Daoud
Daoud is the Baklunish hero-deity of Humility, Clarity, and Immediacy. His symbol is a multi-colored patch of cloth or tangle of yarn, with seven threads, one of each color of the spectrum, extending from the bottom.
Daoud is depicted as an old man with leathery skin and heavy, dark brows. His eyes are black and piercing. He wears the simple, worn clothing of a shepherd, a turban wrapped around his head and a staff in his hands.
Daoud was a priest of Istus.
When Daoud was stripped of his wealth, he decided that the Four Feet of the Dragon which define Baklunish society - piety, honor, generosity, and devotion to family - were mere ostentation. In their place he proposed four superior virtues: honesty, humility, piety, and endurance. He called this new philosophy the Path of the Seeker.
Daoud's followers are urged to seek out both good fortune and bad in order to unravel the threads of destiny. They strive to be content with what Fate allows and demands of them, no more and no less. They cut lies with sharp words.
Clerics of Daoud, known as Daoudahs, live in voluntary poverty, abandoning rank and title. They are known for their brutal honesty and contempt for claims based on mere social position. Despite their humble lives, they manipulate the strings of Fate, bringing down the mighty and uplifting the humble, scattering whole tribes in their inscrutable ways.
Daoud is associated with Daoud's Wondrous Lanthorn, a creation of gold, gems, and crystals fueled by precious jewels. The Lanthorn curses its owner with possessiveness and paranoia.
Daoud was once the philosopher-pasha of Tusmit, a wealthy and well-respected man in his youth. In middle age, however, he lost everything, reduced to begging on the streets far from his homeland. He became a mendicant priest of Istus and contemplated the harshness of Fate before arriving at his radical new philosophy.
Iggwilv plundered the wealth of his legendary Vault (surely a relic of his more prosperous days) in Lopolla in the third century of the Common Year calendar, apparently making off with his Wondrous Lanthorn at that time.
Daoud appeared in the name of the Wondrous Lanthorn artifact in the adventure The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth by Gary Gygax. The name is the Arabic cognate of "David."
Comments