Hextor for RQ/Greyhawk

Dealing with the Gods

Gods, Oeridian and otherwise

Page 1

 

Page 2

Valsic Pantheon [DMD]

[This one is a special treat, having been printed out -- not from my e-mail -- but from the OLD Greytalk Archive website. So here is a chance to see what it looked like back in 2005, along with an early take on the pantheon I worked out for South Province (and wrote about much better later for Canonfire!).]

RE: [greytalk] Looking for a Bakluni War God

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 4:40 PM
From: "Marc-Tizoc González"
To: greytalk@canonfire.com

I agree. Al'Akbar as a righteous war / sun god, and Azor'alq as the noble paladin / fakir (is that the right word?).

LGJ 3 described Azor'alq (formerly of Pinnacles fame) and connected him in very interesting ways to Al'Akbar and the Bakluni struggle against evil / darkness.

MTG

"Vest III, Robert W" wrote:
I think Al'Akbar &/or Azor'alq are probably the closest thing the Baklunish have to war gods.

Rob Bastard
Bastard Greyhawk: http://homepages.ius.edu/rvest/Greyhawk.html
Age of Worms: http://www.ghoulgamers.com/viewforum.php?f=73
Greyhawk on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Greyhawk


-----Original Message-----
From: Basiliv [mailto:basiliv@cablespeed.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 10:36 PM
To: greytalk@canonfire.com
Subject: Re: [greytalk] Looking for a Bakluni War God

Official info on the Baklunish gods is sparse, so you might want to see what fan material is available.

But you can get just about everything officially available about them by consulting 2 sources:

1) The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer: This has a write-up of all of the Baklunish gods of Demigod status or higher. Each write-up is about 4 paragraphs, which is a lot more than many of them had in the past. But what I think is especially useful are the
write-ups of the Bakluni nations, and the religious conflicts add a nice dimension to this small pantheon.

2) Living Greyhawk Journal #3: This one may be questionable by some, as the real write-ups in here are of several Hero-Gods of Greyhawk. Several figures that were little more than names were turned into Hero-Gods, and a few of these are Bakluni in origin. But I mention it because, divine or not, the backgrounds of these figures provide a good addition to the religious conflicts I mentioned above.

Other than that, for official sources you've really just got several write-ups of Istus:

Greyhawk Adventures hardback
From The Ashes boxed set
1983 boxed set -- this also has a write-up of Xan Yae

I think that's about it. Hope this helps!

~Jim (Basiliv)

On Tue, 3 Apr 2007 22:39:14 -0400
"Aluvial" wrote:
> I'm looking for information about Baklunish gods.
> Especially a war god if any.
>
> I know that the Suel got a special writeup at some point... I was
>wondering about the Bakluni.
>
> Aluvial

Re: Incabulos

Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 00:40:16 EST
From: ">Rip Van Wormer>"
Subject: Re: Incabulos

In a message dated 10/30/99 9:46:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time, aleph@CCWF.CC.UTEXAS.EDU writes:

> So how have you guys brought the worshippers of Incabulos into play in your campaigns? Who worships him, and why? What sort of goals have you given them?

Incabulos is the best god of evil the campaign has. Tharizdun is asleep, Nerull is too death and night oriented, and Iuz and Erythnul are just punks.
Incabulos is all-encompassing, the lord of nightmares, delirium, and the hordes of Hades, the patron of the witches who hex your crops and the ninety plagues of the gods. He's the only god who has "evil" as a major part of his portfolio. He commands maggots and corruption. He is tied to no specific
pantheon.

Incabulos is said to be the child of Beory; he ripped his way out of his mother's womb and proceded to inflict havoc on her surface. As the patron of UnBalance, he was responsible for overpopulation, plagues which endangered whole species, sickly forests that burnt to ash at their first encounter of a
spark, still ponds breeding monstrosities, endless famines and all manner of other maladies and travesties of the circle of Life. His younger sibling Obad-hai, patron of Nature's Balance, was created to set things aright, and the two have been bitter enemies ever since.

According to traditional Oeridian theology, Incabulos is the Ill Wind, bearer of all accursed plagues and manifestations. Working with the Court of Chaos, he slew the Oerid's oerth goddess Oeridia while she was still pregnant with the brothers Celestian and Fharlanghn.

The Suel churches reckon him as far older, one of the bizarre entities to crawl out of the primordial void before Time. As such, he is as old or older than Lendor himself. Even the power-hungry Suel dared not establish major temples to this foul menace.

Incabulos wears a black, horribly ragged cloak trimmed in green and lined with orange which blows about in the absence of wind, as does his hair. His face is a pallid, sickly blue covered in pockmarks and tumors that end in random horns and tendrils. His eye sockets are completely black with tiny
sparks like maddened stars. His hands are long and skeletal and his body is twisted and deformed, almost doubled over, with peeling scales, plaguemarks and running sores that resemble extra mouths and eyes.

Incabulos is supposed to have created the hordlings; nightmarish creatures with bizarre, surrealistic shapes infesting his plane of Hades.
As patron of night hags (nachtmares), he is the consort of the hag goddess Cegilune. Cegilune has Flannish features covered with cancerous, craterlike tumors and is associated with the darkest phase of the moon Luna. The two lovers look much alike.

His unholy symbol is one of the coolest of them all.

Everyone burns candles to ward him off, but he's worshipped by the depraved survivors and bringers of plagues, by those who haven't slept in years and those who sleep twenty hours a day. He's worshipped by those so consumed with hatred they would sacrifice anything for power. He's both served and
hated by hags and disease-carrying undead, and half-real things spawned from unwholesome dreams.

His devotees work alone, or occasionally and untrustingly with Nerulliacs or other depraved maniacs they feel will cause more harm than good. They seek to undo the work of priests of good with their heal disease and cure light wounds. They seek to throw corpses in the town well and make the women
barren. They destroy healing relics and undermine the good religions and heroic rulers.

Incabulos hates all of creation and constantly works against it. His realm in the outer planes might have looked like the cold void or gray dust he seeks to make of the worlds, but that's too easy. Instead, it's a place of constant corruption, festering

Magical items associated with Incabulos look like horns, drums, banners and other objects meant to signal allies, which in this case can be anything from enormous creatures of the netherworld to winds of invisible plague.

Gran March Religions Document part 5

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 00 20:39PM PST
From: Nick Perch Add To Address Book Add To Junk Mail Blocker To: GREYTALK@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: [GREYTALK] Gran March Religions Document part 5 (last part)

I lied, I only split it into 5 parts. Parts 2 and 3 are somewhat large.

Nick Perch
Gran March Triad

-----Begin Part 5

The Harvest Church:
Overview:
The Harvest Church is dedicated to the worship of the Oeridian agricultural Powers. The church worships Merikka and Velnius as the primary agricultural Powers, and pays homage to Atroa, Sotillon and Wenta according to the season. (Wenta is honored in all seasons in his aspect as the god of brewing.) Telchur is not worshiped, but services to appease him, and seek a gentle winter are held every Sunsebb, and services thanking the Power for his mercy are held every Readying.

In addition to the above-mentioned Powers, the Harvest Church venerates Saint Gwen, patron saint of the land and planting. The honoring of this saint is unique to the Harvest Church of Gran March, however it seems clear that this veneration is not some misguided cult, as priests who claim to follow Saint Gwen have been observed to invoke miracles in his/her name.

The Harvest Church is broadly worshipped in Gran March, encompassing a greater number of worshippers than any other single faith. This is a church of the common man, and while less politically influential than the churches of Heironeous or even Zilchus, the leaders of the Harvest Church are still well heeded by those in seats of power.

The Harvest Church was established by a group of like-minded priests in the earliest days of the settlement of Gran March. Though the idea of a multi-Power church may seem odd to outsiders, it has been a part of the fabric of Gran March for so long that it is accepted as the normal order of things. In the days when the Knights of the Watch were bringing order to Gran March, they made a decision to support and defend the Harvest Church.

This decision was based on the view that the Church would be an influence likely to avoid the petty squabbles between followers of different agricultural traditions that might otherwise have plagued the land. That alliance continues to this day, to the benefit of both parties.

Centers of Worship:

Chapels of the Harvest Church are found throughout Gran March, in villages and hamlets and towns. They are typically simple wooden structures, but adorned with a wealth of trappings to reflect each of the Powers venerated by the church. Such chapels are almost always attended by a priest, and serve both the host community and the surrounding villages. The center of the Harvest Church is the Golden Temple in Barony Bullette. This temple, constructed of yellow stone imported from quarries in the Hellfurnaces, is home to the High Harvestmaster and a large congregation. The remains of Saint Gwen are also said to be interred here.

The Temple of Merikka in Orlane is unusual in the Harvest Church, in that it is primarily devoted to a single Power. It was brought into the Harvest Church only within the last 10 years or so, and retained the trappings of a dedicated temple of Merikka until very recently. In 589 CY, the temple suffered extensive damage during a raid from the Rushmoors. While the main structure is still intact, many of the trappings (particularly the gold statues that were the pride of the church) were carted off into the Rushmoors. The temple has been partly refurbished, and there are currently negotiations between the leaders of the Harvest Church and those of the Orlane temple regarding the inclusion of the trappings of other Powers when the temple in Orlane is fully restored.

Activities of the Priesthood:

While each priest receives spells from a single Power, they consider themselves to be priests of the Harvest Church, and perform the rituals of the Harvest Church rather than of any individual Power. The priests of the Harvest Church are charged to aid those who work the land of Gran March. To this end they heal the sick, use their magics to enhance crop growth and prevent crop failure, carry news or messages as they make their rounds from village to village, and spread the word of new agricultural advances.

The priests of the Harvest Church are valued counselors as well. As with the Zilcherans and Cuthbertians, the Harvestors are frequently called upon to mediate disputes. Their advice is frequently sought by those in authority on matters concerning the common folk of Gran March. Additionally, Harvestors are considered, as a group, to be diplomats second in skill only to the Zilcherans, and priests of the Harvest Church fill not a few ambassadorial posts. As with the Zilcherans, Harvestors are frequently paired with a more military minded deputy ambassador. Reyla Hyttaska (priest 12, Merikka), the current ambassador to Keoland is one such. She is paired with deputy ambassador Lieutenant Deskar Vaggarel, (0-level human) a retired army supply officer.

