Local Gods and Powers

Mechanics

To cast spells, newly created clerics of any faith (and other strict adherents) must have the proper name of their patron in their deity entry. As examples, "The Mother, B'aara" or "The Warrior, Agaslakku" will correctly align a cleric. Similarly, your primary and secondary domains must align with those of your patron.

The Wheel

The Wheel’s spokes are said to be woven into the very foundations of the world. They are the far-reaching polytheism of the Disc and the remnants of the Great Ring. Though their worship seems to originate among the Ashfolk, each deity among the Wheel is worshiped in myriad ways.

The supplements for each entry attempt to give a sense of their faiths among the most orthodox, Baz’eeli, and contemporary understanding of these faiths. Know that myriad interpretations and understandings are also possible within and without the Sultanate, and may be present in the gameworld.

The Mother, B'aara

Primary Domains: Water, Creation, Good, Halfling

Secondary Domains: Protection, Healing, Repose, Suffering, Nobility

Worshipers: Parents, Healers, Ascetics, Water-Carriers, Knights, the Afflicted, Sultans

B'aara, the God of Water, is broadly understood to be the reigning Overgod of the Wheel and is thus symbolic of the pantheon itself. She said to have created the River Edutu so essential to life in the desert, and of all the gods it is her clergy that are most closely associated with the Sultanate.

The Tenets of the B'aarat are as follow:

• Protect life; its beauty springs life from desolation.
• Aid the weak; their reborn vigor shall strengthen us all in turn
• Quench the thirsty; any claimed by the furious heat of Pra’raj are forever lost.
• Tend to the dying; once atime they tended to thee.
• Spread the waters; its channels and tributaries are arteries of the world.
• Seek purity; to cleanse wickedness invigorates the spirit.

B’aara in the Sultanate

The first spoke is the font of life and the patron of the line of Marib. She is the beginning of the Wheel and the rejuvenation of it as it turns. The B’aarat can be found among beggars and at court. It is an institution of vast wealth, but also of great charities. Her temples of water are ubiquitous across the Sultanate, some extravagant and others humble. The satrapies of the Sultan often appear about wellsprings, around which such temples are built, and sometimes serve as offices for their governors or Emirs. While many cultures upon the Great Disc outside the Sultanate may worship any spoke of the Wheel, most common are the cults of an analogue to B’aara.

The sprawling Forum of the Limpid Pool, in the cool shade, is the navel of her church in Baz'eel, and a place of society, mingling, and reflection in the Golden City. The Chahar Bagh is the Sultan’s personal garden-sanctum, whose wondrous symmetry is based on the Mother’s ancient instructions, from which it is said he can see all of his domain through his own undisturbed image in the gazing pool.

Her priests are expected to guide the great to altruism and administer their endowments, to empower protectors of peace, to lead embassies, to council leadership, to produce harmony, to exemplify grace, to provide shelter, to heal the sick and shattered, to exorcize the djinn, to be always decent and presentable, to chide the chafing and quell unrest, to prepare the community for hardship, to decorate holy places and worthy people, and to rescue the drowning and slake any thirst — water is life.

Clerics and druids of the B’aarat are known as, among other names, Waterbearer or Serene. The Many Mothers govern the faith and its many doctrines as a collective. The Godmother is the high priestess of the Wheel, who raises and instructs the Sultan’s family and anoints a succeeding Caliph or Sultan.

She is prayed to when water is discovered in the Great Ash Desert, for dispelling mirages, for promotions or favors, when a pot shatters and when it is mended, when a child leaves the home, when the sun is high and shade cannot be found, for the success of one’s peers, when opening negotiations, when witnessing suffering, to alleviate ailment, when thirsty, for stillness or clarity of mind, and when a toast is raised to the health of others.

She is associated with wells and aquifers, miracles of healing, peace and accord, obedience and authority, diplomacy, decorum, tactful guile, bribery, the purification of water, the setar and other bright string or bow instruments, hygiene and ablutions, ceramics, petrichor, terracotta servants, silk and sable, citrus and melon, olive oil, soap, tubers, fish, waterfowl and cranes, lotus, fresh clay, introspection, vanity, social status, scrying, pregnancy and children, magnanimity and charity, grandeur, protection from the sun, the water of the Edutu, the lineage of Marib, the right of Emirs, Caliphs, and Sultans, and the light of the moon.

By other names she may be known as The Sable Cloak, al-Umm, The Assurance, Clarified B’a, Nest-of-Eagles, The Deep Table, Silver-the-Moon-Tear, The Staying Palm, Comportmenta, Her Significance, and Our Peace.

Among her holy days are:

The Great Feast of B’aara — A solemn but sumptuous holiday of the Mother and her kin; the greatest feast in the Sultanate. The day is begun with thorough washing and ablutions. People dress in their finest, and days of prepared meals and months of stocked bottles are set out and enjoyed with decorous splendor in festooned halls, palaces, and salons. It is a time of seeing and being seen. The pious among the Mother’s faithful spend the day serving this meal to the bereft in the open markets or the almshouses. For the vain it is a game to see how engorged and inebriated one can become without losing face. Then the B’aarat lead the revelers in hours and hours of prayer and dedications to the Mother, excoriating any who fail to make it through. The ceremonies conclude with rejuvenating blessings of the waters and all their sources.
Subat 15th

Sina’s Night of Lamentation — Remembrance of an ancient saint, Sina, who was once shunned for bringing B’aara's purpose and quenching to the ignorant. Rough-spun robes and hoods and donned, and the people ask to be forgiven — not for personal failures, but for the whole culture’s myriad transgressions, as a whole. Those who can make the journey are guided by the Waradim to a holy site known as Umm’el, where tears are shed.
Nisah 9th

The Emir’s Parade — The celebration of Salhin, the Eagle. This is a day of gaiety, and pomp is prepared all year. Even the poorest satrapies spangle their huts with dyed flags. Everyone is encouraged to don their best and refine their most captivating stories to tell. On rare years, the Sultan will lead the parade in-person across the Exodus with a vast train, guarded by the First Legion.
Qdim 29th

Mumusha’s Fastdays — When one may only drink water, and eat a fist-sized portion of meager nourishment at noon. Inaugurated by a pious Sayyida of old times, the three days of fast are observed by most, as a honing of the will and an especial observance of each of the Wheel’s aspects; whereon each day, in succession, three of the spokes are given particular reverence, except B’aara who is regarded again at the end of the third day by the famished who are reminded of humility. It seals the Mother's power over the Wheel.
Adar 1st through 3rd

Among the faithful, they say:

“Our hands hold what’s poured.” — An affirmation of faith and assurance of responsibility.

“The sweet well settles.” — Observing things falling into place.

“Precious sable, cover.” — A prayer for protection / An exclamation of scandalization.

“Weep into the dry clay.” — Improve a situation, especially in sacrifice / Create beauty from the base.

“Worry Her not.” — A request to not act intemperently.

“Time and water.” — Prevail through patience over especially dense obstacles.

The Warrior, Agaslakku

Primary Domains: Fire, Chaos, Law, Orc

Secondary Domains: War, Planning, Protection, Strength, Metal, Tyranny

Worshipers: Soldiers, Barbarians, Bandits, the Thousand Clans, Rulers, Slavers, Bards, Veterans

Agaslakku, the God of War, is the patron of soldiers. He is viewed as a prodigal brother, as Ashfolk culture strictly rejects violence, but is nonetheless seen as an important protector. His clergy largely consists of Janissaries and outlanders.

The Tenets of the Agasians are as follow:

• Make war; battle tempers the flesh and strengthens resolve.
• Reap the spoils; a warrior's fortunes are made upon the field.
• Keep the faith; the devout warrior claims victory from defeat.
• Where an Axe is broken, return it to the earth so that it might join its worthy kin.
• Die well; in death be revered by your brothers.
• Record the glorious; their tales may be remembered for eternity.

Agaslakku in the Sultanate

Agaslakku is a mighty pillar of the Sultanate. While to the civilized he is an abstraction or uncouth necessity, he is the recognized deliverer of any kind of courage or strategy. Though by no means disorganized, it is customary that his cult conducts their rites outside of the gaze of society. Agasians, while brazen in their acts, are quite disciplined about their secrets, kept unto death. The Warrior’s only truly public temple, The Marching, is found within the grounds of the Janissaries’ headquarters in Baz’eel, where sonorous and ghastly hymns to struggle, heard at dawn, cause nearby windows to shutter. When a legion returns to the gates of the Golden City, the Klaxon's Horn, made of shining copper, bellows at their welcome — heard from wall to wall — and twice to acknowledge a victory.

