Fallen Deities, a Time of Troubles pantheon

[McQ]

As the title suggests I'm developing a campaign where the Gods are fallen from grace, and not present to answer the prayers of the devout.

What exists now is a pantheon reverted to Good/Evil in the world, personified by Toldoth and Elishar from Deities and Demigods. But these divine powers have no sentient direction and grant little favor, thus leaving many divine casters unable to perform magic.

Remnants of the divine magic "pockets" of the Gods exist but dwindle from lack of prayer fueling the power of the God. This divine source is awakened when an action rekindles a connection and the power is released, though often having no direction or control.

I'm using the Core D&D Pantheon for its' source of Gods, and would like some help figuring out what has happened to each of them.

What I need to think of is:

The Gods' current form
Remnants of indirect worship
Task to restore the God to their divine power
An occasion when the divine power of the god is tapped


Here's an example of Bahamut:
His current form is that of a clockwork dragon.
Clockwork constructs pray to a benevolent "Maker," Gnomish pilots pray to the "Source of Wind" for favorable weather.
A cog containing his divine essence resides in Mechanus and must be returned to Him.
On the first day of Spring, gnomes have a "Festival of Wind" where dragon-shaped rockets, colorful balloons and kites are flown into the sky; the weather is always perfect for flight on this day.

Here's a few more concepts:
Bahamut: Avatar is a mechanical dragon in the gnomish homeland.
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: Gnomish pilots pray for favorable weather and winds, referring to a source of great breath. Droids of Flame left on the gnomish homeland have developed faith, believing in a benevolent mechanical being.
Boccob: Avatar is a magical beast traversing the world and planes?
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: Magical beasts and mages believe magical energy exist in all things and that emanate from and revert back to.
Corellon Larethian: Avatar is a ghost?
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: Enslaved elves of the Ash island pray for freedom and restoration of life. Prayer is forbidden to the servant classes, so it is practiced secretly, and even when memories are erased, the spirit manages to live on.
Ehlonna: Avatar is a magical animal or plant?
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: The Isle of Wood praises a "mother of the forests" that encompass all life of plant and animal. Witches of the North on the Isle of Salt pray to an "earth mother" that comprises the nature within their swamps.
Erythnuul: Avatar is a weapon, monstrous humanoid or beast?
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: Murderers and mercenaries that love carnage and slaugher worship the "lord of the battlefield" who demands blood, claims life, and favors those that succumb to chaos and brutality.
Fharlanghn: Avatar is a magical beast that travels the planes.
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: Halfling travellers explore the whole world, they leave tokens at shrines dedicated to the spirit of traversing the unknown.
Garl Glittergold: Avatar is trapped in mechanical heart.
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: Gnomish mechanics see the world and purpose as a mechanism, their lives being the components, and fate as the divine engineers intervention.

I would really appreciate some help with ideas, I don't need to cover all the Gods, but "restoring" the Gods is the basis of the campaign and I'll need quite a few to either have the party actively pursue or it might just be happening in the background.

[marcielle]

Besides just restoring fallen dieties, allow players to help new emerging dieties usurp the old ones spots. For examples:
A elder(er) wyrm Time Dragon, let's call him Eternus - Oldest and wisest of all the mortal dragons, he sees that the dragons have become stagnant as a species and must either learn to advance like or live with the younger, quickly expanding races. He wants to bring both chromatic and metallic dragons together.
Help him atain godhood by bring Tiamat's and Bahamut's divine focusses to him. He will then call a great meeting of dragons and APPEAR to defeat both former gods. The dragons will all bow to his power and accept as the true dragon god.
On one hand, this will largely reduce dragon attacks all over the world.
On the other, dragons are now in direct expansionist competition with the shorter lived races.

Maybe not for EVERY god, but one or 2 in your campaign will wow your players. After all, they just established a whole new religion.

Here are a few more suggestions:
Boccob: A gigantic ruined library.
Faith remnant: A giant library with a copy of every magical book ever written. It is accesible only to those who remember him in some form.
Restoration: The library is in ruins but all the books are surprisingly intact. The place bussles with mages who have come from far and wide to find obscure books and treatise. There are several large, ornate lecterns, all of which are empty. They use to hold great magical tomes of unparalled arcane knowledge. Returning all the tomes will restore the Archmage of the Gods. But be warned, they are in the hands of mighty arcanists and intelligent magical beasts who will not willingly part with them.
Divinity tap: Any advance in non-profane arcane knowledge is instantly added to the library and as Greater Tomes are returned, the library fixes itself.

Nerull/Vecna/Wee Jas: In classic Grim Reaper form(think lvl 20 lich)
Faith remnant: In search of darke powers, a band of cultists have already beat you to it... sort of.
Restoration: His divine spark was rescued and confined to a lich body soon after the fall by a band of necromancers hoping to gain favors and power. However, the body was not strong enough to store a god and most of his power dissipated into the ether. He's formed a cult and has been trying to regain his power for ages to no avail. He's decided it would be easier to steal another god's spark to add to his own. Travel deep into the astral sea OR simply bring him the faith remnant of any other god.
Divine tap: Everytime they try to pull his power back from the Graveyard of Gods, a greater undead and abberations arise (like nightmare beasts and gravecrawlers)
I don't know why but I see Nerull as a smooth talking charismatic type. Animated, funny and pleasant. Till you fail him, that is.

Moradin: A 50 foot tall statue
Faith remnant: Old tales tell of a 'Great Forger' who forged the first dwarves and taught them all about stone and metal. All metal/stoneworking dwarves consider him their patron but do little in the way of actual worship.
Restoration: The whole hall quakes as the collosal figure before you suddenly speaks. It tells you a story of times before the fall. Times where great feats of engineering and forging were achieved. He says the only way to restore him is to create a truly momentous feat of engineering. Something to inspire the very souls of all Dwarfdom. The players must find and gather the greatest dwarven(and ONLY dwarven) smiths and engineers and convince them to build something more tremendous than an ancestral dwarven monolith. They don't need to see it through, just inspiring them enough to do it will rekindle Moradin's spark. However, the dwarves are currently at a low. Their forges can just about compete with humans in quality but they have no way of matching their mass production. Only the eldest dwarves still remember the greatness that used to be. Skeptics and tribal war hinder you in your quest.
Divine tap: Despite a general decrease in quality of dwarven goods, sometimes a truly masterful piece of weaponry is still produced.
This is meant to be a roleplay/mental/skill challenge as opposed to kill monsters, get artifact routine.

That's all I got tonight, might post more tomorrow.

[McQ]

Incredible ideas, I really appreciate the help! :smallbiggrin:

I definitely like the idea of Boccob being a building, when I was trying to make a list I just kept thinking "magical beast" and wasn't particularly happy with how unimaginative it seemed.

Some Gods are obvious in their theme, but when you look at a God like Heironeous, it's difficult not to simply make them a Humanoid with their traits. I'm thinking I should leave those humanoids for potential "followers" and keep the God as an object since they are are somewhat comatose.

[marcielle]

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!!:smallfurious:
Heironeous: Code of the 'Knights of Absolute Justice'
Faith remnant: Even in these godless times, men of valor and selflessness still answer the call of justice. When most paladin and clerical orders fell through, chaos and anarchy ruled the streets. Tyranny and greed were king. Noone knew where it came from but a call was sent out. Brave men and women from all races and castes answered. They sacrificed everything to return the world to the way it once was. Now, the Knights have dwindled but they carry on, never giving up their righteous quest.
Restoration: Heironeous exists as a concept. The very ideals held by the Knights. To restore the Invincible one, you must aid the Knights in their quest. Many cities were cleansed and are already under the Knights protection. However, a few major cities are still held the by corrupt and downright evil. Liberate these cities and spread the code of the Knights to restore Heironeous.
Divinity tap: Sometimes, a person truly looks at the world and conciously decides that there is more to life than personal gain. He or she receives the 'Call'.
His existence is similar to what concept clerics worship. Only his ideals, with little personification. He is thought of as the ideal all Knights strive to achieve.

TOTALLY RANDOM IDEA!
Have Ehlonna and Obad-Hai be a dryad and hama-dryad. Stick their trees right next to each other. Have them act like a bickering couple.

[McQ]

Very good idea, I especially like the thought of acts of chivalry granting divine favor. I'm reminded of that movie a Knights' Tale, and that knighthood finds those without noble birth. I also like the idea of a "Calling," perhaps starting a quest of someone who is promoting the virtues of knighthood.

And while the thought of spreading chivalry to restore Heironeous as a great adventure hook nearly anywhere, it might be too abstract. The "source" of Heironeous' divine power can exist and be tapped by actions of chivalry. Though it makes sense to have His form be the virtue within a place, I think He needs to having something more tangible.

I saw in the Magic Item Compendium there is an magic item called the Shield of the Resolute, it's a shield made of a patchwork of shields. And though it's a relic of Moradin and for dwarves, I think there is a good connection with knighthood and a shield. This could be either many portions of shields to make one large shield, or normally sized shields to make a gargantuan one? Regardless, this could be the physical form of Heironeous?

Using some of your original idea, what if to restore Him there needs to be a gathering of a various portions of knights' armor? Gathering pieces of legendary knights as tokens of virtue?

[marcielle]

Armor and weapons of Arth the White. Founder of the Knights, he was transcendant in battle. He took blows both physical and magical that would have destroyed even mighty adventurers and always radiated a divine halo in battle. He finally fell in the midst of one of the Knights biggest battles to treachery and poison and his armor was stolen in the process. You could make it a seriously powerful set so the party would be torn between restoring the god and keeping it for themselves. Exact enchantments should be dependant on your players.

Also, there should be rewards if they consistantly choose a path. If they are good, they will be giving up tomes of power and weapons of great might, after all. Say give them a free NPC paladin/cleric follower and a fame circumstance bonus to social checks like diplomacy and bluff if they help the Knights and free book borrowing if they restore Boccob.

If they go evil give them underworld contacts opening things up like selling slaves and access to dark rituals and magic. Especially good if you don't run on the whole magic mart setting. Warning, if you have no magic mart, reduced WBL for magic users might be advisable. Just say their spell components are more expensive cause of the rarity of magic merchants.

[Savannah]

Shouldn't Ehlonna's current form be a unicorn? Seems like Obad-Hai would be a better fit for the magical plant/animal you have listed for Ehlonna currently. I'd suggest that Obad-Hai should be restored by killing his current avatar to allow his spirit to return to nature where it should be (and, of course, it would be very hard to kill and immune to old age and so on). Seems to fit with his nature/circle of life angle, plus it would be significantly different from the others where the players would be trying to keep them alive (of course, you'd want to make sure they restored a couple of others before they ran into him, so that they won't assume that killing is the default restoration method).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

There's a feat called Servant of the Fallen in Lost Empires of Faerun which allows a Cleric of a dead deity to continue gaining all of their spells and other divine class features as though all is well. Even if the normal deities aren't dead and this feat won't work for them, a Cleric could worship a long-dead deity from ages past (many are listed in that book) and be better off than a Cleric of a more current deity.

[McQ]

I think you're correct in thinking Ehlonna should be a Unicorn, but there is no limit to what "facets" of the God might have. In fact, I think a mixture of the trees with the Unicorn concept would be neat.

