ESSCENCIA- MANIPULATOR OF THE RIVER

		STAT	Intermediate Power
		ROR	???
		AL	True Neutral
		WAL	Any non evil
		SoC	Foresight, manipulation and intervention
		SY	Tree diverting a river
SX	Female
MAN	A beautiful woman bathed in glowing light carrying a tree sapling as a staff. Those who see her say she looked both elfish and human at the same time.
CR
PN
ALL	Time gods and nature gods
ENE	Potentially any Human, Elf or Humanoid god

History:

To fully understand the nature and ethos of Esscencia, her personal history needs to be explored. There are two main turning points in her history, which are her ascension to demi-god power and then to intermediate power. Though there are different interpretations of the legend of Esscencia, there are several key elements that are constant in all stories about her ascension.

· Esscencia was a powerful elven Enchantress that, against the warnings of her people, fell in love with a human druid.

· Esscencia developed her divination powers and found a way that she and her lover could share their essences. The druid received the elfish long life and Esscencia received the druid’s strong affinity with nature. In this sharing, Esscensia became a blend of both elf and human but at the same time neither human or elf.

· When a marauding army was about to overrun their nation the druid sacrificed his life to kill the orc chieftain and defeat the army, which in turn saved his forest and tens of thousands of human lives.

· Esscencia tried to resurrect the druid but it failed. She became a follower of a time god to try and find a way to change time and bring back the human druid.

· In an effort to stop Esscencia changing time, the time god gave her the gift of timesight. She saw that in all possible futures that she altered, the human druid would still die. In some timelines he would take his own life because he failed to save the forest he loved.

· Esscencia realises that the she is the reason why he can’t be brought back. If she altered the past so that the druid never died, she would never become a follower of a time god and would therefore not alter the past. Esscencia superior intellect could fully grasp the paradox of altering time and decided to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of maintaining time order. She wept for three days. Where her tears hit the ground a grove of trees grew. Esscencia uprooted a young sapling and carried it as a staff to remind her of her lost love. Remarkable the suppling still flourished even when uprooted.

· The time god sensed the power and insight of Esscencia and as a reward for her sacrifice elevated her to demi-god status. Esscencia realised to change the future safely you must change the now. She became known as the god of foresight.

· Esscencia’s powers of foresight very strong allowing her to see further into the future than others. This allows her to manipulate the future by effecting the “now” without breaking laws of time. This ability earned her the name “manipulator of the river”.

Esscensia’s rise to intermediate power:-

· One of the gods had a vision that the in the distant future humans and elves would destroy each other in a great war.

· There were many gods who did not want to see this happen and many who did. They decided to set an arbiter over this event to make sure that no god or gods could directly intervene. The arbiter had to be neither human or elf and have no presence on the prime material plane.

· Esscencia was chosen for the role as she was neither human or elf and had no followers on the prime material plane. She was elevated to intermediate power and given the charge of preventing direct interference in the destruction of the elves and humans. Esscencia became the god of foresight, manipulation and intervention.

Some have suggested that Esscencia knew of this disaster well before any gods and been preparing herself for the role of arbiter so that she could save the humans and elves. As soon as she was assigned her role, Essencia announced that a mortal was seeking her continued guidance and that she planned to make him her prophet. Through Crayon, she would establish a religion on the prime material plane. Others have suggested she manipulated events so that the disaster would occur so that she could be raised to intermediate power. This seems to have contributed to her being thought of as the god of foresight, manipulation and intervention.

Because of their protective role between Humans and Elves, priests of Essencia consider themselves responsible for thwarting plots against these races. Where possible they will subtly aid these races by providing key information and insights into their strengths and their opponents weaknesses.

In pursuit of their ultimate goal, priests of Essencia are encouraged to record any information that could be used to manipulate events to achieve the outcomes the priesthood desires. Thus priests of Essencia can often be found acting as scribes to the wealthy and influential.

Priests of Essencia recognise the major role that religion plays in all races and cultures, and are renown for understanding the subtleties of other religions. This is one of the key ways that they are able to shape the future. By identifying acts of religious observance in others and interpreting the signs and portents of other religions, priests of Essencia exert a subtle influence over the followers of other religions without appearing to interfere. This is one of the core tenants of Essencia; to use their unique skills and powers to guide and advise, and thus manipulate the direction of history without appearing to do so.

Ethos.

Officially Esscencia is the god of “foresight, manipulation and interventio”. This is ethos her church promotes and the reason why people seek out priests of Esscencia. Unofficially, the priests of Esscencia work towards bringing harmony and peace amongst elves and humans. Their long term goal is to avert the destruction of all humans and elves; however, their methods are subtle and manipulative. Priests will seldom directly intervene, instead they prefer to advise or direct the key players.

