Helmn

Falkenau - the de facto imperial capital of Vardessy - is rightly held as the first among the great cities of the Crownlands. But if that is the case, then the second is the city of Helmn. While Falkenau was the capital of Talhoff, Helmn was the capital of Mittengen, and these two lands, joined by personal union, formed the nucleus from which the Vardessian Empire grew.

While Falkenau sits on the banks of the Vardess River, amidst its floodplains, Helmn is further inland, resting in the hillier uplands. It is the second largest city in the Crownlands, and a powerhouse in its own right, boasting several influential guilds and establishing itself as a wealthy trade center.

Some sights in Helmn include:

• The Helmn Basilica serves as the city's town hall and center of community. Facing a busy market square, it is where representatives of the guilds and other officials meet to conduct business regarding governance of the city, as well as where the people gather for official ceremonies on holidays. A large balcony faces the square, reserved for the Emperor to make announcements to the gathered crowd on his visits.
  
• Just across the square from the Basilica is the Great Market Hall. Originally, it served as Helmn's town hall, but as the city grew more populous and influential, it became clear that a larger structure was needed for assemblies, and the Basilica was constructed in its stead. Now the original building serves as an indoor marketplace, and on market days it is packed wall to wall with stalls and merchants hawking their wares.
• One notable guild in Helmn is the local chapter of the League of Three Crowns. While Helmn is not a port city and does not have access to the Sea of Bartel, the League's influence is still far-reaching enough to establish a branch here, managing shipping and trade along the roads. Other trading companies in Helmn regard the League as an unpredictable foreign presence, but they still bring in respectable wealth - much to the envy of some other guilds.
• 
  Helmn sits over a natural hot spring, and the Grand Baths of Helmn are considered one of the city's wonders. This sprawling complex of bathhouses is used by all walks of life, from everyday people to the noble elite, and even the Emperor has a private bathhouse set aside as part of his estate in the city. Plenty of clandestine deals go on here, with corrupt nobles taking full advantage of the privacy the Baths provide them with - to say nothing of the security of knowing they can conduct such business while their partners are unarmed.
• The College of Fencing and Swordplay is one of Vardessy's most renowned academies of the fighting arts. The Helmn fencing style is practiced throughout the Empire, and many treatises on fencing technique come from here. Anyone looking to train in combat would find a worthy teacher here - assuming they can win their favor, of course.
• The center of religious life in Helmn is the Abbey of the Veil, a monastery devoted to Marseah. The monks enjoy a high position of power in the city's affairs, and the Abbot, Gunther Kolbe, is a member of the town council. When the Emperor is not around, he is in effect the most powerful person in Helmn, and has multiple influential guilds and officials at his back, though he knows better than to get in the Emperor's way. The Abbey is named for its possession of one of the holiest relics in Marseah's cult - a veil said to have been wrought from a sunbeam, which can render its wearer invisible.
• 
  Helmn is built over a total of six hills, each of which is considered a separate district. Some of them are quite steep, with stairs and ramps cut into the earth to help the people navigate. There are some quarters of the city that horses cannot move between, necessitating the Guild of Porters to carry loads up the hills from the roads below. At night, the cramped streets, sharp turns, and high vantage points amidst the valleys can prove dangerous, as muggers can exploit the terrain to set up ambushes.
• The Maiden's Fountain, located on the Wilkenstorf Hill, is one of Helmn's most iconic landmarks. Depicting a young woman decanting water from a golden jug, it commemorates a legend that, long ago, a knight from Helmn encountered a naiad in the woods and won her favor by slaying a dragon. In return, he was given her golden jug, which he returned to the city and installed at a place of honor. According to local lore, one who drinks from the fountain will be gifted with supernatural luck.
• One of the more notorious denizens of Helmn is Nicodemus von Eyers, a wizard regarded as somewhat of a local celebrity, and also a local nuisance. He lives in a tower on the edge of Essert Hill to conduct his experiments - and he has been driven further and further away from the center of town, by order of the city council over the years, because his experiments kept going haywire and causing a commotion. He is always looking for those who are willing to help with his research and provide him with knowledge and ingredients for his spells, but his magic has a habit of going wrong.
  
