Beings of Power: Svjart

Svjart is one of the Oyarsa. Clerics players can choose him to gain access to the trickery domain.

Svjart, Father of Merry Rogues

Relationship with followers
Svjart is perhaps the most erratic and inscrutable member of the oyarsa. In the past, his followers have been individuals who befriended him before they knew his true identity. He asks very little from his followers. More than all else, he abhors slavery and he expects his followers –  known to many as “the unholy men of Svjart” – to abhor slavery as well. A sense of humor and an ability to laugh at oneself is also a requirement. Many “unholy men” have had their power taken away as a penalty for “taking things too seriously.”

Teachings & Philosophy
Most oyarsa avoid formal teaching, preferring instead to lead by example. Svjart differs in that he does not seem interested in leading at all. Followers of Svjart come from many backgrounds and beliefs.

Notes
Svjart is associated with change, planning, and artifice. His true form is unknown, for he is able to take any form he chooses. It is often speculated that he has no true form. It may be that Svjart’s nature is essentially mercurial; one form is no “truer” than another, and his truest shape is the one he wears in the moment. Most often he appears as a winking rogue, clenching a carved floatstone pipe between his teeth, smoking like the 5 hells. Like Eldrethine, Svjart spends his time in Felmoor, having laughs at the expense of mortals. Jokes, pranks and swindles are his domain, although he has an enthusiastic collaborator in Mooros.

 

Beings of Power: Pejora

Pejora is one of the oyarsa. Cleric players can choose her to gain access to the knowledge domain.

Pejora, Attendant of Unexamined Knowledge

 Relationship with followers
The large majority of Pejora’s followers – record keepers, accountants, historians, scholars and writers – have met her in person exactly once, during the interview they underwent for the position of “librarian.” Librarians of Pejora are expected to devote themselves to the preservation of all knowledge. They must also memorize as many books as they can over the course of their life.

Teachings & philosophy
Pejora teachers that all information is knowledge, all knowledge is valuable, deserving of preservation, and forceful means are justified to that end.

Notes
She sits on the chair of records and is known to rarely leave her vast and ever expanding library, located in a sub-dimension only accessible by her librarians. She is largely disinterested in life and it’s challenges. Instead, She hoards written information of almost any kind; her dimly candle-lit halls are stuffed from floor to high vaulted ceiling with books, scrolls, maps, magical devices, folios and stacks of aging parchment that have become stuck together with drips of candlewax. Immortal Pejora, while ever youthful, is stooped, near-sighted, plainly dressed, and reclusive. and reads endlessly with the aid of quicksilver-framed spectacles.

Clerics in Felmoor

One of my favorite roleplaying podcasts, “Game Master’s Journey,” has been recording a series of episodes about the relative unpopularity of the cleric class, and how GMs can make clerics more enjoyable to play. They’ve echoed some of my own observations, and helped me think a little more clearly about what I wanted to accomplish when I created my own pantheon.

I think roleplaying works best when players feel that they have at least a minimum of orientation towards the world before they begin playing. Certainly, for me, I have never felt attracted towards a cleric or warlock character for that reason. D&D is fairly vague and careless in it’s attitude towards religion, deities, and the way that those concepts interact with the world and it’s inhabitants. Both the cleric and the warlock are conceptually dependent on a defining relationship with a supernatural world that is not clearly drawn.

In list form, here are some of the questions I thought it was pretty important to answer, and the answers: