Book of Every Cloud

In keeping with its name, the “Every Cloud” canon bears a stormy gray cover, but the corners and spine are pure silver. The frontispiece usually bears a few scattered clouds ineffectively concealing a brilliant sun. Other interior art includes positive contrasting images: an oasis in the desert, a glimmer of gold resting on the sieve of a pan, or a bright candle in a dark room. Rainbows are ubiquitous.

The book’s chapters include fourteen Disasters or “Troubles” as they are commonly called; each followed by a Deliverance. The Disasters describe potentially bad situations ranging from parents with troublesome children to farmers maimed in an accident. Most Deliverances include mental means for coping with these problems or the physical means of overcoming or healing them. Two Deliverances teach how showing mercy brings reward one Deliverance has a figurative reward and the other has an actual reward. The 10th Disaster includes the semi-mythical story about a man whose friends all had problems with unfaithful wives, money or their peers. His efforts to help them form the backbone of the faith’s clerical dogma. This original Hope Master is credited with writing the last four Disasters and Deliverances.

Commendable acts include lending support where needed. Followers can count donations given directly to the poor against their tithes as long as “the poor” are strangers to them. Clerics are forbidden from harming the helpless, even in accordance with the law. Thus, they never become executioners or make coup de grace attacks against enemies. Despair is a heresy, and clerics must atone if they are subjected to the crushing despair spell or similar effects.

Every Cloud costs 35 gp with silver chasing and cover decoration, and is found in large cities and small towns alike. Its usefulness when confronting adversity makes it very popular.