Nethys

The All-Seeing Eye

God of Magic

Magic is all things, and in all things. It is in the air, the stone, the flame, the water. It is time, space, and the void. It will nurture you, it will consume you, and always will it be your master. —The Book of Magic
The All-Seeing Eye, god of magic, has a dualistic nature of destruction and preservation; his ability to witness all things has shattered his mind.

Ancient Osirian legends speak of the god-king Nethys, a man whose monomaniacal pursuit of magic opened the fabric of reality to his probing vision, revealing to him the secrets of creation in this world and in the Great Beyond. The sight catapulted him to godhood and tore apart his sanity, creating two minds in one body. Now his fractured mind seeks both to cleanse the world through its destruction and to guard and heal it, to bend and preserve it, to conquer and free it. Nethys is a god of two warring personalities, prone to sudden and unexpected mood swings. He teaches that the use of magic for its own sake is the highest calling of mortals, for it is only through magic that one can change reality itself, and he embraces all who take up magical study. He does not care about the type of magic involved or the ends to which people turn it, only that they honor it and exult in its gifts. He represents all magic, from the most benign healing spells to the vilest necromancy, and mortal spellcasters of all alignments ask for his blessing.
Nethys’s only concern is magic—its use, creation, and innovation. He is aware of his mortal worshipers and rewards their devotion with divine power, but not for their use of magic alone. When some mortal tyrant outlaws the use of magic, Nethys expects his followers to intervene, though he issues no call to crusade. Likewise, those who perceive new avenues of magic and pursue them gain his favor, regardless of the nature or purpose of the magic. His total awareness means he sees every success and every failure, from the first cantrip learned by a fledgling hedge wizard to the rudiments of star-exploding magic developed on the farthest-flung planet.
Other gods may take parental roles toward their churches, but Nethys acts more like the volatile but dispassionate guardian of an estate, unconcerned about individual heirs as long as the vast legacy of the family continues. Queries made of the All-Seeing Eye via commune and similar spells always give accurate information, but his tone might range from amused to cold to disappointed to enraged, seemingly without rhyme or reason. Other deities have tried to stabilize or cure his shattered mind and violent mood swings, but he inevitably perceives any progress as a depletion of his energy and negates their efforts. His allies have learned to tolerate his ever-changing nature, keeping him at a respectful arm’s length for the sake of his knowledge.
Nethys is a proponent of magic for all purposes, even frivolous or wasteful ones. Magic is an infinite resource that permeates all dimensions, and thus he insists there is no need to limit its use for fear of its eventual depletion. He sees magic-drained places like the Mana Wastes as aberrations, tumors in the world that can be excised, though dealing with them is not a high priority unless they begin to grow and threaten the healthy flow of magic elsewhere. Nethys isn’t averse to technology unless it interferes with or supplants magic; indeed, he relishes the blending of technology and magic.
Nethys normally appears as a male human crackling with power, one side of him burned and broken, the other half calm and serene. This duality is usually emphasized in artwork, which often depicts the god releasing terrible magic from his broken side even as he casts spells from his good side to heal the wounds he just caused. Though he is generally depicted as Garundi, some regional temples deviate from this by showing him as a member of a prominent local race or as an Azlanti.
Outside of promoting the use of magic and embracing those who engage in it, Nethys is supremely indifferent to both mortals and other deities. Pleas for mercy or justice, incitements to violence, and invocations of fairness or the balance of power have no effect on him; he acts in the interest of increasing magical knowledge or according to his whim, but is otherwise unpredictable and unreliable.
He is not known for showing favor or wrath to his followers or enemies in the form of divine intervention, a fact that many of his worshipers note with some pride. Layfolk, especially peasants, believe that invoking his name may help to ward off curses, hexes, the evil eye, and other superstitions, though his utter disregard for those who do not practice magic means these invocations fall on deaf ears. The devout believe that zones of unpredictable magic manifest where Nethys passes close to the Material Plane, though there is no confirmation of this from the god himself. Likewise, his church teaches that the manifestation of zones of “empty magic” (where magic simply doesn’t function) are indications of his anger at someone or something in that area, though there is no evidence that this is true.
His holy symbol is his face, half black and half white, which might be highly detailed or abstracted to little more than a two-tone, shield-shaped mask without holes.

Divine Domains

destruction, knowledge, magic, protection

Holy Books & Codes

The official text of the church is The Book of Magic, a comprehensive guide for casting spells and channeling magic, as well as a treatise on the moral ramifications of its use and misuse. As might be expected from a Nethysian text, the book often comes down squarely on one side of certain issues, only to contradict itself a few paragraphs later. Most scholars consider it useless as an ethical guide, since these inconsistencies put forth a worldview fractured to the point of insanity—temples of Nethys tend to adopt whichever codicils are most convenient for their particular needs.
The information within the book is detailed enough that someone with a proclivity for wizardry can often eventually come to understand the basics of a few cantrips by reading it from cover to cover, and more than one great wizard has started out by reading a stolen copy of this book and using it as the foundation for decades of study and innovation. Likewise, some latent sorcerers see their power blossom after sleeping (sometimes unknowingly) near a copy of the book.

