Been working on the Nentir Vale pantheon. Here’s team chaos joining the party, probably showing up late and completely forgetting to RSVP. It* Kord
The Father of Thunder is a simple god, one who lives for a good brawl and the chance to prove his overwhelming strength and power. He quests through the cosmos, searching for greater and greater challenges to prove his might He smiles
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Kord Summarized Alignment Chaotic neutral Sphere of Influence: Storms, courage, strength Domains Offered: Tempest, also War Dogma Summarized: Kord is a brawler and storm lord who favors mortals who follow in his wanton path.
Kord entered the world from a realm beyond, and he remains here only because he finds creation filled with wondrous challenges. A muscular, impetuous, and fearless entity, he cannot abide the thought that there exists a physical challenge that he has yeatnt;ovetrhceolz. preventing7reatTodnufereontlic4 into in the and ensuring that each season follows the next.
Father of Storms
In the early days of creation, the weather was fair and stable. Kord found this both boring and a challenge to his power. He bounded atop the mightiest mountains and unleashed a great bellow, creating winds that raced across the land and have never been stilled. He hurled snow and water into the sky with such power that they remained there as clouds, unable to fall back down except as rain. He split the wind he created with a mighty blow, unleashing the first bolts of lightning and peals of thunder. Kord creates change because when faced with stasis, he sees a challenge for his physical and divine might. He wanders the world, seeking a new challenge each day and enacting deeds that echo for days, weeks, and even years. Each storm is his creation, as are the tides. Even the seasons are his, as he crafts warm summer rains with water he hurls from the equatorial sea, then
ushers in winter by hurling mountains of ice high into the sky. While Kord’s strength changes the world, he takes care to avoid stepping on smaller, mortal creatures. In his heart he hopes that they see his creations and take them as a challenge to test their strength and courage. After all, what point are his great deeds if no mortals sing of them?
Mighty Deeds
Even the youngest bard can recite the tale of how Kord caught the sun and held it in place until the moon caught up with it, allowing Sehanine and Pelor to speak for the first time since the dawn of the world. He created lakes on a dare from ay.b. when he tore the icy crown of the north pole and rushed to swap it with the south pole. His footsteps became great divots, and the melting ice from the poles filled them. !Cord’s devotees seek to mimic his great acts as closely as possible. They wrestle bulls, topple trees with a single blow, and spawn new storms with divine magic. Those who match his deeds gain his attention. He sets before them still
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When Kord is not questing, he and his chosen few travel in disguise among mortals. They revel and carouse for days at a time. Sometimes, a mortal might become caught up in this celebration. When deep in his cups, Kord has led mortals to steal Asmodeus’s chamber pot, slipped such potent ale into Pelor’s breakfast that the sun staggered in loops across the sky, and once posed as Erathis and changed her Code to one statement, Have a good time, all the time.-
The Final Quest
Kord hates wathe Destroyer, who seeks to smash the world into rubble and dust Without the world, there would be no challenges left to meet and mortal adulation to earn. Thus, many of Kord’s challenges of courage charge his followers to defeat VaD k’xogres and giants.
Cd Sehanine
The Mistress of Revelation is the goddess of the moon. She watches over the world by night, when the glare of the sun is gone and the true nature of the world emerges. The light shows us as we wish to be seen. The dark covers and erases us. The shadows show us as we truly are.
Sehanine Summarized Alignment: Chaotic moon, shadows, prophecy Domains Offered: Moon, also Nature, Knowledge Dogma Summarized: Sehanine teaches that each
creature definedou elvebs’i o”uureq juneTt to eta onet e please others. The path of truth is one of revelation and liberation, but only if you have the courage to follow it.
Sehanine is sister to Pelor. Where the sun radiates on the world and shows creation how things should be, Sehanine takes to the sky by night and reveals the world as it truly is. Safely cloaked in shadows, an individual is free to live as they wish. Her one rule is that no one has the authority to impose their will on others, so long as none seek to impose their will on others in turn.
