Yao Long the Laborer
Saint of Hunting, Farming, Animals, and Cycles
Titles: The Laborer, Lord of the Hunt, Baron of the Bowstring, The Fieldfather, The Everhunter, The Scarred Simpleton
Favored Weapon: Composite Longbow
Alignment: Earth
Elemental Lord: Daknuzun, The Chthonic Queen
Obedience: Spend an hour performing simple, hard work such as fletching arrows, tilling a field, carving wood, or some such simple but laborious task.
Effect: Any effect which would cause you to become fatigued deals an additional 1d6 points of nonlethal damage instead. Any effect that would cause exhaustion likewise causes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage and leaves you fatigued instead of exhausted.
Divine Domains
Plant, Protection, Animal, Community, Law(Inevitable and Judgement Subdomains ONLY)
Holy Books & Codes
The Farmer's Almanac
Divine Symbols & Sigils
A plow crossed with a bow
Tenets of Faith
Watch over the natural world and keep it safe from exploitation and destruction. Protect the natural beauty of the world.
Be the voice of the trees, plants, and beasts, and keep them safe. Ravage those who dare infringe upon either unjustly.
Never let hunt nor harvest go to waste. Waste not nature's bounty.
Hard work is honest work, and will forge an honest soul. Take pride in labor and toil and encourage it in others, that it will grind their flaws and lies to polish.
Uphold the cycles of the world. Life, Death, and the Circle of Life are sacrosanct. Punish those who violate or break them.
Divine Goals & Aspirations
To preach the ways of hard, honest labor.
To keep nature safe from exploitation and abuse.
To protect all the plants and beasts and trees that dwell within nature.
Followers & Priesthood
Yao Long's followers tend to be as simple as the Saint himself - the majority of his followerbase is spread out amongst simple farming communities, small villages, and settlements placed out in the untamed wildnerness. He counts a vast amount of druids, hunters, and rangers as part of his faith, and is given passive faith by most all laborers, even if only lip service - as the patron Saint of labor and hard work, his followers reflect this. Those who are most attracted to his faith are those who hold a heavy love for nature and its beasts and want to see their beauty preserved, as well as those who enjoy the simple creed of "hard work makes right". Uniquely, he even counts a large number of Forest Elves among his faith, who respect the Human God's nature-forward beliefs and simple creed of living in tune with nature. This means that most any can become a follower of Yao Long, but those that stick around in his faith tend to be those who enjoy a simpler existence, or those in tune with nature - his faith and creed of long, hard labor quickly roots out those who join his faith for reputation or for social reasons. His followers often tend to organize themselves with incredible simple organizations, often organizing themselves by village or settlement - or otherwise the location in which they live. They treat themselves more like a family than a church, as his followers often tend to settle down and become incredible familiar with each other over years of life lived on the frontier together in small communities and villages, ekeing out an existence on the wild frontier. They are typically led by a Druid with the title of "Chief", though in especially populous areas or areas where his faith flourishes many smaller communities and their Chiefs might be led by an Archdruid or even a Druid Circle - but regardless, these druids act more like Fathers than heads of the faith. This makes Yao Long's faith incredible flexible - the Chiefs handle disputes and settle differences, and if a member of the faith wishes to move, they organize things with the local chief in the area or, if there are none, give them needed supplies and materials to make the journey.Ethics
Much like the Simple Saint himself, Yao Long's followers follow a simple creed of hard labor and diligent work. They believe that hard work is an inherently truthful and pious act, and that through performing acts of hard labor, one's flaws are slowly grinded down and perfected, lies are revealed, and all is made right - the truth of hard work is central to their beliefs, and they disprove of shortcuts in general, preferring to take the long and arduous path through their life and work as they believe doing so will polish their body and spirits to the best they possibly can be. They also believe in protecting nature and its beasts, and are often avid defenders of the forests and all its plants and animals - whether as druids who literally speak for the trees and animals or as simple natural activists who do their best to keep it safe and keep away those who would abuse and use it. In their own way, they also believe in protecting the cycles of the world, primarily dealing with the Cycle of Life, but to a lesser extent those such as Life, Death, Time, etc - the immutable aspects of the world which should not be perverted or broken. Though this is generally the purview of the saints of Mokmonid, The Everdark Emperor, Yao Long's followers can often be found performing similar tasks and sometimes even assisting followers of those saints in hunting down necromancers or those who would pervert the world's natural laws and cycles for themselves, though for different reasons.History