Though some legions worship certain spokes as special patrons, such as the Wroth among the Fourth and B’aara among the Second, Agaslakku is the god of the Sultan’s armies — and, often, the god of their enemies. Such is the agony holy to the Warrior.

His priests are expected to inspire resolve and ready, to mete out execution or mercy, to lead the formation or galvanize the commands of its appointed commander, to scrutinize and bless arms and equipment, to maintain loyalty and never divulge, to devise stratagems, to uncover ambuscades, to detect weaknesses and spread fractious rumor, to divide spoils judiciously, and to glorify the worthy in death — they will be remembered in song.

Clerics of the Agasians are called, among other names, Warrior or Proud. Not much is known of the cult’s leadership; but it is seen when the Sultan’s Beys visit him in ceremony, the Kahraman emerges, bedecked in ancient armor, and stands between them holding a plate of smoldering embers.

He is prayed to for victory in struggle, for fear and rumor to spread through the enemy camp, for the discipline or friendship of the one next to you, for faultless materials or alloys, for the courage to do the unthinkable, for a clean flame by which to cook or see or warm oneself, against rust or patina, when honing or polishing, for good preparedness against danger, and for strength in chronic malady, painful hardship, or harsh calumny.

He is associated with the hegemony of the Sultanate, metallurgy, the blacksmith’s art, strategy, unwaveringly loyalty, legends and praise, insult, coups, command, horsemanship, bulls, hawks, hounds, the Janissaries, the Thousand Clans, courage in the face of suffering and fear, braggadocio, self-aggrandizement and boast, fortifications, the nafir and other horns, soldiers’ pay, salt, cured meats and fish, the roasting spit, hunting and sport, unsolvable problems, and the blood of centuries that, in the ground, becomes iron.

By other names he may be known as The Broken Axe, Agasius-Arrowsnap, The Klaxon, The Shield-Shattered, Ossu-Unbelievable, al-Fa’is, The Unheeded Plea, The Advance, Brand-Bent Agaslakku, The Dent, or Clasp-of-Bronze.

Among his holy days are:

Vahd’s Triumph — A parade of the Legions in regalia, led by Warriors in red splendor. Spoils of war are put on display, and silver is thrown to the crowds by officers. Often, a mighty beast is sacrificed at nightfall and priests of Kula read its entrails for glory. Mock battles, usually with maniples led each by a Warrior in sacramental garb, are performed as displays of courage, sacred to the second spoke. The local Warrior most victorious in these games is gifted a Diadem of Triumph, to be worn until the next year’s contests.
Maribeh 2nd

The Uncensured Coals — On these days, the Agasians light a great fire with as much fuel as can be mustered. Without adding more fuel, they must extend the life of the coals as they burn down with great perseverance and attention. The bravest will start the conflagration they will attend in the wilderness, and welcome whatever predator drawn to it, so they may defend their embers. Weapons forged on this holiday are blessed by Agaslakku.
Iyar 18th and Qdim 18th

Galim’s Feastday — A day when the dead are given special reverence. The Agasians are known to appear with game on spits, and alamedas become rich with the smell of smoking meat. They recite and elaborate on the deeds of heroes and companions to the public during this holiday.
Illul 28st

Among the faithful, they say:

“What is broken…” — An affirmation of faith, if the second part of this phrase is said in response.

“Ply the tin and copper.” — To make extraordinary the ordinary / To improve lesser circumstances.

“Dislodge your axe.” — Let what is beneath one pass / To show mercy.

“Go under the spears.” — Find a different strategy or approach.

"Boots break the fang.” — To ready against some sudden misfortune.

"Water Bel-Ishûn." — To do battle / To shed blood.

The Magi, Izdu

Primary Domains: Magic, Law, Earth, Stars

Secondary Domains: Planning, Trade, Knowledge, Fate, Spells, Time, Rune

Worshipers: Academics, Chroniclers, Poets, Astronomers, Geomancers, Archeologists

Izdu, the God of Wisdom, is second only to B’aara herself. He is considered the wellspring of Ashfolk civilization and culture. His clergy are known to populate the great academies of Baz’eel.

The Tenets of the Izdur are as follow:

• Seek knowledge; true enlightenment is found through understanding.
• Tutor the ignorant; spread the light of wisdom to the dark corners of the world.
• Protect the word; knowledge lost is a grave sin.
• Record insights; truth is found in the broadest mind.
• Scribe chronicles; the present contains the lessons of the future.
• Create wonders; your mark on the world should be felt by all.
• Observe the stars; their light and secrets, though dangerous, offer knowledge to the wary.

Izdu in the Sultanate

O Izdu. If the Mother is the font, you are the pipe by which her civilizations flow. The third spoke is the god of not only insight, magic, and knowledge, but also of productive creation, commerce and accounting, and mos maiorum. His cult in the Sultanate has a certain dogmatic unity, but subdivided into self-concerned clades of librarians, notaries, lecturers and tutors, pundits, astrologers, civil servants, administers of occupational blessings, advisors to the Sultan’s court, and so on. At the heart of the Grand Academy is nestled The Evident Motif — opened to the public only on holy days — where the Murshids lead solemn memory-sermons and lift veils and part curtains among incenses.

The Izdur have, throughout history, described the stars, advanced magics, provided patronage for artists, and pioneered great works. Too have they been the source of, or bur in, many scandals when matters of proper opinion and cultural probity have come under their scrutiny, resulting in conflict with other churches or institutions of the Sultanate.

His priests are expected to record and avow the truth, to adjudicate disputed transactions, to bless building projects, to observe and expound upon the natural and mystical world, to support artists or create art, to denounce misuses of art and writing, to protect and guide merchants and craftsmen and to ensure their honesty and diligence, and to innovate at the frontiers of making and knowledge.

Clerics of the Izdur are called, among other names, Magus or Murid. A Mu’allim, who has passed many tests, is a great teacher. The Murshids who are masters of knowledge, have seen far, and instruct the faith. Often they hold a chair or have achieved the title of Muarakh at the Grand Academy.

He is prayed to at the proceeding of civic functions and official procedures, at the publication of a finished manuscript, for the revealing of deceits, for the revelation of the machinations of the djinn, for protection against unwanted suggestion or persuasion, for lost memories, for favorable stars, at the casting of complex spells, when stressing tools or bridges or wagons, for the fruition of plans, and at the opening of storefronts.

He is associated with the protection of and messages from the stars, architecture, aqueducts, examination, spellcraft, archaeology, history, vellum and paper, the formulation of inks and dyes, glass, invention, coinage, enterprise, the flow of dinar, logistics, irrigation, bread and confections, drums and percussion, kilns, seals and wax, bees and ants, earthworks and dikes, the Epicrasis, grammatology, dictation, steles, verse, embellishments, engineering, and the movements of the heavens.

By other names he may be known as The Leverhand, Abaqos, Crane’s-Beak, The Prompting, The Vellumnate, Keystone Izdu, The Dyer of Every Color, Idris Thrice-Great, The Chisel, The Minter, Our Pleased Mentor, al-Fanoos, or The Lensgrinder.

Among his holy days are:

Eid al-Fanoos — Lights fill the alamedas and plazas and flicker in every windowsill. The Izdur set alight a vast fleet of floating lamps and wash the night air with a wondrous and comforting glow. Ash-sails and river barges parade, aglow. From spires, one can see the settlements of the Sultanate as little, warm beacons across the wastes. Promises and deals struck on this day are sealed with Izdu’s certainty for a bright future.
Hziran 3rd

The Illuminations — With aplomb, the Izdur bring forth histories and shared knowledge, some ancient and some prepared anew all-year. In Baz’eel, crowds gather in the amphitheater at the Grand Academy where lightstones produce spectacular recitations. The community is reminded of the shared knowledge of times passed, and birds are released for augury and auspice. Poems and texts published on this day are blessed by the Magi.
Tesrin Hray 3rd

Dedications of the Righting — “O Izdu, let no stone crumble, let the earth be your firm bed.” On this day, buildings are re-dedicated to the deity that teaches how they must be erected. Common folk will splash their doorways with chalk, and the great civic buildings and walls are sanctified by the priests of the Magi. Adventurous and ambitious Izdur will travel to old Caliphal sites and re-dedicate the ruins of history, praying for the wisdom of old. Buildings completed on this day are especially blessed.
Subat 30th

Offering at the Slope — The Kulamet and the Izdur make way to the base or, perhaps, the peak of the nearest mountains. Ministrations of deep geomantics are conducted, and the heartbeat of the land is felt for. Geomancy performed on this day may be especially powerful.
Subat 3rd

Among the faithful, they say:

“May the lamp shed clearly.” — An affirmation of faith, and a blessing to dispel the obscurity or fret.