I'm reminded of Princess Mononoke, where the "Great Spirit" during the day is a type of stag, and at night it becomes a large spirit of darkness. The transitional period of dusk or dawn when Ehlonna's form would be shifting between forms might require something to join the spirits. Ehlonna is a Goddess of specifically trees and creatures within the trees. It could be that the two different spirits (day/night) return to and come from this great tree. Each must be placed into the tree? I got the idea of the tree from Avatar, and like the concept of different "groves" great distances apart having some connection. The day/night spirit would come from all these different groves at different times. Making it somewhat more difficult to track where the Day Spirit or Night Spirit would show next.

As far as Obad Hai, I wanted Him to be split into the four alchemical elements. Fire, Air, Water, and Earth elementals would travel in different locations, and to restore Him would require killing the elementals to free the energy. This, however, puts the element into the other remaining forms. So if Air were destroyed, Fire, Earth and Water elementals would each have a mixture of the Air element. I think I remember seeing a creature named a Tempest that is like a combination of one or more elements, can't remember where though.

Servant of the Fallen is a perfect idea! Thus far, any clerics worship either Elishar or Toldoth, each with a large Domain list. Though I'm not sure I need a feat allowing a character to worship any of the fallen gods, as far as I knew, all I'd have to do is some story as to how/why they have the divine favor of the particular God. If only the Core D&D Pantheon were allowed, this feat would allow a character to say, worship a God from the Agardian Pantheon? The feat reminds me of what the Mystic class has, where it requires no deity, but allows the domains.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

There's a feat called Servant of the Fallen in Lost Empires of Faerun which allows a Cleric of a dead deity to continue gaining all of their spells and other divine class features as though all is well. Even if the normal deities aren't dead and this feat won't work for them, a Cleric could worship a long-dead deity from ages past (many are listed in that book) and be better off than a Cleric of a more current deity.

This helps largely to prevent a divine character from being without class features, and I support it.

Even so, I like the idea. I may do a few of the racial deities (Correlean, Mordin, etc.) if I find time. :smallbiggrin:

[marcielle]

Just wanted those 2 to be stuck together cause I thought it would be funny.:smalltongue:

Erythnul: Deep in the savage lands that have expanded greatly since the Fall, a new manner of beast has emerged.
Faith remnant: Certain evil barbarian tribes take these beast as their totem because of their ferocity and might. The more intelligent goblinoids respect and even revere these deadly new creatures and lesser ones fear them.
Restoration: Create a couple of creatures called Er-beasts. If you don't want to make 'em from scratch, this can easily be done by using the monster of legend, monstrous or feral templates. Maybe give 'em a few unexpected powers
These beasts all contain some of the ferocity and strength of Erythnul. Killing them one by one allows all of his remaining essence to collect in one creature. The last one gains the memories of Erythnul and tells you that to restore him requires a masacre dedicated to his name.
It does NOT have to be innocents. Tricking the goblinoids and barbarians into war is a viable option for Good aligned parties.

Some Good parties might not want to restore Erythnul or Evil gods in general. Try tempting them with unique loot. Things they could't buy. Like legacy weapons or nerfed minor artifatcs.

Warning: Just took a close look at monsters of legend. Let's just say they really weren't kidding when they named it.

[McQ]

I love the Monster of Legend idea, and no worries about their epicness, it's possible to have some of them defeated in background, while each deity will have quite a few game hours to accomplish restoring them. It's somewhat the basis of the campaign that they restore all the gods, even the bad ones, to restore balance to the world. The tricky stuff comes when some gods, or others within the world, want themselves brought back, but not the other gods. Plus all those crazy villians wanting the power of the God to themselves.

I really like Erythnuul having a number of great beasts throughout the world. Monsters of Legend that different tribal/barbarian cultures worship, respect, and fear. Coincidentally, within the campaign I've created a "club" of big game hunters that would fit perfectly into this storyline. They would no doubt want to fell the great beasts, and inadvertently be causing the spirit of Erythnuul to fill the other beasts making them ever more vicious and veracious. I'm reminded, again, of Princess Mononoke, where the "gods" of different beasts begin to become infected with hate and turn into "demons." The last form of Erythnuul might be something like a Terrasque.

And though these all may seem too powerful for any party below epic levels, they only need to take part in some of the Gods' restoration, not the final action. A different group might take over from them to complete it.

[Honest Tiefling]

Myths speak of the Arcane Well, the elaborate plan Wee Jas has used to hide her power from the other gods to avoid notice...Until she was ready to strike at her enemies, using their underestimation of her abilities against them. It contains the bulk of her divinity, and is guarded by a bound demigod.

It may have had interesting effects when the gods were sent to the mortal realm. Maybe the bound demigod resents their internment, or was so loyal, they gave up their own life to fuel the priests of Wee Jas so that her great name may command the respect it fully deserves.

Maybe the combination of the well and the demigod have made Wee Jas the only god capable of answering prayers. Maybe her clerics are even more reluctant to cast spells, as they do not wish to deplete her power until they can fully restore her.

The myth of the well also states that great wizards are born with a drop of water from this well. As that is where most of Wee Jas' divinity lies, to restore her the heroes will have to seek out the blood of powerful wizards, who may be wary, suspicious, helpful or dangerous. It may also require a certain vessel to contain the blood, which might be the body of Norebo, her lover. Even as the two quarrel, their powers are linked to one another.

I think the idea of Wee Jas' arcane well was in a Dragon Magazine article, but I am not 100% sure.

[McQ]

The idea of a well is certainly intriguing. Plus, I really like the idea of some followers attempting to harness other divine power to grant them magic rather than 'sapping' the power of their God. I think I may use this for some different Gods though, maybe something like some worshipers of Vecna trying to steal the essence of Nerull to do this? Or it might be a lesser god.

Here is what I've got thus far, not all of it has what everyone has mentioned, I'm trying to keep it very simple because I have a habit of writing paragraphs of fluff.


Bahamut
Avatar: A mechanical dragon in the gnomish homeland.
Restoration: Bahamut's divine essence resides within a cog on the plane of Mechanus.
Faith Remnants: Gnomish pilots pray to the "Great Breath" for favorable weather. Gnomish Droids believe in a benevolent "Maker" that protects.
Divine Favor: A festival of air of the gnomes involves flying kites, floating balloons, and firing off rockets; this wind worship grants fair weather.

Boccob
Avatar: A Zeitgeist (Cityscape) library of all magical knowledge.
Restoration: Missing pages of a tome within the library must be returned in and placed in a particular order.
Faith Remnants: Believers in magical energy in all things emanating from and reverting to a divine source.
Divine Favor: There is a tradition to place a particular sigil within a book, library, or place where magic is studied; this causes magical power to amplify.

Corellon Larethian
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Ehlonna
Avatar: Immense glowing trees situated in multiple groves where a spirit of night and a spirit of day spawn from alternating groves.
Restoration: The spirits must be made to meet in one grove/tree.
Faith Remnants: The Isle of Wood worship a "Great Mother" as the giver of life to plants and animals.
Divine Favor: When the seedling sprouts, a newborn is birthed, or Spring arrives, a prayer is made in thanks of the "Great Mother" whom grants a blessing of a healthy life.

Erythnuul
Avatar: Monsters of Legends of many different beasts.
Restoration: Each beast must be slain, increasing the vicious and veracious nature of each remaining until a final form (Terrasque?) remains.
Faith Remnants: Many barbaric cultures worship a particular beast as their totem, mimicking the ferocity of its' brutality and nature.
Divine Favor: When ferocity and carnage pulse in their blood granting immense power.

Fharlanghn
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Garl Glittergold
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Gruumsh
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Heironeous
Avatar: A patchwork of crested shields to form one large shield.
Restoration: Retrieving various pieces of armor from legendary heroes of virtue.
Faith Remnants: Knights of the Isle of Steel follow a code of honor dependent on chivalry and virtue. Some humans believe all bad deeds done will be met with retribution at the hands of a nemesis.
Divine Favor: Virtuous deeds done despite fear might receive a Calling to pursue the life dedicated to righteous actions, glory, honor, valor and tempered with a will to face any evil.

Hextor
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Kord
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Lolth
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Moradin
Avatar: A colossal statue of metal and stone standing dormant deep within the earth.
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: Dwarves that craft by hand rather than with machinery believe that changing raw material to the final form instill their family heritage; this belief is kept by those that still believe in their creator "The Blacksmith."
Divine Favor: A lifetime devoted to the mastering of a craft will galvanize the hands of the maker to create a relic at the epitome of the items perfection.

Nerull
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Obad-Hai
Avatar: Four massive elementals of Air, Fire, Water and Earth traverse the world.
Restoration: Each elemental must be destroyed to release it's divine essence, but in so doing the destroyed elemental bolsters the other remaining until one final form exists.
Faith Remnants: Many agriculturists worship the seasons and the changing of nature. Witches believe the world's fundamental components are the four elements: Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Some tribes view the world not as good and evil, but that these concepts are a balance of nature.
Divine Favor: Living in harmony with nature, whether refraining from needless cultivation of natural resources, or a lifestyle within the wilderness, gives some a strong bond with nature.

Olidammara
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Pelor
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

St. Cuthbert
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Tiamat
Avatar: Her body is the massive skeletal remains of a great dragon that encircles of the Isle of Ash.
Restoration: The divine energy of Tiamat has been captured and imbued into the bones of her body, these bones are grafted into many Dark Elves as living armor and all must be returned to restore her.
Faith Remnants: Trolls within the Wilds worshiped a giant sea serpent that was to devour the world, but it was killed by the Dark Elves. Dark Elves believe the remnants of the dragon around their island granted them their immortality but stole their ability to procreate.
Divine Favor: Dark Elves undergo a ceremony where a sliver of bone is placed into the marrow of their skeleton, granting them the ability to alter their flesh.

Vecna
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Wee Jas
Avatar: Three parts exist of Wee Jas; a red headed girl unaware of her powers, a necromancer woman raising undead wherever she goes, and a red gem of incredible magical power that corrupts.
Restoration: All three parts of Wee Jas must be merged.
Faith Remnants: Witches of the Isle of Salt worship the Goddess as the mother of magic and the loving embrace of death. The Priestess of the Isle of Ash is said to be the divine epitaph of Wee Jas.
Divine Favor: Prayers asked on the New or Full moon are answered. Prayers to ease the dying are met with divine mercy.

Yondalla
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

I know that so far Kord is favored by laborers in the Royal Lands. The working class favors strength through hard work as a merit. I can't think of what to make his avatar though. For some reason I kept thinking of that super buff hamster on Family Guy. :smallconfused:

Gruumsh also has something to do with the orcish empire known as the Eight Wind Empire. It's various clans (based on the clans in Five Rings) are made up of ogre mages, trolls, orcs, bugbears, and various other monstrous humanoids in a feudal japan setting. Eight sections surround an immense garden with a citadel at its central point. Every few years, the Emperor (I was thinking of making him a Storm Giant) requires each clan to war with one another. The victor is granted honor, and the privilege to conduct war outside of the Empire.

