Towa the Onmyo
Saint of The Dead, Graves, Spirits, and Purification
Titles: The Onmyo, The Paleflame Echo, The Pagan Protector, The Lantern-bearer, Lady Towa, The Spiritlight Lady, The Lady of Graves
Favored Weapon: Urumi
Alignment: Void
Elemental Lord: Mokmonid, The Everdark Emperor
Obedience: Spend one hour quietly burning the bones and bodies of the dead atop a simple pyre - if you have no access to such corpses, burn effigies of the dead in their place. During this hour, rub a mixture of grave soil and some color of dye beneath along the bridge of your nose and beneath each of your eyes. Once the hour is up, say a quiet prayer for the departed and light a paper lantern and send it off into the sky.
Effect: As a standard action, you can designate a creature you can see within 30ft - this creature takes one of the following effects(Decided by you each time this ability is used). Once affected, a creature cannot be affected by the corresponding effect until a full round has passed since the effect on them has ended.
- The target creature's mouth is filled with grave dirt, rendering it unable to speak as per silence and preventing it from using any bite attacks it may possess. This lasts indefinitely, but can be removed by the target creature spending a standard action to remove the dirt from their mouth.
- The target creature is targeted by an effect similar to a tanglefoot bag, though the Reflex Save DC is based upon the user's Wisdom and scales appropriately as the hands of the dead claw up from beneath the target creature to lock them in place, seeking to drag them down into a shallow grave.
Divine Domains
Death, Repose, Fire, Protection(Purity Subdomain Only), Sun(Light Subdomain Only)
Artifacts
Chiefmost among the artifacts of the Towa is the legendary Scythe of Seven Strikes, said to be a gift bestowed upon the Saint by The Yema God of Death, Molt, The Shadow - for reasons that evade even the understanding of The Spirit Kings and even Towa's Elemental Lord Mokmonid, The Everdark Emperor, this legendary scythe arrived before her seat of power in the Elemental Plane of Void without a trace some time after Towa's ascension to Sainthood with a simple engraving upon its haft, translated here from Necril, the language of the dead:
The dead always remember those who toil in their service.While the original item, made of beautiful bleached bones of unknown origin and said to be capable of severing any material or concept, resides in the hands of Towa herself, lesser versions known as Sixstrike Scythes are often made available as mighty artifacts of the Towan faith, bestowed upon only the most loyal and powerful members of the faith. In addition to these Scythes, several other artifacts of Towa are known to exist - such as various sealing talismans said to be crafted by Towa herself, as well as Paleflame itself, which has fallen so far out of use in the modern day as to be almost entirely unique to the Towan faith.
Holy Books & Codes
The Deadflame Scriptures
Divine Symbols & Sigils
A Talisman inscribed with symbology of the six-elements inside of a yin-yang symbol
Tenets of Faith
Hunt the beasts that thrive in impurity. Seek out and slay the impure beasts that threaten the world and its denizens, and tear them apart. Your bloody work is never done.
Honor the dead. Ensure all who pass are given the rites and respect they deserve in death. The dead must not be desecrated for the sins of the living.
Purge the Undead Taint. Within undeath lies the root of mortal impurity - hunt down the risen dead and those who create them and crush them both.
Maintain the Cycle. Guide the souls of the dead and stand vigilant against any incursions against the natural order.
Divine Goals & Aspirations
To eradicate Undeath from the cosmos.
To shackle and restrain Necromantic Magic to ensure it cannot be misused - failing that, to eradicate it to prevent its corrupting influence.
To ensure all souls of the dead pass into the Lifestream and pass through The Soul's Journey.
