Calsarrex - "The Buried God"
Calsarrex is known as the Buried One, the Lord of Dust and Bones, and the Sepulcher King. He is the incarnation of earth in its most violent and isolating sense. Calsarrex is the crushing avalanche of rocks and boulders that sweeps away mountain settlements, the pull of quicksand that leaves men buried and forgotten to the ages, and he is the collapsing of ancient tunnels that isolates and buries the ruins and cities of great Underdark cultures.
Calsarrex is a god of buried and lost secrets, who holds in his hands the knowledge of those who have come before, lost to the passage of time and buried beneath the earth. His home is one of his own construction, known as the Maze of Dismay located within the Elemental Plane of Earth. Made in mockery of the Dao genies and their many societies located within confounding tunnels known as Mazeworks, the Maze of Dismay is said to be impossible for even the native creatures of stone to find their way through. Many do try, either out of arrogance or the alluring promise of forgotten secrets, but none that have ever stepped inside the Maze have ever left. Legends claim the only one to ever succeed in navigating the Maze was a young goblin girl who was given the knowledge of many druidic practices to share with her shaman, who had lost his connection to the primal elements after the restructuring of magic that began with The Ruination and was able to reclaim his strength afterwards.
Calsarrex is a god of give and take, as while far from altruistic he is not a creature of destruction like many of his other elemental god-kin. Calsarrex understands that to destroy others utterly is to prevent the rise of civilizations, and these civilizations must rise if they are to one day fall and their secrets become his. A dead race offers no tribute. Like the tectonic plates of a world, his favors push and pull. If one is to gain something, something else must be given somewhere else. Calsarrex promises the secrets of the forgotten in exchange for other knowledge it deems useful.
Calsarrex possesses some of the most varied depictions, as none can claim to have ever seen the god. Some claim he is a skeleton of a massive beast or humanoid, others say he is the Maze of Dismay itself. Naturally artists run wild with their depictions, and Calsarrex is uncaring for the myriad of ways he is depicted, more than likely because each is so inaccurate that the accepted perceptions will likely make it impossible to recognize the real sight of him as genuine should someone finally gaze upon his true form.
Areas of Concern: earth, buried secrets, ruins Divine Realm: Maze of Dismay, Elemental Plane of Earth Alignment: Lawful Evil Typical Follower Alignments: LN, LE, NE Edicts: Protect yourself and your secrets, obscure your true motives, petrify or bury those who hold secrets you don’t wish to be discovered Anathema: Share your knowledge and secrets without gaining something in return, restore ruins Doctrines and Beliefs: Followers of the Lord of Dust and Bones are a paranoid bunch and are rarely taught in conventional gatherings, instead favoring a more direct and personal teacher and student role. There the teacher, usually a devotee of Calsarrex, teaches their protege the ways of their god. Most individuals that seek to devote themselves to the Buried God do so because they desire the secrets of the dead, lost to the passages of time, and possess a paranoia of others who might either seek to undo their efforts or steal that knowledge for themselves. As such these devotees learn first and foremost the ways of secrecy, of obscuring one’s personal motivations and more. Calsarrex is more than willing to share knowledge to his followers, in exchange for their own secrets of course. The nature of such a secret holds no value to Calsarrex if the devotee has already shared this knowledge with others before or is not exclusive to the bargainer. Rarely however does Calsarrex share the whole truth with a follower, often greedily holding onto the rest for himself, though this fact the bargainer is rarely aware of. Worshippers of Calsarrex also engage in acts of murder to obtain the secrets they desire from their god. In some occasions a servant of the Buried God has no valued secret to give to their god, and instead seeks out individuals that might possess many secrets, like a high ranking government official, or a mage, or someone else appropriate. The servant then seeks either to petrify them in stone, or bury them alive so that their secrets in death become Calsarrex’s, as payment for what they seek. Worshippers: Most worshippers of Calsarrex are paranoid individuals that desperately seek an answer to a long sought question that has turned into an obsession, or those who seek to shroud themselves in mystery over a fear of opening themselves to others. Often these people are historians or archeologists, or those who chose other solitary professions to begin with before they find themselves dedicated to the Buried God. Others are manipulators and abusers who have a skill in gaining the misplaced trust of others for their own ends, including but not limited to power over others. Some are those who start as good meaning people with a dark past that they wish for themselves and others to forget, and dedicate themselves to Calsarrex to bury the past. In time their paranoia and anxiety pushes them towards worse and worse acts in service to Calsarrex, especially as they learn the ways of the other faithful.
Areas of Concern: earth, buried secrets, ruins Divine Realm: Maze of Dismay, Elemental Plane of Earth Alignment: Lawful Evil Typical Follower Alignments: LN, LE, NE Edicts: Protect yourself and your secrets, obscure your true motives, petrify or bury those who hold secrets you don’t wish to be discovered Anathema: Share your knowledge and secrets without gaining something in return, restore ruins Doctrines and Beliefs: Followers of the Lord of Dust and Bones are a paranoid bunch and are rarely taught in conventional gatherings, instead favoring a more direct and personal teacher and student role. There the teacher, usually a devotee of Calsarrex, teaches their protege the ways of their god. Most individuals that seek to devote themselves to the Buried God do so because they desire the secrets of the dead, lost to the passages of time, and possess a paranoia of others who might either seek to undo their efforts or steal that knowledge for themselves. As such these devotees learn first and foremost the ways of secrecy, of obscuring one’s personal motivations and more. Calsarrex is more than willing to share knowledge to his followers, in exchange for their own secrets of course. The nature of such a secret holds no value to Calsarrex if the devotee has already shared this knowledge with others before or is not exclusive to the bargainer. Rarely however does Calsarrex share the whole truth with a follower, often greedily holding onto the rest for himself, though this fact the bargainer is rarely aware of. Worshippers of Calsarrex also engage in acts of murder to obtain the secrets they desire from their god. In some occasions a servant of the Buried God has no valued secret to give to their god, and instead seeks out individuals that might possess many secrets, like a high ranking government official, or a mage, or someone else appropriate. The servant then seeks either to petrify them in stone, or bury them alive so that their secrets in death become Calsarrex’s, as payment for what they seek. Worshippers: Most worshippers of Calsarrex are paranoid individuals that desperately seek an answer to a long sought question that has turned into an obsession, or those who seek to shroud themselves in mystery over a fear of opening themselves to others. Often these people are historians or archeologists, or those who chose other solitary professions to begin with before they find themselves dedicated to the Buried God. Others are manipulators and abusers who have a skill in gaining the misplaced trust of others for their own ends, including but not limited to power over others. Some are those who start as good meaning people with a dark past that they wish for themselves and others to forget, and dedicate themselves to Calsarrex to bury the past. In time their paranoia and anxiety pushes them towards worse and worse acts in service to Calsarrex, especially as they learn the ways of the other faithful.
Devotee Benefits:
Divine Ability: Intelligence or Charisma Divine Font: Harm Divine Skill: Deception or Society Sanctification: Can choose Unholy Favored Weapon(s): Scimitar or Shield type weapons Domains: Darkness, Dust, Earth, Glyph, Secrecy Alternate Domains: Decay, Destruction, Knowledge, Trickery, Vigil Cleric Spells 1st: Shockwave 2:, 5th: Wall of Stone, 8th: Earthquake
Children
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