• The Boar and Barrel is a tavern in Helmn located in a poorer part of the city. While not the most famous establishment in town, it is a favorite recommendation of locals who know where to look. Not only does its clientele form a tight-knit community, with several patrons knowing each other well, it boasts a ring where wrestling contests are held every week for the amusement of guests.
• Helmn's Elven Quarter is located on Griesau Hill, the least densely settled of the Six Hills of Helmn; for this reason, it still possesses a substantial amount of green space, and the elves tend to the trees to maintain communication with the natural world. There was once a great forest outside of Helmn where many elves lived; it has since dwindled as the city expanded, forcing the elves to assimilate, but the memories of the elders trace back generations, and they know much ancient lore (the fact that they are in communion with the spirits of their ancestors doesn't hurt, of course). The Elven Quarter is a tightly-knit, self-sufficient community in its own right; although within the walls of Helmn, they are largely left to govern themselves.
• An open secret in Helmn is the existence of the Catacombs. The city was built on porous rock, and a vast system of tunnels and chambers exists beneath the surface, some of them predating even the founding of the city itself. In ancient times, the Catacombs protected the people in times of siege, but they have grown with the construction and demolition of new buildings, and many smuggling rings and thieves' guilds make their homes here. Some rumors even speak of tunnels that extend as far as Falkenau and Thayngen, and some of stranger denizens yet...
  

Friday Encounter: The Relic Thieves

This encounter may be used on the road or in a town - either one the PCs are visiting on their way to another destination, or it may come to a more permanent home base.

Background

The Lunar Lands has no shortage of cults that venerate the divine powers, and each cult has its own roster of saints, myths, and important events in its history. Even generations after the fact, the lives and deeds of gods and holy men are remembered by relics - whether those be remains of saintly bodies, devices through which miracles were worked, or those objects that came into contact with the gods themselves. These relics carry traces of divine power, imparting the blessings of the gods upon those who possess them. Their powers vary, of course, but they may range from repelling evil to curing sickness to granting good fortune, and everything in between.

Naturally, this has made the trade - and in some cases, forgery - of relics a lucrative underground business. A shrine or temple that claims possession of a relic may draw pilgrims seeking its blessings, and the very connection to the Heavens that relics bring lends legitimacy to the clergy overseeing them. So naturally, there are some who would do anything to get their hands on one. No priest is going to publically condone such illicit activity concerning holy things, of course. But even the most outwardly pious may find the draw of fame and power too strong to resist...

The Encounter

The PCs may come into contact with the relic trade through an encounter with a traveling shrine - one way or another, they will come across a monk driving an ox, pulling a cart on which is erected a small wooden chapel garlanded in flowers and gold leaf. Seated within this chapel is a gilded reliquary depicting a bust of Saint Hilda, a figure revered by the cult of Marseah, the goddess of mercy. In life, Saint Hilda was known for her ability to work miracles and cure blindness and lameness in the faithul, and long after her death, that power lives on in her relics. The PCs may be traveling on the same route as the chapel and pass it on the road, or they may be in a town where it is being exhibited to the public.

The monk, Brecharius, will explain that the reliquary contains a piece of the jawbone of the long-dead saint, and that some of her power still lingers in the old bone. He claims that those who kneel before the relic and recite a prayer will have good fortune, and those who touch it will be cured of illness. Anyone can pray to the relic free of charge; he charges 1 SP to open the reliquary so it can be touched, insisting that such money is to be used as a donation for the upkeep of his monastery.

There is no mechanical benefit to doing this, for the "relic" is little more than a piece of mundane bone (in fact, a DC 25 Medicine check will be able to determine it is not even from a jawbone at all, but a scapula). Brecharius will deny any allegations of fraud in public, going so far as to claim the accusers dishonor the gods by casting such doubts on a holy man. However, if the PCs have treated him politely enough to earn his trust, and if he sees them as capable of such a task, he will take them aside to speak to them privately at the first opportunity to explain:

Brecharius is, in fact, aware that the relic is a fake - but he has not forged it out of greed or malice. Rather, the real relic is claimed by Sister Closinde, a nun who oversees a temple a few days' travel to the north. She does not allow anyone to see the bone or take advantage of its properties. Brecharius doesn't enjoy having to con people out of their money to make ends meet, but he feels that the jawbone would be better served out for the people to revere and to take advantage of the healing properties of, rather than being locked away in a temple vault. Should the PCs seem the type to accept such a mission, he is willing to pay 500 GP to the party if they can break into Closinde's temple, steal the jawbone, and bring it back to him - by whatever means are necessary.

Closinde is unwilling to part with the jawbone - she is a devout follower of Saint Hilda, seeing her as a most noble patron of healers, and sees it as an honor that she would be entrusted with the relic. So too, she feels that it is safer to keep the jawbone under lock and key, fearing the greed of those who would wish to use its powers for their own gain. In her eyes, it is better that the relic never be used at all than to be used to line mens' pockets.

