Talona

Lady of Poison, Mistress of Disease, She of the Deadly Kiss, Mother of All Plagues (a.k.a. Kiputytto)

Talona (Tah-LOW-nah), one of the Dark Gods, is often depicted as a withered old crone with a scarred, tattooed face in religious texts. Where she walks, misfortune and death follow. She is an odd deity. Sages have described her as having the personality of a petulant, greedy child trapped in the body of a once-beautiful woman now scarred by horrific disease and ravaged by age: She is alternately desirous of attention at any cost like a small child and aloof like a wounded paramour who has been discarded by her love.
Talona's power slowly wanes after each great plague in Faerun. When she feels vulnerable in her position, she unleashes another wave of misery and disease-brought death and receives a torrent of prayers entreating her to spare the inhabitants of Faeriin from her withering touch. Her power then waxes again in an endless cycle of indifference, devastation, and appeasement.
In particular, Talona's power was ascendant during the destruction of Asram (after the erection of the Standing Stone), in the Year of the Clinging Death (75 DR), during the Rotting War (902 DR), in the Year of the Scourge (1150 DR), in the Year of the Empty Goblet and the Year of Beckoning Death (1252-1253 DR), and during the Great Plague of the Inner Sea (1317-1323 DR).
Some old texts of Talona refer to her as Kiputytto, but this is actually the name of a rival demipower who challenged Talona's portfolio and lost. The battle between the two goddesses destroyed the Netherese survivor state of Asram in its wake. When Kiputytto attacked Talona, Talona plagued the ill-fated Asram in order to obtain the devotional power generated from the worship of its citizens, who hoped to appease Talona and lessen the effects of the disease. Kiputytto responded in kind in the same location, provoking a devastating series of increasingly virulent plagues (perhaps even magical in nature) that overloaded the curative resources of Asram's various priesthoods and wiped out the entire population in less than a month. Even most of those who escaped the scourged area died soon after of disease. Shortly afterward, Talona won this devastating deific contest and murdered Kiputytto.
Representations of Talona's symbol dated to before her battle with Kiputytto show it depicted as a flesh-colored equilateral triangle with point upward containing three teardrops arranged in a triangle with the uppermost black, the lower left purple, and the lower right green. Why the coloration was changed after her triumph over Kiputytto is one of the inner mysteries of the church not ever revealed to outsiders.
Loviatar and Talona are fierce rivals. Loviatar loves to torment and tease Talona over her ugly appearance, her scanty number of followers, her cowardly and ineffectual attacks, and her puny portfolio (in Loviatar's words). Needless to say, Talona openly delights in any setbacks Loviatar experiences, and sometimes even aids good adventurers if she thinks they will damage Loviatar's reputation. Talona has recently cultivated an alliance with Shar.

Divine Domains

Death

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Three golden amber teardrops on a purple equilateral triangle with point upward

Tenets of Faith

Talona's ethos stresses that life and death are in balance, but that death is the more powerful and should be paid proper homage and respect. Life and death are balanced only because birthing and generation are so plentiful. Death is the true power, and the lesson that waits for all. If it falls to the followers of Talona to drive home the point with the tip of a dagger, so be it.
Talona's faithful are taught that if they respect death and the many ways the powers can deal it, that knowledge will allow them to live longer. If people think themselves invincible thanks to wealth or a swift swordarm or strong spells, the great equalizer of disease, Talona's breath, will teach them respect and humility.
Initiates to the faith are charged as follows: "Let pain be as pleasure to the faithful of Talona. She works upon you from within, and in weakness and wasting is her strength. She is forever and always with you, whomever you or the rest of the world believes in or serves. Let all living things learn respect from Talona and pay homage to her in goods and in fervent worship, and her dedicated priests will intercede for them so that Talona will not claim them—this time. Go and work in Talona's name and let your doings be subtle or spectacular, but make them known as the will of the Mother of All Plagues."

