God of the Harvest
   Community, Death, Evil, Pain, Plant, Trickery. The Sickle. Vampiric Weapons.
   Xel is an old, old thing that has been the patron diety of farmers and peasant families for as long as there have been farmers and peasant families. Predating the rest of the Theryan pantheon by about four millenia, Xel's formal holy scriptures are a compliation of folklore, elder rituals, wives' tales and even children's nursery rhymes whose history often equals that of the languages they were first written in. Much beloved by the peasantry, the clergy of Xel bring with them the tidings of good harvest, plentiful grain and merry celebration. While the majority of priests have a distinct bias toward nobility -- that's where the majority of the affluence is to be had, after all -- Xel's priests have always been the champions of the everyman, the poor and the downtrodden. Even lepers receive the favour of this diety -- indeed, Xel's followers have a very special place in their hearts for the diseased. Yet, in spite of all of this, there is a sinister meaning hidden within Xel's playful children's songs that does not escape the more educated scholar.
  Xel is hungry, slavering with an insatiable need for the life force of sentient beings. While most of Theyra's gods, good and evil alike, accept the offering of a foe's body who needed to be slain for reasons in accord with the god's ethos and alignment, that is a very different thing from randomly dragging innocent people to an altar to be slain for the purpose of human sacrifice alone. Yet, the lot of a peasant remains harsh, and few heros are willing to stand up for the lower classes. Xel has become so much a staple of hearth wisdom that most villages see no wrong in the favours its clergy ask, and in return its clerics take very seriously their roles as village defenders, protectors of the downtrodden and the political muscle of rural communities. The arrival of a travelling priest of 'the Old Goat in the Woods', as Xel is known, in a village is a cause for a festival and night of revelry not unlike Mardi Gras, and in truth everybody knows that the allegations of blood sacrifice are propaganda cooked up by manipulative nobles anyway -- at least, it's never been proven! Still, the fact remains that many villages have a crude basalt stone caked with blood in a shadowed valley a few miles outside their boundry, and so long as the blood flows the crops will not fail.
  Xel is nothing if not dependable, after all.
  Xel's alignment is Lawful Evil; its followers can be of any non-Good alignment. Its holy symbol is a sheaf of wheat, though the symbols that Xel is most known for are the ancient stone circles its clerics congregate at, and its chosen weapon is the sickle. Xel itself is a weary diety, sleeping peacefully through the millenia, and does not keep a careful eye on its priests, as long as the blood flows. The clergy as an organization, however, expects every priest to always honour two central precepts: always help a peasant or peasant community in need, and never reveal the darker practices of the sect to those who cannot be trusted. In return for this, Xel grants its priests access to the Domains of Community, Death, Evil, Plant, Pain and Trickery.
   Worship: In order to perform a proper sacrifice to Xel, a priest must kill a monster while that monster is standing directly over one of Xel's altars. While Xel is content with one sacrifice every new moon from its pedestrian rural followers, powerful adventurers who serve it must offer it fresh blood every night. Xel desires the blood of sapient creatures most of all, but will accept lesser beasts if need be. However, woe be to the worshipper who fails to offer Xel tribute for three nights, for at that point it will begin to consume the follower's life in place of thte tribute, until the lives of thinking, bleeding beings are offered in atonement. As long as the blood flows, however, Xel has absolutely no concern for anything else its followers do.
   Blessings: Xel will heal, ease hunger, restore mana, dispel fatigue and replenish the spirit for any follower that gives it tribute as tradition demands. Followers who have sacrificed creatures with more powerful life force find that Xel will replace lost spellbooks, transport them to safety in times of need and purify their bodies. Xel has even been known to raise those offering truly impressive sacrifices from the dead!
   Xel's cult offers rich supernatural rewards to those who sate the elder thing's thirst: the first lesson the cult teaches is social elegance and deception. Next the initiate is taught how to raise altars to Xel magically. More experienced cultists learn to paralyze their foes, drain their life energy to heal themselves and strike with deadly precision in combat. Those closest to Xel also find that the god's aegis prevents plants from harming them.

Domains: Community, Death, Evil, Plant, Pain, Trickery