Sheb, Patron of the Ambitious

The Explorer, the Hollow Triumph, the Sole Survivor

"A THOUSAND TIMES THEY SAID I COULDN'T, AND A THOUSAND TIMES I DID. NOW I AM A GOD, AND I WISH THEY HAD BEEN RIGHT."

Sheb was a boisterous and braggadocious mortal human ranger during the first era, shortly after the establishment of the First Kingdom in Yalgu. He spent his life charting the uncharted places and daring further and further toward the western edge of the world. He was the first human to pass through the Aegis Mountains, the first to trespass the Nightsun forest, and the first to make contact with the halflings of Darret. He blazed a trail that would lead the humans out of Yalgu and into the rest of the world.

But of all his discoveries - there are dozens, if not hundreds - perhaps the most important was his discovery of Coda, the island at the end of the world. There he also discovered the Delve and founded Sheb's Holdout, a hamlet where heroes seeking to conquer the Delve could rest. He forayed into the Delve 17 times with groups of varying power, and 17 times, he was the only one to return. Each time he returned to the Holdout alone he seemed to lose a bit of his braggadocio; the bright fire behind his eyes dimmed in its light even as it burned more intensely. His affable ambition gave way to ominous obsession. The final time he emerged from the Delve, he glowed with a twinkling royal purple, declared himself a God, and departed Coda in a canoe headed southward. He had, without question, done the impossible and cemented his legend. But those who saw his face and heard his words saw and heard the sheer emptiness of a man with no mountains left to climb, jaded, with shadowed face and leaden feet. The dwarven steward of Sheb's Holdout declared the hamlet would thereafter be named the Holdout of the Hopeless; in the current age, it is referred to by either name, though its existence is not widely known nor sought out.

As a God, he now represents man's essential bond with nature and the tenacity to eke out life in impossible places, to push oneself, to defy the odds. However, he also represents the folly of unchecked ambition, single-minded obsession, hollow achievement, and the price of tempting fate one too many times. Nonetheless, the tale of his travels and his ascension to divinity has inspired generations of adventurers from every race and corner of Deus Augustus, and none question whether he has rightfully earned his place among the First Pantheon.

Deific Companions

True Gods have the ability to create or empower other beings with a portion of their divine energies. Unlike other Gods, Sheb sees the other divine beings in his cohort to be companions, not his subordinates. Any of the following entities may be honored or worshipped alongside or instead of Sheb while still retaining Sheb's boon (Terminal Triumph).
Rasim Tequari, the Antiquarian

Cleric followers of Rasim Tequari can also choose the Arcana domain.
Rasim Tequari was a Tiefling, one of the first born in the early years of the slow downfall of the Squandered City in Bolok. He was a historian, scholar, delver of deeps, finder of forgotten things and forbidden places. In his middle years, he attained divinity by some unknown means, and he wishes to guide mortals to follow the path he tread in life - a path of knowledge without avarice and exploration without exploitation. The fearless knowledge-seekers that look to him for guidance are narrowly missed by traps, decipher brain-twisting puzzles, and always seem to escape the wrath of pursuing hordes by the skin of their teeth.
However, as a mortal, he was constantly in conflict with fellow-adventurers, for it is said that the Antiquarian ill-approved of tomb robbers and those rapacious adventurers that only explore to loot and plunder. Unfortunately, many such folk call themselves followers of Sheb, and many misappropriate Rasim's name and legacy as they gather and hoard ancient lore and powerful relics. Still, such heresies do not go always go unpunished. Whether the guilty and their ilk know it or not, the subtle curse of Rasim oft falls upon overzealous looters; taverns overflow with stories of adventurers who pushed their luck and fed their greed one too many times before falling victim to a pit of spikes or a cursed relic of antiquity.

Divine Domains

Divine Domains
Nature
Knowledge
Forge
Ambition

Follower Boon: Terminal Triumph

Followers of Sheb gain the Terminal Triumph ability.

Teminal Triumph. During your turn, you may take an additional action. If you do, immediately after you take this action, you are stunned until the end of your next turn and you lose this ability until you finish a long rest. You cannot use this ability if you have already taken more than one action this turn.

 Updated 4/11/22