From: "Mr. Tines" <[t--n--s] at [windsong.demon.co.uk]>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Created a god recently?
Date: 30 Aug 1997 17:01 +0100
On 26 Aug 1997 00:02:27 -0500, in <5tto13$[4 rf] at [ub.d.umn.edu]>
[panders 2] at [ub.d.umn.edu] (patrick anderson) wrote.....
> To all those who create gods and their priesthoods for campaigns:
> I am an essentially lazy person who doesn't want to think and so I am
> asking for people who have created gods and priesthoods of the stars or
> moon or night sky, and are willing to email them to me, to do so.
[Posted and mailed]
Here are a batch that I've worked up for my not yet actually
turned from concept into play "far future of Glorantha
using the Forgotten Realms maps" campaign in the making.
Mother Night is probably not an attractive choice for
players; Lady Starbow will gather some women warriors;
the Secret Moon is not really a player character option,
given its secrecy and restrictions; the Blood Moon is a
relict cult, found only in a few out-of-the-way places
and usually despised. The Red Magic secrets it teaches
are one of the prized posessions of the Red Wizards of
Thay, rumour of which makes them hated and feared beyond
what their own efforts can achieve.
Mistress Moon is a semi-fighting and partly mystic
priesthood, suitable for player characters.
Mother Night
=============
One of the nameless spirits of the Dark under the Earth,
Mother Night first became noted when Thunder Father struck
down Emperor Sun from his throne at Skytop. As the dying,
bleeding Sun fell down the sky into the underworld, its
inhabitants fled the sudden light. Mother Night led those
who ascended into the sky, spreading her protecting cloak of
darkness over the land, as she still does to this day.
She has only a small following, as she is content to spread
her benefits to all, each night. Her importance is more
mythological and practical than spiritual.
Alignment: True Neutral. Priests and worshippers may have any
alignment.
Minimum Ability Scores: Wis 9
Races allowed: Any, though most common are creatures of the
underdark.
Proficiencies: Recommended - Religion, Blind-fighting (no
extra out-of-class cost).
Duties: Protecting those who are distressed by the raw light
of the Sun.
Weapons and armour: Chain, shield, any club or similar blunt
weapon.
Other Limitations: Function at -1 level in natural light, and
half level (drop fractions) when in direct sunlight.
Spheres: major - All, Sun(reversed), Protection, Wards,
elemental fire (reversed); minor - healing, necromantic. The
reversed form of Summon Fire Elemental summons an elemtal of
darkness, with similar stats to a Fire elemental, whose attack
has the effect of a Cause Fear along with regular damage.
Followers and strongholds: As a minor deity, her priests only
have those followings they can personally attract.
Powers: Darksense (sonar based sense, including "acoustic
daylight", rather like dolphins); Hide in shadow 50%+5% per
level, modified by race, armour and Dexterity as thieves;
Carpe Noctem: Once per level per night, the priest may cause a
10' radius sphere of night's darkness around him or herself to
become fixed, and endure through the coming day. If the priest
has cast any spells during the day, one of the priest's choice
is renewed at sunset.
Symbols: A black disk.
Lady Starbow
=============
As Emperor Sun fell dying into the underworld, splashes of his
burning blood fell onto the sky. When even Lord Gloaming, the
least and last of the sons and retinue of the Emperor, had
followed his master beneath the Earth, the spiritual nature of
these bloodstains quickened them to life. Nurturing these
last remnants of light came a hitherto nameless and despised
sister of Lord Gloaming (the Sun having considered the only
feminine spirits of worth to be the fertile Earth, and then
worthy only for their fertility).
Defending Heaven and Earth against the encroaching Night, she
took up the great Sky bow her father had let fall, defending
each remaining spark until the Sun was finally freed from Hell.
Alignment: Neutral Good. Priests and worshippers may have any
good alignment.
Minimum Ability Scores: Wis 12, Dex 12, Cha 12
Races allowed: Human, elf(except drow), half-elf; only women
may advance beyond 4th level, and only those who have quested
for and won a Unicorn mount beyond 8th.
