Church of Gozreh
Gozreh’s worshipers are typically sailors, merchants who ship goods between ports, and farmers. Seagoing raiders ask her to speed them to their prey, fisherfolk pray for favorable currents to bring them heavy catches, millers ask for consistent winds to power their mills and well pumps (along with forgiveness for cutting trees), and travelers seek good weather, especially for lengthy journeys. Wise generals ask Gozreh’s blessing before transporting soldiers by sea; wiser ones ask his priests whether a blessing would do any good.
Worship services include chanting, playing wind instruments, listening to chimes moved by wind or water, drinking water, and ritual use of salt, fragrant herbs, and smokeless incense. Farming communities often leave tributes of meat and grain exposed on a high rock to allow the deity’s servants to claim it. Fishing communities tow the strung-together bones of their most impressive catches behind their boats, releasing them as offerings to the goddess. Some civilized folk perpetuate stories of Gozrens engaging in human sacrifice in lean times (often by burning victims encased in wicker effigies or drowning them in tidal pools), but no reliable records of this exist—at least as far as anyone knows.
The church does not have a strong preference for or against marriage, recognizing that some creatures mate for life while others unite only for a season or until offspring are mature. Priests are very tolerant of nontraditional families, including polyamorous grouping and seasonal unions, and individuals interested in such relationships often join the faith because of this tolerance—though this attitude is actually more akin to indifference, as the bonds that humanoids make between their own kind and the relationship roles they choose to play are irrelevant to the forces of nature.
Gozreh’s many roles and areas of interest spark countless splinter cults. Some embrace the deity’s entire area of influence; others choose one particular aspect (such as weather) or a handful of specific interests (such as birds and wind, or fish and the sea, or storms and plants). A few extreme or isolated groups develop fringe beliefs and practices not present in the more mainstream churches. Some espouse belief in beast totems or reincarnation, pursue lycanthropy, or venerate spirit animals and intelligent plants. Others follow eunuch-priests or start fertility or even crossbreeding cults. There are those that practice ritualized baptisms or dream quests, “mushroom cults” that seek to commune directly with the god by ingesting strange fungi, and sects that follow diets restricted to fruits, nuts, and leaves. Despite this wide variety of radical and sometimes conflicting beliefs, members of these sects continue to receive spells from Gozreh, and the church as a whole makes no attempt to eliminate splinter groups or force them to return to more mainstream practices so long as they continue to foremost respect the wind, the waves, and the natural world.
Shrines are incredibly simple—often just a flat stone at a high elevation or on a secluded beach, a large whale bone jutting from a cleft on a rocky shore, or a place where the waves crash against a crevice to create high-arcing spray. Some underwater shrines surface only in years with especially low tides. A few large shrines dating from ancient times still exist on Golarion, primarily circles or triangles of standing stones (though one circle north of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings is composed of blocks of nigh-indestructible ice rather than stones). These standing stones function as calendars, tracking solstices, equinoxes, and other celestial events. Most are also burial sites for priests or particularly devout members of the faith.
Some Gozrens see themselves as agents of the goddess’s anger at damage wrought by civilization, sending plagues of bats, crows, and locusts to ravage cities and croplands, turning schools of fish away from seaside towns, and summoning storms to drown fleets built from stolen timber. A few are explorers, determined to experience as much of the god’s beauty as possible. Some good-aligned priests make it their mission to visit tiny islands and rescue any travelers lost at sea. Flight and swimming are common obsessions among the priesthood, and magic items that permit flying or water-breathing are treasured. Most Gozrens avoid steel armor because it rusts, preferring wood, hide, or mithral, and some even wear armor made of hardened ice. Druids of Gozreh are often hermits, rarely seeing other speaking creatures and leaving their refuges only when the goddess calls or a local settlement bribes them to make rain. Most are content to live off the land, sometimes gathering treasures of the sea (such as pearls, coral, and abalone shells), or selling sea ivory or scrimshaw. Some spend their entire lives on boats; others exile themselves to remote islands to commune with their deity.
The church is decentralized, and each regional congregation tends to have periods of stability offset by sudden turmoil and reorganization, though in the long term a charismatic and powerful priest is apt to stay at the top of his temple’s organization. Within the church, a respected priest is one who reacts quickly to changing circumstances, interprets portents accurately, and is good at working with plants, animals, or both (depending on the specific focus of the temple). For splinter churches, traits such as a sense of the spirit world or prophetic dreams may be considered more important.
