes, it isn't really any more random than associating the main rogue deity with armadillos (as is the case in Greyhawk; Olidammara's name is roughly "armadillo" spelled backwards and he canonically has some kind of carapaced back that prevents him being backstabbed by non-divine entities)


As for domains, I am indeed using 3e/3.5 domains

[Max_Killjoy]

Spoiler: Kyrpech pt1

Show

Kyrpech the Graverobber

(keer-pech, not pek.)

The temples and churches teach that life is a cycle, a journey, of which birth and death are natural parts. After death there is justice, every soul to the fate it deserves from acting in accord with the divine laws, or not. Each soul sheds its mortal pain and limits and needs, and goes on to serve a greater purpose in the cosmos. Souls who ignored the law, who broke faith with the gods, who didn't conduct the proper rites in life and didn't in turn receive the proper rites in death are damned to the River Oblivion. Only through proper faith and worship can the living and the dead find their place.

There are a myriad of entities that hate the law, and the gods, and everything proper and right and good in the world. One of the worst is the Kyrpech, a despoiler of graves and violator of funeral rites, a liar and thief, a harbinger of damnation. Sardonic and charming, always grinning a lopsided grin at a joke only she heard, the Kyrpech might be encountered by the unlucky or the unfaithful along a lost road at night, seeking to play on their inner doubts and ply them with temptations to ignore the proper rites and rules.

The Kyrpech must be properly warded against, lest she violate the resting places of the dead, seeking to undo the rites of the dead and condemn the soul to oblivion. Crossroads and graveyards and mausoleums often have markers and signs to keep her at bay.



Kyrpech's hidden followers tell a different story. Death is a racket, and they're ain't no justice. The afterlife works as it does because the gods set it up that way -- it's literally a setup -- and the absolutes of the divine law just exist to keep mortals from asking hard questions. All those souls just get divided up among the gods based on an obtuse system of contest over worship and allocation quotas. The "higher purpose" is just service to the gods, and the rites are just a way to bind the soul to servitude. A free soul keeps its full identity, and all its memories and predilections, though perhaps with a fresher perspective on existence, and goes on to whatever fate it wishes. Paradise, reincarnation, whatever they want... only the truly evil and depraved need worry about the horrors of damnation. The River is just one of many pathways through the afterlife.

Kyrpech has always taught that the divine law and all the rites and rules and propriety were just a sick joke on mortals. No one even should have to die, most suffering is a sham, and everyone can make their own path (as long as they act with respect for others and real inner dignity). If you can manage to pull off undeath without hurting anyone or losing your own self, more power to you, one less soul for the gods' grinders.

It's even whispered that the god of the underworld, the high and mighty judge of the dead, uses souls he deems unworthy and unfairthful as bricks in a "living wall", trying to dam the River (there's another of those jokes Kyrpech is grinning about, even if it's not as funny as all that... damn, dam, get it?) and capture those departing free souls for his own ends, but Kyrpech's "spirits" make raids on the construction to keep it from ever finishing, so the River continues to flow.

The only rites her followers keep to universally are rites of secrecy and quiet, so that the gods or the temples don't catch them.

Like their patron, they go out to secretly interfere with the rites of the dead, and work to strategically violate the rites themselves so that they will be free of the gods after death.



Symbol: Crossed shovel and prybar.

Imagery: Always depicted as a woman, with ashen skin and heterochromia and whatever hair color is considered inauspicious or strange (red hair, or grey/white on a young woman, or whatever), usually dressed in an ironic and expensive take on the local culture's mourning or undertaker's clothing. Often this will be big boots, trousers, formal shirt, and a fancy black coat. Usually wearing an assortment of jewelry and trinkets and pouches as well. Always shown with a shovel and/or prybar. Sometimes it seems that the more anachronism and norm-violation in the way way she's depicted, the better, especially in areas where "a woman's place" is most strictly enforced by the society.

Spoiler: Kyrpech's Coat

Show

Spoiler: Kyrpech's name

Show

Kyrpech roughly translates as "brick thief", as this was originally going to be a more direct and blatant dig on that horrid little aspect of Forgotten Realms cosmology...

