My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

More gratituous world building. More I say! This is inspired by D&D lore on the Astral Plane and Mage: the Ascension lore on the Astral Plane.

Everything You Wanted to Know About the Astral Plane but were afraid to ask.

A rare few people are born as Astral Savants. They can instinctively send their consciousness out to explore the Astral Plane while they are asleep or meditating. More commonly, a person can be trained in meditation techniques and learn how to astrally project. Either way, it’s a two point Merit called Astral Projection. Mortals using Astral Projections can move about the Astral Plane very quickly (literally at the speed of thought), but they cannot jaunt around the Astral Plane forever. Their comatose is still going to consume food and water.

Divine Spell-casters can use a spell to astral project their consciousness if they have Spirit Magic ●●, Augmentation ●●●●, or Necromancy ●●●●. A theurgist using Augmentation magic also mimics a hibernating animal and a Necromancer astral traveler mimics a corpse. Either way, an astral traveler in a hibernation or death like trance uses less food, water, and air. A theurgist can also astrally project for longer periods of time by combining Augmentation ●●● or Necromancy ●●● with Spirit ●● to achieve basically the same combined effect.

Arcane spell-casters can use a specific spell to astral project their consciousness if they have Enchantment ●●, Necromancy ●●, Divination ●●, or Illusion ●●. The spells look different but the end result is the same. Necromancy ●● or Enchantment ●● has separate spells that lets a sleeping mage consume less food, water, and air. There are various Divination, Conjuration, Illusion, and Abjuration spells that impact the Astral Plane from the Material Plane.

Theurgists with Spirit Magic ●●●●● and Mages with Conjuration ●●●●● can bring their physical bodies into the Astral Plane.


Precise navigation is very hard in the Astral Plane, but astral travelers can generally find their way back to their own comatose bodies pretty easy. If an astral traveler's comatose body is attacked in the Mortal Plane, the astral traveler will know this immediately if they pass a Perception + Alertness roll. Difficulty 4 if the astral traveler is sleeping or mediating. Difficulty 9 if the astral traveler is in a magically induced coma of some kind.


I’m working on the specifics, but a person astral projecting is vulnerable to astral spirits and magic, but they normally cannot be killed there. It’s painful and possibly sanity damaging to “die” in the Astral Plane, but it’s a lot better than dying. An astral traveler using advanced magic to bodily traverse the astral plane can die for real. Worse, an astral traveler that is physically in the Astral Plane sticks out like a sore thumb to those Astral Projecting and various Astral spirits and monsters. On the plus side, an astral traveler physically in the Astral does not require food, water, or air. Astral travelers cannot stay in the Astral Plane forever though. All that silvery nothing will eventually degrade a traveler’s sanity. After one to six months in the Astral Plane (high Willpower characters last much longer), a mortal in the Astral Plane morphs into some kind of Astral Creature and can never enter the Material Plane again.

Assuming an astral traveler is not bodily traveling the realm, Intelligence is used in place of Strength. Wits is used in place of Dexterity. Health levels are made up of the travelers Stamina rating plus their temporary Willpower. Characters taking damage can allocate damage between Willpower and Stamina as they fit. Stamina damage takes about a day of rest in the Material Plane to recover.


Why would anyone want to bother projecting their astral form into the Astral Plane?

-Certain libraries and other centers of learning also have astral projections into the Astral Plane. Mortals visiting these astral libraries can learn mundane skills, linguistics, and lore faster here than from books. Illiterate mystics from barbarian tribes or spiritual orders on the fringe of civilization can pick up ancient wisdom and lore without reading at all.

-There is a saying “Nothing is forgotten in the Astral Plane.” An astral traveler can rediscover lost lore. Lost lore is usually in the remote and most dangerous regions of the Astral Plane and there are astral manifestations of Lies that seem like lost lore. Still it could be a fun mystic quest.

-If you want to talk to a specific dead person, either a ghost or one of the Honored Dead, a mortal can talk to them in the Astral Plane, if they can find their target at least. It’s generally easier and safer doing this than talking to a ghost face-to-face.

-Two or more mortal mystics astral projecting can have conversations across long distances. This normally only works if the two mortals know each other very well. It’s very hard to talk to a casual acquaintance and it’s near impossible to contact a stranger.

-Astral travelers can enter the dreams of sleeping people and have Inception style shenanigans. Bwong.

-Astral travelers can treat their mental derangements and deep seated insecurities and fears by battling literal representations of their metaphorical demons.

-Mages and the occasional meditating mystic option to have astral duels with other astral travelers. It’s good training in magic and combat with a lower risk of unwanted death than a physical duel.

-The gods are not perfect beings. There is a rumor that when the Nine (or even Turoch in primordial times) used the Astral Plane as a metaphysical trash can to throw their cast-offs and mistakes into. The cast-offs of the gods potentially hold great power for mortals daring enough to use them.

-There are astral shortcuts to the Aetherial Realm, Fae Realm, and the Void. There are rumors of shortcuts to the Elemental Plane. You can even use parts of the Astral Plane to demand an audience with one of the Nine. It is dangerous to demand things of a god or goddess, but the option is there.

-It is possible although difficult to create a mind in the astral plane. If a character wants to make an intelligent magical item without enslaving a Spirit, ghost or Void Demon (all three of which will seek vengeance in some fashion and probably impact the use of the magic item), this is the only way to do it. In most cases, a talking sword created in or from the Astral Plane is happy to exist as a talking sword. This is rarely the case with Spirits, ghosts, or Void Demons trapped in swords.

-It’s possible although difficult to use alchemy to capture and bind the essence of a tiny bit of the Astral Plane into physical form. This is handy for making certain magical items.

-An astral traveler that is bodily flying through the Astral Plane can use the Astral Plane to sidestep very large stretches of distance the Material Plane, traveling up to a few hundred miles in a single day. Astral travel in this fashion is fast but not very precise. If an astral traveler wants to travel a thousand miles to reach a specific castle, she is lucky if she is within five miles of her target when re-entering the Material Plane. Astral traveling to coastal areas is dangerous as a miscalculation could land the astral traveler in the middle of the sea.

-You ever lose a sock on laundry day and cannot figure out what happened? You won’t believe how many socks are in the Astral Plane. These astral socks hold unimaginable power.



Now I need to come up with some astral creatures for astral travelers to fight an interact with. Besides terrifying sock puppets who reside in their floating obsidian bricked psychic fortresses.

 

Another weekend where my friends were sick, and unable to meet, so I had lots of time for gratuitous world building.

Adding Features to the Featureless Plane that is the Astral Plane

Starting with D&D

Dungeons and Dragons doesn’t have a lot of astral creatures besides the Gith. As Runesmith D&D Youtuber says, “Welcome to Gith, one of the most well written but least useable races in D&D).

There 45 seconds of paid ad at the front to skip if you want to watch the short video.

I don’t think Gith are a good fit for my setting unless I take the very bare bones of Githyanki and come up with a humanoid species that lives in the Astral Plane and has psionic powers… and leave out everything else.

In D&D Forgotten Realms, the Astral Plane is almost empty except for the massive corpses of dead gods floating in the plane like islands in a silvery sea. That setting idea is really badass, but that doesn’t fit in my setting either. Forgotten Realm has well over a hundred living gods and maybe thousands of dead gods. Scarterra has nine living gods and two dead gods. Turoch’s dead body is in the Void. In fact, the Void arguably is Turoch’s dead body.

I haven’t decided where the Traitor’s godly dead body resides. He/she/it could be in the Astral Plane, but I don’t see a good reason to do that.

I think there should probably be islands of something in the Astral Plane though.

Beings do not age in the Astral Plane in D&D. That’s interesting but I’m not sure if I want to use it. One thing that I find interesting, both Githyanki and Astral Dragons cannot mate in the Astral Plane because they don’t age and they don’t grow. Physical beings that live in the Astral Plane have to travel to a Material Plane somewhere to mate and raise children. They don’t want to bring their young children into the Astral Plane too often because they won’t grow there. I do remember reading about a young dragon trapped in the Astral Plane. By dragon standards the dragon is physically weak but having thousands of years to develop her sorcery and lore, her mind is more powerful than great wyrm dragons.

Here is an Order of the Stick comic that gives a pared down primer on how ideas manifest in the Astral Plane. I’m on the fence whether I want to use this concept or not.

Mage: the Ascension and the Astral Umbra

I am a big fan of White Wolf Publishing old World of Darkness series and Mage is the game line that covers the astral plane in great detail.

There are at least 50-60 pages of lore on the Astral Plane in assorted sourcebooks on my shelf, the best of which is the book Infinite Tapestry. I will sum it up briefly as I can.

The Mage spirit world is animistic. Basically everything we know of real has a spirit that represents it. Every dog and cat has a spirit. There are greater spirits that represent Dog and Cat as broad concepts. There are spirits that represent different aspects of dogs and cats.

There are three major parts of the Spirit World. The Low Umbra is the spirit world of the dead, the Middle Umbra is the spirit world of nature and emotion, and the High Umbra is the Astral Plane where most of the spirits are based on intellectual concepts.

My favorite site in the Astral Umbra is the River of Language. A river that branches and forks with every language humans ever spoken. Dialects branch out of larger language rivers. As you go upstream you find the ancient languages that modern languages branched out from. An astral traveler that drinks from a river gains verbal fluency in the language represented by the water before him. Sucking on a piece of ice lets someone read and write in the language.

There are word pirates sailing the river. If a PC is struck you need your player to say in character what their thought was. If it was “Ow that hurts!” the character could lose the use of the word “that” until that character chases down the pirate that robbed him and retrieves the word.

The real world has thousands of languages, living and dead in it. Scarterra and Scaraqua combined have fewer than two dozen languages. Not very realistic, but I limited languages for simplicity.

There are realms where you can meet the spiritual embodiment of Great Britain, France, America, Monaco, and the like. There are places where you can meet the spiritual embodiment of Democracy, Communism, Tyranny, Justice, etc.

The Greek Muses are literal beings you can talk to. Most of the Muses have an ancient Greek persona and a modern persona, and they usually favor their modern images. For instance the Muse of Comedy might be wearing an ill-fitting suit and carrying a microphone now. Besides the muses, characters can meet the gods of any legendary pantheon. They also can meet conceptual gods that represent broad trans-cultural concepts like “Mother” “Father” “Leader” and the like.

There are devils and demons and evil cosmic beings in the Astral Umbra, all interpreted by human beliefs in evil as opposed to the primordial evils that live in the Middle Umbra. There are also great heroes and positive legends.

One of the more clever things written is hybrid spirits. The Low Umbra is the land of the dead and the High Umbra is the land of cultural ideas. Where the Low Umbra and High Umbra touch there are hybrid spirits. You can meet the ghosts of dead legends such as John Henry’s ghost.


Back to Scarterra's Astral Plane

Ghosts

I like the idea of the Astral Plane being a realm of thought and memory. I’m going to modify ghost powers a bit so ghosts can hop between the Material Plane and Astral Plane fairly easily. This fits my mythos because Scarterran ghosts are as much beings of memory as they are beings of spirit. Also, ghosts don’t truly belong on any plane so they can traverse the planes like vagabond wanderers.

Landmarks

Along the lines of memory, instead of having the corpses of dead gods filling the same niche as islands in the Astral Plane, I think there is going to be floating debris representing memories and thoughts sometimes coalesce into islands. Most such astral debris doesn’t last very long. These thoughts and ideas are unimportant and dissipate into the realm pretty quick. A few durable ideas and memories last longer. These form the islands.

Any structure that existed and had people using it would theoretically manifest here, but the buildings wouldn’t last forever as they are gradually forgotten. A structure that was important in many people’s lives would last longer than one that does not. A busy market place is going to have a bigger astral impression than a farmer’s storage shed. A school that has housed generations of students that both loved and hated school would have a very strong astral impression.

Very old structures from past ages would be floating around. While they should have faded to nothing as living memory in them died, they would have their astral structures strengthened by legends told about them. Thus these ancient astral ruins are probably not 100% historically accurate.