Followers & Priesthood
The followers of Towa are diverse and varied, and often come from a great many walks of life, cultures, races, and ethnicities - any who know the taint of undeath or have experienced its hardships at some point in their lives are easily attracted to the Towan faith, though any who have looked deep into the root of mortal impurity and have stared into the ugly, sinful heart of another also find themselves naturally attracted to the Towan faith, assuming they do not despair and lose hope at the glimpse. However, perhaps just as commonly, any who have experienced loss also find the Towan faith a natural outlet for their grief and sorrow - finding comfort in the community of the faith and the teachings of The Onmyo, who preaches acceptance of one's grief and finding healthy outlets with which to vent one's sorrow and grief into the world. Oftentimes, members of the faith occupy positions relating to the dead - serving as priests, Onmyo Mages, Spiritual Advisors, Gravetenders, or even Hunters(often divided into the Deadflame Hunters who prey on the Dead and the Paleblood Hunters who prey on the living)...though countless other disciplines exist within the "organized" sections of the faith such as crafters, smiths, holy chanters, and more. Unlike many other faiths which tend to be found either in or around the trappings of civilization or far from civilization's light, the Towan faith tends to be found equally in both such regions - though the style and nature of the faith tends to vary somewhat drastically between those who exist in or near civilization and those who dwell deep in the wilderness. For those who dwell within or near civilization's light, they tend to be more formally structured and organized, with clearly defined ranks as they operate out of grand "workshops" often hidden within the winding streets of a city, or deep underground - any place where their grisly workshops can go unbothered, allowing them to fashion their bloody instruments and carry out their actions and planning in peace. In such civilized areas, they tend to be led by an "Old Hand" - generally, the most senior hunter or longest-serving member of the faith whose work has carried them to a point in their lives where they have become too old or infirm to carry out physical hunts, forcing them to put their still-fresh minds to work organizing the faith. These civilized groups tend to work in concert with local law enforcement in some civilized areas as specialized hunter squads commissioned to take down undead or especially impure beasts - though in some areas, they are better likened to unwanted vigilantes who carve apart those they deem as "impure" or those who pursue the goals of necromancy or undeath. In uncivilized areas, they are more loosely organized and more akin to a hunter's lodge than a formal organization of hunters - coming and going as the needs arise, bound together by the common goal of eradicating the impure filth and plagues the wilderness. Regardless of affiliation, they are denoted by their thick capes and highly covering attire that often carries a strange sheen to it - as their outfits are specially designed to not stain on contact with blood, gore, and other viscera that they inevitably accrue during their bloody work, as they hunt the living almost as often as they do the undead. This often gives them a very ominous appearance, as they show almost no skin and are swaddled head to toe in thick black cloth that shines like an oil slick, with oftentimes only their eyes or eyewear visible beneath layers of cloth and gore and fetishistic trophies taken from their previous kills. They often adorn themselves with trophies taken from hunts and given to them as rewards for services rendered to the faith, and various prayer scrolls and similar religious iconography designed to help them in their job of purifying spirits and burying the dead. Perhaps most notably, however, are their unique weapons - said to be based upon ancient(and likely stolen) designs originating from the far-off lands of Numiastra(The same land whose dockyards forged the Bushūbunáo), their unique weapons are specially-crafted beast killing implements that are capable of switching and transforming into several forms as the need arises; allowing the hunters of the faith to be flexible in their grim work. While unproven, rumors persist of the faith having stolen designs for gunpowder-based rumbler(See Glossary of Zheng-Kitar for "Rumbler" definition) weaponry which is distributed in secret to its members...a fact which has earned them a healthy distrust from many citizens of Zheng-Kitar, alongside their frequent use of Paleflame. This weaponry has, in point of fact, earned their secretive smiths who toil constantly in the hidden "Workshops" of the Towan faith the interest of countless other persons and organizations - most notably that of Zunairah the Hundred Mind, whose faith has repeatedly attempted to learn of and gain access to the schematics and techniques used by the faith's crafters to outfit their hunters, to varying levels of success in the past.Ethics