[marcielle]

Awww, you don't like Nerull-lich?
Oh well.
I didn't know you were gonna include Lolth. I thought you were talking core only.
I once read this series where Lolth intentionally dissappeared outside a time of troubles. She was soaking up as much worship and power as she could in the form of a coccoon. In this state none of her believers could access her power. This caused MAJOR problems in the Drow society since the only thing holding the males and slaves from all out rebellion was fear of Lolth. Basically Drow cities tore themselves apart. However she had a lot of followers even then who wouldn't stop believing(this was an awesome point for me cause that sort of loyalty is usually reserved for benevolent gods) and most of the males even stuck by their houses. She burst out of the coccoon after some trouble with the demons(not devils, this is important, Lolth doesn't deal with them cause they are too lawful) and achieved near Overgod status.

Instead of having a restoration as the actual goal you could just have them caught by Drow. Lolth already had the coccoon as a contingency and instead of dying, reverted to that form. Now she is near revival and the Drow are snatching up everything they can as welcome-back-sacrifices. Escape in a rebellion attack and have them leave just in time to avoid Lolth's revival and the return of her clerics powers. Have worried whispers of guards and slaves too cowardly to rebel tell them rumors whats going on to make sure they don't accidentally stick around. Remember, even though Drow COULD fight your party straight on they prefer sleep darts, stealth and using kobolds as cannon fodder.

[McQ]

That's a pretty neat idea. And sorry you didn't know about Lolth, I'm just pulling everything from the Deities and Demigods that is under the Core Pantheon.

For a quick background think of the Blood Elves in WoW with how they did the Sun Well. Except replace Sun Well with Tiamat. Think of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust for their super huge dimensional mansions. And refer to Chronicles of Riddick and those Necrosourcers(?) for their magic. Lastly is their flesh crafting that is sorta like the Tzimisce in Vampire.

The longer version is here..
Some background seems appropriate for the elves. Before the Flood and the Fall of the Gods, the elves were on the front lines trying to defeat this incredibly powerful construct. This construct essentially devoured not just life but magic itself. The elves used up their reservoir of magic, and even performed sacrifices of themselves to gain large amounts. When the Flood wiped out the Construct, and the Gods fell, the elves were left with practically no magic, all the grand masters of magic gone, and were no longer blessed with agelessness. During the first Great War, the elves found themselves under attack by the Yuan Ti, and spotted an oppurtunity to restore their magic enriched bodies. They trapped Tiamat's avatar (a sea serpent) and drained it of all its divine essence to place a permanent spell over their island and people. In so doing they gained incredible magical power, turned themselves into Drow, but also destroyed the ability for any on the island to procreate. Even for any plants or animals to grow, the island was just reduced to ash.

This pretty much drove the new elves crazy to no longer have a connection to nature, but they were almost as powerful as demigods in this new world. To combat the issue of agelessness, they instead employed a method of capturing the soul before death, and crafting or reanimating a body as a host. Memories were transplanted into the new body so they essentially were immortal. Necromancy, became a great source of servants and harnessed the soul or altered the flesh.

The culture of the Drow takes off pretty much from there. Noble households, treachery, servitude. There is very little room on the Isle of Ash, so they built portals to the planes of shadow for each huuuuuuuuuuge mansion (practically a city itself) to reside in. Each mansion its own estate complete with undead servants, indentured elves, and the noble family residing.

Before the Fall the main priesthood was devoted to Wee Jas. After, though, only a mysterious tradition was upheld to have a High Priestess, once equal in power to Royalty. I was going to use this Priestess as a means for the Drow to attempt to channel Wee Jas' power to drain.

I think a great place to "insert" Lolth would be when they seek to capture Tiamat. Some lesser deity, struck down by the Fall, sees an opportunity to influence the elves. The elves may not know who this deity is (though a few might become her 'chosen') but She gains worship and power by following her dogma. It might not be that Lolth needs "restoring" but instead wants to gain the power of another god to excel her to an over-deity.

And somewhere in there Corellian Lorethian should be around. Enslaved elves might hope for one day their race returning to a natural state and life returning. I'm not sure what Corellian's form should be..hell, he could have been "devoured" or "captured" by Lolth's minions?

[marcielle]

Sorry, my undestanding of Lolth comes from Drizzit books and forgoten realms in general so I pretty much has just achieved a confusions.:smallfrown:

Hextor: An ambitious new dictator aims for the top
Fatih remnant: When chips are down and heroes are knocking at your door, even bad guys need someone to pray to.
Restoration: Haldor, one of the up and coming tyrants is in deep. Up start lieutenants and the Isle of Steel Knights both want him dead. The necromancer he usually deal with are starting a big project and have temporarily withdrawn their help. Even assailed from all sides, his he still manages not only to keep his tyranny intact but expand as well through sheer resourcefullness and cunning. Other tyrants see him as a threat and are banding against him. Lately he has his sights set on one of the greatest cities to survive the Fall. However, hemight have bitten off even more than HE can handle.
Haldor is a god-blooded. A descendant of mortals specifically altered by Hextor. As he grows in power, so does Hextor. Help him take over the city and destroy his enemies to restore the Champion of Evil.

This is your chance to try out BIG battles. If you aren't comfortable with large scale combat, have the players help prepare Haldors new troops or sabotage the enemies. Maybe even directly assasinate his competition if you have a REALLY sneaky party.

[McQ]

My original thought was to have Hextor play a big role in the Isle of Steel. The opposite to the knights would be the large number of defeated bandits and thugs dejected out of society. I think of Malagant from the movie First Knight. This Haldor would really need to be up there in the evil and slaughtering aspect to catch Hextor's attention. This guy needs to be practically ruling the whole country, oppressing the masses with small patches of rebellion.

So my thought is we move him to what is called the Isle of Stone. The Isle of Stone is based off of a medieval China. And your character Haldor would be perfect as a Qin Shi Huang (the first Emperor of China) that was very brutal. This diminishes your idea of him being in some trouble, but I needed something in the Isle of Stone anyway.

As far as the idea for the city that needs to be conquered, I think it would be awesome if this ruthless dictator made a pact with Hextor requiring he overthrow this ancient holy city. Have you ever seen the movie Forbidden Kingdom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forbidden_Kingdom)? Now this character is based sorta on the Jade Warlord. He fits the bill pretty well.

There are these holy places (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotto-heavens) in China that are grottoes, the Jade Warlord might be required to take control of each of these? That or something to do with the Eight Immortals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Immortals)?

Taking control of the grottoes/holy sites would allow passage to the Forbidden Kingdom. There, an ancient dragon resides in slumber, possibly based on the Jade Emperor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Emperor) or one of the tons of Chinese Dragons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon) out there?

..And I will admit while typing this I couldn't help but think of Dragon ball.:smallbiggrin:

What sounds best to you? I might want things complex if this has been taking place for some time. Or just a nice simple version with just the Forbidden Kingdom/City, and one giant sleeping dragon who is a source of divine ascension?

[Xtomjames]

See Divine Minion...if the gods are fallen then why can't someone just pick up a piece by accident and gain part of their power sort to speak.

[McQ]

That's a good point about people just happening upon divine power. But I'm kind of going off of the idea that worship grants Gods their power, so without the Gods being able to grant favor or empower followers, their praise won't spread and increase.

I plan to have quite a few that randomly have divine power here and there. Some are picked specifically by a God aware of Their need of a companion to restore them. Others just happen upon it and might eventually figure out where their mysterious powers have come from.

[Fable Wright]

Hm... I hope this helps.


Hextor
Avatar: A heavy, spiked, intelligent black iron crown
Restoration: The bearer of the crown must seize control of an existing empire, and get the populace to accept him, or at least not revolt.
Faith Remnants: Everyone who has prayed for power over another has powered Hextor with their plea.
Divine Favor: Those who rise through the ranks within the prescribed laws, who need aid in rising to the top, will find their efforts surprisingly fruitful. Moreso than they expected.

Vecna
Avatar: A great black wraith, passing silently through the night, listening to secrets and keeping them.
Restoration: One must live their whole life with a secret that they have told no one, and that no one knows of, taking it to the grave with them. They must be risen as an undead, and in the corpse, Vecna will be reborn from that secret.
Faith Remnants: With every prayer to keep a secret, and for every one to find and exploit one, Vecna is empowered.
Divine Favor: Those who pray for vengeance against one who betrayed their secrets do indeed once again find their secrets safe... though the betrayer and those who heard the Deadly Secret are not.

[navar100]

Vecna could return to his Hand and Eye. However, having both is not enough to restore Vecna. This time there really is a Head of Vecna. A person with the Hand and Eye would need to be decapitated and the Head placed on top of his body.

[marcielle]

There are these holy places (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotto-heavens) in China that are grottoes, the Jade Warlord might be required to take control of each of these? That or something to do with the Eight Immortals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Immortals)?

The funny part is I'M CHINESE!
Yeah I know the Imortals but I've never watched this movie. There are actualy TONS of these guys(imortals, not affliated with that group). These guys are the Taoist equivalent of demigods. They achieve imortality generally through sheer force of awesome. Sometimes they are Gods who willingly took the trappings of mortal form to help humans or go on to become full Gods.
They might not be affected by the times of troubles as bad as regular gods since they normally don't do much and are have more the 'thanks for the inspiration' type of worshippers. So long as humans can still come up with ideas or brew good wine and stuff like that, they should receive a steady stream of worship, time of troubles or no. They would make interesting minibosses. I can just imagine this: 'You deal 10000 damage to the imortal...he's still fine. He's an IMORTAL.'

Also, I'm lovin wraith-Vecna. He could be buddies with Nerull-lich.:smallbiggrin:

[McQ]

LOL! Should have referred to you rather than spending an hour on the net looking up history of china:smalltongue:

I really like the idea of the Vecna ghost/wraith too. But I was thinking of going a step further. What if it's not just a wraith, but a wraith the size of a fog/cloud that can consume a whole city at times? I'm thinking of something like in Ravenloft. It randomly travels, and only rumors exist of towns being surrounded in darkness. Vecna would pretty much just soak up secrets. I think maybe He'd have something to do with punishing people that do not retain a pledge to secrecy.

I like the idea of the parts of Vecna: the eye and hand; but I was thinking of letting those be his tokens of favor to a few mortals. I thought something great would be a secret even Vecna cannot seem to discover (thus His traveling), His name. *PAH* Did that blow your mind?!:xykon:
Vecna's secrecy and elusive followers came back to haunt Him. Now practically no one knows of Him, and there is next to nothing written or stories of His existence.

Going back to Hextor, I really liked the crown idea. Chinese Emperor's didn't seem to have much in the way of crowns, they look more like a piece of cardboard balanced on the top of the head with beads hanging down from it, or a tiny black cap in the hair. Now..in my Japanese based 8 Wind Empire, I wanted to have samurai and their awesome masks, however, since all those guys are monstrous humanoids, it'd kind of be redundant to give them scary monster masks (unless the masks were ugly humans).

So! I looked into some of the Chinese Opera masks. And I'm thinking Hextor could take the form of a very scary, brutal monstrous mask. It would shift it's facial expressions, and speak to the wearer. Thus the evil warlord would be even more terrifying.

I also like the idea of the Immortals. Ageless beings that don't interfere as much as deities would, in fact they may only be around for the players to ask questions about. I was thinking that the Forbidden Kingdom itself grants Godhood to whomever takes the thrown. As as the current Emperor is a sleeping dragon (possibly too deeply to wake), there is Hextor's chance to ascend back to godhood.

