The Gods of Apia

# **The Divine Family**

*"You best not trouble the gods unnecessarily, lest they trouble you."-Common proverb among various human ethnicities.*

## Overview

Apia is a world of many gods and god-like beings. There are gods for different peoples, races, and concepts. Men and orcs pray to gods before battle and before travel. They pray before meals and before the harvest season. They pray at the birth of their children and the death of their parents. Gods oversee weddings, birthdays and more aspects of life than any mortal could possibly comprehend. If something exists, it has a god who is responsible for it or at least manages whatever is. Only a fool, or madman, denies their existence; it isn't done.

The gods are very real. They have a deep, undeniable impact upon Apia and its various peoples. The gods made them in their image, they shifted the raw stuff of rolling chaos in the time before time, transforming it into something fit for people to dwell upon. They defeated the abolaths, driving them away, shattered the titans and giants and set the mortal races on the road towards dominance. Today the gods remain active, granting divine spells, sending their servitors and avatars, prophets and dreamers. They oppose the goals of opposing aligned gods and powers and, in general, keeping the material plane, along with the rest of them, spinning. Perhaps most crucially, when a mortal finally dies, it is the patron god that gives them a place to spend eternity.

The power of gods is directly related to worship, specifically how much they receive. As clerics, priests and monks spread the word of their deity around the planet, increasing the number of worshipers, that deity grows in strength. Allied gods possibly share this influence as a unit, Teteus' sub-family is assumed to do this, but that has never been quantifiable. Gods often act through servants, including celestials, titans, demigods and prophets, remaining in the upper or lower planes. One rare occasion, they are know to manifest aspects. Aspects are weaker versions of the god that resembles them in attitude and appearance. More powerful gods can have multiple aspects up and can control them simultaneously. Aspects can die, but this merely returns their essence to the god at hand, allowing another creation. The exact process of creating an aspects, its requirements, costs and methods, is not known to moral minds. Some gods take on humanoid form for their own purposes, which is one explanation for the odd demigod.

Gods share alignments, just as mortals do. Good and neutral gods have many temples in civilized lands and are beloved of civilized folk. Evil gods are feared and placated in civilized lands but openly worshiped in others. Maglubiyet, for example, is the chief god of The Goblin Dominion, though many consider him evil. Some evil gods have non-evil worshipers, and vice-versa, who value some of their teachings or interpret them differently than mainline. Gruumish worship in Umgar is the most famous example, but far from the only one.

Part of what makes a god a god is the rule over a portfolio or domain. Some gods are specialized with few domains while others cover a broad spectrum of things, or more important ones. While domains and portfolios in and of themselves are not more or less powerful than each other, some naturally draw more followers leading to the strengthening of that god. Everyone dies and so everyone prays to the Baron at least once in their lives, hence his strength.

The gods are believed to live on the various planes that match their teachings and alignment. Occasionally a Godsmoot is held on the Astral plane, where all gods meet to discuss issues that plague the cosmos. At a Godsmoot even traditional rivals must abstain from violence, though this doesn't always work perfectly.

## The Divine Family

The most powerful and influential gods of Apia are collectively known as "The Divine Family." This name isn't a misnomer. Many of the gods came to exist in an era more myth than fact, with the initial wave of deities seeing themselves as relatives due to their simultaneous and spontaneous creation. The initial "Four Fathers" being the eldest, fathers or grandfathers of the next wave. After this initial cosmological birth, new gods would continue to arrive. Some were the children of other divines, like Teteus' daughter Bastia, others came from the ascension of some worthy mortal, like Latrell Eyesbane, or from the creation of a new domain, like Kytin. Even those rare gods that come from other realms or realities are folded into it.

The hierarchy is vaguely based on age or power but this is far from understood. The two sides of the alignment war, good and evil, law and chaos, mirror one another and, while still technically related, function almost as two opposing clans rather than one extended family unit. While some gods have died and others have shifted over the millennia, the Family remains. It is still a complex web of fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins, daughters and other relatives that shapes the world around them.

## Categorizing the Divine

While the idea of putting gods in lists and orders is blasphemy at worst and hopeless behind the truth at best, this hasn't stopped mortals from trying. While power levels, cultural significance and alignment are all some ways of doing this, the most generally accepted category is based on origin. Those are the categories given below.

### The Four Fathers:

While the initial wave of gods arose from the chaotic energy of the unformed multiverse almost simultaneously, there were four who came first. These initial four gods were the most powerful, representing core concepts of which life couldn't exist without. Because they emerged simultaneously, and first, they became the "Four Fathers," of the Divine Family. These four gods were treated as such, with the appropriate honorifics of father, grandfather, uncle and other similar titles being used by the gods who followed. The Four Fathers led the charge in the war against the abolaths and giants, they set the rules for what was to come and guided the initial development of gods and mortals. However, even gods may die and, of the original four, only Teteus alone remains alive and unchanged. Thus he has ascended to supreme head of the Divine Family, the one to whom the other gods make their case. While the good and neutral gods typically accept this arrangement, the evil ones do not, with Lolth in particular constantly vowing to steal that place from him. Normally, only a few sample gods will be listed to give an idea of the category type but, because there are only four, they'll all be listed below. Do note, that there is a sect of The Green Lord worship that teaches that he was the original god, the first out of the void. Followers of this sect call him the First Father or Forest Father, to represent that belief. See The Green Lord for more information.

**Teteus:** The Sun Father and the sun itself. The origin of first life. Supreme head of the Family. (NG: Alive)
**Elmore:** The Arcane given form. Father of magic. Magic itself. (NG: Deceased. See Atix Crowfeather)
**Cordyfectus:** The Smiling God, Lord of Laughter and Emotion. The magic of life. (CG: Splintered. See The Laughing God)
**Vyzbus:** The Sea Father, lord of the oceans and all her depths. (N: Alive but greatly reduced in power. See Vyzbus)

### Firstborn:

The primordial void of chaos before creation didn't merely spit out the Four Fathers. While time was ultimately meaningless in the void, many important gods came after the initial four, the "firstborn," of chaos. These gods included powerful beings in their own right, with influence over critical spheres of reality. This is also the category that heads of racial patrons, like Yondalla or Moradin occupy. A matter of interesting contention as halflings and dwarves on other planes worship the same gods. Are these racial deities the same as elsewhere? Echoes of a guaranteed idea? Guaranteed beings that always form? Ultimately, there is no way of knowing which is true so, for simplicities sake, such gods are considered firstborn.

This category is the largest of all for, while gods have since ascended or been born, this initial rush has never be replicated, particularly considering racial deities. If such an event were to occur again, with dozens of gods spontaneously arising, it might utterly destroy the material plane as the divine essence of so many news gods rushed into being. A few examples of Firstborn gods include...

**Xoldarr:** God of athletics and honest sports. [LG: Alive]
**Baron Zambodi:** God of death, master of the passage. [N: Alive]
**Dozna:** Goddess of victory, sword-wife. [LG: Alive]
**Burtix:** Goddess of slaughter, lady of blood. [CE: Alive]

### Ascended:

Ascended is a category given to anyone who was born mortal but, through some remarkable circumstance, either by mantling another god, the whims of an upper god or some other dramatic moment, becomes divine. On occasion, because the power of a god is based on their worship, some powerful mortals have spontaneously ascended to full godhood and thus become gods themselves without outside help. Latrell the Eyebane is the most famous example of this, though Teteus played a large role in his ascension and thus, controversy reigns about whether Latrell's ascension was truly a mortal first movement. These gods tend to have smaller portfolios but show much love to their followers. A few examples include...

**Latrell Eyesbane:** God of liberation, breaker of chains. [GG: Alive]
**Atix Crowfeather:** Goddess of magic, shadow guard. [NG: Alive]
**Asus:** God of redemption, lord of second chances. [NG: Alive]

### Arisen:

Arisen are those gods who form around a portfolio or dominion that did not previously exist. As time advances, mortals fiddle with reality and new ideas often come into existence. These new ideas need gods to shepherd and guide them. When such an event occurs, a new god is born, usually due to the direct interaction of the gods but on occasion, seemingly born from the collective idea of the portfolio. These second or third generation gods may not be as powerful as the firstborn but, the arisen can grow mighty indeed. Kytin, the daughter of Bromis and a worthy mortal, has since surpassed her mother in influence and power as the domain of agriculture becomes more essential for sentient races. Bastia, lady of justice, daughter of Teteus and Ahphion has become more beloved among mortals than any of her siblings. While there are general rules of power, authority and respect, the arisen are not to be ignored. Some examples include...

**Kytin:** Goddess of agriculture and civilization, mother of beer and bread. [LG: Alive]
**Bastia:** Goddess of justice, flaming lady. [LG: Alive]
**Midos:** God of Commerce, lord of coin. [LG: Alive]

### Outsiders:

This most rare category of gods belongs to those beings who have come for another plane of existence, another dimension, another world or some other place besides Apia. While some believe that racial deities like Moradin should be included in this category due to their multiple spheres of worship, most accept those racial gods as firstborn. Outsiders are difficult to determine in terms of power or influence, some rule nations, others are mere whispers. What is known is that the outsiders are grafted onto the Family, whether they want to or not. Some examples include...

