Alignment: Neutral GoodPortfolios: fire, fury, passion Races: Human, Dwarven, Elven Animal Totem: Phoenix Physical Description: The Flame Goddess' few surviving depictions show a short , slight woman with fiery red hair that reaches to the ground in one massive braid. Her eyes are the same red color as her hair, and seem to burn with an inner light. Her skin is a burnt color, as though pale flesh had been tortured in the sun. Dressed in flaming red and yellow, tight-fitting leathers, she is depicted as ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. Full of energy and vitality, Xoriah gives the appearance of a very young goddess, though she is actually wise beyond mortal ken. History: During the Prizm Wars, as panic and mayhem spread, the druids and the mages called upon nature and the elements to defend themselves. The Relic of Xoriah was found at the same time as three others, and their fates were intertwined -- Earth, Air, Fire, and Water given deitific form. The four Disciples worked in harmony, for the most part, establishing churches and converting members who would worship all four as a single pantheon. The elemental pantheon grew slowly but steadily, graining converts and power, until it reached its peak during the Shaping Wars, five millennia after the Prizm Wars. The Chosen of Xoriah during the Shaping Wars was also the Chosen of the other three elements -- in effect, he was a pure elementalist of incomparable power on Gaeleth. Adding to his formidability was his sorcerous aptitute for elemental magic. The One, as he was called, led the Four -- four elemental wizards that were second only to the One in power, but specialized in either earth, air, fire, or water. The Sixty-Four was an elite group of elementalists controlled by the Four, and together they ruled a nation side by side with the theocratic elemental churches. As the Shaping Wars erupted into full swing, The One and his minions scoured the globe for elemental artifacts to secure their nation from interlopers, and at the same time, sought to hide the artifacts that the other nations and peoples searched for. During the ensuing chaos, an outside power discovered the God Slayer, Giran Howell. As the Shaping Wars escalated, all sides found themselves targetted at least once by the God Slayer, and the elemental pantheon was devestated by the loss of Tromth, the Earth God. Devestated by this loss, The One went literally insane, forcing a confrontation between the other three elemental gods and the wielder of the God Slayer. The nation of Elementis was destroyed that day, as the God Slayer destroyed Ayelin and Blervoncara, the gods of water and air, respectively. Xoriah escaped destruction by a last, sane sacrifice of The One, but with the destruction of Elementis, and the loss of so many of the Sixty-Four, most people assumed she was killed as well. Xoriah and her followers crept away to lick their wounds, and never quite recovered from the devestating loss of the other three elemental gods. Angry and furious at her turn of events, Xoriah granted no prayers for nearly a millennium -- long enough to isolate or lose most of her remaining worshippers. When the prophet Angre Kilgaris finally roused the goddess from her fiery state, it was almost too late. The next four millennia would pass but slowly, as only a few followers remained faithful to the goddess. Sensing the evil Nathel was conjuring, Xoriah sought to strengthen her position, and save her followers, by forging an alliance with Galgiran, the dwarven God of Smithing. Galgiran, for whatever reasons, refused; some say at the behest of Brigain. Angry and desperate, Xoriah turned to the newly awakened god Infierne and his people. She learned too late, though, of Infierne's massive arms shipments to Nathel; embittered, Xoriah silenced the fiery forges of the God of Weaponsmithing. Enraged at the loss of his ability to forge, Infierne's people hired mercenaries, and together, they sought to wipe out every last living follower of Xoriah. The Flame Goddess' people were being slaughtered, and she turned once again to Galgiran for aid. Some say that Galgiran's answer was a direct rebuttment of Brigain, but whatever the reason, he forged twin sais for Xoriah that were a rival for anything Infierne could make. Calling in old debts, Galgiran convinced Rahne to send a warrior capable of wielding the blades, and Agincoth to send a guide to advise the wielder. He also convinced Elinthar and K'Tath to send whatever forces they could, to defend Xoriah's people. As the Storm Wars raged on, the Battle of Sky Fire took place. Unbeknownst to either party, Nathel had learned of Infierne's inability to forge new weapons. Simon Luminar, wielding the God Slayer, killed Infierne as the Battle of Sky Fire raged on; the ensuing chaos allowed the followers of Xoriah to escape, even though two armies of Elinthar and K'Tath were wiped out, sacrificing themselves for the passionate Flame Goddess. The wielder of the sai blades left them behind in the battle, as a warning to all would cross the Goddess of Fury, and then disappeared with the rest of Xoriah's followers. As the Inquisition began to backtrack mages and sorcerors through the histories of the Storm Wars, they learned of the Battle of Sky Fire. One investigating Inquisitor was a priest/mage of Lul, who kept his knowledge of magic a closely-guarded secret. He discovered the special sai blades, and secreted them in a special place. Finding no followers of Xoriah, and no bodies of any of her followers, the priest/mage and the other Inquisitors were forced to report that Xoriah might be alive, but the evidence indicated her complete destruction. Years later, the priest/mage of Lul would return to recover the sai blades, and turn them and all of the information he'd gathered on Xoriah to the returning hero of Rahne that had originally