Spoiler: Kyrpech pt2

Show

First, I'm trying to think of different ideas about what Kyrpech might have been the deity "of" in the beginning, before the other gods made their soul-allocation arrangement and established the Divine Law, and she was "forced" to become in effect the deity of rebellion, desecration, contradiction, anachronism, lawlessness... and irony*? What sort of deity would have been opposed to the "convenient agreement" that she accuses the other gods of having?

(* The irony being that as much as the other deities would like their faithful to forget she exists, she's enough of a threat that they have to preach against her and declare her followers "outlaws", and every time they warn the faithful to beware her, they make her stronger via promoting mortal belief in her as a sort of "demon queen" or "boogie", and furthermore she's taking advantage of every horrible thing they say about her by accepting the power the mortal belief in those "true lies" grants her and twisting it around to use against the other gods... and by embracing those layers of irony, she seizes "irony" as part of her portfolio... it's just irony all the way down after that. Why do you think she's always smirking?)

(And if used in an "Realms-like" setting, what's even better yet as far as she's concerned, is that the whole "she's an evil spirit or demon queen, not a god" thing... just helps make her expect from the rules that normally apply to gods there, about needing the souls of their followers!)

Is one of the layers of irony that she actually was/is an evil deity, but now a sort of divine anti-hero, at least in her own estimation? Was she actually "the deity of freedom" all along? A deity of knowledge/truth who didn't like mortals being lied to? Or was she always the "lady of lies" who is now ironically fighting to break the biggest lie ever?

I think I settled on something, in terms of the setting growing up around Kyrpech's story in my head (a setting which takes elements from the various Chinese Imperial incidents of burning books and killing scholars, "forbidden books" era Europe, the Victorian era, etc, and wraps them up in various "early modern" trappings).

She was (is, underneath) the goddess of knowledge, and lore, and keepers and teachers thereof. Everything from magic to farming and building techniques to artistic concepts to family recipes, the knowledge of it was her delight -- gathering, keeping, and teaching. In those far older days "lorekeeper" was traditionally a job done by the women. As cultures developed and "advanced", that role expanded (family, clan, tribe, village, state), and sages and historians and scholars were often women.

When the other gods agreed to impose their new order on both mortal society and the afterlife, they had to make people forget the old ways. The old shrines were closed or converted, the printing houses were made state or church property; the female sages were thrown out of their libraries, and told to concentrate on their "proper family roles". The scrolls and books and art were seized by the priesthoods, and either locked away or burned or thrown into the sea. The priests became the new keepers of knowledge, much of it restricted or forbidden, with most people only being taught or allowed to access what the priesthoods determined they needed to know to fulfill their roles. To horde knowledge like a miser was offensive enough to Kyrpech... but to destroy it, and inflict ignorance? Unforgivable.

If the other gods dared to desecrate the archives and the schools, and profane all that was sacred to her, then she would do likewise to everything they had built. Every venomous lie they spread about her, she would turn back against them, and remain herself as well, for a lie can obscure the truth, but it cannot destroy it. If they wanted to make knowledge forbidden and dangerous and frightening, then she would become forbidden and dangerous and frightening. If knowing "too much" could "damn" someone, then she would embrace "damnation", and twist it around to deny the system as many souls as she could.


EDIT: Thing is, none of this is to say that the other gods didn't at least think they had a reason to do what they did. Maybe there really was a threat, and their perception was that it was so massive and existential that the only way to fight it was to seize near-total control of all the "metaphysical energy" in their broader multiplanar reality. A sort of security vs freedom dispute, as it were.

[Bohandas]

A short history of creation, evil, and/or the Dunning-Kruger effect

In the beginning the creator was alone and there was nothing, then the creator created the universe. And the creator was incompetent and the universe was badly flawed. The creator was sorely vexed, saying "But I created the universe perfectly, someone must have sobotaged my work". Out of this paranoid thought the lord of evil was created, and he has plagued the world ever since.

[twistedraja]

thanks for the gods! Great ideas here, unfortunately I have none to add atm just wanted to say thanks.

[KiltieMacPipes]

Salty Jim

The half-elven swashbuckler was born to a human prostitute and an elven john. His none-to-bright mother named him something that sounded vaguely elven "Salturiel Jimnestria". He never met his father, nor does he particularly care about it. As soon as it was possible, he ran away to be a ship's monkey, and never looked back.

