Garo the Abandoned

Saint of the Printing Press, News, Wind, and Alleyways

Titles: Saint Garo the Abandoned, Saint Garo the Crier, The High Hawker, The Whispering Gale, The Broken King, The Voice in Iron, Our Lord in Green, The Silent Whisper, Lord of the Lost and Found, King Aeolan
Favored Weapon: Sap
Alignment: Air
Elemental Lord: Irlaman, The Boltbound Empress
Obedience: Spend an hour putting the notable events you have witnessed, heard of, or experienced over the past 24 hours to a physical information medium marked by Saint Garo's symbology that is easily dispersed en masse. Once done, don a thick green cap or cloak and head to a windy place and toss what you have created into the wind to allow it to travel far and wide to where it is most needed.
Effect: By spending a full round in contact with a blank physical information medium(Vellum, Paper, Metal, Etc), you can infuse it with not only whatever words you desire, but with echos of the emotions and memories those words cause in you. As an immediate action whenever you physically touch another creature, you can attempt to read their surface thoughts and emotions - if the creature fails a Will-Save (DC based on your highest mental stat) you read their surface thoughts and current emotional state. The target creature is not made aware of the attempt even if they succeed the save. Once a creature saves, it is immune for 24 hours.

Divine Domains

Air, Travel, Knowledge, Trickery, Void

Artifacts

Due to the fragmented nature of Saint Garo's faith, many of his old artifacts are either lost and forgotten or no longer magical - with the slow but noticable change of his domains, Saint Garo's artifacts have changed with him and thus are divided into artifacts of "Old Garo" and "New Garo".

• The Crying Bell: A handbell that has been lost and is believed to have been either destroyed or disenchanted with Garo's loss of his old domains of Messengers, Town Criers, and Mailmen, the Crying Bell was said to have been a handbell much like the kinds used by Town Criers all across Zheng-Kitar in days of yore whose ring was said to strike so clear and true that it could be heard for miles - allowing the user to speak in such a way that their message would carry and be delivered to all beings within miles of the place where it was rung.


• The Whispercloak: A cloak that has either been greatly weakened or completely disenchanted as a result of Saint Garo's loss of power and prestige as an Elemental Saint, the Whispercloak was once the proudest and noblest symbol of Saint Garo and his followers - a beautiful emerald green cloak that was said to contain all the four cardinal winds, the cloak was said to allow its wearer to tap into the great windy currents used by Garo himself to find any lost item, to hear any whispered secret, and to live and fly and manipulate the wind as their very own. Many of Garo's slowly re-populating faith have been questing endlessly for this artifact in the hopes that its' rediscovery will allow for their weakened Saint to regain some of his lost power.


• The Origin Press: The newest of Saint Garo's artifacts, the Origin Press is in many ways both a symbol of Saint Garo's rebirth and a cursed item that stands to many as a herald of his most damnable transformation from the Saint he once was(of Town Criers, Messengers, and Small Town Information Networks) to an industrious Saint of the newly created Printing Press who lives in the steel and clangorous banging of alleyways, newsheets, and in the metallic Websheets of Axiom, City of the Great Game. Said to operate autonomously, the press is said to churn out the news of all realms at irregular intervals, producing information on the goings-on of mortal and outer planes alike and printing them with its stock of replenishing vellum and metal. While impossible to control, it is an incredibly valuable source of information for the lucky and the patient who know where it lies and wait for it to produce a truly breathtaking secret.

Holy Books & Codes

The Old Holy Book of Saint Garo was known as The Smalltown Herald, and was a soft green book containing current events, past statistics, and all sorts of information on a beautiful paper medium.
The Newer Holy Book of Saint Garo is known as The Iron Sheet, and is a single sheet of iron on which new information can continuously be found.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

The Old Symbol of Saint Garo was a Billowing Cloak with two emerald eyes peering out from within its folds.
The New Symbol of Saint Garo is a metallic square with a perspective drawing of an alleyway on it.