**Nesin:** God of knowledge, master of forgotten lore. [N: Alive]
**Machanacus:** God of Technology, the clockwork god. [LN: Alive]
**Vecna:** God of secrets and whispers, the stranger. [NE: Unknown]

Below is the list of the most important gods worshiped in Apia. Many deities do exist that are not listed below, either as local gods or with portfolios so small and specific (such as weaving) that they only have a small number of worshipers. (See "Beyond the Family") Other racial pantheons do exist as well, but these are typically only worshiped by specific races. Other beings, like demon lords or fey eldest also tend to attract worshipers, despite not being deities.

These gods are described in much greater detail within their own articles.

## Good Deities

**Xoldarr**

**Alignment**: LG

**Domains**: Justice, Strength, Competition

**Favored Weapon:** Greatclub

**Common Worshipers:** Good-aligned fighters and athletes, goliaths, paladins, good-aligned orcs and half-orcs

**Holy Symbol:** A pair of crossed greatclubs

**Depiction:** A tall, handsome goliath with a golden greatclub in his hands. His chest is bare but he wears finely crafted pants. His features are chiseled and strong and his eyes sparkle with joy.

**Category:** Firstborn

**Description:** One of the firstborn, Xoldarr is well known among both goliaths and athletes. As a champion of the Divine Family in the War for the Heavens and Earth, Xoldarr took his golden club and battered aside both giants and aboleths, winning battle after battle without any form of cheating or deception. The people he created, the goliaths, were sturdy mountain dwellers who shared his love of fair play. Fair competition and honest strength are the primary focus of Xoldarr. He loathes cheaters and liars but brings honor to those who try their hardest and succeed, or lose gracefully. He represents strength under control, power with purpose. He is claimed by those seeking self improvement in life, and fitness in all things. His clerics are large and boisterous, organizing competitions and athletic programs, coaching sports teams or serving alongside warriors on the front lines.

**Moradin**

**Alignment:** LG

**Domains:** Earth, Good, Law, Protection, Dwarf

**Favored Weapon:** Warhammer

**Common Worshipers:** Dwarves except for most duergar, ghost elves, craftsmen of all stripes

**Holy Symbol:** A hammer on an anvil

**Depiction:** A dwarf, regal and large, his skin made of metal, his beard of starlight. His eyes blaze with the strength of the forge and his belly rumbles with laughter. A warhammer is in his hand.

**Category:** Firstborn (Multiplanar)

**Description:** Moradin is the patron god of the dwarves. He forged the first dwarf on his anvil, then taught him the ways of forging, stonework, engineering and war. Moradin is an orderly god who rigidly views society and the roles within it. He is an ally of all that is good and encourages his children to do likewise, working for a greater good and common purpose. Despite his often somber nature, Moradin is known for great laughter and great hospitality but when angered his wrath is terrifying to behold. His is known to offer a helping hand to non-dwarves who honor his ways, most notably among the ethereal ghost elves, who view him as their saving god, a relationship that Moradin honors. His clerics tend to be good dwarven folk who help keep dwarf communities honest and proper.

**Bahamut**

**Alignment:** LG

**Domains:** Dragon, Life, War

**Favored Weapon:** Greatspear

**Common Worshipers:** Metallic dragons, metallic dragonborn, Imperials, good-aligned kobolds

**Holy Symbol**: A dragon's claw made from platinum

**Depiction:** A massive regal dragon, with scales of gleaming platinum. His eyes are a deep blue that shift with his mood.

**Category:** Firstborn (Multiplanar)

**Description:** One of the oldest gods, Bahamut's spilled blood spawned the first metallic dragons in his image. Bahamut is called the platinum dragon of justice and for good reason. Bahamut abhors evil in all its forms, and holds little regard for the chaos. Much like Xoldarr, Bahamut believes firmly in honesty and fair play. While he has a special relationship with metallic dragons, his near divine children, he happily accepts worship from any being whose heart echoes his own virtues. Those who love justice, who strive to make a world that betters everyone and those who are fearless in the face of evil will find a god who fervently aligns with those values and hopes to inspire them. Bahamut's clerics are often wandering warriors, bringing aid to the innocent and justice to the guilty in equal measure.

**Yondalla**

**Alignment:** LG

**Domains:** Halfling, Good, Law, Protection, Family, Luck

**Favored Weapon:** Shortsword/Sling

**Common Worshipers:** Halflings

**Holy Symbol**: A cornucopia on a green shield

**Depiction:** An attractive, blonde halfling woman, armed with shield and sword. Her hair is tied back. She wears earth tones, usually a forest green. Despite being armed for war she appears motherly and welcoming.

**Category:** Firstborn (Multiplanar)

**Description:** Halflings can have a difficult life. They are weaker than most other races. Many live lives of wandering nomads never staying in one place for long. Yet halflings are full of hidden strengths. They have deep family ties, a connection to the natural world, a keen sense of direction and fantastic, to the point of almost magical, luck. All of these are traits that Yondalla gifted to her children. Yondalla is many things, a mother, a warrior and a farmer to name a few. She stresses family, loyalty and companionship. The world may be against halflings but they have each other and can always count on their family. Yondalla's clerics teach harmony among halflings and with other goodly races but also that, when trouble comes, you shouldn't be afraid to stand your ground and fight. Those same clerics can always be found taking up arms in defense of those beliefs.

**Midos**

**Alignment:** LG

**Domains:** Trade, Wealth, Community, Commerce

**Favored Weapon:** Light crossbow

**Common Worshipers:** Good-aligned merchants and business people, good-aligned bankers and entrepreneurs, good-aligned magistrates

**Holy Symbol:** An open pouch overflowing with gold coins

**Depiction:** A tall, dark haired man with a long beard. He is dressed in fine robes and leaning on a solid golden walking stick. He is usually smiling or laughing. Sometimes he carries an abacus or set of scales.

**Category:** Arisen

**Description:** Midos is a very young god. As humans and other sentient beings began settling down and creating civilizations after the fall of the beholder empire, they began to exchange goods and services more frequently. The dwarves and gnomes introduced coinage and soon money was an accepted reality of life. The collective consciousness of these new societies birthed Midos. Midos is the god of goodly, law-abiding commerce and economics. He encourages his followers to be as successful as possible through hard work and dedication. His clerics run successful businesses and teach wealth management courses. His temples offer loans at fair and reasonable rates. Midos encourages his followers to give charitably and help the poor and needy. They do not to fear the sharing of wealth but are also not ashamed of honest profit earned and subsequently spent on one's own comfort.

**Dozna**

**Alignment:** LG

**Domains:** War, Strength, Pride, Glory

**Favored Weapon:** Longsword

**Common Worshipers:** Druzi, minotaurs, paladins, knights, champions

**Holy Symbol:** An eagle with wings outstretched, serving as heraldry for a shield.

**Depiction:** A tall woman with long white hair. She has statuesque features and is dressed in antique armor and helmet. She raises her longsword in triumph.

**Category:** Firstborn

**Description:** Dozna is the goddess of champions, the physical manifestation of triumph and victory. Generals pray to her that they may gain glory on the field of battle, champions raise a toast to her name and soldiers keep her in their hearts, hoping for a little divine strength to get them through the next wave of combat. Dozna is not concerned with tactics, she isn't concern with merit, what really matters to her is having the strength to carry on no matter the odds. Some see Dozna as a "fair weather" goddess, who only appears to those who've already won their battle or war but most recognize her role in giving that extra something to the side that desperately needed it. She has few clerics but those she does have seem to be a mixture of generals and jesters, offering advice on upcoming battles but also giving encouragement to the troops before they set out. Additionally she is the patron of the nation of Druz and one of the minotaur patron deities. Her twin brother is Remus, god of heroic war.

**Remus**

**Alignment:** LG

**Domains:** War, Glory, Courage, Good

**Favored Weapon:** Longsword

**Common Worshipers:** Paladins, latrellites, delorgans, knights, samurai, good-aligned jovians, minotaurs

**Holy Symbol:** A Golden Helmet, ancient in its design

**Depiction:** Remus always appears dressed in golden plate armor with his sword and shield drawn He is ready for battle. His helmet has a brilliant crimson plume and he wears a cape of purple and gold. Occasionally, he is shown mounted on Leonidas, a giant celestial white lion who serves Remus as friend and mount.

**Category:** Firstborn

**Description:** Every knight in shining armor is trying to emulate Remus. Remus isn't just the god of righteous battle and holy war, he is the god of honor and courage in the face of impossible odds. Not one warrior of good alignment doesn't offer up a prayer to Remus in his hour of need. Not one crusader on a quest for honor fails to respect the God of valorous combat. Remus is a warrior, a shining example of valor and behavior. Many knights and paladins call him their patron. His clerics are often on a quest to rid the world of evils and injustice, roaming the lands of Apia for monsters and madmen or joining armies on the march towards some honest goal. He is the twin brother of Dozna, goddess of victory, and a minotaur patron god.

**Atix Crowfeather**

**Alignment:** NG

**Domains:** Magic, Knowledge, Summoner, Darkness

**Favored Weapon:** Dagger

**Common Worshipers:** Arcane spellcasters of all kinds particularly wizards, good-aligned kenku, shamans, spirit guides, barbarians, residents of the Shadowfell

**Holy Symbol:** A crow's feather wreathed in blue flame

**Depiction:** A beautiful, pale woman with black hair and yellow eyes. Her tribal robe is covered in crow feathers and folk charms and she carries a gnarled staff, a focus for her spells. Her sly smile is visible beneath her dark hood. The shadows cling to her and follow her as she moves, along with a few crows who are always around. They fly overhead or perch on her shoulders.