Tenets of Faith

Edicts seek out magical power and use it
Anathema pursue mundane paths over magical ones

Holidays

The month of Neth is named for the All-Seeing Eye. The church has three holidays shared by all temples.
Abjurant Day: On 8 Neth, the faithful work together to shore up mutual defenses and train friends and children in defensive magic. It’s also traditionally a day for testing possible apprentices; some evil casters do so by performing deadly tests upon kidnapped subjects to find promising students and eliminate potential rivals.
Evoking Day: 18 Neth is a day of magical fireworks displays, dueling (both mock and real), and trading spells. Among the Garundi, even commoners celebrate helpful magic by dancing with bright streamers and wearing black-and-white flowing robes designed to flare out around the waist when the wearers spin.
Transmutatum: 28 Neth is a day of reflection and self-improvement. Some traditionalists believe it is fortuitous to begin researching spells or crafting difficult magic items on this day.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Relations with other Religions

Nethys’s shattered mind makes him an uncertain ally in long-term plans, but he is able to negotiate with other deities, and doesn’t turn on them unless his omniscient senses reveal threats or imminent betrayals. Much like his martial counterpart, Gorum, with whom he shares a mutual appreciation for power and strategy, he is indifferent to the ethics of an engagement: many deities rely on his aid from time to time, and he might ally with anyone in the pantheon, supplying spells, magic items, or even raw magical power. Of course, he knows better than to provide more than minor spells and items to agents of Rovagug; despite his destructive aspect, he does not wish the entire world ruined.
Nethys and Irori were both mortals who ascended to godhood without use of the Starstone. Irori’s perfection of his physical self transcends the divide between the extraordinary and supernatural, something that both intrigues and vexes Nethys. He simultaneously wants to both praise Irori for his achievement and tear him apart to figure out how he did it.

Planar Allies

The All-Seeing Eye’s divine servants are ascended mortals (whom Nethys has lifted to near-divine status) and magical beings. Mirroring his many aspects, some are as nurturing as the most benign angels, while others are as murderous as the vilest fiends. Mortals seeking their advice or assistance had best ensure they summon one with compatible goals. In addition to his servitor race, the burleevs, the following creatures serve Nethys and only answer the calls of his worshipers.
Arcanotheign: Appearing as a woman-shaped cloud of swirling energy, this creature serves as the herald of Nethys. As a supernatural creature created in a moment of lucidity by an insane, omniscient god, the Arcanotheign is often left to her own devices when her master does not need her, and wanders Golarion and the planes searching for new sensations and meaning to her existence and that of the multiverse. She is a lonely creature and welcomes those who would speak to her as part of a normal conversation rather than an attempt to get information from her. Her affection for animals is related to this; they are simple creatures who make no demands of her, and her habit of animating giant bears, lions, and other animals out of earth, stone, or wood represents her respect for animals she has known in the past ages. The Arcanotheign understands she is foreign to mortal life and mortal needs. She enjoys experiencing new aromas and tastes; someone wishing to get on her good side should bring her strongly scented flowers, a tasty meal, or some other physical object that may be new to her experience, even if humans would think it stinks or is inedible.
Bard (unique female trumpet archon): Perhaps the noblest of Nethys’s servants, this neutral good being resembles a trumpet archon wearing a silvery mask. Skilled with any magic relating to sound, music, or rhythm, she uses the mask in place of a trumpet, projecting bolts of pure sonic energy with the power of her voice.
Takaral (unique male lich): Other than his all-white eyes and skeletal forearms, this neutral evil lich could pass as fully human, though the scope of his knowledge of arcane magic—especially necromancy—is greater than could be amassed in most mortal lifetimes. He carries a strange, semispherical device that allows him to shield places, and allies within them, from the effects of his spells.
Yamasha (unique succubus): Sinfully beautiful, this hawk-winged neutral succubus-like creature is a master of conjuration and enchantment magic. When she answers a summons, she insists on an oath of service from the mortal conjurer, and offers him a single feather from her wing as a token of their agreement.

Edicts seek out magical power and use it
Anathema pursue mundane paths over magical ones
Follower Alignments NG, LN, N, CN, NE

Devotee Benefits

• Divine Font harm or heal

• Divine Skill Arcana

• Favored Weapon staff

• Domains destruction, knowledge, magic, protection

• Cleric Spells 1st: magic missile, 2nd: magic mouth, 3rd: levitate, 4th: blink, 5th: prying eye, 6th: wall of force, 7th: warp mind, 8th: maze, 9th: disjunction

Centers of Worship: Absalom, Geb, Katapesh, Kyonin, Nex, Numeria, Osirion, Thuvia

Aphorisms

Nethys knows more about magic than any being in the Outer Sphere, and his faithful recite aphorisms that require intimate knowledge of the arcane to decipher. A few even rely on wordplay through phonetic pronunciations of certain magical runes that take on additional meaning in key languages. Two examples of this are as follows.
The Cube Is the Red Is the Sphere: This phrase refers to an esoteric intellectual test between three wizards, in which one realizes the answer to a puzzle precisely because the other two haven’t answered it. In casual use, the aphorism exhorts the faithful to find an answer to a problem based on the failures of others, as well as to transform something worthless into something useful or valuable.
Point with the Finger of the Scorched Black Hand: Nethys’s hand, blasted with raw magic, reveals his will, directing his followers to the path of learning in a phrase with many layers of meaning. The saying also refers to the somatic component of spellcasting—though in the Draconic tongue, the words for “point with the finger” sound similar to a related phrase which means “seek the greater knowledge.” (When certain syllables are stressed, it also translates to a vulgar suggestion, a fact that delights many snickering apprentices.) Members of the faith sometimes use this as a written catchphrase to indicate their divine allegiance.

Religions

• Church of Nethys

Realm

The Maelstrom

Church/Cult

Church of Nethys