Garagos

Garagos: The Reaver, Master of All Weapons, Lord of War

Symbol: A five-armed tentacus (a pinwheel of five black, snaky arms spinning counterclockwise, each arm ending in an identical sword)
Home Plane: Cocytus/Battle Garde
Alignment: CN
Portfolio: War, skill-at-arms, destruction, plunder
Domains: Destruction, Strength, War, Chaos
Worshipers: Barbarians, fighters, rangers, soldiers, spies, warriors
Aliases: N/A
Cleric Alignments: CG, CN, CE
Favored Weapon: "The Tentacus" (five arms each holding a sword)

History/Relationships: Some legends claim Garagos (GAH-rah-gos) was the primary war god in western Faerûn until he was overthrown by the upstart Tempus. Certainly Garagos was worshiped in Westgate and the Vilhon Reach during the days of Myth Drannor, and his faith was strong long before that time—reportedly even in ancient Netheril. He was thought killed by Tempus, as he is recorded as slain, but either this means that he was destroyed as the primary war god of Faerûn, a position which Tempus took from him as the spoils of their one-on-one battle, or he was resurrected by some of his diehard cultists along the southern coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars, in the Vilhon Reach, or in the Border Kingdoms. He is most certainly not dead, but alive.

Garagos is associated with the rampaging destruction and plundering of war than tactics, strategies, or armies. The Reaver is linked with the mad bloodlust that overtakes some warriors, resulting in horrifying carnage. (Followers of Tempus claim their god destroyed Garagos by using the Reaver's berserking fury against him.) The scarlet cloak he is portrayed as wearing in religious art is one made of the blood of his foes, and in recent times he is often shown wading through a blood-red sea—again, the blood of his slain enemies.

In 1368 DR, Garagos reappeared to crush an impostor, the marilith Glackzana, a tanar'ri who had been attempting to start a cult in his name using her powers to present herself in a form like that of his avatar. He demolished the temple built to her at the ruined villager of Gosra, located in the Fields of Nun of central Chondath, and ordered it reconstructed in a more grand manner and rededicated to his worship.

Garagos himself scorns the use of armor (though he does not care if his priests wear it) and admires those who give in to battle-lust and merciless destruction in conflict, destroying all that lies in their path and taking no prisoners. He is blood-thirsty and single-minded. He angers quickly and cools down from an emotional boil very slowly. He is feared for the damage he can do and the uncontrolled nature of his fury.

Garagos was even more even-tempered and less prone to explode of old, but since his defeat by Tempus his fuse has gotten shorter, and he has lost all sense of mercy once he becomes caught up in a battle. With the change in his disposition, he no longer felt comfortable in his former abode in Limbo and moved to Pandemonium. Some say that he moved to his new abode when his heart grew hard upon finally giving up all hope for attaining his secret love. Others say this is so much poppycock, and speculate that Garagos is finally going over the edge to outright evil he has been teetering on for so long.

Dogma: Garagathans believe that peace is for weak fools. War makes all who fight strong, and only in head-to-head conflict is honor satisfied. Only cowards avoid battle. Any who strike down a foe from ambush or from behind are to be scorned as the cowards they are. Retreat is never an option, even in the face of a greater foe, for if a warrior's heart is focused on Garagos, he will provide the strength to conquer any foe. Diplomatic solutions are for fools, the soft, and the dishonorable; the only true answer lies in battle. A warrior's word is his or her bond to a friend, and no one can be trusted more than shield companion, but warriors should not concern themselves with keeping a pledge to cowardly dogs or the enemy. Battlelust is a gift from Garagos; with it the faithful find the focus and the strength to defeat any enemy and refuge from the confusion and pain of the battlefield.

The charge given to novices in the faith of Garagos is: "Bow down to me, and triumph in arms. Seek to awaken bloodlust and reaving everywhere, and take part in these sacred things whenever prudent or possible. Always go armed in readiness for shedding blood. Do battle at least once a tenday for the greater glory of Garagos and shed blood even if you cannot slay. Spread fear of Garagos, and the message of his power that guides and assists believers in every land you enter. At least once a year challenge and slay a greater foe than yourself for Garagos so that you test always the limits of your skill and press it to increase." This last is usually interpreted to mean killing a powerful monster or a priest of another diety of higher level than the Garagathan.