When a high priest dies, contenders for her rank compete in ceremonies traditional to the faithful of their region, which vary widely across the entire religion. In rugged coastal regions, claimants might dive naked from tall ocean cliffs and swim to shore, with the first to return becoming the new high priest. In river settlements and along gentler coasts, retrieving heavy stones from the ocean or riverbed is a common test. In woodland regions, hopefuls might climb as far up the forest’s tallest tree as they dare and throw themselves off, and the person who falls the farthest and yet survives is declared the new high priest. In harsher climes, the would-be successors must make harrowing treks and brave the dangers of the elements; those who endure prove their commitment to the faith—a more important quality than their deity’s unpredictable favor. Inexperienced and overly ambitious priests have been known to die because of these contests, but in most cases the worst anyone suffers is injuries and severe exhaustion.
Among those races for whom it’s feasible, male priests are expected to grow long beards, and those with patchy growth often braid or knot their facial hair into tangled masses. Female priests traditionally keep long hair, and hair that nearly reaches the ground is common. The cutting of hair and beards is not forbidden, and what constitutes “long” varies from region to region. Both sexes weave dried seaweed, strands of white cloth, plant fibers, feathers, and other decorative items into their hair. When an old priest dies, snippets of this long hair are cut and given to his or her successors, who tie or weave it into their own locks. Water or sky burial is typical for priests; cremation is considered an ignoble means of disposing of a corpse.
Worship services include chanting, playing wind instruments, listening to chimes moved by wind or water, drinking water, and ritual use of salt, fragrant herbs, and smokeless incense. Farming communities often leave tributes of meat and grain exposed on a high rock to allow the deity’s servants to claim it. Fishing communities tow the strung-together bones of their most impressive catches behind their boats, releasing them as offerings to the goddess. Some civilized folk perpetuate stories of Gozrens engaging in human sacrifice in lean times (often by burning victims encased in wicker effigies or drowning them in tidal pools), but no reliable records of this exist—at least as far as anyone knows.
The church does not have a strong preference for or against marriage, recognizing that some creatures mate for life while others unite only for a season or until offspring are mature. Priests are very tolerant of nontraditional families, including polyamorous grouping and seasonal unions, and individuals interested in such relationships often join the faith because of this tolerance—though this attitude is actually more akin to indifference, as the bonds that humanoids make between their own kind and the relationship roles they choose to play are irrelevant to the forces of nature.
Gozreh’s many roles and areas of interest spark countless splinter cults. Some embrace the deity’s entire area of influence; others choose one particular aspect (such as weather) or a handful of specific interests (such as birds and wind, or fish and the sea, or storms and plants). A few extreme or isolated groups develop fringe beliefs and practices not present in the more mainstream churches. Some espouse belief in beast totems or reincarnation, pursue lycanthropy, or venerate spirit animals and intelligent plants. Others follow eunuch-priests or start fertility or even crossbreeding cults. There are those that practice ritualized baptisms or dream quests, “mushroom cults” that seek to commune directly with the god by ingesting strange fungi, and sects that follow diets restricted to fruits, nuts, and leaves. Despite this wide variety of radical and sometimes conflicting beliefs, members of these sects continue to receive spells from Gozreh, and the church as a whole makes no attempt to eliminate splinter groups or force them to return to more mainstream practices so long as they continue to foremost respect the wind, the waves, and the natural world.
Temples and Shrines
Gozreh’s temples are always open to the sky and generally contain some sort of pool or open water at their heart. Coastal temples are often just a driftwood wall with lean-tos on the outside rim, while a mountain temple might be a natural amphitheater where the wind howls on a mountaintop, and a desert temple a simple oasis surrounded by a half-wild garden. Some temples incorporate water wheels, windmills, lighthouses, or other structures that respectfully harness the wind and waves or are essential to a community that relies on the sky and sea for survival; for the priests who staff such temples, tending the mechanisms in the structures is a hereditary, traditional role, and many have remarkably advanced knowledge of the engineering necessary to maintain them, despite the church’s general preference for wildness and nature over civilization.Shrines are incredibly simple—often just a flat stone at a high elevation or on a secluded beach, a large whale bone jutting from a cleft on a rocky shore, or a place where the waves crash against a crevice to create high-arcing spray. Some underwater shrines surface only in years with especially low tides. A few large shrines dating from ancient times still exist on Golarion, primarily circles or triangles of standing stones (though one circle north of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings is composed of blocks of nigh-indestructible ice rather than stones). These standing stones function as calendars, tracking solstices, equinoxes, and other celestial events. Most are also burial sites for priests or particularly devout members of the faith.