Astral Animals and Maybe Astral Plants

In the material plane, most nutrients come from plants and plants get their energy from photosynthesis. Thanks to SCIENCE!, it’s possible for fungi, plants, and rare animals to derive energy from magical energy via life stones, magic fonts, or undersea vents.

Memories represent the core sustenance of the Astral Plane. All the fleeting non-durable thoughts that enter the Astral Plane briefly. Some kind of creature could eat these thoughts. I don’t know if they’d look like mice, or krill, insects, spindly vine plants, or tiny squids. Bigger creatures could feed on these tiny creatures. Bigger creatures feed on them and so forth and so on. Eventually you have creatures big and strong enough to threaten adventurers or mortal ghosts traveling the Astral Plane.

It’s pretty easy to slap some attributes and abilities down to make a beast.

Here’s a sample of how easy it is to stat a beast out.

Lion
Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4, Perception 3, Wits 3
Willpower 4, Health Levels OK, OK, OK, -1, -1. -3, -5 Incapacitated
Attack: Bite and claw six dice lethal
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Intimidation 3, Stealth 1

Rat
Strength 1, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3, Perception 5, Wits 4
Willpower 4, Health Levels OK, -1, -5
Attack: Bite for one die lethal damage
Abilities: Alertness 2, Brawl 1, Dodge 3, Stealth 3

Rhino
Strength 5, Dexterity 3, Stamina, Perception 2, Wits 1
Abilities: Alertness 1, Animal Ken 1, Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Dodge 1, Intimidation 3, Survival 2
Willpower 4, Health Levels OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1. -3, -5 Incapacitated
Attack: Horn for five dice lethal, nine dice of damage on a charge. Kick for six dice of bashing damage.
Special: Four soak dice.

My creature compendium has over two dozen animals like this (and counting).

But this is a fantasy game. What would be a good way to make astral animals exciting and interesting for players to encounter?

Given how hard for a mortal astral traveler to truly die, what are the lasting consequences of being mauled by an astral tiger?

Would astral animals react differently to an astral projecting mortal and a bodily astral traveler?


Void Demons in the Astral Plane

In our world’s lore and myth, demons love to spread corruption and misery. Void Demons in my lore are less subtle. They want to destroy mortals, preferably by eating their souls. Void Demons do not generally care about spreading corruption or misery. This is Void Demon equivalent of playing with their food.

That said, at least for now, even though connecting points tie the Void to the Astral Plane in many places, Void Demons cannot physically enter the Astral Plane, but powerful Void Demons can use astral projection to put their consciousness into the Astral Plane.

Unless they run across a rare mortal astral travelers who is using magic to bodily traverse the Astral Plane, they cannot really kill mortals at all. Even then they cannot eat a mortal’s soul in the Astral Plane. The best most demons can do here is to cause nightmares or beat up the psychic projection of more common Astral travelers just for fun.

Many Void Demons don’t bother, but other Void Demons meddle in mortals’ dreams via Astral Plane because they literally have nothing else to do. A few Void Demons have gotten a taste for playing sadistic mind games.

Some forward thinking Void Demons and mortal infernalists (who generally are much more inventive than Void Demons themselves) are hoping to research a way to bypass the Barrier to the Void through the Astral Plane and physically travel the Astral Plane. If they pull this off, it’d be relatively easy to physically enter the Material Plane this way. This could also theoretically let Void Demons enter the Aetherial Realm, something they’ve never managed to do to this date which could in theory let Void Demons assault the Nine directly.


Astral Mutants

Most astral travelers project their consciousness into the astral plane to poke around. The main limitation is that their bodies need food and water during this process. Even with magical aid to mitigate the need for food, at best an astral traveler can keep his body alive for two or three weeks at most. Two days if the astral traveler isn’t using any magic on his body.

Bodily traveling the astral plane takes advanced magic and is both safer and less safe than astral projecting an avatar of one’s mind in the plane.

I’m combining D&D where nothing ages in the Astral Plane and Mage the Ascension where humans who spend too long in the Umbra might turn into spirits. I haven’t figured out long is too long, but every humanoid, every ghost, every dragon, anyone who is capable of entering the astral plane bodily should not linger too long.

An astral traveler that stays in the Astral Plane too long will eventually lose the ability to exist in the material plane and become an astral creature. I haven’t decided how long “too long” is. Maybe a month, maybe a decade, but every creature that overstays his welcome in the astral plane will mutate into a creature of pure thought.

The most common astral mutants would be former ghosts. A dragon or wizard that has the magical know-how to travel the astral plane bodily probably researched the Astral Plane as a prerequisite to learning how to travel there. “Don’t stay too long in the Astral Plane” is mentioned in Chapter One of most such books about the Astral Plane. Ghosts can travel to the Astral Plane without any training at all, so most ghosts are ignorant of the dangers of overstaying their welcome there.

I like the idea of mutated ghosts haunting the Astral Planes but I’m not sure what they would look like or what their goals and powers are.


Aetherial Spirits in the Astral Plane

The Nine have untold numbers of spirit minions. Most hang out in the Aetherial Plane. Many spirits visit the Mortal Plane frequently on various errands for their patrons or even to seek personal agendas. I guess the Nine could create some minions that can travel the Astral Plane, but I’m not sure for what purpose.

Besides having rare spirits bodily traveling the Astral Plane, I could allow Spirits to astrally project their minds into the plane much as mortals do.


Potent Thoughts Manifesting as Creatures


The Astral Plane is the realm of pure thought. There could be literal manifestations of nightmares here. There could be manifestations of hopes and dreams. There could be manifestations of lusty fantasies. I’m not sure what the creatures of various types would look like or what their powers would be.

For a living nightmare to coalesce would several people have to have nightmares about the same thing or could there be chimera like hybrids of several nightmares floating about? Would a manifestation of lustful fantasies have inexplicable lobster claws?


Anyway, I’m open to any and all suggestions to put cool things in the Astral Plane.

 

I like the basic concept but I'm thinking something more chaotic. I'm thinking of the White Wolf game Wraith: The Oblivion, where Stygia the City of the Dead is a hodgepodge of buildings spanning more than three thousand years of Western Civilization stacked on each other in such a fashion that logically it shouldn't be able to stand.

Another White Wolf game, Werewolf: the Apocalypse had animistic spirits like this called Geomid. Geomids basically served as muscle for the Weaver. Werewolf is all about the three way fight between the Wyld (chaotic creation), the Weaver (obsessive order), and the Wyrm (once stood for balance now stood for corruption and destruction).

I could use Geomids in Scarterra but I need to figure out what they want. They kind of seem a little too sci-fi for a medieval fantasy setting.

 

That's a really cool picture. A polyhedron with lizards in it may make a good avatar. If I wasn't so fond of my current avatar, I would consider taking it.

I could have thoughts and knowledge coalesce in polyhedrons. Maybe emotions and disorganized thoughts can manifest as scribbles.

I'm not sure what purpose silver cords would serve. A quick google search shows the mythology of the silver cord goes well beyond RPG lore.

In RPG lore, a silver cord has two story purposes. First, it's a handy tool for letting the astral traveler find their own body. Second, it provides a vulnerability to characters, something to defend.

I suppose the first story purpose is good. As for the second I'm not sure it's necessary. It usually takes very rare magic to sever silver cords. And if you throw bad guys at the PCs who have that power it's a little ganky.


On a unrelated note on Kenku in D&D. Kenku were barely touched on in 3.5 but 5th edition has a lot more fluff on kenku...and most of the fluff is not in sync with my idea of Scarterran kenku. Both my kenku and D&D kenku have two things in common. They are flightless avians and they are good at mimicry. Apart from that D&D created a bunch of stuff I don't like.

I'm thinking of renaming kenku into tengu which is a creature from Japanese folklore. Granted tengu lore doesn't match greatly with my lore either but the name is in the public domain. Also, stories about tengu vary wildly so there is no wrong way to tell stories about tengu.

I'm also thinking of moving the kenku/tengu city state into the mountains of Umera. Umera is sort of my home for Asian inspired myths so I could pull in some tengu lore or general Eastern mythology lore into them.

 

I like both Tenku. I like Tengku better than Tenkgu. I cannot explain why.

Anyway, another weekend of no gaming, I ended up editing all my loose thoughts on golems into a full thing.

Golems
(notes for the next P.E.T.E) meeting


For the purpose of my game and most D&D settings, a golem is a non-living object that is animated by a magic user, kind of like a robot only powered by fantasy magic instead of sci-fi know-how.



I'm still fiddling with the stats and cost. But basically if you are seeking to create an artificial solider that cannot disobey your orders, necromancy is going to be cheaper and easier by at least a factor of five. An undead warrior with the strength of ten men costs about 200 gold in regents to create and the spell takes about an hour to cast. A golem warrior with the strength of ten men costs at least 1000 gold to manufacture and takes a least a full day to construct

The main advantage of golems over undead is that creating undead is usually illegal or at least taboo and creating golems is rarely viewed poorly (except by the weirdos who idea as People for the Ethical Treatment of Elementals).


Divine spell-casters with ●●●●● in Divine Crafts magic can essentially make any golem he or she wants to build (providing he can afford it). Arcane spell-casters can create golems with much simpler ●● of ●●● levels but they are more specialized. Mages have to learn a separate spell for each type of golem.

So basically you spend a bunch of time and money to craft a golem creating a humanoid or animal form, statue, doll, scarecrow, etc incorporating rarified components. Then incorporate a host/power source to make the golem move


Golem Power Sources
Golems bodies are generally reusable. If a golem isn’t severely damaged in battle, it’s feasible that the golem owner can invite or bind a new host into his golem after the first vacates.


By far the most popular host/power source is an elemental. Sometimes a spirit of the Nine is put in a golem. Rarest of all, a ghost can be used to power a golem. An elemental powered golem can only perform very simple tasks, following all commands to the letter, but the odds of the golem rebelling are almost negligible. A golem powered by a ghost is very versatile but has a fairly high chance of rebelling. Spirit powered golems fall in between these two extremes.


Elemental Powered Golems
Elemental hosts are the most common power source for golems because they will follow all orders to the letter without questions unless they go on a random killing spree (but that seldom happens). In theory, a golem can run forever on a single elemental.

An elemental powered golem normally does not go on a random killing spree unless an outside force deliberately dispels the binding of the golem. Elemental powered golems only slip the leash by accident if the golem binder is very sloppy or very lazy.

An elemental golem that is mystically unbound may or may not go on a random killing spree. Sometimes it just forces the elemental out of the golem leaving an empty shell, sometimes it renders the golem temporarily inert, sometimes attempts to unbind a golem do nothing. To outside observers, this appears to be random. Really it’s all about the elemental inside. Some elementals find powering a golem enjoyable, others find it torturous.

An elemental powered golem that breaks free of its control has a chance of going into a berserk which is bad, but it’s still better than if spirit or ghost powered golem breaks free. A rogue ghost or spirit that breaks free will rebel against its former master in a pre-mediated and tactical manner.

Very few golem crafters bother creating golems that can talk. Golems can only talk if they have a ghost or spirit powering them.


Spirit Powered Golems
It is generally considered a grave blasphemy to bind a spirit of the Nine into a golem against its will, that’s a great way to get on the Naughty List of one of the Nine.

It is however, not that hard to convince a spirit of the Nine to inhabit a golem as long as you set a finite duration. Many spirits find controlling a golem to be enjoyable in the short term. It’s common that a spirit’s period of joining with a Golem is 99 days, a year a day, nine years, eighty-one years. If the golem binder is a good negotiator, he could make the term “my natural lifetime.”

Naturally, most golem makers who use spirits of the Nine to power their golems are theurgists, not mages. It’s not impossible for a mage to convince a spirit to willingly enter a golem, but the golem is probably going to insist on a short term of service and probably put in other stipulations such as refusal to act against fellow servants of its deity. A theurgist in good standing with his patron deity may not give any stipulations on the spirit at all. Why would a priestess of Mera need to limit the actions of a golem powered by a spirit of Mera? In these situations, every command is really a request.

It’s pretty common for important temples and shrines to have spirit powered golems guarding them. Some temples have empty golems in their temple. In theory if the spirits are watching, a random friendly spirit can hop into an empty golem if the temple falls under attack. It’s even more common for temples and shrines to have fake golems guarding them. Priests who cannot afford a golem love to fill their temples with sculptures that sort of look like golems to potentially ward off superstitious thieves. This is especially popular with gargoyle statues. Very few gargoyles are actually golems but any gargoyle could be a golem.

Before creating a golem with a spirit behind the driver’s seat, the golem builder and the spirit need to negotiate what the golem will or won’t do. In most cases the golem will follow both the spirit and letter of their agreements but golem creators need to be careful if the spirit is deceptive by nature or has goals opposed to the golem owner.

If a golem owner manages to offend one of the Nine, his/her golem will probably rebel. If the golem owner stays in good faith with the divine patron that’s spirit is powering the golem, the golem will probably not rebel. In theory, it’s possible to offend the spirit without offending the associated god or goddess, but this is unlikely. The types of spirits that consent to powering golems are usually very simple minded beings with only a single dot of Intelligence and very little creativity. Exemplar spirits rarely consent to power golems for more than a short period of time.

Ghost Powered Golems
Ghosts have some serious limitations. First, the golem has to be anatomically similar to the ghost. A humanoid Ghost can only occupy a humanoid golem. A dragon ghost can only occupy a draconic golem. That’s why it’s common if a golem builder plans to leave his golem empty for long periods of time, to make sure it’s not humanoid. Another precaution against ghosts stealing your golem is to give a golem detachable parts. A ghost can only possess a whole golem. If you don't want a rogue ghost possessing your empty golem, detach the head (or the legs or whatever) Golems can always be warded against unwanted possession with relatively simple Necromancy or Abjuration spells.

A second limitation is that a ghost powered golem has complete free will. Sometimes this is an asset if you want your golem to be able to engage in creative problem solving, but most golem binders prize golems for their lack of free will. There is nothing to stop a golem binder from using necromantic magic to force a ghost to obey the golem binder, but this is rare. Most necromancers who have the power to command ghosts rarely bother studying golem magic and most golem crafters rarely study necromancer because there is so much overlap. A necromancer powerful enough to fully command a ghost is powerful enough to raise corporeal undead servants that are as strong as most golems, and for a fraction of the cost.

The third limitation is that ghosts do not have a very strong Animus. A ghost can only animate a golem for short periods of time as this drains their temporary Willpower pool unless a mortal mage or theurgist feeds the golem with magical energy for the ghost to use.

There are two ways a golem binder can mitigate this. First, they can bind an elemental and a ghost into a golem. To use a modern metaphor, the elemental provides the engine and the ghost is in the driver’s seat. Enchanting a golem to utilize two hosts raises the cost of a building golem a fair bit.

Another way to mitigate a ghost’s lack of Animus is to personalize a golem to a specific ghost. If the golem is a lifelike statue of the ghost’s living self, the ghost can operate the golem much easier than a regular stone golem. A flesh golem made primarily of the ghost’s own corpse is going to be very easy for a ghost to operate. Even a few locks of hair can make a golem a little bit easier for a ghost to operate.

One nice advantage of ghost powered golems is that golem owners often do not need to use magic to coerce the ghosts. Most ghosts are grateful for the opportunity to take solid form and it's not especially difficult to convince a ghost to aid you of it's own free will.


Straw and Ragdoll Golems (Scarecrow Golems)
Straw golems are often nicknamed Scarecrow golems. Scarecrow golems are the weakest and the cheapest golems available. A typical scarecrow golem will roughly as well as a low tier zombie, but they cost a lot more. Sure, animating zombie warriors is usually illegal and animating scarecrow golems is usually not illegal, but they are not popular soldiers.

Scarecrow golems are laughable easy to set on fire. They also are brought down by slashing weapons fairly easily. They are however, almost invulnerable to bludgeoning attacks and falls. They are usually light in weight and can be knocked around pretty far.

Scarecrow golems are worthless in a straight up fight, but that doesn’t mean they are worthless, period. Scarecrow golems can be used for low level security, because no one expects a scarecrow to attack them. Scarecrow golems dressed up in military uniforms can look like normal soldiers from a distance and have been used as decoys by cunning generals.

If you really need to send a message to someone prone to killing messengers, you can pin a letter to scarecrow golem and send it instead of a living messenger. It’s also kind of an insult. Receiving a golem messenger shows “I think you have no honor and you aren’t worth me sending a human to talk to you.”

Scarecrow golems usually have their strength magically enhanced (to a whopping Strength ●●), if they don’t, they will hit like a pillow. Some indulgent nobles let their pre-adolescent children wail on scarecrow golems with wooden practice swords for training or just for fun. Very small golems can also be created as toys for rich people. Dolls that dance, have tea parties, etc. A doll sized straw golem can also pass the butter.

Some troupes of performers keep scarecrow golems around in gaudy costumes whenever they need a stunt double to “die” during a performance. Again dancing scarecrows is sometimes amusing.

On a sinister level, a straw golem who are equipped with poison can be serious threats, especially if they have a wily ghost controlling them. More than a few evil Chucky Dolls have been equipped with poison to assassinate targets. Especially the children of nobility. Because of this, many nobles refuse to allow straw golems near their children. A few paranoid nobles have a court wizard magically screen all their children's toys just to be sure.

Sometimes golem crafters make a ragdoll golem. Ragdoll golems and straw golems can be made by the same spell, and they very similar in terms of stats. Ragdoll golems cost a bit more but they are somewhat better at taking hits and a bit heavier.

Spoiler: Crunchy Stuff for Straw and Ragdoll Golems

Base Cost
Child’s straw doll 25 gold
Human sized scarecrow 50 gold
Straw knight on a straw horse 150 gold
Straw giant 500 gold

Negligible Strength -25% (Strength is 0)
Enhanced Dexterity +25% (+2 Dexterity)
Proficient in melee combat/tool use +50% (+2 Melee)
Proficient in shield use +10%
Talks +100% (substitute in possessor’s Charisma -1, Manipulation -1, plus all their social abilities)
Fire retardant straw +50% (Full Stamina soak against fire)

Increased weight and durability (rag doll) +100%
(Full Stamina soak against bladed weapons, two extra bruise levels, human-like resistance against knockdowns and grapples)


Default Scarecrow Golem, Doll Sized
Willpower 3 Lethal Soak 1, none against fire
Dexterity 2, Strength 1, Stamina 3, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 1, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 3
Special: 3 extra soak dice against bashing damage, all falling damage is bashing
Health Levels: OK, OK, -1, Destroyed

Default Scarecrow Golem, Human Sized
Willpower 3 Lethal Soak 2, none against fire
Dexterity 2, Strength 2, Stamina 5, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 1, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 3 extra soak dice against bashing damage, All falling damage is bashing
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, Destroyed

Default Scarecrow Golem, Straw Knight
Willpower 3 Lethal Soak 3, none against fire
Dexterity 2, Strength 3, Stamina 6, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 1, Athletics 3, Brawl 2, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 1
Special: 3 extra soak dice against bashing damage, All falling damage is bashing
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Scarecrow Golem, Giant Sized
Willpower 3 Lethal Soak 4, none against fire
Dexterity 2, Strength 6, Stamina 9, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 1, Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 1
Special: 3 extra soak dice against bashing damage, All falling damage is bashing
Large Size, -1 difficulty to hit, +1 difficulty penalty to stealth, high resistance to grappling and knockdowns.
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1 Destroyed

Wooden Golems (aka Pinocchios)
Wooden golems are not very popular. They are moderately more powerful than ragdoll golems but MUCH more expensive. Assuming a golem crafter wants a golem to fight his battles, most will save up their money to make an clay golem or opt to make a large horde of straw golems rather than use wooden golems. One exception is the the priesthood of Korus. Given that the Stewards of Korus have a special aptitude with plant based magic, they can make wooden golems that are both smaller and cheaper than other people can.

One advantage wooden golems have in combat is that they are the only golems that can fire bows with any degree of accuracy. This is due to SCIENCE! of course. Their mystical tie to wood gives them a metaphysical kinship with wooden bows.

Most wooden golems are created for artistic, social functions, or espionage rather than martial functions. Wood is a pretty easy artistic medium to work with. Most wooden golems are crafted to be very beautiful. Properly painted and carved, a wooden golem can pass for a regular human in low light.

The rarest wooden golems are made of Silverwood. This is sometimes done to have a golem to fight incorporeal creatures but it’s mainly done for conspicuous consumption.

Spoiler: Crunchy Stuff for Wooden Golems

Base Cost
Child’s wooden doll 100 gold
Human sized Mannequin 200 gold
Straw knight on a straw horse 600 gold
Wooden Giant 2500 gold

Enhanced Strength +25% (+1 Strength)

Enhanced Dexterity +25% (+1 Dexterity)

Proficient in archery +25%

Proficient in melee combat/tool use +50%

Proficient in shield use +10%

Beautiful Craftsmanship +25%(+2 Appearance)

Pass as human +50%

Talks +100%

Fire retardant wood +100% (full soak against fire)

Silverwood +200%
(solid to incorporeal creatures + beautiful craftsmanship)


Default Wooden Golem, Doll Sized
Willpower 3 Lethal Soak 4, none against fire
Dexterity 2, Strength 2, Stamina 4, Appearance 2, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 1, Archery 0, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 3
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK -1, Destroyed

Default Wooden Golem, Human Sized
Willpower 3 Lethal Soak 6, none against fire
Dexterity 2, Strength 3, Stamina 6, Appearance 2, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 1, Archery 0, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Wooden Golem, Wooden Knight
Willpower 3 Lethal Soak 3, none against fire
Dexterity 2, Strength 4, Stamina 7, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 1, Archery 0, Athletics 3, Brawl 2, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 1
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Wooden Golem, Giant Sized
Willpower 3 Lethal Soak 4, none against fire
Dexterity 2, Strength 7, Stamina 8, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 1, Archery 0, Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 1
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Large Size, -1 difficulty to hit, +1 difficulty penalty to stealth, high resistance to grappling and knockdowns.
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1, -2 Destroyed

Flesh Golems, (Frankenstein Golems)
Flesh golems are corpses stitched together and made to walk by magic. Technically these are not undead, but they are often mistaken for undead. Most princes and peasants are just as horrified by flesh golems as they are by actual undead. The creation of flesh golems is generally illegal or at least highly restricted.

The main advantage of flesh golems is that they are both fairly strong and fairly cheap to make.

Most flesh golems are human sized but they are as big and heavy as large humans. Most people don’t want a flesh golem passing the butter during a banquet, so flesh golems are usually used for guard duty or to augment militaries.

While the garden variety flesh golem is a lumbering muscular humanoid, crafted from several humanoids stitched together, creative golem crafters can stitch together chimera-like monsters adding things like wings, bony scales, claws, fangs, scorpion tails, all sorts of nightmare inducing combinations resulting from mixing body parts of different species.

Flesh golems are usually magically enchanted to be immune to rot. If they are not, a golem can be made much cheaper and much faster, but it will not last very long. Most golem crafters build their golems to last.

Flesh golems are the most popular golems in Scaraqua because most other golems don't have the right ballast, most other golems either sink or float. Scaraquans are slightly less horrified by flesh golems than Scarterrans so flesh golems are slightly less ilegal under the sea. Scaraquan golems also are better at making chimeric monstrosities. Imagine a beast with grappling tentacles from a giant squid, the jaws of a shark, and the claws of a giant crustacean. Nasty.

