Ambroys - The Saint of the Slums
Ambroys is one of the most beloved gods among the common folk of The Shattered Continent due to his divine mandate that his followers heal anyone in need regardless of their means, influence, or ability to pay ensures. Born in the slums of Nosleton in Bommbergonia, Ambroys ran a clinic in the slums in which he would heal anyone who walked in and only ask them to pay what they could afford. His worshippers are all healers of some sort, and come from all walks of life, although his complete disregard for noble status and wealth has left him unpopular among the upper classes.
Mortal Life
Born in the slums of Nosleton in Bommbergonia, Ambroys grew up in the streets and alleys of this deeply divided city, dodging the kicks of the few guards who ventured ino the slums and scratching out a base living. He became apprenticed to a man running a clinic in the slums, providing healing to anyone who walked through the door, regardless of their ability to pay. Ambroys quickly proved to be a natural healer, absorbing knowledge at a tremendous rate and having an intuitive grasp of how best to treat his patients.
When a plague swept through the slums and the city quarantined them, sealing them off and leaving them to the mercy of the plague, their clinic was one of the only sources of healing left inside. Ambroys and his master both fell ill quickly due to their direct contact with plague victims, and his master died in just days. Ambroys managed to pull through, and as soon as he could stand he was back in the clinic, working with renewed passion.
A week after the slums had been sealed off, the guards in charge of lowering crates of food down from the gatehouses began hearing tales of "The Saint of the Slums", a man not just treating the victims of the plague but actually keeping them alive. This, coupled by the dramatic reduction of bodies being brought to the burn piles, spurred the ruling class of the city to send people in to investigate. Their investigators, decked out in the best alchemical and divine protection available, ventured into the slums to seek out the truth behind the rumors.
What the investigators found could not have been further from their expectations. Makeshift tents filled with occupied cots lined the streets all around the clinic, the pox scars on the slum dwellers revealing them as recovering plague victims. When the investigators reached the clinic, they found a man in simple white robes directing one of his assistants to apply salve to a sick man's buboes while grinding ingredients to powder in a mortar and pestle. When they began questioning him, he demanded that they make themselves useful before he would answer their questions, and as they cut linens into bandages and helped him make poultices he explained his methodology to them.
With the return of the investigators and shortly thereafter the reopening of the slums as the plague ended, the legend of The Saint of the Slums spread, and soon people began coming from outside of the slums to receive treatment from him. While there were many attempts to get him to relocate to the upper city and serve the rich and powerful, he always refused because his clinic was the only one serving the poor of the slums. If the rich and powerful wanted him to treat them, they would need to enter the slums and visit his clinics, pay their way, and not expect to jump the line ahead of his other patients.
One day several decades after the Saint of the Slums began his work, Lord Stuart-Lane (of the southern Stuart-Lanes) came down with a particularly bad case of gout and after fruitlessly seeking help from doctors from the Royal College of Surgeons, he demanded that his guards retrieve "that saint fellow" to treat him. When his men arrived at the clinic, they discovered that Ambroys was completely unwilling to leave his clinic or his waiting patients, and didn't care at all that their employer considered himself to be too important to come into the slums to be treated. There was a struggle, and it culminated in Ambroys being beaten by the guardsmen as they attempted to grag him out of his clinic. A crowd gathered, one of the guardsmen was struck by a thrown rock and threw ambroys to the ground where he struck his head on the corner of a cobblestone, killing him.
As everyone, guard and slum dweller alike, froze in shock, a pillar of golden light came down from the sky and enveloped Ambroys body before dissippating in a blinding burst, leaving motes of light floating in the air before they too dissipated. As everyone blinked the spots from their eyes, they began to realize that all of their ailments had disappeared. Sores were gone, cuts were healed, and even achy joints were cured; from inside of the clinic, bedridden patients stumbled out through the doors exclaiming about miracles, and the guards took the opportunity to run for the exit to the slums as fast as their feet would take them.
Worship
Ambroys is the patron god of healers, and his temples tend to take the form of small healing clinics, usually in the poorer sections of the cities in which they are located. Some of his followers come from formal institutions like the Bommbergonian College of Surgeons, but most are individuals who apprenticed at one of his clinics. He is not a popular god among the rich and the upper classes of society due to his total disregard for their status, but most people will give a quick prayer to Ambroys when they are sick or injured.
Ambroys
The Saint of the Slums
Alignment
Neutral Good
Edicts
Heal any in need, Treat according to need rather than means.
Anathema
Refuse healing, Prioritise those with the means to pay more
Areas of Concern
Healing, Duty, Serving those in need.
Follower Alignments
All Non-Evil
Devotee Benefits
Divine Ability
Wisdom or Charisma
Divine Font
Heal
Divine Skill
Medicine
Favored Weapon
Staff
Domains
Healing, Duty, Toil, Repose
Cleric Spells
Comments