Agincoth
The Goddess of Knowledge
"Knowledge can empower those whom ignorance has crippled."

Pennon of Agincoth Alignment: True Neutral
Portfolios: knowledge, magic, the heavens
Races: human, elven, tomanth, dwarven, dragon, ogran
Animal Totem: snowy owl

Physical Description: The few remaining statues of Agincoth depict her as a mature woman in conservative robes, with braided hair wrapped around her head like a crown. The face is one of wisdom and experience, and the eyes have a touch of sadness in them. Prim and proper, the statues invariably have their hands resting together, right within left. One surviving painting that predates the Storm Wars shows her with gray eyes, tanned skin, and gray-streaked hair, together with white robes.

History: Agincoth was the first of the new deities on Gaeleth, and predates the Shield and the Prizm Wars. During the Sister Worlds War, she arose from the battles like a spectre of prophecy, lending strength to the wizards and warlocks that struggled to defend Gaeleth from the advances of both Brijanis and Jazed. An architect of Prophecy, she and her minions called forth the Oddity from the dark reaches of space, changed it, and enveloped Gaeleth within its reaches, creating the Shield. The gods of Jazed and the immortals of Brijanis worked against the Shield to make it more permanent, and Agincoth's victory became bittersweet, as she and her priests contemplated their new prison. For ten millennia, through the Prizm Wars, the Shaping Wars, and then the Storm Wars, she searched for the knowledge to unlock the Shield, and escape the Oddity. The pettier wars between the Great Wars were of no consequence to her, for breaking free of the Oddity was her one goal; thus, among the other gods, she earned a reputation as ruthless and indominable. The knowledge she secured through her priests and followers gave her considerable power over all others, and her Church was not above blackmail or promises of secrecy to maintain their abilities to search for knowledge. During the Storm Wars, Agincoth's Disciples discovered the key to freedom -- a combined spell cast among her priest/mages that would span five centuries, coupled with the key events of Prophecy. Orchestrating her plan through Brigain, she realized that the combined spell would be extremely sensitive to outside influences; the mages of Gaeleth would have to limit their spellcasting for five centuries. Events during the Storm Wars convinced most mages that they would have to maintain their high standards of magic simply to survive, and protect the world from the ravages of further mage wars. With Brigain as her herald, Agincoth announced to all the world that mages would practice no magic for five centuries -- or face retribution from the Goddess of Magic. Not completely heartless, Agincoth herself could not condemn her followers. Through Brigain, she ordered the other gods to limit her followers' magic. Her face awash with tears, she set about events that would bring forth the Relic of Yatindar, and the birth of a new god. In the aftermath of the Storm Wars, she feigned her own death beneath the blade of the God Slayer, and passed much of her considerable mantle on to Lul, one of her most devoted Disciples. Centuries passed, and her mages died by the scores. Bitter with the knowledge that there was no other way, Agincoth patiently waited, and watched. A few of her devoted followers -- mainly druid/mages -- continued to bring her information invaluable to the workings of her minions' magics. Lul also continued to slowly feed her information, as she waited. Finally, an explosion whose magnitude was inconceivable to mortal minds destroyed most of Nabrol. The sheer force of the detonation rocked the planet itself, sending shockwaves through Gaeleth's mantle that would be felt for centuries. Another detonation, larger than the first, obliterated the heart of the supercontinent that was once Galanath, sundering it in twain. As the aftershocks of earthquakes reverberated around the world, the ancient Towers that Agincoth's minions had constructed millennia before began to cycle up. In the midst of the powerful spell, priests of the fallen god Nathel sought to use the energy to ressurect their Dark God. Nearly successful, only the intervention of the new god Arpelos saved all of Gaeleth from a nightmarish eternity trapped within the Shield with Nathel. Though successful in her endeavor, Agincoth continues to maintain a low profile. As the Inquisition winds down, mages are once again rising to the challenge of knowledge, and faith in Agincoth is spreading among the believers like a firestorm. But the Goddess of Knowledge has another task before her, and her minions: successful in freeing Gaeleth from the Shield, Jazed and Brijanis can once again strike. For the first time in five centuries, Agincoth has a Chosen; and the new Chosen is troubled, for soon enough, the Second Sister Worlds War will begin.

