Ioun is the goddess of mysteries and knowledge, and is the only truly omniscient being in existence. She knows not only everything that is known at present, but everything that has ever been known by anyone, and everything that will ever be known. As the oldest surviving god in existence, even Pelor and Erathis know to fear her power. She is favored by scholars, inventors, and travelers as well as those seeking solutions to intractable problems. She doesn't tolerate the company (or the worship) of fools, and she despises vapidity and indecision.
Ioun typically appears as an older woman, with piercing blue eyes and long dark midnight-blue hair bulled back to stay out of her face. In human form, she has been depicted in long dresses as well as battle armor, showing her nature as both goddess of knowledge and her aspect as a goddess of battle strategy. In a typical aspect as a non-humanoid form, Ioun can appear as an owl, or as a vaguely humanoid shape made of stars.
Ioun's Influence
Ioun holds dominion over everything unseen or unknown. She is associated with the horizon-the brink of the unknown-and with navigation. her followers include scholars, sages, and a handful of sailors who have an inclination toward the mystical.
Perfect understanding is like the horizon: easy to move toward, but impossible to reach. Ioun knows everything that has ever been known on Ellowyre, so she and only she decides which secrets should be loosed upon the world, and which must be kept forever hidden. She has existed since before mortals occupied Ellowyre and numbers among the few who understand the role of mortal belief in shaping the younger gods- a concept even most gods don't fully comprehend.
Ioun's Goals
More than any other god, Ioun simply is. She seeks nothing but to oversee the acquisition of knowledge, maintain the cycles of time, and uphold the divine order. She views her fellow gods as petty and vengeful, and she opposes anyone who tries to obtain power that would upset the delicate balance of the pantheon.
Ioun is the eldest of the surviving gods and sees it as his responsibility to rein in the excesses of her younger kin. Unlike Pelor, Ioun knows that she isn't powerful enough to impose her will unopposed. Instead, she plays the other gods against one another and serves as a mediator in their endless disputes. She takes care to ensure that the other gods view her as impartial, which she considers essential to maintaining balance.
Divine Relationships
Ioun strives to hold herself above the disputes of the gods, but like any other god, she has both rivals and allies. Chief among the former is the sun god Pelor, whom Ioun sees as an arrogant threat to the balance of power among the gods. She seldom acts against Pelor openly, preferring to warn others about the sun god's efforts to seize power at their expense.
The deities which Ioun respects the most are her sworn sisters Avandra and the Raven Queen. Avandra is endlessly fascinating to Ioun, as Avandra is the goddess of both fate and change, and occasionally will bend the weave of fate if a mortal catches her eye. The Raven Queen as well, as goddess of memory, is a close confidant of Ioun, the two sharing the memories of all living things that existed with each other.
Ioun is rivals with the god Caethes. As god of the occult and hidden knowledge, Caethes vies for power against Ioun, though does not seek to destroy the goddess. Caethes views this as more of a friendly rivalry, seeing it more with amusement than with any malice, and has no troubles sharing information with Ioun when necessary.
The only god that truly vexes Ioun is Dunmharu, for the precise reason that Dunmharu is the one thing Ioun cannot know about and will never know about. Though she cannot perceive the god of deception, she knows that there is something missing, something absent from what she and the other gods of the pantheon know, but it is frustratingly, maddeningly beyond her reach.
It is known that Ioun once had two siblings, Teratheion, the god of time, and Mystra, the goddess of magic, both of which were killed in the Divine War of the Aeon Primus. They were the first beings in creation, and Ioun is the only one of the three that still survives. It is not known exactly what their relationship was like, and Ioun does not speak of her lost siblings.
Worshipping Ioun
Ioun's worshippers are many, and many are devoted to her as a secondary figure, with their primary devotion being towards a scholarly order or tradition. Her organizations span continents, and seldom have division in their ranks, all unified under the goddess of knowledge. A follower of Ioun from the Elven kingdom of A'ne Lesora will be as welcome in the libraries of Khyrdilli on the Ahz'aten continent as a native would be.
Rituals honoring Ioun are usually performed at boundaries, both temporal and spatial: shorelines, riverbanks, equinoxes, and sunsets. Usually, festivals to the goddess involve arts and music, as the arts are simply another form of knowledge.
Ioun's Favor
The god of knowledge is inscrutable at the best of times; thus, it can be difficult to discern why you've earned her favor. What prompted her to gift you with foreknowledge of important events? How have you demonstrated your potential? The Ioun's Favor table offers a handful of suggestions.
| d6 |
Sign of Favor |
| 1 |
You solved a riddle, puzzle, or cipher that was previously thought unsolvable. |
| 2 |
You uncovered a dangerous secret during your studies, and followers of Ioun sought you out and recruited you to keep the knowledge within their ranks. |
| 3 |
You wanted to learn truths that only Ioun knows. Now you're starting to wonder if you know too much. |
| 4 |
Your parent or mentor was a master artisan, and you yearn to create something worthy of a god's attention. |
| 5 |
As a child, you were favored by an oracle of great power who saw Ioun's spark within you. |
| 6 |
You were instructed in the worship of Ioun by a parent or a mentor. |
Devotion to Ioun
Ioun doesn't demand adherence to any philosophy, and the reasons to follow her are as numberless as the stars. As a follower of Ioun, consider the options on the Ioun's Ideals table as alternatives to those suggested for your background.
| d6 |
Ideal |
| 1 |
Devotion. My devotion to my god is more important to me than what she stands for. (Any) |
| 2 |
Balance. Too much power in any one place is a threat to us all. (Lawful) |
| 3 |
Selflessness. I accept the burden of knowledge so that others don't have to. (Good) |
| 4 |
Knowledge. I seek out dangerous secrets so that I can know the nature of reality. (Neutral) |
| 5 |
Power. The best thing about knowing a secret is getting to use it against everyone else. (Evil) |
| 6 |
Mystery. The cosmos is more beautiful if its greatest truths remain unknown. (Any) |
Myths of Ioun
Ioun appears in stories in an ancillary role, often as the impartial judge who ends a conflict between gods. The myths and legends told of Ioun's own deeds demonstrate her wisdom and wrath, dispensed in equal measure.
The Eye's Diadem.
Years ago, Ioun received an exquisitely cut sapphire set in a delicate silver diadem as an offering. Deeply appreciative of the skill and craftsmanship required to create it, Ioun imbued the gem with a spark of divine genius. Inventors and philosophers coveted the diadem, for it conferred a fraction of Ioun's inspiration to the wearer-granting incredible insights or fracturing the wearer's sanity. Its last owner is said to have created a massive contraption to assure that the Eye's Diadem wouldn't shatter the mind of any other mortal. The inventor's machine launched the diadem into the heavens, meeting an unknown fate.
The Library of Kore.
The island of Khaiapetra once boasted a remarkable library that according to local legend was a gift from Ioun herself. Other tales suggest that the library was actually founded by an ancient sage named Anatheia, but the Iconoclasm destroyed the place, and along with it generations of collected knowledge. Ioun is said to have gone into mourning, not showing herself for forty years after the event, saddened by the knowledge lost to the ages.
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