The Keldon are a hearty and vigorous people that believe in strength and valor. They actively seek out the rigors of life and carve their own path in the world, proving that they deserve to live the life they want. The drive of theirs comes from their creation legend, that Kord created them from the very rock from which he carved his castle on the side of Mount Valhelm.
The gods of the Keldon represent all the things the Keldon admire and respect in life, as well as the things they fear the most, as does their views of the afterlife. In the Keldon mythos it is vague as to where they believe Asgard actually is. Sometimes when they speak of the place it seems as if they believe it is some far off kingdom of the Known World. Other times they speak of it as if it were another realm like Tir na Nog.
Much of the conflicting preaching of the Keldon beliefs seems to come from there being no structure in the religion. Each village or tribe seems to have their own dogma when it comes to faith. The things they all seem to have in common is the gods themselves and their yearning to take their seat at the table in the hall of Valhalla.
Kord
The Mountain King, The Brawler
Intermediate Deity
Symbol: A three pointed star made of a shield and three swords.
Home Plane: Asgard
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Portfolio: Strength, physical prowess, battle, courage, valor, and the forge.
Worshipers: The Keldon people
Cleric Alignments: CN, CG, CE
Domains: Chaos, Earth, Fire, Strength, War
Favored Weapon: Greatsword
Energy Channeled: Positive
At the dawn of creation when the sun rose of the first day, Kord stood at the foot of a mountain so great the peak pierced the clouds themselves. Later he would learn that the mountain was named Mount Valhelm, but now as the sun bathed Kord in it's warmth, he only knew it was a great mountain that stood before him. With nothing else to do, Kord did the only thing that made sense to him, he began climbing it. He climbed it because it was the only challenge that laid before him. The first challenge.
For days Kord scaled the face of the mountain, every handhold bringing him closer to the summit, closer to his goal of reaching the top. On the sixth day he broke through the clouds and on the seventh day he reached the summit of the mountain. Kord stood at the peak and looked around at
the world below him and declared himself king over all he could see, ruling by right of strength and conquest. Drawing his sword, Kelmor, Kord began to carve himself a castle from the rock of the mountain, turning the peak of the mountain itself into his domain. As he carved away at the mountain peak, the rock fragments he cut off fell to the earth around the foot of the mountain. It was from these rock fragments
that the first Keldon arose, creating a people as strong, hearty, and resilient as the very stone they were shaped from.
Once Kord's castle was carved from the peak of Mount Valhelm, he christened his new home Gladsheim, "Bright Home" in the Keldon language. As he finished carving his castle in the sky, the newborn Keldon people were building a great wooden hall at the foot of the mountain. A great hall
of hearty wood and heavy beams that would become the hall of the Honored Dead, the Hall of Valhalla. It was here in Valhalla that the Honored Dead would sit and feast and drink and laugh until they have their fill, or until they are called to battle once more by Kord. The Mountain King has sent his Honored Dead into battle against armies of invading demons and slaadi. The Honored Dead throw themselves wildly against the murderous forces, for they know even if they are cut down in battle, they will rise with the next Asgardian sun, finding themselves at their seat again in Valhalla.
Once Gladsheim was attacked by a flight of chaotic dragons, Kord stood on the mountain top and defended his castle alone, sending many dragons plummeting to the earth, driving off the rest of the flight. It was during this battle that Kelmor earned the moniker Dragonslayer.
Kord appears as a tall, broad chest, muscular man with dark brown hair and beard. He wears little clothing and only a helmet for armor. He constantly carries his sentient greatsword, Kelmor the Dragonslayer.
Dogma
It is said that at birth Kord breaths courage and valor into the Keldon soul, and that throughout life the Keldon people must embrace all those things that Kord encourages in his followers. He promotes physical prowess and competition among his people. He also encourages that disputes among tribes be resolved through non-lethal physical competition such as sparring or wrestling. His teachings say that the strong and fit should lead the weaker, and that bravery is the greatest quality anyone can have, ruler and citizen alike. Everyone should scorn cowardice, says Kord. Strength and honor above all else.
Clergy and Temples
Men and women among the Keldon worship Kord equally, the Mountain King does not discriminate between the two. Men and women are both capable combatants, and the bloodshed of childbirth is just as heroic and honorable as the bloodshed of battle.
Many priests and priestesses of Kord are multi-classed cleric/barbarians and cleric/fighters. As the worship of Kord is not as rigidly organized as other religions of the Known World, there is no hierarchy among the clergy. Many clerics of Kord are even self-appointed holy men and women that consider themselves Kord's chosen and seek to lead their villages in Kord's way. Clerics of Kord typically wear red and brown leather clothing and armor.
Actual temples to Kord are few and far between, with only one true temple existing in Thunder Rift. The Bone Hills Temple has not been occupied or used for some time. Built deep into the box canyon, access to the Temple was cut off when Scorch came to the Rift and nested in his cousin's treasure hoard. While lacking temples, each Keldon village
does erect a shrine to Kord, usually in the middle of the settlement where all the villagers can gather for worship every fourth day of the week.
Erythnul
The Destructor, The Many
Intermediate Deity
Symbol: A half-demon, half-boar mask
Home Plane: Pandemonium
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Hate, envy, malice, panic, pain, ugliness, slaughter
Worshipers: The Keldon people
Cleric Alignments: CE, NE, CN
Domains: Chaos, Evil, Madness, Trickery, War
Favored Weapon: Morningstar
Energy Channeled: Negative
In life Erythnul was a warrior of great strength and skill whose combat prowess was matched only by his blood lust. All Keldon in service of Kord are expected to show their strength and courage in physical contests and battle, but Erythnul took it too far and towards the end of his days very few were left alive in the Destructor's wake, even in contests that were not meant to be lethal encounters.
Eventually Erythnul was banished from his village and was forced to set out on his own in the Bone Hills. Carrying only his morningstar, Erythnul set out on a quest to ensure his place within Valhalla. Blood thirsty though he was, he still sought out his place among the Honored Dead.
Erythnul soon found himself standing before the mouth of Ash's cave, calling out to the great Red dragon and challenging him. The battle between man and dragon lasted longer than anyone would have believed possible, but in the end Ash burned Erythnul down and all that was left was a pile of charred remains. When Erythnul next opened his eyes, he was seated among the Honored Dead in Valhalla.
Even in death Erythnul's thirst for blood could not be slaked, and while the rest of the Honored Dead were feasting and laughing within Valhalla, Erythnul grew impatient waiting for Kord to summon them to battle. One morning Erythnul grew so irritable and impatient that he took up his morningstar and struck the soul sitting beside him. Soon Erythnul stood in the center of Valhalla, meeting the Honored Dead in battle single handedly, his weapon swinging wildly in arcs about him, taking down two or three combatants at a time.
Erythnul battled the Honored Dead throughout the night only to find them rising again with the dawn. For three days this continued with Erythnul standing among the bodies of the Honored Dead, fighting them all through the night and eagerly awaiting them to rise so he could slaughter them all over again.
On the fourth day he drew the attention of Kord. The Mountain King descended from Gladsheim to face the Destructor in combat personally. For another three days Kord and Erythnul clashed as the Honored Dead gathered around them and bore witness to the brutal melee. In the end though, Kord stood victorious over the still body of Erythnul. So impressed with the Honored Dead's strength and abilities Kord stayed his hand from destroying the soul and instead he summoned the Valkyries. He had the Battle Maidens carry Erythnul's body and bury it deep within the wailing caverns of Pandemonium. Valkyries did as their lord ordered and when the next sun rose in Asgard, Erythnul awoke in the deep dark caverns of Phlegethon. Legends state that Erythnul's roar of rage can still be heard echoing in the howling caverns of the realm.
His time in Pandemonium has turned Erythnul into an even more dangerous being than when Kord exiled him there. The environment has twisted him both physically and mentally. When he enters his battle rage, his body physically changes, shifting from one form to another, his visage changing from that of a man, to orc, to dwarf, to demon, etc. It is this phenomenon that earned him the moniker, "The Many."
Within the deep caverns of Phlegethon Erythnul built a mockery of Valhalla called the Citadel of Slaughter. Here he rules over Phlegethon and also brings his followers together, an army of dead souls deemed the Banished, for never being admitted into Valhalla. Every night in the Citadel, Erythnul and the Banished partake in a gory orgy of blood and destruction as the Destructor stands in the middle of the citadel and meets all on comers, in some ways reliving the glory of battling the Honored Dead in Valhalla for four days.
Even the Keldon respect for the dragon race has taken on a twisted aspect with Erythnul. He has enslaved a flight of native howling dragons that he commands, and has often sent to Asgard to carry out his nefarious whims. It was this flight of dragons that attacked Gladsheim with the intention of killing Kord, and it was this flight that the Mountain King
nearly slew all members of, earning his blade the name Dragonslayer.
In his natural state Erythnul appears as a muscular, scarred Keldon with black hair and intense (some described them as crazed) blue eyes. Like Kord he wears little clothing and no armor to speak of. He wields a great two-handed morningstar named Madness that has a large, perforated stone head. When swung in battle the air passes through the perforations and causes the weapon to howl, not unlike the never ceasing winds howling through the caverns of
Pandemonium.
