Steel Men and other strange creatures (3.5, PEACH)

[afroakuma]

Deities of the Lundrias

Lundria religion is a bit haphazard given the rarity and dispersal of lundrias across the spheres. Word-of-mouth carries much of their lore, which often transforms greatly in the telling, and lundria clerics are fairly uncommon. Nevertheless, much in the same way that lundrias come to recognize their kindred, so too do they find a spiritual awakening calling them to higher ideals, which often correspond with at least part of the pantheon.

Lundrias are the creation of their patron goddess Elen Eliré, though they were not the first to worship the Starpainter - in her home crystal sphere, she is a deity venerated by humans and elves, among others. Each of their gods is a fragment of Elen Eliré, one aspect of her representing a phase of the moon. A few heretical lundria clerics claim that Elen Eliré herself is but one aspect of one of the other gods, and that which one is supreme in any given age may change. Orthodox believers (even those of chaotic evil alignment who utterly despise Elen Eliré) consider her the source of the other gods and teach that none can exist without the existence of all of the others, by definition. Apart from their pantheon, lundrias are also touched by alien powers from the deep reaches of the Material Plane, the otherworldly Moongods. The entire pantheon opposes the continued influence of these sinister beings.

Lundria clerics can worship the lundria pantheon rather than an invididual deity; the available domains are Destiny, Moon, Mysticism, Night, and Oracle. By the grace of Elen Eliré, lundria paladins who worship any member of the pantheon (or the pantheon as a whole) do not lose access to their class features provided their alignment remains within one step of lawful good (allowing paladins despite a lundria's phases of the soul requiring an alignment change on a monthly basis).

Elen Eliré
Intermediate Power of the Beastlands
The Unwavering Light, the Fullness of Creation, Starpainter, Secret Star-Queen
Alignment: Neutral good
Portfolio: Lundrias, realized potential, the moon, wisdom
Divine Realm: Beastlands/Karasuthra/Palace of Starlight and Silence
Symbol: A crystal surrounding a full moon
Domains Good, Glory, Moon, Mysticism, Radiance, Zeal
Favored Weapon: Morningstar

Creator goddess of the lundrias and source of the other lundria deities, Elen Eliré represents the full moon (Purnama Kindred), power, and purpose. Originally a goddess of secret undertakings and small efforts to achieve a greater triumph, she represented the endurance of hope against evil on her home world, eventually becoming the leader of the faction opposing the malevolent solar deity Zohas after he slew their champion and patron, a knightly god of stars who was Elen Eliré's lover. The lundrias are her mourning, her grief, her love, and her legacy - a thousand thousand stars across a thousand thousand worlds, illuminating unwalked paths. Having been essentially conscripted into a role she had never wanted to play, she swore to her children that they would never be forced to be something; they are ever-changing souls by her gift, in her hope that they will all become the best of every identity they have ever taken.

In order to accommodate the changing natures of the lundrias and ensure that she might not become turned against her own design by their worship following strange currents, the lunar goddess divided her aspects, separating herself so that her children would have freedom. In this way, she has been a lesser power (before the downfall of Zohas), a greater power (after the triumph over Zohas), and now an intermediate power. Elen Eliré is depicted as a middle-aged woman who has retained much of her youth, with hair like clouds in the night, residing in a palace built on the back of a colossal crystal elephant that floats through the sky. She is said to never speak but only observe, and that under her gaze mortals find wisdom by being forced to fill her silence with the lies they tell themselves to avoid the truth, each one flying away as a moth into the darkness, leaving only that which cannot be denied. Many depictions paint her as a figure of sorrow who has lost her words to the grief of being forever split apart and incapable of becoming whole, but others (correctly) show her as a complete figure of soft and benevolent aspect - for her separation from the rest of the pantheon is her way of remaining forever complete.

Elen Eliré manifests as a dream to all lundrias in their youth, a hazy flash of their life's destiny in total, never fully remembered but providing the insight needed to follow fate's course - or defy it.

Elen Ulundri
Demipower of Ysgard
Sole Star of the Darkest Night, Illuminator of Ways, Princess of Fates Foretold
Alignment: Chaotic good
Portfolio: Prophecy, journeys, quests, hope
Divine Realm: Ysgard/Nidavellir/Stardown
Symbol: A star or crescent moon in the mouth of a cavern
Domains Chaos, Good, Hope, Knowledge, Oracle, Travel
Favored Weapon: Crescent knife^DR275

One of the youngest of the pantheon, Elen Ulundri is the patron of the crescent moon (Sabit Kindred), voyages, aspirations, and prophecy. Depicted as a young woman with midnight-black hair and skin holding starlight that trickles between her fingers, she is mythologized as both hero and mentor, champion and guide. The truth is somewhere in between - while she will fight with nightmarish ferocity for what she values, Elen Ulundri prefers to stand apart and inspire others. Her realm exists on the back of an immense celestial starfish that sometimes journeys to Ossa, second layer of Arborea, when not spending its time basking in an underground sea on Nidavellir. She has sometimes been conflated with her ally Eilistraee, though a keen observer will note the different eyes and the pure black hair that distinguish her from the drow goddess.

Elen Ulundri manifests as a dream in childhood, for she is guardian of lundria children, a dream of discovery and exploration that creates a sense of wanderlust. She is also patron of gifts and giving, and is occasionally attributed with healing tears (a dangerous error, as her tears are burning moonfire). She has also been linked to sea travel and the ocean, though not substantially enough to change her nature or give her any water-related domains - this is thought to derive from her role as a guide to navigators and travellers combined with the attribution of her starfish home. It is said that she is the greatest seer among the lundria gods, and she is sometimes depicted as innocent and naive for spending so much time contemplating the future that she knows neither past nor present.

Orm Oria
Demipower of Pandemonium
Vagrant Star, the Garnet Warlock, He Who Departs, the Great Prodigal
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Portfolio: Surrender to destiny, living in the moment, strong beginnings, unresolved paths, power, risk
Divine Realm: Pandemonium/Phlegethon/Shadowbright
Symbol: A gibbous moon in a red dragon's talon
Domains Chaos, Destiny, Evil, Pride, Spell, Travel, Trickery
Favored Weapon: Greataxe

Patron of the gibbous moon (Benjol Kindred), Orm Oria is a passionate explorer addicted to new experiences, reckless and windblown, utterly committed to the idea that destiny has already made its decisions - an idea he uses to justify refusing to try to change or make efforts to overcome challenging obstacles. Though portrayed as an ambitious and creative soul whose flashing garnet eyes burn with inspiration and a deep, fierce joy, Orm Oria is infamous in myth for his lack of follow-through. An eternal wanderer, he is motivated not only by a hunger for discovery, but also a desire to escape obligation, responsibility, and finishing what he has started. Although he rules the gibbous moon, which is associated with emotions, he does not have the portfolio of emotion - he was considered an unworthy custodian as he is too subject to the power of his own moods.

While he is strictly speaking a god of evil, Orm Oria is rarely depicted as truly villainous, for he is in fact not actively wicked - neglectful, selfish, callous, vain, and deeply untrustworthy, most definitely. Cruel? Spiteful? Malicious? No. The worst that can be said about Orm Oria is that he lacks morals and principles other than in pure service to himself - he is brash, enthusiastic, impatient, and deeply cowardly, but his brand of "evil" never exceeds the petty, the vindictive, and the self-serving. Notably, the god's planar allies never include fiends (not that his favored slaad are so very much better...) and his allies include several good-aligned deities of Ysgard, Arborea, and the Beastlands.

His main depictions show him either as a mighty knight garbed in red armor or a warlock in red silks (though always as a middle-aged manchild with a sheepish or rakish grin). In any guise, his eyes are always garnet, a reflection not only of his favored color but also of how they are not "open" - unlike the lunar eyes of the lundria, Orm Oria's eyes never change, representing how he surrenders to destiny and throws himself blindly into risk. He is arguably the most powerful magic-user of the pantheon and lundria spellcasters and rogues gravitate toward him for the promise of easy victories and strong beginnings.

Orm Oria's realm towers over a crimson outcropping of rock that resembles a sleeping red dragon coiled up. His dream manifests haphazardly - never before puberty, but anytime after - and leaves a sense of inspiration to try something new, heedless of consequence. Like his sister Elen Ulundri, Orm Oria has a soft spot for children, and his few demonstrated convictions center around protecting lundria young from darker forces than he.

