Church of Eosphorus
Roleplaying Notes
A current follower of Eosphorus is likely someone that is a modern member of the clergy, and not an older follower. Conservative followers of Eosphorus are reserved for older undead and their minions. Someone that’s a Right Blade follower of Eosphorus might be looking for rebellions to join or push for more rights of the oppressed. Someone that’s a Left Blade follower should be eager to help people recover from Natural disasters and prepare for their eventuality.Mythology & Lore
Legendary Items and Weapons Associated with Eosphorus
The Bloody Axe of Slaughter
A vorpal battle axe, the Bloody Axe of Slaughter always has wet blood on the haft and blade, though it doesn’t make it any harder to wield. The Bloody Axe of Slaughter allows the wielder to Rage, as per the Barbarian class, once per day, or gives a Barbarian one additional Rage. This additional rage is replaced after a long rest.The Staff of Disaster
The Staff of Disaster is a long gray rod made from the bone of a creature long dead. It can be wielded as a quarterstaff that grants a +3 to attack and damage rolls with it, and while you hold it, you gain a +3 bonus to spell attack rolls. The staff has 20 charges for the following properties and regains 2d6+2 expended charges daily at midnight. Spells. While holding the staff, you can use an action to expend some of its charges to cast one of the following spells from it, using your spell save DC and spellcasting ability: (4 charges) Ice Storm, (8 charges) Tsunami, (8 charges) Earthquake, (7 charges) Fire Storm, (9 charges) Storm of Vengeance, (5 charges) Insect Plague, (9 charges) Meteor Swarm Power Strike. When you hit with a melee attack using the staff, you can expend 1 charge to deal an extra 1d6 force damage to the target. Spell Absorption. While holding the staff, you have advantage on saving throws against spells. In addition, you can use your reaction when another creature casts a spell that targets only you. If you do, the staff absorbs the magic of the spell, canceling its effect, and gaining a number of charges equal to the absorbed spell’s level. However, if doing so brings the staff’s total number of charges above 50, the staff explodes and activates Meteor Swarm, centered on you. The staff reappears somewhere else in the world in 1d6 days. While attuned to this staff, elementals are always hostile toward you.Wand of Undeath
As per the Wand of OrcusTenets of Faith
The Duties of the Clerics of Eosphorus
Always Be Prepared - This goes for all members of the faith. Whether it’s being prepared for when a natural disaster strikes, or being prepared to flee when oppressors crack down on rebellions, or being prepared for the party of adventurers to come knocking on your door. Even if you can’t plan for every eventuality, have a backup plan for when things go wrong. The Right Blades of Eosphorus tend to work in cells that only communicate in secret through magic. This is so that if a rebel hideout is captured or destroyed, only that cell will fall. The duty of the priest in the cell is to coordinate with other cells and the leadership. The Left Blades of Eosphorus have a duty to track storms and earthquakes, using their divination spells to track and predict natural disasters Rules and laws are tools of the oppressors, so there are no rules that “must” be followed. Priests should forge their own path to fight oppression and not be limited by the church.Forbidden to Eosphorus
- Torture is both ineffective and unreliable. If you’re going to kill someone, kill them. It’s easier to kill them and raise them as undead under your control and get answers that way than using torture.
- Slavery and enslaving the sapient is antiethical to Eosphorus. Those that have been justly imprisoned or must be kept under control for the safety of others are an exception to this rule.
Sacred to Eosphorus
- Stepping forward and raising your fist in the air to signal your willingness to fight oppression, inspiring others to follow you. It is especially powerful in a crowd.
- Standing in the eye of a storm or standing out in the open during a natural disaster.
- Raising an undead or becoming undead.
Typical Offerings
- Broken chains, especially the chains of manacles broken on his altar.
- Spent torches.
- The skulls of your enemies.
Worship
Major Areas of Worship
- Vodacce’s civil war has caused a number of cells of rebellion to spring up around the country. Many of these cells have leaders that seek Eosphorus’s aid to challenge the nobility there.
- The Summerlands has a large number of undead, and many follow Eosphorus’s faith, though just as many are interested in oppressing the living.
- Any time oppression and rebellion against the current leadership rises, the Priests of Eosphorus are there. Priests of Eosphorus are often divinely called to the area as tensions rise and just before rebellion breaks out.
- Priests of Eosphorus are also called to areas just before natural disasters break out in order to help people that are in trouble.
Oaths
- Oathbreaker Paladin
- Oath of Vengeance
- Oath of the Open Sea (as a breaker of bonds)
Holidays
Disaster Preparedness Day - The first Saturday after the spring equinox is celebrated by the church of Eosphorus as the beginning of hurricane season. Prayers and boar roasts are offered in supplication to Eosphorus to protect them from natural disasters in the coming year. Beer Keg Revolution - Held on December 16th, the Beer Keg Revolution was the day when the streets ran with beer from kegs cut open with battle axes that started the rebellion against the King of Eisen and eventually led to his downfall and replacement by the Dukes of Eisen. The King of Eisen had put laws against public drinking and was heavily taxed in an attempt to show his power and curb ‘rebels’ who were using funds from beer sales to fund the rebellion. Thousands of beer kegs were busted open and the beer given freely in a massive display of rebellion against the rules.Common Sayings or Blessings
- "Always Be Prepared."