Yao Long's history is one that has been, over the course of millennia, become irrevocably mixed with fairy tales and myths - the legend of "Yao Long the Laborer" is such that countless children are raised hearing of his tales and exploits, of how the simple-minded man, born without great intelligence or wit, spent his life in labor and hard work. The truth of his tale has been long since lost to time, but the fairy tale persists as the only record of his life, as he is believed to have been one of the first of Daknuzun, The Chthonic Queen's Saints, having lived at the beginning of the Age of Rebirth as a survivor of the calamity that ruined the continent. This tale paints a picture of Yao Long as the living essence of Human Indomitability and the invincibility of the Mortal Spirit - such that it drove him to outwit even the Elemental Lords. With the advent of the Spirit Kings, it is said that, during their journies fixing and righting the continent, Nazzon, The Godflame Duke himself stumbled upon Yao Long, diligently protecting a small thicket of trees that had somehow survived the calamity of the times. His curiosity piqued by this simple human who had survived the calamity that had summoned The Spirit Kings and Elemental Lords to fix the land, Nazzon began tearing down the forest that Yao Long stood in defense of, to clear the ground so the Spirit Kings may make it anew. However, as the Godflame Duke began to burn down his forest, Yao Long stubbornly stood in his path, putting out his flames with equal diligence to that which Nazzon was laying them down with. Enraged that a mortal would stand in his path, Nazzon demanded he stand aside lest his life be snuffed out - the forest's destruction was the will of the Spirit Kings, and he promised it would be remade anew, greater than before - his strength to have survived the calamity was respected, but now was not the time for stubbornness, so Nazzon claimed. But Yao Long would not budge. When Nazzon, furious, demanded to know why he stood in his way, Yao Long simply replied "I stand in defense of these trees because they cannot do so themselves. I need no other reason.". This reply obviously infuriated The Godflame Duke, who challenged the simpleton to a contest - he would show him the might of the Spirit Kings in a test of labor and skill, and bid that the first of the two to mine a straight path through a nearby mountain would be the victor, and earn the right to do as they pleased. Despite knowing the Godflame Duke would hold an advantage clearing a path through solid rock thanks to his flames, Yao Long accepted without hesitation - and with Daknuzun, The Chthonic Queen and Okmog, The Calcareous King in attendence as Judges, the contest began. For seven days and nights did they labor, and so far ahead had Nazzon gotten on the first day, mere feet from the end, that he chose to cockily take a break just before his tunnel's completion - dozing off to sleep just to prove himself best. But, when he awoke, he found that Yao Long had not only matched him but exceeded him - driving through the mountain for seven days and nights without rest, with nothing but a simple iron pick, Yao Long had broken through the other side of the mountain, his body in tatters, and claimed victory - though he died on his feet moments after breaking through the mountain. So it came to be that, having bested the arrogant Nazzon, The Godflame Duke in a contest of willpower, taught him a valuable lesson and was enshrined into Sainthood by Daknuzun, The Chthonic Queen, who saw promise in his invincible willpower and simple-minded defense of nature, and made him her first Lieutenant in the remaking of Zheng-Kitar.
Divine Classification
Elemental Saint
Children
Example Divine Oaths
Oath of the Naturewarden: Keep the natural world safe from those who would exploit it. Destroy and/or re-educate those who would squander its gifts, exploit it, or enact needless cruelties on the creatures that dwell within it.
Oath of the Worker: Never take a shortcut in your work or to achieve your goals. Always strive to take the longest and most arduous path available where it is feasible, to improve yourself and others. Give respect and trust to hard, honest workers and those who undertake ardous tasks or labor.
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