Iroas, God of Victory

Iroas expects much of his champions. Constant training and testing oneself against the strongest foes available are the hallmarks of Iroas’s champions. Iroas is the steadfast god of honor and victory in war. When soldiers march to battle, his voice is the thunder of their footsteps and the crash of spear on shield. Soldiers, mercenaries, and athletes all pray for Iroas’s favor in securing victory. Common folk pray to Iroas for courage and fortitude in times of struggle, for his is the battle nobly fought and won.
Bold and confident with a soldier’s demeanor, Iroas is the pinnacle of martial pride and bearing. He is stoic almost to a fault, but also exhibits a wry sense of humor. Those who honorably shed blood in Iroas’s name can count on his support. Cowards and oath breakers are to be despised, and traitors don’t deserve mercy in battle.
Iroas most often appears as a powerfully built centaur with a bull’s body rather than a horse’s, clad in gleaming armor and wielding a spear and shield. He speaks in a booming baritone that projects power, confidence, and courage. He has been known to appear as a burly soldier or a mighty bull before his followers. Whatever form he chooses, Iroas carries himself with precision and majesty at all times and doesn’t tolerate disrespect or undue informality from those who would deal with him.

Iroas’s Influence

Iroas personifies the glory of victory, honorable combat, and physical competition. He is the unspoken bond between soldiers on the eve of battle, the courage of the standard bearer holding colors aloft in the midst of battle, and the exultation that comes after a hard-won victory. Iroas pushes his followers to excel in their chosen fields, particularly war and athletics, and gain honor through superior skill, training, and dedication.
War is, fundamentally, a terrible experience filled with pain, loss, and fear. Unfortunately, as Iroas sees it, war is also necessary. He sees preparing for and winning life’s essential battles as being of paramount importance and the highest calling one can experience.
The true warrior fights with honor, courage, and dedication, and values training, discipline, strength, and esprit de corps. In Iroas’s eyes, nothing is more valuable or honorable than a honed blade wielded by a trained warrior loyal to a just cause. This message is ingrained in the ethos of Akros, the polis that claims him as its patron. His precepts and codes of conduct are incorporated in the civil and military laws of Akros.
Iroas values strength and determination in less deadly pursuits, as well. He believes sports are a fine proxy for war, as just as in a battle, superior skill and strength lead to a victory. What Iroas truly loves is a winner.
Lastly, Iroas urges his followers to blunt the advances of his brother, Mogis. This directive inevitably means combat, since Iroas knows of no other way to solve problems. Diplomacy isn’t an act of cowardice per se, but because it isn’t an activity Iroas is prepared to engage in, it isn’t something he expects of his followers.

Iroas’s Goals

Iroas sees existence as a series of glorious battles to be won by both him and his followers. War is a testing ground from which only the bravest and strongest emerge. Between battles, there are feats of endurance and physical prowess to perform. Iroas exhorts his followers to hone their bodies and minds just as they hone their blades. He is certain that to slacken his vigilance and grow lazy would guarantee his demise at the edge of his brother’s blood-soaked axe. Iroas pushes his followers to be ready at all times to meet conflict head-on.

Divine Relationships

Iroas is defined by his opposition to his twin brother, Mogis. Although both love battle, Iroas holds an honorable and valorous view of warfare, whereas Mogis lusts for carnage and butchery. Iroas firmly believes that mortals will always fight, whether in war or in less consequential pursuits. His charge is to ensure that war is waged with a code of honor and to prevent his brother’s depravity from spreading through the world.
Iroas holds an abiding respect for Purphoros, who girds his warriors in the products of his artifice. Iroas sees finely crafted arms as the highest form of art, sublime and deadly at once. Still, Iroas finds Purphoros’s volatile temper and bouts of passion unbecoming of one with such talent at creating weapons of war.
Iroas champions the cause of justice and thus seeks Heliod’s guidance and counsel from time to time. During Heliod’s piques of arrogance and temper, Iroas is the one who advocates restraint and calm. More often than not, the two deities agree where matters of justice and honor are concerned.
Worshiping Iroas Iroas is interested not in pretty words, but in great deeds. The faithful of Iroas show their piety by comporting themselves well in contests of athleticism or skill. Swearing an oath to win a battle in Iroas’s name and failing to do so is a great shame upon a warrior, thus such a promise is never uttered lightly.
The fifth month of the Meletian calendar is Thriambion, named for an annual commemoration of the Meletian conquest of Natumbria. This victory cemented Meletis’s control over the entire peninsula. But in Akros, the month is called Iroagonion, for the Iroan Games. These games are the grandest display to honor Iroas. To even compete in the Iroan Games is considered noteworthy, as the poleis send only their finest athletes. The grand prize, besides a ceremonial wreath, is the opportunity to be visited by Iroas himself.