Demographics:

About 24% of the adult population are members of the Harvest Church. They do not follow any single Power. The nearly exclusive majority of the members of the church are farmers or those in related jobs (such as millers or brewers). All the human races of Gran March are represented in the congregation, though a majority of the followers have Oeridian blood.

Females out number males about 11 to 9. The congregation comprises all alignments common to Gran March, as well as a significant number of Chaotic Good and Neutral Good followers.

The priesthood of the Harvest Church comprises priests of each of the Powers venerated by that church. The distribution is roughly 40% priests of Merikka, 20% priests of Velnius, 15% priests of Wenta, 10% priests of Atroa, 10% priests of Sotillon, and 5% priests of Saint Gwen. There are no priests of Telchur in the Harvest Church. All told, there are about 970 priests of the Harvest Church, and they tend to follow similar distribution patterns as the congregation.

Church Leadership:

The church is led by a High Vestry made up of nine leading priests. The nine offices of the High Vestry are each selected by different methods, and for different terms. The office of the Youngest is held by the youngest full priest in the church at the time that the office becomes open. The Youngest serves for 5 years, at which point a new Youngest is automatically selected.

The office of the Eldest is fairly self-explanatory. The remaining 6 offices are undefined at this time. The office of the High Priest is held for 10 years at a time, and the office holder is selected during the Richfest celebrations every ten years by voting among all Harvest Church priests. The current High Priest, who began her second term in 590 CY is Gabriella Consannis (priest 14, Merikka). Gabriella is currently using her office to smooth the integration of refugees into Gran March society and the Harvest Church. She is well respected and heeded by those in authority, and her counsel is valued even by Magnus Vridanian, Commandant of the March and a priest of Heironeous. She splits her time between the Golden Temple attending to the business of the church, and Hookhill where she makes sure the concerns of the common folk are respected.

Relationships with other Faiths:

The Harvest Church gets along well with its fellow churches in Gran March. The Church has an extremely close relationship with the churches of Phyton and St. Cuthbert, and the priests of the Harvest Church will usually not hesitate to help a follower of Phyton or St. Cuthbert in need. This warmth is reciprocated, and the three churches enjoy an informal alliance to serve the needs of the people of Gran March.

The priests of the Harvest Church are on cordial but distant terms with the Zilcherans. They are suspicious of the Pholtites, whom they regard as slightly dangerous zealots, and because of the extremely strained relationships between the Pholtites and both the Cutbertians and the followers of Phyton. They are suspicious of the followers of the Shalm, but largely ignore them, and they have a rapidly cooling relationship with the Heironean church, as a result of the proselytizing currently in progress.

The Church has a friendly but distant relationship with the church of Fharlanghn.

-----End Part 5 - This is the last part. There is no part 6.

Druids of the Flanaess

Subject: [GREYTALK] Druids of the Flanaess
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 10:34:23 EDT
From: "Wayne S. Rossi"
Reply-To: The GREYtalk Discussion List

Druids of the Flanaess

In the Flanaess, there is confusion (with good cause) over the exact identity and roles of druids. In all likelihood, this is because there is more than one type of priest that goes by the name of "druid". It will be the goal of this article to clarify the exact sorts of druids and their functions.

The Old Faith

It was ages ago that the word of Beory, Ehlonna, and Obad-hai came about in the Flanaess. All had been worshipped by Flan and Olve alike for generations, and there was a loosely organized nature-priesthood that served to venerate the three deities. When the Oeridian migrations began, however, a change came about the tri-deity priesthood. As more Oerid, who had heard the word of Ehlonna even in the borderlands between the Baklunish and Suloise Empires, were proselytized during their migrations, the structure of Order began to come into play. By OR 320, even as the Oeridians struggled for dominance of the subcontinent, the "Way of Nature" became vastly popular with Oerid and Flan alike. Within the next century, a clearly-defined hierarchy was created-and the priesthood named "druids".

In the wilds, druids guarded against the ravages of human settlers-and, at the same time, were the guardians of all the settlements that held a healthy respect for nature. They taught the people to replant forests if lumber was needed, and to hunt only as necessary. Still, the druids could not help that a great portion of the land being converted to farmland-and were driven toward the central and eastern Flanaess as Aerdy grew in size and power, until in OR 427 it was a Kingdom. Then, only small tracts of forest in the east could be saved. Their luck was greatest in the Gnarley Forest and the Welkwood, where the Olves still reigned with their cities above the ground-hence, an active interest in not destroying nature.

Over the years, though, a rift grew within the ranks of the Way. The druids recognized that they were slipping in power and influence, and allowed this to happen gradually, and to a limited extent-they did, after all, recognize the importance of balance. As the priesthoods of the individual gods of the Flanaess became more popular, many druids began to panic. They began to press for individual priesthoods of Beory, Ehlonna, and Obad-hai, and by OR 524, former druids became priests of Beory, Ehlonna, and Obad-hai. The Way of Nature became known as the Old Faith.

