Rumors Whispered in South Province of the Lesser Known Gods |
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| Posted on Sun, November 02, 2008 by Dongul |
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scottenkainen writes "From ancient oral tradition to the current political rumor mill, from directly to indirectly, many gods play roles in South Province. Those who have secret knowledge of the inner workings of South Province, or wider knowledge of the world about it, have said the things below about 10 such gods.
Rumors Whispered in South Province of the Lesser Known Gods
by Scott Casper
Tharizdun
While the others of the Old Gods made things in their image, Tharizdun made nothing and so loved nothing.
Gesthtai
When the Baklunish people were painting on cave walls and carving crude figures of their gods, Geshtai looked on them through a reflecting pool and was frustrated. "Why do they not follow the rivers?" she asked. "Are they not curious to see where they go?"
What silly people are the Baklunish, to sit in their remote lands when there
are rivers to follow?
Rudd
On the night Rudd was born, the Oeridian farm folk of some distant village
could hear the sound of dice rolling. When the dice came up right for
Rudd, Olidammara said, "She will be a goddess" and so it came to
pass. One can but wonder what would have been her fate had the dice come up
different.
Wenta
Seventy years after the city of Zelradton was founded, the high priests
gathered to ask of the gods who among them wished to have shrines in the first
cathedral.
“Where should we worship thee?” the high priests asked Wenta.
“In the brewery,” Wenta answered. “Seek out the best rice beer in the
city each Brewfest and drink it in my name.”
So each Brewfest, the high priests consume rice beer from each brewery in the
city – for the reverence of Wenta, of course.
Lydia
When the Oeridians conquered the Flannae of Ahlissa, the question became what
to do of the Suloise who dwelt among them. Many were the wrongs the
Oeridians remembered at the hands of the Suloise and many vengeful solutions
were proposed in those days. An Oeridian general rounded up all the
Suloise living in the Vidvolp region, wishing to see them with his own eyes
before he passed judgment on them. In the midst of those people was a
girl who was suddenly endowed with the gilded voice of Lydia as the general
rode past. The general’s resolve to harm those people melted when he
heard the beauty of the song emanating from the girl. The girl became the
general’s slave, but in her later years became the first priestess of Lydia in
Ahlissa.
Sotillion
Where can Sotillion be found amongst the fields of South Province? The
followers of the Summer Queen build her palaces only in the most pure and
undefiled of fields. Does Sotillion not see the blood of the Suloise on
the fields of South Province? Does she not see the glint of ancient
weapons of the long gone Flannae? Does she not see the hardships the
herzogs have brought on their own people?
Where can
Sotillion be found amongst the fields of South Province? The followers of the Summer Queen build her
palaces far afield from South Province.
Kelanen
One day,
Farlockend bragged that the walls he had constructed around the city of
Hexpools could be breached by no man.
Word of this reached a young Kelanen, long before he was known as the
Sword Lord. Kelanen was given leave from
his Hextorite teachers and journeyed to Hexpools, where he promptly drew a
sword in each hand and disarmed every defender of the main gate who stood
against him. No one could counter his
technique. Finally, Farlockend himself
came with the reinforcements to the gatehouse and stood before Kelanen.
“So sorry,”
Kelanen said to Farlockend. “I thought thou
said Hexpools could not be breached by one
man.”
Kelanen then
offered to teach his disarming technique to every fighting man present. Kelanen has had the respect, if not the love,
of South Province’s men-at-arms ever
since.
Incabulous
In the days
of the Red Plague, there was great turmoil in the Church of Aerdy and, in that
turmoil, a high priest of Incabulous came to power.
“Incabulous
has brought this plague upon us,” the high priest said, “but he can protect us
from it too, if we make the sacrifices he has revealed unto me. He has said unto me we must build a wall of
sacrifices around South Province, so that we will be spared while he ravages
the rest of the Flanaess. To the south,
we must build a wall of the bodies of dwarves.
To the east, we must build a wall of the bodies of gnomes. To the north and west, we must line our
coasts with the bodies of our women.
Only this way will be spared.”
Before any
action could be taken, the high priest contracted the Red Plague and died
within days without ever recanting his predictions.
Obad-Hai
For nearly a
thousand years Obad-Hai roamed Oerth, exploring the wide wilderness until he
was quite old for even a demi-god. He
loved the wilderness as a man loves a woman.