Spoiler: Crunchy Stuff for Flesh Golems

Base Cost
4 foot tall flesh golem (frankengnome) 300 gold
6 foot tall flesh golem 600 gold
8 foot tall flesh golem 1200 gold
10 foot tall/long flesh golem 2500 gold
Rotting flesh -50%

Enhanced Dexterity +50% (+2 Dexterity)
Proficient in melee combat/tool use +25% (Melee=Brawl)
Proficient in shield use +10%

Talks +50%
(substitute in possessor’s Charisma -1, Manipulation -1, plus all their social abilities, Appearance 1)

Extra limbs +50%
(reduced multi-action penalty, grappling bonus, +2 feats of Strength checks)

Extra eyes +25%
(+1 Perception, +2 Alertness)

Claws or fangs +25%
(Strength +2 lethal damage)

Working wings for gliding +50%

Full flight capability +150%

Light armor +50%
(+2 soak)

Medium armor +100%
(+4 soak, hard target)

Heavy armor +200%
(+6 soak, hard target)


Default Flesh Golem, ~4 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 5
Dexterity 3, Strength 4, Stamina 5, Appearance 0, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 3
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Flesh Golem, ~6.5 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 6
Dexterity 3, Strength 6, Stamina 6, Appearance 0, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Flesh Golem, ~8 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 7
Dexterity 3, Strength 7, Stamina 7, Appearance 0, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Flesh Golem, ~10 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 8
Dexterity 3, Strength 8, Stamina 8, Appearance 0, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 2
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Clay Golems, (Classic Golems)
Clay Golems are among the most popular fighting golems. They are strong as flesh golems, but noticeably faster, and more importantly, less horrifying. Creation of clay golems is rarely more restricted or taboo than magic in general. The main limitation on creating clay golems is their high cost.

They can be used to pass the butter, but they are usually used in a martial capacity. Some mages and theurgists like to have lab assistants that can help with labor AND beat up intruders.

Spoiler: Crunchy Stuff on Clay Golems

Base Cost
4 foot tall clay golem 600 gold
6 foot tall clay golem 1200 gold
8 foot tall clay golem 2400 gold
10 foot tall/long clay golem 5000 gold

Enhanced Dexterity +25% (+1 Dexterity)

Proficient in melee combat/tool use +25%
(Melee=Brawl)

Proficient in shield use +10%

Talks +100%
(substitute in possessor’s Charisma -1, Manipulation -1, plus all their social abilities)

Extra eyes +25%
(+1 Perception, +2 Alertness)

Light armor +50%
(+2 soak)

Medium armor +100%
(+4 soak, hard target)

Heavy armor +200%
(+6 soak, hard target)

Default Clay Golem, ~4 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 5
Dexterity 4, Strength 4, Stamina 5, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 3
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Clay Golem, ~6.5 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 6
Dexterity 4, Strength 6, Stamina 6, Appearance 0, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Clay Golem, ~8 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 7
Dexterity 4, Strength 7, Stamina 7, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Clay Golem, ~10 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 8
Dexterity 4, Strength 8, Stamina 8, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Stone Golems (Living Statues)
Stone golems are more durable stronger than clay golems, and they are considerably more expensive. They are not very popular golems to use, except by dwarves who both have extra skill with stone work and hold worked stone in great reverence.

Spoiler: Crunchy Stuff On Stone Golems

Base Cost
4 foot tall clay golem 800 gold
6 foot tall clay golem 1600 gold
8 foot tall clay golem 3200 gold
10 foot tall/long clay golem 6500 gold

Enhanced Dexterity +25%
(+1 Dexterity)

Proficient in melee combat/tool use +25%
(Melee=Brawl)

Proficient in shield use +10%

Talks +100%
(substitute in possessor’s Charisma -1, Manipulation -1, plus all their social abilities)

Extra eyes +25%
(+1 Perception, +2 Alertness)

Light armor +50%
(+2 soak)

Medium armor +100%
(+4 soak, hard target)

Heavy armor +200%
(+6 soak, hard target)


Default Stone Golem, ~4 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 6
Dexterity 4, Strength 4, Stamina 6, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 3
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Stone Golem, ~6.5 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 7
Dexterity 4, Strength 6, Stamina 7, Appearance 0, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Stone Golem, ~8 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 8
Dexterity 4, Strength 7, Stamina 8, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Stone Golem, ~10 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 9
Dexterity 4, Strength 8, Stamina 9, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Metal Golems (Golem Robots)
There is no reason a modern robot cannot be made out of many types of metal, but due to metaphysics and SCIENCE!, a metal golem needs to be at least 95% composed of a single type of metal. The vast majority of metal golems are iron golems because they are the most cost effective metal to use for a strong fighter.

Iron golems are perfectly capable of sweeping floors and passing the butter, but they are extremely expensive, so they are nearly always put to martial use. They are commonly used as body guards for the wealthy and powerful, especially powerful mages.

Iron golems have two material types: steel, and cold iron. Steel Golems are a lot more resilient to damage than cold iron, but cold iron golems are slightly resistant to magic and they are terrifyingly effective against Fair Folk and Spirits. In case it needs to be said, a spirit cannot be bound to a cold iron golem. Steel golems are cheaper so they are the default variant used unless the golem crafter is seeking a specific anti-spirit weapon.

Metal golems have two common design types. Metal golems can either be made of solid metal or they can be hollow. Hollow iron golems look almost exactly like a decorative suit of armor when it’s not moving whereas a solid iron golem is always obviously a golem, even when inert. Hollow iron golems are slightly faster than solid iron golems and are much cheaper to build. Solid iron golems are much more resilient to damage.

Bronze is not as strong as iron, but if it’s polished it can shine like gold. Golem users who value aesthetics over functionality sometimes favor bronze golems. They only slightly cheaper than iron golems and much weaker in combat, so they are mainly a vanity golem.

Silver golems are naturally extremely expensive, but they are capable of doing far more than looking pretty. Silver golems are extremely effective opponents against undead, lycanthropes and demons. They are however, more vulnerable to conventional attacks than iron golems. Besides the raw cost silver required, silver golems require at least a little bit of sovereign silver be incorporated into their construction for the magical enchantments to stick.

Metal golems are usually alchemically treated to be immune to rust and never need sharpening of any blades or points. If they are not, a golem can be made cheaper, but it will not last very long. Most golem crafters build their golems to last.

Spoiler: Crunchy stuff on Metal Golems

Base Cost
4 foot tall metal golem 800 gold
6 foot tall metal golem 1600 gold
8 foot tall metal golem 3200 gold
10 foot tall/long metal golem 6500 gold

Steel Base +0%

Cold Iron Base +10%
(-1 Stamina, -1 bruise level, special cold iron traits)

Silver Base +150%
(-1 Stamina, special silver traits)

Bronze Base -25%
(-1 Strength, -1 Stamina, -1 bruise level)

Hollow -33%
(+1 Dexterity, +1 Brawl, +1 Athletics, -1 Strength, -1 Stamina, -2 bruise levels)

Not Rust Treated -25%


Enhanced Dexterity +25%
(+1 Dexterity)

Proficient in melee combat/tool use +25%
(Melee=Brawl)

Proficient in shield use +10%
Talks +100%
(substitute in possessor’s Charisma -1, Manipulation -1, plus all their social abilities)

Extra eyes +25%
(+1 Perception, +2 Alertness)

Light armor +50%
(+2 soak)

Medium armor +100%
(+4 soak, hard target)

Heavy armor +200%
(+6 soak, hard target)


Default Metal Golem, ~4 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 7
Dexterity 4, Strength 5, Stamina 7, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 3
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Metal Golem, ~6.5 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 8
Dexterity 4, Strength 7, Stamina 8, Appearance 0, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Metal Golem, ~8 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 9
Dexterity 4, Strength 8, Stamina 9, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

Default Metal Golem, ~10 feet tall
Willpower 4 Lethal Soak 10
Dexterity 4, Strength 9, Stamina 10, Appearance 1, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Intelligence 1, Perception 2, Wits 3
Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Melee 0, Stealth 2
Special: 2 extra soak dice against bashing damage
Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1, Destroyed

I'm open to suggestions or comments on golems. D&D 3.5 has roughly two dozen types of golems including some pretty weird ones like coral golems, demon blood golems, hangman noose golems, mud golems, etc. 5th edition hasn't gone that crazy yet. I think they just have clay, flesh, and a few types of metal golems.

Golems cost a lot to make, but golems can easily outlive their creators and be inherited by someone new.

There are two things I'm still unsure. Repairs and salvage.


Should be easy and cheap to repair/heal a golem that has taken some damage but is still functional or should be it difficulty and expensive to repair/heal a golem that has taken some damage?

For comparison, wounded undead warriors are fairly easy for necromancers to heal.


It costs a lot of money to make a golem. Should a destroyed golem be worth a lot (40%-70% of it's original cost) of should a destroyed golem be worth a pittance (0% to 20% of it's original cost). Logically, metal golems should be easier to salvage than say other golems because metal can be recast and reforged which you cannot do with wood, flesh, straw, rags, pottery shards, or masonry, but when you are dealing with magic, logic does not always apply.

For comparison, destroyed undead warriors are very difficult for necromancers to reanimate a second time unless the corpse is from a rare individual like a dead monarch or something similar.

 

I've been using Web DM's youtube episode on golems for a lot of inspiration. They sort of assumed that earth elementals would be the easiest elemental to use in golems. The contrarian in me wants to disagree, but I cannot. It makes sense. Golems are solid and earth is the most solid element.

Agreed, straw golems would probably be animated by air elementals or earth elementals or hybrid elementals that include air or earth and no fire. Straw golems don't exist in D&D lore as far as I know, so there is no precedent for these.

Web DM made the argument that clay is effectively a mix of earth and water. So earth and water elementals would be the type of elementals to use.

If I go by the assumptions of Web DM, since metal is ore forged by great heat, earth or fire elementals would be the go-to elementals to use.

Web DM argued that flesh elementals would be especially appropriate for air elementals because it fits with living creatures. I disagree.

According to science, a human body is about 2/3 water. That implies water elementals.

According to Mary Shelly, author of Frankenstein and the mother of science fiction, lightning elementals would be the most obvious (and according to my own lore, lightning elementals are fire/air hybrids). Also according to Mary Shelly, Frankenstein's monster was afraid of fire, so pure fire elementals would not work.

According to SCIENCE! humans and demihumans are almost perfect fusions of the four classic elements so any elemental will do. Now that I think about it. How about this, ONLY hybrid elementals work. Pure classic elementals don't work, or at least they don't work well.

Another alternative, since I'm making flesh golems the most popular golem in Scaraqua, that's another reason to make them compatible with water elementals.

I like this idea! I assumed golems would be able to perform stealth by impersonating ordinary scarecrows, statues, and toys, but these disguises wouldn't work in wilderness. Boulders would definitely work in the wilderness. I I will also adapt this idea for wood elementals. It would feasible that a variation of the wooden golem could pretend to be a random pile of dead wood or impersonate a living tree.

I like this idea a lot! What I like best is that no one on Scarterra (even the Nine) would know this. Very few people would even suspect this. Most magical scholars who speculate on why elementals are so easy to bind suspect that either the Nine or Turoch created elementals to be easily controlled.

The Nine themselves probably take elementals for granted, so they don't suspect what elementals are trying to do. Also, given how much they feud with other, they aren't comparing notes with their fellow deities on what tidbits they pick up on odd elemental behavior. If they were a happy family prone to cooperation they probably would have put two and two together with their limited omniscience.

The only problem with this idea of yours that I like a lot is that it comes into conflict with another idea that I also like a lot.

The reality that elementals are secret tourists is contradictory with the reality that elementals in the material plane are extremely short-lived creatures that do not realize just how fragile and short their lives are like Meeseeks from Rick and Morty or the Petalars from Thundercats (2011).

I cannot do both.

 

Blorp! is now the appropriate pronoun for elementals in place of he/she/it.



I like your examples. Fire is fairly obvious because fire consumes fuel. Now we need to consider under what circumstances earth, air, and water elementals manage to prolong blorp!'s existences and when they accidental kill blorp!selves.

 

If there is interest, I will cover all nine of the Nine, one deity at a time and see what suggestions and comments you guys have. If there is not much interest in me doing this. I will stop.