“It's but stone.” — To take on a lofty challenge with diligence and confidence.

“The Magi registered.” — A congratulations or acknowledgement of worthy deeds.

“With wheels of coin.” — To acknowledge a good prospect.

“The records don't repeat.” — To accuse one of lying or presenting misinformation

“On the eclipse.” — Probably never / A deferment.

The Wyld, Kula

Primary Domains: Storm, Earth, Air, Creation

Secondary Domains: Sand, Moon, Blood, Decay, Spider,

Worshipers: Farmers, Hunters, the Poor, Radicals, Gardeners, Shepherds, Botanists

Kula, God of Nature and Life, is specifically associated with Bel-Ishȗn and Edutu. Her gardens fill Baz’eel, and she is considered the protector and winnower of all living things. Her clergy are decentralized across a network of gardens, sanctuaries, and radical organizations.

The Tenets of the Kulamet are as follow:

• Encourage growth; things that grow bring life to the world, fed by the Mother’s tears.
• Cull growth; not all that spreads should, select what must be fed back.
• Feed the earth; the Wyld smiles when the land’s belly is full, with fresh seed or fresh carrion.
• Attend the hearth; do not let the nourishing pot grow cold and dry.
• Cultivate flocks; animals are beloved of her, and desires they multiply, both the herd and pack that stalks it.
• Give shelter to the impoverished; the poor are her children for they live closest to the land’s bounty and hardship.
• Oppose elites; those furthest from subsistence do not deserve outright and frictionless power.
• Obliterate the unnatural; Qa’im, the undead, and innovation are anathema.
• Maintain Bel-Ishûn; the jungle is her garden, and it is most holy, writhing with life.

Kula in the Sultanate

Terrible Kula, sweet Kula — the fourth spoke is the lightning that splits the tree and the rain that waters it, the expectant seed and the barren soil in which it lays dormant. The Wyld’s unpredictable power is a resource for those used to hardship, but may be a hazard for the well-to-do. Where the eleemosynary B’aarat are given to handouts and doles for the needy, the Kulamet prefer intervention to better the lives of the downtrodden: turf and palm turned to huts, dogs trained to watch and herd, nets mended, soil made fallow, taxmen chased off. They come among and orbit settlements to instruct in the ways of common craft and keeping. They scatter and coalesce in matters and moods known only to the rhythms of the earth, to tend city gardens or cast seeds cupped in clay into the barren wastes, to meditate in deep caverns or walk the markets and gardens.

Like dapples of shade, lush gardens great and small dot Baz’eel in neighborhoods and floating terraces and along alamedas. In their easterly corners is the Wyld, carved in beech and ivory, piled with offerings from the local markets. Within the Meidān, or Great Gardens, — the grand, semi-wild zoological garden where the Sultan may admire tigers and gazelles — is an ancient pagoda of cedar whose name is known only to the Kulamet, wherein it is said can be opened a portal to Bel-Ishûn.

Her priests and druids are expected to bring B’aara’s waters to where they are needed, to seal off the ruins of rust and stymie the powers of Qa’im, to nurture the downtrodden and lend them strength, to oversee the culling of predators, to eradicate unnatural infestations, to protect people’s livestock, to provide shelter from storms or conjure storms to destroy the enemies of the earth, to grow bountiful gardens.

Clerics and druids of the Kulamet are often known as, among other names, Wyldwalker or Shepherd. Myriad Kulamet groups may have as many other names as there are blades of grass.

She is prayed to for strong herds, to frighten off predators, when sheep and goats go astray, when one works in the field, at the times of harvest, in desperation during lean times, to bring rain or flood, for the strength of lions, for the kinship of wolves, to stave off a natural catastrophes, for nourishment, if the pot boils over or burns, to safekeep granaries and cellars, and to avert the ashstorm.

She is associated with oases, gardens, forests, jungles, mountain ranges, herbal medicines, pastures, predators, herd animals and fowl, veterinary treatment, murrain, the incursion and eradication of pests, spiders, blight, germination, plenty, scarcity, charcoal, hearths, oikonomia, the ney-anbān and other bagpipes and flutes, cats, grain and lentils, vegetables and berries, wildflowers, mutton and kid, milk, wool, haruspex and estipex, storms and rain, flooding, rock falls and mudslides, the phases of the moon, the lush banks of the Edutu, the mysteries and dangers of Bel-Ishûn.

By other names she may be known as The Embrace, Rampant K’al, Whispering Sedge, Cornucopia, The Crook, Larkspur, The Gathering Cloud, Flowering-the-Sheaf, The Warm Hearth, Ranging Arete, Verdis-Fleer, The Thrashing Frond, or Ishûn-Araaei.

Among her holy days are:

Offering at the Edutu — They make their way to the banks of the great river that gives life, the Kulamet, and some resilient followers. It can be a dangerous journey, but the reeds and palms on the banks welcome them. It is said the holiest of Kulamet ceremonies takes place there, at the convergence of the sacred river and the people who come to pay it the homage it is due. They return with long fronds, signaling their offerings and passage.
Tammuz 8th

First Flowering — Flowers spring up where they could not, for a day, in crevices, between paving stones, along walls and alameda, as long as the people have been observant of the Wyld. The Kulamet go into the settlements and remind the people of the miraculous earth, bringing fruits and game, and sometimes live beasts, made friendly by their hand. Kitchens are made ready, preserves and salted stock are finished off and old grain is tossed to the land. The people ready for the next year’s bounty.
Tammuz 16th

The Shearing — When sheep are shorn, animals butchered aplenty, stockpile is made, and meat is salted. Wyldwalkers perform special blood sacrifices on this day to their goddess, spilling the life of beasts on stone. It is a day of especially clear soothsaying from the reading of organs and entrails.
Illul 12th

The Festival of Eggs — During this raucous festival the people throw old eggs at one another, laughing and crying. The faithful of the Wyld are said to perform more contemplative rites outside the general public, relating to the generation of life and its fragility. For most, however, it is a frivolous day where one can let loose. The likenesses of common enemies, monsters, and predators made of mud and branches are paraded around, and summarily pelted.
Tesrin Hray 16th

Offering at the Slope — The Kulamet and the Izdur make way to the base or, perhaps, the peak of the nearest mountains. Ministrations of deep geomantics are conducted, and the heartbeat of the land is felt for. Geomancy performed on this day may be especially powerful.
Subat 3rd

Among the faithful, they say:

"Tend well the flowering garden.” — A common affirmation of faith, though there are more secret phrases / A farewell.

“Herds might mix.” — Things lie as they may.

“Believe the beasts.” — Do not be caught up in thought / Respect the land.

“Sew the wastes.” — Do something better with one’s time / Strive to better the dissolute.

“The bite flows red.” — Not as bad as it seems / Everything has its risks.

“And the earth shakes.” — To point out the obvious when it isn’t observed by others / An emphasis on an expressed wisdom.

The Sabotage, Gellema

Primary Domains: Stars, Chaos, Evil, Magic

Secondary Domains: Luck, Trickery, Illusion, Darkness, Charm, Knowledge, Poison

Worshipers: Liars, Conspirators, Spies, Sooth-Sayers, Charlatans, the Seditious, the Mad, Drunks, Drug Eaters, & other Peripherals

Gellema, God of Trickery, Deceit and Hedonism, is respected as a safeguard against ill will. Their clergy mostly operate underground, in ale-houses and brothels, apart from a few glistening official temples. In the moon, among the stars, between clouds, within branches, on the muddy banks, upon the cliffside — children, the sick, and the sensitive point at the eyes and mouth they see there and utter Gellema. It is said secret and tantalizing rites take place under its gaze.