His travels ended at South Province, where he looked across it from the
Dun Coast to the Thelly River and was outraged by what he found. Gone were the virgin forests and fields of
Ahlissa. “Where is nature?” he asked, for everywhere he looked he saw
plowed fields and planted crops and stumps where once forests had stood and
never did he see the wild things, for the unicorns had fled and the hippogriffs
tamed and domesticated. And then he
thought of the druids, for he had once been the greatest amongst their number,
and he sought them out.
In those
days, the druids had fled the seclusion of the Thel Wood and the succor of the
olves and hobniz who dwelt there, but the demi-humans fled from the wrath of
Obad-Hai and the druids fell trembling as he said, “Why do thee hide here in
these meager woods and allow the lands about thee to change? Thou hast failed in thy duty to nature
itself!” And then came the Night of the
Creeping Doom and the insects rose up in horrible violence and did sting and
bite every druid until he fled the Thel, though the olves and hobniz were left
untouched, for Obad-Hai in this way repaid old favors to those people.
Then did
Obad-Hai sit himself down alone beneath a willow and wept for Oerik and, in
such a state, was found and captured by the arch-mage Zagyg. Though some suspect that Obad-Hai agreed to
his captivity, as did the other nine demi-gods, as they were all ascended upon
their release and Obad-Hai, now fully a god, had more time to observe the state
of the world. And, in his observances,
he lived to see how, in his anger and haste, he had sealed the doom of the Thel
Wood, for the druids were no longer there, and the olves and hobniz fled, and
the wild things died, and the Dragon of the Thel alone was not enough when
General Osson loosed fire and death upon the wood and the wood it was became no
more.
Asmodeus
The House of
Chelor was weak when the first Chelor came to power in South Province, but the
first herzog of that house was crafty and put his conjurers to work to succor
otherworldly aid from diabolical sources.
On an unusually frigid autumnal equinox, the conjurers succeeded beyond
the herzog's wildest dreams when they summoned Asmodeus before him. Of course, Asmodeus had merely chosen to
arrive and was not under the conjurers' control, but the herzog wrongly believed
otherwise and made demands of the arch-duke of the nether realms.
Asmodeus was
amused and consented to a bargain. “Thou
and thy line shall be successful and prosperous herzogs, so long as these terms
are met. The first is that thou shalt
not consort with demons and their followers.
The second is that thou shalt build me a temple in the Ahzdunt Valley
and proclaim me a part of the Draken Pantheon.
The third is that thou shalt leave Icespire alone. It is not to be manned, guarded, or molested
in any way by thee or thy hosts. The
fourth is that thou shalt give leave for my ilk to summon more of my ilk within
the confines of South Province as we see fit.
If thou and thy successors abide by these terms and, thou will never
know defeat or setback. Each failure,
though, shall come at greater cost.”
And the
first Herzog Chelor, fearful of Asmodeus, met these terms and became a great
and fearsome general – until the day he signed a treaty with the Minotaur King. The Minotaur King was a devout follower of
the demon Baphomet, and on the day the treaty was signed the dwur gained an
ally in the Dragon of the Iron Hills and began a rebellion that soon ousted
Chelor’s forces from the hills.
The second
Herzog Chelor was less successful than the first and faced enormous pressure
from the Aerdy Church to denounce Asmodeus as a cult figure. Chelor II knew well of the deal with Asmodeus
and would not renounce him, but made compromise with the Zilchites by halting
production of Asmodeus’ temple. That
day, the men of Idee found the strength to halt Chelor’s advances south into
their lands.
The third
Herzog Chelor, now fearful of Asmodeus’ pact, and aware that devils in human
guise now controlled much of Zelradton around him, came to believe that he
could free himself from the pact by becoming a true king and abandon the role
of Herzog. To this end, he allowed the
Band of the Grinning Gargoyle to enter Icespire and return with the crown of
the Flan kings of old. It was not
enough. For breaking the third term,
General Osson’s forces soon overran South Province and the Overking, angered at
the numerous failures of the Chelors, had Chelor III captured, brought before
him in Rauxes, and was made to suffer a horrible death. And so ended the line of the Chelors. Asmodeus’ devils, firmly ensconced in positions
of power within South Province remained – but just as there had been three
Herzog Chelors, so was there only three years until the Flight of the Fiends,
when Asmodeus was thwarted, as the Chelors had been."
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