Now, many years later, he's been everywhere, and done everything. At least according to him. In reality, he IS actually a very experienced adventurer, a lethal duelist, capable of incredible things, but he is also an outrageous liar when it comes to his own exploits. He swears that after winning a thrilling city-wide chase, he bedded the Goddess of Luck herself in a hayloft, and will happily duel anyone who calls him a liar for it.

He dresses in bright colored finery with lots of jewelry, but is rarely seen without his trademark bright blue high-collared coat. Nearly everyone knows his name, he has become legend in his own lifetime. Stories of his exploits are as common as our stories of Robin Hood, The Lone Ranger, or Zorro. Depending on the teller or the audience he can be a thief, an avenger, a rogue, a scoundrel, a scourge, a murderer, or a pirate.

I give him a 1% chance of being in any bar or tavern my players enter, or 5% if its a port town. He's always good for a rumor or two about exotic treasures, places, monsters, and women. Occasionally i'll use him as a quest giver, especially if I'm gonna send the players far, far away from home.

[PhoenixPhyre]

A few objects of power. Several of the objects have made themselves known in campaigns. All of them are of the "central plot McGuffin" category.

Terminus, the Gate to Oblivion
Theories abound about this object, buried at the heart of the Abyss. Not even the oldest of daemons that were imprisoned here know its true nature or purpose, although they could just be lying. What is known is that there is a spherical blot of utter darkness, like an anti-star (except much smaller) in the very center of the Abyss. Approximately 100 miles across, this blot annihilates anything that approaches. Even being in its vicinity is not safe--it is known to reach out tendrils of anti-existence for a very long way around it. Anything touched even in the slightest by one of these tendrils ceases to exist. Completely and utterly, bypassing all known safeguards and spells. It is also unstable, changing its size and shape constantly. It's fluctuations create what passes for weather in the Abyss--winds of matter drawn into Terminus, matter and energy colliding in various ways and throwing off chunks. All stable demesnes must take measures to control their path through the Abyss, lest they draw too close and be annihilated.

It has existed for as long as the Abyss has. Some believe that it is a manifestation of the primoridal known as Death, the ender of all things. Others believe that it is a fragment of the One that created all, representing destruction. Others claim it was a corrupted core, the nucleus around which the Abyss was grown at the end of the Dawn War. Yet others, considered heretics by the other abyssal denizens, believe it was emplaced as a final mercy, a final escape from the imprisonment of the Abyss. That any demon who chose could surrender itself to Terminus and pass through into quiet nothingness.

The Eight Talons of Resolve (these have played a role already)
These eight long daggers are made of a slightly-iridescent, ivory-like bone. A curved blade, about 18' long, juts from a handle of the same material. Despite appearing extremely sharp at the tip and along the sides, these daggers cannot cause any harm. If stabbed into someone, they pass through as if the person were made of smoke and withdraw without leaving a mark. They do not radiate any magic at all, but anyone trained in the histories of the realm will recognize them on sight.

They have a single, solitary use. A person, grasping the handle, can fix a purpose firmly in mind and stab themselves with a Talon. If the victim is completely willing, without any trace of influence from outside, magical or otherwise, and knows the cost he will incur, the blade accepts the sacrifice and consumes the person's existence in granting the purpose. The sacrifice is consumed body and spirit, with nothing left that can be resurrected. The size of the effect is limited only by the power of the sacrifice. An average commoner with no special strength of soul, can fuel an effect approximately as large as a highest-tier spell[1]. Someone with the strength of an archmage, for example, can cut a hole through Shadow and create a gate in the otherwise-thought-impervious Crystal Sphere, letting the Beyond into the Mortal Plane unhindered. Another archmage could sacrifice themselves to repair such a hole. In the Battle of Acceptance, eight of the Greater Gods used all eight Talons in concert to rewrite the Great Mechanism, accepting the Nameless and Change into the fabric of reality. If the desired effect is too large for the power of the sacrifice, the Talon will remain inert and do no damage.