Avatar/Manifestations: The most common manifestation of Garagos's manifestations is the Blood of the God, a fist-sized mist of glowing crimson droplets of blood (often collected reverently by worshipers) that is accompanied by a faint wailing and an intense feeling of danger. These droplets may poison enemies of the Garagathan faith or provide healing, protective magics, or a boost in morale and the removal of fear (similar to the effects of remove fear and the prayer spell) to Garagathans themselves.

Garagos also manifests as the clash of many furiously wielded weapons, and this manifestation may be accompanied by real strikes from unseen weapons upon creations threatening favored worshipers of Garagos or upon worshipers who have behaved against the tenets of the Garagathan faith.

Agents/Petitioners: Garagos also works his will through berserkers, both alive and dead, and through inspiring a berserk frenzy in a being. Garagos also acts or shows his favor through the appearance or presence of wolverines, weasels, aurumvorae, worgs, dire wolves, and red-and-black hued gemstones.

The Church of Garagos: Garagos attracts to his priesthood those with a cruel, destructive, reckless streak. Berserkers and sadists who eschew mercy and enjoy causing destruction and eradicating opposing forces often call on Garagos for extra aid even when they profess to worship another deity such as Tempus or Talos. The Reaver has also become something of a fashionable god among brigands, outcasts, and those who regularly raid other peoples or settlements for plunder.

The Garagathan faith is not really organized overall. It exists as a number of independent churches with individual hierarchies. Two rival churches fight each other for dominance in Amn and Tethyr. Another in the Sword Coast North is seeking to expand its sway over all the Sword Coast and the trade routes that connect to it, and ultimately into Cormyr.

The oldest church, in Westgate, has always been split into warring cults. The currently predominant clergy members in that church are based in Yondath, and two eastern organizations battle with them for control of this branch of the faith. One of these is located in the Great Dale and is seeking to expand into Damara and Thay; the other has established itself in Raurin and is spreading agents both south and west.

The the wake of the construction of Garagos's new temple at Gosra, the established independent churches of Garagos have all sent representatives to help from the hierarchy of the new temple. They are, of course, devoting quite a bit of their efforts to in-fighting in order to determine which church of Garagos the Gosran temple will ultimately belong to, but they have also been forced into rapid preparations for the defense of the new facility as the established churches of Tempus are rumored to be hiring a massive army of mercenaries to destroy the new temple.

The organized churches have no shamans in their ranks; the shamans are primarily found in more primitive cultures where berserk raiding is practiced. Garagos used to have many shamans, but his worship has waned in favor of that of Tempus, and their numbers are dwindling.

Garagathan clergy members address each other as "Bloodbrother" and "Bloodsister," adding "High" as a mark of respect if they are speaking to a priest of four or more levels greater than their own. They eschew formal titles beyond the rough rankings of Supplicant (novice), Priets/Priestess of the Blood (full priest), Reaver Lord/Lady (senior priests), and Favored (veteran senior clergy of ruling rank). This last title is added to whatever fanciful, self-styled rank the senior priest wishes to assume, such as Favored High Reaver Ounadar the Blood-Drenched or Favored Storm of Battles Arhaghon Master of Reavers. When attached to a military forces (a rare thing), priests may also hold a rank within that force.

Day-to-Day Activities: Priests of Garagos spend their days fermenting strife wherever they go in Faerûn, seeking to cause battle so that bloodlust (the Sacred Goal) is born and wanton destruction begins. Some of them are sly manipulators who deal in intrigue, thievery, and subtle diplomacies to ensure their own enrichment and continued anonymity or at least lack of public connection between them and the troubles they instigate. Others are unsubtle, violent brigands who start tavern brawls and use very public marketplace assassinations and similar crude means to spread Holy Reaving throughout the lands.

Senior clergy of the Reaver are charged with renewing and expanding an ever-growing network of informers, agents, sympathizers, and faithful warriors—and of training and disciplining such folk. The performance of a priest's charges reflect on the priest, for good or for ill, so they often set spies upon their agents, and activate back-up teams to carry out a mission if the first team fails. At the highest levels, Garagathan priests spend their days in ruthless power plays against rival senior clergy members seeking to become head of one of the various independent churches of Garagos.

Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: Garagos demands to be worshiped in two ways: A believer who slays any foe in battle can shout out the power's name over the body of his or her victim to dedicate the death to Garagos as an offering. The second way to worship him is at a stone Blood Altar in one of his shrines or temples. Prayer to Garagos at a Blood Altar must begin with drops of blood being spilled into troughs in the stone altar. Then the devout entreats the Reaver to heat, promises to perform some act of battle valor involving death and destruction, however small, and then calls on the Master of All Weapons for aid, strength, or guidance.

There are no calendar-related Garagathan religious rituals. Any gathering of seven or more priests may call a Blood Festival. A Blood Festival involves a feast wherein at least some of the food must be butchered at or next to the table and subsequently devoured while still bloody (that is, not fully cooked). Initiations of priests to the Full Blood, the ceremony by which novices are made into full priests, must take place at a Blood Festival. Initiation into the Full Blood involves dipping the supplicants' hands into fresh blood and then painting their cheeks with the symbol of Garagos with blood. The blood used must be that of one or more monsters (dangerous creatures) slain by the supplicants to be initiated and full priests of Garagos with no other assistance.

Major Centers of Worship: Garagos's greatest worship occurred in the area of what is now Westgate. The sewers and underground passages of that city are rife with his old altars and symbols. That Inner Sea city still boasts an important underground temple to Garagos, the House of Steel, where an ambitious priestess, Chaless the Cruel, leads a congregation of murderers, outlaws, and half-orc brutes. The House of Steel is defended against nonbelievers by many animated swords.

However, the House of Steel is not currently the largest or most prominent center of the Garagathan faith. That honor is held by the Vale of the Reaver in Yondath. The Vale of the Reaver is the valley below the headwaters of the Thornwash River, between the western Cloven Mountains and the Thornwood. It is located north of Saelmur and Ankhapur and south of the Deepwash. In this valley, Ounadar the Blood-Drenched has recently risen to power, gathering berserkers, criminals, and disaffected and violent folk of all sorts to follow the faith. He and his congregation have been practicing slaughter on the creatures spawned from several captive deepspawn in caves above the valley. Ounadar dreams of capturing and ruling the city of Westgate.

Another veneraged Garagathan site is Godswalk Keep in the Barony of Great Oak in the Border Kingdoms. It is said to have been a proud fortress-city in the days when Netheril was in proud ascendance. On certain nights, for unknown reasons, an avatar of Garagos walks in the ruins, slaying all creatures he finds. This event is called the Meeting of the Three, or the Howling (after the sound Garagos makes), because avatars of Jergal and of Sharess appear at the same time, and Garagos howls madly upon meeting them because he cannot slay them.

Affiliated Orders: The few crusaders of the Garagathan faith all belong to the Brothers of Blood, an order dedicated to crushing the foes of Garagos. Its members unfortunately tend to die young, however, as making constant attacks on the church of Tempus tends to make anyone's life short and bloody. The various independent churches of Garagos have ties to the Red Wizards, the Zhentarim, the Iron Throne, and the Shadow Thieves, though none of these connections are very strong. For unknown reasons, Garagos forbids acting against the church of Shar, though he also does not allow his churches to ally with hers.

Priestly Vestments: Priests of Garagos wear the best armor they can obtain, though it is usually extremely battle-worn. Many clergy members wear red boots and gloves. High priests usually wear scarlet or crimson overrobes or tabards. Specialty priests often have embroidery or ruby ornaments on their ceremonial robes in the shapes of teardrops of blood. Garagathan clergy members may have belt buckles or cloak pins fashioned in the shape of the tentacus of Garagos or even bear daggerlike belt weapons sporting a basket hilt in the shape of a whirlwind of five blades.

Adventuring Garb: Priests of Garagos wear almost the same outfits in the fields as they do to ceremonial functions, sporting armor, red boots and gloves, crimson capes, and decorative ornamentation in the shape of the tentacus. They carry a tentacus as their holy symbol.