Héa Eleyr
Demipower of Limbo
Guardian of Thresholds, the Unsworn and Unbroken, Siren of the Sea of Souls
Alignment: True neutral
Portfolio: Change, light and darkness, individuality, boundaries, moods
Divine Realm: Limbo/Sea of Souls
Symbol: A half white, half black disc with an inverted longsword silhouette between the two colors
Domains Balance, Emotion, Liberation, Moon, Night, Protection
Favored Weapon: Longsword

One of the most important lundria deities, the patron of the half moon (Separuh Kindred), of change, of moods, and of thresholds, Héa Eleyr governs the phases of the soul. From their perch atop a vast onyx dolphin that glitters with starlight, the deity traverses a chaotic ocean of light and darkness - their realm, a swirling, pulsing, flowing tribute to the endurance of the lundria people. As guardian of thresholds, Héa Eleyr both sets boundaries and helps lundrias transgress them. A protector figure depicted in myriad ways, the deity represents many facets of lundria experience, and one of their highest principles is freedom - freedom from being bound to a particular path or single way of being, and freedom to be more than one thing, to hold more than one identity, to be an individual despite internal fault lines that could for lesser souls spell division and ruin. The deity of change holds strongly that no being should be left to be a mere fraction of themselves (perhaps somewhat ironic given their relationship to Elen Eliré, though they see no contradiction in this and claim their very existence shows that the goddess of the lundrias refused to be reduced to one facet of herself).

Besides their role as a tutelary deity and patron of change and liberty, Héa Eleyr is also the muse of lundria bards and a lover of music in all forms. They are venerated in song, for they are a singer of great skill. They believe in balance as the result of trying many different things and averaging out the experiences, rather than standing unchanging in the center.

Héa Eleyr's dream comes to lundrias at their coming-of-age, on the occasion of their first soul change (which does not usually happen until after puberty/into early adolescence, but can come earlier for some), and is a comforting (albeit hazy) message that the change is not to be feared and does not represent a loss of self, but rather growth and opportunity.

Liadryn
Demipower of Carceri
Moonless Maiden, Midnight Princess of Fate, Star-Siren of Time, Ravenstar
Alignment: Neutral evil
Portfolio: Deadly fate, consequence, denial, unrealized possibilities, time, love, death
Divine Realm: Carceri/Agathys/Midnight's Manse
Symbol: A raven in flight, seen from below
Domains Death, Dream, Evil, Fate, Illusion, Time
Favored Weapon: Unarmed strike

Youngest of the lundria deities (such as it is, though also depicted as such), Liadryn is the lightless maiden of the new moon (Baru Kindred), a dark counterpart to Orm Oria's embrace of destiny as a journey to new opportunities (she embodies inescapable fates, often negative ones), and a keeper of secrets and the grave. Depicted as an adolescent lundria maiden with golden stars in her midnight hair and profound black eyes, she is often shown holding either a golden hourglass or a raven's feather that sheds light.

Liadryn is something of a study in contradictions; she is the goddess of death, but also presides over birth; she rules dreams and deception; she is the goddess who oversees love, but is also a figure of eternal solitude in her dark manor. She embodies death as a form of innocence, impartial and without malice, the cold and brutal honesty of fate that cuts through self-deception. She stirs emotion, but also prompts ignorance and a refusal to separate fact from fiction, dream from reality, until destiny makes its unyielding presence known. As the psychopomp of the lundrias, she is a somewhat ominous but never intentionally terrifying figure. Her cruelty is reserved exclusively for the living; her portfolio of love allows her to wrack survivors with grief and guilt, to torture the limerent with the darkness of unrequited passions, and to trap those who desire in reveries that tear them away from the work of attaining their goals. Her odd blend of innocence and cruelty is almost childlike.

Liadryn despises her neighbor Nerull, believing that he does not meaningfully value either life or death. She torments Orm Oria and is in turn troubled by Elen Ulundri, who can inspire others to see through the dreams of the secretive Moonless Maiden. Alone among the younger lundria deities, Liadryn has begun to gain a following in Elen Eliré's home sphere. She is curiously on good terms with both Wee Jas and Evening Glory.

Liadryn is not believed to manifest a dream, though some sages believe she sends hers to very young children, filling them with false dreams and imaginings that they will have to grow past if they are to achieve their ambitions. A few believe that such dreams by definition backfire by creating emotions such as wonder, joy, and curiosity. One way or another, the goddess isn't telling.

