Xan Yae (zan YAY)

The Mistress of Perfection

Lady of Perfection, Supreme Mistress of Petals

Lesser Goddess of the Outlands, N

Spheres of Concern: Twilight, Shadows, Stealth, Mind over Matter
Aliases: None
Origin: Baklunish
Domain Name: Outlands/Tower of the Iron Will
Superior: None
Allies: Rexfelis (Catlord), Zuoken
Enemies: Pholtus, Pyremius
Symbol: Black lotus blossom
Worshipper’s: Martial Artists and anyone at home in the shadows
Worshipper's Alignment: Any
The relationship between gods and men among the remnants of the Baklunish Empire, as a whole, is perhaps the most practical of all such veneration on Oerth. Most Bakluni can be said to be truly pantheistic, and though certain gods such as Al-Akbar and the four elemental forces are probably the most widely honored of these beings, few hold such an enduring place in the hearts of the Baklunish people as does Xan Yae, the Mistress of Perfection. As a physical and mental personification of perfection, Xan Yae is seen as the ideal, the form for which all should strive.
In this way, Xan Yae is considered the driving spirit of humanity. As legends tell, it was the Bakluni drive to gain a sliver of her perfection that saw the inception of the Baklunish Empire so very long ago, and, though the lands are now largely fractured, she still stands as a marker against which all achievements are measured.
Perhaps because Xan Yae has shared such a strong tie to the Bakluni, she has often directly intervened in their affairs. Though her manipulations are never overt, she has been known to favor the Bakluni over all the races of Oerth, and has subtly aided their struggles in the past. On at least one occasion, this has brought firm reprimands from the other gods, and while she no longer enjoys personal visits with her temporal caliphs, she is perhaps the most "active" of the Baklunish deities.
To look upon the face of Xan Yae is to look upon the dusk. As the Baklunish goddess of mystery and furtive excursions, discipline and shade, Xan Yae teaches her disciples to call upon the power of the mind to mentally commune with the grand and spinning symmetry of the multiverse. In the twilight hours of Oerth, when the glory of the day yields to the danger of the night, Xan Yae summons her believers and instructs them in the curious geometry of shadows and the hidden riddles of stealth. As the Supreme Mistress of Petals, Xan Yae is the deity of monks and martial artists, as well as those who call the shadows their home. Thieves elicit her favor when orchestrating clandestine affairs, as do sages when contemplating the vast and immeasurable power of the human mind.
Xan Yae cares little for the bickering between gods, and even less for the petty plights of men. In order to salvage existence from both the zealous efforts of good and the inexorable tug of evil, Xan Yae works within the shadows to strengthen the fragile balance between darkness and light. Xan Yae has been known to walk the mortal avenues of Oerth in the guise of either an acrobat or a martial artist. In either role she is never without her matching falchion swords — the fabled Butterfly Blades — though she often keeps these weapons concealed on her person. While assuming human form, Xan Yae whispers in the ears of old men, quickens the pulse of the young, and conducts in twilight that which cannot be achieved by day. Xan Yae counts amongst her enemies Pyremius and Pholtus, as both promulgate radical ideals in the name of either despicable evil or unwavering good. Both gods, either through fire or light, illuminate the darkness so sacred to her teachings. Her allies are few, due entirely to the fact that the Supreme Mistress is too self-involved to concern herself with the affairs of her fellow deities. Her chiefmost ally is the demigod Zuoken. The Catlord, Rexfelis, is a frequent companion.
Xan Yae is a favored deity of many among the periphery of Baklunish society, and has many adherents in the Distant West, where the struggle for harmony is oftentimes both a religion and a way of life. In these lands a distinct martial arts style has been developed around the faith, known as the Way of the Lotus, practiced by peasants and princes alike. Xan Yae is venerated by scholars and swordmasters, shadow mages and smugglers, psionicists, philosophers, and mystics.