In a word, those of the Towan faith see themselves as "Hunters" - hunters of not only the walking dead, but of the impurities that plague the world of men and mortals. They believe in giving respect and honor to the dead as a matter of course, and will oftentimes lash out and fight against those who defile the dead in mundane ways such as graverobbing or even simple corpse-destroying, which is a somewhat common practice undertaken among more spiteful members of The Rasmanthus Guild and other similar organizations who fight enemies they dislike. In truth, members of the faith see themselves as serving the common good and upholding the public trust - serving in the unknown and forgotten shadows of the world to protect those who live in the light, ignorant of the world's impurities - fighting viciously against the defiling and desecration of the dead, members of the faith often serve as Priests, Spiritualists, and Shephards for the dead who serve the critical role of helping the spirits of the dead move on through The Soul's Journey and preventing them from lingering and eventually becoming malignant spirits such as Ghosts or other types of Undead. They often see themselves as "The janitors of the cosmos", and are often found in places where the natural order has broken down, where The Lifestream has been disrupted or corrupted, or in other places where, through purposeful corruption or simple happenstance, the cycles and functions of the cosmos have been disrupted in some way and no longer function as they should - repairing and fixing such issues as best they can. Followers of the Towan Faith tend to hold extreme respect for their ancestors and for the past in general - holding those who have toiled their entire lives unthanked or forgotten in especially high regard. To this end, each "workshop" or gathering of the faithful are known to possess massive "Chronicles" which detail the history of their workshop going back to its founding...which, in especially ancient sects of the faith, dates back all the way to the years before the Advent of the Spirit Kings - making them an invaluable source of information and advice to the members of the faith and their current chroniclers. They are more than just mere advisors and janitors, however - each member of the faith believes that only through a constant, never-ending hunt can they fight back the impurities of the world(be they man, undead, beast, or otherwise) and protect those who know nothing about this very hunt, nor the struggle of those who fight to protect them. They believe that deep within the necromantic power of undeath lies the root of all of man and mortal's impurities - and that only by hunting such vermin down and exterminating them, can the world truly attain peace; though to what extent members of the faith take this belief varies wildly, this core belief of "rooting out the vermin that writhe in impurity by hunting those who are no longer pure" forms much of the Towan code of ethics. For, while hunting undead is a just and noble pasttime to put the dead to rest and prevent their honor from being besmirched by being turned into walking corpses, just as virtuous(if not morally dubious) is to hunt down both the living who create such undead, and the living in whom impurity roots just as strongly if not stronger than it does in the walking dead - villainous, impure beings whose evil stands just as tall as the dead themselves...or worse, as many of the faith believe that being sentient and cognizant yet remaining impure is a great misdeed than the mindless undead whose mere existence IS impurity. Regardless of their interpretation, members of the faith believe in taking action and rooting out impurity wherever it can be found - whether that is achieved by blade and blood, by word and scheme, by prayer and prostration, or by smithing and crafting in service of the hunters, is wholly and utterly irrelevant. To a more broader extent, the faith believe that instilling righteous and just beliefs is just as important as fighting back the world's impurities - for while the great and neverending hunts of the Deadflame and Paleblood Hunters is noble and just, perhaps just as noble and just is the act of addressing the root of where those impurities stem from: the darkness in the hearts of men and mortals. As such, members of the faith often believe in helping others through grief, in being a shoulder to cry on or someone to vent frustrations on, or in some way helping those who are going through tough times in their lives to not lose hope, to not give into the darkness in their hearts, and to not embrace the impurity that lurks within them - to accept loss and never ignore, but to not let it control one's actions or mindset. As such, members of the faith will just as often be found comforting and helping others through grief and tragedy as they are fighting tooth and nail - for to those of the Towan code of ethics, both are righteous struggles - one against impurity with steel and flame, while the other is a struggle against one's own nature, against negativity and inwardness that, left unchecked, leads to the beasts they hunt. Only through this complete understanding of "Impurity", they believe, can true peace be attained - hunting one without recognizing the other, while noble, is flawed and misguided.History