Druidic Priests

The priests who split most radically from the druids were those of Ehlonna, who are now so removed from the druids of the Old Faith that they have little place in a discussion of druids. Those who followed Beory and Obad-hai, though, fell closer to the tree. These were similar in faith and practice to druids-though the reverence of Ehlonna was lost. Notably, many more druids went to the following of Obad-hai than that of Beory. The conflicts between the druidic priests and the true druids was brief, but has caused tension to form. Occasionally, a true druid of at least Druid level (12th) will "convert" an area where priests of Obad-hai or Beory have grown lax. Since the schism in the Way, the reverse has almost never happened. Most true druids look somewhat with disdain on the non-hierarchical priesthoods, and there is a quiet contempt for the conservatism and inability to "adapt" of the druids by the priests.

The Old Faith has seemingly faded into the background, but is not without its surprises. As the druidic priests have seemingly become the major followings of Beory and Obad-hai, the hierarchical druids move behind the scenes to protect a fragile balance.

(The Old Faith druids act as per the PHB, the druidical priests as per FtA.)

Wayne

Re: Al'Akbar

Date: Sun, 12 Dec 99 08:27AM PST
From: "Wayne S. Rossi" Add To Address Book Add To Junk Mail
To: GREYTALK@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [GREYTALK] Al'Akbar

In a message dated 12/12/99 5:12:05 AM Eastern Standard Time, rtaylor@CMC.NET writes:

<< A late question on this: I've been using the "True Faith" of the Gord the Rogue modules as a pantheistic faith, serving Istus, and Al'Akbar as her true prophet. Other gods are honored as well, but Al'Akbar is the primary, along with Istus in her aspect as Fate. Does this gel with anyone else's take on the nomads of the deserts?

Al'Akbar has paladins, and is referred to as "the sword and shield of the true faith" by his warriors. >>

Personally, I'd have to say no. Al'Akbar, in what I do, is an independent god with his own church (in fact, because of his LG nature and ideas that contrast with the other Baklunish gods, I gave him the strongest individual church this side of Istus). He's quite popular in Ekbir and among LG, NG, and LN Paynim tribes.

The Beygraf of Ket is referred to as the "Shield of the True Faith" in the products, also. I would say that the "True Faith" has a lot of Istus worship to it, but also has somewhat of an edge to it, mixing with mostly nontheistic faiths (here, elemental Fire is quite popular, and, though the practitioners would never admit it, there's more than a touch of devil cultism at work in the less...beneficial...Ketite followers). My thought on the whole "True Faith" idea is that, mostly, it's a kinda propagandistic way that certain very strong Ketite priests and such refer to their own religion, and not really a strong, flourishing religion throughout civilized Bakluna.

Besides Al'Akbar, the following religions are popular in the civilized portion of the Baklunish world as I see it:
Istus (diviners, seers, prophets; any sane ruler will have a priestess in his court)
Geshtai & Elemental Water (Fishermen; certain philosophers and monks, as this has ideas not unlike some types of Buddhism)
Xan Yae & Zuoken (this particular pair is most worshipped as such; there are some influences from elemental Air as well)
Elemental Air & Elemental Water (this is a sailor's faith, most commonly found around the docks of Ekbir and Zeif)
Elemental Earth & Elemental Water (mostly farmers; a touch of Geshtai as well)

That's just a few I've thought up so far; once I get into more detail, quite a bit more will be forthcoming.

Wayne

Almor's Faith

Subject: [GREYTALK] Almor's Faith
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 13:15:08 EST
From: "Rip Van Wormer"
Reply-To: The GREYtalk Discussion List

The subject of just who was primarily worshipped in the prelacy of Almor was never properly resolved in what I could find in the Greytalk Archives. Apparently, EGG has said Heironeous, which doesn't make much sense given the nation's alignment.
It's a NG, CG, N country.
OS in composition.
Surrounded by primarily Oeridian nations.
Pelor is an obvious choice for the nation's alignment, since we can count on him to be sympathetic to CGs and Ns, but the fact that the land has no Flan component casts doubt on this. Granted, Pelor is a common deity, and many non-Flannae revere him, but with the Heroneoi of Nyrond at one side and the Hextoi and Zilchists on the other, I'm not sure that he's appropriate as a major faith.

The issue of the sun in the Prelacy's coat of arms has to be dismissed as a coincidence, I believe. I can't imagine that such an adamantly pro-Oeridian nation as Aerdy could have esteemed Pelor to such an extent as to put him in their coat of arms, and of course Pelor didn't have a symbol as of 1983. Instead, this symbol refers to the rising of the Great Kingdom's might over the Solnor Ocean, and is countered by Furyon/Voll's moon/antler symbol. The priests of Pelor might actually bear a grudge against Aerdy for appropriating their holiest of designs. The origin might involve something like the Oerid armies seizing a relic of the northern Flannae that symbolized leadership to that people, and taking it as their own symbol. The descendents of the ancient ruling house in Tenh (the Wi) probably seek this thing's
return, though it has likely been lost, either during a change of dynasties or amid the general clutter of the old treasuries in Rauxes (or used as payment to finance some war; it might be in Perrenland, a prized trophy of the mercenary-houses).