What do you think of that guys?

[McQ]

Here's an update on the God's I've finished. I could still use a hand.
I have a vague idea of what I'm looking for, but can't really grasp a solid idea.

Bahamut
Avatar: A mechanical dragon in the gnomish homeland.
Restoration: Bahamut's divine essence resides within a cog on the plane of Mechanus.
Faith Remnants: Gnomish pilots pray to the "Great Breath" for favorable weather. Gnomish Droids believe in a benevolent "Maker" that protects.
Divine Favor: A festival of air of the gnomes involves flying kites, floating balloons, and firing off rockets; this wind worship grants fair weather.

Boccob
Avatar: A Zeitgeist (Cityscape) library of all magical knowledge.
Restoration: Missing pages of a tome within the library must be returned in and placed in a particular order.
Faith Remnants: Believers in magical energy in all things emanating from and reverting to a divine source.
Divine Favor: There is a tradition to place a particular sigil within a book, library, or place where magic is studied; this causes magical power to amplify.

Corellon Larethian
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Ehlonna
Avatar: Immense glowing trees situated in multiple groves where a spirit of night and a spirit of day spawn from alternating groves.
Restoration: The spirits must be made to meet in one grove/tree.
Faith Remnants: The Isle of Wood worship a "Great Mother" as the giver of life to plants and animals.
Divine Favor: When the seedling sprouts, a newborn is birthed, or Spring arrives, a prayer is made in thanks of the "Great Mother" whom grants a blessing of a healthy life.

Erythnuul
Avatar: Multiple Monsters of Legend.
Restoration: Each beast must be slain, increasing the vicious and veracious nature of each remaining until a final form (Terrasque?) remains.
Faith Remnants: Many barbaric cultures worship a particular beast as their totem, mimicking the ferocity of its' brutality and nature.
Divine Favor: When ferocity and carnage rage within ones blood, nothing will hinder their desire to slaughter everything.

Fharlanghn
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Garl Glittergold
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Gruumsh
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Heironeous
Avatar: A patchwork of crested shields to form one large shield.
Restoration: Retrieving various pieces of armor from legendary heroes of virtue.
Faith Remnants: Knights of the Isle of Steel follow a code of honor dependent on chivalry and virtue. Some humans believe all bad deeds done will be met with retribution at the hands of a nemesis.
Divine Favor: Virtuous deeds done despite fear might receive a Calling to pursue the life dedicated to righteous actions, glory, honor, valor and tempered with a will to face any evil.

Hextor
Avatar: A grimacing mask with intelligence that instills a desire for total conquest upon the wearer.
Restoration: When a Warlord wearing the Mask of Hextor defeats the Jade Emperor and ascends to the Throne.
Faith Remnants: When a General, Warlord, or King triumphs in warfare, trophies of flesh and bone taken in battle are given to Qi Yu, the God of Rain, for continued victory.
Divine Favor: The power hungry enslave the subjugated weak and destroy the obstructing strong, the zealous find their grasp of dominance strengthened.

Kord
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Lolth
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Moradin
Avatar: A colossal statue of metal and stone standing dormant deep within the earth.
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: Dwarves that craft by hand rather than with machinery believe that changing raw material to the final form instill their family heritage; this belief is kept by those that still believe in their creator "The Blacksmith."
Divine Favor: A lifetime devoted to the mastering of a craft will galvanize the hands of the maker to create a relic at the epitome of the items perfection.

Nerull
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Obad-Hai
Avatar: Four massive elementals of Air, Fire, Water and Earth traverse the world.
Restoration: Each elemental must be destroyed to release it's divine essence, but in so doing the destroyed elemental bolsters the other remaining until one final form exists.
Faith Remnants: Many agriculturists worship the seasons and the changing of nature. Witches believe the world's fundamental components are the four elements: Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Some tribes view the world not as good and evil, but that these concepts are a balance of nature.
Divine Favor: Living in harmony with nature, whether refraining from needless cultivation of natural resources, or a lifestyle within the wilderness, gives some a strong bond with nature.

Olidammara
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Pelor
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

St. Cuthbert
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Tiamat
Avatar: Her body is the massive skeletal remains of a great dragon that encircles of the Isle of Ash.
Restoration: The divine energy of Tiamat has been captured and imbued into the bones of her body, these bones are grafted into many Dark Elves as living armor and all must be returned to restore her.
Faith Remnants: Trolls within the Wilds worshiped a giant sea serpent that was to devour the world, but it was killed by the Dark Elves. Dark Elves believe the remnants of the dragon around their island granted them their immortality but stole their ability to procreate.
Divine Favor: Dark Elves undergo a ceremony where a sliver of bone is placed into the marrow of their skeleton, granting them the ability to alter their flesh.

Vecna
Avatar: A massive fog of shadow and negative energy.
Restoration: Vecna must acquire his True Name.
Faith Remnants: When oaths are sworn, vowing silence of a dire secret, the swearer pledges that their left hand be severed and left eye be plucked if they renege their promise. In the Isle of Ash, flesh can be replaced, and souls recalled, but only memories perish; the noble might have all their lifetimes worth of memories, the servant only one lifetime, and the slave might only retain a single memory; but it is whispered that the shadows know and remember all.
Divine Favor: Those that seek the secrets of others and reveal none of their own, will hear a feint voice whispering in their mind.

Wee Jas
Avatar: Three parts exist of Wee Jas; a red headed girl unaware of her powers, a necromancer woman raising undead wherever she goes, and a red gem of incredible magical power that corrupts.
Restoration: All three parts of Wee Jas must be merged.
Faith Remnants: Witches of the Isle of Salt worship the Goddess as the mother of magic and the loving embrace of death. The Priestess of the Isle of Ash is said to be the divine epitaph of Wee Jas.
Divine Favor: Prayers asked on the New or Full moons are answered. Prayers to ease the dying are given a merciful death.

Yondalla
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Here are the Gods I haven't finished and some notes on my thoughts thus far about them. Quite a few I have a vague direction, but a general idea of what I'd like to do with them.

Corellon Larethian: Since the elves are now drow, the usual morals and merits of the elf put forth by Corellian no longer are upheld. He would especially despise the treatment of elves enslaving their kin. The closest to "real" elves are the aquatic ones, but they've their own set of deities. Also, there used to be wood elves, but they've all been turned into animal spirits.

Fharlanghn: I just know he'd be some being that travels a lot. His ideals are followed by the Halflings with their flying ships and a desire to explore. I was thinking of a floating island (maybe giant turtle? sorta like in dr doolittle?) or some flying thing that flocks with migrating birds?

Garl Glittergold: Gnomes at present are largely based on a Victorian culture. So they're far more punctilious than they used to be. He might be more free spirited than that? I had an idea to make him a clockwork machine, but that's already been done with Bahamut.

Gruumsh: The 8 Wind Empire is made up of orcs and goblinoids and other monstrous humanoids and is based on Feudal Japan. They have an Emperor that is regarded as their deity; He requires each eight sections war amongst themselves. I could make this guy Gruumsh, but I thought of Him as a Storm Giant first (since the Wind idea)

Kord: I think of his worshippers as being laborers and the working class, mainly in the Royal Lands (loosely based on Revolutionary America/France/England)

Lolth: She's helped steer the ideals of the Elves from the Isle of Ash. Making them more backstabbing, power hungry, slavers and hedonistic.

Olidammara: There was a legendary character I made from the Gnomish World. He's a mix of V from V for Vendetta, Robin Hood, and The Joker. By day he's a clockwork mechanic/engineer. By night he's a thief stealing items in an attempt to mock the upper class; he's known as The Jester. I was back and forth about making The Jester Garl Glittergold. I know I wanted to have Olidammara have that bipolar duality represented in his masks; the frown and grin.

Pelor: I really have no idea about Pelor...there's almost too many options. A healer, a fighter of good, maybe just something of light?

St. Cuthbert: When I think of him I just think of scales. In a few of the human lands, because they are beyond the usual medieval setting, there does exist various judicial court systems. Can't think of much past that.

Yondalla: I mentioned before about Halflings being avid travelers and explorers. They have a central location, but they are away from that often. I thought Yondalla could have something to do with connecting them with home?

Hopefully I can still pick your brains for some ideas. Thanks :smallbiggrin:

[navar100]

Fharlanghan could be a road. It is one long road, with twists and turns, but is a single path than encircles the entire world, including under the sea, caverns, Down Below, highest mountain peak, etc. To restore Fharlanghan, someone must travel the entire road, encountering whatever they find along the way, until they have returned to their starting point.

That is what is learned to those who seek out the information. In truth, no one is supposed to return to their starting point. The Journey is never supposed to end. To truly restore Fharlanghan, X number of people must travel the road with the intent of restoring Fharlanghan but have their path diverted after traversing at least half way. Being killed doesn't count. They have to choose to take a different path and purpose by their own free will.

Anyone who does return to the starting point disappears and becomes one with the Road, i. e. Fharlanghan.

[marcielle]

Navar that is awesome.

The FAR road.

Anyway, on to Garl

Garl Glittergold: A glittering reminder of better times.
Faith remnant: The gnomes pay homage to a statue of a gnome. He is now a relic of times gone by but still lives in their hearts like a favourite bedtime story.
Restoration: With Garl, the gnomes lost a lot. Their luck, like their mines, ran dry. Gone was their happy-go-lucky lifestyle. Where once they tinkered for fun and novelty, they are now doing so under great pressure to boost productivity whenever they can. With resources drying out, the gnomes had to toughen up or risk simply starving to death. An endless grind an constant threats reduced the once cheerful gnomes into mere drones. Help the gnomes find a better way of living. When the gnomes smile once more, the the Watchful Protector will shine once more.

This is meant to be a free challenge. Give them few clues and let their imagination fly. Will they look for a new area full of resources? Will they invent a new machine? Will they suggest an entirely new way of life? Just be prepared to ad lib FAST.

[McQ]

The Far Road is a kewl idea, but I'm slightly confused about how someone would succeed? When I read it, I envisioned a road that sort of teleported all these different places the further you went. I sorta think of Quantum Leap, maybe the road transports you as you're sleeping. The Far Road isn't a particular road, it's ANY road, and it in some way has some purpose for you to follow? I also thought of it as Jumanji, that you have to keep traveling the Road or it will cause problems.

Have an idea of where/how it could start?

I like the idea of Garl too; it made me think of some kind of festival? It could be basically like Mardi Gras and Carnival..but the Gnomes no longer celebrate it. It's not a "free challenge" where they can think of anything, but it would be easy and fun for the players to undertake trying to restore the tradition of the festival. I think there's also a "Carnival King" or something? That could be Garl.

[McQ]

Been a while since I've tried to work on this, but would like to revisit and try a little more brainstorming if everyone isn't tired of me yet.

Here's my work thus far:
Bahamut
Avatar: A mechanical dragon in the gnomish homeland.
Restoration: Bahamut's divine essence resides within a cog on the plane of Mechanus.
Faith Remnants: Gnomish pilots pray to the "Great Breath" for favorable weather. Gnomish Droids believe in a benevolent "Maker" that protects. Aerial creatures believe that a war raged in the skies between flying creatures of night and day, that the moon and sun chase eachother to battle and hurricanes, tornadoes and lightning storms are is them clashing.
Divine Favor: A festival of air of the gnomes involves flying kites, floating balloons, and firing off rockets; this wind worship grants fair weather.

