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Fate
Starting Member
USA
7 Posts |
 Posted - 10/21/2007 : 10:10:43 PM
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*Note this is an example character in the game for this scenario. You do not have to be as descriptive, but use this as a guideline.
Dirce
Primary Domain: The Safety and Security of Home
Additional Domains: Dogs, Weaving, The Sky
Inclinations: Creation (Harmony), Transformation and Control (Balance), Destruction (Opposition)
Belief: 75
Appearance:
Dirce appears as a middle-aged woman, with gray-streaked hair. She has thin wrinkles around her laughing mouth and striking sky-blue eyes. Her cloak is a single bolt of thick cloth the color of her eyes that wraps around her body as robe, hood, and cape, and seems to move of its own volition. Even when Dirce is standing still, her cloak floats about her as if on an unseen breeze.
Personality:
Dirce is a mother. She is quick to smile and laugh and comfort her children. She wants nothing more than to make her followers feel safe, and to protect them from harm. Her warmth and protection extend even beyond her own people, to include any humans in her territory. She considers them all her children, and will fiercely defend them against any dangers.
This inclusive attitude leads Dirce to be friendly and supportive towards the PCs. She believes that if humans are to flourish in Croesus, their gods must put aside petty rivalries and work together for a common defense.
Unfortunately for her people, Dirce’s idea of defense is purely defensive: she raises walls, but not armies. As generations of Salamander raiders can attest, such tactics are of limited use. Dirce is aware of this, but she is so reluctant to put her people in harm’s way, she just can’t allow herself to turn them into warriors. No mother wants to send her children off to battle.
Symbols:
Dirce’s holy symbol is the circle: specifically, a disc with a small hole in the center. According to her priests, the circle represents both the sky, which surrounds us all, and Dirce’s protection, which likewise surrounds her children and keeps them safe.
The color blue—specifically, the color of the sky—is also sacred to Dirce. Those who wear it are said to be “wearing the sky,” and only her priests are allowed to do so.
Celestial Home:
Dirce’s celestial home is a sun-dappled valley of green and gold, safely nestled between the mountains of the Endless Summer that form the valley walls. At the center of the valley is a charming two-story cottage with walls of stone and a roof of thatch. The cottage is larger on the inside than the outside, with thousands of rooms, and smells of baking bread. Behind the cottage is a large, elaborate garden that spills into an orchard that is forever in bloom. The valley itself is full of dogs—and rabbits for them to chase for all eternity.
Heroes and Artifacts:
Dirce has made a hero of Pytus, her lone priest. She has blessed him with the wisdom that has made him legendary along the nomad trade routes, and made him effectively immortal. He is 152 years old, and cannot die of natural causes. Pytus has also been given the ability to communicate with dogs.
Worship:
In the spring, Dirce’s people come together for a celebration of sky and community. They weave kites out of grass and join for a day of picnics and kite-flying. The acts of making and flying the kites are acts of worship. The celebration is particularly enjoyed by children (who love flying kites) and young adults (who traditionally turn the day in to “dating” opportunity).
In the early autumn, after the harvest, the Dircian celebrate the Homecoming, when all the families from across the wide territory return to their traditional home of Panarae. This is a time to renew family bonds, strengthen relationships, and resolve any conflicts that may have come up between various families during the year. There are times when not only the living attend the Homecoming—it’s not that unusual for the spirit of a dead relative to appear to check up on her descendants.
Throughout the year, Pytus provides weekly offerings of prayer and praise on behalf of the people, and preaches of Dirce’s compassion and protection. The people also worship through acts of hospitality: by ritually receiving human visitors into their village or homes, they not only make their guests feel welcome, but serve Dirce in the process.
Commandments:
Like a strict, but loving mother, Dirce has a number of commandments. Here are the main ones:
The home is a sanctuary of peace and safety. Any who violate this sanctity with violence are exiled or (if their violence severe enough) put to death.
No human in need is to be turned away. All humans are family, and you must help your family when you can. If you cannot help directly, you must help by finding someone else—who is also obligated to help—who can directly aid the one in need.
Dogs are holy to Dirce. Do not harm them in any way.
The color blue is holy. Only those people and things which are dedicated to Dirce may be adorned with the color of the sky.
Favored Miracles:
Barring the Door (Control): The home is very important to Dirce. Inside their homes, her children should be safe from whatever dangers are lurking outside their doors. This Miracle shuts and locks all the doors and windows of a home. The portals cannot be opened again until the Miracle wears off up to a week later, or Dirce wills it, whichever comes first. Cost: 2 (Trivial Alteration (2), Scale +1, Duration +1, Inclination -1, Location +0, Domain -2)
A Mother’s Protection (Creation): This Miracle creates an invisible wall of force around an area roughly the size of a single home. For up to a week, creatures cannot move through the wall, weapons cannot harm it, projectiles bounce off it, but air and water still permeate it. In game terms, the invisible wall has a d8 for keeping out enemies and their weapons. Cost: 6 (Significant Innovation (6), Scale +1, Duration +1, Inclination +0, Location +0, Domain -2)
A Mother’s Rage (Control): While Dirce isn’t comfortable with her children going to war, she has no problems doing so herself. She does not fight directly, but uses this Miracle to turn her enemies against each other and themselves. The target (up to an army of 100) must roll against a d8. If they fail, they fall to quarreling, then blows, and tear themselves apart before reaching Dirce’s children. The effects takes only minutes, so Dirce sometimes uses the Miracle several times before her enemies reach her children. Cost: 3 (Significant Alteration (3), Scale +2, Duration 0, Inclination -1, Location 0, Domain 0)
Dircians
(10/0/20) Total 110 Followers
Elders of Dirce (20% 22 total)
Body: d6 (human average)
Mind: d6 (human average)
Spirit: d8+2 (strong-willed and charismatic)
Warriors of Dirce (10% 11 total)
Body: d8
Mind: d6
Spirit: d6
Other Dircians d6 with no modifiers
Pytus, Priest of Dirce
Body: d6-2 (Disadvantage: decrepit)
Mind: d6+2 (Arcane knowledge and Magic)
Spirit: d8
(Note: No cost for miracle upkeep due to Disadvantage)
To the east of the realm the PCs call home is the small tribe of Dircians, named for their goddess, Dirce.
The Dircians are a warm, nurturing people who pride themselves on being open to new people and new ideas. They are quick to laugh and quick to forgive, but just as quick to strike at any who would threaten them. Dircians are known to consider all who humans who travel their land as part of their extended family—and Dircians are fiercely protective of their family.
Beneath their generally cheerful demeanors, Dirce’s followers are troubled by the dangers around them. The Salamanders from the south and east are a constant threat, and each season brings more reports of the creatures enslaving entire families on the outskirts of Dircian territory. With each passing year, the Dircian population shrinks and contracts in upon itself. Faced with Salamander raids, many flee to the west, while others leave their lands to go make their living in the village of Panarae.
Panarae sprawls atop a rolling hill a two-day walk south of the forest of Feth. From the highest point on the hill, one can see the steaming black peaks of Sssnoth to the east, and far distant horizons to the south and west. The crown of the hill is surrounded with a stone wall which is twice the height of a man and stronger than it looks. The wall has withstood numerous attacks from Salamander raiders over the years, and its very stones have been blessed through and through by Dirce and her priests. Every adult male who lives in Panarae takes a turn at least one night a moon walking the wall, watching for Salamanders and other dangers.
Farmland stretches down from Panarae’s hill. Local farmers grow their crops and livestock here, and maintain their households outside the village walls, but retreat to town at the first sign of Salamander trouble.
Inside the wall, the village is composed of nearly a hundred cozy, stone-walled, thatch-roofed cottages. Since Panarae sits at the crossroads of several nomad paths, the village is home to three different boarding houses, four independent trading posts, and a large open market area in the village square. Each trading post is controlled by one of the four major families, whose elders are responsible for keeping the village running.
Panarae is full of dogs of all kinds. The creatures are sacred to Dirce, and it is a sin to kill or mistreat them. They are kept as pets and trained to help out around the village. Some of them are a permanent part of the wall defense. As part of Dirce’s blessing upon Panarae, the village is full of dogs, but never overrun. Guided by the goddess, the dogs form packs and leave the village when it grows overcrowed, and Dirce herself seems to keep them from overbreeding.
Near the center of the village is the temple of Dirce. It shares the basic construction of the rest of the cottages—stone walls, thatched roof—but its walls are painted the sky-blue color sacred to Dirce, and her holy circle is made of bronze and hangs over its door. The main room of the temple is hung with woven tapestries; the floor is lined with cushions, and another, even larger, bronze circle hanging upon the wall. Incense burns in braziers set into the walls. The back room serves as the living quarters for Pytus, Dirce’s only priest.
Pytus is an old, old man. His sky-blue robe is thin and worn, and he supports himself on a gnarled wooden staff that seems even older than he is. But there is power and pride in him yet, and he has the respect of all those who worship Dirce. Even the nomads who are merely passing through Panarae will ask for the priest’s wisdom in regards to their problems. The goddess speaks to Pytus in his dreams, and sometimes manifests in her temple in the middle of the night to address him directly. Pytus is quick to smile, but quiet, with thoughtful eyes. He is always accompanied by a large, blue-eyed dog he calls simply, “Dog.”
Pytus shares responsibility for the village with a council of elders, who represent each of the four major families: Mides, Laphos, Tece, and Clo. The council can overrule Pytus in secular matters if they feel strongly enough about it, and he can break their ties, but Pytus has free rein in matters of the spirit.
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Dirce Goddess of the Safety and Security of Home
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