Holidays

The church of Talona observes thrice-daily prayers to the goddess (morning, highsun, and evening, though the timing of such rituals need not be precise), and daernuth (holy festivals) every 12 days. Festivals are events open to nondevotees, where such visitors are encouraged to pray and give offerings to Talona to spare themselves or loved ones from death, disease, wasting diseases, and the like. At such day-long celebrations, priests of Talona are always careful to show lepers and other victims of disfiguring diseases being cured by priestly magic before everyone and also to demonstrate their immunity to contracting disease by touching disease-carrying or filthy objects to the still bloody ritual wounds of a Talontar (inflicted as during a private cicatrization ceremony). A long symphony of rolling drums, deep-voiced chanting, and glaur, shawm, and zulkoon music proclaims the power and veneration of Talona throughout the day, and minor priests busily sell poisons (for eliminating vermin, of course), antidotes, and medicines throughout the day, assisted by senior clergy who diagnose conditions (usually with great accuracy) and prescribe treatments in return for stiff fees (typically 50 or 100 gp per examination).
Annually at the daernuth falling closest to Higharvestide, initiates of the faith are formally inducted into the priesthood. This ascension is marked by horrifying private ceremonies involving ritual scarring and sacred tattoos. Exceptionally unappealing individuals (Charisma 3 or 4) who undergo the ascension ceremony find their personal Charisma raised by the ceremony due to the respect engendered in those viewing them by the fact that they survived the experience causing such scars (Charisma goes up to 5). The amount of scarring is so severe for specialty priests of the faith that their Charisma drops to a maximum of 11 if it was higher before the ceremony, though the same benefit for a dismally low Charisma is accrued.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

Day-to-Day Activities

Aside from selling poisons, antidotes, and medicines, the Talontar travel Faerun as quietly as possible, constantly seeking out new diseases and afflictions and spreading rumors so as to augment the reputation of Talona. What seems to motivate Talontar in their day-to-day behavior is a quest for respect: respect that is due Talona for her potentially devastating abilities and due them as her representatives in Faerun. Throughout their careers, Talona's priests work with magic and inoculations to build their personal immunities to various poisons and diseases. Thus protected, they treat the diseased, take employment as food tasters for paranoid rulers, wealthy merchants, and nobles, and bury, those who have died from diseases. Whenever a realm or city-state casts out or punishes any Talontar, for any reason, priests of Talona work to cause a plague in that place to exact "Talona's price" for such insults. Rumors have circulated that certain unscrupulous Talontar have occasionally chosen wealthy folk as targets for disease so that wealth and properties can be seized by the church upon the death of these wealthy owners— with the threat of contracting disease keeping rightful heirs and claimants at bay.

Priestly Vestments

All priests of Talona wear gray and green robes with ragged sleeves. These are washed but never repaired and in time become faded rags. Out of pride, most priests continue to wear their old, worn-out vestments until they are nearly naked. Old and high-ranking priests tend to have ritual scars and tattoos all over their bodies, and some even sport many body-piercings so that their torsos are studded with small rings linked with fine chains. Female clergy and laity alike often wear earrings and elbow-dangles of black metal wrought in the shape of talons.

Adventuring Garb

If embarking on a possibly dangerous adventure or preparing to go into battle, Talontar favor black-and-purple armor adorned with spurs, horns, and spikes. They wear any armor in a pinch and prefer to wear as much armor as possible.
Only specialty priests of Talona carry the special ceremonial poison daggers of the faith. They have no compunction against using them in combat. A nonbeliever caught with such an item attracts the unwanted attentions of Talona to his or her health as well as her church's wrath.

Symbol: Three golden amber teardrops on a purple equilateral triangle with point upward
Home Plane: The Barrens of Doom and Despair, Palace of Poisoned Tears
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Disease, poison
Worshipers: Assassins, druids, healers, rogues, those who suffer from disease and illness
Cleric Alignments: CE, CN, NE
Domains: Death
Favored Weapon: A scabrous hand (unarmed strike)
Allies: Bane, Bhaal, Shar
Enemies: Chauntea, Loviatar, Mielikki, Silvanus, Sune, Lliira, Kelemvor, Tyr, Shiallia

Divine Classification

Lesser Power