wielded the blades -- and then neither man was ever seen again. Currently, the Chosen of Xoriah is Saranella, the decendant of the original bearers of the sai blades. Armed with the legendary weapons, she wanders the world in search of the last city of Xoriah, making converts and spreading the knowledge that Xoriah is not dead. Relic: Xoriah's Relic was bonded to her sai blades, such that only those two weapons can find the long lost Relic. Slowly but surely, as Saranella comes into her powers, she may yet discover the location of Xoriah's Relic. Church: The Church of Xoriah is tiny, with barely a hundred priests that have been converted by its Chosen. Exposed and dependant upon aid, the church only knows that the search must continue for the last city of Xoriah, if it still exists. For the last five centuries after the Storm Wars, the hero of Rahne and his descendants kept the faith, but no other contact was ever made with the lost city. Currently, there are only two temples of Xoriah; one is maintained in Kashin in Rakore, and the other is maintained in the fallen city of Tyven. The death knight Vaskiss rules the fallen drow city in the fashion of his master, Lord Elistan. There, undead have flocked by the legions, yet the burning flames of the temple of Xoriah, there, keep the undead out. Other ruined temples to Xoriah exist, as indicated by the libaries of Lul, but searching them for clues takes time, and the followers of Xoriah are too few. The church's faith is extraodrinarily strong, however, for they know they are the last, unless they find others willing to share their faith. In the meantime, Xoriah's chosen rules from the Temple of Fire on the outskirts of Kashin, directing a search that she knows might take her entire lifetime. Clerics: The clerics of Xoriah are just one part of the search for the lost city. Many work in the Temple of Fire, coordinating the far-flung searches for the last city, escorting sages and ancient documents to Rakore, and seeking out ancient texts within the many libraries of Lul. Gifted with major access to the sphere of Elemental Fire, they are formidable defenders of the Flaming Faith. Followers of the faith were restricted to defensive weapons, such as the obvious sign of Xoriah, the sai, and other short-bladed or minimal damage weapons. Their armor had to withstand rigorous heat, for obvious reasons, and never consisted of wood or untreated leathers. Specialty priests: Those with an innate understading of fire, flame, and fury have become the right hand men of the Chosen, performing particularly difficult duties. They had only minor access to the spheres of Charm, Creation, Combat, Elements (save fire), Divination, and Necromancy; however, they had major access to the spheres of All, Elemental Fire, Guardian, Healing, Protection, and Summoning. To perform their difficult tasks, they had to have minimum scores of 14 in Constitution and Wisdom. Xoriah grants her specialty priests the following favors: 1) the ability to generate flame from their fingertips at will, even underwater, capable of dealing 1d4 points of burn damage to an individual, 2) an immunity to all fires, from normal to magical, to Hellfire, and 3) the ability to cast Xoriah's Fury (see spell below). As a sign of their special abilities, their eyes usually turn a blood red color. Monks: The Temple of Fire also acts as the only monastary of Xoriah, housing its few monks and nuns in seclusion with its vast libraries. Feeding off of information brought to them by the other followers of Xoriah, they sift through mountains of books, scrolls, and parchments for the lost city of Xoriah's followers, as well as gems of insight into the goddess herself. On rare occasions, the monks themselves are forced to leave the domain of the Temple of Fire, to translate information that cannot be found elsewhere, or to search for clues that few others would see. Crusaders: For those that love both fire and fury, the life of a crusader burns in their souls. The front-line seekers for the lost city itself are the Order of the Phoenix -- the hard training priests of Xoriah that serve as escorts, warriors, and staunch defenders of the faith. Bound and determined to fight the good fight, they also have a touch of temper and temperment that marks them as surely as the brands they wear on their biceps. Tightly organized into a fighting party when in the Temple of Fire in Kashin, they are led by a crusader whose anger burns deeply, motivating him as no other.
Sphere: Elemental Fire Range: Caster Components: V, M Duration: 5 rounds + 1 round/level Casting Time: 1 Area of Effect: Special Saving Throw: Neg. By means of this prayer, a specialty priest of Xoriah could cause himself to be engulfed in a fiery aura that shed intense heat. The heat not only could ignite combustibles, but also served as a guide for Xoriah's fury, channeled through the blessed -- adding to their formidability in combat. Those affected by the spell shed a fiery heat that is both visible and formidable. Five rounds of prolonged contact with their skin could ignite paper or tinder. The priest's clothing and equipment are rendered immune to normal fires for the duration of the spell, to protect it from this intense heat. In addition, the priest would deal an extra 1d6 points of flame damage with each strike of his weapons. The heat of those strikes grew with the faith and fury of the priest invoking the prayer, and grew by 1d6 points of damage for every odd-numbered level of the priest. Thus, a 13th-level priest of Xoriah's prayer could give him an additional 7d6 points of damage from a fiery strike, be it with weapons or bare hands. A saving throw versus magical fire was applicable, and creatures immune to fire were of course undamaged by the spell. Cold-based creatures took double-damage from this prayer. Next God from Gaeleth's Gods |