Tenets of Faith

Information is the weapon of the masses. Protect the freedom of the press and always work to ensure the masses recieve the truest and most unfiltered information possible.

Glory to the Press. Bring the wonders of the Printing Press to all corners of the globe, and protect it from those who would seek to stifle its spread.

Raise the hair on your neck and listen to the streets. Stop and listen to the streets you walk - hear the city and belong to its streets. Care for the city and its streets, and befriend those who dwell in its corners; each of them is a synapse in the greatest organism on the planet.

Find the Lost and Forgotten. That which has been lost or forgotten must be found again - restore and recover both and bring them into use once more.

Exalt my Name and Image. Spread my teachings and faith to return me to power.

Holidays

The only current and activate holiday of Saint Garo is the fifth day of each week - typically when the weekly Websheets are released in Axiom, City of the Great Game and when the news is otherwise released into the wider world.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

To spread the wonders of the Printing Press.
To protect the freedom of the press.
To return to prominence and power.
???

Followers & Priesthood

In the modern day, the followers of Saint Garo are predominantly concentrated in and around Axiom, City of the Great Game - that great city has been the center of the rebirth of his faith, and thus is where a large majority of his followers now tend to be, though they once stretched from coast to coast decades ago during Garo's Golden Age of Sainthood.
In the current day, a large section of his followers tend to be in The Websheets Guild in Axiom, City of the Great Game, though he has a large amount of followers in the lower and middle classes, in the beggars and downtrodden who inhabit the alleyways which he now holds dominion over, and most importantly, any being or creature who wishes to fight against information suppression or who wishes to spread the cause of the new miraculous printing press. To a lesser extent, as a relic from his olden days as a Saint of Small Towns and Rural Communities, he still continues to attract a great deal of followers such as historians, archaeologists, and any who are interested in finding the lost or forgotten items, places, or cultures of the world and bringing them back into the limelight once more.
His followers tend to identify themselves with the color green - often thick water-proof coats or capes or jackets alongside green hats that are designed to hide identities and protect their faces from both weather and prying eyes. Despite being a saint aligned to air, his followers tend to organize quite well into organizations to pursue a shared goal - whether that be a cabal of reporters or criers or newsies dedicated to spreading information on current events or a team of historians dedicated to uncovering old relics or bits of histories to preserve, or otherwise. When they so organize, his followers tend to structure themselves into a hierarchy based on seniority based on breadth and quality of their service to the faith, as well as their capabilities and personal qualities that they bring to the table.

Ethics

Though they are still a small faith, the followers of Saint Garo hold no greater morals in higher regard than the freedom of information and freedom of the press - the ability of a culture to freely obtain information on their surroundings and current events, and the ability of a people in a given culture to freely criticize and disparage and report on their leaders without being persecuted or killed or suppressed, respectively. These two maxims are key to the faith of Saint Garo - and are what his followers work hardest to safeguard and protect under any and all circumstances.
Aside from these, which they believe are key to any free and civilized society that wishes to stand alone without tyranny or persecution, the followers of Saint Garo treasure the trappings of civilization far more than the followers of Garo have in the past before his transformation - they believe in knowing the city in one lives, in exploring the alleyways and back passages, and becoming familiar and friendly with the denizens who dwell in those sunless places for not only their own sake, but to further their cause of gathering information to report to the masses; for they believe that only by building an extensive network of contacts and staying "tapped in" to the beating heart of the city and its streets can they truly be that which their saint wishes them to be.
To a follower of Saint Garo, a city is not only a place they live, it is a living, breathing organism that speaks to them and is spoken to in turn - a being that feels, that fears, that ebbs and flows - and they believe that protecting and caring for it is one of the most important aspects of their faith. In many ways, many liken them to "Urban Druids" who stay tapped into the beating heart of civilization in the same way that others listen to the Kami as living hearts of wilderness. To this end, Followers of Garo can often seem distracted, creepy, or downright odd as they wait and listen to the whispers and winds of the city streets and alleyways in which they live, pulling information they couldn't possibly know out of seemingly thin air as they care for the streets much like a druid cares for a forest.
Otherwise, to a lesser degree, they believe quite ardently in not only exalting the name and teachings of Garo in the hopes of restoring him to power, but in restoring old, lost, and/or forgotten relics or buildings or cultures and not only turning them into new temples or shrines to Garo(Though marking them with his symbols and scriptures isn't uncommon), but simply restoring them to their normal and proper function. So, while this does typically mean they eagerly hunt down the relics and forgotten sites that were once important to the faith of their Saint in ages past, equally important to them in the legacy of the past and historical sites of all kinds - making them natural allies of historians and the like.
In summation, though they are small in number, the followers of Saint Garo have a unique urban morality - a burgeoning faith of modernity in an otherwise strictly traditional world who view cities as living, breathing beings beyond understanding that they must care for in turn as the cities have cared for them.