**Category:** Ascended

**Description:** Atix Crowfeather was a tribal shaman from a southern Crow tribe in what is modern day Umgar. She was a protégé, powerful in the arcane arts and wise in their use. Other barbarians would come from miles for her advice while other spellcasters traveled to see the wise woman and learn at her feet. When Elmore was dying after his mysterious battle with strange forces, struggling to contain the arcane energy of the whole plane, he was drawn to the most powerful arcane caster on the planet. That was Atix. As Elmore died, he bestowed all his power on her, leading to her ascension as goddess of magic. One of the caveats to this power was management of the Shadowfell, a plane Elmore created in his dying moments to contain the worst elements of rogue arcane magic. Atix represents magic under control and used for good. What is good can be determined by individual sorcerers and wizards, but it should match common sense. She also restricts the use of certain spells, keeping mortals from accessing spells above 9th level as Elmore had requested. Magic is both part of her being and what she teaches. Her clerics are often indistinguishable from wizards, many multi-class as one, teaching responsible magic and the knowledge that comes with it. Additionally she serves as the caretaker of the Shadowfell, managing the beings and energy contained within.

**Teteus**

**Alignment:** NG

**Domains:** Good, Sun, Fire, Healing

**Favored Weapon:** Heavy Mace

**Common Worshipers:** Humans of all nations, farmers, tortals, some lizardfolk, many aasimar

**Holy Symbol:** The disc of the sun with a man's stern features inside it

**Depiction:** Teteus appears as a regal looking middle-aged man in golden robes. His hair and beard are yellow fire and his eyes burn orange. His whole body glows brightly as the sun's rays flicker out of him. He wears a stern look but there is kindness in his eyes.

**Category:** Four Father

**Description:** The sun is one of the greatest allies of civilized humanoids everywhere. Its rays banish undead and demons, provide growth to crops, even healing to some sicknesses. Without the sun there could be no civilization. Teteus is the sun, the leader of The Divine Family, the sole surviving Four Father, one of the first gods ever to exist. He is a being whose words hold sway with even the grumpiest of gods. Teteus loves his mortal children of all races but he has a particularly fondness for humans. As humans were without a creator god, coming from wherever they came from, Teteus took them under his wing. For humans he has that stern love of a kind but firm father. Civilizations are built in his name, seeking the taciturn nod of approval that Teteus gives out when earned. Tortals and some tribes of lizardfolk also venerate him, as the sun is needed to keep their bodies warm. His two wives are Vutune, Ever Mother, and Ahphion, goddess of the moon. He is also considered the spiritual father of Asus and Latrell and their followers are always welcome at Teteus' temples. His clerics often serve important roles in human settlements or travel around in search of undead to destroy or people to heal.

**Garl Glittergold**

**Alignment:** NG

**Domains:** Gnomes, Good, Protection, Trickery

**Favored Weapon:** Gnome Hook Hammer

**Common Worshipers:** Gnomes

**Holy Symbol:** A lump of fool's gold

**Depiction:** A gnomish man, dressed in brightly colored clothes, with a twirled golden mustache and pointy gold beard.

**Category:** Firstborn (Multiplanar)

**Description:** Garl is the ultimate jester, a being of merrymaking and merriment. His created, and beloved, people are gnomes, most of whom follow his example not taking life too seriously. That's not that Garl doesn't believe in moments of severity, but he flouts the idea that life must be constantly grim and dark. As a trickster, he enjoys a good pranking as well as clever wordplay but as a protector he is quick to provide both his Divine Family and his gnomes with the help they need. An inventor and gem-cutter, Garl gave those traits to his children, ensuring that most gnomes have a creative edge to them which they can draw upon when needed. Because of his love for frivolous inventions, Garl gets on surprisingly well with Machanacus. Despite their different tastes in humor, clockwork priests are always welcomed into Garl's temples. Garl's clerics are mostly gnomes and can be found either assisting gnomes or pranking them, depending on the hour. These clerics are not to be underestimated in battle and prove ferocious fighters when battling for a noble cause.

**Asus**

**Alignment:** NG

**Domains:** Courage, Family, Liberation, Renewal

**Favored Weapon:** Light Mace

**Common Worshipers:** Good-aligned tieflings, good-aligned orcs, good-aligned monsters, reformed criminals, the penitent

**Holy Symbol:** Folded red hands against a sunny background

**Depiction:** Asus appears as a tall, angelic figure wearing in a white habit. His facial features glow with radiant light. His skin remains red and black, with diabolic-looking spiraling black horns, a reminder of a past that was once his, growing from his head.

**Category:** Ascended

**Description:** Asus was once a duke of the Nine Hells, a being warped and evil. Yet fate intervened when he decided to try and take on Teteus himself and usurp the Throne of the Sun. Asus was soundly defeated by the great god and awaited destruction. Yet, in a move unlike anything Asus expected, Teteus asked him a simply question. Why? Asus replied that his being was predetermined and thus he could only act as his nature dictated, he could imagine no other existence. Teteus, in an act of powerful divine magic, changed the devil's alignment and asked him what he would do next. The devil wept at Teteus' feet and begged that he be spared and taught a better way. Teteus spent 1001 years teaching the devil new ways to live and, when the teaching ended, he was now Asus The Redeemed One. Asus' followers are humanoids who are usually considered evil but have sought redemption. Some see Asus in their dreams and turn from their ways, some have the fortune to meet one of his wandering clerics and are convinced by their teaching. Asus' teachings are simple, no one is beyond genuine repentance but we must be wary of liars and charlatans who would take advantage of our generosity. Most civilized nations are wary of clerics of Asus but grudgingly accept them as trustworthy men and women who follow their god's commands to live better than they did before.

**Vutune**

**Alignment:** NG

**Domain:** Healing, Good, Protection, Family, Purification

**Favored Weapon:** Quarterstaff

**Common Worshipers:** Midwives, mothers, healers, medics, psychologists, ratfolk

**Holy Symbol:** A red cross with a dove flying before it

**Depiction:** Vutune appears as a woman in her middle-years but she's still handsome to behold. Her round face bares laugh lines and her curly golden hair is streaked with grey. She is often, but not always, depicted as being pregnant. Alternatively, she can been seen carrying a set of surgeon's tools and wearing a medical smock.

**Category:** Firstborn

**Description:** Vutune is the ancient goddess of healing, family and fertility. She is prayed to before the birth of a child and all throughout pregnancy. She is honored by the parents whose son leaves home for the first time and she's prayed to by doctors and medics preparing for lifesaving surgery. As one of the two wives of Teteus, Vutune has a close connection to civilized culture with many of her followers serving as doctors or midwives. Vutune does her best to never harm a living thing (undead and evil outsiders are the exception) and most of her clerics do the same. She encourages both magical and non-magical healing and thus many of her followers are trained healers and herbalists. They are nearly pacifists, striking non-lethal blows with their quarterstaffs whenever possible except against undead and evil outsiders. Vutune's clerics do good wherever they are found and they are nearly always welcomed. Even The Goblin Dominion is known to allow vutanite doctors and clerics into their notoriously closed borders (under supervision of course). Vutune also cares about the mental state of mortals and many cutting-edge psychologists count themselves among her followers. All forms of healing are important to her.

**Kytin**

**Alignment**: NG

**Domains:** Animal, Plant, Earth, Community

**Favored Weapon:** Scythe

**Common Worshipers:** Farmers of all kinds, brewers, bakers, planters, homesteaders

**Holy Symbol:** A sheaf of wheat

**Depiction:** She appears as a golden skinned, golden haired woman, typically shown standing in a wheat field. She carries a scythe and is dressed in simple farmers garb, including a wide-brimmed straw hat. She is often depicted carrying a brown jug of ale.

**Category:** Arisen

**Description:** A young but powerful deity, the daughter of Bromis and a mortal, Kytin is the goddess of agriculture and community building. It was she who taught mortals the art of planting wheat in rows and how to make that wheat into bread. She taught them of planting barley, and how to make it into ale. She helped mortals domesticate animals like sheep, pigs and cattle, providing mortals with both food and resources. Kytin is a goddess of civilization and so teaches her followers to value cooperation and honest labor. Farm work is hard but honest and without it no civilization can survive. Her followers spend their time teaching agricultural skills, tending to injured animals and helping to protect crops from raiders. Kytin's clerics are simple folk, often found with a stalk of barley clenched between their teeth and a signature wide-brimmed straw hat on their heads. They are happily welcomed into most communities with food and open arms, for a cleric of Kytin knows grains better than any other and can often bring healing to sickly crops. Her temples are accompanied by a brewery and bakery, allowing the poor easy access to cheap but high quality bread and beer. Because of the ubiquity of farming, Kytin's worship exploded quickly, allowing her to rise to the rank of a quite powerful goddess in a very short time.

**The Wise Old Man**

**Alignment:** NG

**Domains:** Balance, Good, Meditation, Mind

**Favored Weapon:** Quarterstaff

**Common Worshipers:** Imperials, githzerai, humans on the Southern Continent, monks of many orders, vanara

**Holy Symbol:** Two hands, one resting on the other, palms open and outstretched

**Depiction:** The Wise Old Man is depicted as a small, wizened, ancient-looking man of imperial ethnicity. He is bald with a long white beard that hangs low to the ground but never quite reaches it. Despite his advanced years, there is a spring in the Old Man's step and a twinkle in his eyes which shows a youthful vigor in his body and spirit. He's dressed in rough-spun peasant clothing, complete with sandals and, occasionally, a straw hat. He is never without his trusty quarterstaff, equal parts tool, weapon and companion. While he's usually shown walking everywhere he will occasionally be riding a giant tortoise. Whether walking or riding, he is never moving at more than a leisurely pace.

**Category:** Ascended

**Description:** The Wise Old Man had a name when he was a mortal, average man living in the vast swaths of the Dragon Empire, farming rice like his father before him. However, that name is lost to time, one more possession let go on the path to enlightenment. The title he is known by is more of a mark of fondness and respect from his faithful rather than one chosen by the Old Man himself. His story is legend, how the Man set out on a quest for enlightenment, how he found it within himself, how he strove to be peaceable, in unity with others and nature. How he was a man of harmony and balance. How after many years of searching, meditation and introspection, the Old Man discovered the secret of enlightenment, found inner peace within himself and became one with reality, ascending as a god on his own efforts, rather than the worship of followers. Today his followers, themselves wandering monks, seek enlightenment as he did while spreading his message of inner peace, harmony and balance.

**Corellon Larethian**

**Alignment:** CG

**Domains:** Chaos, Good, Protection, Elf

**Favored Weapon:** Longsword

**Common Worshipers:** Elves, half-elves, bards, hadozee, poets

**Holy Symbol:** A silver crescent moon, studded with jewels

**Depiction:** A tall, incredibly handsome male elf, with somewhat androgynous features. His hair is long and golden, and his eyes are a deep forest green. He holds a silver longsword while wearing an ornate longbow on his back. He can often be seen harping or singing.

**Category:** Firstborn (Multiplanar)

**Description:** Corellon Larethian is the creator and godking of all elves (save the drow who reject him). It was Corellon who taught the elves their reverence for nature, their love of magic and their deep respect for personal liberty. Corellon who settled them in the feywilds and brought them fourth into the material plane. Corellon who wrote their first songs and planned their first cities. Corellon believes deeply in the value of the individual and his followers share that belief so elven societies tend to be rather loose in terms of their laws. This leads to rivalries with both Moradin and Bahamut, who place great value on society over the individual but the ultimate goodness of all these gods leads to mutual cooperation when necessary. It was Corellon who slashed out Gruumsh's eye during the Godswar, earning the eternal enmity of all orcs on his chosen elvish people. Corellon's followers believe in freedom and joy, though not at the expense of others, and many are accomplished artists, poets and trackers, reveling in both humanoid company and the tranquility of nature. His clerics, though few, are renowned as great warriors and poets.

**Bromis**

**Alignment:** CG

**Domains:** Animal, Plant, Good, Fey

**Favored Weapon:** Club/longbow

**Common Worshipers:** Some wood and wild elves, good-aligned druids, forest gnomes, good-aligned rangers, some fey, centaurs, decantaurs

**Holy Symbol:** A sprig of holly

**Depiction:** A slender human or half-elven woman with feylike qualities. Her skin is soft green and her hair is made from green maple leaves. She leaves flowers behind wherever she walks and is surrounded by songbirds and small creatures. She is dressed like a ranger, adorned with signs of nature and carrying a club or longbow.

**Category:** Arisen

**Description:** Bromis is the goddess of animals and nature. As opposed to her father The Green Lord, Bromis believes that nature should be a place of harmony. While there is a need for a circle of life, there should always be conservation. Weaker species should be allowed to flourish, peace should be maintained. She believes that mortals should live in peace with the wilds, planting trees to replace those used for houses, practicing responsible harvesting, hunting and mining and respecting animals as valued living things. She is greatly opposed to undead and mechanical beings. Due to her nature as the daughter of The Green Lord and the dryad queen Atlanteia, Bromis is something of an honorary archfey eldest. Because of this, some fey or fey-blooded creatures worship her in a fey-like fashion. Bromis isn't opposed to civilization or settlements but is opposed to rampant industrialization, over-foresting and so on. Her followers try to encourage a respectful relationship with nature, making her very popular with some species of elves. Her clerics are barely distinguishable from druids and are usually multiclass druid/clerics.

**Rila**

**Alignment:** CG

**Domains:** Chaos, Charm, Lust, Creativity

**Favored Weapon:** Rapier

**Common Worshipers:** Artists, bards, hedonists, centaurs, elves, courtesans, some fey

**Holy Symbol:** A Red Heart

**Depiction:** While she is usual depicted as a human, elf or half-elf woman of striking beauty and flaming red hair, Rila can be depicted as any race. Those depictions always show her as an exquisite otherworldly beauty with red hair or red skin/scales for hairless races. Rila's silver rapier is always on hand, ready to defend her honor. She wears either nothing or flowing silken robes that accentuates her figure.

**Category:** Firstborn

**Description:** Life is more than toil. It is family, art, life, laughter, passion and beauty. Rila, the Evermaiden, is a physical embodiment of that truth. While often associate purely with physical beauty and carnal pursuits, which she does celebrate and encourage, she represents so much more. While passionate love is part of her sphere she also inspires great paintings, playwrights and even some smiths, giving them creativity. People need beauty to make life worth living and in most civilized places her temples are lavish palaces of pleasure. There, people engage in philosophy, art, games, conversation, or the pursuit of love. While many beautiful people are drawn to her service, Rila accepts that beauty is, in some ways, flexible and while a striking minotaur woman might not be considered beautiful by a human, males of her species will be captivated by her and thus she is a worthy servant of the goddess. Rila also celebrates that love can be more than erotic drive and that beauty can be on the inside and her church encourages all to be kind and generous, loving their family, friends and pets with equal affection.

**Qhalene**

**Alignment:** CG

**Domains:** Ocean, Water, Purification, Trade

**Favored Weapon:** Trident

**Common Worshipers:** Merfolk, sailors, fishermen, delorgans, sea gnomes,

**Holy Symbol:** A conch shell held in a blue hand

**Depiction:** Qhalene appears as a massive blue-skinned mermaid, her green hair flows long and free and her hand holds a trident and conch shell. Her tail resembles that of a dolphin or shark. Like most merfolk, her features are slightly elven, with elongated pointed ears and slanted eyebrows. Coral clothing protects her modesty.

**Category:** Arisen

**Description:** Qhalene is an ancient primordial goddess. Qhalene, daughter of Vyzubs, is responsible for the vast ocean and the life within it. Because of the dark influence of aboleths and ancient primordial gods of the depths, Qhalene is far from the mightiest sea god. Instead she serves a more specialized role. She focuses on the harmony between people and the oceans, protecting sailors and merchants from harm and serving as a patron for many goodly aquatic beings, like merfolk and tritons. Those who wish to travel the fearsome seas offer her prayers and thus she is also the patron goddess of merchants and fishermen. Her clerics often resemble sailors themselves, teaching skills like swimming and practices like responsible fishing and disposal of garbage away from the oceans.

**Ahphion**

**Alignment:** CG

**Domain:** Moon, Good, Protection, Healing

**Favored Weapon:** Throwing Knife (in the shape of a crescent moon)

**Common Worshipers:** Elves, centaurs, desmodau, good-aligned lycanthropes, shifters

**Holy Symbol:** The Moon in all three phases (full, crescent, dark)

**Depiction:** Ahphion is depicted as a pale, beautiful maiden with jet black hair. She wears robes of flowing white. In her hands are miniature moons in all three of its phases. She seems to glow with soft light as she moves about; darkness can't seem to survive her presence. Her eyes are soft blue, twinkling with starlight.

**Category:** Firstborn

**Description:** Ahphion is the younger wife of Teteus, reflecting his light as her own. She is playful and wild with just a hint of deviousness. Her relationship with Teteus is one of passion and blazing love as opposed to the more mature one he has with Vutune, and her followers embrace that passion. The moon is a symbol of revelry and fun, yet it also provides light and protection for nighttime travelers. Ahphion represents those aspects as both reveler and warrior. Ahphion's clerics often seem ill focused and rambunctious, lacking the drive of many others, but they can always be counted on to host a great party and to do battle with evil. Ahphion is also the patron of shifters and many heroic man-beasts, who worship her out in the wild with rambunctious howls and hunts. She's also the patron of werewolf hunters, who tend to be the most stoic and grim of her otherwise jovial followers.

**Latrell**

**Alignment:** CG

**Domains:** Liberation, Retribution, Fate, Hatred

**Favored Weapon:** Greataxe

**Common Worshipers:** Aberration hunters, Latrellus, Umgar barbarians

**Holy Symbol:** A hand holding a severed beholder eyestalk

**Depiction:** Latrell appears as a cloaked figure, no trace of racial heritage is visible beneath the dark void of his hood. He is armed for battle with his greataxe and body armor. The light of the sun glows behind him.

**Category:** Ascended

**Description:** Latrell the Eyebane was the great liberator of many people, a great champion of the gods and a great hater of injustice. He was the catalyst that led to the final overthrowing of the beholders and the birth of many nations. He was so revered and so important that upon his death he ascended into godhood at the behest of Teteus as the god of righteous hatred and fated destiny. The only catch was that all knowledge of Latrell's race would be erased so that all peoples could claim him as their own in an attempt to maintain unity among the free sentients. Clerics of Latrell seek out injustice and those deserving of vengeance and deliver it. They are consummate anti-slavers, breaking chains whenever they find them. Because Latrell is unknown, racially anyways, his clerics can be of any species, though the nation of Latrellus claims he was a human and thus many of his most prominent clerics are human. His followers also include aberration hunters. A dangerous but necessary profession as the eternal, ancient enemies can never be allowed to reclaim the surface.