The Pen of Fate, AKA the Cosmic Forge (yes, this is an homage to the Wizardry games, which I loved. It was the central McGuffin in one high-level campaign).
This artifact, housed in the Great Library of Tal Elamor, is probably the most powerful singular item in the Mortal Plane. Shaped in the form of a feather quill pen about 2.5 feet long, made out of a silvery metal, this pen writes on the fabric of the universe in the life of its wielder, permanently altering the fundamental laws of the universe. Throughout history, four great Wishes have been made. The first broke the dominion of Titan and Wyrm and introduced wizardry. The second altered the relationships of kami and man, leading to Moonfall and the end of the Aelvar empire. The third connected the heavens with man, letting faith in the gods work miracles. The fourth, most recent, Wish altered the nature of magic and of technology. Its effects are still being felt and ascertained. These wishes are recorded in symbols of glowing power in air of the chamber that houses the Pen.

Periodically (at intervals of thousands of years), as the concentration of anima rises due to the activities of mortal beings, the Pen activates and begins calling powerful beings to contest for the right to wield it and make a Wish. Only the most powerful can even attempt this--any lesser being is burnt out uselessly if they touch the Pen, being destroyed before the first symbol is written. It is unknown exactly how the Pen chooses the person to wield it, but it must be voluntary. Those who are chosen as candidates are brought to the Library, where the amalgamated minds of countless scholars and sages instruct them and simulate the proposed Wish, until the Agent is ready. It seems that the Pen itself will test the candidates; those that it does not consider worthy never make it.

When the chosen Agent lifts the Pen and begins to write the words of the Wish onto the air, it draws on the entirety of their existence, using it as ink. It also consumes colossal quantities of anima from the whole plane, reducing the concentration to safe levels. The Agent is completely removed from history and from the memories of all beings (living and immortal alike). All deeds they did are ascribed to someone (or someones) else. They never existed, except as the Agent of the Wish. No one ever remembers who wrote the wishes--this leads to many claiming descent from these titanic figures in generations to come.

The Eyes of Qa'desh (also were a central McGuffin in a campaign)
It is believed that there are (or were) two of these crystalline, lens-shaped objects. They are about the size of two dinner plates set on top of each other, with one inverted. Inside the crystal is what appears to be an iris and a pupil, as if of a very large eye. No one knows where the name came from, or where they were created. It is believed that they are relics of the One that created all, when it gave up itself to form the planes after the Dawn War.

Anyone holding one of the Eyes can look into it and draw on its power to create. Unlike the Pen and the Talons, which rewrite laws or events (respectively), the Eyes create and shape matter and energy. Also unlike the other two relics, they do not require a complete sacrifice. Their effect is bounded by the endurance of the user, as well as the local ambient anima. It is believed that these Eyes were responsible for the Titans' most amazing creations and works, including the splitting of the ancient mega-continent after the First Wish.

The only appearance of one of the Eyes in recent times was right before the Cataclysm, as the armies of Order and Chaos clashed. Three adventurers were sent on a wild goose chase, hunting legends of powerful artifacts. They came across an Eye, hidden in a lost temple to an unknown god. Being foolhardy and brash, they decided to use it themselves instead of bringing it back to the army of Order. From what we know, they made three demands (not knowing the nature of the device). The first demand was to make them gods. The second was to reduce the amount of magic in the world. The third was for the Eye to destroy itself. All of these were well outside the capabilities of the device, as it was an artifact of Creation, not destruction. For some reason, unknown to scholars, it sucked in tremendous quantities of anima trying to fulfill these hopeless demands. In doing so, it caused the planes themselves to become dislodged, jamming the Great Mechanism and causing the Cataclysm. In the wake of the misfire of the Eye, the greater gods sacrificed themselves to end the war; the lesser ones sacrificed themselves, fusing into the Great Mechanism to repair the fault. All organized magic ceased for about 50 years. And the three adventurers? Ironically, they did end up as gods. The surviving god-mass, now the voice of the Great Mechanism, chose them as three of the first of the new gods as penance for their actions. Bound now to uphold order and prevent any future cataclysms, they serve man as Yogg-Maggus, Lord of Magic, The Hollow King, Patron of Assassins, and Pinwheel, Patron of Change.[1]

[1] Yes, these were PCs. The players made those choices independently, knowing the nature and consequences. That was an interesting bunch of players...

[Bohandas]

Jelscalop the Incomprehensible Grotesquerie- LE god of war and duty specifically personifying the grotesqueness and incomprehensibilty of men who have no quarrel with each other and no love of killing nevertheless killing each otner becauxe somebody told them to

[Max_Killjoy]

Spoiler: Kyrpech pt1

Show

Kyrpech the Graverobber

(keer-pech, not pek.)