Relic: Agincoth's Relic was lost to mortal eyes before the Prizm Wars had even begun. The first of Gaeleth's gods to be tied down to the Relics, her first Chosen took it into the heavens, hiding it on one of the tiny moonlets that circle Gaeleth.

Church: Currently, the Church of Agincoth is nonexistant. She has but two Disciples, to compliment her newfound Chosen. Though the Sebre Druids tried to maintain fragments of the Church in the face of the Inquisition, it is fractioned. Those that have taken the vows of knowledge and magic to become the followers of Agincoth have found that they can maneuver through the Church of Lul with secrecy, protected from the Inquisitors and the Seekers. In its prime, before the Storm Wars, the Church consisted of enormous libraries that served as nodes of knowledge. A vast library located within the heart of the Fort Rhythis served as the eclesiastical head of the Church of Agincoth, where the Chosen and the Disciples poured over texts brought to them from as far away as the lands of Nathel and Seabrum Island. Powerful priest/mages, they ensorcelled the master library -- the "High Node" -- to protect it from time and desecrators. Priests of Agincoth could move with impunity, often accompanied by priests of Brigain, travelling where they would to gather whatever knowledge they could. Words of power from the Chosen could bring empires to their knees, or have swarms of dragons descend upon transgressors, should they refuse the knowledge the Church sought. When Avard Karatika died in the destruction of Fort Rhythis, molten magma from deep within the earth bubbled up to bury the High Node, filling it with obsidian glass and protecting the ensorcelled volumes for all time.

Clerics: During their reign of power, clerics of Agincoth acted as protectors of knowledge and defenders of mages. More often cleric/mages of some sort, they served as fierce protectors of obscure facts, often travelling long distances to learn of some tribal folk cure or rare stone from the bowels of the world. They also served as teachers, administering schools and universities, performing missionary work to teach reading and writing, and working in hand with the priests of other gods to discover new techniques to old applications. In the aftermath of the Inquisition, many lost their powers, feeling lost or betrayed by Agincoth. Those few that retained their faith became Inquisitors, carefully insinuating themselves within the ranks of other Churches so that they might protect mages and their knowledge from complete and total destruction.

Specialty priests: The specialty priests of Agincoth were scholars and teachers that bent the whole of their existance to serving the Goddess of Knowledge. Taking their cues from the goddess, they found rare and extraordinary gifts of knowledge for the Church and the node libraries. Shrewd academics, they studied war as often as they studied fruit flies or mathematics. They wore armor as the situation required, but by their ethos were not permitted the use of weapons save in self-defense. Thus, their weapons tended to be bludgeoning weapons such as staves or maces, and not a few studied the martial arts in aggressive styles of defense. The enormous mental capabilities required of priests of Agincoth required that they have at the minimum, 14 or better Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. Once taken of the vows of magic and knowledge, they gained major access to the spheres of All, Charm, Divination, Healing, and Protection. As reflected their intense study of knowledge, they had minor access to all other spheres, including Animal and Elemental. Blessed by Agincoth, specialty priests of the goddess of knowledge had the following additional abilities: 1) a base 5% chance to intentionally resist any magical spell (deitific or wizardly), gaining 5% per level of the priest, 2) all spells from the Divination sphere are cast at 200% -- casting time is halved, while range, duration, and area of effect are doubled, and the priest casts as though he were twice his level, and 3) they could learn proficiencies -- weapon or nonweapon -- without penalties because of class. Extensive training was required by the priests to utilize their resistance to magic, but experience was often the best teacher. Often multiclassed with either wizards or rogues, the specialty priests were invariably diversified specialists in one field or another.

Druids: The druids of Agincoth believed that magic and wizards were a part of the natural order of things. What the druids felt and somehow knew, the mages tried to translate to layman's terms, and to explore the bounds of nature. Though other members of the Druidic Circle might feel that wizards were anathema to the natural order of things, the druids that favored Agincoth felt that the universe itelf was a manifestation of nature that was self-aware in some form or fashion. Wizards, therefore, merely tried to make nature's wishes and make-up known to mortal kin. Often multi-classed as hedge-wizards or elementalists, Agincoth's druids held considerable power within the Druidic Circle.

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