## Neutral Deities

**Machanacus**

**Alignment:** LN

**Domains:** Craft, Metal, Planning, Fire

**Favored Weapon:** Musket/ Warhammer

**Common Worshipers:** All branches of the Machanacite faith, clockwork monks, some gnomes, warforged, androids, rogue modrons
**Holy Symbol:** A golden gear

**Depiction:** Machanacus appears as a mysterious being in red and gold robes with a hood pulled up over his head. His body is covered in pipes, gears and wires to the point that most of his organic body has been replaced with gears and steam powered pistons.

**Category:** Outsider

**Description:** Flesh is weak. Nature is imperfect, impure. Only though the power of technology and machines can we conquer the world and save our lives. Machanacus and his followers value the gear and steam engine over nature which runs them afoul of Bromis, The Green Lord and most elves. Machanacus cares not, emotions are a fleshy failing. His followers systematically replace their body parts with machines as Machanacus commands, as well as develop new technologies to further enhance mortal life. Machanacus is neither good nor evil, as those are human emotions but he is extremely lawful, for only in an organized society can technology truly develop. Because most organized societies are good aligned, he almost always finds himself on the side of good, as do his followers. His clerics are often found on metal legs or wheels, with steam-powered engines on their back powering their new arms and legs as they work on new, more impressive mechanical wonders. Warforged are held in great regard by Machanacus and his followers as the epitome of perfection and many warforged, not used to being treated so well, tend to stay near Machanacite churches.

**Baron Zambodi**

**Alignment:** LN

**Domains:** Death, Fate, Protection, Travel

**Favored Weapon:** Cane (quarterstaff)

**Common Worshipers:** Morticians, grave keepers, vampire hunters, doctors

**Holy Symbol:** A top hat with an hourglass in front of it. The sand is running out.

**Depiction:** Baron Zambodi has two appearances, a skeleton dressed in a fine black suit, complete with top hat and cravat or a dark-skinned man with skeletal face paint in the same garb. He carries a black, silver-tipped, walking stick in one hand and and hourglass in the other. Despite his grim appearance, the Baron is a charming, pleasant man, quick to offer the recently deceased a pipe of tobacco, a game of cards or a shot of whiskey before they depart.

**Category:** Firstborn

**Description:** Everyone dies, it is the way of things. It is a necessary one for the old must make way for the new as death gives birth to life. While it is acceptable to weep for the dead, to lament the end, it is not acceptable to try and cheat death. The Baron is a jolly figure, he tries his best to celebrate lives well lived though he is capable of respecting the wishes of those who crave a more somber farewell. Still, he always comes and he always takes them away in the end. Zambodi is an enemy of Orcus and all undead, even those rare good-aligned undead. Death is a matter of finality, not morality. Still, his clerics are often on the side of good as they battle undead, help ensure that the dead rest peacefully and conduct all manner of funeral rites. Zambodi encourages that his clerics not be a dour lot. They should provide comfort to the grieving families but duty must always come first. The dead must rest.

**Khan**

**Alignment:** LN

**Domains:** Planning, Law, War

**Favored Weapon:** Scimitar

**Common Worshipers:** Generals, officers, tacticians, hobgoblins, Imperials, some minotaurs

**Holy Symbol:** A scimitar held high

**Depiction:** Khan is portrayed as a regal looking Hobgoblin man. He wears traditional Hobgoblin armor and his hair and beard are braided. He wears a curved Hobgoblin longsword on his waist and carries a battle standard.

**Category:** Firstborn

**Description:** Warriors win battles but generals win wars. Any farmer can pick up a crossbow or pitchfork and go fight but only a true master of war can manipulate thousands of men to win battle after battle. The god of tactics and generals is Khan, an ancient hobgoblin war deity after whom hobgoblin kings named themselves. Khan is neither good nor evil, tactics do not belong to any morality system and he cares not for your goals, only how you go about them. Khan is a rare being in that he is one of very few who survived Maglubiyet's purging of the goblin pantheon and, rarer still, he is the only such being widely worshiped by non-hobgoblins. Human generals offer prayers to Khan, small temples to Khan exist in Lartrellus, the Dragon Empire and Delorgan. Khan's clerics are battle-hardened mercenaries and teachers, giving instructions in tactics and lessons in warfare, as well as leading armies and provided council to generals.

**The Green Lord**

**Alignment:** N

**Domains:** Air, Animal, Earth, Fire, Plant, Water

**Favored Weapon:** Longspear

**Common Worshipers:** Druids, rangers, lucantusks, porcine, tortals, centaurs, fey, shifters, human tribes, tabaxi

**Holy Symbol:** A male face made of oak leaves with a beard of ivy. There are two great horns emerging from the forehead.

**Depiction:** The Green Lord is a large green humanoid made of plant mater. He is dressed in leaves and bark, carries a large spear and is accompanied by hounds. His most distinguishing feature are the pair of large, curved horns that grow from The Green Lord's Head. He carries a set of panpipes that he plays in moments of solitude.

**Category:** Firstborn (Contested. Some call him First Father for this reason)

**Description:** Nature is ancient, nature is uncaring. Nature simply is. The Green Lord is an ancient, primordial force, a being that represents nature in all aspects. Unlike Bromis he cares not for integration with mortals because nature is uncaring. Weaker species die and are replaced with stronger ones as it should be. Those who trouble the deep wilds deserve their fate. Just as nature is utterly neutral so is The Green Lord. His clerics are more like druids, proudly defending the wilderness and living away from industrious cities. The Green Lord is the patron of both hunters and ancient midwives for he is both a fertility god and hunter. Nature gives life and death and so does The Green Lord. He rivals Machanacus for the abomination of changing the natural form and the devastation to the world. His daughter Bromis is something of a rival herself because of her attempts to meddle in the cycle of extinction, though he believes she will come around in time. Many lycanthropes worship The Green Lord as he alone truly understands the cycle of life. Shifters, perhaps in an attempt to truly understand their were-ancestors also worship The Green Lord. In a similar way, many beastfolk are drawn to him.

**Nesin**

**Alignment:** N

**Domains:** Knowledge, Travel, Luck, Trickery

**Favored Weapon:** Longsword

**Common Worshipers:** Scribes, librarians, wizards of all stripes, kenku

**Holy Symbol:** An open book with a black cover inscribed with strange runes. Several eyes gaze down on it

**Depiction:** Nesin appears as a mass of eyes and tentacles, each amount fading in and out, unable to be counted. He has no mouth but speaks easily. He utterly rejects the humanoid form.

**Category:** Outsider

**Description:** Knowledge is power. Knowledge leads to great and terrible things. Most beings are interested in knowledge for some particular purpose but those beings are not Nesin. Nesin is something is a divine librarian, cataloging information and collecting secretes merely for the sake of having it. Nesin is always surrounded by books and scrolls, some originating in other realms or planes and he is constantly reading with his many eyes. He isn't picky about who gets information from him or what they use it for, that's their business. Still, he demands an exchange of knowledge, you can't take out, without contributing. His clerics tend to be a bookish lot, gathering vast volumes of information and trading it to those who seek it for whatever reason, provided that those seekers can meet their price. The price is set according to the way of Nesin, a complicated system that places higher values on different secrets. Unlike many gods, Nesin is an outsider,” rumors of another name that he may be known by are quite common. Indeed, Nesin has ne ver claimed that "Nesin" is his only, or even his original, name.

**The Laughing God (One being with three distinct aspects. Gauzom, The Great Bozo and Gelos)**

**Alignment:** Gauzom CG, The Great Bozo CN, Gelos CE

**Domains:** (Note, clerics of The Laughing God can access any Domain regardless of aspect worshiped.) Charm, Chaos, Joy, Travel, Madness, Humor, Fate

**Favored Weapon:** Gauzom: Marotte (Club), The Great Bozo: Marotte (Club), Gelos: War Razor

**Common Worshipers:** Gauzom and The Great Bozo: Jesters, clowns, storytellers, fey-blooded, some halflings, some goblins, some gnomes, bards, clonns, mummers

Gelos: Evil Clowns, Space Clowns, serial murderers, madmen, cruel pranksters, some tieflings and cambions

**Holy Symbol:** Gauzom: A brightly colored jester's cap with jingling bells or a jester's mask, The Great Bozo: A white face with bulbous red nose, bright red mouth and red hair sticking out to the side, Gelos: A grinning bloody skull with a jester's cap atop it

**Depiction:** **Gauzom:** Gauzom appears as a tall human man with chalk white skin and a bright red nose. His hair is a checker pattern of alternating blue and green color. He dresses as a jester with a quadruple bell cap (His followers never wear a cap with more than three bells to avoid "upstaging" their god), jingling shoes and various bells and ribbons. His colors are light green and blue. He smiles and laughs gently while encouraging healing good humor. He almost always carries a jingling marotte. His jokes are never at anyone's expense and always tasteful.

**The Great Bozo:** The Great Bozo appears as a massive, rotund human male. Chalk white skin is accented by tuffs of bright red hair, red lips set in a perpetual smile, a round red ball for a nose, fluffy red eyebrows and too large feet. He dresses in a poorly fitted blue and red outfit with oversized sleeves and collars. His laughter is booming and a little creepy as he makes his jokes and pranks, pratfalls and bobbery. While not purposely cruel, he prioritizes the joke above anything and will single out anyone if the joke is worth it. He usually carries a jack-in-the-box, with the inner jack resembling the being who observes it pop up.

**Gelos:** Gelos is a too tall, too thin man, appearing either as a bloody skeleton or chalk white man with cruel hooked nose painted black. He is bald, save for dark eyebrows that leer outward. His teeth are sharp, like a shark and his smile is far too wide to be natural. He wears black and white clothing in a jester style, perpetually stained with blood. Gelos laughs manically, juggling knives and singing unpleasant songs about torture and murder in a jeering tone.

**Category:** Four Father (As Cordyfectus)

**Description:** Cordyfectus was the Smiling God, champion of good humor and emotion. A diplomat and story-teller, perhaps the purest of the Divine Family, Cordyfectus could bring even Gruumsh and Moradin together with the right joke. However, after being lost in The Far Realm The Smiling God was no more. Instead he'd be broken into three distinct beings, representing different types of humor and morality. All are equally Cordyfectus even as none of them are. They are the same god, but not each other. The worshipers of the Laughing God usually worship only one of these aspects, refering to their god by that name while politely refusing to acknowledge the others. Some wish to help their aspect absorb the others and rise to power again but other faithful stubbornly refuse to see the other two aspects as The Laughing God at all. In the rare case of a clown following all three aspects as one, the god is called "The Laughing God," the same name used by academics, to signify the worship. Today, jesters and clowns offer prayers to Gauzom or The Great Bozo, trying to bring merriment or perfect a joke. Psychotic killers and the demonic Space Clowns praise Gelos, The Cruel Joke, the Bloody Mummer. Whether Gelos created the Space Clowns or merely discovered them is unknown, but they remain his most loyal followers, (save those "circus'" who serve Nyarlathotep.) Most people have joyous memories associated with the mood-lifting followers Gauzom or the clowns serving The Great Bozo. Those who have encountered the murderous knives of Gelos, if they survive, never tend to look at good-aligned clowns or jesters the same way again.

**Thydtia**

**Alignment:** CN

**Domains:** Chaos, Luck, Trickery

**Favored Weapon:** Hand-crossbow

**Common Worshipers:** Thieves, rogues, scoundrels of all kinds, gamblers, carnies, con artists, assassins, tabaxi

**Holy Symbol:** An open lock/a six-side dice showing the six face

**Depiction:** Thydtia is portrayed as a slender woman dressed in dark leathers. Despite the hood she wears, her dark hair twinkles with starlight and her eyes resemble those of a cat. She's usually shown rolling a pair of dice or flipping a coin.

**Category:** Firstborn

**Description:** Someone is always stealing something and when mortals do something a god represents it. Thydtia is she whose domain is thieves and con artists. She's also associated with luck and thus is occasionally prayed to by more reputable members of society, though only ever privately. Her duel role as thief and luck goddess leads to almost two different clergy, with different, though closely related, holy symbols and orders. Thydtia suggests that there's nothing another has that you can't take with just a little bit of skill and a whole lot of luck. Her clerics are virtual indistinguishable from thieves and many are multi-classed rogues. She has few temples and fewer dogmas, but if a thief is willing to give Thydtia her cut, she'll probably hear his prayers. Probably.

**Thuhaldir**

**Alignment:** CN

**Domains:** Oracle, Madness, Mind, Illusion (Note: A Cleric of Thuhaldir **MUST** select Madness as one of his Domains.)

**Favored Weapon:** Flail

**Common Worshipers:** Only the insane worship Thuhaldir and often not by choice

**Holy Symbol:** An actor's mask, halfway divided between laughter and crying

**Depiction:** The Madman's God is usually portrayed as a human man with white hair, short-trimmed white beard and yellow eyes, dressed in a multi-colored jester's suit, complete with cap and bells, laughing uncontrollably. He may also be portrayed with the same features but dressed in a pad-locked straight jacket.

**Category:** Arisen

**Description:** When men go insane they become madmen. When gods go insane they become Thuhaldir. No one knows the story of Thuhaldir and what drove him to the way he was, though artists love to guess. Hints of connection with the triune fractured Laughing God are common. Perhaps he came into existence mad. None can say. No one understands his motives, likely not even Thuhaldir himself. He has few temples and no proper orthodox teachings. His clerics are born or summoned and all hear the voice of Thuhaldir himself. They go from place to place, more like a plague than a priest, typically avoided by the sane. However, Thuhaldir and his clergy are known to have extraordinary prophetic visions in rare moments of lucidity and so his mad followers are tolerated, indeed even venerated in some cultures. There's hardly an Apian alive who hasn't wanted to know the future, and only the mad priests of the mad god can make a half-accurate guess at it.

**Vyzbus**

**Alignment:** CN

**Domains:** Ocean, Storm, Windstorm, Water, Wrath

**Favored Weapon:** Cutlass

**Common Worshipers:** Pirates and sea raiders, delorgans, many aquatic races

**Holy Symbol:** A bolt of lightning splitting the rolling waves

**Depiction:** A burly ocean giant with a beard made of out coral and hair made of lightning. With a cutlass in each hand he roams the ocean. Sometimes he is depicted as having a merfolk tail.

**Category:** Four Fathers

**Description:** The followers of Qhalene might try to offer a sanitized explanation of the ocean but in truth it is a deep, terrifying vastness, alien to most people who call Apia home. It is the domain of krakens and aboleths. From the depths come monsters and without magical assistance most species can't survive within it. Storms more powerful than anything civilized man can handle roll across it, devastating the land without emotion. Vyzbus is the god of sea and storms. Like The Green Lord, he is a primordial being, representing the deadly chaos of the ocean. He is beloved of pirates, who also truly know the depths of the sea. Like the ocean itself, Vyzbus is not evil but he is cold, cruel and ultimately uncaring. His clerics typically provide swimming lessons but beyond that they merely venerate the power of Vyzbus with no intention of connection. Delorgan is the home of most Vyzbus worship where he's seen as the head of their pantheon and the High Jarl of all gods.

**Emdera Ruggedfist**

**Alignment:** CN

**Domain:** Chaos, Protection, Strength, War

**Favored Weapon:** Greatsword

**Common Worshipers:** Minotaurs, warriors, mercenaries, procine, good-aligned gnolls, maenads, barbarians, warforged

**Holy Symbol:** An armored warrior wielding a greatsword. None of his features are visible

**Depiction:** Emdera Ruggedfist strides into battle in his gray plate armor with closed helmet and a greatsword in each hand. His helmet sprouts bull-like horns which lead some to believe he is a divine minotaur. None of his physical features are visible.

**Category:** Arisen

**Description:** Battle is the truest test of a man, and there is no greater friend of the soldier than Ruggedfist. Let Khan worry about generals, let Remus care about honor or Xoldarr about fair play, Emdera Ruggedfist is a warrior's friend first. He is there to lend strength to soldiers in battle. Those who truly see war for the glory that it is feel the iron warrior behind them. Good and evil are irrelevant, nations irrelevant. There is only the battle and only the battlefield. Emdera Ruggedfist's clerics are boisterous warriors, always throwing themselves into the fray whenever possible, singing hymns of battle at the top of their lungs. They'll usually seek out the weaker side in any conflict for there is more promise of fighting with the weaker side. Emdera is one of the minotaur patron gods.

**Pan**

**Alignment:** CN

**Domain:** Chaos, Earth, Lust, Trickery, Charm, Music

**Favored Weapon:** Tankard (Club)

**Common Worshipers:** Fey, satyrs, fauns, centaurs, musicians, hedonists, bards, vagabonds

**Holy Symbol:** A goat playing pan pipes/A satyr's rugged face

**Depiction:** Pan is depicted like most satyrs, a ruggedly, wildly handsome man with swarthy skin, thick dark beard, large curling horns and the lower half of a goat. His horns are notably large and his beard long in comparison to other satyrs. Some portray him with gray fur and beard rather than the more traditional brown out of respect for his position of power.

**Category:** Outsider

**Description:** Pan is the father of all satyrs, one of the oldest of the archfey eldest and the only one to ascend to full divinity. Pan claims to have been worshiped on many worlds but Pan claims many things. It is known that he is an outsider so that is at least true. He is a party god and his followers echo his beliefs, living lives of gluttonous excess in all respects, though not at the expense of others. Most of the time. Pan loves all those things that make life worth living, sex, music, food, entertainment and fun. Unsurprisingly, he has gathered a large following, including among the notoriously fickle fey who don't worship gods as a general rule. The patron of satyrs, fauns and many centaurs, Pan's temples aren't in many civilized cities. They do exist, but his wandering clergy don't like to be tied down. Mayors or lords find having permanent temples to Pan in their cities can prove disruptive and so most encourage Pan worshipers to head out into the wilderness.

**Wakjan**

**Alignment:** CN

**Domain:** Air, Celerity, Liberation, Sky, Storm

**Favored Weapon:** Longbow

**Common Worshipers:** Farmers, savage halflings, aarakocra, giant eagles, kestrels

**Holy Symbol:** The outstretched wings of a massive eagle, made from lightning

**Depiction:** Wakjan is the mightiest of the thunderbirds. A massive eagle formed of storm and lighting. The sky boils and crashes around him and fog follows in his wake.

**Category:** Ascended

**Description:** The power of the storm is truly spectacular, a phenomenon that is both majestic and destructive in equal measure. While thunderbirds have always been known to bring the storm it is Wakjan, their forefather who is the creator of them. An ancient primordial being Wakjan was the first thunderbird and the only one ascended to divinity, replacing the former thunder god after his death. The Thunder God and King of Storms isn't the kindest or gentlest god but he is one of the most important, for storms bring renewal and life itself and for this reason he is honored in many lands.