The Tenets of the Gellemedes are as follow:

• Foster obscurity; the unknown fosters more fear than the known.
• Mislead the truthful; truth is the light that banishes the shadows, divert its gaze elsewhere.
• At dusk aren’t shadows, and the gleaming moon casts no ray.
• Spread mistrust; those allies that do not trust each other are less inclined to look upon you too deeply.
• Hoard secrets; knowledge is power and hidden knowledge gives you power over others.
• Write over graven words. Burn the letter.
• Convince the certain of uncertainty.
• Memory is corrupt, history is death, seek continuously the immanent.

Gellema in the Sultanate

The Sabotage, mercurial and flitting at the periphery, is many things to many people. Like echoes in the canyon, Gellema’s cults seem to go on, at times loud and at times dim. One heard often in the Sultanate is Gellema-Cimulat, invoked by cutpurses, swindlers, gamblers, blackmailers, and pigeon racers. Another is Sabotage-of-the-Weft, whose beautiful statue might be uncovered at a private salon where mizzar is smoked and gossip thickly woven, and whose priests might visit members of the court who cannot speak their mind openly to any other. Another is The Gleaming Friend, who many saw as children behind bushes or on roofs playing games, invoked during moments of nostalgia in the souk, or of sedation behind curtains. And more. Such veiled devotions seem to be the fifth spoke’s preferred temple.

It is said, long ago, a grandiose house of marble, gauze, temptations, and burning secrets was razed by the Calipha Feyda I, and the clergy of the Gellemedes has been an untended garden ever since. Perhaps, outside Baz’eel, simulacra of that splendor might be found. Nevertheless, the fifth spoke is rarely far from the lips of the wonderstruck, the covetous, the inspired, the envious, the lucky, and the unlucky in the private prayers of even the most upstanding servant of the Maribid.

Their priests are expected to hear confessions and coax desires, to satirize, to instigate from hesitation, to offer alternatives, to traffic hearsay, to lead to surprises not destinations, to move wealth unorthodoxically, to display wealth scandalously, to interpret dreams, to contrive endless possibilities against the credible, to untether minds, to open hearts, to create obstacles or excise them, and to reveal the perjuries of history.

Clerics of the Gellemedes are often known as, among other names, Inspired or Glimmer. If leadership among the variegated cults exists, it is not revealed; however, notable oracles proficient in the fifth spoke’s divination are known as Oneirix.

They are prayed to for fortune, for the misfortune of others, for avoiding tax, for winning at chance, before eating the possibly poisonous, for spinning or catching a lie, when at the end of one's wits, upon waking from nightmares, when hiding treasure, upon witnessing stunning or unexpected beauty, when unable to suppress cravings, at the new moon, to go unnoticed, and to astound.

They are associated with turns of fortune, gambling, haggling, gossamer and damask, mosaics — marvelous birds, amphibians, and insects — mirages, double meanings, gloaming, debased coin, forgeries, dangerous ingredients, theft and burglary, prestidigitation, embezzlement, the missing, the reading of palms, augury, shellfish, shelled nuts and pitted fruit, alliums, the tympanum and other cymbals, jamais vu, blackmail, snares, pernicious rhetoric, celebrity, the spirits of drink and other substances, temptation, and the texture between the stars.

By other names they are known as The Pareidolia, Dream’s Lintel, The Crepusculan, Gellema-Cimulat, Impattern-Again, That Shiver, Sabotage-of-the-Weft, The Beaded-Comb, Antiphasis, The Gleaming Friend, Hands-for-Feet, The Cadyssfly, and The Orchard’s Dance.

Among their holy days are:

The Sumptive Regard — Though it is said on these holidays other secret rituals occur, in public are performed satires meant to offend and lampoon everyone in the community. These plays may be put on by any who desire. Those that yield the most derision and delight are garlanded, and it is particularly loved by Gellema when the performers can most subtly deprecate themselves before the crowds. Much wine is poured and mizzar smoked on this day.
Hziran 20th and Tesrin Hray 30th

Presage-of-Chance — When games are held in abundance: races, sport, lotteries, cards and dice. On this day, the greatest of bets are made: enormous sums, family heirlooms, lofty promises, and prospects on future gains. The fulfillment of these bets are due next Presage’s Eve. Instigating Gellemedes will gift wealth to children, the destitute, and rivals and have them ante against the great-and-the-good who are shirking in their gambling spirit. The more one loses during the Presage-of-Chance, the greater one’s fortunes will be in the coming months.
Tabbah 30th and Adar 20th

The Feast of B’aara — The Gellemedes delight in taking this feast day to extremes, coaxing others to drink beyond measure and break decorum.
Subat 15th

The Illuminations — Those faithful of the Sabotage are known to celebrate the rites prescribed by the Izdur in a contratian manner, disseminating false or secret accounts and telling upsidedown and contorted histories. They are most pleased if their hoaxes are taken for truth. If they can be found, mockingbirds are added to the augur’s cages.
Tesrin Hray 3rd

Among the faithful, they say:

“The swallow chases…” — An affirmation of faith, if the second part of this phrase is said in response.

“Hear the front, see the back.” — Fate and fortune is fickle / Better luck next time.

“Back through the mirror.” — Watch your back / See what's hidden, especially in plain view.

“We passerines.” — To signify one seeks to please Gellema / An exclamation when one is enthralled by the debauched or beautiful.

“Give us twilight.” — A short prayer for obscurity in one's dealings or actions.

“It’s all gossamer.” — One couldn’t resist / A scheme went well.

“A plucked peacock.” — Concerning one who was well-fooled or duped.

The Wanderer, Warad

Primary Domains: Air, Earth, Law

Secondary Domains: Travel, Trade, Protection, Sand, Sea

Worshipers: Nomads, Travelers, Merchants, Caravaneers, Messengers, Explorers

Warad, God of Travel, is the protector of all who walk the sands. He is said to forever wander the desert, and many sightings are reported each year. His clergy tend to populate taverns and way-stations; They are not a wealthy faith.

The Tenets of the Waradim are as follow:

• Protect the borders; turn back invaders that threaten your people.
• Carry messages; spread tales and knowledge of the roads and sanctuaries.
• Aid travelers; defend them on the road, and watch over their passing.
• Seek new roads; new paths bring prosperity and protection for travelers.
• Defy thieves and bandits; the borders must be guarded lest danger run rife.
• Tend the shrines; their sanctity must be ensured. They are a place of sanctuary, and protection.

Warad in the Sultanate

Expanse — unceasing expanse — the Wheel surrounds us all. The intrepid sixth spoke’s countless wheel-shrines dot the land, from simple way-markers to sprawling camps. Often, shrines are ensconced inside caravans, fastened to the decks of barges, installed in markets, nestled in taverns, or even utop the dressing of mounts, decorated with myriad devotional trinkets. The Welcome Reciprocity, where the Wanderer is said to sleep at height of day after traveling the entire Sultanate each night, is the great caravanserai just at the edge of Baz’eel’s shielding Epicrasis, in which thousands of hands move millions of goods. More than any other deity, reports of meeting Warad are endless, and greeting a lone stranger as if he were the god himself is pious among the Waradim.

While the Waradim rarely play functionary roles in the Sultanate, the sixth spoke is beckoned when there is strife among the faiths, for he goes between them all along the Wheel’s rim. They only ask for dinar in great need, and instead tithe for assurances of altruism, present and future. To break such promises or refuse their offering will take one down the path of a pariah.

His priests are expected to protect good and hapless travelers, to catch thieves, to open new trade routes, to discover the hidden, to invite or steer into safety, to invite others to novel delights, to redeem exiles if possible, to report hazards and enemy movements, to tell incredible tales, to deliver messages no matter the distance or conditions, to break or foal beasts of burden, to read the heavens for direction, and to forge new paths or cleverly discover better paths.

Clerics and druids of the Waradim are often known as, among other names, Wanderer or Musafir. The seasoned and sun-kissed, who know every way one may take in their locale, whose stories of daring travail and brave crossings are countless are Guides or Wheelwrights.

He is prayed to for safe passage, when meeting strangers, when confronting trespassers, for undisturbed sleep, to secure one’s baggage, when one’s path is unexpectedly blocked, when one’s sandal-strap snaps or bootheel wears out, to sooth a mount or pack animal, for calm seas, when approaching rapids, upon an approaching ash-storm, if stranded, upon making a rare find, to seal a barter, when launching or mooring ash-sail and ship, and when charting a path or giving directions.

He is associated with exchange, hospitality, respite, perseverance, escapes, harbors, landmarks, caves and natural refuges, yokes and harnesses, camels and mules, farriery, migratory animals, the oud and other deep string or bow instruments, coconut, pepper, cinnamon and sweet spices, invigorating teas, cordage and rope, vessels and vehicles, compasses, canteens, rarities, sanctuary, fair winds, the return of friends, gates, roads, doorways, thresholds, the guest-host relationship, wanderlust, the horizon, orientation by star, and the turning of the Wheel.

By other names he may be known as Urgence, The Sandalmaker, Our Visitor, Our Host, The Deliver, Zephyr, Hardblister, Vanishing Nuqta, The Tight-Loose-Spoke, The Bearer of Sumac, Euxine Sabaah, and The Lodesman.

Among his holy days are:

Lodestone’s Finding — In the desert wastes, hidden in a swirl of ash, an old stone charged with the Disc's very directions rotates solemnly, alone. Once a season, the Waradim make their way here, a harsh journey, and collect flakes and chips of the stone for to make relics and compasses. There they contemplate the infinite horizons and places they have been and could go.
Tabbah 6th, Tesrin Hray 24th, Adar 6th, Hziran 24th

The Washing of Feet — A day of compassion, when the community, especially those locked against one another in some antagonism, come face to face and perform minor deeds of kindness for one another. This day seals for the next year Warad's requirement of good hospitality.
Hziran 6th

The Changing of Hands — A day most looked forward to, especially by children. No matter their worth, baubles and treasures are exchanged freely. To give a greater gift in turn than what was received will earn the Wanderer's delighted laugh.
Kanön Hray 6th

Four-Wheels-Rounding — On the 24th day of most months, those wishing to please Warad in particular for to bless an upcoming endeavor or for the return of those on a long journey follow groups of Wanderers and Guides through a short circuit of their choosing about the land. In each of the four directions, they stop for tea and leave offerings.
The 24th of each month, except on the months of Lodestone’s Finding

Among the faithful, they say:

“Where from, Wanderer?” “From another good host.”— An affirmation of faith and welcoming greeting, and response.

“Horizons become footing.” — It’s not far off / One can attain a goal.

“Measure each grain.” — Don’t be fooled.

“Carry water for Him too.” — Be ready to help yourself and others / A farewell.

“With sure feet.” — Make haste / Ready to take on danger and hardships.

“Camels kick in any direction.” — A suggestion to be wary or be respectful of a situation.

The Martyrs, Kalim & Gamil

Primary Domains: Law, Good, Death, Earth

Secondary Domains: Trickery, Rune, Suffering, Fate, Repose, Metal

Worshipers: Traditionalists and the Law-abiding, Judges and Advocates, Mourners, the Elderly and the Dying, Keepers and Protectors of Graveyards

Kalim & Gamil, the Gods of Death and Law, judge the spirit before one passes beyond the final pale. The Temples and Maqams of the Martyrs ring out with dirges and laments, where bodies are treated before rest. In the halls of justice, their scales hang, weighing guilt and innocence; life and death.

The Tenets of the Twindari are as follow:

• Mourn the dead; their lives should be celebrated and their part in the world remembered.
• Record and uphold the law; remember the wisdom and judgments of the age and give them life.
• Enact burials; lay the dead to rest in sanctified grounds, out of the reach of the wretched.
• Protect the sacred grounds; to break the sacred grounds is the greatest of sins.
• Protect the law and its precedents; do not let laws be used corruptly, the scale is calibrated and certain.
• Sacrifice in need; the greatest blessing is to give yourself to ensure the fruition of a cause.
• Obey your elders; their wisdom is born of ages, and they know what is best.

The Twins in the Sultanate

Tradition states that Kalim dutifully sacrificed himself to bring order to the world, and his twin, Gamil — whose perpetual grief would be his own martyrdom — taught the fruits of brother’s martyrdom to the people. The church of Kalim and Gamil is a well-endowed but sober institution in the Sultanate. The pious and the lonely leave their bequeathals to the church, and the legal community of the Sultanate is a constant benefactor. The seventh spoke is venerated widely in the Great Ring, and among the people of Salhin its church is perhaps the most organized of the Wheel’s faith — a pillar of arbitration, law, and respect. It is said, in one’s moment of death, Gamil ferries the spirit down to the Edutu to meet Kalim on the bank, who passes final judgment and selects the final, obscure fork in the river down which it will be left to float.

Almost every cemetary in the Sultanate is cared for and protected by the diligent Twindari. The Sepulchre of Themselves is nestled between the Sultan's palaces and the civil quarter of Baz'eel. For centuries, Geomancers have expanded the vast mausoleum beneath it, with especially fine vaults for the families of the palace, into which Kamil faces holding the Scales of the Dead. Above it, in shining marble, the Adliye of the Martyrs — echoing with the sandals of advocates, judges, and councilors — houses generations of legal commentaries and case files, up to which Galim faces holding the Scales of the Living. Around it are the Orchards of the Patient Graft, ripe with sacred fruit that springs from roots not their own, its floor bristling with the hallowed hyssop flower.

Their priests are expected to live life toward death, to teach the honor and humility that will be remembered and deemed well by the Gods, to prepare the dying for death, to prepare the dead for burial, to prepare the living for judgment, to prepare the courts for good jurisprudence, to uphold legal precedent and procedure, to defend the unrepresented in fair trial, to document cases for posterity, to document the lives of the unremembered, to maintain tombs and maqbaras and protect them from graverobbers, and to lead the mourning in sorrow and past it.

Clerics and druids of the Twindari are often known as, among other names, Witness or Preparator. Reverends are those known for their cultivated care and administrations, and an Avukat is one who walks the letters of law with certainty. The church is overseen by two Lawspeakers, arbiters of legal doctrine in the Sultanate.

They are prayed to when beginning or ending a long vigil, when fatigued or restless, if troubled with a difficult decision, when friends make poor decisions, for humility and grace in defeat, when attempting to win at strategy, whenever court is brought to order and adjourned, if one detects perjury, to have one’s true word trusted, to greet one’s elders, upon discovering a corpse, when mourners pass, and for any spirit’s steady passage down the Edutu.

They are associated with the correct administration of law, impartiality, grief, the game of tawla that the twins were said to play together, symmetry, convalescence, the toll of time, excavations, toads and hibernating beasts, songbirds, the dozaleh and other reed instruments, pomaceous fruits like pears and quince, mint and hyssop, chamomile, reeds and wicker, marble, granite, the disfigured, memento mori, trust, brotherhood, honesty, testimony, confession, reconciliation, the absolving of debts, the course of the Edutu, the earth everywhere which takes back life and generates it.

By other names they are known as The Scales-Untipped, The Ordinances, Tongueless-but-Heard, The Prow and the Rudder, Commencing Kalagim, The Branching Graft, Myrrh and Frankincense, They-Sit-Beside, Our Vigil, or The Consoling.

Among their holy days are:

The Calibrations — When the propriety and wisdom imparted to the world by Kalim is reviewed and measured. The streets are swept clean. The people take each a personal account of their dealings, and contemplate if they have been acting in good faith in the past year. Those who are unsure bring their affairs before the Twindari who give them judgment. Then, old and vestigial records that are burned after anything of note is copied into fresh ledgers, and unneeded things are cast away. Particularly fervent Twindari might require the community to upend their storage and liquidate hoarded goods. It is pious to update and adjust legal code on this day.
Nisah 21st

Gamil’s Feastday — A holiday of remembrance and death. Plaster or marble skulls and other mementos mori are arranged in shrines, and the people commune with those who have gone and tell of their memories. Modest banquets of fruit, bread, and fermented honey are prepared, much of it left for the dead’s repast. The Sultan’s court and their proxies recite the good deeds of honored monarchs and leaders of old. Those in mourning are cheered by their neighbors, and the Twindari enact a ritual performance emulating the final passage down the river.
Illul 28th

Eid al-Khana — Work ceases, tea is prepared, and the people play tawla. It is a day of rest for the mind and body. People make unusual bargains and speak plainly their opinions, for nothing said openly and honestly, save blasphemy, during this day may lead to punishment. It is pious to peacefully settle disputes over a game during Eid al-Khana. It is a day of forgiveness.
Kanön Hray 21st

Offering at the Edutu — If they may, the Twindari are guided by the Kulamet to the river bearing a replica of the Twin’s coracle, which passes between them with the spirits of the dead. The faithful gently launch it into the wide waters, filled with candles.
Tammuz 4th

Among the faithful, they say:

“And through the reeds.” — Such is life / An affirmation of faith.

