Malä

Keeper of Flocks, Soul-Bearer, the Three-Headed, of Wiles

Malä is the god of boundaries who leads souls to the Underworld. His connection with crossing boundaries links him to thieves, spies, and invaders as well as honest travelers, merchants, and messengers. His mastery of thresholds also makes him lord of spirits and the ideal divine messenger for the other gods, and his connection to the dead ties him to necromancers and resurrection. Malä appears as an impossibly pale young man with a signaling horn and is almost always accompanied by a halo of butterflies. While he can fly using his winged shoes, he often sits a pure white pegasus when delivering messages from the gods. Despite sometimes being called “the Three-Headed”, Malä only has a single head; the epithet refers to intersecting roads.

Morality

Like all of the gods, Malä’s inherent dichotomies make discussion of his morality nuanced. He is the messenger of the gods and patron of travelers and merchants, but he is also a psychopomp whose dominion over thresholds endears him to spies and thieves. Ultimately, Malä watched over those who float between worlds. He especially respects those who do so deftly – Secret for Social Stigma (Criminal Record or Minority Group) or espionage; or Trickster. He also shines his grace on devoted travelers – Vow (Own No Land or Buildings or Own No More Than What Can Be Carried). And most gods, he is always fond of those who observe appropriate Disciplines of Faith (Mysticism or Ritualism), mark his charges with a Trademark (Trace a Cross on the Forehead of the Dead) [-5], and never withhold his due – Vow (Leave Not the Dying to Suffer) [-10].

Divine Servitors

Two general groups of spirits serve Malä – those related to travel and trickery and those related to death. The former have the Travel element, often with Chaos for luck or Deception or Illusion for mischief, and the latter have Death, with the packages for Death and Death (Doubled) swapped, and possibly Order to represent the inevitability of a psychopomp. Either of these can take Good or Evil, and all have the Winged lens.

Shrines

Roadside shrines to Malä are common throughout the lands of the Trollenmere. These are usually structures just off the road with an open from and cross motifs among their decorations. Within is an alter adorned with bird feathers and a small basin to receive the blood of birds sacrificed to the traveler-god. These are particularly prominent at crossroads. Because of their often remote locations, shrines regularly fall into disrepair or become overgrown with foliage. It is right and proper to clean such shrines when found; failing to do so is believed to invite bad luck on the road.

Divine Favor

Priests of Malä are often granted shapeshifting powers and the ability to speak with anything. Other miracles are often related to movement and travel or spirits. Attacks are few and generally involve unwanted transformations. Abilities Afflictions with Advantage, Language; Allies (minor spirits), with Summonable; Alternate Form (any), often with Projected Form; Animal Empathy; Chameleon; Channeling; Detect, for illusions, projections, or transformations; Double-Jointed; Elastic Skin; Empathy; Enhanced Dodge; Enhanced Move; Growth; Hermaphromorph; Jumper (World or Spirit Language Talent; Medium; Mimicry; Mind Reading; Mind Shield; Mindlink; Morph; Plant Empathy; Regrowth; See Invisible; Shrinking; Speak with Animals; Speak with Plants; Special Rapport; Spirit Empathy; Stretching; Super Climbing; Telecommunication (Telesend and True Faith (Spirits), with Turning. Any advantage that represents different or extra body parts is also permissible, if it’s Switchable.