Eucharius Rösslin |
BLOODY MOTHER
Neutral goddess of midwifery and pregnancy. Deaths in childbirth are a specter terrorising every race and creed. Without Bloody Mother's loving ministrations, infant mortality would quadruple overnight.The Mother's clerics are wandering healers renowned for zealously defending the pregnant and the newlyborn. Some fundamentalists also punish breaches of moral law; absentee parents are chastised or beaten, rapists are mutilated or executed in cruel and unusual fashions. More progressive sects have pioneered pregnancy tests, contraceptives, abortions and caesarean deliveries.
Religious orthodoxy states that Bloody Mother is either an aspect of the Knacker or Grain Goddess, but her worship likely predates both religions.
CONDUCT
If asked, you must aid in a childbirth. This means expending whatever spells or Soul Dice are necessary to keep the mother and her baby alive and healthy. It's assumed you spend your downtime doing midwifery, but this might also come up during adventures.
It goes without saying that you cannot harm a pregnant creature. It doesn't matter if that mother bear is mauling your friends to death, leave it the fuck alone.
SPECIAL ABILITIES
You can diagnose pregnancies with Detect Magic, or by expending a Soul Die.
Bloody Mother despises rapists and those who harm children. Against such foes her clerics can automatically hit with castings of Cause Wounds, or expend Soul Dice to boost their damage rolls. Such attacks turn genitals gangrenous and resist any attempts at magical healing.
Most people are aware of this ability. The guilty give the Mother's clerics a wide berth.
National Archaeological Museum of Spain |
PHANTOM LIMB
Neutral god of hunters and pathfinders. Beloved in underdeveloped regions, where his followers maintain the paths connecting neighbouring villages. When your homeland is infested with overpowered monsters capable of obliterating entire communities, such labors are indispensable.The god is depicted as a one-armed barbarian accompanied by dogs. His followers are famous for their spectral limbs; arms that clutch swords and legs that fill boots, yet which feel no pain and cannot be hurt. Such lost extremities are either combat injuries or deliberately severed during initiation ceremonies.
Advanced societies have recently appropriated Phantom Limb as Roadwarden, Lawful god of scalphunters, caravaneers and "muh safe roads". A divine mandate to massacre anything or anyone threatening trade routes. He's depicted as a Vitruvian Man without any limbs, held aloft with thin wires or Levitation spells. This revisionist sect originated from min-maxing adventurers who cut off all their limbs to be better at slaughtering monstermen.
CONDUCT
Clerics of Phantom Limb adhere to a strict duty to rescue. If you see fellow wayfarer in trouble, you have to try your best to help. This only applies in wild places where you're rolling for Wandering Monsters. Phantom Limb has no jurisdiction over civilised lands.
Clerics of Roadwarden destroy anything that threatens Lawful-aligned travellers. It doesn't mean mindlessly attacking every monster or outlaw you see, but you cannot live and let live. Who fucking cares if it was their land first. Kill or imprison them at the earliest opportunity.
SPECIAL ABILITIES
With a casting of Bless, or an expenditure of three Soul Dice, you can replace a lost extremity with a phantom limb. It is invincible, invisible and able to interact with incorporeal monsters like ghosts. The recipient can "deactivate" the limb at will, making them nearly impossible to restrain.
Recipients must also obey conduct restrictions. Transgress and your limb is refunded. Painfully.
Alphonse Demarle |
OLD MAN FLINT
Lawful god of huddling around a campfire and praying for dawn. Bane of grues, sabretooth tigers and other creatures of the night. A prehistoric god popular with surviving populations of Cavemen, Grugs and Neanderthals, though his worship has seen a resurgence among anarcho-primitivist types.
The god's appearance isn't universally agreed on. He's most commonly depicted in charcoal drawings as a smiling old man with flint blades for fingers. You can tell it's him from a slight sparkle in the eyes, pinpricks of light shining among a mess of carbon and ash.
CONDUCT
You can only wield flint weapons. That or something actively on fire.
Ignore the druids, Old Man Flint doesn't care if you wear munitions armour, a tiger skin cloak or nothing at all. It's about the symbolism. A desperate strike that ignites a spark. Kindling a hope that you might yet see tomorrow. That's where his power comes from.
At least you bypass the usual weapon restrictions. Feel free to use knives, spears and bows. Maybe even a macuahuitl - one could argue obsidian is permissible given its association with fire. Either way, your melee weapons break if you roll maximum damage.
You also can't cast Darkness. Bring light into the world, do not take it away.
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Your Light and Continual Light spells are replaced with Flame and Continual Flame. With Soul Dice, spend two for Flame and six for Continual Flame. These spells create a magical fire that burns without fuel. They can still be extinguished by submersion or by suffication, but never easily.
The fires themselves are smokeless, but not without heat. They inflict damage as an Oil Flask and can ignite other material nearby. A common tactic is to cast the spell on something fireproof and then wield it as a flaming brand. Though you could still cast it on someone's face. You psycho.