Boccob
Avatar: A Zeitgeist (Cityscape) library of all magical knowledge.
Restoration: Missing pages of a tome within the library must be returned in and placed in a particular order.
Faith Remnants: Believers in magical energy in all things emanating from and reverting to a divine source.
Divine Favor: There is a tradition to place a particular sigil within a book, library, or place where magic is studied; this causes magical power to amplify.

Corellon Larethian
Avatar: At times the apparition appears as an elven ghost, other times as a shadowy phantom, and some times as a wisp of light.
Restoration: In the barren land of Ash the elves cannot reproduce, however one will immaculately conceive the reincarnation of the God.
Faith Remnants: Elves of the servant class retain no memory of their society before death and shadow claimed their land, but clandestine whispers in the dark spread rumor of their race's former glory.
Divine Favor: Gestures of benevolence within the abject elves despite prevalent and conditioned apathy will reminisce past lives.

Ehlonna
Avatar: Immense glowing trees situated in multiple groves where a spirit of night and a spirit of day spawn from alternating groves.
Restoration: The spirits must be made to meet in one grove/tree.
Faith Remnants: The Isle of Wood worship a "Great Mother" as the giver of life to plants and animals.
Divine Favor: When the seedling sprouts, a newborn is birthed, or Spring arrives, a prayer is made in thanks of the "Great Mother" whom grants a blessing of a healthy life.

Erythnuul
Avatar: Multiple Monsters of Legend.
Restoration: Each beast must be slain, increasing the vicious and veracious nature of each remaining until a final form (Terrasque?) remains.
Faith Remnants: Many barbaric cultures worship a particular beast as their totem, mimicking the ferocity of its' brutality and nature.
Divine Favor: When ferocity and carnage rage within ones blood, nothing will hinder their desire to slaughter everything.

Fharlanghn
Avatar: A Web of Ley Lines.
Restoration: A foreign being able to survive teleporting the web and returning to their point of origin.
Faith Remnants: Begining a journey often consists of prayer at a shrine for safe travel; on a shrine for roads the hub of a spoked wheel is touched, or for sailing shrine the center of a web made of ropes is grasped; this shrine also acts as a sign post and is often placed at an intersection. There are tales of nomadic gypsies able to transport their caravans by warping from one location to the next, they are fabled to possess some of the ley lines essence.
Divine Favor: Having faith that a higher power will direct ones steps will grant one a clear path free of obstruction and never find themselves lost.

Garl Glittergold
Avatar: A Phantasm within The Dreaming, the realm of all dreams.
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: In myth, the shaper of dreams is known as the Gatekeeper, ushering the sleeping to their nightmare or reverie, and is father of Glamours, the dreams within the Waking World known as Illusions. Legends tell of Rainbows being the bridge between the Material world and Fey Realm, and that at its' base the wee folk reside among treasures of gems. In gemcutting lore to gaze through the facet of a gem would reveal the unseen. Sprites and Fairies were beings of dreams charged with making Flora and Fauna, conceiving of many splendid and marvelous creatures they grew too fond to depart with.
Divine Favor: Artists and creators who find their vivid dreams forgotten in the waking world might be blessed with a glimpse of their dream in a vision.

Gruumsh ** Master of Stormgiant in 8WindEmpire
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Heironeous
Avatar: A patchwork of crested shields to form one large shield.
Restoration: Retrieving various pieces of armor from legendary heroes of virtue.
Faith Remnants: Knights of the Isle of Steel follow a code of honor dependent on chivalry and virtue. Some humans believe all bad deeds done will be met with retribution at the hands of an appropriate nemesis.
Divine Favor: Virtuous deeds done despite fear might receive a Calling to pursue the life dedicated to righteous actions, glory, honor, valor and are tempered with a will to face any evil.

Hextor
Avatar: An intelligent helm of black iron with face bearing a grimacing visage of shifting expression; any who don the helm are instilled with a desire for total conquest.
Restoration: When a Warlord wearing the Helm of Hextor ascends to the Throne of Emperor.
Faith Remnants: When a General or Warlord triumphs in warfare, trophies of flesh and bone taken in battle are given to shrines of Qi Yu, the Warlike God of Rain. Legends speak of sacred texts known as the Art of War, written by Sun Tzu, the texts are rumored to give any battle tactician absolute superiority.
Divine Favor: The power hungry enslave the subjugated weak and destroy the obstructing strong, the zealous find their grasp of dominance strengthened.

Kord ** Patron of the Labor Class
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Lolth ** The Isle of Ash Elves follow Lolth's teachings
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Moradin
Avatar: A colossal simulacrum statue of metal and stone standing dormant deep within the earth.
Restoration:
Faith Remnants: Dwarves that craft by hand rather than with machinery believe that changing raw material to the final form instill their family heritage; this belief is kept by those that still believe in their creator "The Blacksmith."
Divine Favor: A lifetime devoted to the mastering of a craft will galvanize the hands of the maker to create a relic at the epitome of the items perfection.

Nerull **
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Obad-Hai
Avatar: Four massive elementals of Air, Fire, Water and Earth traverse the world.
Restoration: Each elemental must be destroyed to release it's divine essence, but in so doing the destroyed elemental bolsters the other remaining until one final form exists.
Faith Remnants: Many agriculturists worship the seasons and the changing of nature. Witches believe the world's fundamental components are the four elements: Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Some tribes view the world not as good and evil, but that these concepts are a balance of nature.
Divine Favor: Living in harmony with nature, whether refraining from needless cultivation of natural resources, or a lifestyle within the wilderness, gives some a strong bond with nature.

Olidammara ** Mask/Mardi Gras/Dionysus
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Pelor **
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

St. Cuthbert **
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

Tiamat
Avatar: Her body is the massive skeletal remains of a great dragon that encircles of the Isle of Ash.
Restoration: The divine energy of Tiamat has been captured and imbued into the bones of her body, these bones are grafted into many Dark Elves as living armor and all must be returned to restore her.
Faith Remnants: Trolls within the Wilds worshiped a giant sea serpent that was to devour the world, but it was killed by the Dark Elves. Dark Elves believe the remnants of the dragon around their island granted them their immortality but stole their ability to procreate.
Divine Favor: Dark Elves undergo a ceremony where a sliver of bone is placed into the marrow of their skeleton, granting them the ability to alter their flesh.

Vecna
Avatar: A massive fog of shadow and negative energy.
Restoration: Vecna must acquire his True Name.
Faith Remnants: When oaths are sworn, vowing silence of a dire secret, the swearer pledges that their left hand be severed and left eye be plucked if they renege their promise. In the Isle of Ash, flesh can be replaced, and souls recalled, but only memories perish; the noble might have all their lifetimes worth of memories, the servant only one lifetime, and the slave might only retain a single memory; but it is whispered that the shadows know and remember all.
Divine Favor: Those that seek the secrets of others and reveal none of their own, will hear a feint voice whispering in their mind.

Wee Jas
Avatar: A Trinity of Wee Jas exists; The Maiden: a young girl with immense power lacking control or her own identity; The Mother: an extremely powerful necromancer raising the dead in her path; The Crone: a sentient ruby with godlike magical powers of destruction.
Restoration: All three parts of Wee Jas must be merged.
Faith Remnants: Witches of the Isle of Salt worship the Goddess as the mother of magic and the loving embrace of death. The Priestess of the Isle of Ash is said to be the divine steward of Wee Jas.
Divine Favor: Prayers asked on the New or Full moons are answered. Prayers to ease the dying are given a merciful death.

Yondalla ** Halfling Travel/Adventure/Exploration
Avatar:
Restoration:
Faith Remnants:
Divine Favor:

I'm still struggling with what to make some gods.

Pelor could be a creature of light, but is that too obvious? I also toyed with the idea of him being just a flame like the one in Rome. Maybe like a fire demon from Howls Moving Castle?

St Cuthbert I could only think of him being a Lawful Neutral Outsider, I think I read in some book there was a race of "bounty hunters"? Not sure where to look.

Yondalla I was thinking of making more like a deity of "home life," but can't really think of a physical thing to make her.

Nerull I kept toying with not making him a Lich because I felt it was too obvious, but it just keeps making sense. There are lots of undead, but a lich fits the bill for him pretty well. I kind of want to make him some kind of Grim Reaper aspect somewhere? Too cliche?

Gruumsh I actually was considering making him a Beholder, since the whole eye thing, or ripping off LotRs and making him a lidless eye suspended on/in something. I remember a well idea someone mentioned earlier, and thought that might be kewl. Since he's not quite in a physical form yet, he would be telling the Emperor of the 8 Wind Empire what to do.

Lolth as much as I want to make her something to do with spiders, I just can't quite bring myself to do it. I've had her in so many campaigns, and there's been all sorts of spider versions of her.

Olidammara I know I want to have as a mask, want to mix him in with a Mardi Gras celebration, and totally want to make him be a Bacchus/Dionysus god.

Kord I still can't think of much, I thought of Paul Bunyen<sp?> or maybe even some giant ox? A minotaur might be cool, but don't know where to put him. What would you think of him like John Henry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_%28folklore%29)? After his death, he soul went into the Hammer, which is the God now. OR how about Steel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Irons) from Marvel? I kind of like him as a super hero, but the idea of him being a hammer and a legend among laborers is a little kewler. Lots of men might say they even own his hammer, but the real thing might be in the hands of a superhero that goes by the name Steel?

So, as you can see, I could still use some help if anyone's willing. I'm trying to make the gods have a little more "domestic" meaning in their portfolios, mimicking the Greek Pantheon that a God not only has fantastic tales, but also plays a role in daily living in one way or another.

Help me Giants of the Playground, you're my only hope..,

[Biguds]

How about making Nerull a very persuasive cleric like Mason ?

He is a skiny man and his teachings are all leading true death to escape the sins and troubles of living in this era.

...just random ideas and bad gramar

[Alefiend]

Plot suggestion: Rather than having quests and actions to just bring back a particular god (or supplant it with a new one), arrange some of them into pairs. Restoring God X also restores God Y, and they are enemies. More importantly, God Y will return something to the world that the PCs really don't want, but God X is likely to provide a serious benefit—or is the patron of one of the PCs. They have to make a choice about sacrificing something they hold dear in order to ensure that an evil stays dead.

[navar100]

Perhaps obvious, but another line of thinking is to have each deity take the form of its opposite.

Heironeous is a guillotine in a despotic nation. To free Heironeous the tyrant leader must be beheaded by it.

Pelor is the night at midnight. To free Pelor the sun must be seen in the sky at midnight. (Note: unlike real Earth, there is no Land of the Midnight Sun like the poles at their respective summers.)

Kord is a sickly old man, begging in the streets. To free Kord, the old man must give his last food to an affluent obese person.

Hextor is a Holy Avenger. To free Hextor, its Paladin wielder must become a Blackguard.

Nerull is a spring with bountiful flora and fauna around it. To free Nerull a druid must destroy it. (Note: A Blighter or one who wants to becomes a Blighter does not count.)