Perhaps one of the oldest Saints on Zheng-Kitar, Towa's history in truth begins long before the Defeat of the Sapphire Elves and the Advent of the Spirit Kings - from what little can be derived from the time of such legends as Zheng Lao Ka during the waning years of Age of Sapphires and the following Age of Desolation that saw The Yema exterminate nearly all life on the continent, Towa was a well-known saint of the dead during the waning years of the Sapphire Elves; though she likely went by a different appellation during those days. She was, during that time, the foremost saint of death whose reputation then was as widespread as that of Mokmonid, The Everdark Emperor in the modern day - as the chief saint of death and the dead, most of the information on her from this period comes from the only surviving artifacts of her pre-advent faith: The Pagan Piles, ancient pre-advent structures designed to help ferry the souls of the dead into the Lifestream during those ancient days, where she is depicted frequently on the walls of such places. It is from The Pagan Piles as well that most of the information has been gleamed regarding her days before Sainthood - according to the ancient tale "The Lonely Shamisen Girl"(Believed to be a tale of Towa during her days as a mortal), she began her life as a young girl in a small village that lived in great poverty, always living in the shadow of the great opulence of the Sapphire "Skycities" of that ancient era that drifted through the sky with little of that opulence reaching them, all the way on the surface in the shadow of a mighty mountain range. Below is an excerpt from this tale:...In her home village, a poor vagrant girl had nothing to her name but a simple Shamisen which she played constantly to comfort the spirits of the dead, resting as she often did on a stone overlooking the ever-growing graveyard of her village. Playing her Shamisen constantly with only the spirits of the dead for company, the girl quickly came to befriend the local Gravekeeper, an aging man who lived out his days in a small shack on the graveyard's grounds tending to the graves - a man misunderstood and uncared for by the townsfolk. So it came to pass that, when the Gravekeeper passed, the young girl watched, perplexed, as the days wore on and the body of the gravekeeper was left to rot where he had fallen - a man unremembered by the town he had lived in, forgotten in death and left to rot. The young girl, of course, being too physically weak to help the one man who had been kind to her in life, fell into a deep despair as, atop her rock, she plucked at her Shamisen and watched as the days wore on, the old gravekeeper's skin wearing down to bone as still none came to give him the decency of a burial. Seeking to join her old friend in death, the young girl made a journey to the top of a nearby mountain to give in to her mounting despair and stood atop the cliff, looking to the sky as rain began to fall, tears streaking down her face as her voice which had gone unused for years cracked and squeaked a question to the sky, and the great gods in their floating cities she had watched pass overhead since she was a little girl. "Why must we suffer so?", the little girl asked as she prepared to hurl herself from the cliff. "Why was my friend forgotten? He was kinder than any I have seen." Her Shamisen, set against a nearby rock, began to pluck itself as a voice whispered to her from its chords. "It is the way of things. Those who toil in service to the dead are often forgotten, young one. Even I, spirit of this mountain, grow weak as memory fades." The girl was surprised, the story writes. Who was this voice that now spoke to her? She had never heard of a mountain spirit before. Why did no one remember them? "It is the way of things.", the spirit replied. "Good things often go unremembered. And I am very old and good indeed - the minds of mortals are fickle, and have left me behind as they have your friend." The girl stood in the rain, tears mixing with the water from the sky, sadness filling her heart. What point then, she asked, was there in living at all? "Because", the spirit replied - "what good would it do your friend, were the only one to remember him leave this world forever? He is likely very happy that he has one who weeps for him." The girl was surprised. "But I am only one", she replied. "What good will my tears do?" "A great deal indeed", the spirit replied. "It is because of those tears that he found peace. Great good, it seems, can come from very small things." It is said, that day, the lonely shamisen girl stopped being quite so lonely after all - finding comfort in the company of the forgotten and the dead. Perhaps in time, she could visit the same kindness the old Gravekeeper had visited upon her to others who wept alone. That, the little girl thought, would be a life worth living.
Example Divine Oaths
Oath of the Gravewatcher: Watch over graveyards and places of the honored dead, and ensure no disruptions come to those buried beneath the dirt. Deliver swift retribution to those who dare defile places of the dead.
Oath of the Deadflame Hunter: Keep a strict and vigilant watch over the dead for any trace of Undead taint, that you may eradicate it wherever the taint of Undeath rears its ugly head. Suffer not the necromancer nor the undead, and burn both in the cleansing cold Paleflame. Keep Paleflame out of the hands of those who would misuse it.
Comments