I will start with Khemra because one of the PCs, Neshik the gnome, is a priest of Khemra. As a favored soul, Neshik could rebel against Khemra and not lose his powers. Neshik, like most favored souls, is not aware he can do this, but Neshik has no intention of doing this. He is Neutral Good despite Khemra being Lawful Neutral. That’s okay. And Neshik’s actions have largely been Lawful Good anyway. I’m not super strict on alignments in my setting.

Neshik is going around healing commoners, fighting crime, and defending commoners from monsters while praising Khemra’s name. This is mildly unorthodox, but these actions are advancing Khemra’s goals, so no one is complaining.

Khemra in Great Detail

Basic Stats
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Godly Nicknames: The Blazing Eye, The Compact Forger, the Sun Blinded
Priests’ Nickname: Keepers of the Way. Short form, Keepers. Originally I made them kind of like the Lasombra from Vampire the Masquerade as in “My Brother’s Keeper” but I’m not sure that Biblical reference works in a fantasy world based on D&D.
Favored Weapon: Heavy Mace
Most Common Symbol: A golden sun wreathed in orange and red flames with a purple eyeball in the middle. Common symbols include suns, fire, books, quills, birds of prey, and scepters among other things.
Favored Magic: Divination, Purification, Wraths
Divine Tool of Power: Khemra forged a shield out of Khemra's eyes.
Primary Dominion: The Sun
Primary Gift to Mortals: Reading and Writing
Synopsis: Khemra believes in creating ordered societies where everyone has a place and role in their society and everyone works together for collective benefit. She is very concerned with traditions and histories being forgotten. She taught mortals the first writing systems to help preserve knowledge and combat this forgetting. Khemra believes that only through the Compact she helped push were all the Nine able to put aside their differences and overthrow Turoch. She continues to try to enforce the tenets of the Compact over her siblings to make sure everyone still behaves today as they earlier agreed that they would. Depending on who you ask, either Khemra moves the sun across the sky every day or Khemra is the sun. The fact that the sun sets every night is a testament to her willingness to limit her own influence due to the provisions set forth by the Compact.
Priests and Primary Followers: Khemra’s priests are so interested in good government they usually have at least an advisory role in most states. Khemra’s priests like to demonstrate that they are team players and generally don’t make power grabs. The exception is the theocratic nation of Khemarok where they rule directly (they still condescendingly invite other priests to join them). They are the primary state religion of the (Grey) Elven Empire and a handful of smaller nations. Khemra worship is broad elsewhere but does not permeate very deep into the lower classes of most places.
Common Times to Invoke her Name: Khemra is often praised at dawn and/or dusk to thank her for the sun. Khemra is often prayed to before conducting research or a similar tasked based on writing or preserved lore in some way.
Basic Tenets: -Follow the roles you were destined for and make sure others do likewise and don’t overstep their bounds.
-Seek and share knowledge and make sure it is preserved for future generations.
-Help create and maintain ordered societies for this is the way to ultimately benefit all.


Khemra’s Portfolio includes but is not limited to: The sun, literacy, history, law, oaths of fealty, hierarchies, translators, traditions, travel, regulation of the Nine as a whole, grandeur, royalty, and being a foe to the undead


Godly Rivals

When the Nine joined forces to overthrow Turoch, they drafted an agreement known as the Divine Compact or just “the Compact”. The Compact was an agreement on how the Nine would share the running of the Creation after the Divine Rebellion. The chaotic deities began ignoring the Compact almost immediately after Turoch was dead and Khemra remains very bitter about this. Phidas and Hallisan were also both upset by this too, but they have since moved on and Khemra has not. Phidas and Hallisan admit that the world is changing on its own independently and the Nine need to adapt with it. Khemra still hopes to reinstate the original Compact or get together with all the Nine and create a revised Compact. Khemra’s mortal and spirit minions have a well-deserved reputation for meddling in the affairs of other deities’ domains and worship and this has won the Keepers many enemies.

Khemra is easily the most hidebound and dogmatic of all the Nine. This means she is somewhat predictable, and she is rarely proactive. In most cases she reacts to the machinations of her siblings rather than creating her own machinations.


Hallisan and Phidas are both romantic rivals for Khemra’s affections. Khemra tries to split her time evenly with both though she probably secretly likes Hallisan slightly better. Like most of the goddesses, Khemra secretly pines for Korus, but Korus doesn’t like her that way. Khemra is happy to work with both Hallisan and Phidas to advance and strengthen civilization but is annoyed that both Hallisan and Phidas’ priests are trying to muscle her priesthood out of the royal halls in the mortal realm. That said, the Keepers generally get along well with Hallisan’s Guardians and Phidas’ Masks. At the very least, their respective priesthood always try to appear civil. It’s customary when Guardians and Masks have a beef with the Keepers to keep their dispute behind closed doors and out of public view.

Korus and Khemra usually get along. The biggest point of contention is that Khemra is the patroness of civilization and Korus is the god of the wilderness. Sometimes they butt heads when Korus feels civilization is spreading too rapidly. Khemra yields to Korus more often than not when this happens. The Stewards of Korus and Keepers of Khemra usually get along well in the mortal plane.

Mera is usually pretty easy to get along with. Mera thought the Compact gave the Evil gods too much leeway. That’s the main point of contention between them. If evil succeeds when good people do nothing, Mera views Khemra as a divine embodiment of a good person doing nothing. For her part, Khemra is a little miffed that Mera set herself up as the goddess of hearth fires. She views this as a partial usurping of Khemra’s position as the sun goddess. Khemra would never admit it, but she is secretly jealous of Mera’s popularity with the masses of peasants.

Greymoria was technically the last deity to violate the terms of the Compact. Greymoria actually held to the letter of the Compact longer than Khemra did! Greymoria never bribed mortals with a Divine Gift until after the Second Age dawned. Greymoria doesn’t break the letter of the Compact much, but she violates the spirit of the Compact each and every time she creates a new monstrous race. The sheer volume of creatures that Greymoria has created annoys Khemra greatly. Khemra also dislikes the fact that most of Greymoria’s children are at least nominally hostile to civilization.

Maylar is a jerk. Maylar believes in survival of the fittest and constantly tests everyone, gods, mortals, spirits, and beasts alike. Maylar says he is making Creation as a whole stronger, but Khemra believes he is a liar. Maylar is merely tearing down otherwise solid structures. As far as Khemra is concerned, Maylar just likes to watch things burn and his “survival of the fittest” creed is a lie to justify his childish actions. Khemra is not very proactive but she will proactively go against Maylar’s schemes and minions without hesitation

Khemra finds Zarthus more vexing than Maylar because a tiny secret part of Khemra believes Zarthus is right. At the very least, Zarthus, clearly has good intentions. When Khemra’s minions slaughter Maylar’s minions the people cheer. When Khemra’s minions slaughter Zarthus’ minions Khemra’s minions look like the bad guys. Khemra is less offended by Maylar killing Khemra’s followers than she is by Zarthus defaming Khemra’s followers and they do this a lot.

Nami is a free spirit and Khemra is not. Khemra believes that Nami flouts the Compacts specifically to annoy Khemra. Nami is hard for Khemra to oppose because unlike Maylar, Nami is not very predictable. If anything, Nami violates the Compact less often than Maylar and Zarthus but when she does cheese off Khemra, it’s in a very inventive and novel way.


Khemra Spirits

I covered spirits in broad strokes on page 12.

Of all the Nine, Khemra is the least likely deity to send spirits to the mortal plane. Whenever possible, Khemra prefers to act through her mortal agents. I haven’t come up with many Khemra spirit concepts yet. Neshik’s spiritual guide is a golden skinned spirit of healing and wisdom. She may or may not be the only Khemra spirit the PCs ever see.

Khemra most commonly likes deploying spirits of wisdom. Most of Khemra’s soldiers, healers, messengers and questing spirits are also spirits of wisdom.

Khemra does not pull punches when she does deploy spirits to do her bidding she deploys powerful spirits preferring quality over quantity. The exception to the rule is when a mortal Khemra affiliated spell-caster learns summoning magic. This isn’t set in stone but I’m thinking the go-to land animal summoned would be a leopard. The go-to aerial creature would be a kite and the go-to sea animal would be a sting ray. Sting rays like warm shallow water and that is the closest thing I can come up with for a somewhat formidable sea creature having a spiritual tie-in to Khemra.

Khemra has very few minions that are subtle. I figure most of Khemra’s spirit minions would literally glow in the dark and most are associated with the dawn, dusk or midday. Most are regal looking and majestic. While not a universal weakness, many Khemra spirits are weaker at night than they are during the day.


Khemra and Geo-Politics

In nearly every large human nation that uses feudalism, the priesthoods of Khemra, Phidas, and Hallisan are locked in an eternal struggle to curry favor with the king or queen. In fact, in my ongoing RPG, Neshik has been helping the Khemra gain favor over Hallisan in Fumaya. When the Keepers cannot sway the rulers directly, they will attempt to recruit the rulers’ courtiers and advisors.

Khemra worship is generally more popular with highborn people than commoners but relatively few commoners are openly hostile or distrustful of the Keepers.

Since Khemra is the Keeper of the Compact and the Compact states that the Nine should be worshipped equally, on paper, Khemra’s Keepers are officially tolerant of other worshippers, even followers of the Chaotic deities. In practice, Khemra’s earthly minions are not above oppressing and restraining heathens.

Even though the Cult of the Compact has very little to do with the Divine Compact, the Cult of the Compact usually gets along with Khemra’s priesthood. Khemra’s priesthood is the only priesthood that doesn’t view themselves as competitors with the Cult of the Compact.


Khemra is the state patron of Khemarok (duh). Khemarok is a theocracy vaguely based on Ancient Egypt with a dash of Classical China’s meritocratic bureaucracy. Worship of other deities is not forbidden here (in fact it’s encouraged) but most worship rituals for the other deities are actually presided over by priests of Khemra because priests of other deities generally find Khemarok an unpleasant place to dwell.


In East Colassia, Khemra is the state patron of Magicland (though being the most powerful priesthood in Magicland is like being the thinnest person at Fat Camp). Khemra worship can be found in every nation of the East Colassian Confederacy. Marginalland, Mariverlandia, and Mooringsland do not have official state patrons, but the Keepers are arguably the most politically powerful religious group in these regions. The freedom loving people of Marshlandia and Musseland are mildly distrustful of Khemra priests but even they have a few Keepers among them. Meraland is run by the priests of Mera but its run in a very similar fashion to Khemarok. In this case, familiarity breeds contempt. The Keepers and the Tenders do not get along here. The Mereshnari barbarians favor Korus above the other deities but Khemra and Nami are vying for second place.


I have not developed Penarchia in great detail. Penarchia is going to have at a dozen tiny kingdoms. At least one or two of them will have Khemra as a state patron. At least four or five of them will have the Keepers as a significant political player. Penarchia is a bit more chaotic than most other continents so more than a few Penarchian kingdoms are going to have populaces who are opposed to Keepers.


I have not developed Umera in much detail but the nations here are going to be based off of Feudal Japan, Imperial China, or both. I think the Keepers will be fairly powerful in this environment. I have not figured out what Eastern style Khemra worship would look like. Probably not that different from Keepers in Western style settings.


Khemra is the state patron of the Elven Empire. The Elven Empire has a secular government ruled by the Imperial Elven family and their handpicked governors, but Khemra is extremely influential, far more powerful than the other priesthoods. Worship of the three Chaotic deities are heavily restricted in the Elven Empire. This oppression of these groups is more a reflection of the whims of the Imperial Family than it is a reflection of the biases of the Elven Keepers.

Wood Elves are not hostile or distrustful of Khemra or her Keepers, but they do not view Khemra as being especially important. Khemra’s priesthood among the Wood Elves is quite small and wields little influence.

The situation is similar with the Dark Elves. Khemra’s priesthood and worshipers are not mistreated, but they are not very numerous or powerful. Unlike the Wood Elf Keepers, the Dark Elf Keepers are not content with their lowly position. They are plotting to gain power and status. Their strategy is to focus on developing the magical power of their theurgists with the hope of parleying their divine magic into political influence.