Other Deities of the Lundrias

The Moongods
Demipowers of the Prime Material Plane
Secret Star-Sages, Bringers of Calamity, Dark Dreamers, Heralds of the Darkest Hour, the Witch-Stars
Alignment: Neutral evil
Portfolio: Astrology, disasters, hidden knowledge, mooncalves
Divine Realm: Prime Material Plane/unknown
Symbol: A moon shrouded by tentacle shadows
Domains Darkness, Evil, Knowledge, Moon, Travel
Favored Weapon: Spiked chain

A cluster of distant and uncaring beings whose combined powers constitute the strength and abilities of a demigod, the Moongods are alien beings who stand in opposition to mortal beings. Somehow tied to the monstrous and sinister creatures known as mooncalves, the Moongods stir evil prophecy and dark futures, building hidden cults devoted to finding vile patterns in the skies that promise the end of the world.

How they came to be enemies of Elen Eliré is unknown; perhaps they filled the void left by Zohas, perhaps the first lundrias trespassed upon their nightmarish reach of wildspace while spreading out to many spheres, or perhaps they simply came to view the moon-linked people as a threat to their long-term plans to wreak calamity. One way or another, the Moongods have made enemies of the entire lundria pantheon and return their hatred tenfold. The enmity between the two factions has grown over centuries, and at some point the Moongods wormed their way into lundria affairs, inserting an insidious taint into a fraction of a fraction of the race, creating the "hidden kindred," the Jahat, who are profoundly charismatic, sickly individuals tainted with evil essences.

The scope of the Moongods' threat is unknown, as is their level of influence on any given world. Lundrias know of them, though, as the Moongods manifest a dream to them as well - a nightmare, nebulous and vile, projecting a sense of fear that may never be completely shaken. This may in some extreme cases afflict a lundria with a lifelong phobia. The timing of this nightmare seems to vary by kindred.

Zohas
Demipower of Baator
The Immolator, Tyrant-Star, Dark-Dawn, the Oppressor, Burning Lord of All, Conqueror of Gods
Alignment: Lawful evil
Portfolio: The sun, tyranny, war, architecture, might, vengeance
Divine Realm: Baator/Phlegethos/Calefax
Symbol: A fireball held in a spiked gauntlet
Domains Evil, Law, Strength, Sun, Tyranny, War, Wrath
Favored Weapon: Spiked gauntlet or glaive

At one time a greater deity worshipped by humans, hobgoblins, and azers (among others), Zohas was one of the mightiest gods of his home crystal sphere. Originally a solar deity who was patron of kings and civilization, and an ally of dead Amaunator, Zohas became twisted over millennia by the corruption of his favored servants, whose lineages grew more and more bent on accruing power through force under the supposed legitimacy of their birthright and the approval of their deity. Eventually those civilizations which did not follow his teachings were bolstered by their own patrons, ultimately coming to a head when Zohas murdered three of them and declared his right to the "spoils" (read: people) of those deities. A coalition formed to oppose him, while other gods of evil ambitions and those cowed by the menacing might of the sun god served him in kind. All seemed lost when the champion of the free peoples, a knightly star-god, fell in single combat with Zohas.

Then Elen Eliré stepped in to take on her lover's mantle, moving from the sidelines of the war to its forefront. Eschewing the direct martial conflict preferred by the wicked sun god, the moon goddess inspired her followers both mortal and divine to bring the battle where Zohas least expected - the hearts and minds of his own followers, or rather their subjects. With the legitimacy of the rulers he promoted being undermined, the often state-mandated faith of Zohas began to crumble, forcing him to take ever-greater risks to secure his power. Sensing weakness, those who had aligned with him in fear broke away, and within a decade the sun god's strength was broken for all time, reducing him nearly to exile from his home sphere.

Zohas has never forgotten, and never forgiven. He struggles to gain a foothold on other worlds, but he has done it before and it will happen again. He is consumed with restoring his divine right to be the ultimate tyrant by exacting vengeance against Elen Eliré, and in the past century he has finally discovered her secret children. His aim is to destroy her through them, taking what is hers and using it to eradicate his hated enemy. How he plans to do this remains unknown, but lundria myth speaks of a prophesized child born in the heart of daylight, the sole member of the nonexistent Arona Kindred, who will be a threat to lundrias everywhere.

Zohas is incapable of sending dreams to the lundrias. No known lundria clerics of Zohas exist, though it is likely that he will try to corrupt a lundria to his service in due time.