Lord of Thunder

The Storm Lord

THE DEITY

Name(s): THE STORM LORD, LORD OF THUNDER, LORD OF LIGHTNING, BLUEBOLT, THE THUNDERER

Spheres of Influence: Bluebolt is the god of storms, thunder, and lightning.

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Spells Returned: At Dawn

Favored Weapon: Warhammer

Appearance: The Storm Lord appears as a tall, massively built being. His eye color changes from green to blue. The Thunderer is clad in soaking wet green robes. He wields a huge warhammer (“Stormauger”), a Spear (“Lightningstrike”), or a mace (“Thunderclap”).

THE CHURCH

Worship: The Tempestions locate their open-air amphitheater temples in areas where storms are common, often near rugged hills or mountains. They conduct religious services in stormy weather (magically created, if necessary) and a bolt of lightning striking within the temple usually marks the crescendo of the rites. Tempestions believe this ritual spares their own followers from severe storms and unleashes the full effects elsewhere.

In isolated coastal towns, a strange practice among a cult of The Storm Lord is taking root. Its adherents believe that the final test for a new cleric of The Storm Lord must be that the person first be drowned to death. The source of this teaching is still a mystery, in spite of repeated magical and mundane investigations. Occasionally, the victim mysteriously revives, with or without the directors of the act rendering strange observances and rituals. Most often, however, there is no cleric of sufficient power nearby to cast the appropriate spells and the victim cannot be raised back to life. The practice spreads fear and distrust among the non-worshipers of the community, and so has been branded the Immersion Heresy. Entire villages have been put to the sword for tolerating the practice, but nothing seems capable of stamping out the practice. With no indication of the source, and no pattern to its spread, the heresy threatens to eat away at the church like cancer.

Holy Symbol: Crossed lightning bolts behind a warhammer.

Holy Days: Stormy days. Clerics hold a week-long festival during the spring rainy season.

Holy Colors: Green, blue and occasionally silver.

Holy Animal: None.

Raiment: Clergymen of the god of storms, one of nature’s most chaotic forces, are not bound to any specific uniform.

Special Notes: New clerics must craft a weapon with which they must become proficient before leaving the temple. When making this weapon, the cleric must follow certain rituals. A branch from an oak tree that lightning has recently struck must light the forge fire. Pure rainwater must cool the metal. Finally, clerics must name their weapon during a tempest.

All clerics must have the symbol of the Thunderer tattooed across their arms and chest.

Advancement: Advancement within the church is simply by combat. Church organization varies from region to region. Ranks, titles and responsibilities are nonexistent in some areas.

A Fury must have a Strength score of at least 11.

A Cloud Fury must have a Strength score of at least 13. A Cloud Fury can see twice as far as normal in conditions of cloud, fog or smoke.

A Cloud Fury must have a Strength score of at least 14. A Rain Fury spends only half the normal experience points when crafting a weapon with the shock, shocking burst or thundering qualities.

A Wind Fury must have a Strength score of at least 15. A Wind Fury ignores the effects of natural wind. Her movement, visibility and missile fire are all normal in natural wind. Magically created or enhanced wind affects her normally.

To become a Lightning Fury, the character must have been struck by lightning (normal or magical) and survived the attack. If magical, it must have been at least 10d6 damage in a hostile situation (not one created by allies in a controlled situation). A Lightning Fury becomes immune to natural lightning. These characters usually provoke lightning strikes by standing fully armored on mountaintops during violent storms. They are said to gain glimpses of divine wisdom during the moment of lightning strikes.

The Fire Fury must have a Strength score of at least 17.

A Storm Fury gains resistance to electricity 10.

Sacrifices: Tempestions must sacrifice silver coins on stormy days.

Friends and Allies:

The Assembly of the Four Corners: “The power of weather is fed by the elements. The source of all change in the elemental realm is weather. The two go hand in hand.”

The Way of the Berserk: “They understand what fury can break from a man’s heart in the heat of battle, even as the lightening erupts from the heart of a storm…”

The Face of the Free: “Freedom is a powerful gift, to be enjoyed by those that have earned it…”

The Order of the Passionate One: “Fury and passion are like parts of the storm, one like a lightning bolt burning down a farmhouse, the other like the rain watering the crops…”

The Temple of Strife: “They understand what an opportunity weather provides, but they seek to pervert it into a hiding place rather than the powerful force it is…”

Foes and Enemies:

The Temple of Armed Conflict: “The armed force cannot stand up to the mightiest storm, and the most masterful battle plans can be torn asunder by a simple change in weather.”

The House of Solace: “To heal and shelter is to protect from growth. The only way to grow and develop is to weather the storm.”

The Church of Everlasting Hope: “They harbor dreams like others hold strength. They are weaklings who cannot appreciate the strong.”

Major Temples: The largest temples to The Storm Lord exist in Bet Kalamar, Aroroleta, and Balelido.

Temples dedicated to the Thunderer are often open platforms of square flagstones, sometimes with columns around them, but always featuring an open roof to allow clear access to the raw elements. Many of them stand on man-made hills, approached by wide staircases. In areas where lightning commonly strikes, tall iron poles stand at the four corners of the temple. The faithful prefer to build these temples on the highest ground possible in an area stricken by heavy rain and lightning. In the case of a coastal settlement subject to hurricanes or tidal waves, the temple should be on the coast. In an area of tornadoes, the temple should be on a flat plain, far from any major terrain features.

Cathedrals gain their importance not from the number of worshippers or from size, but from the ferocity of the storms they attract or from unusual events that have happened in the region’s past. Legend say that upon the death of Thedorus I, thick black storm clouds broiled overhead, with ball lighting skipping from cloud to cloud, but the deluge never struck, and no sound of thunder was ever heard. The Kalamaran faithful say that even the gods lamented the good emperor’s passing.

The most holy temple location is on the westernmost island in the chain west of Yordon Sound. A tidal wave there destroyed an entire Dejy culture, drowning thousands of villages of an ancient civilization that had known no war or conflict for over six hundred years. The temple there is directly on the western shore, and twice a year, the tide reaches up to its base. Because of the temple’s simple design and unusual construction (the flagstones on which worshippers stand are the tops of four-ton blocks), it is the only remaining artifact of the island’s people.

Storm Fury Brovcor Lelguld makes his home there, hoping one day for the rapture of being swept up in another such disaster. He hopes that his willing sacrifice might save others from an unwanted fate. With few visitors other than the occasional boat of pilgrims coming to visit this most holy site, Lelguld defends the island from monsters and keeps pirates from using it as a base of operations. He says this isolation has brought him closer to his god, and he hears The Storm Lord’s voice on the wind.