Pantheon: Exalted Deities

Pantheon: Exalted Deities

Book of Exalted Deeds for D&D 3.5 details six exalted deities that are not setting-specific. Here's how I represent them mechanically in terms of GURPS and Sorcery.

Ayailla

Lesser deity

Alignment: Neutral Good

Symbol: a phoenix

Home plane: Arborea

Domain (-30%): light spells, air spells

Portfolio: light, sun

Worshipers: lammasu, pegasi, giant eagles, giant owls, cloud giants, storm giants, good dragons

The goddess of light, Ayailla is called the Bright Eagle or the Brilliant Mistress. She is the steward of celestial radiance, and she watches over the good creatures of the sky. She is depicted either as a phoenix bathed in brilliant light or as a beautiful red-skinned woman with large, feathered wings.

Ayailla claims many nonhumans among her worshipers, including giant eagles, giant owls, pegasi, lammasus, cloud and storm giants, and good dragons. Surprisingly, she is also revered by some dwarves, including paladins, who quest to bring light into the darkness of the deep regions, both literally and metaphorically. Ayailla’s temples are most commonly found in the cloud-castles of good giants or in subterranean dwarven strongholds, where they are beacons of light in the darkness.

Dogma: Clerics of Ayailla are bearers of her celestial light. Some take that mission literally, such as the dwarves mentioned above, or clerics who use celestial radiance to combat plagues of undead. Others interpret their mission more metaphorically, working to illuminate and educate people, teaching everything from basic literacy to abstract philosophy.

Chaav

Lesser deity

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Symbol: a bunch of wild flowers

Home plane: Arborea

Domain (-30%): illusion spells, beneficial mind control spells

Portfolio: laughter, humor, joy

Worshipers: good fey, jokers, bards

Chaav is often known the Smiling God, whose laughter comes from pure and simple delight in the world and its inhabitants. The god of joy is normally pictured as a boy or very young man with a wide smile and easy manner. He is usually found in the company of his sister, Lastai. Chaav has some small shrines in small hamlets and villages, but they are modest affairs even by the standards of such small communities. He is often revered by sprites, good satyrs, and other good fey that share his delight in simple pleasures.

Dogma: Chaav teaches a dogma of enjoyment, pleasure, and delight. He cares little for elaborate humor or wordplay, and has no tolerance for those who laugh at others’ expense. Chaav’s clerics work with simple farmers and artisans, and only rarely join adventuring bands. They labor to bring joy to all people they encounter, not just the laughter from a funny joke, but the joy, peace, and contentment with life that a pure heart can bring.

Estanna

Lesser deity

Alignment: Neutral Good

Symbol: a hearth

Home plane: Arborea

Dmain (-30%): food spells, protection and warning spells

Portfolio: hearth, family, home

Worshipers: commoners

Goddess of hearth and home, Estanna is called the Hearthtender or the Virgin. She is depicted as a young woman dressed in commoner’s garb, often cooking.

Dogma: Estanna’s faith teaches the simple virtues of home and family life. She is revered in many good households, honored at the lighting of the hearthfire even by people who are otherwise entirely devoted to a single deity or none at all. Estanna has very few clerics, and needs no more than that. People worship her without any need for intermediaries, and she has no overarching agenda that requires a large force of mortal agents doing her work on the Material Plane. A very few clerics serve her exclusively, ministering to commoners in their homes and offering services from curing to midwifery, rather than any actual priestly function. There are no temples devoted to Estanna, since she is properly worshiped only in the home.

Lastai

Lesser deity

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Symbol: a peach

Home plane: Arborea

Domain (-40%): spells that cause pleasure, relieve pain, addictions and negtive mental disadvantges

Portfolio: pleasure, love, marriage

Worshipers: commoners

The sister of Chaav, Lastai is the goddess of pleasure, love, and passion. She is powerfully sensual but neither seductive nor licentious. She is depicted as a beautiful, voluptuous woman.

Dogma: Lastai teaches that sensual pleasures are meant to be enjoyed, and is not shy about teaching the proper way to enjoy them. As goddess of love as well as passion, she stresses the importance of equality in all kinds of relationships, from business dealings to sexual intimacy. She teaches the enjoyment of food without gluttony, the enjoyment of rest without sloth, the enjoyment of luxury without greed, and the enjoyment of sex without exploitation. Lastai’s clerics are often called upon to perform wedding ceremonies and counsel lovers. They seek out pleasure for themselves, but that pursuit is less important than helping others find pleasure and love in their own lives. Her faith is sometimes reviled by those who view it as prurient or immoral, but Lastai’s clerics argue strongly that sexuality is a good gift meant to be properly enjoyed, not repressed. Lastai has a few small temples, mostly found in large cities, that constantly battle against their undeserved reputation as being nothing more than glorified brothels.

Phieran

Lesser deity

Alignment: Lawful Good

Symbol: a broken chain

Home plane: Celestia

Domain (-40%): healing spells

Portfolio: martyrdom, endurance, suffering, perseverance

Worshipers: martyrs, the poor nd the desperate

Phieran, called the Tortured God, is a deity of suffering, endurance, and perseverance. He is usually depicted as a strong man whose body has been broken and twisted on the rack, leaving him with a limp and covered with scars. Phieran gives strength in suffering, eases pain, and exalts martyrs. He is popular among the desperately poor, and he is often called upon by those who must endure torture as well as others in great pain (including women in childbirth).

Dogma: Clerics of Phieran are martyrs in the best possible sense: completely giving, willing to aid virtually anyone in any situation, and happy to take on another’s burdens. They are often found ministering among the poor or in prisons. Phieran’s temples are usually humble shrines found in the poor quarters of large cities.

Valarian

Lesser deity

Alignment: Neutral Good

Symbol: the silhouette of a unicorn rampant in front of a full moon

Home plane: Elysium

Domain (-30%): animal spells, protection and warning spells

Portfolio: forests and its inhabitants

Worshipers: pegasi, blink dogs, unicorns, androsphixes, lammasu

Called the Dusk Unicorn, Valarian is a god of the forests and its creatures, friendly to Ehlonna and Obad-Hai. His particular domain is good-aligned magical beasts: unicorns, blink dogs, and pegasi in particular. Some lammasus and androsphinxes revere him as well. He is always portrayed as a unicorn stallion with a silvery-gray coat that shimmers with moonlight.

Dogma: Valarian teaches the protection of natural woodlands and proper respect and reverence for the good-aligned magical beasts that dwell in them. He is a fierce enemy of evil magical beasts such as manticores, worgs, and chimeras, and he particularly despises lamias.