Hallisan

Hallisan Mangcha

Hallisan is the embodiment of the righteous warrior cultivating strength and using it to defend the weak and spread justice. He is also a proponent of everyday honorable behavior of hard work and honesty and obedience to just rulers.   Hallisan's primary worshipers are call themselves the Guardians of Valor, commonly shortened into Guardians.   The Guardians have a fair number of esteemed holy warriors, but they don't only have holy warriors. They have scholars, craftsmen, and clergy. The Guardians are one of the larger priesthoods in Scarterra and are fairly politically connected.  
Even if princes and potentates sometimes fall short of the chivalric ideals, they want to aleast appear to adhere to chivalrous ideals so they seek to cultivate support among the Guardians for the good public relations.   The Guardians relative abundance of powerful theurgist warriors and skilled magical item crafters is just icing on the cake, to say nothing of a small army of skilled non-magical craftsmen.
 

Accomplishments and Failures

  Hallisan led the intial main assualt against Turoch after Turoch's poisoning and inflicted considerable damage on him.   Of all the races of Scarterra not created by all the Nine collectively, the dwarves are arguably in the strongest position and the dwarves are Hallisan's children. Hallisan's Guardians of Valor are the most very politically and militarily powerful priesthood in all of Scarterra and they are respected by peasants and princes alike.   On the other hand, for all his power, Hallisan is not the most adept at using it. Hallisan is among the most reactive of the Nine constantly doing damage control to put out figurative or literal fires set by his siblings rather than directing events himself. On the mortal plane, the Guardians are very much in a similar boat with the other factions of Scarterra.

Divine Domains

Hallisan’s Portfolio includes but is not limited to: Stone, minerals, metalwork, mining, chivalry codes, bravery, just war, oaths of service, strength, protection, life stones, dwarves,   Hallisan's primary Dominion is regulating the mineral infusions into the earth from the Elemental Plane. Hallisan's primary Gift to mortals is metalworking.   The favored spheres of Hallisan's theurgists' are Augmentation, Crafts and Protection.

Artifacts

Hallisan's symbol of power and Divine Trophy is a battle crafted forged out of one of Turoch's legs.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

A lot of Hallisan's symbols are based on hammers (both warhammer and tool hammers) and axes (both weapons and tools). Anything can be associated with Hallisan if it invokes hard work, skill, protection, and valor. Imagery of stone, armor, anvils, shields, are all fairly commonly seen symbols.

Tenets of Faith

-Promote hard work for this is the key for all to better themselves.   -Stand resolute against all who would threaten good people.   -Pursue excellence in all you do, if you diminish your crafts you diminish yourself.   -Promote justice and fairness for a just society forms the basis, both for vigilance against evil and prodigious industry.

Holidays

Hallisan's Zodiac month roughly coincides with the end of fall. Hallisan's Dawn, the Apex of Hallisan, and Hallisan's Solace marks the beginning middle and end of his month respectively. Usually these holidays are mostly observed by the Guardians and not the general population unless the local elites are staunch Hallisan worshipers in which case they are lumped in with various harvest festivals. The Apex of Hallisan is fairly informal and involves a lot of craft shows, so many craftsmen opt to use this holiday as a time to show off their latest work even if they aren't especially pious towards Hallisan.   Whenever possible, the Guardians like to insert Hallisan honorifics and prayer rituals into patriotic secular holidays or martial tournaments which of course vary widely from nation to nation. The Guardians also take days of remembrance for the honored dead very seriously and are prone to encourage ancestor worship rituals and festivals.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

Hallisan cares for Scarterran mortals as individuals, but he believes the establish of strong, orderly and just institutions is the best way to do it. This is why Guardians at least try to insert themselves into the ruling institutions of every nation in Scarterra.   While the Guardians, and by proxy Hallisan himself seem to be heavily focused on the actions of kings and queens, Hallisan and his followers support strong families and local communities. Hallisan knows that good leaders are worthless without good hard working subjects.  
Hallisan understands that defending the innocent requires more than strong institutions, it often requires a sharp blade. Hallisan encourages his followers to take up arms against outside threats or to help those who do. Many Scarterran folk hero adventurers are either directly or indirectly affiliated with Hallisan.

