Iroanos the Battle-Wise

Iroanos is the steadfast god of honor and victory in war. When soldiers march to battle, his voice is the thunder of their footsteps and the crash of spear on shield. Soldiers, mercenaries, and athletes all pray for Iroanos' favor in securing victory. Commanders, generals, and tacticians all seek his blessing when devising strategies for he is the patron of meticulous planning, tactics, and ensuring that the ends will be achieved by the means. Common folk pray to Iroanos for courage and fortitude in times of struggle, for his is the battle nobly fought and won.
Bold and confident with a soldier's demeanor, Iroanos is the pinnacle of martial pride and bearing. He is stoic almost to a fault, but also exhibits a wry sense of humor. Those who honorably shed blood in Iroanos' name can count on his support. Cowards and oath breakers are to be despised, and traitors don't deserve mercy in battle.
Iroanos most often appears as a powerfully built half-leonin, half-centaur with a lion's body rather than a horse's, clad in gleaming armor and wielding a spear and shield. From the waist up, he is a muscular athlete and warrior with a deep red beard, deep red hair worn in a long braid down his back, and burning red lion eyes. He speaks in a booming baritone that projects power, confidence, and courage. He has been known to appear as a burly soldier or a mighty lion before his followers. Whatever form he chooses, Iroanos carries himself with precision and majesty at all times and doesn't tolerate disrespect or undue informality from those who would deal with him.
Iroanos personifies the glory of victory, honorable combat, and physical competition. He is the unspoken bond between soldiers on the eve of battle, the courage of the standard bearer holding colors aloft in the midst of battle, and the exultation that comes after a hard-won victory. Iroanos pushes his followers to excel in their chosen fields, particularly war and athletics, and gain honor through superior skill, training, and dedication.
War is, fundamentally, a terrible experience filled with pain, loss, and fear. Unfortunately, as Iroanos sees it, war is also necessary. He sees preparing for and winning life's essential battles as being of paramount importance and the highest calling one can experience. The true warrior fights with honor, courage, and dedication, and values training, discipline, strength, and esprit de corps. In Iroanos' eyes, nothing is more valuable or honorable than a honed blade wielded by a trained warrior loyal to a just cause. This message is ingrained in the ethos of the Elaeusian polis of Perikratos, the polis that claims him as its patron. His precepts and codes of conduct are incorporated in the civil and military laws of Perikratos.
Iroanos values strength and determination in less deadly pursuits, as well. He believes sports are a fine proxy for war, as just as in a battle, superior skill and strength lead to a victory. What Iroanos truly loves is a winner.
Iroanos is interested not in pretty words, but in great deeds. The faithful of Iroanos show their piety by comporting themselves well in contests of athleticism or skill, such as Elaeus's internationally famous Elympiad games which are the grandest display to honor the god. To even compete in the games is considered noteworthy, as the poleis of Elaeus and other nations interested in competing send only their finest athletes. The grand prize, besides a ceremonial wreath and a position on the Synhedrion of Elaeus, is the opportunity to be visited by Iroanos himself. Swearing an oath to win a battle in Iroanos' name and failing to do so is a great shame upon a warrior, thus such a promise is never uttered lightly.

Myths of Iroanos

The Forgotten Brother

There are myths that, long ago when the Etherians first settled into their new homeland, the god of victory in war had a brother, an antithetical counterpart who embodied all that Iroanos was and is not: a god of slaughter, violence, and carnage, hatred unrestrained, empathy denied, and mercy forgotten, an entity whose very presence incites mortals to shed blood. This divine sibling's name, Inyu the Forgotten One, has been lost to time itself as Iroanos never speaks of him plainly, and frankly, it is likely a good thing that this sibling too has been lost to time. As the myth goes, these two divine siblings were once a single entity for many millennia, the act of war personified. The inherent tension between honor and brutality in combat, though, led to a dichotomy of purpose too great for a single god to reconcile. Ripping himself apart, the god split in two, and so did Iroanos and his brother come into existence, embodiments of the two aspects of war that are forever in conflict. These siblings waged immortal war on one another, unable to reconcile their differences or exist in peace until finally, Iroanos drove his brother off shortly after early Etherians settled into the continent. There are whispers in the farthest reaches of Etheria that this unnamed and shamed brother lurks in the shadows beyond most mortal recognition, waiting for the perfect moment to spring and slaughter his brother in revenge.

Kelephne the Victor

It started with a rumor. Athletes gathering in Perikratos for the Elympiad Games whispered of a hermit in the wilderness, a master wrestler who'd brought down giants with her bare hands and who was unwaveringly faithful to the Battle-Wise. As the games commenced, the rumors continued, and athletic victories seemed hollow so long as the so-called best was not there to compete. When Kelephne did arrive, she was barefoot and had a fire in her eyes. The rumors of her skill were not exaggerated, and for three days, she battled a continuous stream of competitors. When no others would challenge her, she left without ceremony. She was never seen again, and some speculated she was Iroanos in human form. Athletes tried for years to mimic Kelephne's techniques. Years later, wanderers discovered a cave covered in writing. These instructions became known as Kelephne's manual, and her technique was called pankration, now a widely studied style of weaponless fighting.

