Iroas, God of Victory

Iroas seeks to encourage the honorable aspects of warfare in mortals. He favors the militaristic polis of Akros and has established the Iroan Games in that city's arena, whose podium is also the main temple to the god. Each year, during the height of summer, athletes and soldiers from all across Theros compete for the wreath that signifies the highest achievement in physical prowess. War is, fundamentally, a terrible experience filled with pain, loss, and fear. Unfortunately, as Iroas sees it, war is also necessary. He sees preparing for and winning life’s essential battles as being of paramount importance and the highest calling one can experience. The true warrior fights with honor, courage, and dedication, and values training, discipline, strength, and esprit de corps. In Iroas’s eyes, nothing is more valuable or honorable than a honed blade wielded by a trained warrior loyal to a just cause. This message is ingrained in the ethos of Akros, the polis that claims him as its patron. His precepts and codes of conduct are incorporated in the civil and military laws of Akros. Iroas is interested not in pretty words, but in great deeds. The faithful of Iroas show their piety by comporting themselves well in contests of athleticism or skill. Swearing an oath to win a battle in Iroas’s name and failing to do so is a great shame upon a warrior, thus such a promise is never uttered lightly.

Champions of Ioras

Many champions of Iroas are warriors for honor and justice. They often seek to embody martial courage and are motivated by strong personal codes of honor.

Iroas’s Favor

Iroas has a soft spot in his heart for underdogs, even if they lack the strength to win the fight. It is easier, he believes, to make a hero from a weakling who has a heroic heart than it is to turn a brute into a defender of justice. What’s more, the victory of the strong gives them glory, but the victory of the weak gives glory to Iroas. Why did Iroas seek you out as a champion? Perhaps you proved your courage even when victory eluded your grasp, or you demonstrated a willingness to use your strength for good. Occasionally, Iroas’s choice of a champion has as much to do with his enmity toward Mogis as it does with the mortal he chooses; is there some connection between you and the god of slaughter? The Iroas’s Favor table offers a few suggestions.

d6	Circumstance
1	You were born on the eve of a major battle.
2	Your twin sibling is a champion of Mogis.
3	You showed great courage in a losing battle.
4	You proved yourself in a contest of strength and skill at the Iroan Games.
5	You called upon Iroas to witness an oath of victory in battle, and he took notice.
6	Despite having been knocked down repeatedly in life, you show grit and determination in all you do.

Devotion to Iroas

Following Iroas means making a commitment to combat in pursuit of righteous aims, not as a way of applying coercion or domination. It also means dedicating yourself to the pursuit of excellence, for the god of victory desires victorious champions. As a follower of Iroas, consider the ideals on the Iroas’s Ideals table as alternatives to those suggested for your background.

d6	Ideal
1	Devotion. My devotion to my god is more important to me than what he stands for.
2	Courage. No fear or pain can turn me away.
3	Loyalty. War forms bonds that are more real and lasting than the ties of love or family.
4	Heroism. The powerful must protect the weak.
5	Liberty. The strong mustn’t exploit the weak.
6	Excellence. People should look to me as an example of the best that mortal folk can be.

Approval

You earn Iroas' approval when you expand the god’s influence in the world in a concrete way through acts such as these:

Achieving a great victory
Overcoming long odds honorably
Defeating a skilled foe in single combat
Winning a great feat of strength or skill

Iroas' approval decreases if you diminish Iroas’s influence in the world, contradict his ideals, or make him look weak and cowardly through acts such as these: