The World

Desna and her starknife.

 ￼Desna was one of the first deities, but while her peers burdened themselves with the task of
creating her previous world, she spent her time building the heavens. She knew that there would be plenty of time for her and her followers to explore the many wonders of the world later. She’s changed little since those earlier days; and even in their exiled state, she and her followers delight in exploring the Mad World and understanding the connections between the the islands of the Thousand Oceans.

Desna generally
communicates with her followers through dreams, sending images, feelings, or
even prophecies that stick in the recipient’s mind after waking. If there is
not enough time for dreams, or they are otherwise unsuitable, she can send
swarms of butterflies, sparrows, dragonflies, or geese that fly in a
four-pointed star shape. When displeased, she can withhold a restful sleep,
make sure the mortal gets sore feet, has a travel accident, or that a messenger
animal loses its way.

Desna is often described
as a beautiful elven woman, with butterfly wings containing all the beauty of a
clear night sky. She is often depicted as having dark hair, silvery eyes, and a
coy but distant smile, wearing diaphanous gowns and sometimes accompanied by
swarms of butterflies.

***Source***: Pathfinder

***Pantheon***:  The
Twelve

***Alignment***: Chaotic Good

***Favored Weapon***: Starknife

***Symbol***: Butterfly

***Sacred Animals***: Butterfly

***Sacred Colors***: Violet and White

***Domains***: Azata (Chaos), Azata (Good), Chaos, Curse,
Exploration, Fate, Freedom, Imagination, Liberation, Luck, Revelry, Revolution,
Travel

***Inquisitions***: Black Powder (with approval), Clandestine,
Conversion, Excommunication, Heresy, Illumination, Oblivion, Redemption,
Reformation, Restoration, Revelation, Sedition

***Mysteries***: Heavens, Lunar, Solar

***Blessings***:
Chaos, Curse, Good, Liberation, Luck, Travel

**Worship of Desna**

 Desna is the goddess of
travel and journeys, and there are few who traverse the roads who wouldn’t
spare her a prayer or a simple-worded plea for benediction. Scouts, sailors,
and those who travel for travel’s sake make up a large number of her followers,
though her focus on luck also makes her a favorite deity among gamblers and
thieves not seduced by  Larissa’s
delights. Whatever their calling, followers of the Song of Spheres search the
world for new experiences, and try to live their life to the fullest.

The informal clergy of
Desna is primarily composed of clerics, though on occasion bards are called by
some song or whisper in the night to follow her path. In addition,
spherewalkers are paragons of the Desnan ideal: they see new sights each day
and discover unheard of locales.

Her clergy usually garb themselves in white robes with violet trim
and silk caps, highlighted by varied decorative elements (especially among
priests of high status), and usually accompanied by one or more starknives.
Temples of Desna are few and far between, with most locations no more than
roadside shrines erected in her honor. Travelers often leave markings and
dedications in newly discovered areas and secluded locales. Those few temples
that do exist often serve as observatories and are open to the night sky, with
plentiful texts, charts, and instruments to help track the stars and determine astronomical events.

## The Great A'Tuin

The Great A'Tuin from the side viewed via divination censor shortly before the Chelys Galactica snaped at the magical device and devoured it.

### Aliases

Chelys Galactica, Worldbearer, and Mother Earth

## Physical description

### Species

Chelys Galactica, Lesser Deity

The ￼Great A’Tuin is a turtle. So what if they have a disc-shaped world growing out of their shell, which appears to be in part dimensionally transcendental because the deepest reaches of the "planet's" oceans descend deeper than their flesh would logically allow? They’re still a turtle, of the species Chelys galactica. Nobody knows where it goes, or why, except probably Great A’Tuin theirself. Their gender is unimportant to them or their devotees, most of whom have genderfluid and androgynous tendencies. It has been known to alter its course to avoid meteorite hits, and even to snap at them with its beak or send them away with
its flippers; whereas on less sensibly-designed worlds people have to rely on
Bruce Willis.

The suspicion arises that if  the World was originally meant to have five world-supporting elephants, if they seem to have been lost causing the world to calamitously crash into the shell of the Great ATtuin, then this makes the the Thousand Oceans of A'Tuin strange and unique even by the standards of those worlds travelling through space supported on the shoulders of world-bearing elephants who in turn stand on the back of a giant chelonian. Could this deficiency in the cosmic pachydermian stakes explain much that is
odd about the the Mad God’s design?

***Source***: Discworld

***Pantheon***:  The
Twelve

***Alignment***: True Neutral

***Favored Weapon***: Klar or Shield

***Symbol***: A circular map of the known seas with a
turtle’s head and flippers protruding from the sides or a turtle’s head
affronté on a round shield with two suns above and three moons below.

