Saturday, February 2, 2019

The Gods of Alnwich: Sëra

Sëra

of Dreams, Earth-Mother, the Green, Life-Giver


Greater Deity
Sphere of Influence: Dreams, Healing, Hearth, and Sleep.
Symbols: Cow, Earth Square, Hearth, Horse, Mistletoe, Sickle, and Wolf Cross.
Favored Weapon: None. Sëra is a goddess of peace and protection.
Relationships: Wife of Karalis, mother of Likumä and Kore, and brother of Pazame.

Sëra is the goddess of fertility, plenty, prosperity, succor, and dreams, and in this capacity is mostly seen as a barer of life and bringer of fortune. While she assists in impregnation, she does not preside over childbirth, just as she brings good luck to endeavors without performing them for others. In this way, she enables the actions of others, whom she always expects to make the effort themselves.

Sëra’s purview over life extends to maintaining life, as well. She speeds convalescence, provides rest, and thwarts disease. She is responsible for making houses into healthy homes for their inhabitants. In this way, she is the antithesis of her brother, Pazame who is largely associated with war and destruction. Still, through her brother, she yet retains a strong chthonic connection to the element they share.

Sëra most often appears as a hearty and beautiful middle-aged woman, usually accompanied by her magical boar, Gulin, who is said to be able to outrun any horse.

Morality

Like so many, Sëra tends to patronize those who share in her nature – in this case, a kind, compassionate, and helpful person. Despite her marriage to Karalis, Sëra is among the only gods to completely lack a warrior aspect; she focuses solely on providing respite from suffering. So it is that she tends to prefer those who help others without reservation – Charitable –, place others before themselves – Selfless –, and who are always honest with others – Truthfulness. Those with particularly strong ties to the community – Sense of Duty (Community) [-10] – and those who conduct her many and varied rituals Disciplines of Faith (Mysticism, or Ritualism). Finally, while she does not sponsor violence, she does understand its place in the world. Still, she demands that unnecessary injury be avoided; represent this with Vow (No Edged Weapons) [-10].

Divine Servitors

Chief among the elements taken by Sëra’s divine servitors is Life. Following this in equal parts are Nature for her dominion over natural life, Good for the protection she provides, and Peace for the succor she promises. While she has dominion over all that grows in the earth, she has no command over Earth itself, yet still some of her servitors are able to control sand to an extent. These also tend to be the ones who can control dreams and have both Earth and Dream to represent this.

Shrines

Sëra does not have freestanding shrines, but every home will have a small dedicated alter with a flame – be it a candle, brazier, or full-fledged fireplace – to represent her dominion over the hearth. Additionally, council chambers always keep a similar alter to Sëra in exchange for her guidance and blessing during proceedings. Within the Pantheon, Sëra’s shrine is to the left of Karalis’ and contains a statue of the goddess, usually with her left hand resting on Gulin’s head. They stand before a clay brazier whose fire is never permitted to extinguish.

Clerics of Sëra

Priests of Sëra should generally be built using the Initiate template with the following modifications:

Advantages:
Remove Animal Friend, Channeling, Green Thumb, Medium, Outdoorsman, Spirit Badge, Spirit Empathy, and Spirit Weapon from the list of optional advantages and add Channeling (Specific, Spirits of Place, -50%) [5], Deep Sleeper [1], Enhanced Sacrificial Dodge 1-3 [5/level], Less Sleep [2/level], Medium (Specific, Spirits of Place, -50%) [5], Sacrificial Block [1], and Spirit Empathy (Specific, Spirits of Place, -50%) [5].
Disadvantages: Add a required -10 points in any of the disadvantages listed under Morals, above and reduce the -30 points in disadvantages to -20.
Skills: Remove Hidden Lore (Elementals and Faeries), Naturalist, and Poisons from the list of optional primary skills and add Diagnosis (H) IQ-1 [2]-12; First Aid (E) IQ+1 [2]-14; Surgery (VH) IQ-2 [2]-11; and Veterinary (H) IQ-1 [2]-12. • Remove Diagnosis, First Aid, Surgery, Veterinary, and Weather Sense from the list of optional secondary skills. • Remove Spear from the melee weapon options. • Remove Blowpipe, Bolas, Knife, Net, and Thrown Weapon (Spear) from the ranged weapon options and add Thrown Weapon (Axe/Mace) (E) DX+1 [2]-12. • Remove Camouflage,  Disguise (Animals), Mimicry (Animal Sounds or Bird Calls), Navigation (Land), Survival (any), and Traps from the list of optional background skills and add Housekeeping (A) IQ-1 [1]-12; Skiing (H) HT-2 [1]-9; and Skating (H) HT-2 [1]-9.
Special Abilities and Spells: Choose the following 25-point package:

Cleric of Sëra: Either Power Investiture 2 [20] or Divine Favor 5 [20]. • Choose [-10] points from disadvantages mentioned in Morality, above. • 15 points total in any combination of Power Investiture 3 [10], Divine Favor 6 or 7 [5 or 15], Learned Prayers, or clerical spells.

Holy Warriors of Sëra

Holy warriors of Sëra are usually built using the Squire template with the following modifications:

Advantages: Add Deep Sleeper, Divine Favor 4, 5, or 6 [10, 15, or 20], Enhanced Sacrificial Dodge 1-3 [5/level], Healer 1 or 2 [10 or 20], Less Sleep [2/level], Sacrificial Block [1], and “or Learned Prayers” to the list of optional advantages.
Disadvantages: Add a required -10 points in any of the disadvantages listed under Morals, above and reduce first -20 points disadvantages to -10.
Skills: Replace Connoisseur with First Aid (E) IQ+1 [2]-11 in the list of mandatory secondary skills. • Remove Lance, Polearm, and Spear from all of the optional melee skill packages. • Remove Thrown Weapon (Spear) from the list of ranged weapons. • Remove First Aid, Knife, Merchant, Seamanship, Streetwise, and Survival (any) from the optional background skills and add Diagnosis (H) IQ-2 [1]-8*; Diplomacy (H) IQ-2 [1]-8; Esoteric Medicine (A) Per-1 [1]-9*; Housekeeping (A) IQ-1 [1]-9; Skating (H) HT-2 [1]-10; Skiing (H) HT-2 [1]-10; Surgery (VH) IQ-3 [1]-7*; Veterinary (H) IQ-2 [1]-8*.

* Receives a bonus from Healer equal to its level.

Cleric Spells

Sëra grants her clerics the following spells:

PI 1 Aura, Beast-Soother, Clean, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Dream Viewing, Final Rest, Glow, Ignite Fire, Lend Energy, Lend Vitality, Purify Air, Recover Energy, Seek Food, Seek Water, Sense Life, Sense Spirit, Share Vitality, Stop Bleeding, Test Food, Vigor.

PI 2 Armor, Awaken, Bless Plants, Body-Reading, Bravery, Cleansing, Coolness, Create Water, Dream Sending, Extinguish Fire, Healing Slumber, Light, Melt Ice, Might, Minor Healing, Peaceful Sleep, Purify Food, Purify Water, Relieve Sickness, Remove Contagion, Resist Cold, Resist Disease, Resist Fire, Resist Pain, Resist Poison, Shield, Soilproof, Umbrella, Warmth.

PI 3 Command, Continual Light, Create Fire, Create Food, Cure Disease, Dispel Possession, Dream Projection, Heal Plant, Magic Resistance, Major Healing, Neutralize Poison, Nightmare, Plant Sense, Predict Weather, Relieve Madness, Relieve Paralysis, Repel Spirits, Resist Acid, Resist Lightning, Restore Hearing, Restore Memory, Restore Sight, Restore Speech, Sleep, Strengthen Will, Summon Fire Elemental, Summon Spirit, Suspended Animation, Turn Spirit, Watchdog.

PI 4 Affect Spirits, Astral Block, Astral Vision, Banish, Bless, Command Spirit, Compel Truth, Control Fire Elemental, Dispel Magic, Divination, Essential Food, Great Healing, Monk’s Banquet, Plant Growth, Rejuvenate Plant, Repel Animal, Repel Hybrids, Regeneration, Restoration, See Secrets, Seeker, Shape Light, Stop Paralysis, Sunlight, Suspend Curse, Turn Zombie, Weather Dome, Wisdom.

PI 5 Blossom, Continual Sunlight, Curse, Entrap Spirit, Gift of Letters, Gift of Tongues, Instant Neutralize Poison, Instant Regeneration, Instant Restoration, Oath, Pentagram, Protect Animal, Remove Curse, Resist Pressure, Vigil, Water to Wine.

PI 6 Drain Mana, Mass Sleep, Planar Summons (Divine Servitor), Rain, Resurrection, Sanctuary, Suspend Mana.

Divine Favor

Sëra hears the prayers or the tired, the dreaming, and the hurting and provides them with respite from life’s woes. Her priests are skilled healers, and her holy warriors are consummate protectors. Abilities marked with an asterisk (*) have Accessibility, Only on sleeping targets (-20%).

Abilities Afflictions with Advantage (Regeneration, Regrowth, or other healing-related traits), Ecstasy, Euphoria, Sleep, or Unconsciousness; Animal Empathy*; Channeling, with Accessibility, Only while Sleeping (-20%); Clairsentience, with Increased Range and Preparation Requires, Night of Dreams (-60%); Damage Resistance, with Force Field; Detect, for disease, poison, etc.; Doesn’t Sleep; Empathy; Fatigue Attack with Missed Sleep and Malediction; Fearlessness; Healing; Intuition, with Preparation Required, a Night of Dreams (60%); Less Sleep; Luck, with Defensive; Metabolism Control; Mind Control*, usually with Emotion Control; Mind Probe*; Mind Reading*; Mind Shield; Oracle; Regeneration; Regrowth; Resistant or Immunity to any physical or supernatural effect; Serendipity; Special Rapport, with Transferable (but not for machines); Static (Divine, Magic, or Spirit); Telesend*; Temperature Control, with Heat; True Faith, with Turning; Unfazeable; Visualization, with Blessing.


Jürä • Karalis • Korë • Liekki • Likumä • Malä • Menes • Milä • Pazamë • Sëra • Sieva • Veträ • Yaunävä


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