Shadows of Revelation
Sehanine teaches that the shadows provide a safe haven for truth. Society is like the sun. Anything left out in its glaring light might Flourish for a time, but soon it fades and wilts. The light overwhelms all, replacing many individual truths with the one, overriding power of the sun. Darkness has the same effect, devouring all within it to render everything the same in the endless void of utter emptiness. Between these two extremes lies shadow. In the shadows, creatures and ideas are liberated from the need to adopt forms that please either side. Light and dark struggle against each other, allowing the truth to escape their notice and take root
The Great Oracle
Sehanine crosses the night sky, taking on a differing aspect each night From there, she looks down upon the world as it truly is. In their dreams, creatures live life as they wish. In the comfort of shadow, they act upon their true desires. Sehanine collects these truths. Those who petition for her favor can make offerings in the night. By speaking a profound truth they have shared with no one else, they might in turn gain insight into the truth she guards. The direct contact with the goddess is a rare experience, and those who undergo it are forever changed. Warlords become diplomats the ambitious grow humble, or those who were content are filled with fiery ambition to quest for greatness. The truth Sehanine offers is always one that comes with profound transformation and revelation.
Truth to Power
Sehanine’s disciples follow her example and seek to liberate individuals from the expectations and responsibilities that weigh down their true nature. They speak truth to power, making nobles uneasy by revealing the depths of inequity in the land or providing hard evidence of an official’s corruption. Truth is liberation in their eyes. Any open space bathed in moonlight is a sacred place to Sehanine. Her followers gather by night to share what they have learned with each other and their goddess, joining together by night to seek Sehanine’s wisdom and truth to guide their actions.
The Lost Souls
Lycanthropes and other shatrechalwerEare Sehanine’s favored children, yet the demon Graz’zt corrupted many of them long ago. Where Sehanine taught them to balance the many truths they contained, gra= ignited feral desires within them that made such a balance impossible. Here followers seek to redeem lycanthropes whenever possible.
Melora Summarized Alignment Chaotic neutral Sphere of Influence: Nature, the wild, animals Dom°. Offered: Nature, also Tempest Dogma Summarized: Melora bids her followers to dwell within the wilds and preserve them for all creatures. No
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Melora
The Slumbering Tempest is the goddess of the natural world. She is the guardian of wild creatures, preserver of primal forest, and keeper of the pristine wilds. Erathis is her daughter, and the two have been rivals for untold ages. For now, Melora sleeps. For now.
Melora created the world by forging the elemental forces of nature into a cohesive and balanced whole. The effort of building creation drained her immense reserves of power, and now she slumbers. As monsters, civilization, and other threats claw at her creation, some of her followers attempt to rouse her in hopes that she will return the world to a primal, pristine state.
A Slumbering Giant In the ancient days of the cosmos, before the world was born, Melora traveled the elemental planes. She mastered the magic of air, earth, fire, and water, and each of the genie factions were forced to surrender their secrets of raw creation. These secrets, the source of the genies’ ability to grant wishes, allowed her to focus her considerable power and create the world. When her work was done, she had little energy left. She ventured beyond the world to sleep, though she pledged to keep one eye partially open to watch over her creation and lend her magic and omens to those who would protect her grand project.
Signs and Omens
Melora’s followers each feel a distinct sense of connection to her, as if she watches the world through their eyes and sends omens and signs to help guide them. Their mission, as far as they understand it is to ensure that the wilds of the world remain free and untainted. Civilization has its place, but it must exist as
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realms to respect nature. Others undermine progress, fomenting natural disasters that force a growing city-state or duchy to put a halt to its expansion. Sacred Locations
Those who follow Melora sometimes gain visions of her footyteps in the world, seeing the paths she walked as she built creation. There are specific poi. in the world where Melora focused her power to bind creation together. These poi. are the most sacred of all her creations, as they are the wellsprings for nature’s vitality. The nature and location of these places changes over time. Melora’s blessing might shine through only in summer, or it might twist and
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slumber. hijklmand his devouring horde are parficularly drawn to these places, as are aberrations. This alone is enough to make them the mortal enemi. of Melora’s followers.
