The Scholar

The Magus, The Uncaring One, Weaver of Creation, Scribe of the Weave.

The Scholar is the lord of all knowledge, scribe of the weave, and maintainer of balance. He is the patron of teachers and scholars, judges and sages, lawyers and wizards. While myths of the Old Gods put Syberis as the head of the pantheon, the tales depict the Scholar directing the actions of the host, not due to any authority he might wield, but because the others trust his judgment and ability to foresee consequences.

Clerical Organization

Priests of the Scholar are usually very educated, capable of rational though, and able to put the needs of the law above their own emotions. Many serve as magistrates or government officials, and a significant number are practiced mages.
Despite being the god of magic, not many mages are devout followers of the deity for a couple of reasons. First and foremost: arrogance, learned wizards like to believe they achieved their knowledge and power on their own rather than through the power of a divine being. Secondly, the core tenets of the Scholar often conflict with the interests of wizards, the teachings of the Scholar include abandonment of personal, material, and emotional pursuits, as well as the safe and responsible use of magic, and the sharing of knowledge. Thirdly, true devoutness to the Scholar feels like a detraction from a wizard's research (in game terms, the CP spent on Divine Favor, could be spent on mastering spells and magery). Despite this mages are known to offer a quick prayer to the Scholar in times of need.
Those magicians who embrace the divine teachings of the Scholar are known as Mystic Theurges, and channel their divine favor to empower their spellcasting.

Divine Tenets

The Scholar directs his followers to seek understanding and knowledge and to share it. His teachings emphasized the rule of law and maintaining balance above the needs of good and evil. The guidance of Scholar is to pursue knowledge, maintain the law, and ensure the safe use of magic. His followers frown on emotionality and personal pursuits outside the goal of learning. The faithful are instructed to maintain the integrity of the Weave, and stop unsafe or unstable use of magic, and to maintain balance and the status quo.

Divine Favor Disadvantages

Divine Favor requires -10 to -40 points of disadvantages that reflect the deity's tenets and guidance. This list is not exhaustive but provides some of the common ones taken by priests of the Scholar:

• Curious (6) [-10]: The priests of the Scholar prize knowledge above all else, often putting themselves and others at risk for it. This variation does not mean that you would like to see what happens when a lever is pulled, but opening a book of dark knowledge, or studying a new monster falls under this disadvantage.
• Disciplines of Faith [-15]: You have renounced the comforts of society to focus on the pursuit of knowledge. This often involves some sort of isolation in libraries or study rooms. You must try to transcend all need for worldly possessions, and in any event cannot have above average Wealth, or Status beyond that granted by your Religious Rank (if any). You must spend at least 75% of your free time in study.
• Lawful (12) [-10]: You must obey the law, and do your best to get others to do so as well. In an area with little or no law, you do not “go wild” – you act as though the laws of your own home were in force. You also assume that others are lawful unless you know otherwise (make an IQ roll to realize someone might be breaking the law if you haven’t seen proof). This is a disadvantage, because it often limits your options! Make a self control roll when faced with the “need” to break unreasonable laws; if you fail, you must obey the law, whatever the consequences. If you manage to resist your urges and break the law, make a second self-control roll afterward. If you fail, you must turn yourself in to the authorities! You may fight (or even start a fight, if you do it in a legal way). You may even kill in a legal duel or in self defense – but you may never murder (unless it is legal where you are. You may steal if there is great need, but only as a last resort, and you must attempt to pay your victims back later. If you are jailed for a crime you did not commit, but treated fairly and assured of a trial, you will not try to escape. Lawfulness has its rewards, of course. If you stay alive and in one place long enough for your lawfulness to become known, the GM should give you +1 on any noncombat reaction roll – or +3 if a question of trust or honor is involved.
• No Sense of Humor [-10]: A life of study, law, and science made you socially intolerant of jokes; you think everyone is earnestly serious at all times. Likewise, you never joke, and you are earnestly serious at all times. Others react at -2 to you in any situation where this disadvantage becomes evident.
• One Eye [-15]: Some extreme priests of the Scholar believe that emulating their deity and gouging out their eye will lead them to knowledge. This must be done ritualistically and willingly, you can't claim this disadvantage for Divine Favor if you lost your eye in a fight or accident for example. You suffer -1 to DX in combat and on any task involving hand-eye coordination, and -3 on ranged attacks (unless you Aim first) and on rolls to operate any vehicle faster than a horse and buggy.
• Truthfulness (6) [-10]: You hate to tell a lie. Make a self-control roll whenever you must keep silent about an uncomfortable truth (lying by omission). Roll at -5 if you actually have to tell a falsehood! If you fail, you blurt out the truth, or stumble so much that your lie is obvious. You have a permanent -5 to Fast Talk skill, and your Acting skill is at -5 when your purpose is to deceive.