The temples and churches teach that life is a cycle, a journey, of which birth and death are natural parts. After death there is justice, every soul to the fate it deserves from acting in accord with the divine laws, or not. Each soul sheds its mortal pain and limits and needs, and goes on to serve a greater purpose in the cosmos. Souls who ignored the law, who broke faith with the gods, who didn't conduct the proper rites in life and didn't in turn receive the proper rites in death are damned to the River Oblivion. Only through proper faith and worship can the living and the dead find their place.

There are a myriad of entities that hate the law, and the gods, and everything proper and right and good in the world. One of the worst is the Kyrpech, a despoiler of graves and violator of funeral rites, a liar and thief, a harbinger of damnation. Sardonic and charming, always grinning a lopsided grin at a joke only she heard, the Kyrpech might be encountered by the unlucky or the unfaithful along a lost road at night, seeking to play on their inner doubts and ply them with temptations to ignore the proper rites and rules.

The Kyrpech must be properly warded against, lest she violate the resting places of the dead, seeking to undo the rites of the dead and condemn the soul to oblivion. Crossroads and graveyards and mausoleums often have markers and signs to keep her at bay.



Kyrpech's hidden followers tell a different story. Death is a racket, and they're ain't no justice. The afterlife works as it does because the gods set it up that way -- it's literally a setup -- and the absolutes of the divine law just exist to keep mortals from asking hard questions. All those souls just get divided up among the gods based on an obtuse system of contest over worship and allocation quotas. The "higher purpose" is just service to the gods, and the rites are just a way to bind the soul to servitude. A free soul keeps its full identity, and all its memories and predilections, though perhaps with a fresher perspective on existence, and goes on to whatever fate it wishes. Paradise, reincarnation, whatever they want... only the truly evil and depraved need worry about the horrors of damnation. The River is just one of many pathways through the afterlife.

Kyrpech has always taught that the divine law and all the rites and rules and propriety were just a sick joke on mortals. No one even should have to die, most suffering is a sham, and everyone can make their own path (as long as they act with respect for others and real inner dignity). If you can manage to pull off undeath without hurting anyone or losing your own self, more power to you, one less soul for the gods' grinders.

It's even whispered that the god of the underworld, the high and mighty judge of the dead, uses souls he deems unworthy and unfairthful as bricks in a "living wall", trying to dam the River (there's another of those jokes Kyrpech is grinning about, even if it's not as funny as all that... damn, dam, get it?) and capture those departing free souls for his own ends, but Kyrpech's "spirits" make raids on the construction to keep it from ever finishing, so the River continues to flow.

The only rites her followers keep to universally are rites of secrecy and quiet, so that the gods or the temples don't catch them.

Like their patron, they go out to secretly interfere with the rites of the dead, and work to strategically violate the rites themselves so that they will be free of the gods after death.



Symbol: Crossed shovel and prybar.

Imagery: Always depicted as a woman, with ashen skin and heterochromia and whatever hair color is considered inauspicious or strange (red hair, or grey/white on a young woman, or whatever), usually dressed in an ironic and expensive take on the local culture's mourning or undertaker's clothing. Often this will be big boots, trousers, formal shirt, and a fancy black coat. Usually wearing an assortment of jewelry and trinkets and pouches as well. Always shown with a shovel and/or prybar. Sometimes it seems that the more anachronism and norm-violation in the way way she's depicted, the better, especially in areas where "a woman's place" is most strictly enforced by the society.

Spoiler: Kyrpech's name

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Kyrpech roughly translates as "brick thief", as this was originally going to be a more direct and blatant dig on that horrid little aspect of Forgotten Realms cosmology...

Spoiler: Kyrpech pt2

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First, I'm trying to think of different ideas about what Kyrpech might have been the deity "of" in the beginning, before the other gods made their soul-allocation arrangement and established the Divine Law, and she was "forced" to become in effect the deity of rebellion, desecration, contradiction, anachronism, lawlessness... and irony*? What sort of deity would have been opposed to the "convenient agreement" that she accuses the other gods of having?