Iroas’s Champions

Iroas’s champions are his generals, through whom he can deliver death blows to his enemies. On a daily basis, Iroas serves the causes of justice and honor. The weak are to be protected, just laws are to be upheld, and evildoers must be struck down in righteous anger. Iroas’s champions also serve as his vanguard in the eternal war against his brother, Mogis.

MYTH OF KELEPHNE THE VICTOR
It started with a rumor. Athletes gathering in Akros for the Iroan Games whispered of a hermit in the wilderness, a master wrestler who’d brought down giants with her bare hands. As the games commenced, the rumors continued, and athletic victories seemed hollow so long as the so-called best was not there to compete.
When Kelephne did arrive, she was barefoot and had a fire in her eyes. The rumors of her skill were not exaggerated, and for three days, she battled a continuous stream of competitors. When no others would challenge her, she left without ceremony. She was never seen again, and some speculated she was Iroas in human form.
Athletes tried for years to mimic Kelephne’s techniques. Years later, wanderers discovered a cave covered in writing. These instructions became known as Kelephne’s manual, and her technique was called pankration—now a widely studied style of weaponless fighting.

Alignment: Usually chaotic, often good Suggested Classes: Barbarian, cleric, fighter, paladin, sorcerer
Suggested Cleric Domains: War
Suggested Backgrounds: Athlete, folk hero, soldier
Many champions of Iroas are warriors for honor and justice. They often seek to embody martial courage and are motivated by strong personal codes of honor.

Iroas’s Favor

Iroas has a soft spot in his heart for underdogs, even if they lack the strength to win the fight. It is easier, he believes, to make a hero from a weakling who has a heroic heart than it is to turn a brute into a defender of justice. What’s more, the victory of the strong gives them glory, but the victory of the weak gives glory to Iroas.
Why did Iroas seek you out as a champion? Perhaps you proved your courage even when victory eluded your grasp, or you demonstrated a willingness to use your strength for good. Occasionally, Iroas’s choice of a champion has as much to do with his enmity toward Mogis as it does with the mortal he chooses; is there some connection between you and the god of slaughter? The Iroas’s Favor table offers a few suggestions.

Iroas’s Favor

d6	Circumstance
1	You were born on the eve of a major battle.
2	Your twin sibling is a champion of Mogis.
3	You showed great courage in a losing battle.
4	You proved yourself in a contest of strength and skill at the Iroan Games.
5	You called upon Iroas to witness an oath of victory in battle, and he took notice.
6	Despite having been knocked down repeatedly in life, you show grit and determination in all you do.

Devotion to Iroas Following Iroas means making a commitment to combat in pursuit of righteous aims, not as a way of applying coercion or domination. It also means dedicating yourself to the pursuit of excellence, for the god of victory desires victorious champions. As a follower of Iroas, consider the ideals on the Iroas’s Ideals table as alternatives to those suggested for your background.
Iroas’s Ideals

d6	Ideal
1	Devotion. My devotion to my god is more important to me than what he stands for. (Any)
2	Courage. No fear or pain can turn me away. (Any)
3	Loyalty. War forms bonds that are more real and lasting than the ties of love or family. (Any)
4	Heroism. The powerful must protect the weak. (Good)
5	Liberty. The strong mustn’t exploit the weak. (Chaotic)
6	Excellence. People should look to me as an example of the best that mortal folk can be. (Any)

Earning and Losing Piety

You increase your piety score to Iroas when you expand the god’s influence in the world in a concrete way through acts such as these:
Achieving a great victory Overcoming long odds honorably Defeating a skilled foe in single combat Winning a great feat of strength or skill Your piety score to Iroas decreases if you diminish Iroas’s influence in the world, contradict his ideals, or make him look weak and cowardly through acts such as these:
Showing cowardice in battle Besting an honorable foe through deceit Harming innocents or noncombatants
Iroas’s Devotee
Piety 3+ Iroas trait
As a devotee of Iroas, you have earned his favor through victories won in his name. You can cast compelled duel with this trait a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Iroas’s Votary
Piety 10+ Iroas trait
You can cast crusader’s mantle with this trait. Once you cast the spell in this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
Iroas’s Disciple
Piety 25+ Iroas trait
As a bonus action, you can call on Iroas’s blessing, gaining the following benefit for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated: creatures within 30 feet of you can’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you. Once you use this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.
Champion of Victory
Piety 50+ Iroas trait
You can increase your Strength or Charisma score by 2 and also increase your maximum for that score by 2.

Arena

Across Theros, contest grounds host athletic competitions and often serve as places to worship the god Iroas. The grandest hippodrome in Akros holds thousands of spectators, but more modest stadiums can be found throughout the land, serving as proving grounds for athletes and entertainment for the rich and poor. Foot and chariot races, hurling competitions, and combat sports (wrestling, boxing, and pankration) are all common events in arenas, especially during the Iroan Games, an annual series of athletic competitions held in Akros.