Cults of Stygia: Vouruska, the Seafarer

Vouruska, the Seafarer

Cult of Vouruska, the Seafarer, of the Nine Immortals (Stygian, Theistic)
Vouruska, the Seafarer, is one of the Nine Immortals of Stygia, Mistress of the Deep, Storm Witch, the Wave Rider, the Golden Khursar. Vouruska was reputedly a Hyperborean pirate queen, hot tempered and filled with wanderlust, who sailed the world ocean, took Mazda, the Firewalker, as a consort and captain, and taught the nomadic Stygians the ways of the sea, putting them on the path to their new home in Borea. It is said the site of the Lagoon Temple in Rhages, Stygia's oldest city, was once Vouruska's pirate haven, which she gave over to her favorite consort as a gift for his people.

Today, Vouruska sleeps beneath the waves, held in the icy embrace of the world ocean, dreaming of violent storms and the riding of sea swells, waiting to be awoken by Mazda and the other Immortals so that she can turn the fury of the deep against the Oncoming Darkness and destroy the Lie in the furthest recesses of its emptiness.

Vouruska has no formal priesthood. Instead, her temples, shrines, and coastal holy sites are commissioned and maintained by those who find their livelihood on the world ocean: sailors and sea captains, pirates, and merchants. Those who desire a deeper connection with the Immortal seek out Vouruska's khusars, itinerant pirate priestesses found wherever ships ply the open sea, for further instruction in Vouruska's mysteries. After all, when one travels the world ocean, one must pay the proper respects to the Seafarer, lest she bring you forever into her watery embrace.

Nature and Aspects
Mistress of the Deep, Storm Witch, the Wave Rider, the Golden Khursar

Lay Members
Standard Skills: Boating, Swim
Professional Skills: Devotion, Exhort, Navigation, Seamanship
Folk Magic: Breath, Calculate, Dry, Repair

Initiates, Acolytes, Heroes, Priests
Initiate Miracles: Breathe Water, Dismiss Elemental, Predict Weather*, Summon Elemental, Water Eyes*
Acolyte Miracles: Call Winds, Propitiate, Strength of the Sea*, Thunderclap
Hero/Priest Miracles: Extension
Gifts: Wellspring (Priests only)
* denotes new miracle

New Miracles
Predict Weather
Area (Tens of Kilometers), Duration (Instant), Rank Initiate
When this spell is cast, the user can know approximately what the natural weather will be like for the next 24 hours. This spell cannot account for the actions of storm demons or the use of weather-affecting spells.
Adapted from Gods of Glorantha Cults Book (Chaosium, 1985), pg. 31.

Strength of the Sea
Duration (Hours), Rank Acolyte
This spell doubles the target’s base STR, with no restrictions on maximum limit. The target must be in contact with seawater when the spell is cast.
Adapted from Gods of Glorantha Cults Book (Chaosium, 1985), pg. 73.

Water Eyes
Area (Tens of Meters), Duration (Hours), Rank Acolyte
This spell allows the user to see through water as if looking through air (or vice versa, for water-dwellers). It accurately eliminates all reflections and refractions. If the water is murky, or the air foggy or smoky, the spell will not render the medium transparent.
Adapted from Gods of Glorantha Cults Book (Chaosium, 1985), pg. 64.

Cults of Stygia: Mazda, the Firewalker

Mazda, the Firewalker

Cult of Mazda, the Firewalker, of the Nine Immortals (Stygian, Theistic)
Mazda, the Firewalker, is the First Among All of the Nine Immortals, the Flame of Truth, the Sword of Light. It was Mazda who took the Stygian peoples to the sea and brought them to Borea. Founder of Xiras, the old Stygian capital city, and builder of the Great House of Fire, the Firewalker was also the Great Smith of the old Stygian Empire, laying an iron foundation forged in the hottest fires that, in the end, bowed only to the Witch-Kings of Vanor.

Today, he sleeps the Immortal Sleep, the Deep Dreaming, somewhere in the maze-like catacombs of the Great House of Fire, waiting for his time of need, waiting for the End of All, the Oncoming Darkness, so he can awaken again with his fellow Immortals and vanquish the Lie once and for all.

Cultists of Mazda make the proper Mazdic offerings of fire and water, promote justice and righteousness throughout Stygia, and teach the guiding principles of the Mazdic Rites, an ancient set of proscriptions, rituals, and procedures from before used to prepare the Stygian people for the struggle against the Oncoming Darkness. As the vanguard of this struggle, Mazdic priests also craft and stockpile weapons and armor for the Great Battle at the End of All, which has a nice side benefit of providing a steady income for the cult.

