Soot
[Male, Lawful]
The memory of what once was and what should not be known belongs to the Keeper of Ashen Secrets, Soot. He values the secrets of the universe and seeks to protect them from those who would misuse them, regardless of intent. He also craves secrets for the power some of them possess, but while his motives are not completely altruistic, Soot understands the nature of such power better than most and uses them cautiously. Soot is stoic, thoughtful, and has a perfect memory. He protects the secrets of his followers with unbreakable resolve, even from other gods.
Soot appears as an old human male, hunched and gnarled, but with bright, burning eyes that say more through their expressiveness than spoken words ever could. This is fortunate, for Soot’s mouth is sealed shut, a vague outline where a mouth should be creasing his face. Despite this, the few mortals who have encountered Soot claim that he speaks with the calm and refined oratory of a great sage who has witnessed the passing of centuries.
He wears a simple black cloth robe, and carries a gnarled wood staff topped with an hourglass containing a flame that perpetually burns to ash. When the fire is burned out, the hourglass rotates and the pile of ash reignites into flame, repeating the cycle.
Portfolio: Ashes, Memories, and Secrets
Cleric Training:
Initiates into the Order of Secrets must take a vow of silence from the first day of their induction. Breaking the vow during training is allowed once per initiate, but any further lapses in discipline at any point in their careers result in immediate excommunication.
The day to day studies of an initiate involve maintaining and combing the libraries of the order for knowledge that has been forgotten and not yet found by the other membership. This process is extremely time consuming considering the extensive research skills of clerics of Soot. When an initiate eventually discovers this knowledge, a process that can take several years, they have read the contents of the library several times over. Taking this secret or piece of forgotten knowledge to the High-Priest of the temple, they must defend their knowledge as unknown by any except them and the individual who wrote it.
If they succeed in this task, they are considered learned enough to begin taking the secrets of others in the name of Soot. While this does not qualify them as a cleric immediately, they are elevated to a status within the order that ensures their promotion should they succeed in their next task. If the cleric initiate can accept Secrets from followers for over 3 years without revealing a single one, they undergo their final rite of succession. A newly ordained cleric of Soot must sew their own lips shut in a symbolic gesture towards Soot himself, but also to ensure that they may never speak aloud the secrets they have been entrusted with.
Quests:
The Curse of Good Intentions
An ancient grudge from centuries past, the god of Breath and Speech, Rysus, placed a curse upon Soot’s divine essence for one of his few indiscretions: the revelation of the secrets of truespeech to a group of adventurers. The mortal heroes found themselves in the middle of a world-threatening catastrophe where they required truespeech to undo the ritual of the Hellspawn King, Hemotis, but Rysus rejected their plea. With no other options left to them, they sought out Soot. When Rysus discovered what Soot had done, he cursed his divine essence with the same sort of benevolent chaos that led him to his first mistake.
Once every 100 years, a single cleric of Soot will find themselves afflicted with The Curse of Good Intentions, a potent magic that forces them to speak the truth, even going so far as to unseal their lips, if revealing the secret would accomplish a greater good. In this rare case, the Cleric is allowed to seek atonement by journeying to have the curse lifted. This normally involves seeking out a High Priest of Rysus and asking for a task to be completed as recompense for Soot’s past transgressions.
Should the church of Rysus be unwilling to help, the cleric must attempt to communicate with the god directly. This often ends with the termination of the cleric’s association with Soot, as Rysus requires a great deal of communication in his prayers.
Prayers:
Hymn of Ashes
I reveal my knowledge to your fire
Burn thy secrets upon the pyre
Between us both, the future we hold
Turned to Ashes that none shall know
Call of the Confidant
I humbly prepare to receive the greatest of power: Hidden Knowledge. I vow to never share, skew, or harvest these secrets for the benefit of others, upon pain of eradication of the body and soul.
Note, the prayers of Soot are typically recited internally.