(* The irony being that as much as the other deities would like their faithful to forget she exists, she's enough of a threat that they have to preach against her and declare her followers "outlaws", and every time they warn the faithful to beware her, they make her stronger via promoting mortal belief in her as a sort of "demon queen" or "boogie", and furthermore she's taking advantage of every horrible thing they say about her by accepting the power the mortal belief in those "true lies" grants her and twisting it around to use against the other gods... and by embracing those layers of irony, she seizes "irony" as part of her portfolio... it's just irony all the way down after that. Why do you think she's always smirking?)

(And if used in an "Realms-like" setting, what's even better yet as far as she's concerned, is that the whole "she's an evil spirit or demon queen, not a god" thing... just helps make her exempt from the rules that normally apply to gods there, about needing the souls of their followers ! )

Is one of the layers of irony that she actually was/is an evil deity, but now a sort of divine anti-hero, at least in her own estimation? Was she actually "the deity of freedom" all along? A deity of knowledge/truth who didn't like mortals being lied to? Or was she always the "lady of lies" who is now ironically fighting to break the biggest lie ever?

Spoiler: pt3

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I think I settled on something, in terms of the setting growing up around Kyrpech's story in my head (a setting which takes elements from the various Chinese Imperial incidents of burning books and killing scholars, "forbidden books" era Europe, the Victorian era, etc, and wraps them up in various "early modern" trappings).

She was (is, underneath) the goddess of knowledge, and lore, and keepers and teachers thereof. Everything from magic to farming and building techniques to artistic concepts to family recipes, the knowledge of it was her delight -- gathering, keeping, and teaching. In those far older days "lorekeeper" was traditionally a job done by the women. As cultures developed and "advanced", that role expanded (family, clan, tribe, village, state), and sages and historians and scholars were often women.

When the other gods agreed to impose their new order on both mortal society and the afterlife, they had to make people forget the old ways. The old shrines were closed or converted, the printing houses were made state or church property; the female sages were thrown out of their libraries, and told to concentrate on their "proper family roles". The scrolls and books and art were seized by the priesthoods, and either locked away or burned or thrown into the sea. The priests became the new keepers of knowledge, much of it restricted or forbidden, with most people only being taught or allowed to access what the priesthoods determined they needed to know to fulfill their roles. To horde knowledge like a miser was offensive enough to Kyrpech... but to destroy it, and inflict ignorance? Unforgivable.

If the other gods dared to desecrate the archives and the schools, and profane all that was sacred to her, then she would do likewise to everything they had built. Every venomous lie they spread about her, she would turn back against them, and remain herself as well, for a lie can obscure the truth, but it cannot destroy it. If they wanted to make knowledge forbidden and dangerous and frightening, then she would become forbidden and dangerous and frightening. If knowing "too much" could "damn" someone, then she would embrace "damnation", and twist it around to deny the system as many souls as she could.


EDIT: Thing is, none of this is to say that the other gods didn't at least think they had a reason to do what they did. Maybe there really was a threat, and their perception was that it was so massive and existential that the only way to fight it was to seize near-total control of all the "metaphysical energy" in their broader multiplanar reality. A sort of security vs freedom dispute, as it were.

Spoiler: oh hey guess who she accidentally looks like...

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Found another image.

[Bohandas]

Rusticus

God of plants, farms, overhunted woodlands, ghost towns, other places devoid of both animal life and intelligent life, solitude, and misanthropy

Al- NN(CE)
Domains- Death, Plant, Decay (ECS) (modified spell list; see below), Hunt (Dr342). Possibly also Windstorm (SC)

Rusticus is the god of places where that have been cleared of animal life but not significantly settled by intelligent life. This includes vegetable farms, areas that have been overhunted, and areas ravaged by natural disasters.

To court his favor, members of farming communities must discourage strangers from staying too long and keep interactions to a minimum while traveling, remain always standoffish, and generally be isolated and weird. He accepts, but does not demand, children-of-the-corn style sacrifices of interlopers. Hunters seeking his favor must deliberately hunt more than they need. Or hunt people.

Modified Decay Domain
1.) Doom
2.) Ray of Enfeeblement
3.) Contagion
4.) Miasma of Entropy (Spell Compendium)
5.) Memory Rot (Spell Compendium)
6.) Antilife Shell
7.) Withering Palm
8.) Horrid Wilting
9.) Energy Drain

[brian 333]

The Eternal King

Once a mortal, this demigod ascended after his death, having died slaying a usurper who sought to steal the aged Kings throne.