The Church

Clergy

Cleric: yes
Specialty Priest: Yes
Monks: Yes
Shamans: No
Paladins: No
Druids: No
Clergy Alignment: some form of Neutral (Neutral Good, Neutral Evil, Lawful Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, True Neutral)
Turn Undead: No
Command Undead: No

Though her worshippers in the Flanaess are few, often taking residence in monasteries on the rim of civilization, the breadth of her influence is felt as far away as distant stars. Wherever shadows flow and twilight divides night and day, she is there.
The bulk of her clergy are monks rather than priests and clerics. Her clergy spends most of their time cloistered in their monasteries focusing on mental mastery and physical perfection.

Dogma

The great wheel of Xan Yae's doctrine depends upon three vital and interconnected spokes: the Universal Mind, the Perpetual Harmony, and the Internal Peace. The concept of the Universal Mind posits the belief that all things exist because the mind created them, and without imagination, consideration, and willpower, the multiverse would cease to exist. This tenet agrees closely with the primary contention of the Outer Planar faction known as the Sign of One. Like the Signers, followers of Xan Yae believe in the malleability of creation and the ability of the mind to alter reality. In the ultimate expression of the faith, believers hope to one day use their collective mental faculties to transform the very shape of the multiverse. The idea of Perpetual Harmony contends that all life is balanced, that symmetry governs all beings, and that to be in harmony with oneself and surroundings puts one in harmony with nature. This in turn permits one to more readily access the Universal Mind. Finally, to manipulate the Universal Mind and maintain Perpetual Harmony, one must first achieve Internal Peace. In other words, both martial and mental activities must be mastered and reconciled to attain a higher level of existence. Thus, followers of Xan Yae perform both physical and mental exercises in an ongoing effort to find inner alignment. Seeking this tendency toward balance, it is no wonder that dusk is Xan Yae's holiest hour. All church rituals are performed during twilight, clerics voice their daily prayers for spells at this time. Xan Yae espouses stealth because to move without being detected requires both discipline and skill. There is no cause for flamboyance or wasted energy in the doctrine of the Mistress of Perfection. All movements are economic and precise.

Day-to-Day Activities

Xan Yae’s clergy spend a lot of time in their monasteries seeking their internal peace. They spend much of their time trying to attain physical and mental mastery. They musty achieve a certain level of mastery before being allowed to go forth into the world. They do not proselytize to gain followers for their deity. Rather, they move about the world to show by example.
Xan Yae charges the monks, priests, and psionicists who worship her with the quiet task of seeking out the extremes of good and evil and tempering them harmony. Xan Yae is not a passive power, but actively pursues an agenda which will ensure the ongoing stability of life.
These excursions are also tests, a chance for the clergy member to apply what they have learned and achieved, and to discover where they need to focus.

Important Ceremonies/Holy Days

The church of Xan Yae recognizes two days of holy significance. The first of these, the Autumn Equinox, celebrates the exact balance between the hours of daylight and the hours of night. Two ceremonies of worship are performed on this day, one at dawn and one at dusk, during which neophyte followers are initiated into the greater church body. Another important ritual is practiced on the 27th of Harvester, known as the Day of the Legion Will. From sunrise to sunset, every member of the church enters into his or her deepest and most profound meditative state, wielding every bit of discipline they possess in an effort to touch the Universal Mind. The idea behind this mass meditation is to use the collective will of the church body to alter the fabric of reality. It is believed that the Supreme Mistress grows substantially in power during this time, as the Universal Mind is bent closer to her control.

Omens

The Supreme Mistress is served by creatures of all alignments, both magical and mundane, as addresses her needs at the time. She has been known to employ shadows, translators, great cats, and jade dragons. The appearance of a blood hawk at dusk is said to be a good omen by those wise to the precepts of the goddess, while a thunderstorm at sunrise is thought to portent of Xan Yae's displeasure with those who encounter it.

