Rao is the serene, detached god of reason, intellect, and peace. He does not act on the Prime Material directly, but he is known to have created several powerful magical artifacts which are highly potent against Evil (notably the Crook of Rao), possibly with the aid of Boccob.

Rao is always depicted as a dark-skinned, white-haired old man with bright, dark brown eyes and long, slender hands; he is smiling and serene.

Rao's faith is one that does not appeal much to commonfolk; he has always had more followers among rulers, diplomats, sages, scholars, and philosophers. Those who seek to find powerful magic to aid the cause of Good make him valuable offerings and meditate on Rao's sacred texts. Services to Rao involve discussions of theology and group meditations.

Rao’s church sponsors many libraries, monasteries, and other places of peace, introspection, and learning.

Rao expects clerics and other worshipers to reject strong emotion for the calm and serenity of inner peace. 

Rao's priests are mediators, and negotiators — wise and quiet people. Most are male. The priesthood is very studious, but one motto is "there is a time to think, and more rarely to act; but in that time, action is wisdom. When such direct action is required, evildoers find Rao's soldiers a difficult challenge: calm, implacable, and utterly convinced of the righteousness of their cause. Though slow to act, Rao's followers act surely, carefully, and with great force.

Clerics typically wear white face masks that operate as their holy symbol and many choose to carry a staff in the shape of a crook. The masks are white but feature ornate embellishments that make it easy to tell the priests apart.

CLERIC ABILITIES

Clerics of Rao are immune to effects that alter their emotions (eg. emotion, fear, discord, rage, etc.).

Once per day, a cleric of Rao can use a sanctuary type of effect that causes all creatures within a 30-ft radius to stop hostile acts for 1 round (no save). If the cleric's allies outside of the effect attack any creature within the effect, the cleric loses this ability until they atone.

Access to these abilities requires a cleric spend 10% more experience points per level for advancement and this must be selected during character creation.