## Evil Deities

**Lolth**

**Alignment:** CE

**Domain:** Trickery, Lust, Spider, Darkness

**Favored Weapon:** Dagger

**Common Worshipers:** Drow, driders, chitine, some half-drow, spiders

**Holy Symbol:** A spider with the face of a beautiful drow woman

**Depiction:** Lolth appears often as a beautiful but cold drow woman, dressed in black and surrounded by spiders. Alternatively, she might be presented as a giant spider with an unusually dark coat.

**Category:** Firstborn (Multiplanar)

**Description:** Lolth is the dark goddess of spiders, darkness and the drow, the race of mostly evil elves who live in The Hollow. Lolth is responsible for the elven civil war that split the elves asunder. She is also believed to be responsible for the Godswar itself by way of manipulation and treachery. Lolth is vile and wicked, a seductress and a schemer whose worship forms the basis of drow society. Her priestesses run the show and shape it into the wicked chaos she loves so dearly. Above ground, Lolth has few followers outside of the chitines, but she has such a presence below that she is undoubtedly one of the most powerful members of The Divine Family. Lolth's clerics, in addition to being the highest members of drow society, spreading her will wherever they go, including the attempted genocide of all non drow elves, and conquest of the surface.

**Gruumsh**

**Alignment:** CE

**Domain:** Orcs, Wrath, Strength, Hatred, War

**Favored Weapon:** Orcish double-axe

**Common Worshipers:** Orcs, half-orcs, orogs, some ogres, some human barbarians, orgillions

**Holy Symbol:** An orcish eye gazing out intently

**Depiction:** Gruumsh is a massive orc, bulging with muscle and covered in old scars. His one eye gazes out with anger at those who would cheat him. His other eye, lost in battle with Corellon Larethian is sometimes covered with a bandage or other times the exposed socket is left open for all to see.

**Category:** Firstborn (Multiplanar)

**Description:** Gruumsh is the savage, barbaric godking and father of all orcs. His heart beats with rage and anger against those others in the world who have wronged him in some way (real or imagined) though elves, and to a lesser extent dwarves receive the bulk of this hatred. Gruumsh teaches that the weak are but playthings of the strong, their possession including their lives are for the taking of those with the power to do it. The lands exist to be purged of non-orc kind in every battle where the strong dominate. Orcs should rule every scrap of Apia, Gruumsh demands it. Good orcs and half-orcs often still worship Gruumsh but they see him as more neutral than evil, a source of strength in a harsh world but not a bloodthirsty god. This depiction is common in Umgar, where temples to Gruumsh stand alongside those to Latrell and Teteus. Gruumsh's clerics are savage warmongers, many of whom cut out one of their own eyes in honor of their god. They are often found advising warlords or being ones themselves.

**Demogorgon**

**Alignment:** CE

**Domains:** Chaos, Evil, Demonic, Corruption

**Favored Weapon:** Whip

**Common Worshipers:** Demons, evil humanoids

**Holy Symbol:** A forked, snake-like tail

**Depiction:** Demogorgon is the worst parts of a lizard, ape and snake rolled into one. He has two baboon heads that argue constantly, three octopus tentacles where other beings have arms, standing on lizard legs and a forked lizard tail.

**Category:** Ascended (Demon Lord)

**Description:** Demogorgon has only just become a true divinity but he may not hold it for long. The prince of all demons, Demogorgon wants nothing more than to corrupt and destroy all of Apia, transforming it into another layer of the Abyss. This puts him at odds with Asmodeus as well as all good and even many evil deities. Demogorgon is quite mad, holding his position based on his physical power alone, power that mortal followers hope to acquire for themselves. Cultists of Demogorgon try to bring other mortals into the prince of all demons' fold while trying to assist him in his take over of the material plane. Other powerful demon lords like Graz'zt or Orcus, seek to claim the title "prince of all demons" and perhaps may become gods themselves in time.

**Grandmother Shadow**

**Alignment:** CE

**Domains:**Evil, Trickery, Fey, Magic, Plant

**Favored Weapon:** Claw Gauntlet

**Common Worshipers:** Hags, evil wizards, evil druids, evil fey, evil hagspawn/changlings, evil witches

**Holy Symbol:** The evil eye of a warty old woman.

**Depiction:** Grandmother Shadow, the mother of all hags, appears much like one would suspect. Her skin is green and covered in warts, her claws long and sharp. Her hair is clammy and damp, even when the weather is warm. She walks about with a gnarled piece of black wood that serves as a cane and staff. Sometimes she is riding a broom or mort and pestle. Regardless of her transportation, she is dressed in rags and covered in component pouches of various sizes.

**Category:** Arisen

**Description:** Grandmother Shadow is one of the darkest beings to come out of the Feywild. She is the shadow of the greatest witch the multiverse has ever seen, separated into her own being before rising to divinity and spawning the foul hags. She remains more revolting than all her wicked daughters combined. She taught them wicked hag magic and evil herbalist recipes, gave them their taste for child flesh and warped their views of beauty. Because of her connection to magic and herbalism, Grandmother is worshiped by many evil magic users and druids who find Atix Crowfeather's rules for magic restrictive. Grandmother dotingly gives out these vile secrets to her spiritual grandchildren, for she loves sowing death and destruction across the lands. Her clerics are often indistinguishable from the hags themselves, being shriveled old crones who delight in suffering. While she does "love" her followers to some extent, like all hags, she'll sacrifice them without hesitation to serve her goals.

**Burtix**

**Alignment:** CE

**Domain:** Chaos, Evil, Destruction, Lust

**Favored Weapon:** Grand (Two-Handed) Falchion

**Common Worshipers:** Psychopaths, murderers, ogres, some trolls, some vampires, some Delorgans, some Druzi, the cannibal reavers of southern Umgar, bandits

**Holy Symbol:** A goblet overflowing with blood held in a feminine hand

**Depiction:** Burtix is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful beings in the multiverse despite her great evil. She resembles a tall human barbarian with long dark or red hair, firm muscles, tribal tattoos and scars. Her eyes blaze with insane fire and she dresses in revealing leathers and furs. She is covered in blood while wielding a two-handed falchion that always seems wet and sticky with gore.

**Category:** Firstborn

**Description:** Burtix is interested in one thing above all, slaughter. Her only desires are rivers of blood, devastation, and destruction as far as the eye can see. Leave tactics to Khan, leave empire building to her son Khudall, or Maglubiyet, Burtix wants slaughter and slaughter alone. She is the Lady of Blood and that title satisfies her. Many bandits consider her a patron for she justifies their basest urges. The cannibalistic reaver tribes of southern Umgar call her The Blood-Stained Queen and constitute a bulk of her followers. Human sacrifices of particularly handsome human and elf men is common among Burtix's faithful, as are darker rituals. The blood queen lacks any code of conduct or redeeming qualities; she is barely a step above demons and devils and gleefully revels in death. She's no nihilist and encourages her followers to have children, that there always be predators and prey.

**Oztoz**

**Alignment:** NE

**Domain:** Wealth, Sloth, Gluttony, Greed, Hunger

**Favored Weapon:** Bite or longspear

**Common Worshipers:** Corrupt merchants and tax collectors, evil taer, ogres, evil half-ogres, some chromatic dragons

**Holy Symbol:** An engorged belly with coins stacked atop it

**Depiction:** Oztoz is a disgusting mass of flesh and bile. His body is overweight in the extreme and so he sits naked, his modesty protected by fat rolls. His skin is pale and clammy and he is completely hairless. He is surrounded by coins, gems and precious stones as well as pies, steaks and roast chickens.

**Category:** Arisen

**Description:** Oztoz is the disgusting god of greed. Greed can be directed towards many things but Oztoz is focused on two elements alone, money and food. Oztoz is constantly eating, always hungry but never full despite his body stretching to truly gargantuan proportions. He seeks out more and more wealth that he will never spend, hoarding things just for the sake of having them. He is the patron of wicked merchants who extort customers for profit, the master of tax collectors who line their own pockets at the expense of the citizens, the lord of gluttonous kings who seek their own pleasure above their subjects and all who engorged themselves far beyond what they need. Oztoz is rarely summoned, even by his own clerics, due to the smell he generates and the flies who buzz around his unwashed bulk. Oztoz's clerics are a selfish lot, trying to gather as much food and wealth as they can for their own personal use.

**The Great Old Ones**

**Alignment:** NE

**Domain:** Ocean, Chaos, Darkness, Knowledge

**Favored Weapon:** Varies

**Common Worshipers:** Aboleths, seekers of forbidden lore, koa-toa, mind flayers of Thoon

**Holy Symbol:** Varies, mostly tentacles or eyes

**Depiction:** No one truly understands the forms of The Old Ones. They are beyond the mortal mind to comprehend.

**Category:** Outsiders

**Description:** The Great Old Ones are actually a collection of deities from The Far Beyond, ancient gods, beings or ideas worshiped by the aboleths. As such, more details are found in the "Beyond the Family" section. No one can comprehend their truly alien goals and no one can view them without madness. It is believed that Dagon was one such being before becoming a Demon Lord. Some suggest Nesin is another. Regardless, the blasphemous shrines to The Old Ones can be found only in the deepest parts of the ocean and the darkest points within The Hollow. Some seek them out, in search of power beyond imagining yet such projects are doomed to fail, for if the Old Ones, wanted to make their prescience know, they would.