Major Centers of Worship

Affiliated Orders

Priestly Vestments

Adventuring Garb

Specialty Priests (D'ai Shaton)

Requirements: Wis 14
Prime Requisite: Wisdom
Alignment: N, LN
Weapons: Falchion, quarterstaff, lasso, dart, sai, chain
Armor: None
Major Spheres: All, Astral, Charm, Divination, Law, Numbers, Thought, Time
Minor Spheres: Healing, Protection
Magical Items: as clerics
Required Proficiencies: Falchion, Quarterstaff (suggested specialization)
Bonus Proficiencies: Tumbling, Religion

Granted Powers

D'ai Shaton may purchase rogue proficiencies at no additional cost. At the discretion of the DM, all priests of Xan Yae add an additional +5 to the result of a check to determine if the priest will possess a psionic Wild Talent (see Player's Option: Skills and Powers, p. 155). This check must be made upon character creation. At 1st level, d'ai shaton gain the ability to move silently as a thief of the same level. At 3rd level, d'ai shaton may elect to use continuing specialization in an unarmed fighting style as a warrior of the same level. At 5th level, d'ai shaton may resist ESP or thought-reading magic by making a save vs. death magic at +1. At 7th level, d'ai shaton become immune to all non-magical diseases. At 9th level, d'ai shaton can cast the spell shadow door (as the 5th level wizard spell) once per day. At 14th level, d'ai shaton can cast the spell shadowcat (as the 7th level wizard spell) once per day.
Her clergy, the D'ai Shaton, are as old as the empire itself, and have served in the capacity of official state religion (though the clergy of Al-Akbar currently enjoys such a position) and arbiters of common law. As Xan Yae is acknowledged by the Bakluni as perfection incarnate, so are her clerics seen as nearly flawless specimens of humanity. They are, of course, far from the true status of the ideal exemplified by the Mistress of Perfection herself, but their rigid adherence to her doctrines and veneration of her form has pleased her considerably, and Xan Yae has granted her caliphs several advantages over the enemies of the empire.
One such gift is the Edel, the practice of controlling the ambient energies of the mind, which was said to have been revealed to the D'ai Shaton nearly a millennia before the first battles of the great war with the Suel. The Edel, or "gift of fate", had existed since the beginning of the Oerth, but it was Xan Yae's revelation that allowed mankind to truly tap its boundless power. Knowing that the development of the power was largely indiscriminate, she ordered her clergy to take advantage of it, a task they set to with ambition and vigor.
The Edel was confusing to the D'ai Shaton, for it developed at random and very infrequently, to Baklunish, Oeridians and even among the hated Suel, who even then attempted to enslave their northern neighbors. Those found to be gifted, regardless of nationality, were usually kidnapped and taken to the Mosque of Symmetry (located in the heart of what would become the Dry Steppes), where they were taught to harness their power with secrets passed from the lips of the goddess herself. These new initiates were labeled the Abid dal Xan, or "gifted of the mistress", and they soon rose to ranks of power within the D'ai Shaton.
Several centuries later, when the chaos of civil war within the empire consumed nearly a third of the D'ai Shaton, the caliph of the time spent three days and nights in council with her goddess, until a plan had been formulated to protect her followers from further violence. Weeks later, Xan Yae's caliph personally chose several of the most able and fit of the D'ai Shaton to become a cadre of perfectly trained warriors. She named them D'ai Shatain, and their training began on the first official day of the restabilized empire.
With the help of the Abid dal Xan (psionicists), the order developed a complicated weaponless combat known as Da'shon, Falling Hail. Since rain was sparse in the region, and hail even less infrequent, the D'ai Shatain likened their forms to the unexpected powers of nature and the elements. As the D'ai Shaton had long preached that weapons were a hindrance to the perfection of mankind, the development of Da'shon as a form of weaponless combat was essential, and the order soon became renowned as deadly but honorable protectors of the D'ai Shaton clerics. The Abid dal Xan were seen as the perfect representation of Xan Yae's mental aspect, and now the D'ai Shatain were viewed as the perfect representation of her physical aspect. Like the mentalists before them, these new fighting monks rose to positions of power within the established clergy.