Temples:
Temples of Soot are modest in size, utilizing weathered, ancient sandstone in their construction. These structures are ideal for both preserving text and the lighting of said texts on fire without risking the buildings themselves. While many of these temples share a similar Ziggurat style of build, some are wholly unique in construction.
Labyrinthus
Labyrinthus, the City Temple, houses the largest host of Soot clerics and followers in the world. It rests in the middle of the barren deserts of Southern Solmeria. The land is so inhospitable and dry, that anyone attempting to journey to the temple in the hopes of acquiring its knowledge risks dying before even completing half the trek. In that sense, Labyrinthus is well guarded.
The structure itself is a large sheer circle a half-mile in height and nearly 10 miles in diameter. The inner walls of the city are constructed in a confounding array of layers that one could get lost in for weeks without proper guidance. Each layer houses specific portions of the city temple’s civilization.
The Temple is self-sustaining, utilizing a great hidden well of water known only to those within the temple, located at the center. Aqueducts carry this water to all areas of the city, including their various indoor gardens. With this they can grow their own food in great abundance, and raise a small amount of livestock as well.
Most other areas Labyrinthus are dedicated to either study, worship, or housing. There are also several recreational areas dedicated to a popular sport involving the use of a large mallet, several wooden balls, and numerous tiny goal posts. To an outside observer this game appears to be nonsensical and a bit silly given the sense of elation it evokes in the normally stoic followers of Soot, but even the Keeper of Ashen Secrets recognizes that too much work without release creates restlessness.
Rites: Priests of Soot only accept payment in the form of secrets. If one would wish their aid, such as a prayer or clerical service, they must tell them a secret that nobody else knows of. The rituals of Soot primarily involve the use of fire and ash. Ritual circles are made of parchment or light kindling, and conducted quickly so that their incantations cannot be discovered by outsiders easily. The most common ritual that a follower of Soot practices is to tell a secret only to the Keeper himself, thereby safeguarding it from prying ears and eyes. This is done by travelling to one of his temples, writing down the secret on a scrap of parchment, then bringing it to an altar. The altar is most commonly a pile of ash left behind by others. The worshipper then lights the scrap of parchment on fire and lets it burn over the pile while whispering a prayer to Soot to keep the secret safe.
Burial Rites: Followers of Soot attend their dead much in the same way they conduct their other rituals. The funeral for a worshipper or priest is conducted in much the same manner, a silent, solemn affair. A Pyre is constructed, surrounded by any who wish to attend that will observe their customs quietly. The body of the deceased is wrapped in black cloth and bound in rope, then placed atop the pyre. Any of the secrets they had left behind in life are written in a leatherbound journal and placed atop the body. While this list of memories is often quite short due to the nature of their order, there are almost always a few untold stories to be kept. The body, along with the journal, is set ablaze while all in attendance offer a silent prayer of their own making to Soot for the safe arrival of one of his servants.
Tithe: Worshippers and priests alike are expected to tithe small sums of money from time to time, although the amount and frequency is largely left to the discretion of the individual. In most cases, temples of Soot deal in secrets and forbidden knowledge, and do not require much in the way of material wealth to perform their duties.
The secondary tithe is considered the more important of the two. All members of the order are required to reveal a secret of their choosing to the presiding High-Priest once a week, who stores it in perhaps the only display of wealth made in a temple of Soot: An ornate platinum censer with an inner lining of magical runes that prevent nearly all forms of magical detection. The secrets are stored within the censer for roughly 3 months, then burned to ash at the changing of every season.
Benefits: Clerics of Soot are fortified with divine magic that protects them from psychic assault, also strengthening their ability to attack with the powers of the mind. They become so proficient in fact, that they can even learn to turn divine energy itself into psychic power, a deceptively powerful gift that betrays their otherwise passive nature. Furthermore, they gain access to the knowledge of Soot and can call upon his most powerful aspects to draw forth hidden information. Lastly, the Cleric of Soot can manipulate time itself both to protect and hinder. This ability is especially useful when protecting their secrets from unscrupulous adversaries.
