The Updated Doctrine of Light

[clannagh]

As the Keepers are a Neutral Good organisation, should there be some acknowledgment of Shelyn as the Neutral Good deity in the proposed PFO starting pantheon?


* Shelyn *

Titles: The Eternal Rose; the Lady of Chrysanthemums (Tian Xia); Syriss
Alignment: Neutral Good

Portfolio: Beauty, art, love, music
Worshipers: Artists, poets, lovers
Cleric Alignments: LG NG CG N
Domains: Air, Charm, Good, Luck, Protection
Subdomains: Agathion, Cloud, Defense, Fate, Love, Purity
Favored Weapon: Whisperer of Souls (Glaive). Two handed reach weapon

[Gintigael Gemweaver]

Being a NG settlement, we won't be able to maximize the Iomedae focus, as far as creating buildings. We will definitely be able to build them though. But I don't know if it will be necessary to maximize it since there will be other settlements that we will be at least loosely allied with that are LG focused.
Having a Sarenrae focus is cool, but it will mean that we won't be able to build buildings dedicated to her until they implement more deities.

Clerics of Shelyn could be the Philosophy of Beauty. Or Philosophy of the Rose. But The Ring of Light is "The Healing arm of the Circle, the Ring of Light has the Purview of Aid; Aiding those who need it is a principle that advances life." So Shelyn may be a better patroness of Iron and Gold.

[clannagh]

Makes sense.

For future reference ( as very few of these gods are likely to make it into PFO in the near future) I can only find 13 Neutral Good deities in the Pantheon:


Aegirran

Portfolio Dreams, sailing and voyages
Worshipers Storm giants
Domains Good, Travel, Water, Weather
Favored Weapon Trident

Arshea

Portfolio Freedom, physical beauty, sexuality
Domains Charm, Good, Liberation, Strength
Subdomains Agathion, Freedom, Love, Lust
Favored Weapon Flail


Bolka

Portfolio love beauty
Domains Charm, Good, Healing
Favored Weapon mace

Chaldira Zuzaristan

Portfolio Mischief Battle
Worshipers Halflings
Domains Good, Trickery, War
Favored Weapon short sword

Korada

Portfolio Foresight, forgiveness, peace
Domains Good, Magic, Healing, Protection
Favored Weapon Unarmed strike

Kurgess

Portfolio Competition Sport Self-sacrifice
Domains Community, Good, Luck, Strength, Travel
Favored Weapon Javelin

Qi Zhong

Portfolio Healing Magic Medicine
Worshipers Healers, scholars, wizards, mystic theurges
Domains Good, Healing, Knowledge, Magic, Protection
Favored Weapon Heavy mace

Sarenrae

Portfolio Sun Redemption Honesty Healing
Worshipers healers, farmers, redeemed evil-doers
Domains Fire, Glory, Good, Healing, Sun
Favored Weapon scimitar

Shelyn

Portfolio Beauty, art, love, music
Worshipers Artists, poets, lovers
Domains Air, Charm, Good, Luck, Protection
Favored Weapon Whisperer of Souls (glaive)

Soralyon

Portfolio Guardians Magic Monuments
Domains Artifice, Earth, Good, Protection
Favored Weapon Heavy pick

Trudd

Portfolio strength
Domains Good, Nobility, Protection, Strength
Favored Weapon warhammer

Ylimancha

Portfolio Coastal waters Fishermen Flying creatures
Domains Air, Animal, Good, Water
Favored Weapon Longbow

Yuelral

Portfolio Magic Crystal Jewellers
Worshipers elves
Domains Artifice, Earth, Good, Knowledge, Magic
Favored Weapon dagger

[Fruben]

I cannot remember reading much, if anything, relevant relating to the role of the deities in skill training. With the very limited pantheon at the beginning of the early enrollment I do foresee major issues, if they would tie skill trees (for the divine casters/warriors) to deities instead of more general "themes" (such as healing, protection, light etc.).

As far as the Ring of Light "lore" goes, the choice of deities is (IMO) spot on. The portfolio of Shelyn would require some work to incorporate into the current doctrine.

If the eventual game mechanics force us to re-evaluate our approach, we should of course do so, but at the moment there just does not seem to be enough information to justify doing so.

One question is of course whether we want to include any deities in our doctrine at this point of time. It could for example be possible to just include a reference such as:

* The Philosophy of War has a significant number of followers of Iomedae within its ranks

* The Philosophy of Peace is known to have followers of Sarenrae and Shelyn, among other deities with similar portfolios, within its ranks

This approach would allow us to more or less side step the deity issue until we know how much it will have an impact on the game mechanics.

Whether we ever build any buildings relating to the said deities in our settlements is (to me at least) a different question.

[Leonidas Wahrheit]

Fruben,

I know it's been awhile, but I just noticed your post and I absolutely agree. I'll have to make an edit to this. Until we know just how Deities will influence PFO, I'm going to keep the primary Deities as they are.

Clannagh,

Your extensive information about the Gods and Goddesses is incredibly appreciated and I agree with your point about including Shelyn. I know Gintigael also made a great point about Shelyn falling more under the prevue of several of the other rings. We'll have to reconsider which Gods and Goddess the Ring of Light focuses upon. I still feel as though Sarenrae is an excellent choice for our Philosophy of Peace.

The question goes out, then: should we keep Iomedae as our Patron of War or should we reconsider since her alignment may be too restrictive? Then again, this is the Ring of Light; perhaps being restrictive isn't necessarily a bad thing.