- "Better to die fighting for freedom than being a prisoner all of your life." - a reminder to fight and break the chains of those who oppress you.
- "The dead talk if the living won’t." - An older saying that hearkens back to when Eosphorus was the god of slaughter, this saying essentially calls for killing someone and bringing them back as undead under the control of the caster if the living person refuses to cooperate. It’s both a threat and a reminder that dying doesn’t always mean information is lost.
Priesthood
The Leader of the Church
There are two leaders of the Church of Eosphorus, known as the Right and Left Blade of Eosphorus. The Left Blade of the Church of Eosphorus is a Human by the name of Don Correa. Don is a famous stormchaser and is known to arrive days before natural disasters hit areas. He is always helpful and works with leadership to harden and protect the areas hardest hit by natural disasters, using years of experience to inform the public how to take shelter and what to do after a natural disaster hits. Some people believe that he causes the natural disasters that strike, and has been banned because of that, but the natural disasters strike anyway. He has developed a reputation that if he has entered a city, that the situation is serious, and they are more likely to take safety precautions. The Right Blade of the Church of Eosphorus is a Reborn Orc by the name of Ishmael Kryukova, also known as the Chainbreaker. Ishmael has been the Right Blade for a very, very long time. He is rumored to have once been a Ruskovich noble, but died and was risen in a long forgotten rebellion. He remembers Eosphorus as a god of evil and bloodshed, but has spent much of his undeath working to change that image. He is said to have been behind the scenes of the emancipation and the occasional missing person that pushed for slavery too hard. Ishmael’s current location is rumored to be somewhere in the Summerlands, pushing for rebellion against the Summer Court. Don Correa lives in Castille, but regularly travels in the summer months to where natural disasters are likely to occur.Structure of the Church
The Church of Eosphorus follows the Right and Left Blade of Eosphorus in almost completely separate structures. While the leader is known as the Left and Right Blade, other clergy follow or belong to them. The Left Blade - Also known as the public face, followers of the Left Blade of Eosphorus are those members of the church that are publicly known to the people. They are the people that are openly and publicly clergy of Eosphorus and work with other Clergy to openly help the oppressed. The Left Blade are often the first involved to help organize people when a natural disaster hits and will smoothly go into action when there is large-scale trouble. The Right Blade - Also known as the hidden face, followers of the Right Blade of Eosphorus are the secret worshipers that work to bring down empires and foment rebellion. They’re the unknown voice in the crowd that calls for worker’s rights. If not the leaders of protest movements, they’re advisors and the pushers behind the scenes. They actively work against oppressors and are not above murder to get things done. The Undead - While not actually an official part of the clergy of Eosphorus, a large number of undead seek out Eosphorus as their patron deity for their own ends rather than the god’s. There’s an uneasy fine line between the old ways of undeath, necromancy, and slaughter, and many conservative undead want to call Eosphorus back to oppressing the living. As the god of rebellion, Eosphorus sees this rebellion against the current clergy as both ironic and necessary, both as a resource and to not forget about his past. As an unofficial part of the faith, the Undead are the Church of Eosphorus’s militant arm. The undead walk and can create and summon other undead. Paladins and Clerics do take up arms under the Right Blade in Eosphorus’s name, but these are individuals that follow the ideals, and not an official organization.Clothing
Skulls are worn by more conservative members of the church, while Left Blades feature torches and charging Boar motifs, and Right Blades use broken chains, especially manacles with a broken chain.Membership
Right Blades are vetted very carefully, both through magic and through divine intervention to make sure that they won’t betray the church or the oppressed. Anyone who seeks to infiltrate the church is dealt with harshly. Left Blades do not have restrictions for who can join the priesthood.Typical Followers
- People that are called to follow the god are people that genuinely want to help and feel a calling to help the oppressed and victims of natural disasters.
- Stormchasers and people that are interested in analyzing natural disasters are often followers of Eosphorus
- People that seek deliverance from oppression or are fighting against overwhelming odds.
- The undead.
Political Influence & Intrigue
Interaction with Society
The Left Blade of Eosphorus helps out with natural disaster preparation and running shelters to protect against natural disasters. Surprisingly, some clergy of Eosphorus serve as public defenders in their role as helpers of the oppressed, and will take great delight at thumbing their nose at prosecutors and bending the law where possible if it means helping people.Ceremonies
Breaking of Chains - Both symbolic and sometimes literal, the Breaking of Chains is a ceremony that signifies freeing the person from something that binds them. The Breaking of Chains is a ceremony meant to give a person the freedom to act as they want, and can be as simple as a divorce to freedom from slavery. The ceremony for this is a battleaxe used to cut a chain. Challenging the Storm - An act of either utter bravery or complete stupidity, Challenging the Storm is the act of running out into an active natural disaster and shouting defiance at it. This rebellion against the natural fear and awesome might of the disaster is meant to show that you are not afraid. That said, fear is a healthy reaction when faced with natural disasters, and dying from this ceremony is not uncommon. Raising the Undead - Any act or ceremony that raises another into undeath, particularly sapient undeath is a holy ceremony for Eosphorus.
Type
Religious, Organised Religion
Notable Members
Related Myths