Clothing
Formal raiment varies by temple but usually includes feathers, green or blue cloth, a rope belt, and a hoodless cloak of thin, oiled leather. In coastal areas, at least one garment is usually made of kimlé, a linen-like cloth made of a sea plant the church cultivates. Holy symbols are usually made of driftwood, bone, coral, or twigs.A Priest’s Role
Priests of Gozreh look for the deity’s will in swirling water, racing clouds, and the movement of flocks of birds and schools of fish. Those associated with humanoid communities serve as diviners or provide advice about fishing, the weather, or the care of domesticated birds. Some live on ships, selling their services to pirates, navies, or merchants hoping to sail in fair weather and avoid deadly storms. Others dedicate themselves to healing and nurturing the wounded places in the world or destroying the things responsible for the wounds— battling the corruption of the Worldwound, the deadly radiation of certain locations in Numeria, and coastal pollution from large human cities.Some Gozrens see themselves as agents of the goddess’s anger at damage wrought by civilization, sending plagues of bats, crows, and locusts to ravage cities and croplands, turning schools of fish away from seaside towns, and summoning storms to drown fleets built from stolen timber. A few are explorers, determined to experience as much of the god’s beauty as possible. Some good-aligned priests make it their mission to visit tiny islands and rescue any travelers lost at sea. Flight and swimming are common obsessions among the priesthood, and magic items that permit flying or water-breathing are treasured. Most Gozrens avoid steel armor because it rusts, preferring wood, hide, or mithral, and some even wear armor made of hardened ice. Druids of Gozreh are often hermits, rarely seeing other speaking creatures and leaving their refuges only when the goddess calls or a local settlement bribes them to make rain. Most are content to live off the land, sometimes gathering treasures of the sea (such as pearls, coral, and abalone shells), or selling sea ivory or scrimshaw. Some spend their entire lives on boats; others exile themselves to remote islands to commune with their deity.
The church is decentralized, and each regional congregation tends to have periods of stability offset by sudden turmoil and reorganization, though in the long term a charismatic and powerful priest is apt to stay at the top of his temple’s organization. Within the church, a respected priest is one who reacts quickly to changing circumstances, interprets portents accurately, and is good at working with plants, animals, or both (depending on the specific focus of the temple). For splinter churches, traits such as a sense of the spirit world or prophetic dreams may be considered more important.
When a high priest dies, contenders for her rank compete in ceremonies traditional to the faithful of their region, which vary widely across the entire religion. In rugged coastal regions, claimants might dive naked from tall ocean cliffs and swim to shore, with the first to return becoming the new high priest. In river settlements and along gentler coasts, retrieving heavy stones from the ocean or riverbed is a common test. In woodland regions, hopefuls might climb as far up the forest’s tallest tree as they dare and throw themselves off, and the person who falls the farthest and yet survives is declared the new high priest. In harsher climes, the would-be successors must make harrowing treks and brave the dangers of the elements; those who endure prove their commitment to the faith—a more important quality than their deity’s unpredictable favor. Inexperienced and overly ambitious priests have been known to die because of these contests, but in most cases the worst anyone suffers is injuries and severe exhaustion.
Among those races for whom it’s feasible, male priests are expected to grow long beards, and those with patchy growth often braid or knot their facial hair into tangled masses. Female priests traditionally keep long hair, and hair that nearly reaches the ground is common. The cutting of hair and beards is not forbidden, and what constitutes “long” varies from region to region. Both sexes weave dried seaweed, strands of white cloth, plant fibers, feathers, and other decorative items into their hair. When an old priest dies, snippets of this long hair are cut and given to his or her successors, who tie or weave it into their own locks. Water or sky burial is typical for priests; cremation is considered an ignoble means of disposing of a corpse.
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