The truth finally revealed by the Great Inquisitor Lampion of the Sacred Lantern of Pholtus.
For years, wise men with sad faces dragged you into the darkness of the Abyss.
This is the Canon of Pholtus. Fear the Blinding Light!
The Canon of Pholtus draws on two essential elements of WGR6 Iuz the Evil by Carl Sargent.
1) the Sargent Canon tells us that Iuz enters the castle as noble Cambion and comes out as a demigod.
2) Additionally, in the Soul Husks caverns, "The energies gained by luz in those monstrous rituals are part of his being now. luz cannot destroy these remnants, since he would lose part of his powers in so doing".
From there, a minor god, St Cuthbert, Zagyg the Archmage and 4 Quasi-deities seize Iuz and imprison him. For what ? What did he do ? How can we explain that to seize a cambion, it is necessary to bring together such important powers ?
The Canon of Pholtus reveals to us that Iuz devoured the magical energies of the Soul Husks, demigods of a very ancient race.. The power he holds can make him the most powerful god in the world of Greyhawk and may be the only one. The Apotheosis is on the way and the higher-ranking gods forbid him this power. Iuz is imprisoned beneath Greyhawk Castle.
We now come to a second essential point. Eight minor gods (E Gary Gygax) (Hextor, Ralishaz, Trithereon, Erythnul, Olidammara, Heironeous, Celestian, and Obad-Hai) participate in the ritual designed by Boccob and performed by Zagyg.
The Canon of Pholtus reveals to us that these gods are not imprisoned (impossible for an Archmage) but they are sent by the higher-ranking gods to siphon Iuz of his extraordinary divine power. Iuz has entered Cambion but the Apotheosis is in progress and Iuz must be destroyed. The ninth will be Zagyg who hopes to receive his share of divine energy and become a demigod.
And Iuz is in his godtrap. The ritual begins. The eight minor-rank gods become mid-rank gods (moving from the 1982 box to FtA) and Zagyg becomes a demigod. At the end of the ritual, the process explodes, the gods return to their Outer planes with new power, Zagyg, demi-god, escapes, Iuz, demi-god, at the end of his Apotheosis remains prisoner. Half of the castle's underground passages have collapsed.
The liberation of Iuz by Robilar and others will be the subject of a new revelation of the Canon of Pholtus.
Meditate and give glory to the Blinding Light of Pholtus !
O Pholtus, O Blinding Light,
Bright is your Wisdom,
Which will help us to defeat the Heretics.
O Blinding Light.
Give us the Light of Day,
As we praise you at Dawn.
Give us the Light of Night,
As we praise you at Twilight.
O Pholtus, O Blinding Light,
We praise your Word,
Defend your Honor,
And reveal your Light.
O Blinding Light,
Protect us, your faithful servants,
O Blinding Light of Pholtus,
Light, Divine Substance of the Creator.
I find myself somewhat surprised to be so much in agreement with the Church of Pholtus.
My only suggestion for edit: the 8 minor gods who participated in the anti-Iuz ritual were, in fact, mere demigods at the time. Trapping Iuz is what elevated all of them to Lesser status.
If you like the FtA redesignations as Intermediate gods, you could argue that a process began that over the next fifteen years or so allowed them to achieve that status, while they were mere Lesser gods around CY 576.
I'm not sure I really like what FtA did to deity status. I think the earlier chart with the implied vast power gap between Greater and Lesser gods (occupied solely by the mysterious Cyndor) is more evocative and more Greyhawk.
I'd be interested if anyone thinks the Intermediate status introduced in 2e actually contributes anything interesting to the setting.
I didn't mind it. As best I can recall, at the time I thought the nuance was interesting, but I've read similar critiques to what you present and find them valid, particularly given the shift away from "gods as monsters" that followed for a time from Deities and Demigods and even 2e's deific "avatars" and related rules that suggested that PCs might one day confront gods themselves. Cf. Forgotten Realms with its modules and novels that brought gods to Faerūn, made them momentarily mortal, etc.
One thing that I recall particularly liking from the original treatment of deific power levels, and its evolution, was the limitation on clerical spell casting, with only greater gods being able to grant 9th level spells, and correspondingly less power down the line. This seemed to be a viable way to reflect deific power / rank in a way that might make sense to a PC in the game world.
One thing that I recall particularly liking from the original treatment of deific power levels, and its evolution, was the limitation on clerical spell casting, with only greater gods being able to grant 9th level spells, and correspondingly less power down the line. This seemed to be a viable way to reflect deific power / rank in a way that might make sense to a PC in the game world.
I also found that interesting and reasonable, as a DM, from a world-building point of view. However, it caused me and my group problems in actual game play.
First, no player of a cleric cared to handicap their PC at high levels by venerating a god that couldn't grant high level spells. The pay-off - as stated in that same reference, IIRC - was that the less-powerful deities would be more likely to hear a PC's prayer and directly intervene when asked.
That leads to the second problem. Even though lesser gods and demi-gods had a greater chance of responding to a PC's request, the chance was still low (2 or 3% instead of 1%). That didn't really impress my players. But, more of a problem was that it required me, as the DM, to act as the gods by directly intervening in the adventure. If I over-reacted, it ruined the challenge of the adventure. If I didn't act decisively enough in my player's opinion, they argued that it was unfair to saddle their PC with the seriously-limited spell selection without offering a seriously-powerful replacement benefit.
As a result, I did away with that particular difference between the power of gods in my campaign. It also solved the problem of Iuz being able to grant high level clerical spells to his Greater Boneheart without having to come up with a convoluted explanation about the Prime Material being his home plane, etc.
Interesting concept. It would have worked wonderfully to explain difference in deific ranks between editions.
SirXaris wrote:
I also found that interesting and reasonable, as a DM, from a world-building point of view. However, it caused me and my group problems in actual game play.
Yeah, it's one of those things that sounds good in theory but fails in practice. The issue is that either it produces zero effect (at low levels) or is crippling (at high levels).
IMC, based in the Hold of the Sea Princes, I've been careful not to create too many high level cleric NPCs, which has made even the possibility of casting raise dead very rare, and since none of the PCs are a cleric, that kind of magic can only be accessed via an NPC.
At present, the only cleric whom they know who can do it is the Jasidan (high priestess of Wee Jas) in Monmurg, who, like all Jasians (priestesses of Wee Jas), must first consult the Goddess (e.g., casting divination and receive her permission before making the attempt).
For priests of Kelanen, which I have yet to "stat out" (using 5e), I'm trying to figure out how I want to do it, as I am thinking that they typically start out as Fighters (usually Battle Masters) before receiving a calling to become a priest of the Prince of Swords.
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