The priesthood works to establish themselves in the trust of the general populace. One of the reasons why priests of Esscencia wear no armour and carry no weapons is to demonstrate that they mean no harm; however, their powers make them gifted advisors and will often be seen as key supporters to military commanders.

Priests are taught to think before acting (though they are not slow to act). Each event and action is directs the cause of “the river” to a degree. Priests try and develop their skills to know when to act and this regard are skilled information gatherers; however, as the prophet Crayon says in his “Lessons of Lars”, “... magical information gathering can become a crutch. A lot can be learnt from mere observation. Then there is the problem of getting the information back to the church. In this regard using a cure light wounds spell to keep yourself and your fellows alive can be classed as an information gathering spell”.

Esscencia favours those of her followers who turn the tide of lost causes. Great kudos is given to priests that can use their skills to turn a loss into a victory. Such actions creates faith and devotion amongst those involved in the victory. By developing faith the purpose of saving humans and elves can be achieved without the church goals being known.

To make sure that the priests stay humble and therefore of the people once a month ( unless adventuring or on church business) they must perform a ritual known as the “act of humility”. Without the knowledge of the recipient, the priests must take the form of a beast of burden or like animal and toil as the servant of a commoner. This ritual was started by the Prophet Crayon by turning into an oxen and pulling the dust cart, even though he was a Baron.

ESSCENCIA’S PRIESTHOOD - ADVOCATES

AB	9 Wis
PAL	Lawful Neutral, Neutral, Chaotic Neutral
WPN	None (excepting the Net of the Faithful)
AR	No armour, no shield
RA	Black sleeveless full length coat, black pants, metal gauntlets, bald except for top-knot pony tail.
SPH	Major: All, Elemental Water, Healing, Necromancy, Numbers, Thought, Plant Minor: Animal, Divination, Elemental Earth & Fire, Guardian, Protection, War, Wards.
XPT	A
SPL	Eagle Mount, Improved Barkskin ( researched after Priesthood create).
ADD	Nil
RAC	Human, Half-Elf, Elf
TU	Yes
PW	1) Shape change (3 times/day, one of each: Mammal, reptile, bird) 2) Turn Undead 3) Secret Sign Language
PEN	Cannot use or be proficient in any weapons or armour, including shields.
PROF	1) Reading/Writing 2) Religion
FOLL	Standard

There is a deep secret within the church of Esscencia that is only known by spell casting priests of 3^rd level and higher and a chosen few. This secret is the church’s long term and underlying goal. The secret is the real agenda of Esscencia, which is to try and prevent the elves and humans wiping themselves out. It is kept secret because there are many who would like to see the humans and elves destroy themselves. If they knew that Esscencia was trying to prevent it then they would try and destroy the church. The church of Esscencia has other shorter and medium range goals.

The church outwordly promotes the better known traits of Esscencia, which are foresight, prevention, circumvention and arbitration. These traits are promoted by example through diplomacy and thinking before acting. For these reason priests of Esscencia make good diplomates, judges, tacticians and problem solves. What is not often seen, is how these traits are promoted and problems circumvented. This is by using the other trait of Esscenica, which is manipulation. Priests will often manipulate events and people to bring out a desired result; however, manipulation is done secretly and cautiously as manipulated people are reluctant to trust the priests after that.. Priests wll use subtle persuassion, diplomacy to manipulate events. This is not down lightly or for personal glory, but for the greater good of the church (though if some personal benefits are gained as a by-product than this is not frowned upon).

The holy day for Essencia is 14^th Sunsebb, which was the day that her prophet Crayon proved himself worthy to lead her religion by …. At the conclusion of his ordeal, Crayon witnessed the creation of the most holy relic of Essencia, the 10 foot holy symbol now known as the Heart of Essencia, and on which all other holy symbols of Essencia are based.

XP Points for use of Granted Powers

Experience Points are given for using a Granted Power for a good reason.

XP Points	Power Used
100	Turn Undead
50	Shape change (3 times/day, one of each: Mammal, reptile, bird)
50	Secret Sign Language

Notes for future additions to this document:

Ethos:

Manipulation: bend events to fit the goals of the church. This requires:-

Forsight: To see possible problems arising before they occur and to try to deduce what will happen, thus:-

Prevention: Priests of Esscencia will use violence (usually in a support role) to keep the church and its goals safe; however, the perfered method is diplomacy. If Priests can make two enemies become friends than they are more likely to view Esscenica as an allie. This is why priests are know for their:-

Arbetration: Priests will use magic and reason to difuse situations.

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