5th Edition,  D&D,  Monday Mythology,  RPG,  Uncategorized

Monday Mythology: Salphan, Accursed of Dreams

Salphan, Accursed of Dreams

Other Titles: Dreambreaker, Doomweaver, King of the Unknowable

Alignment: NG

Weapon: Shortbow (Thought Piercer)

Major Domains:  Dreams, Nightmares,Mystery

Minor Domains:  Revelation, Honesty, Whispers

Totem Animal/Warform:  Owl (His warform comprised of Fire and Ash)

Holy Symbol: A Yellow, Clawed hand holding a lidless eye between its thumb and forefinger

Favored Appearances: Salphan prefers the company of those he deems educated and perceptive enough to understand his messages and whispers. To that end, he most often adopts the form of a scholarly elf with generally angular features, graying hair and golden-yellow eyes.The robes that Salphan wears are a dull, pale yellow and are so voluminous as to conceal all most all of his physical form. His hand, as well as his face, are able to be seen clearly.  Both forms he takes has the face as the focal point, each exemplifying the most primal and basic concepts of each. The man has a large, powerful forehead and a heavy, dominating brow, much more like a human than an elf. His nose is broken, bent, and flattened, and his deepset eyes glow with vigor and life. The Female has a thin face, with high cheekbones and large, wide eyes shaded with dainty eyebrows and a small, thin forehead. Both have thin, dainty hands best used for writing, with little use for weapons.

Personality: Salphan is quite generous, but he is also fond of mystery and the act of discovering what that mystery means, sometimes providing in strange and mysterious ways which no one understands until after the fact. He loves mystery, but knows nothing about the future, which leads many of his nightmares and dreams to be about discovering the truth about oneself or the past. He is extremely interested in seeing how the current races and peoples handle the truth of the past, where they come from, and what they are meant to be. Quiet, calm and collected, he is the smartest of the hotheads that are the Accursed, and though he speaks rarely, his counsel is often heeded when he does.

Teachings: Salphan teaches that the greatest of revelations comes from learning the truth and understanding the mystery beyond something. The key to these revelations and truth are gleaned from the nightmares and dreams that one experiences, as they are truly the greatest expression of ones inner self. Using these dreams and interpreting them to the highest standards of intellectual pursuit is the quickest and strongest method of empowerment. However, there is much to be feared in dreams and reality, and what some embrace, others fear. Nothing is quite so feared as knowledge that others do not understand, be wary of those who confuse your knowledge with the capacity and desire to do harm

Abode: Salphan lives on the edges of the Accursed lands in the Iron Marches in the Nightmare Spire, a black and bronze edifice of his own construction. the grounds of the spire are an intricate garden of basalt, rust and lead in a thousand razorsharp configurations with only one true path through.

Cultists: The Cult of Salphan hide their true nature not because they believe they are doing anything wrong, but because they find themselves, in their eyes, wrongly persecuted.  Interpreters of dreams and nightmares are seen as doing accursed work, and those who experience those same dreams and nightmares are of ill portent themselves. The cultists, however, see themselves as doing the right thing and helping the common person, or perhaps a king or noble of some sort, to more completely understand themselves. Few see the benefit of using the accursed for this type of assistance, but their knowledge and ability to interpret these messages has lead them to be the most accepted of the Accursed Cultists, a terribly held secret within almost all lands. 

Knightly Orders: There is a secret society of Warriors of Salphan, the Dreamstriders, who have learned to go into dreams and exist in them for short times. In the Waking World simple minutes have passed, but the dreamstriders have existed for lifetimes in the realm of the dream. In the Dream Relm, however, they seek out the dreams and nightmares of others in order to expand their knowledge and power of the great movers and shakers in the Waking world. Dreams are dangerous places, and they have scoured thousands on thousands and transformed into extremely skilled warriors.

Clerical Attire/colors: Salphans colors are a somber, dull yellow and an iron gray, typically taken together as Iron and Topaz. His followers will almost always wear a single topaz of some sort, often carved into a vague eye, somewhere on their person. Those who flaunt his worship wear a single earring featuring the Iron Eye and Topaz.

Followers: Mages, Clerics and some wiley bards are those who lean furthest to Salphans worship, and the majority are from those professions. Oracles, Soothsayers and other prophets also can end up worshiping him, though it is his ability to know the truth that they seek from him, not the actual future sight itself.