A thousand years later people still tell tales of and yearn for the golden age he created.

He is now the god of chivalry and is portrayed as a benevolent and wise old king.

[Shocksrivers]

I actually thought I had already responded to this thread, but apparently not :)

Muhotep, the Great Maw of the World

Muhotep is a hippopotamus, or a man with the head of a hippopotamus, and the god of Oasis(ses? how do you spell this in English). He is the desert god of water, with all it's related connotations: life, health, healing, but also life, growth, bounty. Since he is the oldest god in the pantheon I use him in, his mouth is the heavens, and he encompasses the material plane. Through his maw, you enter the world of magic and dreams. This connects back to his role as god of Oasis, in that he collects lost and orphaned children. He takes care of them, and takes them into his Dream Oasis beyond the world.

You can connect to him either through sleep, or by taking mind expanding drugs, to open yourself to the Maw.

Domains: water, healing, earth, i forgot the last one.

[jqavins]

the god of Oasis(ses? how do you spell this in English).

FYI, the singular is 'oasis' and the plural is 'oases'. The same is the case for many (most?) English nouns that end in -is. Diagnosis → diagnoses. Genesis → geneses. Crisis → Crises. Etc. I think it is for English words of Greek origin, often through Latin. (In this case, of course, it was a loan word in Greek from ancient Egyptian.)

[Bohandas]

FYI, the singular is 'oasis' and the plural is 'oases'. The same is the case for many (most?) English nouns that end in -is. Diagnosis → diagnoses. Genesis → geneses. Crisis → Crises. Etc. I think it is for English words of Greek origin, often through Latin. (In this case, of course, it was a loan word in Greek from ancient Egyptian.)

Origin doesn't matter. It's a similar case to the other pluralization rule where pegasus→pegasi and octopus→octopi

[brian 333]

Actually, octopi is not correct. English has so many exceptions to the rules because it is a decadent German language with Latin rules tacked on to a few hundred dialects with loan words from dozens of languages.

[Bohandas]

Actually, octopi is not correct.

This correction is incorrect. It's not correct in Latin but that doesn't mean it isn't correct in English, and that's the point I was trying to make

[brian 333]

The correct English plural of octopus is octopusses. The correct plural in Greek, from which we get the word, is octopodes. Latin has nothing to do with it.

Common useage of 'octopi' has made it sound correct but it is not.

[Shocksrivers]

FYI, the singular is 'oasis' and the plural is 'oases'. The same is the case for many (most?) English nouns that end in -is. Diagnosis → diagnoses. Genesis → geneses. Crisis → Crises. Etc. I think it is for English words of Greek origin, often through Latin. (In this case, of course, it was a loan word in Greek from ancient Egyptian.)

Thank you very much! The more you know :)

[jqavins]

Origin doesn't matter. It's a similar case to the other pluralization rule where pegasus→pegasi and octopus→octopi

How is -is → -es similar to -us → -i?

In any case, the origin, while not important in any give case, is of use in figuring out when a rule can be applied and when a deviation from the norm should be expected. More than one kris (the curvy dagger) are not kres, and if one were aware of the matters of words' origins then one would not expect it to be.

It's also simply of interest to some of us.

[Max_Killjoy]

This is probably a discussion for off-topic at this point, I doubt it's helping anyone create a deity or legend.

[Bohandas]

Drinkaalotalica

Drankaalotaliica is a giant earth deity whose body forms the island on which his worshippers live. Long ago he drank himself into a god sized stupor and lay down in the sea and became the island.

There is a volcano on the island which erupts intermittently, and this is said to be caused by Drinkaalotalica vomiting. When the eruptions get too severe or frequent Drankaalotaliica's priests must throw offerings of hangover cures and bismuth into the volcano

Alignment: N
Domains: Earth, Fire, Feast

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Tornado Allen
God of storms and travel. Tornadoes are common in the areas within his jurisdiction. He takes particular umbrage against those who are equipped to travel yet stay in one place.
Alignmemt: CN(CE)
Domains: Chaos, Travel, Portal, Windstorm

[brian 333]

To appease Drinkalotalika teens whn have just returned from a kegger, rave, or binge are tossed into the volcano.

Those who come back out are accepted as clerics.