The freedom loving half-elves of Apseldia usually dislike the Keepers of Khemra. Khemra worship is not forbidden and the Keepers maintain a public temple in the capital, but Keepers can expect to have distrustful citizens dogging their steps constantly.


In the dwarf nations of Meckelorn and Stahlheim, the Guardians of Hallisans are by far the most numerous and well respected priesthood. The Masks of Phidas and Keepers of Khemra have been fighting for second place spot among dwarven kind for countless generations. As of right now, the Keepers hold the Number Two spot in Meckelorn and the Number Three spot in Stahlheim.

Mondert remains an oddity among dwarves. In Mondert, Mera and Korus are held in high regard. Maylar, Greymoria, and Phidas are generally distrusted. Zarthus, Hallisan, Khemra, and Nami are respected but maintain very small priesthoods.


As of yet, I have created very few fleshed out barbarian tribes. As a patroness of civilization, Khemra worship is almost certainly more popular among civilized folk, but I should probably come up with a least a few nomadic folk that hold Khemra in high regard.


Khemra Creatures

As of yet, I have not create a single monster or fantasy race that holds Khemra as their primary favored deity or their original creator. As the architect of the Compact, she has focused more of her effort on the primary race of Scarterra: Dragons in the First Age, Elves in the Second Age, and Humans in the Third Age.

So far, every other deity apart from Khemra has created at least one vanity race on Scarterra to embody the god’s or goddess’ ideals. If I come up with a good concept (or one of you comes up with a good concept) I will create such a race for Khemra. While Khemra does frown on her siblings spamming the world with new races, I never said Khemra wasn’t a hypocrite. Also, Khemra could adopt a monstrous race initially created by someone else. Mera adopts Greymoria's cast-offs all the time. Phidas has adopted more than a few cast-offs as well.

So far, I have only come up with two races that are overtly hostile to Khemra. Satyrs and Orcs. They are mainly anti-Khemra because they are pro-Nami.

As far as I’m aware, D&D lore only has two Lawful Neutral races that are not extra-planar entities or hive minded insects (or both). These two races I'm aware of are Myconids and Ibixians. Myconids we covered already. They may be biased towards Lawful Neutral alignments, but it takes more than a compatible alignment to be a favored race under a deity. Underground fungus men that get high on their own spores seems an odd fix for the children of an erudite sun goddess. I cannot put my finger on why I feel this way, but I’d prefer my world not have any sapient communal insects.

Ibixians are a pretty obscure D&D creature without a lot of fluff written about them. They are desert and savanna dwelling nomadic goatmen and goatwomen with a democratic society with a lot of very rigid unwritten norms. I have the idea that the Ibixians were created in the Second Age by Khemra, but the Ibixians were driven extinct by the Second Unmaking. Most deities took special effort to defend their vanity races, but Khemra wouldn’t play favorites. She focused on saving the greatest possible numbers of mortals rather than prioritizing her followers. I like the idea that the nation of Khemarok was built in the ruins of a lost Ibixian land. The problem is, dead races generally make poor story elements because this would be little more than a footnote.

Given that Khemra the sun goddess is loosely based on Ra the Ancient Egyptian sun god, I could create a Khemra inspired race based on Egyptian mythology. Egyptian mythology had a lot of animal headed humans. I could go something with that route, or I could reinterpret the folklore of sphinxes in a Khemra-friendly direction. That is assuming I decide sphinxes are a corporeal monster and not a type of spirit.


The Clergy

Not all priests and priestesses are divine-spell casters. Not all divine spell-casters are priests.

In absolute terms, the Keepers of Khemra have more divine spell-casters than most of the rest of the Nine surpassed only by Hallisan and Mera. Proportionally, the Keepers have fewer divine spell-casters than most of their counterparts among the rest of the Nine. This is because temples of Khemra have very vigorous recruitment drives. On average, Khemra temples have much larger staffs than the temples of other deities. The Keepers detractors say their temples are bloated with redundant and unnecessary priests and bureaucrats.

As hidebound as the Keepers are, they are fairly flexible with recruitment practices. They are happy to oblate new trainees as children and they rarely turn away adults who “hear the call” later in life. They like to recruit to children of nobility, but they don’t turn their nose up at commoners who want to join, especially commoners that can read.

Most child recruits are shipped off to boarding schools. The Keepers have a number of monasteries who sole job is to house and train new members, Hogwarts style. Most adult recruits do not go to these training monasteries, instead learning on the job in apprenticeship style training.

The Keepers of Khemra do not actively seek out recruits to become divine bards. If by dumb luck, one of their regular recruits happens to be a musical prodigy, they will train the musical prodigy as a divine bard. Only about 1% of Khemra’s spell-casters are divine bards. Fewer than any other priesthood.

It is not forbidden for the Keepers to induct or train arcane magic users into their ranks but this is generally discouraged. Fewer than a half a percent of the Keepers wield any arcane magic at all. The Keepers command the loyalty of fewer mages than any other priesthood save the Guardians of Hallisan.

Khemra’s doctrines value history and respecting one’s elders. This means that many Keepers are big on filial piety and ancestor worship. The Keepers claim more Spirit Loas among their ranks than any other priesthood save maybe Mera's priesthood which also values filial piety greatly.

Whether they can cast spells or not, every Keeper is a member of one of the Five Orders: Dawn, Zenith, Dusk, Day, or Eclipse. It’s not encouraged for Keepers to transfer between different Orders, but it is not forbidden either. Keepers are reassigned between Orders as pragmatism whenever their superiors think this will help the priesthood as a whole. Most new members who do not possess special skills in martial prowess or diplomacy start in the Day Order. Many older members choose to transfer into the Dawn Order so they can pass on their wisdom to new recruits. Politically ambitious Keepers frequently seek transfers to the Zenith Order. About half of all Keepers stay in the same Order their entire careers.

Favored souls of Khemra are rarer than any other favored souls except for favored souls of Phidas which doesn’t exist at all. There are at least fifty conventional theurgists for every single favored soul.

Most favored souls of Khemra are born during eclipses, thus they are called “the Eclipsed Touched” whether they were literally born during an eclipse or not. Eclipse Touched have special status. As far as anyone knows, Eclipse Touched are only born during Khemra’s zodiac year. Generally three or four are born each Zodiac year worldwide. Every eighty-one years is considered the Year of Khemra Ascendant. During these years up to two dozen Eclipse Touched are born.

They are the only Keepers that are allowed to propose major reforms to the priesthood’s ecclesiastical law and traditions. Eclipse Touched are also given a lot of autonomy to make their own decision, go where they wish, do as they wish. This sparks some jealousy among other Keepers. Sometimes Eclipse Touched are sent on far away adventures simply to get the Eclipse Touched out of the hair of the other Keepers. Thus far, no Eclipse Touch has been deliberately sent on a suicide mission.

Officially, the Orders are equal. Unofficially, a lot of Keepers view the Zenith Order as the most prestigious posting one can receive. Non-favored souls believe being assigned to the Eclipse Order is a punishment assignment. One thing that makes Neshik so popular is he never asked for a support staff.


Dawn Order: They handles recruitment and training. They also handle travel arrangements. Their vestments typically involve the color orange.

Zenith Order: They are the arbiters of ecclesiastical law and the ambassadors to princes. They are also charged with monitoring the activities of other priesthoods and organization parleys and joint ventures with the others. Their vestments typically involve the color white.

Dusk Order: The sky turns red with the blood of Khemra’s enemies and the blood the Keeper’s shed in defense of their faithful. The Dusk Order are primarily guards and soldiers. Their vestments typically involve the color red.

Day Order: Every task not explicitly given to another Order falls to the Day Order. This includes presiding over actual worship services and managing the libraries among many other things. This is by far the largest order. Their vestments typically involve the color yellow.

Eclipse Order: Favored souls of Khemra and the support staff to favored souls of Khemra. This is by far the smallest order. Their vestments typically involve the color grey.


Officially, all Khemra temples are part of the same planet wide hierarchy. In practice, the difficulties of long distance communication mean regional temples that are far away from Khemarok hold a lot of autonomy.

At the very top of the pyramid are the five Pentarchs. The Pentarch Council is made up of the highest ranking member of each of the five Orders. The five Pentarchs have the final say on all matters pertaining to their Order. If a decision affects all followers of Khemra, the Council conducts a vote.

This practice of the Pentarchy voting is carried down at the lower ranks. Obedience to higher ranks is not optional. If there is a disagreement among equals, a vote is carried out and the vote is always binding until countermanded by a superior.

The five Pentarchs are usually quite old and not very spry. They certainly cannot be everywhere at once. In fact, they rarely leave their temple, so they rely on fifteen Champions to be their eyes, ears, hands, and mouthpieces.

The Champions of Dusk are the three mightiest warriors the Keepers command. The Champions of Day are the Keepers' three best administrators. The Champions of Dawn are the Keepers' three most revered teachers. The Champions of Eclipse are pretty much purely ceremonial titles given to the three most powerful Eclipse-Touched (or the three most well-liked Eclipse Touched).


Material Needs

The priesthood of Khemra is frequently in the good graces of kings, dukes, and other potentates. They get most of their operating funds from donations from rich and powerful people. They will graciously accept any donation no matter how small, but they generally do not actively shake down peasants for copper pieces.

Khemra is a patroness of literacy and learning. Temples of Khemra often have extensive libraries. High ranking Keepers can bring in serious coin selling their services as sages and professors. Back before the printing press, all books had to be copied by hand. Low ranking Keepers are often put to work as book binders and copyists which also brings the priesthood additional funds selling books.

The Keepers are well organized, and have a very solid transportation network between their temples and holdings meaning they can facilitate a profitable trade in potions, scrolls and other magical items. That said, this is less common than among other priesthoods. Zarthus, Hallisan, Greymoria, and Phidas all bestow their theurgists with a special aptitude for the magical sphere of Crafts. Khemra spell casters have no special aptitude in making magical items.

Because the Keepers maintain a global organization, cash rich temples can share the wealth with poorer temples relatively easily. Khemra temples are rarely hurting for funds. That said, Khemra temples generally house very large staffs, so they have a lot of mouths to feed. Since most of the Keepers money goes towards buying food and supplies, Khemra temples seem to be fairly austere and spartan. Even high ranking clergy rarely enjoy a lot of creature comforts.

Khemra temples are rarely modest or grandiose. They tend to be far less ornate than Hallisan, Zarthus and Phidas temples. They tend to be far more ornate than Maylar and Greymoria temples. Given that most temples are swarming with low ranking acolytes it's easy to assure that the temples are always spotlessly clean.


Priestly Ranks

Candidate: Person is in consideration to join the priesthood

Acolyte: Member is accepted into priesthood.

Cleric: Member is able to take on normal activities unsupervised. Many priests live to a ripe old age and are never be promoted above this.

Aurum: Member who is able to boss around other members. There are roughly a thousand Aurums.

Apogee: Member who is of great status. Most temple heads are Apogees though Aurum’s are eligible to run smaller temples. There are between one hundred and two hundred Apogees.

Champions: The three personal assistants of the Pentarchs. There are fifteen champions.

Pentarch: The head of one of the five Orders. There are five pentarchs.

Pharaoh: The ruler of Khemarok. Always Eclipse Caste. By law, the Pharaoh cannot be a Pentarch. By tradition, the Pharaoh has no influence outside of Khemarok and in practice, the Pharaoh is mostly a figurehead head of state. The bureaucrats actually run the nation. In theory, if I decide to create a tiny Khemra theocracy in Penarchy or the Border Baronies, that nation would also have a Pharaoh.


Common Honorifics

Teacher (someone who teaches, replaces Cleric)

Revered teacher (someone who teaches, replaces Aurum)

Auger (skilled in divinatory magic, addendum)

Oracle (mastery of divinatory magic, addendum)

Scholar (expert in some form of academic discipline, prefix)

Elder (the head of a temple).


Neshik the gnome is usually referred to as “Aurum Neshik of the Eclipse Order.” As a skilled alchemist, healer, and herbalist Neshik could be referred to as “Aurum Neshik of the Eclipse Order, Scholar Emeritus of alchemy sciences and natural philosophy.” Few are likely to do this unless they are trying to butter him up with flattery. Anyone who met Neshik probably realized he is fairly informal and not likely to be swayed by this.

In the extremely unlikely event Neshik retired from adventuring and found himself running a Khemra temple, he would be addressed “Elder Neshik, Aurum of the Eclipse order.”

Neshik has only a single dot in Divination magic. If he raised this trait to three or four dots, he could be “Aurum Neshik Auger of the Eclipse Order, Scholar Emeritus of Alchemical sciences and natural philosophy.” Five dots would make him an Oracle and probably also be accompanied with a promotion to Apogee. The Keepers value their Oracles greatly.

As a short hand of address, Instead of saying “Hey you gnome!” if another Keeper who is not a first name basis with Neshik wants to address him he will probably say “Scholar” instead of “Aurum” or “Mister.”


Officially, spell casting and non-spell casting priests and priestesses are equal in Khemra’s eyes. In practice, spell-casters are much more likely to be promoted than non-spell casters. Those skilled in Divination magic are extremely likely to find themselves on the fast track to promotions. Outside the Day Order, it is very rare for non-spell casters to ever be promoted to the rank of Aurum or higher. Non-spell casters wield a lot of informal power. A theurgist that is consistently rude to his non-spellcasting brethren is likely to regret their behavior finding his letters lost and requested supplies not forthcoming.

There is a small bias towards promoting Keepers of noble birth. This is usually done to curry favor with the noble Keeper’s relatives but there is a limit to this nepotism. The leaders might promote a high born Keeper over a slightly more qualified low born Keeper, but they won’t promote royal morons to high ranks if they cannot handle the job.

Keepers who joined the priesthood as children usually obtain promotions easier than Keepers who joined the priesthood as adults. There is not an overt bias, but priests and priestesses who grew up in the system generally know how to play the office politics better.

There is no overall gender bias among the Keepers as a whole. The Day Order is predominantly female and the Dusk Order is predominantly male. The other three Orders are fairly evenly represented along gender lines. Most titles and forms of address are gender neutral.


I have not figured out if the Keepers should encourage their priests and priestesses to marry and have children or if they discourage their priests and priestesses to marry and have children. I do know that most Keepers would frown on sex outside of marriage.

The fact that they recruit aggressively means they would likely encourage their Keepers to make little Keepers. The fact that they support rigid personal discipline suggests that they would encourage their Keepers to not let sensual pleasures and family obligations distract them from their duties.

The debate on whether Keepers should get married or not is probably the number one theological debate among the Keepers. That and the question of whether slavery and serfdom are morally justified or not.


Factions, Schisms, and Heresies

Khemra is the only deity on Scarterra that can truly claim to have a planet wide organization. Phidas and Hallisan are trying to unite all their priests under a single umbrella but this has yet to occur. Both Phidas and Hallisan have roughly 2/3 of their followers under a single organization. Khemra has over 90% of her followers following the Pentarchs.

That’s still not 100%. First off, the Pentarchs have no feasible way to offer regular guidance and instructions to priests and priestesses of Khemra among barbarian tribes and monstrous races. Tiamalan Kobolds may hold Khemra in great reverence (as they do all the Nine), but they have very little interest in bending the knee to a human or elven dominated priestly council because of some stuffy protocols.

Second off, sometimes individual Keepers decide the Pentarchs’ red tape gets in the way of Khemra’s true goals. Many of these Keepers are self-taught theurgists, others are priests who leave the Order. There are not many of these mavericks but those of Khemra's faithful bold enough to stand outside the tent usually have strong piety and high Willpower scores meaning they are usually magically powerful. I haven’t figured out a colorful nickname for these guys, but I probably should.

These mavericks may anger the Pentarchs and their agents, these mavericks have not been forsaken by Khemra herself. Their magic still works just fine. Khemra is actually more flexible to dogmatic variation than most of her followers. Because of this, the Pentarchs may try to sideline and constrain the mavericks but they rarely try to have them imprisoned or killed.

Most of the time, these mavericks are lone adventurers and they rarely train protégés. If they do take on apprentices, it’s rare for one of these heretical factions to boast more members than can be counted on one hand. They are usually not a threat to the Pentarchs because they mostly go on quests to slay monsters, gain glory and do other stereotypical adventurer stuff that usually indirectly help Khemra’s goals or at least helps Khemra’s reputation among the masses.

There is one heretical faction that has grown in numbers and power. They call themselves the Night Order. The Night Order pursues Khemra's ideals with extreme ruthlessness. Most of the Night Order are trained in stealth techniques and poison use. They make it a point to assassinate princes and potentates whom they view as having politics opposed to Khemra’s ideals. Occasionally they also try to violently remove troublesome followers of Nami, Zarthus, and Maylar.

At this point the Pentarchs have not yet taken major action against the Night Order. They are trying to deny the Night Order’s existence, so their actions against the Night Order are all done in secret. It just so happens that the Night Order is far better at operating in secrecy than the Pentarch’s agents are.

Like every other priesthood, the priesthood of Khemra has both reform and orthodox members. Among other disagreements, reform members generally want the Keepers to meddle with the other priesthoods less often and the orthodox members want the Keepers to meddle with other priesthoods more often.

I am open to suggestions for other schismatic or heretical factions because schisms and heresies are always fun. The line between schism and heresy is admittedly blurred. Basically schematics are disliked but tolerated by the mainstream priests while heretics are actively opposed.


Scaraqua

I have not come yet come up with any Scaraquan race that holds Khemra in high regard. As far as Scaraquans are concerned Khemra is a sun god. Khemra is instrumental in heating the sea and letting life exist, but she did that a long time ago in exchange for payment from Korus (clouds of rainwater). Sacraquans often have a “What have you done for me lately?” attitude with Khemra.

Among other differences which I have yet to peg down, Khemra is considered a male deity in Scaraqua, not a female deity. Scaraquans have a Father Sky and Mother Sea motif going in their cosmology. Life as we know it is only made possible when sky and sea come together. This is the reason why sunlight heats the sea and why water evaporates and forms clouds in the sky. Scaraquans probably refer to Khemra as a different name than Scarterrans, but I’m going to keep saying “Khemra” for the time being just for clarity.

Logically, the Scaraquans that would be most likely to be overtly hostile to Khemra would be darkness loving monsters of the deep trenches and deep sea floor. Most Scaraquans live in shallow warm waters, so at the very least, Khemra would have some small contingents of priests and priestesses below the sea among merfolk and other common sea humanoids. It is a reasonable assumption that most of Khemra’s worshipers below the sea would favor closer relations with Scarterrans rather than more distant relations. Conversely, given how hidebound Khemra is, maybe Khemra followers support a rigid separation of sky, earth and sea. It could go either way.

The Scarterran goddess Khemra is Lawful Neutral. I’m unsure whether I want to make the Scaraquan god Khemra the same alignment or not. The Scaraquan version of Khemra is certainly more private and less likely to stick his nose in the business of other deities.


Hollow Earth

I have even less fluff developed for the underground than I created for Scaraqua. If Khemra is worshiped by subterranean people, the fact that Khemra is in charge of the sun is probably not highly relevant, unless I decide to make Khemra a patron or patroness of life stones or underground fire which as a sort of proxy sun.

I have yet to figure out if Khemra has a different persona underground than above ground like Khemra’s personality and gender swap between Land and Sea.



Anyway, hope you found this worth reading. I’m open to suggestions and feedback on fleshing out Khemra and her followers further. I will answer any Khemra based questions if you feel I left something out.

 

They are in my extremely large "Maybe Monster File"

Good idea. Sphinxes and phoenixes would definitely be a great baseline for Khemra spirits. I'm not 100% how they would work as Khemra monsters.

I did look into D&D lore. The have a bunch of sphinxes and I do not like the lore, it squicks me out. There are four or five male sphinx subraces and one female sphinx subrace (the Gynosphinx).

If a Gynosphinx and and Androsphinx mate they have a 50% chance of creating a Androsphinx or a Gynosphinx. If Gynosphinx mates with a Hieracosphinx or Criosphinx the result is always a Hieracosphinx or Criosphinx.

Gynosphinxes are disgusted by Hieracosphinxes and Criosphinxes. That means every single Hiearacosphinx and Criosphinx is the product of rape.

Androsphinx's barely tolerate Gynosphinxes and Gynosphinxes basically have to beg or bribe the Andros to mate with them. That's not much better.

I realize that sphinxes embody a combination of human and animal strengths and values and animals don't exactly have romantic love in the sense that humans do but I'd rather dodge this uncomfortable issue.



So I'm not going to go with subspecies of sphinxes. At least not with the official D&D subspecies. Maybe make the subspecies of sphinxes animal based. Lion sphinxes in East and West Colasia, tiger sphinxes in the southern continents.

Outside of D&D sphinxes are creatures of dichotomies. Human and animal. Noble and savage. Bestial and sage. Greymoria created a bunch of monsters to attack her many enemies but most of Greymoria's Children rebelled against their cannon fodder role. Most of Greymoria's disowned children are non-religious now. Many now serve Mera or Phidas. A few turned to Korus or Maylar. I like the idea that sphinxes are a monster that Khemra civilized and adopted as her own.

From their new mom, sphinxes would have a love of knowledge and wisdom, and an air of regal splendor. From their original mom, they would retain short tempers and an innate talent for arcane magic.

Now I just need to figure out if Greymoria intended sphinxes to harass dragons in the First Age, elves in the Second Age, or humans in the Third Age.

If sphinxes are a relic of the First Age, they would probably be very large and powerful but not very numerous, prowling isolated stretches of deep wilderness.

If they are relics of the Second Age they would probably be roughly as big as ordinary lions or tigers. More well known, but they would still favor the wilderness. They would small and clever enough that they might be able to eke out a niche near civilized lands without being hunted down and killed by a squad of adventurers.

If they are a Third Age creature they would probably be a lot more numerous, but they would be localized, probably not having yet expanded beyond a single continent. On their home continent, they would be a force to be reckoned with.


Phoenixes I'm less sure of. I'm not sure what phoenixes do, apart from coming back from catching on fire and returning from the dead.

 

I started compiling my old notes so I could start profiling the rest of the Nine just like I did with Khemra when I noticed Khemra is missing something. Two somethings actually.

Rivalry, Khemra needs more of it

I started creating my pantheon years ago using the nine D&D alignments as the baseline and expanded from there. Since then I've branched out a lot and the Nine are no longer merely one-dimensional representations of their alignment.

Zarthus (Chaotic Good) and Phidas (Lawful Evil) are mortal enemies but they are not mortal enemies solely because their alignments are opposed. They are dark reflections of each other.

Zarthus embodies self reliance. Phidas embodies selfishness. Zarthus values music which cannot really be quantified and Phidas counts coins. Zarthus loves spreading beauty and Phidas hides his disfigurements behind a mask. I can come up with paragraphs of this stuff for every rivalry pair I have except for Nami and Khemra.

I am especially fond of my rivalry between Greymoria and Mera, I can probably write pages and pages on them alone, but I can barely come up with 22 words for the Khemra-Nami feud. Nami and Khemra have very little to make them foes besides outside of their opposed alignments. Nami gave mortals free will and Khemra believed this was a mistake, but that was a long time ago. Zarthus and Phidas are not just enemies because of ancient grudges, they are enemies because of opposing goals, philosophies and values that matter right now.

I do not know what Nami and Khemra would fight about. I do know how Khemra's spirits and mortal minions would clash with Nami's spirits and mortal minions. I just know that Khemra has relatively few active spirit minions and lots of priests and theurgists. Nami has relatively few priests and theurgists and lots of spirits.

Sex! (and other things that I cannot talk about on the Order of the Stick forums without having the moderators delete my post.)

I still think the Order of the Stick (OtS) forums are the best forums to discuss D&D fluff. All the other D&D forums I found are very crunchy and not very fluffy.

It was very difficult to draw comparisons between my fictional made up gods and the mythologies of Egyptian mythology, Native American mythology, Graeco-Roman mythology, and Norse mythology. Why? Because small numbers of people in the 21st still claim to hold these beliefs today and one of them might read my post and get offended.

I thought I found a loop hole. Instead of pulling examples from general mythology, I pulled examples from Rick Riordan, a fiction author. Apparently that was allowed, but things got dicey when I started talking about sex and gender and I got reamed for not being woke.

As far as I know, every polytheistic religion that is at least 1000 years old has male and female deities. As far as I know, every such religion imprints their cultural values onto their deities, angels, spirits, and demons. What makes a good leader? What make a good soldier? What makes a good parent? etc. These are reflected in their cosmology

What is the masculine ideal? What is the feminine ideal?

I am a product of Western Civilization. It's what I know. That doesn't mean it's the only paradigm or even the best one but that is my frame of reference.

In Western lore, the universal platonic ideal of the positive feminine archetype is The Good Mother. The platonic ideal of the negative feminine archetype is The Witch.

Mera is Neutral Good. She is arguably more committed to Good than Zarthus and Hallisan. Greymoria is Neutral Evil. She is arguably more committed to Evil than Maylar and Phidas.

After reviewing my notes on Mera and Greymoria, without consciously realizing what I was doing at the time, I recreated the Good Mother and the Witch. The mythic archetypes are so ingrained in my mind that I came up with this organically.

Armed with this revelation I noticed I sort of did this with Hallisan, Zarthus, Phidas, and Maylar. Hallisan and Zarthus embody many positive masculine traits and Phidas and Maylar embody many negative (or dare I say toxic) masculine traits. Not quite as on the nose as with Mera and Greymoria, but still resonating with the shared cultural myths of western civilization

This is when the OtS forumites pounced on me. They had no problem with me saying that bullying, lust for power, or greed were inherently masculine. Anything negative I attributed to men, no one argued, but they got furious when I tried to build Hallisan's or Zarthus' positive traits as examples of positive masculinity. Huzzah for double standards!

"How dare you say ______ is masculine! Women embody _____ all the time!"

Going back to Mera and Greymoria. Mera's primary traits are compassion and love. Greymoria's trait are spite and envy. I've met many compassionate and loving men, and I've met many spiteful and envious men. I still think these are feminine traits. Men have feminine sides and women have masculine sides. This should apply to gods and goddesses too.

Zarthus, Hallisan, Maylar, and Phidas do not embody a mythological archetype as broad as Mera and Greymoria do, but I do think all four of them are manly men.

When I think of Zarthus, I think of swashbuckling rogues like Zorro, Westley (Princess Bride, not Star Trek), and Robin Hood. I think of daring inventors like the Wright Brothers. I think of passionate artists like Michelangelo. I think of hardworking stubborn self-reliant family men like John Henry.

When I think of Hallisan, I think of wise and brave rulers, men of honor like Ned Stark from Game of Thones, King Arthur, Marcus Aurelius. Hallisan doesn't embody the inventors who experiment in revolutionary new concepts, Hallisan embodies the engineers who make these revolutionary new concepts practical and accessible, to make them useful. I think of strong and enthusiastic skilled laborers.

When I think of Phidas, I think of the greasy advisor wringing his hands and muttering "it's all according to plan" under his breath. Phidas embodies characters like Grima Wormtongue, Jaffar, and Severus Snape. I think of crooked businessmen smoking cigars and discussing shady deals. I think of mafia dons making an offer you can't refuse.

When I think of Maylar I think of brutal conquerors like Genghis Khan. I think of blood soaked serial killers like Jack the Ripper. I think of hunters who kill not out of need but a love of killing. I think of bullies.


In my own mind, I cannot visualize characterizations this vivid for my three neutral deities Khemra, Nami, and Korus. If I made Hallisan female or if I made Mera male this would rock my original concept to the core. Admittedly, Khemra, Nami, and Korus are somewhat androgynous. If I gender swapped them, I wouldn't be bothered very much. Maybe it's because these three characters are neutral and therefore less extreme. Maybe it's because all three of these defy traditional gender expectations.

Nearly every culture personifies nature as feminine: Mother Nature. Korus is Father Nature. While not as univeral as Mother Nature, most mythologies make the sun deity male and Khemra is a female sun deity (most moon deities are female but we aren't talking about Zarthus right now). Most mythologies that I'm aware of do not have a "weather god", they have separate deities for each type of weather but most of these gods are male. Wind god, usually male. Thunder god, nearly always male. Rain deities are about equally likely to be male or female. My weather deity is the goddess Nami and while Nami is the goddess of all weather, she is most closely associated with wind.

Maybe it's not important that Korus is Father Nature or Khemra is Mother Sun. The fact that Mera is feminine has very little bearing on the fact that she has dominion over the sea. As far as I know, sea deities in various mythologies are roughly equally likely to be male or female. The manliness of Zarthus has nothing to do with his status a moon god. It's from his other traits.

That said, Nami and Khemra are not very feminine and Korus is not very masculine. They don't represent any mythic archetype that transcends D&D or their nature powers. This isn't required, but it sort of bugs me. I don't need Khemra to fit with a clear feminine archetype but I would prefer she did.


There is one thing the woke crowd on the OtS brought up that bugged me at first, but on second thought might have some merit.

They accused me of being too hetero-normative. I have four love triangles and one love pentagon, all based on male-female pairings.

Hallisan-Mera-Zarthus
Hallisan-Khemra-Phidas
Phidas-Greymoria-Maylar
Maylar-Nami-Zarthus

Greymoria-Korus-Mera
Nami-Korus-Khemra

In general, I do not like wokeness, but I do support LGBTs--not that I want to use a fictional fantasy setting as a vehicle to do so. It's not like these issues are new. Many real world ancient cultures accepted same sex romantic partnerships. Many ancient cultures had non-gender conformists. I will say that before the 19th century, male-female pairings were more about procreation than they were about love. Even the most LGBT friendly pre-industrial societies (such as the Ancient Greeks) still expected homosexuals to crank out a few babies. Given that Scarterra is such a dangerous place, Scarterran marriages and romantic couplings are probably driven by needs for procreation more than needs for love or pleasure.


Initially I thought about making Korus the ultimate ladies man since all four goddesses are pining after him. Someone somewhere either here or on the OtS suggested maybe Korus doesn't like the goddess that way. I thought about making Korus the god of non-traditional relationships representing LGBTs as well confirmed bachelors and spinsters.

First and foremost Korus is a nature god. A lot of real world shamanic practices around the world encourage shamans to cross dress or bend traditional gender roles in various. The justification is that since a shaman has to serve as a bridge between mortals and spirits, a shaman should be a bridge between other things too.

Korus spends a lot of his time as bridge. He is a bridge between Good and Evil, Law and Chaos, Civilization and the Wild. Faerie and Mortals. That doesn't mean all of Korus are going to be attending pride parades, but this would mean that Korus would have more non-binary gender people in his ranks than the others.

Along similar lines, Zarthus is the patron of bastards, half-breeds, and orphans, but only a relatively small fraction of Zarthus' priesthood is made up of bastards, half-breeds and orphans. There is nothing to stop an orphaned half-elf from joining a priesthood besides Zarthus either but Zarthus probably has more half-breeds than the other eight deities combined. If I make Korus the divine patron of non-gender conformity, maybe 90% of his priesthood would be cis-gendered as opposed to 99% of the other eight priesthoods being cis-gendered.

This is not solely about wokeness. Before my discussion thread on the OtS got shut down, a forumite suggested interesting and viable reasons why my deities might get romantically involved with entities who are not one step removed from them alignment wise and those ideas were intriguing.

There is a chicken and egg question in my setting. The gods shape mortals and mortals shape the gods. Greymoria is female because most Scarterrans believe she is female. My gods and goddesses may be a feud divided family like the Greek Olympians, they do not copulate in the same way that the Greek Olympians did. It does not resemble human sexual intercourse or even dragon intercourse.

The Nine might present a humanoid or draconic avatar to mortals, but that's not their true form. Their form is of an everlasting song. If Greymoria wants to create a new race of monster, she has to sing it into existence. Nami manipulates weather by singing as well. Everything the Nine do to impact Creation is at least indirectly through song.

When two deities are getting along, they literally harmonize. When two deities are fighting, they create discordant noise. Male or female sex organs don't factor in at all although romantic coupling makes a good metaphor that mortals can easily understand. It doesn't really make a difference if the two singers are male.


I will also point out that Mera and Greymoria's love triangles make up a large portion of their lore, as well as the lore of their paramours. For Nami and Khemra, there romantic interludes are mostly a minor footnote in their stories. Maybe subconsciously this is because Mera and Greymoria represent core feminine archetypes and Nami and Khemra do not.

I have Good and Evil feminine archetypes pegged down, but I do not know what the Lawful feminine archetype or the Chaotic feminine archetype would look like. Maybe Khemra is the goddess of wives and Nami is the goddess of girlfriends. Way back in my early notes I wrote that when Khemra gets romantically involved with Phidas or Hallisan they agree on a set marriage. They are immortal so marriages aren't for life, but their marriages last for a set period of time such as 50 years. When Nami gets romantically involved with Maylar or Zarthus it is for as long as they feel like it.

My early notes write that Maylar really wants to tame Nami but he cannot. Greymoria is basically just his rebound girl. Zarthus and Hallisan really want Mera. Nami and Khemra are basically their respective rebound girls.

Khemra maybe likes Korus better than Hallisan and Hallisan better than Phidas, but for the balance of the universe does not want to show favoritism. Nami of course refuses to be tied down to anyone.

 

Your words are wise. I guess I can make Khemra and Nami freenemies.

Neshik's player choice a supernatural flaw that he tends to attract hostile attention from Khemra's foes. Generally speaking, Khemra's foes are Nami, Maylar and Zarthus.

However, Neshik is both highly charismatic and very kind to the downtrodden meaning he doesn't make enemies easily.

When the PCs were opposing Etch's criminal empire, they some received assistance from the priesthoods of Korus, Phidas, Mera, Hallisan, and Greymoria. Maylar's sole powerful priest in Fumaya sold both Neshik and Etch magical regents. Nami and Zarthus' priesthood stayed out it. They don't supporting the government but they didn't like Etch's criminals either. If anything, now that tales of the PCs heroism and generosity are spreading throughout the land, most of Zarthus' Lanterns will be inclined to be friendly with Neshik rather than hostile.

Aranil's primary deity is Zarthus but Aranil's player explained "I'm a Christmas and Easter Zarthus worshiper." I haven't figured out what Zarthus' equivalents to Christmas and Easter is yet. Aranil is a Wood Elf, the Wood Elves probably don't recognize the same holidays that humans do. They probably have a somber holiday in the Winter or Fall where they vow to be vigilant against danger and remember their lost loved ones and a happy holiday in the Spring or Summer where they celebrate music, art, and craftsmanship.

So far the only time Neshik's flaw came into play is after Neshik and Aranil took down a Maylar theurgist who was stirring up trouble. The enemy theurgist summoned some Maylar spirit wolves to take Neshik and Aranil down. Once they killed the theurgist, the spirit wolves should have disappeared but they stuck around because they thought Neshik's blood tasted good.

I will consider this. The Traitor and Turoch certainly have unknown genders. Those who believe that the Nine are made up of four females and five males commonly believe that the Ten were made up of equal numbers of males and females, ergo the Traitor was probably female.

Turoch is equally likely to be called the All-Consuming Father or the All-Consuming Mother.

It certainly sets a precedent for ambiguously gendered gods.

Wise words. I just wanted to post my thoughts because I wanted to get it off my chest.

Efficiency. It saves on typing. But now I had to write a fourteen word explanation.

Actually know. My instincts are to keep the genders I have but I like to play Devil's Advocate on my own decisions...all the time. It's a sickness.

I will consider this suggestion.

Anyway, if no one has any more Khemra or woke related thoughts, I'll move on to profiling Mera next.