History

One of the older Saints on Zheng-Kitar, Garo is a rather rare and somewhat unique case of a Saint who has long since passed their golden age and fallen far out of common favor - though the rare part of this case is when after this fall(Long believed to be caused by the rise of the Featherpoint Post), old Saint Garo who once held dominion over the mail, Town Criers, and was generally lauded and regarded as the saint of Rural and Small Town communities, was slowly transformed after he fell so far out of favor with the common folk of Zheng-Kitar into something wholly different.
After a long decades long dormancy during which he was commonly believed to have become a Saint whose faith had been officially declared dead and gone, Saint Garo's faith re-emerged to the surprise of many in Axiom, City of the Great Game - where Garo had been transformed into a more industrious Saint with domain over the newly invented Printing Press of the Websheets Guild in Axiom, City of the Great Game, who spread the new faith of Garo in a new but similar enough light that the few living relics of the old faith of Garo recognized him as their old Saint(Albeit changed in many ways). The mystery of how this transformation happened was and is still the subject of some mystery - whether Saint Garo changed of his own accord or was forcibly "changed" by his followers isn't exactly known, and is something many are interested in figuring out in the hopes of learning one of the secrets of the inner workings of Sainthood.
As to the Saint himself, Garo's rise to Sainthood is a well-told and well-documented story - the tale of a green-bedecked young boy who traveled the land collecting stories and bringing information to the common folk is one many know well, for it is one from whom a great many folk songs have emerged over the milennia: the young boy with no name who began his life delivering news across his village and who, upon his deathbed, was granted Sainthood on recommendation from the King of the Northern Winds in service to Irlaman, The Boltbound Empress. Having spent his entire life from youth to death carrying the tales and legends of the world all across not only Zheng-Kitar, but the World from continent to continent, the Green-Bedecked boy, by the time he grew old, had spread information that had begun wars, that had ended wars, that brought about great happiness and great sorrow, that toppled tyrants and established governments, that made a single person happy and that made no one happy...all of this and more created the myth of the Legendwalker, the young boy clad in green who earned the favor of the King of the Northern Wind, Aeolan, and eventually succeeded him and became Aeolan himself in service to Irlaman, The Boltbound Empress.

Divine Classification

Elemental Saint

Alignment

Air

Home

The Azurebolt Palace, The Elemental Plane of Air

Areas of Concern

Reporters, Urban Druids, Newscasters, Informants, Beggars, The Low/Middle Class, The Websheets Guild, Archaeologists, Axiom, City of the Great Game, Axiomi, Any area or people(s) where information is being suppressed

Holy Animal

Harpy

Holy Colors

Green, Grey

Holy Number

5

Demonym

Garan

Example Divine Oaths

Oath of the Chainbreaker: Always work to free those you find imprisoned, enslaved, in captivity, or otherwise bound. Kill those who tyrannize others, enslave them, or who deal in other creatures as a commodity.

Oath of the Reporter: Never knowingly repeat a fake or misleading story, and never hide a story or information or news from the wider public. Seek out and destroy those who stifle the freedom of the press or stifle the flow of information to their populace.