Stotum

## Alignment:

Stotum at his core is Chaotic Good. He cares for mortals and wishes them only the best, encouraging their impulses as means of helping them express themselves, while encouraging order as he sees it as a necessity for the world and the wellbeing of mortals.

## Likes and Dislikes:

Likes: Mischief, Random Acts of Kindness, Freedom

Dislikes: Suffering, Imprisonment, Strict Regulation

## Tenets:

There is a clear split between the followers of Stotum. With a few rare exceptions, they each either follow Order or Chaos exclusively.

 There Can Be No Order Without Chaos
Let Freedom Soar And Restrictions Crumble
Break Every Chain And Every Cage
Bind Impulses, For They Lead To Grief
Bring Kindness To Those Who Suffer From Chaos

## Depictions/Concepts:

* Chains of any sort are particularly striking, representing the bindings of order against the void of chaos. At times, prisons and binds of any sort are associated with Stotum.
* Humanoid depictions of Stotum show him as a giant, bound in the aforementioned chains. He looks young and strikingly handsome, undamaged by time or his imprisonment. He is rarely seen in fancy clothing and generally appears plain except for his striking looks.
* It is said that in the presence of Stotum, pendulums and scales swing to one side and refuse to budge. Followers of Stotum use this phenomena to detect whether the god favors chaos or order at any one time.
* Chaotic followers of Stotum claim that the god whispers into their ear, urging them to indulge in their impulses and desires.

## Personality:

Contrasting his striking appearance, Stotum can come off as quite timid to most. The giant speaks softly and quietly, addressing his followers with care and gentleness as though raising his voice would shatter their fragile forms. He loves mortals, adores them even and wants only the best for them. The meaning of that changes from day to day, depending on how much willpower Stotum can produce and how much order rules in the world.

An outsider may think that Stotum switches between evil and good at a whim, one day deciding to sow chaos while another he decides to enforce order. In reality, Stotum is a very repressed entity. Chaos is a part of him, he desires mischief and confusion and uncertainty. He wants to encourage impulse in all that he talks to. He wishes for nothing more than to enable every mortal that comes to him for guidance. Yet when he goes to answer them, he strains to speak of restraint and self control. He's a contradictory creature, believing that his impulses are wrong and evil. So he is bound in chains and hides in the shadows and speaks softly to his followers to keep the chaos at bay, for there is nothing that Stotum claims to hate more than his chaotic impulses.

However, the chains weren't put on him by choice. Deep inside, under the repression and fear, Stotum does want to just be himself and will whisper to a few select followers of chaos to just indulge their impulses. The chains are therefore, a self imposed punishment, a sign of his hatred for the impulses that he so longs to release to their fullest extent.

## Stories:

The stories surrounding Stotum generally take extremes of great unhinged violence, destruction and general chaos, or reparations, rebuilding and bringing order. The twisting of personalities is often the focus of such lates; virtuous priests turning into anarchists, while others find a calling to orderly life. All these stories are joined by whispers, soft whispers into the ears of those chosen by Stotum to take the path of chaos or order.

While these stories often focus on dramatic turns and changes, some are only slightly, just enough to cause confusion and uncertainty.

It is said in some villages that those who don’t settle in one place for long are servants of Stotum, as they can never fit into a hierarchy or structure. They are always led by the window into greater unknowns, living on adrenaline and uncertainty of the future. One such story carried on across many villages and soon became a myth closely associated with Stotum and what he represents.

In one of the unnamed settlements of Oracle, a young man lived a peaceful, very uneventful life. So uneventful in fact that the boredom was eating him alive. The simple village life was far too easy, but the dangers of the wilds were too great. So he was stuck with little purpose, leading his boring life in a boring field by a boring village. Until one day of laying back, watching the skies, he heard a whisper in his ear. A whisper which simply said ‘go’. The man didn’t know what to make of it, so he ignored it at first, but soon it returned. It would come back now and then, always just a soft whisper. The man tried to continue to ignore it, but it sounded tempting… To go, to leave, to travel for no apparent reason except to travel. To toss aside the binds that this life has given him. So one day, he caved, took some of his belongings and goaded on by the whispers, he ventured into the world in a random direction.

Despite a few obstacles, he made it to the next village in good shape and spent the night with a generous family. By chance, he discovered the girl there was due to be married soon. Despite this, she kept glancing at him with longing looks. The whispers in the man’s head then turned, urging him to whisk the girl away into a more free life. He tried to ignore the whispers and stayed with the family, working to make some coin before moving on. Yet the whispers continued and he found himself glancing at the girl more often…

As expected, the man caved and the night before the wedding, the man took the girl and the two fled into the night. She didn’t know why she was going with him, but the adrenaline was a thrill and the man seemed so charming and strange in his own, unique way. He told her of the whispers eventually, but that didn’t seem to discourage her, but it grew her fascination in him.

The whispers then told him ‘go’.

The two continued on their journey, stopping in one village for a short time, then another, then another. They never stayed for long, but wherever they went, the whispers would whisper a new task for the man to fulfill. Simple, little things that seemed to mean little in the grand scheme of things. The two would continue on their way, sowing chaos in their own little ways. Yet unknowingly to them, each thing done would go on to impact the entire village, causing a much greater impact than anticipated. The marriage the girl was meant to go through? It was a means of ending a feud between two families. Now without that, the two descend back into bitter arguments over who owns which sheep and who has a nicer garden. A large dog painted with coal to appear to be a wolf scares the locals, causing them to keep their animals closer to home which causes them to cause disturbances.

The story is meant as a showcase of the butterfly effect, of the mild ways that chaos infects our lives. Some see it as a lighthearted tale of joy and freedom, some as a means of showing the vile issues caused by a lack of order, though in those stories the mischief caused by the pair is turned into actual crime.