Physical Description

Apparel & Accessories

Hallisans symbol of power and Divine Trophy is a battle axe forged from one of Turoch's legs.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Hallisan’s chivalry drives him to protect Mera whom he loves. Mera often balks at Hallisan’s violence and his patronizing nature, but this doesn’t stop Hallisan from trying. When the Guardians and Tenders work together they are a very potent team. Powerful warriors are even more effective when they have skilled healers to keep them fighting longer.  
Hallisan may not like Khemra as much as he likes Mera, but the two work together well. When Hallisan and Khemra are working together, government itself generally becomes more efficient and a true force for the common good.   Hallisan appreciates the services Korus provides sustaining nature, but Hallisan tends to take Korus for granted. This attitude carries over to Hallisan’s followers.   Zarthus is a frienemy that Hallisan grudgingly respects. They share the same general goals but disagree on tactics almost all the time. This attitude certainly carries over to Hallisan’s followers.
Composite Display of the Nine's portraits by Zeta Gardner
  Hallisan and Phidas are frequent competitors, but Hallisan has no real respect for Phidas. They compete for Khemra's affections and this symbolically mirrors them fighting for the soul of civilization itself. Hallisan views Phidas as a spineless coward, and he is furious that Phidas and his followers tend to outmaneuver Hallisan and Hallisan’s followers with their superior grasp of realpolitik.   Hallisan finds Nami to be incredibly annoying but does not see her as a threat. Originally Hallisan was going to regulate the seasons as his Dominion and Phidas was going to be in charge of where and how mineral deposits form. When Phidas  had to abandon his original dominion to shore up the Barrier against the Void, Hallisan took over Phidas' dominion and Hallisan’s Dominion got folded into Nami's Dominion of weather. In a way, Hallisan views every bout of unseasonable weather as a personal insult.   Greymoria is viewed as a true threat and Hallisan opposes her whenever he can but she is more subtle than he is and he often doesn’t know how best to oppose her. Due to their association with Greymoria, Hallisan’s followers are largely distrustful of arcane magic and monsters in general, even mages and magical monsters who are relatively benign.   Hallisan has no hard evidence backing up his assertions but he believes Maylar is trying to becomes Turoch's successor, planning  to enslave all of Scarterra into his personal soul farm. Even if Maylar isn’t trying to actively usurp the entire universe, he is still both a figurative and literal plague on all good people. Also, there is an element of pride in their rivalry. Hallisan embodies the principles of High War and Maylar embodies Low War.  Hallisan wants to defeat Maylar once and for all to prove he is right.

Scaraqua

  In Scaraqua, Hallisan is commonly referred to as Mangcha. He associated with the Sea Floor.     Mangcha is a relative bit player under the sea, at least compared to the Seeyirah, the daughters/sisters of the Sea. He is still a patron of useful of crafts, but Mangcha has much of a less martial edge than Hallisan. Mangcha worship is very common among the Astakalians, but he is barely more than a footnote to most other Scaraquans. Also, Mangcha and Resona (Phidas' alter ego) are often treated almost interchangeably.

Scarnoctis

  I haven’t worked out the details yet, but Hallisan is going to be a major player underground. He is probably still going to operate primarily through his chosen people the dwarves. Tiamalan kobolds tend to worship Hallisan often. Maybe an oddball goblin tribe or two worships Hallisan.   Given that Hallisan is going to loom large underground, I should probably widen his tent there.

Articles under Hallisan



Cover image: Hallisan, plain background by Zeta Gardner
Character Portrait image: Hallisan, plain background by Zeta Gardner

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