Anyway, the cult of the Wind seems a likely ingrediant in Almor's religious stew, with the Oeridian cultural domination and alignment. Wind Priests don't, however, seem very *political* to me. Thus, while they might be an element of Almor's state religion, they probably don't define it. Of the old Suel gods, only those of proper alignment would have survived Aerdi persecution: Kord, Lydia, Norebo, Osprem, Phaulkon, Phyton. None of them have enough constituency in the region to dominate the nation.

Anyway, this is what I think:
Kevont is a pantheonist priest of the Church of Almor. The pantheon is lead by Cyndor, Lord of Time and Infinity, and contains the god of the winds (Phaulkon and Velnius) and the seasons (Atroa, Wenta, Velnius, and Sotillion), as well as the gods of travel (Fharlanghn and Celestian) and of celestial bodies (Pelor, Lydia and Beory; worship of the moons is heretical). Procan and Osprem also receive reverence, perhaps as relatives. No one prays to Cyndor directly; the other gods are used as intermediaries. The other local gods are revered outside the church structure.

When the Great Kingdom conquered/conquers Almor, the church is driven underground, and moves its base to Nyrond. Some of the old temples reopen after the animus-Duke flees and Nyrond assumes control of the land.

There's also the question of what "Nyr Dyv" means, and how it connects with Dyvers and Nyrond.

Perhaps "Nyr" represents an unknown quantity, and was given to the mostly unexplored western extreme of the Great Kingdom during its early height, including Nyrond, Ulek, the Shield Lands, Perrenland and the Domain of Greyhawk. "Nyr Dyv" simply means The Lake of Nyrond. As most of this land was lost, it came to refer to the lands remaining.

Gods of Greyhawk - Wee Jas

Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 19:07:24 -0400
Reply-To: The GREYtalk Discussion List
From: Ubiquitous
Subject: [GREYTALK] Gods of Greyhawk – Wee Jas
To: GREYTALK@MITVMA.MIT.EDU

By: “Todd O. Howard”

Wee Jas (Greater God) [Suloise]

AL: LN
WAL: any
AoC: Magic and Death
SY: Gravestone with Magical Runes

Wee Jas is the goddess of Death and Magic, with equal emphasis on both of her aspects. In many ways she appears uncaring, but this is due to the knowledge that all will come to her in the end. Priests of Wee Jas seek to promote the use of magic, esp. in the school of necromancy, as that relates well to their patrons other aspect.

Priests of Wee Jas must promote the use of various kinds of magic and aid those that are dying in their transition into the afterlife. Priests are responsible for keeping libraries of magical information and aiding the research of new magical spells. Temples have various mages researching spells on a permanent basis. Each temple will specialize in a school of magic, although most necromantic formulas are shared between the various temples. Priests are also responsible for aiding people on to the afterlife, although the specific nature of this aid depends on the alignment of the priest.

Wee Jas's Avatar (Wizard 16, Priest 12)

Wee Jas's avatar appears as a pale female of the race (almost always human) who rarely shows emotion of any sort. She casts spells as if she were a Necromancer (gaining the appropriate saving throw bonuses and penalties), although she may also select spells from opposition schools at no penalty.

Str: 9 Dex: 18 Con: 14
Int: 21 Wis: 20 Cha: 12
MV: 12 Sz: 5'+ MR: 35% ( + special)
AC: -2 HD: 12 HP: 68
AT: 1 THAC0: 9 Dmg: 1d6+5 (staff)

Special Attacks/Defenses: Wee Jas's avatar carries a staff +5, and wears bracers of defense AC 2. She relies primarily upon her spells for defense and attack, and she is 70% magic resistant to any spell that she has in memory. Anyone touching her (this does not include weapon attacks) in an offensive manner dies instantly, no saving throw (magic resistance applies). She may also point at a target and cause one of the following effects, once per round (as save applies for harmful effects): Death, Harm (reversed Heal), Heal, or Resurrect. She may do these in addition to any other actions she may take.

Priests of Wee Jas:

Priests of Wee Jas must have an intelligence of 13. Priests may be of any lawful alignment. Priests of Wee Jas belong to one of three sects based on their alignment. Neutral priests may join any sect, good priests may become a Wee'descan or a Seeker, and evil priests may become a Jas'partan or a Seeker. The Wee'descans and the Jas'partans are continually fighting amongst themselves, and deaths are not uncommon. A priest may not change sects, and must choose his sect by 3rd level.

The good sect, called the Wee'desca, believe that undead are an abomination to their God, and rarely miss an opportunity to destroy them. They believe that magical research is a secondary role of the priest. They are known to cast Raise Dead (at no cost) for exceptional followers of the Goddess, as well as casting Raise Dead and/or Resurrection in return for materials that can be used for magical research, for cash, or for other items of interest.

The evil sect, called the Jas'parta, believe that everyone (but the priests and their closest followers, of course) should be aided along to the grave, and seek to give this aid in the best manner possible. This may or may not include outright killings, abortions, and other forms of euthanasia. The Jas'partans believe that undead are not an abomination, and that they can be useful allies. They even go so far as to support the creation of liches so that magic users or clerics may continue magical research beyond their normal lifespan.

The neutral sect, called the Seekers, believe that Wee Has's main emphasis is in magic and magical research. The Seekers therefore do the most magical research of the three sects. They tend to destroy most undead, with the exception of lichs that will aid them in various research. The Seekers will occasionally choose an exceptional researcher (16th+ level priest) from any of the three sects and perform the elevation to Lich status. Given the various views of the sects, few are chosen from the Jas'partans, none have yet been chosen from the Wee'descans, and the bulk have come from the Seekers.

WP: as wizard
AR: none

Spells: They have major access to the following spheres: All, Astral, Charm, Divination, Elemental (all), Guardian, Healing, Law, Necromantic, Protection, Summoning, Thought, and Time. They have minor access to Combat, Sun, and Wards.

Powers: 3) +1 to saves versus magic; 6) may use 1st and 2nd level wizard spells from the Enchantment/Charm and illusion schools as priest spells; 9) may use wizard spells of 1st through 4th level from the schools of Alteration, Enchantment/Charm, Illusion, and Invocation/Evocation as priest spells and use magic items normally only usable by wizards; TU Command (must commune with Wee Jas first)

__
“Ted, sweetheart...somebody's left a wicker basket with a little baby in it on our front doorstep.”
“Just leave it out there on the stoop, honey. They cats'll get it.”
- Red Meat

WoG Gods Part I - the Oeridians

Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 23:32:03 -0500
Reply-To: The GREYtalk Discussion List
From: allen trussell
Subject: [GREYTALK] WoG Gods Part I – the Oeridians
To: GREYTALK@MITVMA.MIT.EDU

Let me preface this “series”. Although WoG is of course a fantasy world, and created by the great EGG, I, for one, like my fantasy world mixed with a certain amount of reality. A realistic base helps make the fantastic seem real, the incredible a bit more believable. In short, I like to have something with which I (and my players) can identify. With this in mind, I set forth to add more detail to the cultures and nations in WoG. There is, as you all know, a fairly limited amount of detail provided in the boxed set(s) and modules. Oh, sure, they're filled with info on game stats, a bit of “flavour” here and there, and some names, but how much do they add to the overall culture of Greyhawk and its peoples? Not bloody much. Hence, I sought out the list of the gods.

The best way to determine details of an unknown culture is to look at its beliefs. Looking at the gods of WoG, I find that it is an almost overfull pantheon, taking into account the various racial “boundaries” within this list. I see glaring holes in the pantheons of the four basic peoples, bakluni, flannae, oeridian, and seul. Once again, using fact (in this case, real-world Earth), I find certain gods common to almost every known ancient pantheon; a god of the air & sky, a goddess of love, a trickster deity, and so on. These are lacking in the seperated WoG pantheons, although overall can still be found. Although it can be assumed that in the overall world view these gods are all that suffice, it doesn't help establish a cultural base within the seperate races (also, I notice some possible oversights in standard racial types; if the western Flanaess, or Oerik, can be considered analogous to Eurasia... then where are the Slavic peoples? The Teutons? The CELTS?!? Are they just tribes of suel? ).

In any case, this made me decide to create more “complete” pantheons for the four races of man, even if some the deities are no longer worshipped, or even remembered save in ancient texts.

First, I shall begin with the Oeridian pantheon, as this was perhaps the easiest to decipher. With the colour scheme given for these folk, and existing list of gods, it seems to me that EGG was going for a meditteranean people here, greco-roman most likely. And their pantheon is fairly complete to begin with. Thus, I interpret the Oeridian pantheon as being quite similar to the greco-roman pantheon(s); the gods are every bit as passionate, vain, petty, and “human” as their mortal believers. Likely, these deities were born of even greater beings, later rising and overthrowing the rules of their forebears. Early in Oerid civilisation, individual city-states would have held a certain deity as patron, and many cities across the Flanaess are still partial to one deity more than others. Many demi-gods should exist among such a pantheon as well, whether by virtue of skill and excellence a mortal is blessed with such status, or by virtue of divine birth (just think about Zeus… and Perseus, Heracles, Achilles, etc.). Also, there should be a number of divine beings not necessarily worshipped, per se, similar to the furies, the muses, and the fates.

Havin been this long-winded, I’ll now provide a quick list of the new deities, their spheres of control, alignments, gender, and “level” (greater, intermediate, lesser, demi-god). If any one would like specifics, I’ll post the ones with the most requests (priesthood, avatar, that sort of thing). Remember, also, that these deities have been created with the idea that many have counterparts in the existing pantheon, and may well have disappeared from public belief.