Bulwark of Brotherhood

Iroanos carries a battle-worn bronze shield called the Bulwark of Brotherhood. It symbolizes the protective bond shared by all soldiers at war and his determination, ironically, to defeat his own brother. In the myth of Rygyra the Slinger, the soldier never missed when she launched stones from her magic sling. Yet, even so, her every shot bounced off the giant minotaur, Raksolcs Ravage-Soul. As the minotaur terror closed in on her, Rygyra whispered a prayer to the Battle-Wise and braced her flimsy wooden shield, knowing it would offer no defense against the giant's strikes. Yet, when the blow came, the shield resounded with the barest metallic clang, a sound like a pin falling on bronze. Opening her eyes, Rygyra discovered that her shield had transformed into a gleaming bulwark: Iroanos' own shield. Enraged, Raksolcs beat on the shield, leaving not even a dent. After hours of this, the minotaur collapsed, panting and exhausted. Only then did Rygyra emerge and strangle the brute with his own tongue.

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroanos

One of the greatest of Iroanos' champions, Kalemne is a giant sworn to the service of the god of war. A warrior of tremendous strength and tactical skill, she has imposed martial discipline on the most unruly of troops and has led squads of Giants and Minotaurs to glorious victories. Her devotion to the Battle-Wise is absolute, and her commitment to victory is unwavering. Countless petitioners have sought out Kalemne over the years, seeking her aid in righting wrongs or preventing disasters. Though she sympathizes with all who tell her their tragic tales, Kalemne has committed to aiding only those who can defeat her in a contest of athletic skill or a test of speed. Those who do can count on her aid, and possibly that of her troops. Those who can't must seek other answers to their problems.

Divine Domains

War, heroism, courage, honor, strength, and power; tactics, strategy, skill, planning, and cunning; and athletics, sportsmanship, weaponry, duty, defense of the home, and peace.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Sacred Animals: Lions, rams, woodpeckers, and panthers. Sacred Plants: Honey locusts, brambles, and rowans.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

Polemiroas sees existence as a series of glorious battles to be won by both him and his followers. War is a testing ground from which only the bravest and strongest emerge. Between battles, there are feats of endurance and physical prowess to perform. Polemiroas exhorts his followers to hone their bodies and minds just as they hone their blades. He is certain that to slacken his vigilance and grow lazy would guarantee his demise at the edge of his forgotten brother's blood-soaked axe. Polemiroas pushes his followers to be ready at all times to meet conflict head-on.

Social

Family Ties

Polemiroas is defined by his opposition to his alleged twin brother who exists only in the most ancient of myths. Although both love battle, Polemiroas holds an honorable and valorous view of warfare, whereas his brother lusts for carnage and butchery. Polemiroas firmly believes that mortals will always fight, whether in war or in less consequential pursuits. His charge is to ensure that war is waged with a code of honor and to prevent his brother's depravity from spreading through the world even as his brother's name has been all but forgotten in popular thought.
Polemiroas holds an abiding respect for Orodamas the Ringing Hammer, who girds the war god's warriors in the products of her artifice. Polemiroas sees finely crafted arms as the highest form of art, sublime and deadly at once. Still, Polemiroas finds Orodamas's volatile temper and bouts of passion unbecoming of one with such talent at creating weapons of war.
Polemiroas champions the cause of justice and thus seeks Helionax the Light-Crowned's guidance and counsel from time to time. During Helionax's piques of arrogance and temper, Polemiroas, like the wise though far too pacifistic for Polemiroas's liking Thanatimetra the Merciful Mother, is the one who advocates restraint and calm. More often than not, the two deities agree where matters of justice and honor are concerned.
Though he and Thanatimetra disagree on many things, they do find themselves in unison on one critical issue: their shared hatred of Ginnir the Silver-Tongued. The god of deception frequently targets proud and somewhat stuffy Polemiroas and his champions to make them appear as fools or to corrupt them on their path to glory. For this reason, Polemiroas considers almost all of Ginnir's creations as fabrications or tricks, including diplomacy and politics. Polemiroas believes that all disputes are better solved without the use of clever and beguiling tongues and therefore does not engage in tricky politicking or careful diplomatic discussions.

Divine Classification

Deity

Gender

Male

Eyes

Red lion eyes

Hair

Long, intricate braids of wavy ruby-red hair

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Tanned human torso and arms with the lower body of a muscular dark red lion