“The scales righten.” — Everything will fall into place.

“Salhin heard.” — Affirmation of a truth / An emphatic coda to a statement.

“Fruit, bear your works.” — Good luck and blessings.

“Far is the next bank.” — Exasperation with or acceptance of hardship.

“So they taught.” — To close an expressed wisdom / To assure one’s word is true or final.

The Wroth, Urazzir

Primary Domains: Evil, Death, Frost

Secondary Domains: Retribution, Undeath, Fate, Time, Hatred, Suffering

Worshipers: The Vengeful, Scorned, Betrayed, Cursed, Fearful, and Vindictive

Urazzir, the God of Vengeance, is the terrible hand of reckoning. His temples are frightful places where the wronged go to invoke vengeance against their enemies.

The Tenets of the Uzzarii are as follow:

• Do not allow a wrong to stand unanswered. Proclaim for justice, rally the people, stone the sinners.
• Curse your enemies; do not leave grave misdeeds forgotten; toil in recording horrible truth.
• Fear death, fear betrayal: attain control of these evils to belay their pains. Trust is not bound by blood, but respect is watered by it.
• All you love and abide by can be ruined in a single stroke. Rest with one eye open, and away from the warm comfort of the hearth. Be alert.
• You are required to root out evil if you foresee it, never assume innocence.

Urazzir in the Sultanate

Though Urazzir hides no secrets, few desire to hear him. The eighth spoke is the bent but uncowed pall over the world that most wish were but a vestige, yet know deserves honest obsequence. Dim shrines and glaring statues of the Wroth seem to boil up immodestly not far from water temples, gravesites, penury halls, and courthouses, where the unpitied come to lay and whisper their woe — and where those with means make offerings against, or to instigate, harm. Perhaps an unwelcome sight for clergy of other spokes, but none dare uproot such a thorny bramble. The disciplined Uzzarii file through the alamedas and along roads in barefooted groups the people hand dinar to pass on.

Outside the Epicrasis, ravaged and pitted by time and ash, malingers Mhul'afir, a fortress erected by Mansur more than a millennium ago from where Baz'eel was sited and protected in its infancy, then abandoned. This is the cloistered and dismal seat of the Uzzarii priesthood, who survey the Golden City like a shadow from the grey spire of that Emir's struggle.

His priests are expected to harry the sinful left unpersecuted by laws, to hunt down those condemned by law who flee justice, to service ritual curses, to lift curses wrongly applied, to extend the life of those at death’s door and to hear their regrets and execrations, to encourage grudges and facilitate them, to remind the people of their misdeeds and those of their enemies, to foresee ruin, and to watch when others sleep.

Clerics of the Uzzarii are known as, among other names, Wronged or Makhyoon. Leadership of his church is a byzantine cohort of those known as Imprecates; above them, eight Vindicates whose ashen palanquins lurch throughout the Sultanate, dispensing proscriptions and warning.

He is prayed to in dissatisfaction, when death draws near, while striving in vengeful pursuit, when overtaken with sudden violence, when siblings quarrel, when ordered to a hopeless post, when others refuse to take one's advice, should one believe themselves hexed, at the passing of a sentence one knows unjust, when disciplining or shaming a family member or underling, when plans go to shambles, and to see another’s misdeeds bury them.

He is associated with desperation, disgrace, exposure, unwelcome sacrifices, the smell of death, debt, stubbornness, strife, vigilantism, mass graves, vultures and crows, wasps and scorpions, burdock and bay, resin, toil at the mill or oil press, yarn, torn and snagged fabric, unhappy answers from divination, erosion and weathering, lingering grief, impotence and barrenness, public executions, failures of jurisprudence, violation of oaths and perfidity’s punishment, violation of the tenet of pacifism, the ruins of the Old Caliphate, and the crushing roll of the Wheel.

By other names he may be known as The Uncowed, Wronged-Stone, Unbidden Visit, The Hanged One, The Ventless, Old Curse, The Skein, Urazzir-Obliterate, The Untoward, al-Izdira, The Shaver, Beleaguered Ujr, The Stiff Cane, or Inevitable U’zzir.

Among his holy days are:

The Tolling of Tin — Every other month, the Uzzarii go through the streets, barefoot, shaking awful, dissonant bells. They are followed by those who are thirsty for undelivered justice, wracked with the spirit of vengeance, or seized with unallievable grief. They go to doors, to civic buildings, to markets, to the residences of notables, to taverns, to cemeteries, and so on, and murmur astringent curses. The people beg them to leave, but they will not do so until they have given a tithe of coins in a factor of eight to the sum these spectres deem fits the individual’s means.
The 8th of every other month, beginning in Qdim

The Letting — Those Uzzarii and their flock flagellate themselves to a state near death and stay there for a day, taking no aid nor succor, soured with drying blood. They linger in silence or admonishment in the plazas and forums. The community goes to them and offer an arm or breast to be cut ritually to stave off evil or show The Uncowed that they fear but do not fear.
Maribeh 16th

The Emir’s Parade — The Wroth’s faithful will shadow these festivities, following the parade with an indignant effigy of dry grass, representing failed and fallen Caliphs and Sultans and their corrupt dignitaries. None dare stop them, and most hope to simply ignore this shameful counter-spectacle.
Qdim 29th

Mumusha’s Fastdays — Unlike the B’aarat, the Uzzarii hold that one may only drink, and may not eat rice nor porridge nor yams at midday, and the water is to be infused with the bitter herbs or ash. Only the dying may eat.
Adar 1st through 3rd

Eid al-Khana — Sometimes, during the holiday of tawla, an Uzzarii will set up a lone game table made of inky, hard resin. The most represensible of the community may go and play them earnestly. If they lose, the community may show them unusual mercy in the future.
Kanön Hray 21st

Among the faithful, they say:

"Blood will have blood." — Reprisals warned of / An affirmation of faith.

"Ground by the Wheel." — Acknowledgement of intractable or tiring fate.

“Only ash from the mouth.” — A command for silence / A declaration that words are meaningless.

“Tight itself twisted.” — Nothing can be done / Something is entrenched.

“And the right will wrong.” — Everyone is culpable.

“Lower the stone.” — An admonishment / A command to back down.

The Wyrm, Bashmu

Primary Domains: Fire, Evil, Chaos

Secondary Domains: Strength, Tyranny, Poison, Decay, Sea

Worshipers: Pariahs, the Melek, Megalomaniacs, Anathemic Cults, Sibilant Collaborators, Sailors, the Power Hungry

...

The Tenets of the Bashmu-kar are unknown.

...but some whisper a scant few, none certain...

• That the Wyrm empowers the ambitious.
• That the Wyrm is a patron of monsters, and cannibals.
• That it is a patron of the defeated, downtrodden, contrarians and the rebellious.
• That Serpents are sacred, and lizards love the Wyrm
• That it is a curse to speak or hear the name Bashmu

Details about The Wyrm can be (and are best) discovered in-game. Characters with this God in their deity field may find they can access unique dialogue options and content.

Bashmu in the Sultanate

The ninth spoke is an oxymoron to outsiders to the faith, taboo yet somehow within the sanctity of the turning of the Wheel. The great Muarakh Surinna the Dowser under Vahd I said, “For we must know evil, that the Wheel may turn; we must not forget evil, lest we become stranded.” While the operations of the Bashmu-kar are considered reprehensible, the Wyrm itself is charged with a fitful and terrifying hallowness. It is said there are those that meditate upon Bashmu without evil intent to test their will and their belief, though this practice is discouraged and deemed dangerous as a route to nihilism or madness.