Erythnul is a Pollyanna-type child, living in a happy home of a caring family who often do good works of charity. To free Erythnul, the child must murder his/her parents.

Vecna is a library, open to all who wish to study from its tomes. To free Vecna every page from the library must be incinerated. Of course, the library has loaned and donated many pages from its tomes to all corners of the world for a long time.

Boccob is a warrior mercenary who hires himself out to anyone in need. To free Boccob is to convince the mercenary to retire.

Wee Jas is a female wizard 8 months pregnant. To free Wee Jas she must cast Magic Missile against her newborn child. If that doesn't happen, she must wait until pregnant again then kill the newborn and the first child. Repeat as necessary.

Olidammara is a judge's hammer. To free Olidammara, the judge must lose the hammer in a bet.

Ehlonna is a lumberjack's axe. To free Ehlonna the axe must be crushed under the hoof of a unicorn, who have become extinct until Ehlonna's return.

Obadhai is the buildings of a great metropolis. To free Obadhai everyone in the city must voluntarily leave without knowing about Obadhai, of their own free will, and not because of any danger to the city. As far as the people are concerned, if they stay nothing bad would happen and their lives would continue their merry old way.

Farlanghan is an immovable rock. It cannot be moved physically, magically, or psionically. To free Farlanghan, move the rock a distance greater than its diameter. Length of diameter arbitrarily left undefined, i.e. it could be a boulder. It could be a mountain.

[McQ]

I like that idea Biguds, I think it'd be kewl to make him like the blind monk in Name of the Rose (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose_%28film%29). He could consider the events of the world now are signs of the end of days, and is influencing followers to end their lives.

Sounds like a kewl idea Alefiend, I definitely knew that the evil gods being brought back would cause some strife, but still be necessary. I think the order in which Gods are restored would matter to how one God would affect another. Meaning if you brought Ehlonna to life, there would be a great number of living creatures being born, and the environment could not handle the increase. So it would be necessary to revive Nerull to balance it out with death. I'm going to toy around with the idea.

Navar100 that's a pretty neat thought. I definitely like the idea of Pelor being some creature of darkness.

Thanks for the ideas, really just need some inspiration.

[marcielle]

Elder evils would be a nice book for this campaign. See if your player have it. There is an elder evil that literally causes a positive energy overflow into the material plane. You could use her as a chasis for Ehlonna or Obadhai if you go the corrupted route. There are also elder evils of Undeath, Chaos, Eternal Darkness and more specialized ones like the Mother of Monsters, Kyuss the lich of liches and Pandorym, the Psionic ANTI-GOD weapon. Also, bump for Nerull-lich.:smallwink:

[McQ]

I've been wanting to get my hands on that book for some time, and unfortunately none of my friends have it.

Had an idea for Pelor I wanted to run by you. A sundial, or possibly a larger version being Stonehenge? Problem is, while I've got the object, I can't think of anything all that spectacular to do with it. Sure, I could make it some holy site that heals people..but that doesn't seem overly fantastic.

Plus, that idea of Nerull being a lich is good, I wanted to make him a dracolich, but, I've already got a giant skeletal dragon. What massive creature would make a good lich? It can be sentient, but I don't want it to be moving around or being very active.

[marcielle]

Just make him a normal human-like lich. But GARGANTUAN. Say the cult of Nerull could not possibly fit all his divine power into a human sized body so they defiled an entire graveyard and melted the corpses together with a dark ritual. BUT, they messed up when it was time to recapture Nerulls power and it got lost/ intercepted/ stuck halfway in the Astral Sea. So, now he is a gargantuan lich without enough power to move his main body move. He could possess a smaller lich body if he absolutely NEEDS to do something in person, but at a significant risk cos he cannot channel a lot of his power through it and if the body is destroyed, he loses some more power. Also, make his cult's main headquarters a giant coffin housing the gargantuan body. An upright coffin. When he is restored, have the coffin open. He walks out of it and gets to business fixing anything that went wrong pertaining to his realm and then the body burst, releasing a giant shower of bones and rotted meat over the countryside as he ascends back to Celestia.

[marcielle]

If you have the cash, I sugest you get it. It would be awesome for almost ANY sort of campaign. Even if you don't want to use the Elders in the book, there are some very nice concepts, fluff for 3 diferrent styles of campaign settings and some useful mechanics such as anti-god powers of things from the far realms and Signs(which I personally LURVE).

[McQ]

You know I saw an undead construct that was an animated graveyard. Could level up the HD on that. I like the idea of him splitting off chunks of himself. His essence would be trapped in the Etheral Plane, and his only connection to the Material plane is this animated graveyard. With the various available body parts he can form nearly any undead creature and put his consciousness into it. It's a continous balance between Magical/Physical powers. Magical being his essence within the Etheral Plane, and Physical being his power within the Material Plane.

I could use a bit of help with the rules on this however. Let's say he has a pool of something like 20HD of Magic/Etheral, but can only begin with releasing 10HD into the Physical/Material. This means he can create any single 10HD or undead. The other 10HD can represent Prestige Classes and Templates to the undead creature. The ratio can shift between the Magic/Physical within the 20HD. The HD limit would gradually increase as he performed some tasks: A) maybe the more undead added to his graveyard? B) portals open to the Etheral Plane.

Does 1HD equate to 1 level of a Prestige Class? If I use a Template that is say, a +4 ECL, would that equate to 4HD?

Might be easier to simply say that his Etheral pool is endless (since it isn't too often anyone goes into the Etheral plane anyway) just the Physical amount he can put into the world is a limited HD.

[DoughGuy]

Perhaps if you wanted to add more free will into it you could allow your players to choose certain Gods to revive by destroying others.

For example using the weapons Heironeous needs to be restored to destroy Hextor's mask. Or, alternatively, the wearer of Hextors mask could eliminate the knightly order that follows Heironeous.

Of course these are not the only two options. The players could bring both Hextor and Heironeous back or just one.

Maybe for Lolth and Corellon Larethian the drow can be convinced to either give up their powerful magic (to restore Corellon Larethian) or evolve to a new lifeform using magic (to complete Lolths ascension).

Once again the players have these options or could bring both back.

This gives the PCs the opportunity to reshape the world as they see fit. However this may limit the PCs to only reviving good or bad Gods or lead to conflict if they are of opposite alignments.

For Pelor he could be an item that grants the user Supreme Turning and this must be used to destroy a powerful or extremely old undead.

This would also allow you to run Pelor against Nerull. Supreme Turning could be used to kill Nerull's lich body to restore Pelor or the item could be corrupted and absobed by Nerull to restore him to power.

[McQ]

I think the idea of Corellon and Lolth is a good one. Lolth might be the one holding Corellon's mortal body and stealing its power to give herself divine power. She's usually portrayed as a lesser deity that was able to ascend. Have any ideas on what her physical form could be at the moment? If she were humanoid, it'd be too likely for her to actually interact with others.

The drow are like the Tzmisce from Vampire Masquerade in their flesh crafting, Lasombra for their use of shadow magic, and the Giovanni for their use of necromancy.

In the Isle of Ash where the Drow/elves are, there is very little room on the island itself. The terrain sustains no life, and in fact is very dangerous to travel. So the drow built immense obelisks to act as portals into independent dimensions within the shadow plane. In these dimensions they build enormous mansions the size of towns or even cities.

Also, the drow aren't ageless anymore, or immortal. What they do instead is have magic to alter flesh to keep a body young. Because of the enchantment upon the island, the dead's souls do not depart. They instead are left to linger the land and cannot leave. And since nothing can procreate in the land, they have to recycle citizens. To do this when someone dies they capture the spirit, revive their previous body and the person is "reborn" but retains none of their past life memories. The elite have their own personal "revivers" they entrust to keep memories and transfer the soul; a household group takes care of reviving the servants like a stable hand might care for livestock.

Most are servants and in their rebirth they lose their memories, but as their status rises in class they have the power to retain more. The highest class of elves have kept all their past life memories and also manage to live longer from bodily alteration then others. A terrible punishment can consist of trapping a departed soul within an undead (often mindless) body.

So as you can tell, murder isn't that much of an issue, but memory is the currency of power. This is where I think Lolth would impart her influence. If nothing else, she would encourage trade of important memories for power. She's of course give a devil's bargain.

[McQ]

Had a change of heart over Nerull I could use a hand with. Are any of you familiar with Tal Rasha/Baal in Diablo 2? Well, I want to keep the idea of Nerull being able to create custom undead with a limit that steadily increases. And as much as I liked the idea of a giant animated graveyard, it doesn't quite have enough flair I think. Or at least, I'd like to save the terrifying concept of a whole cemetery able to move until Nerull builds more power.

This is where Tal Rasha/Baal come in. The soulstone containing Baal is jammed into Tal Rasha, a powerful wizard, to imprison Baal in an eternal struggle. Eventually it's evident Baal is certainly twisting and corrupting Tal Rasha, but still trapped him until the soulstone was removed.

So, involving Nerull, this same concept of a soulstone trapping Him would be the cause for his limited ability to manifest undead into the material plane.

I could use some help thinking of a being that would be the vessel of the soulstone. I doubt this being could even be mortal, but I'm not sure I want it to be another god. Perhaps a Celestial that is gradually becoming corrupted?

Also, I was thinking this prison could exist within the Etheral plane. Nerull would have immense power, but be unable to traverse the Etheral.

Here's another place I could use some help. I was thinking of if Nerull could animate an Undead creature (limits that gradually increase still applied) into either ANY graveyard..or perhaps only a graveyard with a gateway to the Etheral.

I'm not sure how to determine what graveyard is allowed, though. Since there aren't many worshipers of Nerull specifically, He wouldn't have followers voluntarily creating portals. Though..there are worshipers of Toldoth, that by performing rituals, might accidentally be creating portals?

Trying to iron out the wrinkles in the plot of this, help would be greatly appreciated.

[DoughGuy]

That is a good idea. Perhaps every the old temples of Nerull sites stil have a weak connection to the god. This connection desecrates the place and so have become the dumping grounds for criminals when they die. When Nerull wishes to make an undead he animates one of the corpses on the site and empowers it.

For the soulstone on Nerull maybe have the actual stone trapped in a powerful blackguard who was granted immortality by it.

I seem to remember there being a group of monsters who enforce the laws of the universe (e.g. there is one who hunts down those who cheat death repeatedly or try to become immortal). If you find out what they are you could make St Cuthbert's avatar their home building or something of the like.

Heres my idea for Pelor
Avatar: Icon that grants the wearer supreme turning (a much better version of greater turning)
Faith Remnant: Some clerics still believe that the undead must be cleansed from the earth. They believe the sun is the true power in the world.
Restoration: There in the world exist powerful undead that walk in the daylight unfearful of its power. Destroy these 5 undead to instill the fear of the sun back into the forces of undead and to restore Pelor.
Divine Favor: Those who still believe in the suns power find themselves to have power to make undead fear them and more easily destroyed.

[Biguds]

How about making Nerull gaining more power "stealing death" from the living.
His spark is inside a healer loved by everyone, famous for removing all diseases and wounds [and eating then, becoming more powerfull]... plus, he need a constante amount of "death" to simply walk, and much more to empower himself.

