ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE FLANAESS Being a brief volume on the Timekeeping, People and Religions in Eastern Oerik ver 0.90 Compiled by Halic the Wise Accepted the 3rd of Flocktime, 586 C.Y. to The Great Library of Greyhawk FOREWARD A brief forward explaining the reasoning behind the volume, any changes to canon and why they were made, and finally why 586 CY. Not even sure this is gonna be needed, but I made it anyways. A PAGE BREAK FOLLOWS THIS LINE! 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Basics I have no idea what to present here… ill most likely have to write this last as usual. The following sections were preserved from the original manuscript and will have to be expanded etc to fit the final product 1.2 How the Pantheon Chapters are Presented The chapters in this book (as well as Appendix I) are organized into two almost identical formats. The first would be the human pantheons such as Baklunish, Flan or Oeridian; and the other would be the non‐human pantheons such as Demihuman and Humanoid pantheons. The two are almost identical; the only difference is the non‐human pantheons lack the People and Modern Veiwpoints sections. Much is written about elves and other such non‐human creatures elsewhere. I merely added in their major deities and other such heroes to the pantheons listed in this work. Following is a description of the sections that each chapter contains as well as how it is formatted and presented: The People: This section appears only for human pantheons, and describes briefly the people associated with the pantheon and a little about their history and culture. Information such as what they look like and how they dress and where they reside is included here. Again, this information is kept very brief, so expect no long and detailed histories here. Modern Viewpoints: This part of each chapter asks a list of questions that are answered by a person from a specific geographic region. For example, in the Flannae chapter, the questions are asked in the Duchy of Tenh, and the answers would be what your father told you. The questions asked are the same for each region and are asked in the same order. Only human pantheons and cultures have this section. Though this information was collected (sometimes rather seriptitiously) by the author himself, I do have to admit that much of it predates to just before The Greyhawk Wars. The information presented here may have changed some in the last few years, but it still provides a very good look at how these people think and see the world and their gods. Major Gods of the Pantheon: Very straightforward section that is, of course, part of every chapter. As noted right in the name it only coveres the major deities and heroes in each pantheon of gods presented. There are plenty of other lesser known or perhaps forgotten gods and heroes that aren’t detailed in this volume. These other entities can be detailed in other ‘official’ materials or completely made up at the DMs discretion. This work only focuses on the ‘major players’ for each pantheon that were detailed ‘officially’ for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. 1.3 How the Deities are Presented Nowhere in this book will you see any rule‐specific information that you would find at the core of any of the other works that I have compiled. There is no ‘crunch’ and there are no hard numbers. You won’t find rule specific details in here at all. There is a very good reason for this: it’s completely and totally unnecessary. Not since the Monty Haul 1st Edition AD&D campaigns of my early teens have I ever needed to know how many hit dice a god may have, or what their ‘special powers’ are. They are supreme beings, and even the simplest Hero‐deity is beyond mortal characters, plain and simple. Immortal Gods never (read: extremely rarely!) intervene directly or even indirectly in a characters adventure. Sure, the characters may assault a temple complex of a certain fell god, and yes they may even encounter an aspect or simple avatar of that fell god; but they won’t actually encounter the actual fell god themselves in person. Granted, there are some examples of this happening to a degree, but remember: even Zuggotmy in the Temple of Elemental Evil was insanely powerful even though she was trapped in a magical prison and wasn’t even at the height of her ability! Other DMs may run their campaigns differently and they are more than welcome to do so, I just happen to not, so that’s that. Following is an example entry for a deity, with explanations of each part of the entry described after: Name Title(s) they have (Deity Status) Alignment: The deity’s alignment Portfolio: Things of particular interest to the deity Holy Symbol: Deities symbol A description of the deity follows the above information. Name: This bold red text is obviously the deity’s name. Title: This purple text lists the most common titles and honorifics that they deity may have. The faithful will use these titles often when referring to their chosen god. Deity Status: Deities do not have hit dice or levels like characters and other mortal creatures have. Deities are ranked by status, and it represents, in general terms, how powerful the deity is in relation to other deities in any pantheon. Listed in decending order from most powerful to least powerful, these statuses are: Greater Deity, Intermediate Deity, Lesser Deity, Demigod and Hero‐deity. There are a few other notations, such as Demon Prince, Archdevil and Greatest Archdevil. These are used to not only differentiate between ‘standard’ deities and extremely powerful other‐planer beings. They are just as strong and all‐powerful as the deities listed above, its just their power comes from a different source and/or perspective. For sake of argument, assume the following: Greatest Archdevil = Greater Deity, Archdevil = Intermediate Deity and finally Demon Prince roughly equates to a Lesser Deity. Again, regardless of classification, all of the beings in this book are far beyond the power of all other immortal creatures and most certainly all characters! Alignment: This referes to the deity’s alignment and not the worshipper’s alignment. In most cases alignments of a worshipper will be close to if not the same as the deity themselves. There are limitations, of course: A lawful good paladin would not be a worshipper of Nerul, nor would a chaotic evil thief whose specialty was murder‐for‐hire be a worshipper of Beory the Oerth Mother. The DM has final say whether a deity will hear or answer a character’s prayers and grant any clerical spells (if applicable) Portfolio: These are major areas of interest that are at the core of a deity’s beliefs and therefore they are a part of a worshipper’s daily life and the scriptures that they follow. For example, the Flan deity Allitur is especially concerned with ethics and propriety. For Allitur, this manifests itself into a clergy that is associated with traditions, law and ethical behaviors between people and nations. How the god relates to its Portfolio (and vice versa) is found in the description. Holy Symbol: This is the holy symbol of the God, and is of course very sacred to their faithful. It is used in many parts of everyday life for both actual clerics and basic followers of the deity in question. Description: Information regarding the deity is in this section. It includes information such as background, relation between them and other gods, what the deity (or its avatar) look like, and special holy days and any other information that pertains to the deity itself. 1.4 A Final Note on Deity Alignment There are many examples in this work where a deitys stated alignment could be considered counter to their portfolio or what their actions would be on the material plane. As an example, take Al’Akbar of the Baklunish Pantheon. His alignment might be Lawful Neutral (which many classify as a ‘good’ alignment), however his actions towards anyone who worships a hero, deity or spirit not directly associated with the Baklunish Pantheon would be considered hostile without open violence at best, and ‘Full Jihad against all non‐beleivers!’ at worst. That may not seem too ‘lawful’ to most goodly people, it is a matter of perspective. The DM will have final say on what clerics of different alignments and faiths will or won’t do in certain situations. That is not to say that the player isn’t allowed to play the character however they wish, though the DM is most certainly the arbiter of whether he PCs stated deity approves of their disciples actions or not! 1. The World of Oerth and the Oerik Continent 1.1 The World of Oerth The world on which the City of Greyhawk stands has not been extensively explored. The majority of the world hasn't been visited at all by adventurers from the Flanaess, and what little broad knowledge exists is superficial and misleading. When I was researching this volume, I asked many sages, and the most common answer that I received was as follows: “As is obvious, the Oerik Continent is the major center of the world, and the eastern portion, the Flanaess, is the center of enlightened humanity. Oerth has four great continents and countless islands, and four great oceans and countless seas which surround these bodies of land. Little is known about the lands of the western portion of Oerik, less still about the savage inhabitants of the other continents, but such knowledge is, of course, of little use anyway and of no importance to humanity.” Oerik is generally known to be the largest of the four continents of Oerth, though only its eastern extent, the Flanaess, is reasonably well known.