Keranos, God of the Storm

Keranos is the god of storms and wisdom. Merciless and impatient, Keranos is equally likely to strike out at mortals with a bolt of inspiration or a blast of lightning. To revere Keranos is to exult in the power of wisdom, clarity of purpose, and the fury of the storm. He is favored by tinkerers, inventors, and sailors as well as those seeking solutions to intractable problems. He doesn’t tolerate the company (or the worship) of fools, and he despises vapidity and indecision.
Keranos rarely appeared directly to mortals, preferring to communicate through an epiphany or a crashing bolt of lightning. When he does deign to manifest in the mortal world, Keranos prefers the form of a stout, bearded, male human wearing a purple loincloth girdled in a mithral chain belt with a clasp in the form of a dragon’s skull. His bearing is upright and stern, with a clipped, brusque way of speaking. Particularly clever plans and observations bring a hint of a smile to his face. When interacting with mortals, Keranos sometimes appears in the form of a great horned owl with lightning strikes flashing in its eyes.

Divine Domains

Keranos is the embodiment of wisdom and insight unhindered by compassion or patience. Just as the storm vents its fury unpredictably and without warning, so does Keranos deliver the wisdom he chooses to impart.
A storm, for all its unpredictability, can still be weathered by those who apply foresight and knowledge. So it is when dealing with Keranos. He rewards those who act with forethought and decisiveness and punishes the reckless for their stupidity.
Those who seek to solve enigmas and create wonders of art and science often invoke his name. The creative process is fraught with frustration, and his insights make short work of such hindrances as easily as the lightning parts a mighty oak.
Keranos dispenses inspiration without regard for the morality of its application. He is just as likely to reward the shrewd general seeking to topple a polis as a gentle healer searching for a cure for a malady. Good and evil don’t color his thinking, only action and the thrill of birthing new ideas into the world. Furthering the act of creating—be it ideas, weapons, art, or magic—is what matters most.

Artifacts

Epiphany. The lightning bolt is a symbol of both Keranos’s fury and his ability to inspire. Pondering this combination, he entreated Purphoros to create a mighty weapon, a javelin that strikes with the force of the storm. Keranos channeled his anger into a furious storm, which Purphoros then captured and smithed into a gleaming javelin that hummed with power. When Keranos wants to send a message, of either destruction or enlightenment, Epiphany is his tool of choice.
Font of Fortunes. In ages past, Keranos created a bronze font fed by a pure mountain stream that would grant great oracular power if one drank deeply from it. As Keranos wanted only the wisest and most clever mortals to gain his favour, it is said the font lies at the end of a series of fierce traps and riddles. It exists both in and out of Asteria, hidden to all but the most diligent of seekers.
Lightning Diadem. Years ago, Keranos received an exquisitely cut sapphire set in a delicate silver diadem as an offering. Deeply appreciative of the skill and craftsmanship required to create it, Keranos imbued the gem with a spark of divine genius. Inventors and philosophers coveted the diadem, for it conferred a fraction of Keranos’s inspiration to the wearer—granting incredible insights or fracturing the wearer’s sanity. Its last owner, the tormented genius Zexso the Unblinking, is said to have created a massive contraption to assure that the lightning diadem wouldn’t shatter the mind of any other mortal. The inventor’s machine launched the diadem into the heavens, where it’s said to have landed upon a griffin-inhabited island floating in the clouds.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

The Silent Bolt. Occasionally, Keranos seeks to make his will known with all the subtlety of the master of storms. Should lightning strike the same point multiple times yet never echo with thunder, followers of Keranos claim that is the way their god draws attention to secrets he wishes to share. While repeat lightning strikes would normally cause considerable damage, strikes that convey the god’s will often leave a scorch in the shape of Keranos’s symbol or no mark at all.
The Blue Eye. The symbol most associated with Keranos is that of the Blue Eye. It is a sign that evokes wisdom and inspiration and is often found somewhere in the worship of a tinkerer or the study of a scholar who look to be hit by one of his bolts of inspiration.

Holidays

As Autumn arrives, the seventh month is dedicated to Keranos, the God of storms.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

For good or ill, Keranos exists as a disruptive force. He doesn’t desire authority over other gods and, in fact, doesn’t particularly enjoy their company. Keranos finds satisfaction in investing bright mortals with prescient visions to see how they adapt. Those who prove themselves decisive and intelligent earn his grudging respect and continued blessings of precognition. He finds satisfaction not only in granting insight, but also in expressing the awesome fury of the storm. Where others see only chaos and destruction in storms, he sees them as shaping the firmament in ways that challenge and engage mortals. His blasts of lightning set house and forest ablaze, thus rendering the soil clear for new life and new creations. His is a vision he alone is equipped to see. He is content to watch his divine kinfolk scheme and plot while he looks on, stern and inscrutable.

Divine Classification

God

Realm

Asteria