Anaeus – God of Rulership, Might, Wisdom, Knowledge, and All Things Under Heaven and Oerth; the Overgod – Lawful Good – Male – Greater God

Berius – God of Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Tempests – Chaotic Neutral (Evil tendencies) – Male – Lesser God

Dellemnus – God of Monsters, Destruction, Cruelty, and Madness – Chaotic Evil – Male – Intermediate God

Finneghan – God of Randomness, Tricks, Happenstance, and Humour – Chaotic Neutral – Male – Lesser God

Herame – Goddess of Land, Fertility, Health, Agriculture, and the Home – Neutral Good – Female – Greater Goddess

Kelizan – God of Skill, Perseverance, Victory, and Fruitful Endeavors – True Neutral (Lawful tendencies) – Male – Lesser God

Kodos – God of the Dead, the Underworld, and Darkness – True Neutral (Lawful tendencies) – Male – Greater God

Luscera – Goddess of Love, Beauty, Sharing, and Kindness – Lawful Good (N/G tendencies) – Female – Intermediate Goddess

Mellios – God of Steel, Smithing, Crafs, and Knowledge of Artifice – Neutral Good – Male – Intermediate God

Mereter – Goddess of Magic, Illusion, the Astral Plane, and Forbidden Knowledge – Lawful Evil – Female – Intermediate Goddess

Myrha – Goddess of Rivers, Streams, Running Waters, and Rain – True Neutral (Good tendencies) – Female – Lesser Goddess

Paesus – God of Wine, Wild Passion, and Change – Chaotic Neutral – Male and Female – Lesser God(dess)

Ronseur – God of Hunting, Beasts, and Nature Untamed – Neutral Good (Chaotic tendencies) – Male – Lesser God

Toreun – God of Secrets, Intrigue, Messengers, Liars, and Thieves – True Neutral (Chaotic tendencies) – Male – Lesser God

I hope I didn’t go overboard, or get too long winded, or, worst of all, bore anyone. Future posts should be shorter. Next time: Part II – the Flannae.

Re: Gods, Oerdian and otherwise (even longer)

Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 09:09:25 -0500
Reply-To: dek efilson@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
From: dek efilson@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
Subject: Re: [GREYTALK] Gods, Oerdian and otherwise (even longer)
To: GREYTALK@MITVMA.MIT.EDU

Since I’ve been the Gods of Oerth series and scouring the various sources for little bits of info which I could exploit, I thought I might jump in to this discussion myself. Kent Matthewson was the original poster.

> I The Problems with the Pantheons
>
> Some problems arise when considering that the gods of GH are real beings in the “game” world, so that unlike the “real” world, it raises these questions in my mind: How many gods can > there realistically be, in total, and how do we resolve overlapping spheres of influence? If each > pantheon has their sky/thunder god, their god of oceans, etc. – the air and water become crowded, conflicting places – who has precedence in the seas, for example – Xerbo or Procan (ignoring that one is a greater and one a lesser god)?

In my campaign the answer is: “eh?” As a GM I’d like to know *everything* about my world, but with limited resources and even more limited time, I leave it up to the gods, whom the Players will most likely never meet, to decide this. In so far as I’m concerned they can fight it out with all of the Forgotten Realms gods and the Birthright gods and…

It comes down to homodiegetic vs. heterodiegetic. In the latter’s case, we worry about which direction the angular momentum is going, what a deity really looks like in person, and whether the carrying capacity of Oerth would really be exceeded if Orcs were fed aphrodisiacs en masse. In the former’s case, we concern ourselves with what the players might think the sun is, how they relate to their gods, and the taboo of talking about Orcsex.

In the last year or so, after a campaign I hosted sputtered and died due to lack of special interest, I began to worry less about giving the history of Oerik in one hour or less at the beginning, and worried more about telling the players the outlandish (and far more interesting) lies that their grandmothers would have told them. I quickly found that no one but me really cared which way the Oerth turned, but rather wanted to hear more atrocity tales about the horrors which Iuz had perpetrated. My players are human! So I guess my answer is… if you’re Oeridian Procan beat the living crap out of Xerbo who now sits in a sea cave crying all day… if not then Xerbo is the One True God of the Sea and Procan’s priests are a bunch of corrupt bastards (even if they do get spells from someone).

> In the “real” world, it was recognized even by the ancient Greeks (Herodotus, for example) that the deities of other pantheons were the gods of the Greeks, but by different names (Herodotus in particular, equates with the gods of Egypt and Asia Minor), and in modern times we recognize certain “archetypal” gods that reappear in differing cosmologies. However, on Oerth, these gods are not variations, but real, distinct beings, so that proposing to fill the “gaps” > in the current pantheons creates more problems than it solves.

The Hindus just consider other gods (generally speaking) to be yet another in their immense pantheon. The Romans’ gods, if they did exist, might not have actually been variations on the Germanic/Norse gods or vice versa, but the Romans thought so. So long as they still received spells ;-) who cared?

> Of course, we currently have such a difficulty in some spheres – Wee Jas/Boccob, Ulaa/Fortubo, Joramy/Pyremius, Rao/Delleb, Lendor/Cyndor, Procan/Xerbo, Ehlonna/Obad-Hai, > and Velnius & the 4 Winds/Phaulkon. Many of these can be resolved on a case-by-case basis, > by differentiating subtle distinctions within their spheres, but it takes some doing (and possibly > fudging)

But why assume that they have to be differentiated at all? I’m asking this, not as a rhetorical question, but as a serious inquiry. Suppose that the gods never get together across cultural pantheons, that because every outer plane is infinite in scope they just don’t run into one another. If the only access they have to Oerth is the *rare* avatar, then their only agents are their worshippers who can compete or cooperate.

> There is also the interesting issue of the merging of faiths due to the Great Migrations. Many > of the deities from various pantheons have since come to be embraced as being common to all > areas (according to the original god list from the ’83 boxed set). This seems appropriate, especially after a thousand years. The more interesting item on the list, however, are the many gods that are not only common, but of no particular ethnic origin. I can only conclude that these > deities were common to all or at least some (more than one) pantheon prior to the Cataclysms. > These deities include St. Cuthbert, Ehlonna, Trithereon, Boccob, and Incabulos, as well as several lesser-known deities. I think it would be appropriate to decide on a case-by-case basis which deities were common to which pantheons (ie Cuthbert perhaps being common to the Oerid > and the Suel, but not the Baklunish or Flan). When drawing up racial pantheons, any or all of > these deities could be included, and factored in when drawing up the cultural traits, political structures, etc. that each race commonly has.

IMC, the ‘common’ deities (of lesser or higher standing) were initially either individual cults or parts of another pantheon all together. As a preview of Gods of Oerth, vol III, the Oeridians were kenotheists in the Hindu sense. That is, every god is great and the greatest one at a time. Praise Celestian, greatest of all gods, in the morning, then pray to Heironeous, chief of power in the gods’ realms and mightiest of all, in the evening. Given this openness and will to recognize gods of all stripes, we see certain absorption and dissemination of religions. That is, the reason that they’re commonly worshipped is because their religions have been changed to a the greatest degree possible w/o being offensive to the gods’ sensibilities. Xenophobic constructs or subversive elements to the cults have been sterilized. “Common” comes to mean not only frequency, but the degree to which the religion has been spread thin over the continent.

Moreover, it will be Kambellian’s thesis that this is absolutely necessary (bloody Oeridian that he is). That is, if any other culture had dominated the subcontinent, we would be looking at a different picture altogether. If the Baklunish peoples (to be Vol II), who were reforming the church of Istus and effectively downsizing the pantheon when the main thrust of their migrations began, were to have dominated the continent these cults would not have been tolerated to any great degree and worship of most gods would have been divided into regional cults. The Suel (to be Vol. IV) would have demanded that their gods, who (according to the Suel) really do determine the events within their spheres of influence, be worshipped as the primary gods. Here again, we see something of a repression and the likelihood that many of the gods would have disappeared.

> II The Oerdians
[Excellent thoughts on the Oeridian pantheon snipped]

Here are some of my own observations. First, we have two sets of brothers, indicating that these gods are thought to have been born and that their interrelationships are a factor of time and history. We can also note that this gives them a mortal quality, at least in the legends.

The pantheon is distinctly patriarchal. You mentioned Obad-Hai, whom I recall being Flan, but aside from her, of all of the intermediate powers, not one is female. Also note that unlike the Suel pantheon, in whose families deity status seems to be hereditary (Kord), the parents of our two sets of brothers, Hextor-Heironeous and Celestian-Fharlanghn, are of little consequence. Whether it is because they were mortals (who gives a damn about them anyway? ) or because they were gods lost to time is a matter which we can debate here ad nauseum without ever getting conclusive evidence.

On the other hand, we don’t (to my knowledge) ever hear of them paying visits to one another. Procan is never found knocking on Celestian’s door asking him to turn down the head of the sun because it makes his oceans evaporate, and Erythnul to our knowledge hasn’t ever invited Telchur over for tea and patries. The many forms of Erythnul seem to hint that he may have come from the humanoids (as opposed to them adopting him). You can tell I’m leaning towards this kind of open-minded adoption hypothesis right through prehistory (similar to what the Greeks did).

Because of the lack of evidence of anything but the most occasional interaction, IMC, the Oeridians are god thieves. Look at the binary Cain-Abel nature of the Hextor-Heironeous pair and compare it to the benign brotherhood of Celestian and Fharlanghn. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent tradition, leading me to view everything through a lens of cultural assimilation.

In my timeline, mostly adapted from OJ1, the Oeridians were the slaves of the Suloise empire. They toiled in the equatorial sun to get what little they could from the soil so that their masters could have time for games and the occasional social gathering. As the original inhabitants of the Plain of Pesh, they had been tribal and each possessing their own god(s) and extremely distinct dialects and even languages. When the Suel conquered the land, the tribes were forced into a mush of cultures. Their treatment and standard of living varied from dynasty to dynasty; some times they had to be paid for their work (a piddly amount).

So each tribe member had to accept her sister’s god. It was a survival thing. Many of those gods have been lost to time for want of worshippers, but we have some in the form of the basic Oeridian pantheon.

To complete the narrative, the Oeridians dribbled out when they could. But, when the time was ripe, they eventually rose and killed a number of their masters in the province of South Pesh. Fearing further uprising, they were emancipated and were force-marched to the north and into the Baklunish empire (who accepted them but resented the influx of impoverished people which devastated the economy, leading to strains in their already bloody relationship with the Suel… and here we go!).

> Comments, please?

Well, you asked for it.  Anyone still reading now gets to go on to round 3 where the special prize is an all-expense paid trip to Ull. All standard disclaimers concerning this all being specific to my campaign apply ad infinitum. We will have to wait and see how much of this is still campaign

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