Proficiencies: Required: Riding(land-based) Recommended -
Religion, Blind-fighting, Tracking. Crossover: Priest, warrior.
Duties: Protecting the weak and oppressed, especially women.
Weapons and armour: Chain, shield, spear, lance, javelin,
shortbow, short sword.
Other Limitations: Often despised by patriarchal Sun
worshippers (her worship being most common in areas that revere
her father and brothers).
Spheres: major - All, Sun, Protection, Combat, elemental fire;
minor - healing, necromantic.
Special spell: Shooting Star: as the mage spell "Flame arrow",
but the spell is cast on the weilder's bow, which then
transfers the spell's effect onto each arrow fired and lasts
until the maximum number of arrows have been affected, or one
hour has elapsed.
Followers and strongholds: As a minor deity, her priests only
have those followings they can personally attract.
Powers: Infravison 60' (120' for elves and half-elves); May
track as a ranger if there are stars visible in the sky if she
has the Tracking proficiency. At 4th level, if virgin, may
quest for a Unicorn mount (stats as for a Paladin's war horse).
May choose one melee and one missile weapon to have Warrior
THAC0.
Symbols: A silver bow; a labrys (double bitted axe) - note
that this is a weapon that the Starbow priests may not actually
use in combat.
The Secret Moon
===============
Only initiates of her mysteries know any but the barest
rumours of her past and current actions. She was the barely
visible moon only glimpsed in the radiance of the Unfallen
Sun, and who fled beyond the sky at his fall.
Alignment: True Neutral. Priests and worshippers may have any
alignment, but usually tend to Lawful Evil.
Minimum Ability Scores: Wis 13, Cha 13, Dex 15
Races allowed: Any, though usually from outcast populations.
Proficiencies: As the "Assassin" kit from the "Complete
Thief's Handbook", plus Recommended - Religion, Blind-fighting
(no extra out-of-class cost). Crossover: Priest, Thief.
Duties: Furthering the cryptic purposes of the Secret Moon;
ensuring that things best kept secret remain so.
Weapons and armour: As thief; weapons of quiet death like the
stiletto or the garotte are preferred
Other Limitations: Must obey their superiors without
question. All aspects of the Assassin kit.
Spheres: major - All, Summoning, Divination, minor - healing
(both normal and reversed), Necromantic (reversed), Sun
(reversed).
Special spells: Glow: A variant on Chant. The priest glows
with am eerie blue light, which gives him and all his
associates +1 on all their defensive rolls and -1 to be hit.
Lasts 6 rounds, plus 1 per level of caster. Summon Secret Moon
Elemental: As Summon Fire elemental. The elemental is
invisible.
Followers and strongholds: As a minor deity, her priests only
have those followings they can personally attract.
Powers: Gain thief skills as a thief of the same level and the
benefits of the Assassin kit.
Symbols: A wavy-bladed dagger.
The Blood Moon
==============
After the first War in Heaven, and the return of the Sun from
the Long Night, there was at first no moon. How the Moon later
arose is not known. She may have been the Secret Moon
returned, or a once-mortal sorceress who attempted to fuse
Solar might with the feminine principle, or even a synthetic
construct built through arcane engineering as an anti-Sun
either by creatures of Darkness or as a weapon against them.
Whatever her origin, the presence of a new power enthroned in
the sky led to a Second War in Heaven, culminating in a battle
between the Moon and the Thunder Father from which both took
sore wounds, and in which the world was shaken and remade.
The worship of the Blood Moon is a weakened survior into
historic time of the days before that final war; and is without
doubt a debased form of the original worship
Alignment: None. Worshippers may have any alignment (but see
below). The worship of the Blood Moon is often appealing to
mages of an appropriate mindset.
Minimum Ability Scores: Wis 12 Int 13 Cha 15
Races allowed: Any.