Dogma
Erythnul is a brutal god who delights in panic and slaughter. He admonishes his followers to shed blood for its own sake, to covet what is not theirs, and to destroy anyone who would deny them anything they want. He further urges them to bring ugliness and strife to peaceful settlements.
To take something away from someone else, especially from rival settlements, is an exalted act in Erythnul's eyes. Foes who cannot be killed should be maimed, and that which cannot be stolen should be destroyed.
Clergy and Temples
Like clerics of Kord, clerics of Erythnul tend to be multi-classed cleric/barbarians and cleric/fighters. The Many favors men as clerics, leading to almost no women being clerics of his. They are cruel, sadistic, and hateful people who remain hidden in the shadows in Keldon villages, and those that step out of hiding often usurp the holy men and
women of Kord and turn entire villages of Keldon to the worship of Erythnul, creating pockets of cult worship throughout the Bone and Horned Hills. Such villages become traps for any outsiders that happen upon them. They are twisted, hedonistic places that have little regard for common law.
Temples to Erythnul are few, but they exist -- and more so than temples to Kord. Within Thunder Rift there are two such structures, one in the Bone Hills and one in the Horned Hills. They are low, squat, single story structures that are built in secret and allow the followers of Erythnul to gather and plot.
Clerics of Erythnul wear rust red clothing and bloodstained armor. At low levels they are typically nothing more than bullies, but left unchecked they can become great tyrants and warlords. A favored form of punishment among the clergy -- for both worshipers and non-worshipers of Erythnul -- is to horribly disfigure an individuals face.
Tiamat
Queen of all Dragons
Lesser Deity
Symbol: A wheel made of five dragon heads
Home Plane: The Nine Hells
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Portfolio: Dragons, conquest, military might
Worshipers: Dragons, the Keldon people
Cleric Alignments: LE, NE, CE
Domains: Destruction, Dragon, Evil, Law, Greed, Scalykind,
Favored Weapon: Claw (for dragons), punching dagger (for the Keldon)
Energy Channeled: Negative
The Keldons hold dragons in the highest respect and awe. They view them as almost the highest form of life in the Known World, they see them as the pinnacle of creation as well as the greatest challenge. When the Keldon confront a dragon in combat, they do so with the greatest respect and honor. It is believed dying at the claws of a dragon is guaranteed way to earn one's place among the Honored Dead in Valhalla.
Of all the dragon deities, Tiamat is the only one worshiped by the Keldon people. Not only does she represent all things that are great and powerful and strong in dragonkind, she is also the epitome of military strength and tactical thinking. Something that is not represented by either Kord or Erythnul. Instead of brutal combat Tiamat represents conquest and tactics.
The Keldon people viewed Ash (and subsequently Scorch) as the physical personification of Tiamat in the Bone Hills, viewing them as the holy representatives of Tiamat in Thunder Rift.
Tiamat gave birth to the dragon species and with few exception all of dragonkind reveres her as the Queen of all Dragons, even those found on the Outer Planes of existence. Tiamat has taken up many consorts, most of them being Red and Blue dragons, as well as -- on occasion -- Sardior. Though her favored consort of all has always been, and always will be, her greatest rival, Bahamut.
In her natural state Tiamat is a thick bodied dragon with five heads, one representing each of the five chromatic dragons and a wyvern's tail. She has also been known to assume the form of a great Red wyrm and a raven haired woman wearing scale mail armor.
Dogma
Worship of Tiamat among the Keldon borders on being a cult. Her teachings promote the dominance of dragons above all others and the only thing that doesn't make dragon worship a cult among the Keldon is that they as a people already believe this.
Tiamat demands conquest from her followers. Conquest and the accumulation of power and wealth, all the things that drive the chromatic dragons themselves. She enjoys razing the occasional village, city, or country, but only as a diversion from her subtle, world-spanning plots. She is the villain who lurks in the shadows. Her presence is felt but seldom seen. Tiamat also unfailingly demands reverence, homage, and tribute from her subjects.
Clergy and Temples
All dragons, no matter their alignment, revere Tiamat in one way or another. However, outside dragonkind she has few followers, even among the Keldon. But those who do worship her are fanatical and give her a singular devotion. In that sense clerics of Tiamat tend to be single class and wear scaled armor. Even though the favored weapon is a punching dagger, that is usually their back up weapon, wielding maces and morningstars in combat.
