Another
cult updated for Legend/RQ6. The Legend specific bits are in red the RQ6 bits
in blue
Lhankor
Mhy is the Orlanthi god of knowledge. He stood by Orlanth's throne as
his Lawspeaker when he ruled the world during the Storm Age and
accompanied him on his epic quest to rescue the sun from hell.
He is
worshipped by the 'Knowing Men', the scholars and lawyers of
Sartarite and other Thelayan cultures. They are quite emphatically
scholars, not scientists or sorcerers, and can be relied on to waffle
endlessly about the minutiae of history, legal precedents and ethics,
but few among them create anything truly new or experimental. In fact
knowing a fair bit about the Empire of the Wyrm's Friends and the
Middle Sea Empire they are downright leery of anything new, regarding
innovation as a sure path to disaster. The new Red Moon goddess and
her 'progress' crazed followers are on the road to Hell, no doubt
about it.
They are
supposed to be impartial and uninvolved in politics, advising all
impartially. This doesn't preclude fighting amongst themselves
though, and any sizeable temple is a rat's nest of cliques, academic
rivalries and backbiting.
Followers
There are
two sorts of followers. The temples run a few classes for ordinary
members of the populace, usually in Literacy (local language), which
are paid for at the usual rate, up to 50%.
A few,
usually younger people, are accepted as Apprentices if they have
Literacy skills of 50% or more and pass a test, rolling INTx5% or
less. If they fail they can always reapply next year. Apprentices are
expected to work full time for the temple and spend at least 50% or
their time in class, studying any number of cult skills at half
price. The rest of the time is spent doing a variety of unexciting
tasks like copying scrolls and books, cleaning, helping in the
refectory and even farm work where the temple has lands attached for
its upkeep. Their little free time is spent doing the usual damn fool
things students do in all times and places.
Apprenticeship
lasts around six years, but bright apprentices who make suitably
large donations to the temple can take their exams early.
Apprentices
can learn the following Folk/Common magic at half price:
Legend:
Bearing Witness, Detect Magic, Detect Gold, Detect Silver,
Mindspeech, Understanding
RQ6:
Appraise, Find Magic, Find Gold, Find Silver, Mindspeech, Translate
Initiates
To
become an initiate one must have 50% in five temple skills. At least
one must be Literacy (local language) and another must be a Lore
skill.
The other three are chosen from: Any other Lore or Literacy, Theology
(Lhankor Mhy)
or Devotion
(Lhankor Mhy),
Oratory, Insight, Evaluate
or Bureaucracy.
Other
skills or requirements may be required by individual temples;
Hevduran Dege temple in the Holy Country for example allows sword
combat skills to be part of the curriculum and the Jelenkev School in
Heortland requires some knowledge of sorcery, being dominated by
Aeolians.
Initiates
are the grad students of the temple. The cleverest are invited to
stay and work as teachers and researchers or have to leave and find a
trade . Either way they donate at least 30% of their income or time
to the temple.
They
get training in the Teaching skill at half price, and can enrol in
classes in other cult skills at the same discount.
Initiates
get access to the following Divine Magic, and may know up to ¼ or
their POW in Divine Magic.
Divine Magic
Legend:
Absorption, Amplify, Behold, Dismiss Magic, Mindlink
RQ6:
Absorption, Behold, Dismiss Gnome, Dismiss Sylph, Dismiss Magic,
Mindlink
Initiates
who have proved their orthodoxy and have 50%+ in Theology
or Devotion may learn sorcery. The
priests of Lhankor Mhy know their god invented sorcery and that the
charlatan Zzabur stole his notes to cook up the Blue Book. Sorcery as
practised by anyone outside their cult is literally soul destroying,
the only spells permissible are those that have been sanctified by
the cult through the use of the mysterious Alien Combination Machine,
and then encoded in secret scrolls.
An
initiate may know a maximum of ¼ their INT in Sorcery spells on top
of this, but an apprentice who knows more sorcery than divine magic
is usually regarded as religiously suspect (except at the Jelenkev
School) and their Exhort/Pact
rolls are at one step greater difficulty.
The
skill studied is Grimoire (Torvald Fragments)
or Invoke (Torvald Fragments). The
precise number and nature of the spells available at different
temples varies, depending on what ancient texts they have in the
library, but the following selection is in the largest publicly known
collection.
Spells
Legend:
Analyse Magic*, Enhance Intelligence, Intuition, Object Reading*,
Sorcery Resistance*, Dismiss Confusion*
RQ6:
Analyse Magic*, Intuition, Sorcery Resistance*, Dismiss Confusion*,
Enhance Intelligence, Object Reading*
*
New spell.
Otherwise
almost any spell is possible, the library stacks in Lhankor Mhy
Temples are disorganised to say the least, Temple strongrooms have
forbidden books that no one dare translate or use (Tap spells for
example) and plenty of scholars have private collections they will
let their colleagues see one day, but not just yet, not while they
are still working on them. It is widely suspected that Minyarth
Purple has a copy of Abjure Ageing somewhere he isn't sharing with
anyone.
Each
time a non-sanctioned spell is cast, 1d4-1% in lost in Pact
(Lhankor Mhy) or Exhort (Lhankor Mhy).
