Ravenloft: Prisoners of the Mist

Public (OOC) => Roleplay and Gameplay Resources => Religions and Faiths => Topic started by: MAB77 on September 24, 2021, 07:01:55 AM

Title: Yutow the Peacebringer - Roleplay Resources
Post by: MAB77 on September 24, 2021, 07:01:55 AM
Yutow the Peacebringer

Most Valachani are deeply religious and devoted to their unique moon god, Yutow the Peacebringer. Their existence is precarious, surrounded by fierce predators, mercurial fey and an oppressive ruler, and religion grants the Valachani some feeling of control, however negligible. Typically, Valachani see prayer as another tool to increase their odds of survival. Very few actually become ordained. Priests of any faith are expected to act as a foil of Valachani isolationism and devote themselves to their community as a whole. They arbitrate disputes among nobles, ensure taxes are paid, appease spirits and Black Leopards alike, and care for those unable to support themselves. These duties leave little time to hunt or farm, so priests instead rely on weekly tithes from each family in their village to survive. As discussed above, this “urban” lifestyle dissuades most Valachani from the priesthood. Most villages have only a single priest of Yutow (called a moarnekone, meaning “married to the moon”) and an acolyte.

Overview

Quote from: Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume IV, p.96
Symbol: A silver circle split by a vertical diamond, representing both the phases of the moon and a cat’s eye.
Alignment: LN
Portfolio: Law, obedience, fate, order, nature, fertility, protection, the moon, cats.
Domains: Animal, Law, Plant, Protection
Favored Weapon: Sickle

Clerics of Yutow pray for their spells when the moon reaches its zenith and hold services at moonrise. If they multiclass, it is often as druids.

Dogma: The state of all things is mandated from above and is not to be questioned. As Yutow himself suffered to protect his charges, so must his worshippers uncomplainingly undergo trials in this life to prove themselves worthy of his devotion. Those who do will be given immortality as a natural spirit; those who do not are reincarnated to suffer again until they learn their lesson. Those who live as rebels or lawbreakers will be annihilated, their spirits dispersed into the Mists. Those who worship Yutow will be protected from nature’s fury and granted good harvests and plentiful game. Those who do not will face nature in all its untamed splendor, red in tooth and claw. Unnatural things — arcane magic, corporeal undead and so forth — are the worst forms of blasphemy.

The faithful of Yutow believe he watches over them constantly, protecting them, alert to any signs of immorality, and occasionally testing their faith. He is said to take priests who grow too strong in their faith to serve him, either in their physical bodies or as spirits. Moarnekone, actively look forward to the day Yutow will take them.

The Church of Yutow

Quote from: Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume IV, p.96
Yutow was originally the god of Valachan’s indigenous folk, but he killed himself to end the Pacification. The Dead God now watches over Valachan from the moon, guiding and protecting his people via his clerics and fey servants. His special servants are panther spirits and those who bear their blood. The religion is monotheistic; although minor spirits abound, Yutow is the only one with the power over life and death and so the only one fit to be called a god. Other gods such as Hala and Ezra are spirit trickery or misinterpretations of Yutow caused by the sedentary lifestyles and over-education of other lands. Although each moarnekone’s authority ends at the borders of the village he watch over, it is a social priesthood, with members frequently traveling to neighboring villages to meet their peers and discuss matters of faith. They also serve as diplomats: if two villages have a dispute over fishing or farming rights, the moarnekone will meet to work out a solution. Once a year, under a full moon, all moarnekone congregate at a sacred site near Castle Pantara to pray for Yutow’s blessings for Valachan as a whole.

Valachani churches, which also act as homes for the moarnekone, have no roof over the nave, allowing moonlight to shine on the icon of Yutow each night. These icons depict Yutow just before he died: a green-skinned man with wild yellow eyes, his face creased with pain and his body covered in bleeding wounds and bruises. His broken legs trail uselessly behind him as he supports himself on one hand and raises the other to protect his charges. “That which is dead cannot suffer still” is carved onto the icon’s base. The Valachani find these statues both sorrowful and uplifting.
Title: Re: Yutow the Peacebringer - Roleplay Resources
Post by: MAB77 on September 29, 2021, 08:39:31 AM
Quote from: Dragon Magazine #50
Habelnik has one small church, dedicated to a deity known as Yutow the Peacebringer, a god unique to Valachan. The priest keeps a ready supply of cure light wounds spells for those in need. Strangers must pay two pantherheads per casting. Yutow's theology is based on obeying the law and the master of the land, keeping the peace, and bringing in a plentiful harvest. Baron von Kharkov finds this theology useful in controlling the populace, so he does not disturb the church. Several years ago, the then current priest received the blessing of Yutow and learned the casting of several new spells. Unfortunately, he met with a horrible accident and his acolyte was installed in his place.