Proficiencies: Required - Spellcraft, Astronomy, Recommended -
Religion, Reading/Writing, Ancient Languages, Ancient History,
Astrology. Crossover: Priest, Wizard
Duties: Spreading the liberating and enlightening message of
the Blood Moon, if desired.
Weapons and armour: Chain, shield, Sickle, Scimitar, Shortbow,
Scythe, Rhompia (crescent bladed axe).
Other Limitations: Receive only D6s for hit points; subject to
the equivalent of Ravenloft Power Checks, and hence may often
sport some malformation (power checks may occur for any
essentially selfish act): with freedom, such as the liberation
from alignment, there comes a corresponding responsibility, and
those who succumb to temptation wear their failures
externally. The Blood Moon is also regarded as a demonic
figure from myth, so her followers also labour under that
burden of prejudice, especially in areas that were once
conquered by, or under threat of conquest by her Dominion.
Casting of priestly spells is affected by the phase of the
moon as follows:
Dark of the Moon - 1st and 2nd only
Crescent Moon - up to 4th
Gibbous Moon - up to 6th
Full Moon - any
This does not affect casting of wizard spells for split or
dual class Wizard/Priests.
Spheres: major - All, Law, Chaos; minor Sun, Charm
Special: Moonbeam (Sun 5th), Summon Moon elemental: As summon
fire elemental. The Moon elemental attacks for only half the
damage of a Fire elemental, but those attacked must save vs
Death Magic or make a Madness check.
Followers and strongholds: As a minor deity, her priests only
have those followings they can personally attract.
Powers: Worshippers may follow any alignment, but its value is
hidden. Alignment detecting spells yield only "Neutral"; and
take no damage or other adverse effects from magic items based
on their alignment; and gain benefits as the better of their
own alignment and Neutral. When casting any spell, may modify
it with metamagic spells (as per Tome of Magic) as follows:
Dark of the Moon - none
Crescent Moon - level totals equal half spell's
Gibbous moon - level totals equal to the spell's
Full Moon - level totals equal to spell's + 2
without memorising the spells or using extra spell slots. If
the priest is also a wizard, these benefits transfer to casting
wizard spells as well. Spells so affected glow bright red,
even if normally not visible.
Symbols: A half-red, half-black disk.
Mistress Moon
=============
After the War in Heaven between Thunder Father and the Blood
Moon, when calm at last returned to Earth and Sky alike, and
the clouds that had long blocked sight of Sun, Moon and Stars
alike parted, a white moon was revealed, rolling along the same
path as the Sun. Perhaps this was the conquering Blood Moon
washed clean by the storms, but broken like the Sun before her
to wheel between Heaven and Underworld.
Worshippers of Mistress Moon align themselves according to
their age into the appropriate aspect - maiden, matron or crone.
Alignment: True Neutral. Priests may have any part-neutral
alignment. There is no restriction on worshippers.
Minimum Ability Scores: Wis 10, Cha 12
Races allowed: Any surface dwelling; only women are permitted
into the priesthood; few men even join the worshippers.
Proficiencies: Required Astronomy; Recommended Religion,
Navigation, Astrology, Spellcraft, Reading/Writing.
Duties: Guidance, Marriage, support of women in the
transitions of their life.
Weapons and armour: Chain, shield, Sickle, Scimitar, Shortbow,
Scythe, Rhompia (crescent bladed axe).
Other Limitations: The secretive and nocturnal nature of their
worship can cause a negative reaction from non-worshippers.
Spheres: major - All, Charm, Divination, Summoning, Sun; minor
- Elemental, Healing (and Necromantic if you use the unrevised
spell spheres).
Followers and strongholds: As a minor deity, her priests only
have those followings they can personally attract.
Powers: A priestess of the moon as maiden has
Charm/Fascination; a priestess of the moon as matron has
Soothing Word; a priestess of the moon as crone has Turn
Undead. Saves against any of their magical effects are at -1
during the appropriate phase of the moon.
At 5th Level, all gain Inspire Fear (as per the CPHB).
Symbols: A silver disk.
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