Use of totally banned spells like Tap, Demon Summoning, and the
creation of undead reduce this to zero immediately. Once it reaches
zero you are deemed souless and excommunicated, and in the most
serious cases the Brain Flayer will be invoked (see later).
Acolytes
Acolytes
must have Teaching 50%+, a literacy skill at 75%+, a lore skill at
75%+ and Theology (Lhankor Mhy) or
Devotion (Lhankor Mhy) at 50%+ and must
have contributed one previously unknown fact to the temple library,
as adjudicated by the Priests. The libraries are so full that these
contributions are often mindbogglingly obscure scraps of trivia of no
possible use to anyone, but if it isn't in there, it still counts.
Acolytes
may gain up to half their POW in Divine Magic and a third of their
INT in sorcery spells, making them potentially very powerful and
versatile magicians.
Divine
Magic:
Legend:
Heal Mind, Mind Blast
RQ6:
Heal Mind, Mind Blast
Sorcery:
Acolytes
may go beyond Torvald's Fragments and use the more obscure spells
sanctified by the temple. Typical choices are Telepathy, Spirit
Resistance and Mystic Sense.
Priest
Priests
must know one Lore to 90%, one Literacy skill at 90% and one other
cult skill (may be another Literacy or Lore) at 90%. They must have
been an acolyte for at least five years and have written one book
deemed worthy of inclusion in the temple library. These books are
often indexes, bibliographies and compendia culled from existing
books, but deemed worthwhile additions if they cut down the number of
dusty scrolls and tablets one must dredge through to find the fact
you are looking for.
They
may gain up to ¾ of their POW in Divine Magic, and half their INT in
Sorcery, a powerful magician by anyone’s standards.
Priests
usually live full time at the temple, receive fees for teaching and
advice, often sit alongside the greatest tribal Kings and the High
King of their realm in court, or even sit in judgement on his behalf.
They can ferret through all the secret libraries, lead expeditions to
discover lost knowledge and generally rule the roost, though there
are always eccentrics who get fed up with it all and become Wild
Sages doing protracted field research and only seeing their
colleagues once a year (or even less for those who consecrate their
own shrines).
There
are three positions they covet – Provost of Apprentices, Chief of
Loremasters and Chief Priest. No one makes it to Chief Librarian, as
they call their High Priest, without going through one of these jobs
first.
Divine
Magic:
Extension,
Consecrate
High Priest
Every
major temple has its own high priest, called a Chief Librarian. Often
eccentric and obtuse quite simply because they can be and get be and
get away with it, they are elected for life by the priests and
acolytes and by dint of dubious sorcery and comfortable and
cloistered living they can live to a very ripe old age. The various
Chief Librarians rarely get on, endlessly disputing each other's
religious dogmas, organisational practices and right to receive fees
from subordinate temples. Fortunately these turf wars are conducted
through long and tedious court cases, snarky letters and thick books
full of obscure references.
They
can have as many divine spells as their POW allows, and up to 2/3 of
their INT in sorcery spells, and have access to the Alien Combination
Machine that allows sorcery spells to be consecrated to Lhankor Mhy.
They generally have 110% or more in a Lore skill and one other cult
skill and several books to their name.
Divine
Magic
Legend:
Excommunicate
RQ6:
Fortify Library, Excommunicate
Lhankor Mhy and Sorcery
It
is widely known that the cult dabbles in sorcery. Traditionalist
Orlanthi regard this as deeply suspect, but the sages are unwilling
to give it up as it is so damn useful, and, after all, their god did
invent it. Lhankor Mhy priests are well aware of the hostility and
get very defensive about it, going to great lengths to reassure
people that their sanctified spells are without any risk and that
nothing remotely God Learnerish, Malkionist or horror of horrors
Lunar is going on.
Relations to other cults
The
doctrines of Lhankor Mhy insist that knowledge cannot be denied to
anybody. The cult has no qualms about charging high prices for their
advice and for teaching, they aren't a charity, but an outright no is
unacceptable. As a result their temples sometimes have members of
other knowledge related cults as tenants or even parts of the
faculty. In Pavis the Lunar Irripi Ontor cult has an entire branch of
the central temple, in Jonstown the Lunars have an annexe within the
temple grounds, but are refused entry to the library. The cult has
less of a problem with Buserian cultists, but will not allow any
foreign sorcerers on their premises under any circumstances.
In
southern Heortland the cult has pretty much been entirely supplanted
by the Aeolian Saint Ankormy the Scholar, who have almost entirely
gone over to sanctified sorcery, and even written grimoires for other
Aeolian cults to use.
Oddities and eccentricities
Each
temple has its own unique features, but all follow a few basic
doctrines. Apprentices are not allowed to marry until they have
become initiates. All initiates must have a beard, preferably grey, a
requirement female members get round by wearing false ones. Members
are required to preserve written knowledge, even at risk to
themselves. Wild Sages, those who opt out of the temple hierarchy and
go off to study in the field, are prone to all kinds of manias and
peculiarities, though the idea that a rival sage is out to get them
or steal their work is often not purely paranoia.
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