It is associated with the passing of time into decay, treachery, sedition, the abandonment of common sense, the fear of gods, savagery, exile, spoilage, famine, parasites, dysentery and other wasting diseases, self-delusion, madness, dereliction, familicide, night terrors, abject horror, fallen civilizations, unchecked power, the Sibilant Empire, and typhoons from the Sea of Pearls.

Other euphemisms for it are The Spiraled, al-Taniyn, Wickedsnap, The Wheel’s Lurching, That Stench, The Perilspoke, or The Tyrant.

During The Festival of Eggs, often a frightening and segmented effigy or puppet representing the ninth spoke, euphemistically called Old-Skin, is paraded among the people, aflame, and they take it to a pit of mud and cover it there, where it steams and cools and dissolves and hardens.

There is only one day associated with the Wyrm in the Sultanate’s culture. That is Adar 31st, The Year’s Gasp, which marks the Wheel’s inevitable turning, for good and for ill. Not a time for festival nor eid, but it is marked well by the people, and apotropaic rituals may be performed by the faithful. Occasionally, truly repentant Bashmu-kar will be received back into the community on this day under watch and purification by the B’aarat.

Phrases adjacent to the Wyrm are said:

"May the eagle clutch it." — Take away this evil.

“Straighten the spiral.” — Come to your senses.

“Take your ninth step.” — A warning that one is about to cross the line.

The Dome

The Way of the Divine Dome” is a monotheistic faith with pantheistic elements that is primarily located in the floating city of Il Modo.

It is the second pantheon that is active in EFU: Sands of Intrigue. Clerics of the Dome must choose / worship a particular Patron Sage (listed below). Each Sage has a particular dogma, agenda, and flair that your character should engage with. It is assumed that clerics of the Dome exists in a formal Modini hierarchy of the followers of each particular Sage.

The “Dome Faith” lacks local NPC support in the areas surrounding Ephia’s Well. Unlike the Pantheon of the Wheel, it is not a local religion and should be represented by a minority of characters. These two pantheons, while not strictly at war, exist in a state of confused tension that should be properly portrayed IG through role-play.

For a Cleric of any of the Sages to cast spells of Circle 4, it is necessary to conduct a pilgrimage back to Il Modo and purchase / receive a relic from representatives of your Sect. In order to cast spells of Circle 5, it is necessary to have further demonstrated and proved to the Church / your NPC superiors that you are worthy of advancing in the ranks. This can be done through a DM application or through a NPC possession. Level 9 Clerics seeking a relic must have had a substantive impact pushing their Sage’s agenda in order to be entrusted with this advancement. Playing a Priest of the Divine Dome is not intended to be an easy experience.

The Way of the Divine Dome draws from a variety of fictional and non-fictional inspirations and players should be mindful to carefully portray something that is grounded, distinct and unique to EFU. If you wish to incorporate something drawn from an actual faith tradition please check with a DM to ensure that it is done tastefully and non-offensively

The faith of the Dome is rooted in cosmology. According to its tradition, the universe is composed of a single crystalline sphere that surrounds all things and is itself the source of all creation, time, and movement. It is this sphere (or Dome) that gives form, structure, and meaning to the universe. The world is but a speck (perhaps one of many specks) that floats suspended in the mysterious vapors of the Dome’s interior. The stars above, or Illuminations, are those souls that have ascended to the firmament above.

Particularly important Illuminations are believed to be the souls of past Sages who the Modini tend to revere & worship in a polytheistic manner.

Followers of the Dome believe in reincarnation. Souls are fated to be born and die in a constant state of repetition until a life has reached its highest potential for harmonic congruence with the Dome. What this means exactly is subject to considerable interpretation, frequently associated with one or another of the different Sages. When this true death is achieved; the soul ascends to become an Illumination (or Star) that is set into or adjacent the Dome itself. Truly great souls might ascend to become Sages themselves, and thus Illuminations of greater potency and glory.

While the movements and nature of the Dome itself transcends understanding, mortals seek guidance and blessings from the Nine Great Sages, each associated with with a particular Illumination (Star) above. The contemplation of the Dome itself is generally reserved only for philosophers and high-ranking Priests. The majority members of this faith are only dimly aware of the theology related to the Divine Dome, and instead simply pray to a Patron Sage as if it was a god.

It is customary for the people of Il Modo to choose a Patron Sage in their early adolescence. Praying to a Sage is considering the best way to bring success and avert misfortune in one’s current life. Pleasing one’s Patron Sage is also considered to be the best way to ensure that one’s future life is an improvement upon the present one. The Modini are a deeply hierarchical and aristocratic people and it is commonly believed that (for example) the Nobility enjoy their position in part because of pleasing a Sage in their former life. Followers of the Dome are always keen to advance their status both in their current life and (more importantly) in the next one.

It is also common for the followers of the different Sages to be in conflict with each other. Indeed, several Sages are considered to represent forces that are evil and sinister and associated with only a tiny minority of followers. Nevertheless, all Modini recognize that all the Sages are important historic and theological figures that deserve respect. Rituals and the making of offerings to the different Sages (as needed) are a common practice.

While the sects of each Sage are often in conflict, they do have occasional (secretive) conclaves where fundamental matters of the faith are determined. This includes, for example, the potential recognition of a new Great Sage. This is very rare. Cults worshipping or seeking to advance the recognition of a lesser Sage exist.

The central site for religious instruction for the most beloved Sages is the “The Dome of Man,” a large cathedral-dome complex located in Il Modo. It is a site for pilgrimage and contemplation, and is the most important locale of Il Modo. Those Sages that are more feared than loved are known to have smaller temples and sites of worship hidden throughout the sprawling city of Il Modo.

Astronomy is highly significant to followers of this faith. The approach is, however, thematically very different than the Orthodox Astronomy of Baz’eel or the Arcano-Scientific Astronomy of the followers of Q’tolip. Star-knowledge is heavily rooted on a more mystical / ritualistic approach.

The faith had its beginnings with the first Pilot-Prophet Sage Raffelo. He is believed to have discovered these fundamental cosmological truths and thus founded the Church of the Dome. From his teachings, a caste of Pilot-Priests began who are the core of the faith’s institutional hierarchy. As Il Modo itself is in constant untethered motion, floating here and there across the Sea of Pearls, it can be very difficult to find. The Pilot-Priests of Raffelo are experts in the study of the stars and applying their knowledge through rituals to be able to successfully chart a path through the sea’s treacherous waters.

The Pilot-Priests as a caste attempt to exert a monopoly upon all naval navigation. The riches received from this monopoly has been poured into works of great art and architecture; however it has also frequently led to corruption and decadence.

Sage Raffelo the Pilot-Prophet

Frameless Themes: Hierarchical Status / Knowledge / Law / Navigation

Primary Domains: Air, Water, Stars, Law

Secondary Domains: Sea, Knowledge, Travel, Planning, Nobility, Protection

Suggested Alignments: LG, LN, LE

Worshippers: Ambitious Pilot-Priests, politicians, wealthy nobles and their loyal servants, members of the Inspecta

The first and most important of the Sages. The Sage of those Pilot-Priests who climb the elaborate hierarchy of the Church. A Sage also for those who seek to play the Game of Knives and climb their way to the top of the Modini institutions. Also associated with the feared Inspecta, that order of inquisitors and investigators who function as Il Modo’s secretive spy service and religious police.

Clerical Titles: Pilot Priest, Esteemed Pilot-Priest, Eminent Pilot-Priest

Some Tenets of Sage Raffelo are as follow:

• Command your crew, if you do not have one then form one
• Obey your superiors and demand obedience from your inferiors
• Enhance the power and prestige of Il Modo

Sage Maribela de Fortuna

Frameless Themes: Luck / Adventure / Fishing / Fate

Primary Domains: Air, Water, Chaos, Creation, Stars

Secondary Domains: Sea, Luck, Protection, Trickery, Fate, Moon

Suggested Alignments: NG, CG, TN, CN

Worshippers: Eel fishers & hunters, sailors, laborers, adventurers, gamblers

A popular and beloved Sage associated with the luck of eel fishers just as she is with adventurers. Also generally frequently associated with the unpredictability of the sea. Maribela is the subject of many tavern tales and legends, always fishing for eels and going on wild adventures in order to feed her family.