Such rapid advancement didn't sit well with all of the members of the D'ai Shaton, specifically those among the Abid dal Xan who had come to expect certain promotions within the clergy after a given amount of progress or service. The advent of an entirely new branch of the order changed the structure of the whole considerably, and it is highly likely that many a qualified individual was passed up at this time in favor of the more influential members of the D'ai Shatain.Such occurrences bothered the mentalists, but all complaints were met with the same cold response.
The Caliph was indeed great, some of the Abid dal Xan stressed, but can she read the thoughts of another? Is she able to lift objects with a simple thought? How could she not have foreseen the destruction that ushered in the new age of the Baklunish Empire? Many among those bearing the Edel had warned the Caliph of the oncoming danger, but she had ignored them. Was it possible that the Mistress' one chosen representative on Oerth could be so imperfect? Within a decade, nearly half of the Abid dal Xan looked upon the Caliph, and her D'ai Shatain, with contempt.
The first among the Abid dal Xan to abandon the D'ai Shaton brought worried looks from the Caliph's advisors. The man, one Daiid, had been one of the greatest trainers among the psions. He had used the original teachings of the mistress herself and expanded them in creative and highly successful ways. Though the lifestyle of the entire order could best be described as acetic, Daiid had been a celebrity within the D'ai Shaton. When three lesser trainers likewise left the order, the Caliph herself was said to have spent the better part of a week attempting to contact her patron. She was, however, unsuccessful, and the following year saw almost a third of the Abid dal Xan across the empire follow Daiid's example. The Caliph had their names read aloud in the Mosque of Symmetry, and she branded each individual an infidel, Jafel, and called for their capture.
The year, as the Bakluni measured them, was 2143. Things would not improve.
The Suel, still bitter over the internal squabbles that had seen their best chance at Bakluni conquest pass them by, looked upon the Jafel and smiled. Many of the Jafel fell in with neighboring Suel nobility and, for a price, conducted psychic espionage on the Baklunish Empire. Certainly not all of the Jafel defected so, and it is known that this information brought some three score of the heretics crawling back on their knees, begging the Caliph for forgiveness. History does not record their fate.
Magical scrying had long been used by both the Suel and the Bakluni. Indeed, it was a popular theory in the southern empire that the Abid dal Xan existed solely for the purpose of espionage, though this was staunchly denied by the D'ai Shaton. As the situation developed, it appeared as though little could be done to staunch the oncoming flow of horrible violence. Finally, pressed into action by the circumstance that surrounded them, the D'ai Shaton ordered certain of the Abid dal Xan to probe into the affairs of their southern neighbors.
The state into which the Jafel had fled was one of the northern holds of the Suel people and, while technically considered a border front, its land had been overfarmed and its forests cut to the stumps. It was a veritable wasteland which, for whatever reason, held a remarkably small standing army. It seemed as though the Suelite Imperator, having long ago used the land to its maximum potential, held it now only as a favor for some small and largely insignificant lordling. To increase his status within the empire, that lordling had harbored heretics of the Baklunish Empire.
Seeing the tense situation at risk here while appreciating the strategic value of the Jafel (mental powers rarely developed amongst the Suel), the Suel Imperator offered a full company of soldiers to the petty noble. The Abid dal Xan, scrying from their monasteries to the north, discovered with horror that, once they had organized in the nearby Suel city of Pardos, this company would be difficult to overcome. The Bakluni needed a small strike force if a full-scale war was to be averted.
Relations between the Bakluni and Suel had worsened considerably in the previous centuries, and open warfare was a regular, if half-hearted, occurrence. The newly established Padishah-Kings understood the significance of the Jafel's treason, and wished to act quickly. They conferred with the elemental Mage-Priests and, at the Caliph's suggestion, decided to send the D'ai Shatain against the Jafel and their Suel handlers.