Portfolio: The four elements, time, creation, secrets

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Alignment: True Neutral (unaligned)

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Titles: The Elder, the Great Lord of the Elements, the Father of Forging, the Timeless One

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Alias: Io (dragons), Moradin (dwarves)

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Astral Domain: The Pillars of Creation

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Holy Text: The Words of Creation

Symbols: A circle or diamond cut into four equal segments inside of which each contain

a representation of air, earth, fire, and water respectively.

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Chosen Weapon: Hammer and Staff

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Dogma: "True divinity is found within the act of creation, and all creation is sacred to the Father of Forging. Creation is greater than justice, love, or virtue, greater than mayhem, hatred, or vice as all such notions came to exist within creation itself. Therefore, take care what you build with the days of your breath, as all creation can be undone.”

 

“Time is a precious gift, not to be wasted. Since chaos was born, no being, mortal or god, knows the time they are given. Therefore, spend your days in noble pursuits, working to create something of lasting worth, and the elements will unveil their mysteries to you in good time. Condemn not the labors of another’s hands or mind, but seek to guide them towards ever greater acts of creation. Creation is an act of fire and steel, thought and word, bond and change. Be wise in choosing your path to creation and in counseling others along the same path, for fools are blind to the hidden gold within the earth.

 

“Drink in secret knowledge like a wanderer in the desert laps at his first taste of water. Ponder before a secret is released, for once knowledge is shared it can never again be yours alone. Never reveal the unknown in petty spite or when the act of sharing will bring no change. Knowing when to reveal that which is unknown and choosing the right time to do so is a holy act. Profit from that which you know, and aid others in doing the same. All knowledge is sacred, but the fewer who hold an idea, the more precious and holy it becomes.”

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Worshippers: Sages, alchemists, craftsman, sorcerers, chronomancers, dragons and dwarves

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History: According to the Vault of Secrets When the gods first emerged from Infinity, the unity before the multiverse, two entities came first. One saw the possibilities laden within the astral reality, and devoted himself to the creation of all things. The other chose to find beauty only in the destruction and warping of the creations of the other gods. The creator, whose true name has been lost to time, is now known as the Elder Elemental God, and the destroyer is known to a very few as Tharzidun, the chaotic evil power who corrupted the elemental chaos with a shard of true evil, thus giving birth to the Abyss.

 

Whether the Dawn War came before the imprisonment of Tharzidun at the bottom of the Abyss or after is unknown, but some time following both events, the Elder turned his attention again to the Natural World he and his fellow gods had created. It was the Elder who created the process by which the forgotten gods altered their very nature and bonded themselves to both the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos within Aeinia, becoming more than just gods or primordial, but cosmic Forces. He was the undisputed first of the creator gods of Aeinia, and his clergy claim that it was for this reason that he was betrayed by his fellows, who coveted his power.

 

The Elder was known by many different names among the races, and the Forces used this against him, sundering the Timeless One completely into his separate aspects, so that each believed itself a distinct deity and forgot the truth of their unified core being. Thus, the First of the Forces disintegrated into Moradin of the dwarves, Labelas of the Elves, Io of the dragons, and several other minor gods and demigods. As the God of Creation and Time, the Elder is also a god of foresight, and his followers argue that he allowed himself to be so dethroned and fragmented because he foresaw that the Forces would fall and become the Forgotten, trapped outside of the planes themselves in the Nether. As no divine allies have been credited for the Elder’s rebirth, the clergy’s claim that he was reborn by his own divine will seems to hold credence.

 

So far, the Elder Elemental God seems committed to a path of political neutrality, which is perhaps the same path he has always walked, content to allow mortals and immortals to interact with his creations as they will. He has shown neither hostility to the Outer Gods nor loyalty towards the other Elder Gods. Neither has he directed his servants to interfere with efforts to prevent the return of the Forgotten Gods. His ire has only been evidenced by the ruthless manner in which his clergy have begun to hunt down and dispatch all worshippers of demons and devils they can find. A strange contrast to this aloofness is the great number of contacts and associates the God of Secrets has garnered in the short time since his apotheosis; with an endless number of eldritch secrets to share from the dawn of creation itself, the Elder is fast becoming the most connected power of the planes.

 

The Church: The church of the Elder Elemental God was reborn in Astis, the dwarven fort city, when the temple to Moradin was converted into a true sanctuary of the Great Lord of the Elements. As the new faith utterly rejects the idea of opposing elements, the House of Secrets is now replete with magical flames set into the center of water fountains and etchings of mountains rife with great wind tunnels. The four pillars at the entry are made of lava rock, smooth river stones decorated in coral, granite flecked with metal alloys, and wood carved with apertures that play an endless hymn. Within the halls of the great temple, the Sages study ancient elemental secrets and commune with their god in a manner startling more direct than is common for other clergies.

 

Although the faith teaches that all elements are essential to creation, they do preach an order of complexity, and each priest of the Elder is expected to learn to manifest each of the four elements. Fire is the easiest to master, then earth, and then wind with enigmatic and chaotic water considered the most difficult to tame. When a priest of the Elder learns to manifest all four elements at once and attains the rank of Sage of Secrets, he may approach the Elder Altar to obtain personal direction from the Elder Elemental God about where he is to direct his efforts for the rest of his service in the clergy. In this ritual, which has no name, the cleric receives 3 boons:

1. He learns a great secret about his life either of the past or the future to come,

2. He receives a vision of the great creation to which he dedicates his life, and

3. He learns the lost name of the Elder Elemental God, which cannot otherwise be retained or learned by any mortal or god, which allows the priest to call upon the greater power of an Elder God.

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Vault of Secrets Titles

Acolyte of Elements (1st)

Firebrother

Earthbrother

Windbrother

Water Seer (7th)

Sage of Secrets (11th)

Master of Fire/Earth/Wind/Water (16th)

High Speaker of Secrets (20th)