There are virtually no temples to Tiamat, though her priests do regard dragon lairs as holy sights, and in the Bone Hills they consider Ash and Scorch's lair the holiest in the Rift.
Wee Jas
The Witch Goddess, Lady Death, The Ruby Sorceress
Intermediate Deity
Symbol: An ice covered skul
Home Plane: Acheron
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Portfolio: Magic, death, knowledge, law, necromancy, winter
Worshipers: Keldon sorcerers and wizards, death cult
Cleric Alignments: LN, N, LE, LG
Domains: Death, Ice, Knowledge, Law, Magic
Favored Weapon: Dagger
Energy Channeled: Positive or Negative (player's choice at creation dependent also on alignment)
Wee Jas represents everything that the Keldon people fear; arcane magic, especially sorcery and necromancy, and a dishonorable death.
She rules over Ocanthus, a lightless, frozen realm constantly beset by storms comprised of frozen ice shards. Bordering the hellish realm is a never ending wall of black ice that is the source of the ice storm -- fragments break off and sail unchecked through the air. According to myth, this ice wall is the destination of the River Styx and all the memories and knowledge the river has stolen are encased in the ice. Built on to the side of the wall, built of the same black ice, is Wee Jas's palace, the Cabal Macabre.
It is there, within the walls of the Cabal Macabre, that those Keldon who use arcane magic or have died and not been accepted into Valhalla are destined to remain for eternity. These lost souls, also known as the Banished, reside in the her palace as beings that resemble skeleton warriors (see The Tomb of Horrors, page 302), dead beings sentenced to server her and carry out her wishes for the rest of their days.
For many among the Keldon a sentence of death in the Cabal Macabre is an eternity in hell, being forever denied their place in Valhalla among the Honored Dead, but for arcane spellcasters, they view it as their duty to serve the Ruby Sorceress and an opportunity to finally learn all the secrets of the universe and life, sifting through the trapped memories and knowledge of the ice wall of Ocanthus.
Dogma
Wee Jas promotes the use of magic spells and magic items (though many of her followers insist that she promotes the creation of such things).
Wee Jas tells her followers that magic is the key to all things. She promotes that understanding, personal power, security, order, and control over fate come with the study of arcane magic. She admonishes her followers to respect those who came before, because they left their knowledge and died to make room for them. Wee Jas is a reminder that death is inevitable, but promises that their learning and memory will be honored by those who come after.
Clergy and Temples
Although what Wee Jas promises and what the Keldons actually do are often two different things. Most Keldon shun those of their kind who use dark (arcane) magic and worship Lady Death. In most communities she is not a goddess to be worshiped, but rather a force of nature to be feared. Those few who are actually clergy of Wee Jas worship her secret and are considered to be part of a death cult within Keldon society. And while this is true, not all cultists are the same. Some clerics of Wee Jas try to help others prepare for the inevitability of death, others seek to ease the passing of one who will not be sitting among the Honored Dead. Some will actually be seekers of knowledge and the secrets of life, while others will attempted to twist that knowledge and seek immortality in the form of a lich. Worship of Wee Jas is complex and it is very rare that any two clerics of hers will view her "church" the same way.
Being the goddess of dark magic among the Keldon people, those unfortunate souls that are born to the world as sorcerers are worshipers of hers. In fact many believe that Wee Jas is the one that breathed the gift (or curse) of magic into them at birth. What few wizards exist among the Keldon worship Wee Jas as well and they do not join the Bigby Academy on Mage Isle.
For the most part, worship of Wee Jas is done not necessarily in secret, but away from the prying eyes of other Keldons, and as such there are no temples to Lady Death anywhere in Keldon lands. In spite of this though it is not uncommon for sorcerers to leave a community (whether of their own accord or being banished) and establish their own lair as such to study their arcane gift and further the use of their magic. These domains are often open to fellow worshipers of the Witch Goddess, but closed to those who would exile them.
There are few holy sites to her within Thunder Rift, with one of the Newest being Barrik's Keep at the Southern End of the Gauntlin Forest. The keep of a long dead wizard and the source of the blessing of eternal winter upon the village of Torlynn, it is not uncommon for worshipers of Wee Jas to journey there seeking the knowledge and secrets contained within.
Her duality as the goddess of both knowledge and law does afford her followers at least one standing among the Keldon; when they are faced with a matter they cannot resolve, an issue of justice and what is to be done, or a riddle of society and life that is new to the community, they will call forward the worshipers of Wee Jas to seek the answer. This will rarely be in a public forum, instead a singular representative will be tasked with going the dwelling of one such worshiper to seek the wisdom and the law of those who came before.
