Cleric of the Ascended

All that we worked for, all that we lived for... all gone in an instant. Why?

— anguished cleric

To be a cleric is to devote your life in divine service to your deity. It is to spend countless hours studying the texts of your deity, and to spend even longer reciting those texts to your fellow adherents. It is to be granted the boon of divine magic, and to share that boon throughout the world.
It is to have a stable role in society, and know that it shall never be disrupted or replaced.

Cleric of Cayden Cailean by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Clerics of the Ascended were originally clerics to the deities Iomedae, Cayden Cailean, and Norgorber. For better or for worse, they served their deities with every ounce of expected loyalty.
There was never any sign that their faith could be shattered - and yet it was, in an instant. When the Lost Ones thought they had triumphed over the foul influence of the Unbroken March, they took the accursed book to the Boneyard, realm of Pharasma - the goddess of Fate and Death.
The Shard had not truly been defeated. In what would be its final act, it seized the threads of fate and snapped them. First Iomedae, the fair queen of Heaven. Then Cayden Cailean, the freedom-loving wanderer of Elysium. And finally, almost as an afterthought, Norgorber, assassin of Abaddon.
All three had once walked as mortals upon another world - the distant land of Golarion - and in this instant, the Shard returned them to their mortal state.

Every cleric, every warpriest, every paladin - indeed, every divine caster that drew power from any of the trio - felt that very instant. For it was an unforgettable, unmissable feeling, one that gnawed at their very core.
Three gods had fallen. Thousands of clerics had lost their power, all at once.

It was a tragedy beyond tragedies. Even those unaffected by it - the commonfolk - were struck with fear. Some were healing wounds, some were stood upon the battlefield... all faltered, in that moment.

— former cleric

Perception

Purpose

Purpose? Purpose? Our god is fallen - possibly dead - and you'd speak to us of purpose?!

— infuriated cleric of Cayden Cailean

With the felling of their deities came the complete loss of their purpose. The clerics, who had devoted so long, were left astray. Their friends and followers, too, felt the shock. Without anything left to guide them, how could they continue? For some, the shock was too great, and they retired. Others lost their lives to the lack of ability, owing to the sudden shift in their situation; this was especially true for clerics of Norgorber, due to the deity's evil, shadowed nature.

For many, though, the waiting game had begun. Either their deity would re-ascend, or they would be guided to another by their deity's servants.
Indeed, Cayden Cailean's herald - Thais, a former prostitute and friend of his - now spends her days travelling with some of his other servants to offer support and guidance to the lost. Many of these, she introduces to other deities - Desna, Kurgess, and Calistria among them.
Those who followed Iomedae, however, found their situation shift. Whilst their deity had undoubtedly fallen, and they had certainly lost their powers, it was within the next two months that those powers began to seep back - but differently.
Spells that had once granted them the power to summon righteous fury down upon the damned now shot scarlet flame. Spells aiming to motivate the depressed had taken on a sharper edge. The change was shocking, and there seemed to be no answer as to what had happened.

Cleric of Norgorber by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

It was a group of elven clerics who recognised the signs, for it was an elven deity who had been through similar once before. Clerics of Seren, the Progenitor of Elvenkind, had borne witness to a similar calamity when Seren had imprisoned the evil deity Marvaeth within her. Though Seren's influence grew stronger over time, the taint of Marvaeth's power never left, and so her worship gradually faded.
So this, then, must have been what happened to dear Iomedae! Struck down by evil, she must have risen up to consume it - her golden power struggling to contain it, yet present. In light of this new information, clerics of Iomedae once again began to travel the world, sharing news of this assumed change... all without ever hearing word from their deity.
Whether Cayden Cailean and Norgorber would eventually return, each altered by their travails, was not known. Indeed, it remains uncertain to this day.

A god's death is much different from their fall. Their silence does not mean their demise; it means they fight a war we cannot see.

— wise cleric of Iomedae

Cleric of Iomedae by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Alternative Names

Cleric of the Lost, Fallen Cleric

Type

Religious

Demand

None

Famous in the Field

• Ypolita Ouranios

Related Technologies

• Divine Magic

The Truth of Iomedae's Return

In all honesty, those elven clerics predicting the cause of Iomedae's return were not wrong. Indeed, she was entrapped in a duel with an evil deity - the very Shard that had destroyed her own divinity.
The loss of her divinity had not meant the destruction of Iomedae's power, and in a selfless final act, she had shaped her power into a blade for the Lost Ones to wield.
This, they had used to pierce the Unbroken March's cover - using Iomedae's full weight to overcome the already-defeated Shard's corruption, and forever binding the two deities together.
Cayden Cailean and Norgorber had followed Iomedae's example, but it is not yet known what has become of the two remaining blades...

We knew they weren't dead. For one, we'd have felt their pain if they'd died... and for two, we had no sign from on high to tell us it was so. The dwarves, they had writings from the death of one of the Dwarven Pantheon... this was different, very different, to what they'd written.
But... if the elves have seen this happen before... why did it happen again, and only to one of them..?

— cleric