Closinde's temple isn't the largest, but it has a respectable staff, with eight other nuns and initiates (stats as commoners) living in its quarters, and four armed guards on the premises. The guards will patron the exterior of the temple and hold the gate, but will not fight inside the temple unless provoked, as they believe in the holy right of sanctuary, which states that no one may come to harm under a temples' roof. They expect others to feel the same - but those who would attack them or others first are, of course, ungodly ruffians to be put down at all costs.

The jawbone of Saint Hilda is contained in a modest chest in the undercroft of the temple, so as to look inconspicuous to would-be robbers. Ideally, it should be hidden among several largely identical chests, so that searching for the right one would take valuable time and potentially attract unwelcome attention. The chest is also locked, requiring a key that one of the guards carries on his belt, or a DC 12 DEX check using Thieves' Tools to pick the lock.

Further Developments

Should the PCs retrieve the jawbone and return it to Brecharius, he will reward them as promised. However, the real relic does indeed hold the power attested to it - once a day per user, one can say a prayer while touching the relic to cast lesser restoration on themselves. Some PCs may wish, then, to keep the relic for themselves to make use of its powers.

If so, they will find there are two complications to its use. For one, the jawbone is a holy relic sacred to the cult of Marseah, and the goddess will not tolerate its use for ill. Any party that possesses the jawbone must abide the tenets of Marseah - showing mercy to foes who surrender, always entertaining hospitality, providing charity to those in need of it whenever possible, and never demanding compensation unless it is offered to them first. If they do not, Marseah will be angered that a relic of her cult is in the wrong hands, and she will exert her wrath against the party - either subtly through steering them into misfortune (ideally, they should be directed toward scenes that remind them of their failings and those who suffer by them, such as encountering beggars, lepers, or the downtrodden), or, if that fails, calling down plagues and disasters.

Furthermore, even if the PCs are model Marseans, if Closinde survives the heist, she will surely learn of the theft, and she may dispatch agents of her own to try and retrieve the jawbone. For that matter, Brecharius might realize, after a few days go by with no word of the relic or the party's whereabouts, that they have deceived him, and he might look for another band of able-bodied and unscrupulous folk to steal it back. The PCs have entered the relic trade now, and the relic trade is a far deeper and more cutthroat world than one would think!

Gods of the Lunar Lands

We've talked enough about theory in the last few posts. It's time for another setting post - and today, I'm going to be talking about the pantheon of my setting. Before we begin, a few notes about how I handle religion in my games.

• The way religion works is generally in the Roman model. There are innumerable gods out there, representing just about every concept imaginable, but the popular cults tend to revolve around a select few with commonly applicable or useful domains. The gods are in effect personifications of the driving forces behind reality, embodying all aspects of creation.
• Beyond the popular cults, however, there are many examples of petty gods dedicated to trivial things, local deities, deified ancestor figures taken from Old Faith traditions, saints venerated within the cults of the gods, and the like. These things are not mutually exclusive.
• I try to portray a religion that is truly polytheistic, rather than henotheistic. There are temples and cults that are dedicated to a singular patron god, but the majority of people will venerate all of them. Even a cleric of Kerne will understand that an offering to Olmo is a good idea when preparing for a sea voyage.
• The way religion is practiced takes influence from Roman and Germanic paganism. Sacrifices of crops and livestock are common, and most people have a small household shrine to offer to the gods watching over their families. The most common sacrifices for each god are listed below.
• Aesthetically, I like to imagine clerics and temples taking inspiration from the Eastern Orthodox Church, if for no reason other than that it's so much lesser-used compared to Catholicism (and I say this as a Catholic). Besides, onion domes are cool.

You also can't convince me these monks don't look like fucking wizards.

• There aren't such things as racial deities in my setting, nor are there pantheons unique to certain regions. While traditions will obviously differ from place to place, and while certain gods may be more popular in different areas than others, the prayers of the faithful are all generally going to the same beings regardless of what or where they are. Dwarves, for instance, largely worship Weyland, and orcs worship Kerne and Morthanos, but they do so with their own rituals and their own names. This is more akin to how ancient polytheists viewed religion - there are records of correspondence between two Roman theologicians arguing other whether or not the God of the Jews was Jupiter or Saturn. I feel like this is a fun concept that makes pantheons seem more cohesive, like they belong in the world, rather than being made up for a game. That's something that's important to me.

Now, keep in mind, Pantheonism is only one religion in the Lunar Lands. Other traditions exist too, most notably Elementalism (the faith of Quel'Ahma that reveres the four elements as cosmic forces), the Old Faith (a mix of animism, ancestor worship, and a few cults of ancient gods mostly practiced by elves, druids, and hillfolk), and the mystic traditions of the Covered Path and its dervishes. I will discuss those at a later date, but the subject of this post will be on some of the most widespread cults to the Divine Forces.