**Tharizdun**

**Alignment:** NE

**Domain:** Avarice, Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Force, Madness

**Favored Weapon:** Whip

**Common Worshipers:** Nihilists, doom-seekers, madmen, evil elemental creatures, obyriths

**Holy Symbol:** A black spiral, symbolizing that time is an inevitable descent into entropy.

**Depiction:** Tharizdun is swirling chaos, he is a rumbling voice, he is the four elements twisted upon themselves. He has no consistent form of any kind to speak of and depictions of him are abstract at best.

**Category:** Outsider

**Description:** Tharizdun is a god that there has been a dedicated effort to forget. An ancient being of pure chaos and evil, Tharizdun is the creator of the shard of pure evil, the original tempter of Asmodeous and the creator of the elemental evils. Tharizdun was beaten by the other gods in a combined effort, bound with great chains and tossed into the Void, the deepest depths of a forgotten plane. Today, Tharizdun seeks revenge, intending to eliminate all of reality in an attempt to wipe the slate clean. His followers seek to find their lost god, break his chains and unleash him onto the world again. He speaks in the dreams of the mad, calls out through forbidden texts and proves remarkably difficult to truly forget despite all efforts to the contrary.

**Vecna**

**Alignment:** NE

**Domain:** Evil, Knowledge, Magic

**Favored Weapon:** Dagger

**Common Worshipers:** Necromancers, sentient undead, nihilists, power seekers, vampires

**Holy Symbol:** An eyeball resting in the palm of a hand.

**Depiction:** Vecna appears as a lich of awesome power, an undead man with obvious necromantic might. His left hand and right eye are missing, replaced with ghostly shadowy duplicates. His robes are tattered and windswept and his person is covered in wands, tomes and fetishes.

**Category:** Outsider

**Description:** Vecna is the original lich, the one who rose to godhood. He is not from this realm and he is not a member of the Divine Family. He is proudly an interloper, an outsider, a stranger from a world on a plane unknown to the Apians. Rumors persist that he taught the original secrets of lichdom on Apia and continues to spread dark necromantic secrets. While Vecna doesn't have a large following among mortals, many undead worship him. Despite this limited following however, he seems immune to the typical rules of deriving power from worship. Vecna is a mystery, a strange evil that acts according to his own, mysterious whims.

**Tiamat**

**Alignment:** LE

**Domain:** Dragon, Scalykind, Greed, Pride, Tyranny

**Favored Weapon:** Heavy Pick

**Common Worshipers:** Chromatic dragons, chromatic dragonborn, evil half-dragons, some evil Lizardmen, Cult of the Dragon Members, tiamatspawn

**Holy Symbol:** A wheel with the head of each of the chromatic dragon types on it.

**Depiction:** Tiamat is portrayed as a five-headed, female chromatic dragon, magnificent and unhallowed in size. Each of her five heads is one of the different chromatic dragon types.

**Category:** Firstborn (Multiplanar)

**Description:** Tiamat, the sister of Bahamut is the mother of all chromatic dragons, who are made in her image. Unlike her noble brother, Tiamat represents the wickedness that dragons are capable of, greed, tyranny, destruction and all her children follow suit. Tiamat's clerics likewise spread her goals of an Apia completely bent and dominated to the will of The Dragon Queen. She has also gained a rather sizable cult following of non-draconican followers known as The Cult of the Dragon, who either through madness, avarice or hatred, share her goals and seek to assist in her unhallowed conquest.

**Maglubiyet**

**Alignment:** LE

**Domain:** Domination, Courage, Tyranny, War, Strength

**Favored Weapon:** Battleaxe

**Common Worshipers:** Goblins, bugbears, hobgoblins, dominion citizens

**Holy Symbol:** A bloodstained battleaxe

**Depiction:** Maglubiyet is a goblinoid whose physical appearance contains elements of all three major goblinoid races. He is green skinned and bald, standing over a pile of fallen enemies. His axe is clenched triumphantly in one hand.

**Category:** Firstborn (Multiplanar)

**Description:** There was once a whole pantheon of goblinoid gods. They set their followers against each other, they squabbled and fought amongst themselves, never advancing beyond petty wars and raiding. Yet Maglubiyet had a vision, a goal, a belief in the need for a united goblinoid empire that rolled across Apia conquering all before it. All land belonged to goblinkind to rule over; they had but to take it. So, Maglubiyet put the rest of the goblinoid pantheon to the axe and crushing them beneath his heels. Only a select few were spared, most notably Khan, who knelt in respect to Maglubiyet's cunning and strength. So Maglubiyet appeared to the clerics of the three races as their new chief god. Thanks to his vision, The Goblin Dominion was formed and expanded outward. Maglubiyet teachings are for a firm, organized society, where the strong rule and the weak are ruled. His clerics are typically Goblinoids, though not exclusively and all encourage the conquest of more land in his name. Even goblins disconnected from The Dominion follow Maglubiyet's teachings to some extent, leading to his place as a mighty god indeed.

**Asmodeus**

**Alignment:** LE

**Domains:** Evil, Law, Diabolic, Fire, Contract

**Favored Weapon:** Light Mace

**Common Worshipers:** Devils, evil Humanoids

**Holy Symbol:** A crimson hand clutching a ruby tipped rod.

**Depiction:** Asmodeus appears as a handsome, red-skinned man. A coal black beard and mustache covers his face, while a pair of small black horns grow from his forehead.

**Category:** Ascended (Archdevil)

**Description:** The archdevil Asmodeus is so widely worshiped that he has ascended to true divinity. As the grand prince of the Nine Hells, the greatest of the archdevils, Asmodeus is the embodiment of lawful evil. Contracts are his domain as is the bending of those contracts to collect souls. His is an ancient role in history, the fallen angle and true shaper of the Nine Hells, creator of Mephistopheles and father of devils, there is very little evil that exists without Asmodeus' hand connected to it. Despite his appearance and pretext there is nothing noble about Asmodeus and his methods but the power devils offer is enough to sway the influence of many wicked mortals. The only one who ever truly profits from these arrangements however is Asmodeus.

**Khudall**

**Alignment:** LE

**Domain:** Tyranny, Law, Evil, Control

**Favored Weapon:** Flail

**Common Worshipers:** Evil warriors, evil Soldiers, warlords, tyrants, blackguards

**Holy Symbol**: A black gauntlet closed into a fist

**Depiction:** Khudall is a dark mirror to Remus. His face his hidden behind black plate armor, armor that is warped and covered with images of demons and he wears a crimson cape. Bones and corpse are scattered beneath his feet.

**Category:** Ascended

**Description:** Khudall is the god of tyrannical rule and conquest. He encourages his followers to drive all before them, subduing the lands and seizing power by any means necessary. He values empires built on blood and maintained with iron. He is similar to Maglubiyet though not focused exclusively on goblinoids and unlike Maglubiyet he doesn't demand conquest in his name. Simply the act of a tyrant tyrannizing his people is enough to bring honor to Khudall. He is not a god of wanton destruction and devastation. He expects his followers to maintain empires when they are finished, to wield the law as effectively as the blade. Politics and the sword go hand in hand for Khudall and the various clerics and blackguards who follow him are terrifying opponents to behold. They maintain the bloodlust of savage orcs, but balanced with the iron hand of hobgoblins. The demi-god son of Remus and Burtix (that itself being a mighty tale), Khudall's ancient "Empire of Iron" was the model of his belief and, despite that empire's fall, Lord Khudall was able to ascend, taking the place as god of tyranny, though how this was done is currently unknown.

## Beyond the Family

While the gods, particularly the Divine Family themselves are the primary focus of religion across Apia, they are far from the only ones. Powerful fiends, ancestral spirits, ancient horrors and particularly impressive fey are among the many beings that attract followers and worshipers. Some, like Asmodeus, can even achieve so many worshipers that they actually ascend and become gods. Most of these beings can provide spells through divine magic to their petitioners, though not all are capable. Elemental lords, for example, cannot pass spells along. Still, this does not stop mortals from worshiping those beings, even without the magical reward. Aside from the two categories below, there is nothing stopping a mortal from worshiping a being not listed.

### Other Pantheons:

While gods like Moradin and Corellon Larethian are themselves powerful members of the Divine Family, they tend to be the heads of their own, smaller, divine families. Often among those races, members within the pantheon will be worshiped as individuals. It's rare for a non-dwarf to venerate Clangeddin Silverbeard, the dwarf god of war, but he may pray to mighty Moradin whom he has heard of. Below is an incomplete list of larger pantheons with the principle deity in brackets.

Elvish Pantheon ( Called "The Seldarine." Corellon Larethian)

Dwarvish Pantehon (Moradin)

Gnomish Pantheon (Garl Glittergold)

Orcish Pantheon (Grummsh)

Drow Pantheon (Called "The Dark Seldarine." Lolth)

The Great Old Ones (Sometimes called "Elder Gods." Alternatively these may be two separate pantheons. (Azathoth)

Giant Pantheon (Annam All-Father)

Ancient Za'icoran (Horus)

Tabaxi Pantheon (The Great Fire Cat)

Goblin Pantheon (Mostly extinct. Maglubiyet)

The Glorious Ones (Vekred Pantheon)

Delorgan Pantheon (Vyzbus)

The Elder Evils (More a loose collection of evil beings than a proper pantheon.)

### Other Beings Worshiped:

Aside from the more traditional pantheons, some beings worshiped include...

The Archdevils of the Nine Hells (Along with other diabolic dukes and powerful devils.)

The Demon Lords (Along with various other powerful demons.)

Yugoloth Princes (Along with various other fiends like kytons or oni.)

The Elder Fey

The Empyreal Lords (And other celestial beings or saints.)