Landus

Deity: Landus

Alignment: Neutral Good

Portfolio: Compassion, suffering, redemption, knowledge

Symbol: A burning candle

Worshippers: Humans, esp. Hethians,

Favoured Weapon: Shortsword

Description
''Landus was once a god of strategy and the forge; a swordsmith and maker of cruel weapons. He was a friend to martial gods and a sponsor of warlike nations, until – at Boebar’s encouragement – he took human shape and walked the earth. Appalled by the suffering he found, he came to be permanently weakened after enduring brutal torture at the hands of soldiers he had helped arm. Landus is always depicted with the marks of these tortures, particularly a slit-open stomach that he’s often shown holding open.''

''This experience drastically changed Landus, who became an uncompromising crusader against all worldly suffering. Landus teaches compassion, redemption, and peace, but for those with no interest in such things, he recommends swift justice at a sword’s edge.''

Landus’s relations with most other gods are poor; he considers them not to properly respect the lives and suffering of mortals, and they dislike his rigidity and the tendency of his followers not to pay proper homage to the other deities.

Landus hates seeing knowledge hoarded in the hands of kings, states and cults, and wants his followers to assemble a grand, unbiased library of all worldly knowledge – excluding, of course, knowledge of some of his more barbarous ancient inventions, like liquid fire and blasting-powder, or the locations of the powerful magic weapons he helped craft.

Priesthood
Most of Landus’s clergy are cloistered monks or preachers untrained in combat. A few are taught to fight so that they can venture into the strange places of the world, either to retrieve lost knowledge or to make sure it stays buried.

The church of Landus is in conflict with many other faiths, who consider Landusites single-minded zealots. They have a particular rivalry with Alderia’s clerics, equally obsessive library-builders with a very different ideology. There is sometimes competition over books, although this is mostly avoided since Alderia’s clerics mostly collect information directly relevant to rulership and commerce, whereas Landus’s priests will just collect anything – recipe books, adventure stories, bawdy chapbooks, etc.

Landus-worship is prohibited in Medland

Cleric Special Abilities: Once per day, with a touch, a cleric of Landus can stabilise a dying creature.

Cleric Restrictions: A cleric of Landus might incur disapproval by:


 * Harming an incapacitated, unarmed, or otherwise helpless foe
 * Failing to accept a foe’s surrender; denying people a chance at forgiveness and redemption
 * Not treasuring or preserving knowledge