Love, Silence and Rage: Three Goddesses

Listen children, with an opened heart, and know the ways

Of the darkness. How it twists the unwary soul!

Three the kinds of love: love of home and one’s own that warms

Every good heart, as a winter fire balms the footsore traveller.

The raw taming of passion, by goodness, to love and beauty.

The surrendered self, in giving, grows.

Then there is that unschooled loving, turned by torment

Into hate and twisted words, like the thorn

That rends the silken shift.

An excerpt from the “Hymn of the Three Loves”, a meditation by the philosopher-minstrel Evrahm of Mysorio, dating from some two hundred years after Shroudfall.

Today’s post introduces three rather disparate deities: the goddesses Tiavestha, Ventuphares and Yelith Bloodheart. Although they are quite disparate in their mythology and areas of concern, they are united by themes of love, beauty and the vicissitudes of the feminine in the New Kingdoms.


TIAVESTHA

Neutral Good

"Hestia" by Sandra M. Stanton

Also known as the Keeper of the Flame Most Sacred, Tiavestha is Zajepurti’s eldest and most powerful daughter, although her might is expressed in subtle ways not readily understood by devotees of the flashier powers. During the wars between the New Gods and the Wilder Gods, Tiavestha was betrayed by Drakanuska and captured by Modrus who then held her in the Great Deeps for millennia. Eventually redeemed by the cleverness of her brother Enzirien and the self-sacrifice of Nesephsoris, she returned, outwardly unharmed by her long imprisonment under the scornful gaze of the Lord Beneath. In truth, she had been much changed, her power hidden from His Burning Gaze by her indomitable will. Always quiet and gentle, she is now known as the Silent Lady and the Enduring One. She is the patron of those who must suffer alone, those who hide their power (by choice: devotees of Tiavestha never act lightly) and those who work behind the scenes. In the generally patriarchal lands of the Shrouded World this means that women are her primary devotees.


Areas of Influence: Home and Hearth, Ritual and Ceremony, Protection, Self-Control, the Sacred Flame.


Primary worshippers: in almost every human home in the settled lands there is a shrine to Tiavestha, whose worship is one of the most widespread of all deities. Married women, mothers, domestic servants and those men and women who practice ritual magic are her principal devotees. Men tend to fear her, and honour her – if somewhat diffidently – and only the most resolutely paternal and brutal men disregard the Lady of Silences. She does have male Priests, although they are seldom privy to the greater mysteries.

Priestly Templates & Spheres: Priests of Tiavestha must take the Pure Channelling template and may access the following spheres: Community, Peace, Wisdom or Fire. The latter option is available to women Priests only. In addition female Priests of Tiavestha do not suffer a penalty to Spell Casting if they are unable to speak.

Pathfinder Domains & Subdomains: Community, Fire (women only), Good, Home, Isolation, Rites (women only).



VENTUPHARES

Chaotic Good

Ventuphares is one of the most beloved and called-upon deities, for her purview is love, beauty, art and harmonious relationships (as these are expressed in coupling, the sexual act, art and nature). She values beauty and love above all, and thus sybarites and aesthetes are her most fervent devotees. But any who seek out love are her concern – save where the desire is jealous possession of the other, or a self-serving lust for mastery over others through celebrity. In those cases, she refuses aid. Only those of open heart and respectful of others receive the blessings of Ventuphares.


Areas of Influence: Love, Art, Beauty.


Primary worshippers: artists, musicians, poets, lovers, romantics and the lonely.

Priestly Templates & Spheres: Priests of Ventuphares must select the Pure Channelling template. They may access the following spheres: Arts, Crafts, Culture, Literature/Poetry, Love, Music/Dance or Peace.

Pathfinder Domains & Subdomains: Art, Charm, Friendship, Good, Love, Song.


YELITH

Chaotic Neutral

Few deities are as misunderstood as Yelith Bloodheart: hers is the power of the dark rage of the oppressed, of those spurned and misused – particularly women and children. Because her power is born in grief, pain and anger it is associated with wildness and evil, yet it is not necessarily so. It is however, apt for abuse in the wrong hands, or in the hands of those so warped by misuse or repression that they know no restraint. Yelith herself was the first mate of Zajepurti, but was cast aside for Jhurenai, a goddess so dissimilar in nature and temperament as to be almost opposite. Where Jhurenai is orderly, trustworthy and concerned with fairness and rights, Yelith is wild, passionate and untameable, driven by fey moods and violent emotion. Those who follow her are noteworthy for their vengeful, jealous nature and their insistence on complete freedom in all matters save one area: perhaps because of Yelith’s jilting by Zajepurti, she and her priesthood insist that when one voluntarily restricts oneself (as in marriage, contracts and oaths), if the sovereign autonomy of the individual is to have any value or meaning, then honouring such commitments is an absolute duty. The other defining aspect of Yelith and her worship is her femininity: Yelith considers herself a voice for women and their travails in a predominantly patriarchal world. Her followers dabble in the darker aspects ascribed to femininity: blood, emotional control, curses, blight and barrenness. This, in combination with her wildness, has led to the active suppression of her cult in many areas (which suppression has led inexorably to those who call upon Yelith becoming ever more extreme, extravagant and –some would say – evil). Needless to say, the disciples of Jhurenai are among Yelith’s most virulent opponents, considering no sanction too great to uproot and destroy her faith.



Areas of Influence: Rebellion/Freedom, Women, Vengeance against Oppressors/Unfaithful.


Primary worshippers: outsiders, ‘women scorned’, the oppressed.

Priestly Templates & Spheres: Priests of Yelith must take the Pure Channelling template, and may access the Darkness/Night, Mischief/Trickery or Justice/Vengeance spheres.

Only females may be Priests of Yelith. They gain the following bonuses: +15 to Lie Perception, +10 to Magical Ritual (for the purposes of seduction only), Magical Ritual (for the purposes of blight/barrenness rituals only) and may develop Seduction, Frenzy and Spell Trickery as Everyman skills.

Domains & Subdomains: Darkness, Deception, Ferocity, Freedom, Night, Retribution.



As a post script: the deities of the New Kingdoms have their archetypal origin in Classical and Hebrew mythology writ rather large - with some changes made here and there. I'd like to think - or at least, hope! - that they retain a certain symbolic appeal, and that my rather psychoanalytical(?) Jungian(?) perspective lends them some sense of newness, nuance or depth.

A Divine Trio

Her silver gaze painted argent upon the sea, 

her eyes alone could pierce that storm-strewn expanse,

light carrying song into the fathomless deep. He

who dwelled there was by love exposed and thus

confounded. Moon and wave, wedded by knowledge that

neither would nor ever could be tamed

by the other, but were equal in stillness and in wrath.

Her hurts he healed, his lament she took up

and made it new. He who feels all of time and weeps for

its passing knows now the pull of tides, the turning of 

all circles, the great and the small.

A translation of part of "The Birth of Kaenor", an ancient lyric.

As the first instalment on the deities of Verkhün, I’m going to introduce two of the most beloved – and possibly misunderstood – first-echelon powers: Allusenne, the Moon-Goddess and Dironseptu, the Lord of the Sea, and their son, Kaenor. These deities are considered as developed for RMFRP, but I will provide a link in the near future to a document covering their RM2 incarnations. I have also included Pathfinder information regarding their domains and subdomains in the current post. Deity-specific feats, obediences, boons and traits may follow.

ALLUSENNE

Chaotic Neutral

Allusenne is Goddess of the Moon and presides over all that springs from the lunar realm: emotions, the body, the deep roots of the psyche, cyclical change, ebb and flow of power, dark and fey magic. Although her followers can be – and still are in some areas – castigated as practitioners of evil, this is inaccurate: their magic is more primordial and very threatening to those who privilege the coolly rational, but it is not evil, unless the intent behind its usage is evil. Allusenne and those who worship her understand that emotion precedes and dominates reason, and that true power resides in the surrendering to one’s own emotions and controlling those of others. Often, physical pleasure is a pathway to this kind of mastery and thus many of Allusenne’s more ‘sophisticated’ worshippers are often committed sensualists, hedonists or aesthetes. Those followers of Allusenne from the lower ranks of society tend not to follow such a rarefied path, concentrating instead on the visceral roots of lunar power: birth and midwifery, and the body in its various stages. Allusenne is the wife of Dironseptu and has many offspring (not all by her husband).

Areas of Influence: the Moon, Tides/Cycles, the Body (including birth and death), Powerful Emotions/Moods/Responses, Lycanthropy, Physical and Aesthetic Pleasure.

Primary worshippers: although Allusenne is more popular amongst women, her worship is widespread across genders, races and cultures. She is most often called upon by ‘wise women’, physicians, artists, those unfortunates afflicted by lycanthropy, expectant mothers and midwives.

Priestly Templates & Spheres: Priests of Allusenne use the Moon, Fertility or Arts spheres and the Pure Channelling template. They are not required to take any training packages.  

In addition, they gain the following bonuses: +25 to Control Lycanthropy, Midwifery and Frenzy.

Pathfinder Sub/Domains: Art, Captivation, Chaos, Moon, Night, Pleasure.

DIRONSEPTU

Neutral

Dironseptu is the master of the oceans with their life-giving power, beauty and violence. He is thus also the overseer of the dark, cold depths that conceal shipwrecks and horrendous devouring beasts and of mists and fogs that befuddle the mind and conceal danger. Although many shorebound regard Dironseptu as a Wilder God, he is not: he is one of the Co-creators of the World, and a great and venerable figure. His ambiguous reputation stems from the vast and many-faceted nature of water itself. Although vital to life, it can also kill. In the form of vapour it is deceptive and dangerous. It has been said by ancient philosophers that all things arise from water: followers of Dironseptu would concur, but also add that all things also return. Ultimately, this leads thoroughgoing worshippers of Dironseptu – like those of Achabdiyos – to posit that all reality is one.

Areas of Influence: The Ocean, Dreams, Drugs/Poisons/Medicines, Meditation, Self-sacrifice, Loneliness.

Primary worshippers: sailors on the high seas, dreamers, apothecaries, hermits, renunciates, exiles, poets, martyr-types, the gloomy and the lonely.

Priestly Templates & Spheres: Priests of Dironseptu may use either the Pure Channeling, Channeling/Mentalism or the Channeling/Essence templates and may access one of the following spheres: Literature/Poetry, Mystery, Oceans, Redemption, Subterfuge or Wisdom. They are not required to take a training package.

In addition, they gain the following bonuses: +10 to the Artistic•Passive category. They also gain a +10 to Brewing, Prepare Poisons, Alchemy, Prepare Herbs, Dream Lore and Meditation.

Pathfinder Sub/Domains: Dream, Medicine, Memory, Oceans, Redemption, Solitude.

KAENOR

Chaotic Neutral

Kaenor is the master of the coastal seas. He is the son of Dironseptu and Allusenne, and partakes of the mysterious – and slightly untrustworthy – nature of both his parents, although he leans more towards the occasionally violent and emotional character of his mother. He does chafe at the rule of Zajepurti, and has been known to rebel from time to time. Although he is usually restrained by the gentle influence of his father, he is drawn to the freedom-loving Wilder Gods, and may one day join their number for good.

Areas of Influence: Coastal waters, Waves, Fishing Voyages, Shipbuilding & associated crafts, Weather (in coastal areas only). Kaenor’s rule is deemed to end out of sight of land.

Primary worshippers: all those who dwell on the coasts and depend on the coastal waters for their livelihood.

Priestly Templates & Spheres: Priests of Kaenor must use the Semi-Channelling template and may access one of the following spheres: Oceans/Rivers, Weather or Prosperity.

In addition, they gain the following bonuses: +10 to Swimming, Foraging/Fauna Lore/Flora Lore (Ocean Coasts & Banks) and Weather-watching. They also gain a +15 to Base Spell Casting rolls on the Closed Channelling list Weather Ways when in Kaenor’s domain (i.e. at sea but in sight of land). Rope Mastery; Sailing; Rowing; Boat Pilot and Crafting (Net-maker, Sail-maker, Boatwright, and Bone-carving) are all developed as Everyman skills.

Pathfinder Sub/Domains: Artifice, Chaos, Flotsam, Oceans, Storms, Weather.

Religion in the New Kingdoms: A Brief Introduction

Manifold are the gods, goddesses, demi-deities and godlings of the Shrouded World. Some are weak – denizens and masters of small localities – whilst some are mighty beyond compare with all beings save their immediate rivals, commanding millions of mortal adherents and vast magical power of their own. However, it must be noted that some small-scale deities, such as Amnur, Lord of the river of the same name, have considerable power in their own domain, and unless a greater power should intervene, their mastery may be regarded as total. However, many of the weaker deities owe their allegiance to greater powers. Amnur, for example, is a vassal of Avraki, Father of Rivers and is therefore bound to do his bidding. Avraki himself is – partially at least – obedient to the wishes of those gods he considers his allies and friends (such as Kaenor, Ovrano and Vlynn), and opposes the wishes of the deities he regards as enemies (Modrus and Yelith). And of course even so potent a being as Avraki must bow to greater powers (such as Karsatos) unless supported by some other first-echelon deity.

THE DEITIES

In the Shrouded World it is possible to list the gods and goddesses in hierarchical form: First-Echelon Powers (usually representative of some powerful, all-embracing concept such as war, love or time), Second-Echelon Powers (some widely-beloved saints of the greater powers, gods and goddesses representing particular nations, races, or subsidiary concepts such as strategy, fertility or prophetic dreams) and Minor/Local Powers (ranging in potency from gods such as Amnur, noted above, to most ‘local’ saints down to very weak godlings of a particular hill or small tribe). Often these ‘powers’ are actually just medium-level fey or demons, unable to grant spells in the form of learnable spells. Their power is either directly expressed or a particular spell is channelled to their devotees.

Alongside this hierarchy of powers are the spiritual forces that are the domain of the Shaman, the elemental lords beloved of the Elemental spell-user, the greatest demons and the higher lords of the fey. All of these are potent enough to channel power in the form of learnable spells and power points to their most favoured adherents.

In addition, there is the power of ‘nature’ that is worshipped, focused and channelled by Druids, Animists and other similar casters. This too is a deific force –the ‘spirit’ of nature, so to speak – although it is not personified in quite the same way as the gods (there are nature gods and goddesses who provide spells and power points but these are not identical with the ‘spirit of nature’ and generally have a more limited reach and scope. Druids and Animists do not, except in rare cases, worship these deities).

The Protectors of Chelmsey

Chelmsey’s history has left it with a fascinating legacy, and a certain uniqueness: there can be few villages of similar size or similarly isolated that can be home to such a concentration of potent individuals. All the participating organisations in the struggle to cap the Chaos Well retain an interest in Chelmsey. They have several reasons for this: they worry that their success is temporary, and that the chaotic energies will eventually overwhelm the sorcerous wards that imprison it. Their larger concern, however, is that powers inimical will seek to somehow exploit the Well. So it is that each of the major participants maintain ‘observers’ in Chelmsey. Most of these folk are part of village life – the local Priest of Vlynn, for example – but some are not so open about their true role and capabilities. There are also some who visit the village frequently but irregularly and keep their role secret...for their own dark purposes.

There is only one temple – that of Vlynn – found in the village, although there are worshippers of other faiths there. The local priest of Vlynn, Gedner Hallop, is privy to all matters regarding the Chaos Well, and is charged by his church with the business of checking the Well – daily – and keeping a strict record of all activity in the village, by both locals and visitors. He is much more capable than would ordinarily be expected in such a small, out-of-the-way setting, but keeps most of his powers hidden.

Hallop is not the leader of those responsible for preserving Chelmsey, however. The Church of Jureus bore the brunt of the losses involved in the capping of the Well, and it is their representative, Vatash Kerrinson who has the honour of that burden. Seemingly no more than a weaver, he is in fact a talented spy and devout initiate of his faith. Only his fellow observers know his true role. To the villagers, he is simply a local craftsman – new to the village (if ten years residence constitutes ‘new’) – and somewhat more private than his fellows.

There are two other residents charged with watching over the village: one is Harotanu, an element-touched shepherd and hunter who patrols the village hinterland, and the other is the Shrine-keeper Yalden Ralm. A true polytheist, he tends the three local shrines to faiths other than that of Vlynn.

Unbeknownst to all of the observers – although Vatash Kerrinson has many suspicions – there is another observer of good will in Chelmsey. This is the ‘retired’ mage, Ortyn of Heth. Ortyn poses as a scholar-politician seeking a quiet life after the travails of life in the capital. This is superficially true, but he chose retirement in Chelmsey at the behest of his wizardly order, the Order of the Owl, where he too could maintain a watch on the Chaos Well.

The final ‘observers’ are two intermittent visitors: the itinerant minstrel Crado and the pedlar Visp Gardel. Both these wanderers are in the employ of darker forces: Crado is an agent of the exiled usurper Mandrekorian (who hopes to somehow use the Well in a scheme to regain his lost throne), whilst Visp is an initiate of the dark god Modrus. Both have thus far avoided discovery, but Harotanu loathes and fears the charming Crado, whilst Yalden Ralm has severe doubts about the sneering Visp.

I'll be looking into presenting these folk - and other local notables from Chelmsey - as stat blocks for RMFRP/2nd ed. RM/Pathfinder and whatever else I feel like (if I feel like it), over the next few weeks.

The Watchful Village

If you were to travel the Old High Road west out of Kalanakree, leaving on a bright spring morning, you’d find yourself crossing a gentle, well-watered land, rolling and green, where the fat sheep bleat complacently and the apple orchards thrive. The road passes through many little villages of stout, well-maintained cottages whilst large farmhouses sit beside meandering brooks or in the comfortable shadow of the low hills.  After a half day’s travel, you would reach a little roadside public house at an unremarkable junction where a dusty white lane runs off to the south, cresting a low ridge and losing itself in a shallow, wooded vale. Having enjoyed a sturdy luncheon of bread and ham washed down with a mellow ale at the tavern, you might on a whim, decide to explore that lane. 

The publican, a garrulous gossip, will tell you that the lane leads into the valley of the Chelme. If you were to follow it for the rest of the day, you’d reach a village at a crossroads – Barabbyn, he calls it – where there is a good inn. Then, you’d have four choices: you could return back the way you came, back north to the Old High Road and, ultimately the waiting heights of the mountains. Or you could travel due east, eventually wending your way on back roads to Kalanakree. You could continue south, alongside the lively and pretty Chelme, until it joins a larger stream. There’s naught that way but more and more farms until you reach the River Brejl, where you might catch a river boat down to the capital. Or he says, with a merry, if rather sardonic, chuckle, you could go west, further upstream along the dwindling Chelme until you reach the river’s source and the hamlet of Chelmsey. But that’s at the very end of the road, in the shadow of the mountains, and, he adds in a stage-whisper, a strange sort of place, where the folk are a little stand-offish...And well they might be, he says. Sometimes, mutant animals are born there. And sometimes worse, he adds, eyelids drooping in a raconteur’s wink. A hundred years ago, he says, a small troop of crusaders and priests went to Chelmsey, to put an end to some evil, some leftover thing or creature of Shroudfall. Although they succeeded, it was a close-run thing. None say, he continues a bit hurriedly, none say that the people of Chelmsey were to blame for the evil and the few who go to Chelmsey speak nothing but good of the place.  But better safe than sorry, no?

CHELMSEY

The hamlet of Chelmsey harbours some hundred and forty souls – although that is not immediately obvious, as many of the houses are hidden behind hedges, and the hamlet itself is quite spread out. It actually has three distinct parts: the Fork, where the lane splits into two at the entrance to the township. Here are found the Shepherd’s Delight Inn, the local Temple of Vlynn, the smithy and trading post. The left-hand lane runs for a few hundred metres before terminating at Lane’s End, a cool and shady dell that is home to a small cluster of cottages, shearing sheds and a saddlery. The right-hand branch of the lane follows the Chelme to its source in a reed-fringed pool. Where the Chelme emerges from the pond a water-wheel turns lazily and a rather ramshackle mill leans towards the stream as if preparing to leap in and swim. Here a row of cottages looks down on the tranquil pool from a low hillside. Just behind the cottages there stands a pillar of honey-gold stone, thirty feet tall and crowned with a bronze statue of Jureus brandishing lightning and smiling fiercely in the face of his manifold foes. The lane continues past the pool and pillar, heading up and over the hill and into the shadow of the mountains.

The only obvious difference between Chelmsey and any other similarly-sized village is the monument, and this single incongruity raises many questions for the discerning wanderer: normally such things are found only in places of great piety and wealth. But this monument is here for another, darker reason, and is a reminder of both the enduring presence of a great danger – and of the sacrifices made to contain it. One hundred years ago, the village was the site of a mystical struggle to contain a Chaos Well – an eruption of chaotic energies left over from Shroudfall that corrupted the district, producing plagues of both the body and the soul, destroying crops and warping human and animal alike. Not all of the products of the chaos were malign, but there was sufficient concern that the Church of Jureus gathered some of its highest ranking priests and warriors and sent them to Chelmsey, there to seal the Well. They were joined by priests of Vlynn and Karsatos and wild-spirited servants of Kamizadros. This unusual confluence of holy power enabled them to work a mighty ritual to cap the chaos flow. In this they were successful, but several lives were lost when the chaotic energy fought against those who would contain it. Now, although the Well is sealed, the residues of its presence still affect the hamlet and its immediate surrounds, and the danger remains that the Well will break its eldritch bonds...or that some inimical force from outside will come to Chelmsey and seek to liberate – and manipulate – the raw, brutal force that still abides.

A CHAOS-BLIGHTED APPLE

An example of the sort of thing the good folk of Chelmsey must contend with – even after the closing of the Chaos Well – is the enduring effect of so much chaotic energy upon the soil and water of the region. Although there have been several generations working diligently through plant and animal husbandry to mitigate the effects of chaos on their district, the aberrant energies do still produce odd progeny. The fishing around Chelmsey is best described as ‘interesting’, and the district is home to an unusually high number of Beast- and Plant-kin, as well as elemental hybrids. Plant-life can also bear the burden of chaos: whole crops can be lost, and tales are still told of the horrendous effects of a hallucinogenic potato harvest. Although things are not so bad now, there are still occasional mutations. The Chaos-Blighted Apple described below is one such: it has much the same dimensions as an ordinary apple, save for small, pale blisters around the base of the stem and the colour of the leaves – which can vary considerably from the parent tree, ranging from a brilliant, if lurid green, to a washed-out mauve. The apple will also taste much like any other apple, but will leave a strong, bittersweet tang on the tongue.

The effects of eating a Chaos-Blighted Apple always vary, although they are generally minor. If a Resistance Roll against Essence (3^rd level attack) is failed, roll d100, subtract the victim’s Constitution bonus (or add any penalty), and consult the following table:

Result	Outcome
less than 01	You feel great! Energy courses through your body, granting 3d10 Exhaustion Points. If this takes you above your natural maximum, the extra Exhaustion Points last until your next full sleep.
01-20	Something's amiss, though not in a bad way. You gain the effects of the Protean Awareness talent until your next full sleep.
21-40	OK, so this is weird. Everytime you try to speak, you are unable to sound consonants. This lasts until your next full sleep. (G)oo(d) (l)u(ck) o(rd)e(r)i(ng) (th)a(t) (dr)i(nk) (y)ou('ve) (b)ee(n) (cr)a(v)i(ng)!
41-65	Your eyes flash intermittently, with all the colours of the rainbow (and many others). No-one will make eye contact with you until you sleep it off.
66 UM	Between now and your next sleep, you may add +100 to the first Resistance Roll you are required to make (if any).
67-85	In addition to a distracting nausea (-10 to all activity), you now find yourself highly susceptible to all mind-affecting spells, resisting them at half your level. These effects last until you have a good night's sleep.
86-95	You fall immediately into a deep slumber that lasts for twelve hours. When you awaken, you find yourself subtly changed. You are now more sensitive to the ebb and flow of magical energies, but less cognisant of the material world. You gain a special +5 to the Power•Awareness skill category and a -5 penalty to all Awareness skills.
96-99	Until your next full sleep, you are protected as if you possessed the Talent Chaos Shield. You do, however, lose all Power Points, although you regain them at twice the normal rate.
100	The energies of chaos infect your mind, opening up new pathways and granting you knowledge and proclivities you never knew you had: you may learn the list Chaos Mastery as if it were an Open list of your realm (although no higher than level 5). If you already know or have access to this list as a Base List, you gain +20 to Spell Casting Maneuvers pertaining to this list.

Of the Talents Protean Awareness and Chaos Shield, there will be more later: I’ve created a lot of talents over the years and will happily share them, within the limits of IP issues and how much time I have to blog about them!

Additionally, discerning Rolemaster players might notice that the above table draws on Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing, one of Rolemaster’s various incarnations. This doesn’t indicate a personal preference – or at least, not mine! It simply reflects the fact that my players liked RMFRP and this material was created for the last campaign I ran under that system.