Monsters loathe such fires, granting a +1 when Turning Undead. Nocturnal creatures must test Morale go near them, though it doesn't stop them attacking from a distance or trying to extinguish it.
Nicolai Abildgaard |
MOTHERMILK
Lawful goddess of animal husbandry. A minor heresy in the Grain Goddess religion that was bankrolled into a mainstream denomination by the Druid Mafia. It's regularly exploited by the crime syndicate as a mechanism of social control and source of free clerical miracles. Everyone knows the clergy is corrupt, but few care so long as the druids keep the weather control and crop blessings flowing.
The goddess is depicted as a humanoid cow shackled in golden chains. Cherub-faced supplicants and herd animals are often shown greedily suckling at her countless anthropomorphised teats.
Disagreements between Mothermilk and Grain Goddess are a case of realpolitik. There's little theological difference between the faiths, barring a focus on animal husbandry over crop cultivation. After all, any idiot can throw a seed in the ground. But domesticating an animal, slaughtering its suckling young and drinking the milky nectar of life? Now that's real power.
CONDUCT
You cannot consume uncultivated crops or flesh from an undomesticated animal.
Wild game, foraged berries, even pristine spring water, it all makes you puke. You're not a fucking savage, so don't eat like one. The forces of Law must exert power over every aspect of your food, else it is impermissible. Beef, bread, milk, tea and alcohol are all safe bets.
Like being on a halal or kosher diet, you need a trustworthy grocer. Else you might lose your spells mid-dungeon because some asshole put beaver meat into your iron rations.
SPECIAL ABILITIES
You can use Turn Undead on any domesticated livestock, inducing them to either fight, flee, freeze, or fawn (your choice). This also works on animals that have gone feral, a reminder to obey their betters. It has absolutely no effect on wild creatures, beyond encouraging them to eat you.
Any milk or eggs you harvest yourself count as Holy Water until they've gone rotten. This generally takes at least a full day, the magic's there as long as you can feasibly eat them. Dousing a zombie with sanctified milk is a viable strategy, as is loading a sling with consecrated eggs.
Unsurprisingly, many Mothermilk clerics bring livestock like chickens, cows and goats on their adventures. Fresh animal produce is also a reliable way to avoid breaching food restrictions.
SWEETSTING
Neutral god of hospitality and honeywine. Largely accepted as a regional variation of the Liberator. His clergy have a special reverence of Killer Bees, likely a holdover from when primitive humans proved their martial prowess by stealing magic honey without dying horribly.
The god is depicted as a bee man with a suspiciously phallic stinger, often shown embracing Grain Goddess. Instead of satyrs and maenads, Sweetsting is attended by swarms of thriae.
Radical transplants from the larger Liberator cult worship Sweetsting as Honeybee, Chaotic god of freedom and bloody martyrdom. This fanatic sect gets their name from the suicidal terror attacks they mount on slavetraders. They aren't afraid to die. No one is free until we're all free.
CONDUCT
You can't refuse someone offering a friendly drink. Don't be a prude or insult their hospitality, sit down and hear what they have to say. This isn't mind control, the battle doesn't stop because someone offered you a beer. But it'd probably work during a lull in the fighting, Christmas truce style.
You can't say no because you suspect a drink might be poisoned, or that the meeting might be a trap. But it's OK to take precautions, like your host taking the first sip or bringing armed friends.
SPECIAL ABILITIES
You cast Bug Charm instead of Snake Charm. You can pool HD with other clerics to control larger swarms of insects. If you're using Soul Dice, treat this as Turn Undead except for charming bugs.
Clerics of Sweetsting inflict a death curse when killed. Like a bee dying in defence of its hive, your killer must make a Save vs Death. On a failure, they drop dead. Neither of you can be revived.
The curse can't be avoided. Whoever's most responsible for your death must Save. Most creatures are aware of this ability and prefer to ignore you or just kill your friends. Though push it too far and someone's going to be brave or dumb enough to finish you off.
Clerics of Honeybee use a more active version of the death curse. Upon landing a successful melee attack, you can offer up your life to force a Save vs Death. Most creatures will try to kill you before you're within stinging range.
Sex Crambles |
THE MAKING OF
This post is a continuation of Mellonbread's Gods and More Gods posts. I've been using his pantheon for a couple years now, so naturally I started adding my own deities and subreligions to the mix.
These gods are largely my own creations, with the exception of Phantom Limb (a transplant from Delta Green's take on Nodens) and Old Man Flint (inspired by Nothic's Eye).
The format of the entries is taken from Orbital Crypt's Small Gods post. The presumption is Clerics who break their conduct restrictions forfeit any spells or Soul Dice for the rest of the day.
On a whim, I made this post vaguely compatible with both OSE and Begone FOE (with mixed results).
GOOD post! Very cool!
ReplyDeleteThese gods absolutely have the sauce, and I like how grounded in the actual concerns of people they feel.