Deities are an important part of the fabric of Realm of Runes. Two classes, Clerics and Paladins, are required to follow a deity in order to function. Monks that choose to awaken their qi through divine power also must follow a deity. Following a deity in this way is more than just reverence. Each one offers immense power to those that serve its agenda faithfully.
Realm of Runes gives you the tools and formatting you need in order to create your own deities from scratch or convert your favorites from another system, but also provides a full pantheon of twenty original options of its own. These deities are always available, and make up the assumed pantheon for first-party adventures in the world of Rimukyr. Check out the Cosmology of Realm of Runes blog entry for an overview of how deities work in the system, and also the Cleric and Paladin entries for more details about how those classes interact with their patrons.
These twenty deities have varying relationships with their mortal followers and with each other, but also fall into five distinct categories. In descending order of age (as supposed by religious scholars) there are the creators and destroyers, the elemental lords, the intellectuals, the guardians and conquerors, and finally the anthropomorphics. These next several entries will take a closer look at each of these groups. This week we begin with the creators and destroyers.
THE SOURCE (Unaligned)
Symbol: A medallion depicting the four elements
Allowed Alignments: any
Opposition Alignments: none
Channel Energy Type: choice between positive or negative
Signature Skills: Nature and Survival
Favored Weapon: Unarmed
Signature Spells: none
Domains Offered: Air, Creation, Earth, Fire, Light, Magic, Nature, Water
Anathema: none
From the rulebook: "A perpetual engine of creation, The Source is not a well understood deity. Philosophers debate if The Source is even an entity at all, or purely a quirk of the esoteric nature of magic and the universe. The preferences it displays could be deliberate, or disconnected events with correlations mistaken for causation. Many scholarly debates and religious crusades have been waged over the question of whether The Source and The Void are different aspects of the same entity
"Similarly, it is not known if The Source maintains any relations with other deities at all. Some suggest that The Source might be to other deities as those deities are to mortals, and that to worship another deity is to worship The Source with extra steps. There are many parallels between The Source and the primal power of druids, though the differences make the relationship between the two all the more confusing.
"As there is little agreement among scholars about the actual nature of The Source, depictions vary wildly from culture to culture, with some even claiming that to create an image of it in any form is heresy. Strangely, the only common illustrations in art across civilizations are invariably created by the crazed and delirious. Whether this is the result of coincidence or something more sinister remains largely uninvestigated, as the images wrought are often disturbing to behold."
The Source offers more domains options than other deities and grants power to aspiring clerics and monks without restriction. The Source also entirely lacks an anathema entry, which means that nothing you do as a character will cause you to lose this deity's favor. This availability and versatility comes with a few drawbacks, however. As an unaligned deity, it is not possible for a player character to match its alignment, making this deity not a valid choice for paladins. The Source also does not provide any signature spells to be added to the list of divine spells already available to you.
THE REAPER OF ALL (Neutral Evil)
Symbol: A gravestone inscribed with one's own name
Allowed Alignments: any
Opposition Alignments: all
Channel Energy Type: negative
Signature Skills: Intimidation and Medicine
Favored Weapon: War Scythe
Signature Spells: grim tendrils (1st), slow (3rd), phantasmal killer (4th)
Domains Offered: Darkness, Death, Destruction, Fate, Secrets
Anathema: Dealing subdual damage and creating undead are anathema to The Reaper of All.
From the rulebook: "To everything there is a season, and all things come to an end. When the end comes, The Reaper is there to collect. Having a near-death experience, or being brought back from actual death, are often referred to as “cheating the reaper,” but the faithful know that their patron’s watch of fate is extensive, and that if The Reaper were actually present at the event, death would have been permanent.
"Most deities prefer to keep their distance from The Reaper, lest they discover their time has come. The only exception is The Arbiter, with whom The Reaper seems to have some sort of understanding. Followers of The Reaper believe that on the last day of existence, the two will meet together as close friends before also ceasing to exist, leaving nothing but the unfathomable Void behind.
"The Reaper of All is universally depicted across cultures as a skeletal figure in a hooded robe, carrying a scythe. The hood is always drawn, and it is believed that to look upon the face below is every living thing’s final act. Sometimes the figure is shown as a terrifying entity, but followers of The Reaper tend to depict their patron in a comforting light, beckoning those under his charge to come along without fear to a place where all are equal."
The Reaper cares not what alignment you have if you seek power from it, and disdains all alignments equally. For a paladin of The Reaper, literally any creature that exists is a valid target for some of your most potent abilities - including yourself. The nature of this deity's symbol also requires a prospective follower to come to terms with, and embrace, their own mortality. While not impossible to be nice, The Reaper's prohibition on dealing non-lethal damage can make situations a bit tricky if you want to take foes alive. It also means you should expect no mercy if encountering a follower as an enemy.