***Sacred Animals***: Sea Turtle

***Sacred Colors***: Green and Blue

***Domains***: Aeon, Animal, Aquatic, Chaos, Dark Tapestry,
Earth, Exploration, Family, Feather, Fur, Growth, Home, Insanity, Isolation,
Legend, Life, Madness, Magic, Protection, Saurian, Scalykind, Solitude, Travel,
Void, Whimsy

***Inquisitions***: Conversion, Persistence, Redemption,
Reformation, Restoration, Secrets, Spellkiller, Truth

***Mysteries***: Dark Tapestry, Dragon, Elemental, Heavens,
Nature, Whimsy

***Blessings***:
Animal, Earth, Madness, Magic, Protection, Scalykind, Void

**Worship of A'Tuin**

 The Great A'Tuin is not one of the most active deities in the affairs of mortals, though this may just be the gargantuan way in which the enormous chelonian experiences time. Orcs do not speak prophecies to mayflies because of the limited contact a mayfly's lifetime has in the lifetime of even the shortest lived orc babe. Only dragons and their ilk are long lived enough to even comprehend a message given to them by the Great A'Tuin and they do not share such revelations with mortals.

This however has not dissuaded the greater theological community from organizing a code of conduct to base ones life on, ceremonial rituals, and novelty toys based on the Wold Bearer's perceived values. Suspiciously, there been only minor corrections requested by draconian sources found randomly at pivotal times in the history the faith, so it is largely understood that if the followers of The Great A'Tuin make any mistakes in their judgement, it would paradoxically take less time to find said course corrections than it would to organize a chelonian to common dictionary, peer-review, spell check, and publish said document for the thirteen generations it would take to perceive The Great A'tuin's consent to a policy.

## The Raven Queen

The Raven Queen with her rumored consort, Istus

### Aliases

The Phantom Queen, The Lady of Fates, and Mistress of Winter

## Physical description

### Gender

Female

￼A powerful sorcerer-queen in life, the woman who would one day become the Raven Queen was taken as the queen of the then-god of death, Nerull. He was an evil god; trying to use the souls of the dead to rise to the position of the king of gods. He trained his queen, who he named Nera, in the use of the power gained from the souls of the dead. This of course proved to be a tactical mistake, and in an uprising Nera destroyed Nerull. Though her body died as well, due to her power over souls she managed to hold onto existence, and claim the mantle of the slain god of the dead.

The other gods saw this as an opportunity, and presented the new goddess with a choice: either become the goddess of death instead of the dead (ie: be only the wayfarer for the deceased, instead of their ruler) and be accepted as a fully-fledged deity, or be destroyed. She begrudgingly accepted, and took the mantle of the Raven Queen. Abandoning her predecessor’s realm of Pluton, she went to the Shadowfell to work on the unlocking of the powers of the soul, undisturbed by the meddling gods.

***Source***: Dungeons & Dragons 4e

***Pantheon***:  The
Twelve

***Alignment***: True Neutral

***Favored Weapon***: Fauchard

***Symbol***: A raven’s head

***Sacred Animals***: Raven

***Sacred Colors***: Black and Grey

***Domains***: Air, Arctic, Aristocracy, Darkness, Death,
Fate, Feather, Glory, Ice, Inevitable, Judgement, Murder, Night, Nobility,
Repose, Shadow, Soverignty, Souls

***Inquisitions***: Conversion, Excommunication, Execution, Fate,
Final Rest, Heresy, Redemption, Revelation, True Death

***Mysteries***: Ancestor, Bones, Elemental, Life, Occult,
Shadow, Succor, Time, Winter

***Blessings***:
Death, Nobility, Repose, Shadow, Water

**Worship of The Raven Queen**

 Raven Queen priests
often wear shades of black and gray, as well as having adornments of feathers.
Sometimes, they wield sickles or scythes as their weapons, a symbol of the
reaping of souls that would then be carried to the underworld. Ravens are seen
as special creatures, gifted with spiritual insight. The priests of the Raven
queen teach that ravens are messengers of the goddess herself sent to watch
over the living and usher the spirits of the dead to their next steps…

Of course, what those
steps may be is still anyone’s guess in many cases.

The Raven Queen is not
known for being a cruel goddess, nor is she known for being without mercy.
However, she has absolutely no tolerance for the undead.
Her followers recognize that some spirits linger with lost causes after they
die, and they can be put to rest through many means. A devout follower of the
Raven Queen is just as likely to help a ghost accomplish its lingering goals to
help it move on as they might be to destroy the creature outright. However,
when it comes to mindless zombies or abominations, the Raven Queen and her
followers are quick to take up arms and make decisive actions. This sometimes
brings her followers into conflict with  the
Carceri Pantheon, whom recognize good and neutral undead as just extensions
of life.

She expects her followers to abide by these commandments:

\*Hold no pity for those
who suffer and die, for death is the natural end of life.

\*Bring down the proud
who try to cast off the chains of fate. As the instrument of the Raven Queen,
you must punish hubris where you find it.

\*Watch for the cults of Orcus and stamp them out whenever they
arise. The Demon Prince of the Undead seeks to claim the Raven Queen’s throne

Images courtesy of

Edit of  The
Great A’Tuin by  PumpkinDante