Clerical Titles: Informal. Luckfisher, Fisher-Priest, Pilot-Priest, Cap’n, etc….

Some Tenets of Sage Maribela are as follow:

• Seek bold adventure, trust in your luck
• Stories of your deeds should be remembered by your friends
• Help others find their way through this life

Sage Markolo the Navigator

Frameless Themes: Trade / Exploration / Skill / Magic

Primary Domains: Air, Water, Stars, Magic

Secondary Domains: Sea, Trade, Rune, Travel, Spells, Charm, Knowledge

Suggested Alignments: LG, LN, LE, TN, NE

Worshippers: Merchants, Explorers, the rare Modini wizard, also popular among less ambitious Pilot-Priests, Scholars….

Sage Markolo was a great trader and navigator who was instrumental in turning Il Modo into the naval trading power it later became. His merchant fleets brought great wealth and knowledge from distant places.

Clerical Titles: Pilot-Priest, Merchant-Priest, Scholar-Priest….

Some Tenets of Sage Markolo are as follow:

• Accumulate wealth and show it off
• Explore distant locales and enhance your knowledge of the world and its splendors
• Develop connections with other lands and peoples

Sage Vittoria the Admiral

Frameless Themes: War / Strength / Strategy / Honor

Primary Domains: Air, Water, Stars, Storm

Secondary Domains: Sea, War, Strength, Protection, Planning, Metal, Fate, Retribution

Suggested Alignments: LG, NG, LN, LE, NE

Worshippers: Soldiers, tacticians, sailors, warriors

Vittoria was a legendary Admiral who oversaw the conversion of the old Modini fishing and eeling fleets into a significant naval power. She was undefeated in battle and led Il Modo to become (for a time) the preeminent naval power of the sea. A statue of proud Sage Vittoria atop a column stands overlooking the plaza of the Dome to this day.

Clerical Titles: Captain-Priest, Admiral-Priest...

Some Tenets of Sage Vittoria are as follow:

• Victory through strength and strategy
• Enhance the military power of Il Modo
• Achieve the limits of your own personal might

Sage Giacomo the Artificer

Frameless Themes: Craft / Art / Creation / Madness

Primary Domains: Air, Stars

Secondary Domains: Sea, Knowledge, Metal, Rune, Planning, Destruction

Suggested Alignments: CG, NG, CN, TN, CE, NE

Worshippers: Inventors (non-Mechanists), Artists, Builders, Manufacturers, Lunatics

Giacomo the Artificer was a genius without parallel. His contributions to art, music, architecture, and simple craftsmanship seemed divinely blessed. How else to explain such genius? Yet he was also mad, and tended to burn much of what he produced, constantly dissatisfied. In addition to an enormous output of works of art, he designed the enormous ballast tank systems that keep Il Modo afloat. He also oversaw the construction of the Grand Duke’s Palace, the Dome of Man, and as a final project built ‘The Lamp of Learning,’ a towering university-lighthouse filled with bizarre traps and hidden secrets. He further developed advanced designs for arbalests, new naval vessels, cannons / bombards, and established the tradition of Workshops. Scraps of his notebook are eagerly sought after, and those paintings of his that remain are valued more than the palaces they are found in.

Clerical Titles: Artificer-Priest, Artist-Priest, Builder…

Some Tenets of Sage Giacomo are as follow:

• Create, build, and learn.
• Victory and success through your own understanding
• Trust not the mechanistic works of Qa'im, and the Dunes of Pra'raj, for those works pass beyond your understanding and are not the product of man

Sage Santina the Compassionate

Frameless Themes: Charity / Healing / Compassion / Good

Primary Domains: Air, Water, Stars, Good

Secondary Domains: Healing, Sea, Repose, Protection, Suffering

Suggested Alignments: LG, NG, CG, LN

Worshippers: Healers, the ill, the poor, the desperate, the compassionate, missionaries, ‘Lezrous’ paladins and knights

Plague and disease has long been one of the great banes of Il Modo. During the first great bout of the ‘Crimson Death’, Sage Santina and her followers were instrumental in tending to its victims. Adherents of Saga Santina also are the most enthusiastically evangelical about the faith of the Dome. They strongly believe that, for the sake of the harmony of the Dome as well as the fate of every soul, it is absolutely necessary to convert as many people as possible.

The sect of Sage Santina maintains an additional Knightly Order made up mostly of those who have suffered and survived the Crimson Death. “Lezrous” is an EFU-term (inspired by ‘Leprous’) to describe those who have suffered the ravages of the Crimson Death Plague. The “Order of the Lezrous Brethren” (or Lezerotti) are the defenders of the sect and those who are willing to go among the poor and diseased.

Clerical Titles: Sister-Priest, Brother-Priest, Healer-Priest…

Some Tenets of Sage Santina are as follow:

• Serve others, and put aside pride and ostentation
• Attend to the afflicted and needy
• Encourage others to join the faith

Sage Orlando of the Death Masque (Feared Sage)

Frameless Themes: Disease / Death / Intrigue / Art (acting, opera)

Primary Domains: Death, Evil, Stars

Secondary Domains: Sea, Trickery, Illusion, Retribution, Suffering, Charm, Hatred, Blood, Decay

Suggested Alignments: CN, LE, NE, CE

Worshippers: Courtiers, Assassins, the Depraved, Actors, those seeking vengeance

The Sage Orlando was a great performer, traveler, and courtier with a genius for intrigue and a taste for the grotesque. He toured the western Sea in a flotilla of courtiers and masked revelers, only to return and bring with them the plague of the Crimson Death, a flux that has never been truly stamped out from Il Modo. To follow Orlando is to be associated with many of the darkest characteristics of the Modini character: a dreadful fear of disease, adoration of beauty, a thirst for vengeance, and skill in intrigue

Clerical Titles: Informal. Shadow-Priest, Grotesque-Brother/Sister, etc

Some Tenets of Sage Orlando are as follow:

• Embrace the beauty and horror of life
• Spin webs of intrigue and master them
• Avenge yourself against those who slight you

Sage Barbarina of the Lost Armada (Feared Sage)

Frameless Themes: Storms / Necromancy / Underworld / Pirates

Primary Domains: Air, Water, Stars, Evil, Death, Storm

Secondary Domains: Sea, Darkness, Undeath, Hatred, Tyranny

Suggested Alignments: CE, NE

Worshippers: Doomseekers, Pirates, Necromancers, Drowned Skeletons, Cave Dwellers, and those seeking protection from them

According to legend, Barbarina was a charismatic young noble who was betrayed by her family’s enemies. She organized a flotilla of oppressed eel fishers and mutinous naval vessels and was for a time a menacing Pirate Queen that threatened to conquer Il Modo itself. Ultimately, she decided to lead her armada on a mad expedition into the Maelstrom - there are various tales and legends as to why. At any rate, the Armada was sucked into the darkness below. It is said that Barbarina and her Armada now inhabit the undersea and have even traveled to the Other Side, there to behold the horrors of the Underdome.

To follow the Sage Barbarina is considered too dangerous by the authorities and Inspecta of the Dome of Man (Church). It is therefore a forbidden cult, although she is nonetheless offered fearful prayer by many and adopted as a Patron by some. The people of Il Modo have a particular terror of underwater, underground places, the undead, and absolute darkness in part because of frightening tales told about Saga Barbarina and her Lost Armada.

Clerical Titles: Informal. Pirate-Priest, Dread-Captain, etc…

Some Tenets of Sage Barbarina are as follow:

• Form your crew from the living and unliving alike
• Claim the dark and dank places of the world for Barbarina, and drive out those other horrors that exist
• Bring passionate terror and fear to all, its good for them
• Revel and enjoy the evil path you have chosen

The Unknown Sage

Frameless Themes: Mystery

Primary Domains: Unknown

Secondary Domains: Unknown

Suggested Alignments: ?

Worshippers:  ?

The identity of the Ninth and Unknown Sage is a secret that is maintained by the highest ranking members of each sect of the Way of the Dome. There are many speculations as to who it might be, but it is not known who or why all the Priests are so universally aligned with declining to identify the identity of this Greater Sage.

Players may not play cleric followers of the Unknown Sage at this time

Clerical Titles: Unknown

The Tenets of the Unknown Sage:

• ???