THE TORMENTER (Neutral Evil)
Symbol: A bloody chain
Allowed Alignments: CE, NE, LE
Opposition Alignments: all
Channel Energy Type: negative
Signature Skills: Intimidation and Medicine
Favored Weapon: Spiked Chain
Signature Spells: phantom pain (1st), feeblemind (6th), mask of terror (7th)
Domains Offered: Fate, Nightmares, Pain, Trickery, Undeath
Anathema: Showing mercy without a plan for it to cause more suffering is anathema to The Tormenter.
From the rulebook: "Unlike most cultural bogeymen, The Tormenter is very real and very dangerous. While the purview of this deity is to oversee the punishments meted out by The Arbiter, The Tormenter has increased its scope beyond its mandate in the eons since taking the job. Seeking to torture as many as possible, and without having to wait for technicalities such as judgement, The Tormenter is in a constant race with The Reaper of All, and those for whom The Tormenter arrives first invariably rise as some ironic or tortured form of undead.
"Many philosophers speculate that The Tormenter should have a poor relationship with most other deities, but especially with The Arbiter and The Reaper. Curiously, however, that does not appear to actually be the case, and no mortal theologians have an answer why. Followers of The Tormenter often torture themselves in acts of excruciating worship, believing their patron to be present at the exact moment when pleasure becomes indistinguishable from pain. Among the faithful, scars and mutilations serve as public displays of devotion, and when a devotee of The Tormenter treats a wound it is done in a way that will leave the most visible scarring.
"When The Tormenter is depicted, its form is always obscured behind seemingly infinite lengths of bleeding, barbed chains that snake out to entangle and lacerate those in proximity. Some heretical sects depict The Tormenter in familial embrace with The Arbiter and The Reaper, suggesting that their patron might be the deranged result of deific procreation. Such depictions are almost always destroyed when discovered, as the idea they convey is existentially horrific. Whether this mental anguish was the whole point is the subject of furtive debate among theologians."
Like The Reaper, The Tormenter considers all alignments, and therefore all creatures, to be in opposition. The Tormenter only deigns to grant power to the wicked and depraved, however. While it does not matter where you stand on the law-chaos alignment axis, you must be evil to gain power from this deity. The Tormenter is also unique in that it is the only avenue of access to the Undeath domain. All other domains in Realm of Runes are offered by at least two different deities, but not Undeath. With its penchant for cruelty and malice, it is likely difficult to fit a follower of this deity into most adventuring parties, unless specifically assembled to accommodate.
THE VOID (Unaligned)
Symbol: A broken medallion depicting the four elements
Allowed Alignments: any
Opposition Alignments: all
Channel Energy Type: choice between positive or negative
Signature Skills: Nature and Survival
Favored Weapon: Unarmed
Signature Spells: none
Domains Offered: Air, Darkness, Destruction, Earth, Fire, Magic, Nature, Water
Anathema: none
From the rulebook: "A perpetual engine of destruction, The Void is not a well understood deity. Philosophers debate if The Void is even an entity at all, or purely a quirk of the esoteric nature of magic and the universe. The preferences it displays could be deliberate, or disconnected events with correlations mistaken for causation. Many scholarly debates and religious crusades have been waged over the question of whether The Void and The Source are different aspects of the same entity.
"Similarly, it is not known if The Void maintains any relations with other deities at all. Some suggest that The Void might be to other deities as those deities are to mortals, and that to worship another deity is to worship The Void with extra steps. There are many parallels between The Void and the primal power of druids, though the differences make the relationship between the two all the more confusing.
"As there is little agreement among scholars about the actual nature of The Void, depictions vary wildly from culture to culture, with some even claiming that to create an image of it in any form is heresy. Strangely, the only common illustrations in art across civilizations are invariably created by the crazed and delirious. Whether this is the result of coincidence or something more sinister remains largely uninvestigated, as the images wrought are often disturbing to behold."
The Void is in many ways the equal and opposite of The Source, the yin to its yang, the darkness that envelops its light. It shares many of the same traits as its counterpart, with the exception of a few swapped domains and its symbol being a broken variant of the other's. While The Void considers every alignment to be an opposition alignment, its unaligned nature makes this deity similarly unavailable to paladins. This makes the broadness of it less easy to exploit, as its most likely impact is through those divine spells that function differently if the target possesses an opposition alignment.
A setting's deities have a great deal of influence over how a setting feels, and exert an even greater impact on those characters that choose to follow them, whether for power or otherwise. The primary pantheon of Rimukyr likewise provides a cast of diverse and interesting options to make different divinely empowered characters feel very different in play. Next week we'll continue our exploration of deities with part 2: the elemental lords.
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