The obvious advantages of worshipping the Keeper of Ashen Secrets are the protection of one’s own knowledge. While many suspect those who worship Soot have a great many dark secrets they wish to keep hidden, it is more often that his followers appreciate discretion in all things, and simply wish their affairs to be kept private. A great number of his followers are in fact hermits who disdain the prying eyes and ears of civilization. The Order of Secrets is very good at accommodating these individuals, and their small following tends to be extremely loyal as a result.
In addition to vast amounts of mundane information, a not so publicly known perk of worshipping Soot is the exposure to ancient and forbidden knowledge. Soot is considered one of the eldest and wisest of gods, although not the most powerful. The legends and history that the Church of Soot possesses, however, is perhaps the most detailed and unbiased in all of Nexxen. Priests of Soot of course share this knowledge with only the most trusted and worthy of individuals, but those who manage to sift through these archives can potentially gain access to powerful magics that rival even the gods themselves.
Herald and Allies:
Tasomat [Herald]
Tasomat The Archivist serves as Soot’s herald. This being is a humanoid living construct, appearing to be made from dark, ashen stone, wood and crude metal gears. It is nearly 10 feet in height and weighs close to 8,000 lbs. Unlike other animate constructs, it appears far more ancient, devoid of the sophistication of modern masonry or art work. Tasomat’s head is cube shaped, emblazoned with 4 separate faces, The Liar, The Conqueror, The Sage, and The Innocent. Each face represents a different perspective with which to absorb information. As the Archivist, it is Tasomat’s job to thoroughly analyze all knowledge (secrets, history, etc.) that enters Soot’s domain through each of these faces. Understanding from these different viewpoints allows it to best file and store new lore within Soot’s considerable library.
It carries a large tome that serves as an index for everything it has recorded thus far, making it capable of referencing nearly all information known to deities and mortals in an instant. The massive book is also heavily bound in divinely forged adamantine and contains many lethal properties that harm the weak minded and unlawful upon impact. Tasomat’s body is devoid of ornate detail, save for a rune carved upon its stone chest that prevents the creature from being hindered from any magic that restricts its movement. The remainder of its body is smooth and cool to the touch.
Tasomat rarely appears among mortals, as its primary duties are within the library of Soot. However, the herald has been called upon on occasion by a variety of beings wishing to share important or dangerous information with a source that is infallibly discreet. Since Tasomat is emotionless, and harbors no ambitions, it serves as the perfect proxy for sharing information with Soot, provided the summoner has a secret great enough to warrant its attention.
Soot has many allies, however, many of his most notable ones are predictably allied with him in secret. These individuals are scattered throughout the world, among many different cultures. Some are evil, manipulative beings, while others are benevolent and pure. Soot does not discriminate harshly against the alignments of others, provided they can agree to his terms.
Gaslow Flipscrip [Ally]
Gaslow Flipscrip is a Gnome Smuggler who lives within Ten Rows, a large harbor city on the western coast of Gal’nathik. He has prospered as a wealthy purveyor of “just about anything a man could want” for over 70 years, due in large part to his worship of Soot. He possesses a Steamwork Vessel “The Piping Proctor” that is enchanted with a labyrinth of extradimensional spaces within his cargo hold capable of storing impossibly large volumes of cargo. He has been known to be less than moral in the merchandise he is willing to traffic, but has never once broken etiquette or cheated his way through a deal, so his reputation among his clients is nearly above reproach. Soot has kept hidden some of his greatest failures, a fact that Gaslow is well aware of, and as a result has become a devout worshipper of Soot. While the two have never shared a direct divine connection, Soot understands that Gaslow’s remarkable ability to acquire nearly any resource in the mortal realm could be called upon without question should the deity desire it.
Relationships with other Gods: Rysus, the god of Breath and Speech has great hatred for Soot due to their past dealings, but despite this, Soot has no ill will towards him. Soot, being among the more objective of the gods, understands Rysus’ anger despite the length of time that has passed since their falling out. His crime against his fellow deity was great, but he also knew that the other gods would not tolerate any sort of excessive retribution against him simply because of his usefulness to them and Nexxen in general. That, or they feared what he might reveal should they refuse to come to his aid.
Despite being among the weakest of the gods in terms of divine power, most other gods show a great deal of deference towards Soot. He counts Sythe, the goddess of Rage and Anger, as well as Nyll, the god of Remorse and Regret among his greatest allies. He has done them both great service in the past, covering up their impulsive mistakes a number of times. Odeen and Soot also enjoy each other’s company as friends. They both share an appreciation for tranquility and peace, but also find their respective differences to be a source of mirth rather than confusion.
Factions:
Labyrinthus, the City Temple, is undoubtedly the largest denomination of Soot’s following, housing nearly 2,000 humanoids living under his protection. Many are simply people who enjoy the manufactured calm and quiet solitude living closely to others that is so rarely found in traditional city life, but a good number also serve Soot as members of his church.
There are of course, numerous pockets of Soot’s following among highly populated areas, for the need to hide or destroy secrets becomes greater the more socially active a land becomes. Soot’s temples have become very good at ensuring discretion for people in these areas, because the implications of being seen even visiting such a place suggests the individual has something they might be ashamed of.
One such sect, The Clandestine Cloak, appears as an inn and tavern. It is run by an order of rogues and scoundrels that pay homage to Soot on a weekly basis, and their leadership, “Mother Precious” is a Halfling Cleric of Soot. She resembles an overly made up doll dressed in elaborate noble finery, but has maintained her vows, her lips sewn shut. This appearance has allowed her to maintain control of her operation for nearly thirty years by creating doubt and fear in the hearts of those who would interfere. She runs this place of business, serving as the only priest of Soot in the area. The network of street urchins and hustlers that she employs smuggle in worshippers using an extraordinarily complex series of back-streets, disguises, and sometimes magical devices for higher profile individuals. Unlike most Clerics of the order, Mother Precious takes payment in gold in exchange for keeping the Secrets of others. These secrets are never told to any except Soot, and the god seems to have turned a blind eye to her somewhat less than ethical practice of selling discretion for money. Some believe that this is because the unusual halfling holds a secret over Soot himself.
Relics:
The Tome of Vengeful Prophecy
This incredible book resembles a well made leather bound book that has been singed around the edges. Most knowledge given to the Keeper of Ashen Secrets first pass through the inspection of his Herald, Tasomat. However, on a rare occasion, some secrets escape its notice. This is almost always due to the meddling of another god or equally powerful being wishing to prevent the knowledge from being kept at all.
Soot long ago created a way around this plotting and so constructed the Tome of Vengeful Prophecy. This artifact resides within the mortal realm and exists as Soot’s one and only insidious ploy against those who would obstruct his purpose. When secrets meant for Soot are intercepted by a being powerful enough to divert their course, the Tome reaches out across all boundaries to learn of the piece of information, then magically inscribes it within its infinite pages.
The book itself is invisible to the gods, and completely undetectable by their magics, even to Soot himself. Its purpose is to be discovered by mortals at certain intervals throughout history. Since the majority of their kind have limited discipline, it is almost always a matter of time before the highly valued knowledge is exposed to the world around them. The side benefit of this item is that it absolves Soot from all wrong doing, unless it could somehow be traced back to its source.
The Scholar’s Hourglass
A ring featuring a tiny golden hour glass on the band. This incredible ring has the ability to allow one to rework a specific point in time when they had studied a particular subject, and replace it with another instantaneously. When the Hourglass is removed, and then placed on the other end, the wearer is able to swap their level of knowledge in one subject to an equivalent amount in another subject. When the sand runs out, the transition is complete, and the ring cannot be used by the same creature for an entire year.