A Looming Question No one can say for sure what might happen if Melora awakens. Some of her followers seek to rouse her, believing she will scour her enemies from the world in a fit of rage. Others want to maintain her sleep, believing that her slumber provides the world’s bounty. If there is a definitive answer, no one has found it yet.
Avandra
The Wind of Good Fortune is the goddess of Lh”fecharIuc‘andfreed7n sa:gingspi howanderswef will, and
is the patron of bards. No portal, chain, or lock has yet proven capable of holding her.
Avandra Summarized Alignment Chaotic neutral Sphere of Influence: luck, freedom, change Domains Offered: Trickery Dogma Summarized: Those who appeal to &aka do so in hope of winning some shard of her good luck. Time and time again, the legends tell of her good fortune. The rld seems to bend to her needs, and those who petitioner her for blessings or emulate her path hope to
As with the other chaotic deities, Avandra lacks any formal priesthood. She instead takes a personal interest in the world, walking alongside those who spread change and renewal, or visiting those caught in stasis or tyranny in hopes of inspiring them to embrace change.
The Spark of Change
Avandra takes an interest in events where stasis and regimentation threaten to overwhelm all else. She might take the guise of a talking animal who helps a princess realize that her arranged marriage is a terrible fate, leading her to flee into the night and become a famous adventurer. She appears a tavern, asking seemingly innocent questions thati:the=ebn against a tyrannical is a subtle touch, h, but the ripples of her presence have changed the course of history. A Path for Others to Walk
Avandra’s followers see her as an example to
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account for every circumstance. Spoken words are living things born in the moment, and thus more trustworthy.
Those folk who dedicate their lives to Avandra emulate her actions. They wander the world, seeking to encourage freedom and spark a thirst for change in regions that suffer from oppressive law. Like their goddess, they seek to inspire others to throw off the chains and responsibilities that bind them. Some of Avandra’s more daring followers claim to be the goddess herself in disguise. Avandra finds such claims pleasing, so long as her followers attempt great deeds with panache and daring that enhance her reputation.
The Commoner’s Hope
The common folk turn to Avandra when times are hard and their luck has turned bad. They remember that change is constant, and that bad times must give way to good as sure as good times turn bad. She reminds them to hold on to hope when all is dark, and to set aside today’s bounty for tomorrow’s trouble. Most taverns keep a small table with a single chair, scribed with her holy symbol. Legend holds that Avandra has visited every tavern that sets aside a seat for her. Tradition holds whoever takes Avandra’s seat eats and drinks for free, but must provide entertaining tales and songs throughout the night. Those who fail to do so are called out as obvious frauds, pelted with trash, and expected to help out at the tavern for a three days. Of course, such a helper is provided food and shelter during this term of service. In such way a destitute traveler can wander the roads knowing that a warm hearth and food are always there. Those of evil intent who claim Avandra’s seat are struck mute for a day and cursed with ill luck.
Foe of the Deceiver
Avandra’s sworn enemy is Fraz-Urbino,. The Lord of Illusions weaves lives to deceive others and lure them into a lifeless, static existence of his creation. In this manner, he enslaves others with his deception. Avandra urges her followers to smash such deceits and liberate those caught within Fraz•Urbluu’s lies.— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 27, 2018
Moon domain? Soon!
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 27, 2018
It’s interesting that Avandra is aligned against Fraz-Urb’luu, instead of Zehir as was the case in 4e.
Any insight as to what motivated this change? Zehir and Fraz-Urb’luu occupy really similar thematic positions, so them being interchangeable makes sense on the surface of it. I drew om Zelazny’s Amber series for the gods. At times enemies and others allies, but united against the entities of the Outer Dark
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 27, 2018
So, are you going to release a playtest package for Nentir Vale, like the Eberron one, soon? I’d love to. Matter of timing and bandwidth. Slow but steady.
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) July 28, 2018