“You cannot harm, what you cannot hound.”
Symbol: crossed boomerangs
Alignment: Neutral Good
Portfolio: deserts, stealth, redemption
Worshippers: Desolate, nomads, gypsies, rogues, rangers
Cleric Alignments: NG, TN, CG
Domains: death, fire, protection, trickery
Favored Weapon: spear / boomerang
Animal Totems: chameleons, anoles
The followers of Galanus believe that stealth matters. They also believe in redemption, even for gods, and that a man's past can strengthen him in ways that no others can see. They tend to believe that the best place to strike one's enemies, is from behind. The church of Galanus helps its followers to hide until they are ready to come out, and gives them strength when it is time to come out. Both the church and its followers tend to have a fascination with death – be it delivering death, or running from it.
The elves portray him as the epitome of desert strength: nearly seven feet tall, massive musculature, wide shoulders, and long limbs. His dune colored leathers and hides are camouflaged, and his skin is heavily tattooed in mind-numbing patterns to help observing eyes slide off of him. Older portrayals of Galanus show a different side; images from before the Storm Wars show a skeletally gaunt human of advanced age with white, wispy hair.
During the Prism Wars, his prophets arose to account for the unclaimed dead – those that had no gods, and no heavens to ascend to. Quiet and compassionate, Galanus gently consoled the dead, leading them to oblivion and eternal rest. The numbers of his followers was never great, and he was content with this. During the Shaping Wars, the god of the dead began to have doubts about his compassion; the slaughter hardened his spirit, and strengthened the resolve of his priests. A number of minor wars leading up to the Storm Wars served to break the spirit and resolve of the Church of Galanus. The wars produced some internal conflict within the houses of the gods, as the souls of the dead were shuffled from house to house. Galanus' other duty was to shepherd those souls to the respective houses; however, several of his Chosen record certain atrocities committed by the gods with those souls.
When Nathel's forces made the rivers of Galanath run red with blood, the sheer number of souls ascending to the heavens – or to the realms where Galanus held sway – proved overwhelming. Coupled with the internal conflicts among the gods, Galanus gave up his mantle of the dead to Curiss. His priests gave up their temples to Curiss' minions, and left for the western deserts, away from the affairs of other men. Subtle from politics among the heavens, Galanus' minions became subtle in the world of mortals, hiding themselves from the hounding scavengers of Curiss' priests. Over the next several decades, Galanus underwent a transformation, becoming a god of the deserts and arid lands, and also becoming a god of stealth. The already reclusive desert elves welcomed the retired god and his minions with open arms, and thus Galanus' transformation became complete.
Galanus' Relic was stored in Karmen in the small political headquarters building the Church had there. When Galanus' priests fled the city as the dead piled high in Karmen, they brought the Relic with them to the Rakis Desert. The desert elves helped hide both the priests and the Relic from the eastern nations and the minions of Curiss. The centuries passed, and the Relic remained within the line of the original priests, passed from parent to child for generations. The last of the line died during the War of the Undead, and the Relic was thought taken by the minions of Demik Coruth. The Detonation of Lake Kiriath destroyed the desert, and scattered the army of undead warriors in service to the necromancer. The Relic was lost both to mortal and undead hands, buried beneath tons of rubble and earth – hidden, as Galanus would prefer it.
Although it was once very organized, the followers of Galanus currently are a chaos of patient virtue. The majority of the Disciples, and many cardinals, are all Desolate that have adopted the former god of the dead into their faiths. The destruction of the Rakis Desert destroyed whatever temples and churches had been built to Galanus, and lost many of his few remaining relics and artifacts. The Church of Galanus currently bides its time, fending off the advances of Curiss and the ogran peoples, as well as providing concealment and priestly abilities to desert elves.
The only real bastion to Galanus is in Al Fahim, a desert nation of humans on the eastern end of Baroneth. The Sheik of Galanus there is a high priest – usually a Disciple – that answers to no Chosen, and leads both the desert elves and the red-skinned Destanae humans of the Gintala Desert.