Vortain

Title Bringer of Chaos, The Corrupt One, Candyman
Portfolio Corruption, addiction and anarchy
Typical Worshipers Addicts, anarchists, drug merchants
Typical Worshiper Alignment Chaotic Evil
Domains Chaos, Madness, Travel, Trickery
Subdomains Deception, Demon, Insanity, Trade
Favored Weapon Flail
Favored Animal(s) Hyena

Legends

Ruling vast swaths of the Abyss from a colorful vortex of vapor is the god Vortain. Considered the cruelest and most malicious of gods, Vortain is chaos fused with evil, existing for one purpose: to watch the civilize world crumble in on itself, smashed in a storm of sin. The Divine Record lists him as a refugee from The Great Purge, while Eshsalqua’s Songs of Power condemns him as an upstart demon lord, crude and worthless. Perhaps both are true. Whatever the case, Vortain experiences pleasure perverting the minds of mortals. He invokes primal instincts of fear, lust and anger, preferring his victims destroy themselves in a never-ending spiral of chaos. To aid his first worshipers in corruption, Vortain revealed secret drug recipes. These concoctions serve two purposes within his church. Worshipers consume drugs to commune with Vortain, believing their hallucinations are a visitation to the Abyss. The drug trade is used by his priests as a tool for sowing disorder among stable societies and attracting criminal elements. Ultimately, Vortain understands that order and chaos coexist, but he delights in clogging courthouses with lawbreakers, mortuaries with corpses and his domain with self-sent servants.

Church

Vortain’s priests are predominantly clerics, supported by bards, wizards, sorcerers and witches. Clerics oversee the church’s illicit drug trafficking and perform psychedelic rituals. Bards and wizards supplement these rituals with colorful illusions. Sorcerers channel Vortain’s chaos into destructive energy, destroying their foes and prying law enforcement. Witches use their powers to concoct potent drugs and potions for the church’s use. Temples of Vortain maintain a lavish public presence where drugs are legal to sell. Each temple is unique and chaotic in construction, containing stairways to nowhere, roofs at odd angles and columns supporting nothing. They are full of strange colors and thick incense haze. In drug-intolerant societies, Vortain operates out of shadowy complexes in the underworld, often with the compliance of Shadeling operatives. They help subvert normal society by overloading the economy with contraband and trick leaders into dangerous addictions.

Spell Preparation Rituals

Vortain’s holy symbols are created randomly. Clerics forge their own symbols during a dangerous ritual. Surrounded by a cloud of the drug scour, they pour strands of molten metal in a tantrum of semi-artistic strokes. No two symbols are the same. Clerics undergo a rigorous process of self-destruction to regain spells. They consume a weakened drug and pray to Vortain, while hallucinations wrack their minds. Eventually, they just pray to Vortain to overcome their addiction. Initiates are tested by a marathon of overuse, and one lucky soul of every set of candidates is chosen by Vortain. They gain their randomly-painted robes if they survive.

Religion Traits

The following religion traits may be chosen by worshipers of this deity.

High Tolerance

Constant exposure to drugs has hardened your body and soul against their negative effects.

Benefit You gain a +1 trait bonus to Fortitude saves made to resist addiction and suffer half the normal ability damage (minimum 1) when taking a drug. Ability penalties are not affected by this trait.

Induced Mysticism

Vortain’s blessing allows drugs to renew your magical essence.

Benefit Once per day, you may consume a drug to recall one 1st level spell you have previously cast (as a peal of power.) You still suffer the negative effects from the selected drug.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

The Gods of Porphyra © 2012, Purple Duck Games; Authors: Christopher Kaiser, Perry Fehr, Mark Gedak, August Hahn, John Hazen, Sean Holland, Sam Hing, James H. Lewis, Chris Longhurst, Scott Messer, Sean O’Connor, David Nicholas Ross, and Jeremy Whalen

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