The Bull Processionary, Great House of Fire, Xiras

Aspects
The Judge, The Smith, The Flame of Truth, The Sword of Light

Lay Members
Standard Skills: Insight, Perception
Professional Skills: Devotion, Exhort, Lore (the Nine Immortals)
Folk Magic: Avert, Firearrow, Fireblade, Light

Initiates, Acolytes, Heroes, Priests
Initiate Miracles: See the Light (Cure Blindness), Forged in Flame (Sacred Band), Steadfast, Sunspear, True Sword
Acolyte Miracles: Consecrate, Judgment (Omen, from Monster Island)
Hero/Priest Miracles: Excommunicate, Rain of Fire
Gifts: Reincarnation (Priests only)

The Tiered Altar, Chamber of the Eternal Flame, Great House of Fire, Xiras

Careers of the South: Nashir Cavalry

Nashir Cavalry (Lemurian Career)

Standard Skills
Conceal, Drive, Endurance, Evade, Locale, Ride; Combat Style (Nashir Cavalry)

Professional Skills
Craft (Animal Husbandry), Healing (Horses), Lore (Horse Breeds), Lore (Strategy & Tactics), Navigation, Survival, Track

Combat Style: Nashir Cavalry (Professional Style)
Recurve bow, javelin, broad sword, mace, hatchet

Nashir Mounted Archery (Benefit)
This style allows the cavalryman to ignore the skill cap placed upon ranged combat rolls by the Ride skill. In addition, when using a ranged weapon, mounted or on foot, the cavalryman may shift a random hit location to an adjoining body location.

Units of Nashir Cavalry are the mobile backbone of any Lemurian fighting force. Using horses bred from those few brought over from doomed Lemuria, these highly trained units are faster, more agile, and able to disrupt enemy formations from a distance with deadly, pinpoint accuracy. Used to open ranging through steppe and desert in their lost lands across the world ocean, Nashir cavalry have also adapted well to the mountainous, rocky terrain common throughout Stygia and the Southern Reach.

Cults of Asturia: St. Vacuna, the Golden Shield

The Cult of St. Vacuna, the Golden Shield
The patron saint of victory, sacrifice, and protection in the Solian Creed, St. Vacuna was once a noted bodyguard of the third Vanoran Witch-King, Marcian the Reclaimer. It was she who issued the witch-king's personal challenges on the battlefield; kept him alive during his headlong charges into the fray of a large battle; and died in battle taking a blow meant for the witch-king during the old Vanoran wars for the North. Once very popular amongst the Asturian legions, it has lost its favor and prominence since the rise of the Black Sun cult. Before battle, Asturian soldiers dedicated to the cult will hurl a flaming spear at the enemy lines and bellow "Ad Vacuna! Ad Vacuna! Ad Vacuna!" in Old Vanoran as an offering to the saint for her favor.

Lay Members
Standard Skills: Brawn, Willpower
Professional Skills: Combat Style (Asturian Legionnaire), Devotion, Exhort
Folk Magic: Alarm, Bladesharp, Demoralise, Firearrow, Fireblade, Protection

Initiates, Acolytes, Heroes, and Priests
Initiate Miracles: Aegis, Fortify, Shield
Acolyte Miracles: Clear Skies, Consecrate, Sunspear
Hero/Priest Miracle: Rejuvenate
Gift: Sanctuary (Heroes/Priests Only)

Vanoran Sites: The Portico of Borea

The tiled floor mosaic map of the world in the Portico of Borea.

In Regio.IX.Overlook about four hundred feet east of the Via Lata, in a semi-ruined neighborhood called the Campus Tullius, stands the Portico of Borea. Recently discovered again by delvers operating under the auspices of the Diggers College, this ruined double columned portico was supposedly built as a monument to the world-striding power of the Sixth Vanoran Witch-King, Sextus Tullius Incantator, known chiefly as the Servator ("To be loved or feared is immaterial; one only needs to be obeyed.")

Although much of the Portico has fallen or been looted for building stone through the years, its crown jewel remains somewhat intact: a 75x50 foot tiled floor mosaic that displays an ancient but complete map of the continent of Borea. Despite being outdated in its details, the great floor map remains an astounding work of art that will perhaps again serve as a focal point for Overlook regio once delvers have reclaimed the area from ruin.