Game stats here are given for 5e, but the lore should be system-neutral. Note that these are simply guidelines on how to represent members of each cult in games. It is not impossible, for instance, to play as a Voltanite paladin with the Oath of Conquest, but this may be rarer than paladins of other oaths.

Voltan is the God of Kings and King of Gods - the chief deity of the pantheon, and also the god of law, honor, and governance. He is invoked in trials and ordeals, with courts often held at his temples, and it is believed that he should guide each king and noble to act in accordance with his code of just rulership, giving back to those who honor their leader in return.

• Voltan's symbol is a crown, sometimes crossed by a sword with the balance of a scale as its crossguard. His associated color, used on the vestments of his priests and the domes of his temples, is gold.
• The center of Voltan's cult is the Holy City of Lescatie, and it is for this reason it is considered the most important cult center of all. It is led by Matriarch Wilmarina I, whose political clout rivals that of the Emperor.
• Alignment: Lawful Good
• Domains: Order, Unity
• Oaths: Crown, Heroism, Vengeance
• Sacrifices: Gold, incense, cattle, wine

Marseah is the Goddess of Mercy, Healing, and Hospitality. The teachings of her cult stress kindness and generosity to others, and her faithful train in the arts of healing both mundane and magical. One of the most popular deities, she is the wife of Voltan.

• Marseah's symbol is a pair of hands clasped in a gesture of prayer. Her associated color is white.
• The center of Marseah's cult is the city of Heidenheim in Vardessy. It is led by Matriarch Hildegarde III.
• Alignment: Neutral Good
• Domains: Life, Peace
• Oaths: Devotion, Redemption
• Sacrifices: Incense, candles

Torvald is the God of Protection and Boundaries. A liminal deity, he stands in defense of the borders between this world and those beyond, and is thus associated with the banishment of evil and lifting curses, though he also is the patron of those who build walls and guard castles and cities.

• Torvald's symbol is a key fashioned of silver, as it is believed that he blessed silver as his holy metal and imparted it with the ability to repel the unnatural. His associated color is also silver.
• The center of Torvald's cult is the city of Torvaldshaupt in Vardessy. It is led by Patriarch Ulrich II.
• Alignment: Lawful Neutral
• Domains: Protection
• Oaths: Watchers, Devotion
• Sacrifices: Silver, sheep

Solenna is the Goddess of the Sun, worshipped for blessing the fields with life and lifting the darkness of night. She is also venerated as a goddess of hope and happiness, and her clerics joyfully honor her by facing the path of the sun with their arms spread and raised above their heads. Her husband, Mondi, is the God of the Moons, though they are doomed to always be apart, except on the rare occasion of an eclipse.

• Solenna's symbol is that of a sun disk. Her associated colors are yellow and red.
• The center of Solenna's cult is the capital city of Venec in Togarmah. It is led by Patriarch Otho VI.
• Alignment: Neutral Good
• Domains: Light
• Oaths: Devotion, Redemption, Heroism
• Sacrifices: Wheat, chickens, candles, cattle

Morthanos is the God of Death and the Dead. Unlike the other gods, who dwell in the Heavens, he reigns from a palace in the Land of the Dead, where he rules over the shades of the deceased. However, he rarely returns to his throne, for he is busy collecting the souls of the fallen. Though many fear him (and usually refer to him simply as Death, lest he take the invocation of his name as an invitation), he tries to comfort the dead and dying, as his role is only a natural part in the cycle of being.

• Morthanos's symbol is a scythe crossed by a lantern, representing the two items he carries as he walks the roads of the mortal realm. His associated color is black.
• The center of Morthanos's cult is the city of Olarra in Taldameer. It is led by Matriarch Marisela III.
• Alignment: True Neutral
• Domains: Death, Grave
• Oaths: Watchers, Redemption
• Sacrifices: Incense, coins, candles, libations

Kerne is the God of War and the Hunt, governing both the pursuit of beasts and those of man. He traditionally takes the form of a musclebound man with the head of a stag (sometimes, particularly in southern lands, a bull), clutching a weapon in both hands, and he prizes valor and courage in battle. His priests often train in the fighting arts as much as they do in prayer, and his cult produces many paladins.

• Kerne's symbol is four weapons (swords, maces, spears, axes, etc.) placed on one another to form an eight-pointed star. His associated color is red, and he is also associated with bronze and iron.
• The center of Kerne's cult is the town of Keldrholt in the North. It is led by Patriarch Vidar I.
• Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
• Domains: War, Zeal, Blood
• Oaths: Conquest, Glory, Ancients
• Sacrifices: Iron, weapons, the first kill of a hunt, ale, mead

This is but a few of the major gods of the Lunar Lands. More to follow in a later post!