Lord of Passion

The Laugher

THE DEITY

Name(s): THE LAUGHER, THE PASSIONATE ONE, KING OF CLIMAX, FATHER OF WINE, MASTER OF THE GRAPE, LORD OF PASSION

Spheres of Influence: The Laugher is the god of passion and wine.

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Spells Returned: At Dawn

Favored Weapon: Club

Appearance: The Passionate One never takes the exact same form twice, so there is no accurate representation of the Laugher’s form on Tellene.

THE CHURCH

Worship: Worship of The Laugher can occur anywhere – and often does. Services for the Passionate People begin and end with drink. Libations are made to the god while clerics and worshippers alike tip a glass themselves. The amount of wine drunk at these sessions is substantial, and most of a worshipper’s tithe goes toward the purchase of large casks. During the service, wine-making is praised as a glorious profession and the vintner who supplied the wine is usually commended.

Within the faith, there is disagreement over the storage of liquors. While everyone recognizes those spirits whose taste and quality improves over time, some members of the faith refuse to allow for such patience. Instead, they simply allow their desire for strong drink to rule their actions, and thus rarely store wine or other beverages. This occasionally results in members of The Passionate Peoplehood stealing from each other, when one who cannot contain himself tries to get access to the “good stuff ” of another member. Such activity is not a violation of the faith, although the thief is expected to make some kind of restitution for any actual damages done to his brother or sister’s property.

Holy Symbol: Fresh grapes, wine berries or a gaping mouth as if screaming or anticipating a large quantity of wine.

Holy Days: Any day is a holy day for The Passionate Peoplehood, although they especially favor days of severe storms.

Holy Colors: Purple.

Holy Animal: The laughing hyena is the holy animal of The Passionate Peoplehood.

Raiment: Clerics of the Order of the Passionate One, as members of a carnal, temporal order, desire to look attractive. The traditional ceremonial garb is a set of purple robes, though when not performing services, The Passionate Peoplehood wear either beautiful and elaborate clothing or tight, revealing clothing. Regardless of their choice, all favor exotic headwear. A larger number of hats is a symbol of status among such clerical circles, and woe be to the cleric who is caught wearing the same hat twice in the same month, for it means he owns too few!

Advancement: As a very loose-knit group, there is no formal church order. The level of disorganization within the faith is such that there is no rank and title advancement available to members of the church. However, clerics gain personal fame within the Order of the Passionate One through impressive sacrifices.

Sacrifices: During severe storms, clerics must smash or destroy valuable items while shouting at the top of their lungs, preferably when drunk. They follow this behavior with hysterical laughter.

Friends and Allies:

The Thunderer’s Temple: “The power of a storm is like the emotion of a person; washing away all that lie in its path.”

The Temple of Strife: “The emotions of conflict are powerful and full… Strife breeds anger, rage, fear, sometimes even lust…”

The House of Vice: “They seek gratification for their emotional needs, but they do not focus on the emotions, only on their wants and needs.”

The Church of Chance: “Nothing is as thrilling as throwing your life to the winds of chance… These fellows make great cellmates…”

The Theater of the Arts: “Art is driven by the more powerful emotions… and it exemplifies the best of them!”

Foes and Enemies:

The Fraternal Order of Aptitude: “So cold and calculating… If they ever felt any emotions, I think it would kill them with surprise.”

The Founder’s Creation: “Too obsessed with the etiquette and rules of law. They don’t understand how wonderful it feels to throw caution to the wind.

The Hall of Oaths: “Truth? Truth is but an illusion to those that experience emotion… Lies come from great emotional context, and can cover a great many sins performed in that state.”

The Courts of Justice: “The dullest people the world has ever seen. They stop parties in full swing simply to complain about the noise…”

The Home Foundation: “Ugh! They want so little joy in their lives, I wonder if they are dead already.”

Major Temples: Important places of worship for the Passionates can be found in Crandolen, Dayolen, Bet Kalamar, Bet Urala, Bet Seder, Gaketa, and Shyta-na-Dobyo.

Temples of the Order of the Passionate One usually feature large rooms where worshippers may gather, but they often lack the glory and splendor of some other faiths’ temples. Instead, the temples have one large room for public gathering and several more private rooms for small gatherings of friends. While the exterior varies with local conventions, the interior usually features colorful tapestries or wood paneling with framed paintings, to create a warm domestic, scene.

Each temple has a winery, a distillery or both on the premises. They usually have large storage areas for both the raw materials and the finished product. Their wine cellars often boast excellent collections of wines from across Tellene, donated as part of a tithe by vintners from all over.

Temples designated as cathedrals of the Order of the Passionate One hold no dominion over other temples. Instead, these cathedrals have managed to gain control of the local relevant guilds (Vintners or Brewers) and gained respect outside of their own modest sphere of influence. The guild headquarters in these cases is part of the cathedral or its complex of buildings. A temple at Shyta-na-Dobyo is considered the faith’s holy seat, although this designation merely indicates that the most senior and most respected cleric leads services there.

Sayings: “Finish that one so I can pour you another!” - “That sure is a beautiful necklace you have there…” - “I’m not ash think asth your drunk I am, magish-thrart, hee hee.” - “Really! I thought this was my estate. I must have been confused by the storm and all.” - “Shut up and finish your wine!” - “See you next year in Shyta-na-Dobyo!” - “If you can’t laugh with ‘em, slug ‘em!” - “Nothin’ gets the blood pumpin’ like a good brawl.”