Cultures of the South: Lemurian

Lemurian (Civilized Culture)

Standard Skills
Deceit, Endurance, Influence, Insight, Locale, Perception, Sing

Combat Style: Lemurian Alubari (urban commoners)
As a recent refugee community, Lemurians have worked hard to develop and maintain basic fighting skills throughout the lower orders (alubari), who are trained with short spear, dagger, hatchet, and sling. [Cultural Style - Lower]

or

Combat Style: Lemurian Pahi (urban elites)
Primarily fights with short spear and hoplite shield; also trained in mace, akinaka short sword, dagger, javelin, sling, and short bow. [Cultural Style - Upper]

Defensive Fighting (Benefit)
When parrying a blow during combat, a Lemurian pahi's weapon is considered one step higher in size.

Professional Skills
Craft (any), Commerce, Language (any), Literacy, Lore (any), Musicianship, Streetwise, Teach

Far across the world ocean was once a mysterious land of ancient cities, fertile river valleys, and arid deserts, the true name of which was unknown by those in Borea or simply forgotten to time. Vanorans called it Lemuria and spoke tall tales of demon lizard shibboleths and gods in living form ruling the land from great temple platforms in its cities. Older than Vanor, more ancient than Stygia, more antique perhaps than even Hyperborea and Atlantis, Lemuria was a primordial land -- the Garden of the Sun -- known only to those who could see into the Deep.

And then, within the living memory of only the most wizened elder, a great calamity befell Lemuria, and the land was gone.

But not its people.

The first refugees to Borea came as but a trickle, isolated landings in great sailing ships whose passengers carried statues of their gods and lamented the coming of Nibiru. Soon, a great flood of humanity swept across Borea, spreading throughout the southern lands of the continent from east to west. A proud people brought low by disaster, the arriving Lemurians were not content to remain as refugees and castoffs in a foreign land, and they soon turned their attentions to carving new homes into the face of the land.

Today, Lemurian communities are found throughout the South, both in Stygia and along the Central Coast. In some lands, they are a useful but distrusted minority, using their past learning and cultural knowledge as a currency to buy new stations from the old elites. In others, however, they have become lords and conquerers themselves. As armies prepare to clash across the South, Lemurians watch the preparations warily. They will not lose all they have regained so easily. The Doom will not befall them again.

Cultures of the South: Stygian

Stygian (Civilized Culture)

Standard Skills
Athletics, Boating, Dance, Deceit, Influence, Locale, Willpower

Combat Style: Stygian Soldier 
[Cultural Style] Primarily fights with two weapons, mixing and matching Stygian shamshir sword (scimitar), sagaris axe (one-handed battle axe), broad sword, shortspear; also trained with recurve bow, dagger, hatchet, and target shields.

Sweeping Strike (Benefit)
When dual wielding two weapons, a Stygian soldier can use a sweeping attack to push aside an enemy's defenses and immediately follow-up with another attack, as per the Flurry Special Effect. The follow-up attack must be with a different weapon than the triggering attack. Two weapons only.

Professional Skills
Bureaucracy, Commerce, Courtesy, Craft (any), Language (any), Lore (any), Musicianship, Seamanship

In the deep, distant past, Stygians were nomads and herders traveling a grass sea in a land far across the world ocean. But then that ended. They gave up their kumis, their goats, and their tent cities; built ships and learned the stars; and became nomads of the sea. That was then.

In the distant past, Stygian wayfarers made their first landings along the southwest coast of Borea, seeking plunder and good fortune. Instead, they found homes and bountiful resources, and soon the Stygian people drove their tent spikes deep into new, untamed earth. From this seed grew a great Empire, strong of ship and sail, dominant in commerce and trade, fierce in honor and pride. It spread north and east along the Borean coast, leaving its mighty stamp upon the world. And then the Witch-Kings of Vanor, covetous of all the western lands, descended on Stygia, bringing fire and war, and bent it under their yoke. That was then.

Today, the southwestern Borean coast contains the scattered seeds of Stygian hegemony, rich, discordant cities ancient in culture and distrustful of each other. Although the Vanoran boot is long removed, the scars of dominion remain, as no new Stygian Empire has thus been able to reemerge. Instead, new, hungry wolves prowl through the region: Atlantean wayfarers, dead Asturian legions, Lemurian refugees. The drums of war sound in the south, and it will be Stygian cities that will burn.

(This is something related to the War in the North campaign being run by my friend and co-blogger Rich Forest, which he has been writing about over on his Superhero Necromancer blog and will presumably link to here when he has the time. However, this is also related to a possible campaign I may run after War in the North is over, simply titled War in the South. There will be more coming. Enjoy!)