PDA

View Full Version : Here's a God



Phosphate
2011-12-11, 07:44 AM
So, a cleric in a campaign of mine asked me to homebrew for him a Deity that has some depth to it, and is not as one-dimensional as deities are usually portrayed. Here's what I got so far.


Scher

Divine Ranks: 6 (Lesser Deity)
Symbol: A stone with the face of a man inscribed into it, the eyes are real.
Home Plane:
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Portfolio: Common Sense, Reason, Individualism, Honesty, Vengeance
Clergy Alignments: the actual doctrine of Scher, unlike him as a deity, is True Neutral, so any alignment with a neutral component is allowed
Domains: Community, Liberation, Destruction, Knowledge
Favored Weapon: Short sword

Scher is a complex deity who, despite its relative weakness compared to other deities, has grown popular with several more civilized Human democracies. Its appeal is mostly that due to the sensibility of its doctrine and superiority of works over faith, believers do not have to change their lifestyle too much.

Appearance

Scher looks like a 6'2" human with fair skin and short, curly red hair, wearing an ankle-long featureless green robe. The robe is fastened at the middle with a thin black belt, to which a golden short sword is strapped. It is said that this sword, called Veritas, can only harm those who have lied to Scher, but it fells them instantly. He does not have the ability to change his shape freely.

Road to Power

Scher started out as a Chaotic Neutral warlock serving the Eladrin Reddeth. He believed that a total disregard for rule and regulation is the ultimate freedom, and those without the power to survive on their own in a lawless system do not deserve to live within it. That is, until he fell in love. Ten years passed, and he already had a family, three children and a satisfying, large property at the edge of a quiet landlocked kingdom. Unluckily, this state of peace did not last for long.

While Scher was out in a mission to retrieve an artifact of great power for Reddeth, an unannounced skirmish struck the kingdom, killing most of its defense force and countless civilians. Scher would come home to find his crops destroyed, his gold stolen and his wife and kids collapsed in a pool of blood. Seeing this tragedy, he swore vengeance on the skirmishers, promising that he would get stronger no matter how hard his road would be, and how much of his past he'd have to forsake.

The artifact was a special pearl that when swallowed would endow the user with divine powers, or increase existing ones. Instead of handing it over to Reddeth, Scher used it on himself. For years, he had to evade all outsiders sent after him by the angry Eladrin, but all the effort and experience made him stronger, and helped him gather quite a number of competent followers, such that when he fought his final bagtle, Reddeth fell in no more than a couple minutes. Scher's followers would send news of his accomplishment to numerous towns and villages, and thereby form his cult. By this point, he simply gave up on the skirmishers and forgave them for their deed.

Dogma

Scher believes that for a society to function, it must be objectively coordinated by absolute rules. However, this framework is more necessary than desirable, and every given individual shouldn't view order as a goal in itself, but merely as a means to protect his own personal liberties without infringing those of others. It offers a system that thoroughly rejects anarchism from its governing while at the same time making it perfectly fine for most people to have anarchic tendencies.

Scher made a list of 17 commandments for his followers to live by. Those were written by him, with ink on a scroll of vellum, and handed directly to the leaders of communities where he was well known for slaying Reddeth. Disobeying any of them can make one lose his favor, or even bring Scher's wrath upon them.



1. Thou shalt not profess false belief.
*By this you must understand that calling thyself a Scher believer while being unknowledgeable of the spirit of the doctrine or twisting it away from its intended meaning is a grave and deadly sin. However, blasphemy and outright atheism are not sins at all, and I will not wrath against those who openly defy me.

2. Thou shalt not act with hypocrisy.
*As an extension, belief and abidance to this code stemmed from nothing but peer, family or societal pressure is pathetic, demeaning and sinful.

3. Thou shalt not cause collateral damage, be it upon buildings, crops, livestock or sentient beings, in the pursuit of your foes
*Also, if it is within your means, you ought to end the battle if on the long term the actions of your opponent will undoubtedly cause collateral damage.

4. Thou shalt not exact vengeance on those who have not wronged you.
*By this you must understand that no matter what a specific person has done to you, you have no right to assault his family, race, nation, order or profession if they had not done anything to you personally.

5. Thou shalt not take the life, freedom and rights of a fellow being into your own hands.
*Therefore, you cannot slay an opponent who has surrendered, unless you believe it's a trick.
*You also cannot impose your belief system upon others.
*You also cannot manipulate people with mind affecting magic, unless they would otherwise attack you.
*You also cannot have people working for you with no pay, or any other such form of slavery.
*You also cannot imprison souls, unless they would be otherwise malicious.

6. Thou shalt be able to pull your own weight.
*By this, you must understand that you must support yourself as long as crippling disability or disease does not prevent such a thing, and not depend on others nor steal from others.

6. Thou shalt not take your own life, or let your life be taken by another if it is in your means to stop such a thing from occurring.
*Unless doing so would save the lives of others. In this type of situation, both alternatives are considered correct. However, if the only life you save is that of the one attacking you, you have still sinned.

7. Thou shalt not lie to or cheat on those who put their trust in you.
*If you lie to someone who trusts you, but you do not know that they trust you, it is still a sin, albeit a lesser one.

8. Thou shalt question what you are told and what you perceive as fact as long as it is within your means to do so.

9. As a corollary of the above, thou shalt be honest with regards to what you actually do not know, both with other people and with yourself.

10. Thou shalt know your limits.
*By that you must understand that you shall not take positions of command unless you are confident in your competence.
*And you shall not borrow more than you can give back.

12. Thou shalt not murder someone for merely stealing from you, or doing anything less severe, unless you believe they are armed.

13. Thou shalt not torture others against their will for your own pleasure.
*By contrast, torturing for pragmatic ends such as receiving information is not sinful.

14. Thou shalt not fraudulently get yourself into a position that you are not qualified for.

15. Thou shalt not prevent yourself or others from enjoying indulgences like laziness, an active sex life or excess eating, unless they become a real health concern.

16. Thou shalt not let your visceral reactions affect your judgement of things that are otherwise not morally reprehensible.
*Therefore, thou shalt not discriminate others based on race, gender, weight, belief or sexual orientation if it does not in any way hinder or prevent them from completing their tasks.

17. Thou shalt abide by the law of the land you live in, unless you can break it without being caught.


States and villages that have Scherinism as the official religion have to abide by the following rules to receive Scher's grace:


1. The state must have a central government.
2. The state must have a written law.
3. Nobody has immunity to the law.
4. The state's rulers require the consent of the majority of the population to change the written law. (simple majority)
5. For a petition to enter voting, it must be supported by a minimum of at most 5% of the population. Then at least two thirds of the votes must be in favor for it to pass.
6. The state's rulers cannot inherit their positions.
7. The state's rulers must be at least 11 in number, and no one of them can have more than half of the executive power.
8. All citizens who could make logical decisions and vote are eligible to vote.
9. A military must exist.
10. Recruitment in the military must not be forced upon the population.
11. Censorship of written material and speech must not exist. Visual art need not be protected (although it can be).
12. The state must give religious freedom to the people.
13. Law enforcement must not be provided by the military.
14. If a crime is below murder, the sentence cannot be death. Treason included.

Unlike the Commandments, the rules above are in no particular order and all strictly necessary to appease Scher. It is of note however that if an individual disobeyed the law of a Scherinist state without breaking any commandment, he has not sinned.

Clergy

Clerics of Scher pray to him together in collectives, and do not have specific temples, being able to pray anywhere. Sometimes, if enough clerics are present, Scher himself makes an appearance. Actually, there is a certain rite, called simply Establishment, where five hundred clerics call for Scher for him to review the laws of a nation, to see if they are to his liking and suggest improvements. Most songs and preaches addressed to Scher are of gratitude for the order and progress his principles promote and support, as believers with higher studies in religion are aware of Scher's relative inability to fulfill the wishes of all his believers. No sacrifices of any kind are made in the name of Scher, as he looks down on such offerings.

Pantheon

Scher does not affiliate himself with any other deity. However, his followers are allowed to pray to gods other than him.