Sunday, August 30, 2015

Cult of the Leviathan - Clerical Spell List



LEVIATHAN SPELLS
 
The Leviathan is a great spirit of the deep seas, and its worshipers are mostly drawn from those aboard the Apollyon who work in or with the seas.  Dedicants of the Leviathan are welcome amongst the crews of Sterntown’s fishing fleet, as their powers can control and compel sea life, brings home full nets and chasing off predators or other dangers. 

The Religion itself is less popular amongst crew in other walks of life, part of this is its alien history, as the religion is based on the superstitions of the most primitive of the Frogling bands who joined with Boss Wug to protect Sterntown, but greater distrust stems from the secrecy of the cult.  The Leviathan’s robed Dedicants, in gauzy purple, blood stained red and stiff rimed white, are the cults’ only public presence, as its worshipers conceal both their membership and rank within the circles of the cult from outsiders and even each other.  Once a season the cult shows its growing numbers, with a parade and free feast, featuring enormous quantities of sea food distributed to all from colorful floats by large gangs of masked and silent cultists amidst the banging of huge gongs and trumpeting horns.

The Cult of the Leviathan is a mystery religion, its worshipers paying, primarily in gold, for entry into deeper and more powerful mysteries of the submerged god and meeting in small anonymous covens, each served by a rotating group of Dedicants. Even Dedicants do not break the secrecy of the cult, and while worshipers of the Leviathan know their fellows by hidden signs, concealed tattoos and veiled references, it is unclear if these markers of membership are universal, or themselves limited by circle and the unknown designs of the cult’s hierophant.
    
Penetrating the Mysteries and Gaining Power

The Disciples of the Leviathan practice a form of Esoteric divine magic, superficially and mechanically identical to the houngans of the Ship Spirits, but where Ship Spirit clerics curry favor and trade promises with a wide variety of kindred local spirits, the Dedicants appeal to various avatars of the Leviathan’s singular presence.  


Thursday, August 27, 2015

Revoca Canton Map

Of late I've been playing in a Hill Canton's game run by Kris of the blog and Hydra Collective fame.  It's a fun setting, quite solidly fantasy, but with a similar level of gonzo as ASE, though obviously without the science fantasy.  As a long established setting there's a lot of accumulated fluff, which is both good and bad, but, thankfully my character, an Eld exile named Tizzird (yes that's a terrible joke) isn't expected to understand things like human religions and political factions.  By the time Tizzird dies from his companion's dislike, his door obsession (all but one of my spell came up door related: hold portal, knock and wizard lock), the hard bigotry against murderous space elves, or his own dangerously violent philosophy (the True Eldish Hedonics (or T.E.H. - he needs to start offering TEH talks)

Hill Cantons has been providing these perfectly functional hex maps of the Revoca Canton, where the current game is being played.  I kind of hate hex maps as player aides, though they are quite useful in there way.  Anyway starting last game and finishing yesterday I drew up this map as a better looking player map for the Revoca Canton.


Revoca Map
As my maps go, it's a simple one and it hasn't had the various post scanning treatments that I usually add, because I think it's rather incomplete (I only have the information provided to the players for this "superdense" sandbox).  I've left a lot of open space and easy to erase lines so I can modify the map in the future.