[You can put a cristal soulstone in his chest to :smalltongue:]

And, at last, when Nerull ego wins the strungle, the healer becomes Mason :smallbiggrin:

[Aergoth]

Pelor
Avatar: Pelor is a fallen lantern archon, currently imprisoned in a cavern somewhere, in a prison made of something shadowy and nigh-impossible to break.
Restoration: Pelor's avatar and it's prison must be brought to the highest point in the land (a mountain, an absurdly tall monument, bonus points if it's called something like "The Tor of the Unconquered Sun") by hand (no magic) and break his prison as the first rays of dawn strike it with a golden mace.
Faith Remnants: Prayers for light in a dark place, courage against the darkness and strength against the undead or corruption, and appeals for mercy or compassion all empower Pelor
Divine Favor: Pelor's favour allows any source of light, magical or mundane, to burn from dusk till dawn during the coldest, darkest nights of winter.

St. Cuthbert:
Avatar: St. Cuthbert is a thief-catcher, bounty hunter or a watchman of some description, with a positively massive mustache, that specializes in using a mace. Cuthbert fights those who exploit or transgress against the helpless or weak, and teaches the weak and helpless to fend for themselves. He continually quotes bits of wisdom. ("teach a man to fish...")
Restoration: Purge the corruption from the lawgivers/bringers (town watch, the military, judges...) of a corrupt large city or metropolis, and install a rightful and just ruler in the same settlement.
Faith Remnants: Prayers for strength, righteous justice or vengeance, and acts of standing up against the corrupt empower St. Cuthbert.
Divine Favor: Those who set themselves against lawbreakers, particularly evil lawbreakers, will find their arms strengthened to righteous justice.

Edit:

Olidammara ** Mask/Mardi Gras/Dionysus
Avatar: Olidammara is an extravagant festival mask worn by the highest authority during a large festival that lasts several nights.
Restoration: Someone must steal the Mask at the beginning of the festival, don it and evade capture for the duration of the festival, without removing the mask or leaving the region in which the festival occurs (town boundaries or what-have-you).
Faith Remnants: Merriment, bards singing songs, tavern ditties, tricks, pranks and acts of supreme audacity all empower Olidammara
Divine Favor: Olidammara grants fragments of grace and luck to those attempting feats of great daring, and takes the same from the overconfident.

[McQ]

Awesome ideas you guys, really appreciate it.

Here's my thought on what you've said about Nerull thus far.

An Undying Saint Champion stabs the Soulstone of Nerull into their chest. The Champion is placed in a cemetery where great heroes are laid to rest, though now it is forgotten and the Champion's hold over the Soulstone is waning.

Nerull's essence is all held within the Etheral Plane, the Soulstone acts as the only passage into the Material Plane for Him. With the Champion's hold waning, Nerull is able to release steadily more power into the Material Plane, but is limited to what and who he can affect.

Murderers' corpses are what he can currently animate and control. Their grave becomes a small portal where negative energy leaks out and corrupts, defiling the immediate area. The murderers are sent to kill other murderers, returning them to their original burial location to empower the energy erupting from the site.

As these locations increase in size and number, so does Nerull's ability to transfer more of himself into the Material Plane. In so doing, he is steadily overcoming the Champion's will. But also, His influence is increasing within the crypt of the cemetery that is their prison. Gradually more of the heroes within the cemetery can fall into his control. The grave dirt, the tombstones, each rock and plant, and even the shadows are being twisted and imbued with Nerull's essence. These things become His new body, animating and acting as his Material vessel.

[McQ]

For Pelor I like the idea of him being a "fallen archon." Somehow I pictured Him looking like Tyrael from Diablo 2. But I also had this idea of involving Stonehenge, since it has connections with solar calendar. Any idea on how to combine the two?

Ya, I saw that thing about the "Law Hunters" too, I think they're called Inevitables? Would certainly make sense to make St. Cuthbert that. I think they originate from Mechanus? I'm thinking I'd like to include some grand judicial court somewhere? A Sentient Judge with an Inevitable for various infractions. His decisions reflect how Good/Evil might need to retain balance? Because I doubt he'd go after a pickpocket, but I'm not sure what would grab his attention? If you think about basic laws of nature...maybe he enforcers those?
The dead should remain dead, so He might punish too-powerful necromancers?
If that's the case, all the Drow on the Isle of Ash would be screwed.

Here's a thought though..he sent out some orders, and the Inevitables sent out (I think I'll use the three shown, unless anyone knows of more?), level their HD to be bad ass. They no longer have a connection to the "higher court"

[DoughGuy]

Maybe the Inevitables didn't exist before the fall and all three are parts of St Cuthberts Avatar. You must complete help each complete a task far beyond its power to restore St Cuthbert.

For Pelor he is a fallen lantern archon who has been corrupted by the evil of a stonehenge like place and only appears on certain days on a solar calender. The stonehenge must be cleansed with the help of a lantern archon on one of those days.

[Grendus]

Moradin: Being a very traditional soul at heart, and having built strong ties with his worshipers during his time as a god, Moradin continues his role as an adviser and protector of the dwarves after his banishment.

Current form: An Elder Fire Elemental. Moradin takes refuge in the forges of the dwarves capital, providing the dwarves with an eternal source of immense heat to power their forges. Dwarves who maintain their faith in Moradin often find that working the forges clears their mind and that their craftswork is of uncannily high quality, even for dwarves.

Remnants of indirect worship: Being a traditionally minded society, many dwarves still pray to Moradin even after his fall. However, more commonly smiths and stonemasons of all races pray to the "High Forgewright" to imbue their hands with skill and their crafts with quality. It isn't uncommon for generals or other military men (especially dwarves) to pray to the "Spirit General" as well, though those prayers are mostly asking that he watch over their siege engines and soldiers equipment and prevent it from failing at a critical moment in battle.

Tasks to restore the god to his divine power: During the early days of the Time of Troubles, Moradin's body was sundered by Gruumsh, forcing him into this elemental form. Before he can reascend, Moradin's body will need to be reforged, which will require the tools Moradin used eons ago when he first forged the dwarves. These tools remain locked safely in the forge on his private plane, which is now overrun with demons in the gods absence. The key (required to safely Plane Shift to this realm) lies at the heart of the forge, guarded by the dwarves and Moradin himself.

An occasion when the divine power of the god is tapped: At least once in their life, every dwarf will attempt to make the journey to the forge where Moradins spirit resides and craft something, believing it contains a fragment of the Soul Forgers spirit (particularly devout dwarves will attempt it once every few decades). The most common craft is a hammer or iron holy symbol, but more artistically inclined dwarves occasionally make statues or even entire murals of iron or stone. The remnants of the Church of Moradin collect a small tithe from the pilgrims and sell them materials (though they will provide stones for the poor to work free of charge), allowing them considerably more financial leverage than many of the remaining churches of the fallen gods.

[Aergoth]

For Pelor I like the idea of him being a "fallen archon." Somehow I pictured Him looking like Tyrael from Diablo 2. But I also had this idea of involving Stonehenge, since it has connections with solar calendar. Any idea on how to combine the two?


So change Avatar to: Fallen Justicator (MM3), bound by a circle of stone menhirs in valley between mountains that the sun does not reach. The valley should not be easily attained by any magical means. Pelor's Avatar cannot leave the circle.

Restoration: Natural sunlight (magical equivalents will not suffice) must strike the circle in such a way as to eliminate all shadows cast by the stones and by Pelor's Avatar

[McQ]

I appreciate the help Grendus, but I've already got Moradin fairly figured out. Thanks though, I think I'll keep some of those ideas in mind if I want to add some more.

On my thought about the Pelor/Stonehenge/Fallen Justicator idea, I think the Stonehenge having no light is a pretty good idea. I was trying to think of a way to include important Solar dates (Solstices especially). There might be a problem there if I allow no sunlight into the area. However, I was toying with the idea of making Pelor a vampire as well as the Fallen Justicator. The Stonehenge structure, once used to worship Him, was used to capture and corrupt Him by now long since dead evil magic users.

Would be really cool to some how have a Dark Sun that is the source of Pelor's corruption, and even mimics the movements of the real sun. So I'd really like to make an awesome reason why the Stonehenge is in darkness, more than just mountains, but some great construction to block the sky.

Really like the idea of the festival with mask, creating that King/Jester polarity. When someone dons the mask on that day, it might even change all those in costume into what they are dressed as? The mask will turn the wearer into a Satyr, and grant them amazing powers. There used to be a tradition that the King always wore a particular mask, and for that day He would have no Royal power, and instead the people would be given freedom to do just about anything.

Now, He's supposed to simply evade capture? Could there be a little elaboration? I guess He could just run out causing crazy Joker-like chaos, and that might make some want to capture Him. I guess I'd like like a little more than just that. I don't have many ideas of exactly what to do with it..

[Aergoth]

There's an old English tradition of the Lord of Misrule (dates back to Saturnailia, appropriated for early Chirstmas) where the people appoint a sacrificial "king" to rule over the Feast of Fools (essentially, lots of drinking, lots of merriment well beyond the usual standards) at the end of the feast, the Lord of Misrule is killed, the romans did this in sort of an effigy since the Lord of Misrule for them was supposed to represent Saturn.

So, a quick revision means that the mask is not worn by the king, but typically by some poor bastard, chosen by lot (for the luck and randomness) is made to wear the mask. For that one night, the person who wears the mask begins to look like Olidammara, and begins to try to escape the festivities. Typically, the role has been rigged (drugged wine, tied to his chair, flanked by guard and what-have you). If "Olidammara" is not killed by the feast's end, he reincarnates (separate of the wearer of the mask). If the mask is not worn, it moves somewhere else, so the act of wearing the mask and sacrificing this particular aspect of the god ensures that it remains dormant and in the possession of whoever has it. Thus you have a reason that they try to catch the mask-wearer, and a reason for the time limit.

[McQ]

Don't know why I didn't think of the Lord of Misrule before! :smalltongue: It's practically tailor made for this. There's also a tradition during Lughnasadh involving the "corn god," or "wheat lord" that has much association with the Wicker Man.

In the campaign I think I'll do something like this: in years past the Lord of Misrule was no longer being sacrificed, often being replaced with a harvest grain figure to represent the symbolic death of the Lord of Misrule. This was mainly due to the fact that new religious practices swept through the land and saw sacrifice as barbaric, but also because technology replaced mysticism. However, a resurgence of the 'old ways' have been growing popular, and while many do not feel it necessary to make human sacrifice, some extremists have plotted to ensure the ritual be carried out and are looking for a likely candidate.

The small group wanting to commit the sacrifice have a lot of political power within the area. And though their intention was to have the sacrifice occur in the giant wicker effigy, and put the chosen being within unbeknownst to the public. Things do not go according to plan, where the chosen person comes in contact with the Mask, and is chased during the festivities accused of being a criminal.

Kinda works out fairly well, and could be an exciting fast-paced game session where the PCs may or may not be aware of what is truly going on. THeir purpose might be to stop the small group. But I was also thinking..of somehow figuring in some way how this small group is also trying to assassinate the king. Like there is some tradition that if the sacrifice occurs, the King may also be killed? Dunno..just to make this small group a little more devious.

[McQ]

Here's what I've got so far, again.