Prayers and Rites

The Scholar's rites are formal, with specific methods of offering thanks or requesting favors. Sacrifices can be almost anything, so long as they have value to the petitioner and represent a willingness to place material or personal matters below the desire for knowledge and understanding. Oaths to tell the truth, such as before a magistrate, are often done in the Scholar's name.

Shrines and Temples

Shrines and temples to the Scholar are typically found in dense urban centers, or remote monasteries. Both are fortified sanctuaries of knowledge and double as libraries and centers of learning and research. Most universities usually have a chapel devoted to the Scholar.

Depictions

Like the rest of the Old Gods, The Scholar is depicted in different forms and under different names in most cultures in the world.

Human

The humans used to refer to the Scholar as Aureon. He is is depicted as an old man with a long white beard, missing one eye. He is shown wearing a blue robe with curved lines moving through and about it, and leaning on a staff.

Dwarf

The dwarves call The Scholar, Odin, and their texts add a warlike lens to him, replacing the staff with a spear.

Dragons

The dragons' name for him is Chronepsis, often portrayed as an old one eyed dragon with tarnished shimmering blue scales, each of which is inscribed with a rune.

Giants

Texts retrieved from Xen'drik often depict a figure of cosmic proportion with one eye, named Annam, who is believed to be the Giants' version of the Scholar.

Angelic Choir of The Scholar

The choir of the Scholar are referred to in texts as Auditors of Reality, and described a grey bleak creatures. Not much else is known about these beings, they do not seem to inhabit a particular home plane, and it is almost impossible to summon them. Those that set out to contact one seem to fade from peoples minds and disappear.

Myths

Different cultures share different stories about their version of the Scholar; however one story remains the same throughout the faith: of how the Scholar lost his eye and in the process gave birth to the Shadow. The old scriptures tell of a dark time during the Dawn War, when the spawn of Khyber had all but overrun Tartarus and pushed the gods to the brink of defeat.
In an act of desperation it is said that the Scholar looked to a place man was not meant to know. He knew everything there was to know in creation, so he turned outside it for answers. Ripping out his eye and using his knowledge of the Weave, the Scholar tore a hole in our reality, and sent his oculus to the other side. When it returned however, it was warped and twisted and with a mind of it's own: the Shadow, which whispered dark and terrible secrets into the Scholar's ear.
The knowledge the Scholar gained that day helped win the Dawn War, but created the dark deity known as the Shadow, a testament to the price of knowledge, and opened a path for entities Man Was Not Meant to Know to creep into our reality.

Holidays

Scholar's Moot (26th Day of the 5th Month):The only popularly observed the festival of the Scholar. It is a celebration of knowledge, when the elders of the community share their wisdom with the young at evening feasts. Throughout the day, priests of the Scholar provide sermons and lectures on a host of topics, from history to philosophy and the nature of the gods. Like many of the holy days of the Old Gods, Scholar's Moot has become a secular holiday that does not require any particular religious devotion. Scholar's Moot is the traditional time for students to graduate or advance, and this is true even at the monastic schools of the Silver Flame.

The holy symbol of the Scholar is typically carved out of light blue apatite into a sphere, with grooves of varying depth. Runes are normally carved on both sides of the grooves. The combination of curved lines and the shades of blue is reminiscent of the Weave and pays homage to it. The holy symbol is often colloquially known as an Eye of Magus.

Domains

Magic, Law, Balance, Knowledge, Logic, and Learning.

Divine Classification

Deity