Bahamut
Avatar: A mechanical dragon in the gnomish homeland.
Restoration: Bahamut's divine essence resides within a cog on the plane of Mechanus.
Faith Remnants: Gnomish pilots pray to the "Great Breath" for favorable weather. Gnomish Droids believe in a benevolent "Maker" that protects. Aerial creatures believe that a war raged in the skies between flying creatures of night and day, that the moon and sun chase eachother to battle and hurricanes, tornadoes and lightning storms are is them clashing. A festival of air celebrated by the gnomes involves flying kites, floating balloons, and firing off rockets.
Divine Favor: Strengthening respiration will lighten the burdens of the world.

Boccob
Avatar: A Zeitgeist (Cityscape) library of all magical knowledge.
Restoration: Missing pages of a tome within the library must be returned in and placed in a particular order.
Faith Remnants: Believers in magical energy in all things emanating from and reverting to a divine source. There is a tradition to place a particular sigil within the cover of a book, the entrance to a library, or a school of magic.
Divine Favor: Wizards who embrace magic rather than attempt to control it, find their spells amplified.

Corellon Larethian
Avatar: An apparition appearing as an elven ghost, other times as a shadowy phantom, and some times as a wisp of light.
Restoration: In the barren land of Ash the elves cannot reproduce, however one will immaculately conceive the reincarnation of the God.
Faith Remnants: Elves of the servant class retain no memory of their society before death and shadow claimed their land, but clandestine whispers in the dark spread rumor of their race's former glory. Many musicians tell tales of hearing requiems weeping through their instruments and has become a confirmation of ones talent to have what is referred to as a "Lamenting Aria."
Divine Favor: Gestures of benevolence within the abject elves despite prevalent and conditioned apathy will reminisce past lives.

Ehlonna
Avatar: Immense glowing trees situated in multiple groves where a spirit of night and a spirit of day spawn from alternating groves.
Restoration: The spirits must be made to meet in one tree's grove.
Faith Remnants: The Isle of Wood worship a "Great Mother" as the giver of life to plants and animals. Felling or harvesting Sacred Trees require permission and compensation. When the seedling sprouts, a newborn is birthed, or Spring arrives, a prayer is made in thanks of the "Great Mother."
Divine Favor: Planting trees, refraining from harming sproutlings, and mending hurt animals of the forest will allow safe passage through the woods.

Erythnuul
Avatar: Multiple Monsters of Legend.
Restoration: Each beast must be slain, increasing the vicious and veracious nature of each remaining until a final form remains.
Faith Remnants: Many barbaric cultures worship a particular beast as their totem, mimicking the ferocity of its' brutality and nature. When someone commits an act of violence through anger it is known as "Giving into the Beast."
Divine Favor: When ferocity and carnage rage within ones blood, nothing will hinder their desire to slaughter everything.

Fharlanghn
Avatar: A Web of Ley Lines.
Restoration: Returning to the starting point after continous phasing.
Faith Remnants: Begining a journey often consists of prayer at a shrine for safe travel; on a shrine for roads the hub of a spoked wheel is touched, or for sailing shrine the center of a web made of ropes is grasped; this shrine also acts as a sign post and is often placed at an intersection. There are tales of nomadic gypsies able to transport their caravans by warping from one location to the next, they are fabled to possess some of the ley lines essence.
Divine Favor: Having faith that a higher power will direct ones steps will grant one a clear path free of obstruction and never find themselves lost.

Garl Glittergold
Avatar: A Phantasm within The Dreaming, the realm of all dreams.
Restoration: When all gnomes have dreamed of the god.
Faith Remnants: In myth, the shaper of dreams is known as the Gatekeeper, ushering the sleeping to their nightmare or reverie, and is father of Glamours, the dreams within the Waking World known as Illusions. Legends tell of Rainbows being the bridge between the Material world and Fey Realm, and that at its' base the wee folk reside among treasures of gems. In gemcutting lore to gaze through the facet of a gem would reveal the unseen. Sprites and Fairies were beings of dreams charged with making Flora and Fauna, conceiving of many splendid and marvelous creatures they grew too fond to depart with.
Divine Favor: Artists and creators who find their vivid dreams forgotten in the waking world might be blessed with a glimpse of their dream in a vision.

Gruumsh ** Master of Stormgiant in 8WindEmpire
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Heironeous
Avatar: A patchwork of crested shields to form one large shield.
Restoration: Retrieving various pieces of armor from legendary heroes of virtue.
Faith Remnants: Knights of the Isle of Steel follow a code of honor dependent on chivalry and virtue. Some humans believe all bad deeds done will be met with retribution at the hands of an appropriate nemesis.
Divine Favor: Virtuous deeds done despite fear might receive a Calling to pursue the life dedicated to righteous actions, glory, honor, valor and are tempered with a will to face any evil.

Hextor
Avatar: An intelligent helm of black iron with face bearing a grimacing visage of shifting expression; any who don the helm are instilled with a desire for total conquest.
Restoration: When a Warlord wearing the Helm of Hextor ascends to the Throne of Emperor.
Faith Remnants: When a General or Warlord triumphs in warfare, trophies of flesh and bone taken in battle are given to shrines of Qi Yu, the Warlike God of Rain. Legends speak of sacred texts known as the Art of War, written by Sun Tzu, the texts are rumored to give any battle tactician absolute superiority.
Divine Favor: The power hungry enslave the subjugated weak and destroy the obstructing strong, the zealous find their grasp of dominance strengthened.

Kord
Avatar: A near indestructable Sledgehammer.
Restoration: Proof of incredible strength through breaking the hammer.
Faith Remnants: The working class in the Royal Lands have legends of men with astounding strength competing against modern machinery, the myth adapts to portray a multitude of trades. Competitions occur frequently between the Labor Unions in contests of strength, granting the victorious profession boasting rites and glory.
Divine Favor: When will overcomes pain a spring of strength surges through.

Lolth ** The Isle of Ash Elves follow Lolth's teachings/Betrayal/Ambition/
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Moradin
Avatar: A colossal simulacrum statue of metal and stone standing dormant deep within the earth.
Restoration: The knowledge to bend metal and stone at will must be recovered.
Faith Remnants: Dwarves that craft by hand rather than with machinery believe that changing raw material to the final form instill their family heritage; this belief is kept by those that still believe in their creator "The Blacksmith." Smiths and craftsmen obey the master and apprentice relationship to preserve their craft, and to halt teaching would dishonor their predecessor perpetuating the knowledge.
Divine Favor: A lifetime devoted to the mastering of a craft will galvanize the hands of the maker to create a relic at the epitome of the items perfection.

Nerull
Avatar: A powerful entity in the Etheral Plane, but only able to enter the Material world through a Soulstone purposefully lodged in the chest of a Holy Champion. The power leaking from the Soulstone prison, though limited, can animate corpses vast distances away; the burial site of the animated become imbued with negative energy, empowering the Soulstone's grasp on it's surrounding cemetery, infusing dirt, plant, rock, and body with Nerull's control.
Restoration: A physical body of negative energy to be a vessel for the Etheral entity.
Faith Remnants: Death personifies itself in many forms: an angel overseeing the departed being lenient and benevolent to the humble, or a cloaked figure whose cold touch rips soul from body with no remorse, and even of a deceased spirit in a community driving a cart of death seeking their replacement. Superstitions abound of how to perform last rites, how to act in the presence of burial sites, what circumstances the departed must endure to reach final rest, and what manifestation the restless will linger as.
Divine Favor: With embracing death can often come an acceptance of killing, viewing murder and death as natural will often grant Death as an ally.

Obad-Hai
Avatar: Four massive elementals of Air, Fire, Water and Earth traverse the world.
Restoration: Each elemental must be destroyed to release it's divine essence, but in so doing the destroyed elemental bolsters the other remaining until one final form exists.
Faith Remnants: Many agriculturists worship the seasons and the changing of nature. Witches believe the world's fundamental components are the four elements: Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Some tribes view the world not as good and evil, but that these concepts are a balance of nature.
Divine Favor: Living in harmony with nature, whether refraining from needless cultivation of natural resources, or a lifestyle within the wilderness, gives some a strong bond with nature.

Olidammara
Avatar: A splendid mask that grants incredible powers to the wearer.
Restoration: The Lord of Misrule must forego resigning their power and survive until the end of the festival.
Faith Remnants: Festivals exist with the soul purpose of celebration, the streets are filled with splendid colors of costumes and customary masks, music dances with drinking, and the fool is accepted in their joy. The Masquerade entitles any person of high or low status clemency, and in many regions an honorary King for a Day is appointed ruler as the Fool. Older traditions involved crowning the Lord of Misrule who enjoyed a period of jubilation before ultimately being sacrificed, however if the Lord of Misrule resigns their power, a symbollic effigy is burned in their stead.
Divine Favor: Those that reval in life and remain exorbitant will find no austere constraint.

Pelor ** Stonehenge/Incan Sun Disc/Tyrael/Angel Solar/Aton
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St. Cuthbert ** Themis/Justicator
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Tiamat
Avatar: Her body is the massive skeletal remains of a great dragon that encircles of the Isle of Ash.
Restoration: The divine energy of Tiamat has been captured and imbued into the bones of her body, these bones are grafted into many Dark Elves as living armor and all must be returned to restore her.
Faith Remnants: Trolls within the Wilds worshiped a giant sea serpent that was to devour the world, but it was killed by the Dark Elves. Dark Elves believe the remnants of the dragon around their island granted them their immortality but stole their ability to procreate.
Divine Favor: Dark Elves undergo a ceremony where a sliver of bone is placed into the marrow of their skeleton, granting them the ability to alter their flesh.

Vecna
Avatar: A massive fog of shadow and negative energy.
Restoration: Vecna must acquire his True Name.
Faith Remnants: When oaths are sworn, vowing silence of a dire secret, the swearer pledges that their left hand be severed and left eye be plucked if they renege their promise. In the Isle of Ash, flesh can be replaced, and souls recalled, but only memories perish; the noble might have all their lifetimes worth of memories, the servant only one lifetime, and the slave might only retain a single memory; but it is whispered that the shadows know and remember all.
Divine Favor: Those that seek the secrets of others and reveal none of their own, will hear a feint voice whispering in their mind.

Wee Jas
Avatar: A Trinity of Wee Jas exists; The Maiden: a young girl with immense power lacking control or her own identity; The Mother: an extremely powerful necromancer raising the dead in her path; The Crone: a sentient ruby with godlike magical powers of destruction.
Restoration: All three parts of Wee Jas must be merged.
Faith Remnants: Witches of the Isle of Salt worship the Goddess as the mother of magic and the loving embrace of death. The Priestess of the Isle of Ash is said to be the divine steward of Wee Jas.
Divine Favor: Prayers asked on the New or Full moons are answered. Prayers to ease the dying are given a merciful death.

Yondalla ** Halfling Travel/Adventure/Exploration/Ship?
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I've been thinking of making Lolth something like a Mind Flayer? Their desire for knowledge would tie in with the idea of Memories. I could make Her that pool of Mind Flayer sludge...but suddenly I was having thoughts of Mother Brain. And not just the Mother Brain from Metroid, but the one from the Nintendo cartoon...she had an eggplant-man sidekick:smallconfused: