#Aroden

[murthingsblog]

I have a THING

Sometimes I want to practice stylization. Or anatomy. Sometimes I even do it.

So here we have Zon-Kuthon, Shelyn, Iomedae, Arazni (mortal version), Aroden and Cayden Cailean

[wormsanduba]

(Not so) lost omens

[onehobgoblin]

Okay, head cannon time:

Does anyone know if the whispering tyrant did something big after failing to take over Absalom the last time?

Because if not I have a theory: Aroden was his biggest enemy and he fucking died while the lich was sealed away. Imagine getting to the city with a brand new undead army, ready to kill your nemesis just to discover that someone else already did it.

If he didn't make anything big after this is because the lich is fuckin depressed, megamind style, after losing his enemy.

Imagine Iomedae approaching him and calling him for a fight and the Whispering Tyrant being like "IT'S NOT THE SAME THING!"

[golariontoday]

Quote: I watched as panic set upon Imictal’s face. https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Cuetzmonquali

[archpaladin]

And to be entirely fair, Pathfinder IS course-correcting on this: they've done a bunch of writing to explicitly state Aroden did a number of downright shitty things, such as tampering with the Veins of Creation in Xopatl (in Arcadia), that have caused the people there to regard him as an outright villain, as well as his theft of the Aeon Orbs condemning the xulgaths they belonged to to cultural collapse and worse.

And compounding this is his somewhat callous disregard for Arazni, who was his friend in mortal life and divine servant post-ascension. He LET his faithful bind her to fight the Whispering Tyrant, an act that led to her death, and didn't intervene to save her from Geb when he stole and desecrated her remains to make her a lich. He just promoted Iomedae into Arazni's old spot.

Iomedae is explicitly being written now as in conversation with Aroden's legacy of colonial chauvinism and reckless actions that benefit his chosen people at the expense of others (as well as her own followers' harmful acts like letting Hulrun Shappok's paranoia run rampant in Kenabres during the Mendevian Crusades, causing innocent people to be hurt under suspicion of being demonic spies, and she's essentially trying to make sure such things DON'T happen again, and to be better than Aroden was.

I think another issue is Iomedae and Sarenrae get a little "guilt-by-association" from their faiths' respective trappings as well: Iomedae has crusades, paladins and Gothic cathedrals, and so she is very, for lack of a better term "Catholic-coded." Sarenrae, meanwhile, has temples with minarets and priests with turbans and scimitars and (up until recently) a cult of assassins, so she becomes shallowly associated with Islam. Even if those comparisons are only surface-level, the emotional and historical baggage real-world faiths take gets rubbed off onto them, and it's particularly strong in Iomedae's case because there's a very strong tradition in fiction, from literature to movies to video games to TTRPGs using a Catholic-looking religion as either hypocritical and corrupt, or dangerously fanatical to the point that they commit atrocities. So when the text outright says Iomedae is trying to be better than Aroden and hold her faithful to a higher standard, players don't believe it and assume she's hiding SOMETHING.

So. After that post about crusades in fantasy, I just want to talk a little bit about my feelings about religion and the gods in Pathfinder specifically for a minute.

Firstly, I don’t actually like Iomedae as a goddess. I don’t object that she exists, you understand, but she wouldn’t be a goddess I would choose to play a follower of. That is less to do with Iomedae herself, though, and more with Aroden.

Because, see, I don’t mind that Iomedae is essentially the god of paladins. I don’t mind that she runs crusades against demons and necromancers. In a high fantasy setting like this, that’s what you have gods like Iomedae for. To fight demons. She’s doing her job, essentially. In case of demonic invasion, break glass. That’s why you have a war god or two in your back pocket for emergencies. I do not see, as I have explained exhaustively, the existence of demons in a fantasy setting and a god to fight them as any indication of real world religious opinion. These are genre conventions.

The god I do have an issue with is Aroden, the god of humanity, and his incredibly central role in the plot. Also Sarenrae, to a lesser extent, for similar reasons.

See. On the one hand, I do kind of get what story Aroden is aiming for. The human who becomes a god by his own courage and intelligence and strength, and who then goes on to sponsor humanity’s development and brings them out of the shadow of the telepathic Cthulhu monsters who secretly controlled them for so long. I get that.

The problem is that … Well, actually, it’s twofold.

The first problem is Aroden’s own background and behaviour, both before and after becoming a god. Aroden is the last surviving scion of the Azlanti Empire, Golarion’s equivalent of Atlantis, which was a vast techno-magical colonial power that had been ‘uplifted’, essentially, by the alghollthu, said Cthulhu monsters, to be better and more powerful than everything around them. The Azlanti had figured this out, and had planned to rise up against and destroy their ‘creators’, but the alghollthu saw this coming and dropped a fucking asteroid on them, destroying Azlant’s entire continent but also dropping the alghollthu themselves as well as the entire rest of the planet back to the stone age. Which … is fine, we can have fun with conspiracy theories here, I don’t object.

The problem is that Aroden, as the survivor, then goes to Azlant’s ex-colonies and attempts to do the same. To ‘uplift’ them, to keep Azlant’s culture and magical supremacy alive. Which. You do get. His culture just got literally vaporised, he wants to keep his homeland alive. But. He becomes immortal, he raises the Starstone, he becomes a god. And he then proceeds to become the patron deity of Azlant’s descendant empires. Taldor, in particular, the setting’s broadly Roman equivalent. He declares himself patron god of humanity as a species, and sets about trying to assert human supremacy. Taldor, as an empire, starts aggressively expanding pretty much immediately following this.

Aroden becomes, essentially, the god of colonialism? Species-based colonialism, at that.

Now. Sarenrae, as I mentioned, is doing pretty much the same thing over in the Empire of Kelesh, the setting’s Middle Eastern Muslim/Persian equivalent. The difference with Sarenrae, and the reason I don’t mind her quite so much, is that she’s not declaring herself humanity’s patron at the same time. So it’s less, you know. Race based.

If you are looking for the part of Pathfinder lore that does enter more problematic echoes-of-the-real-crusades territory, this is where you find it. The Mendevian crusades, despite the name, are mostly fine, they’re against an extraplanar threat. Taldor and Kelesh’s five thousand year war, on the other hand …

And even still, I might have not minded? Empires do this. Religions do this. I don’t necessarily mind the portrayal of a religious conflict between empires, even ones directly sponsored by a real deity. In this case, both empires are sponsored by a deity, and both deities are good. By alignment. Well, Aroden is actually lawful, not good, but basically neither of them have an evil alignment. So neither empire is especially vilified, at least not for their religion, they’re just … doing what empires do. Having a history like this as part of your fantasy world is not wrong, it’s good to explore that kind of history and verisimilitude.

The problem I have, the second part of the twofold problem above, is with Aroden. And specifically, Aroden’s role as patron of humanity.

Because Aroden is so central to Golarion’s lore. The death of prophecy, his death, is the defining event of the timeline. The entire Inner Sea region, the main setting until Pathfinder started branching out recently, is shaped by his actions. And they are broadly portrayed as … not necessarily right, but also not evil. Despite the fact that he is the scion of one human-supremacy empire and the sponsor of several others.

Humanity is considered kind of the rightfully dominant species of Golarion, at least of the surface world? The elves are from another world, the orcs, dwarves and goblins are all latecomers from underground, most other non-human species live in and around human civilisations. Most of the big historical non-human empires, like the serpent folk and the Ghol-gan, were explicitly evil, either initially or falling to evil over time, while humans, no matter how many empires we build, are more or less fine. Granted, Cheliax is a thing, so this is not one hundred percent. But, the thing is. Cheliax didn’t fall to devil worship until after Aroden died. So. We’re still here with Aroden as the rightful saviour and sponsor of humanity. And humanity, while following him, are the rightful inheritors of the world.

And it bugs me, because Aroden’s kind of a fucking dick? He’s a coloniser, originating from a colonising nation, and sponsoring others once he ascends to godhood. Now, again, Sarenrae, despite being of good alignment, also gets some of this, but Aroden being humanity’s patron, being a sponsor of colonialism on a racial/species level, gets me worse.

Now! Again. Something to consider here is that Pathfinder then explicitly killed him. Aroden is dead. And that is not a later decision, that was the initial event that kicked off Golarion as a setting in 1e. What does humanity do in a world where our sponsor god is abruptly dead. What do we do when our quite literal divine right up and fucking dies straight out of the gate. So Pathfinder is engaging with the problem. It’s just.

Aroden is so central. Humanity is so central. Even still, it’s not really questioned. Almost all the big movers and shakers are human, with the non-human ancestries kind of tacked on around the edges. And I do get it. The audience is human. A huge number of players, starting out, pick human as their ancestry, because it’s familiar. I do get it. But it does have some implications.

So yeah. Aroden is where Pathfinder’s worldbuilding around religion and species and morality bugs me. Not enough to write it off, it’s a fantastic setting, but yeah. It’s not perfect.

And Iomedae, unfortunately, despite the fact that she is mostly just doing her job, does get a bit of that by proxy as his inheritor.

[bite-the-bloody-hand]

Aroden was out there 100 years ago telling people to squash Deskari like the lanternfly but alas ancient sarkoris was not as community focused as modern Philadelphia

[outeremissary]

Aroace icon Lander Lebeda?

[sadruru]

"The gods and powerful creatures of Golarion"

I was asked to draw them. There aren't many fanarts anyway, and that's sad ;D

Iomedae (The Inheritor):

Calistria (The Savored Sting) and Cayden Cailean (The Accidental God):

I love seeing them together.They're the noisy neighbors in Elysium 🌚

Uh, speaking of Elysium…

Sarenrae (The Dawnflower), Shelyn (The Eternal Rose) and Desna (The Song of the Spheres):

Nocticula (The Redeemer Queen) ;D :

Brigh (The Whisper In Bronze) and Casandalee (The Iron Goddess):

Very unusual goddesses associated with technology.

Mahathallah (Dowager of Illusions). Queen of the Night:

Ragathiel (General of Vengeance). Empyreal Lord:

Aroden. The greatest prankster in history. Made trouble and died ;D :

Aroden: "Sorry, I'm dead ✨" Arazni and Iomedae: "What???"

[sheppi-isometrics]

⚔️ Tyrant Lich enemy token on Patreon

This token is available for free at our patreon :3

The wizard king Tar-Baphon was powerful necromancer with hunger for greatness. His gluttony knew no end: the world itself would serve him, alive or dead.

His brutal ambition brought winds of carnage with every conquest, which resulted in the attention of the gods. In the battle on the Isle of Terror he was killed by the Living God, Aroden, and was buried and sealed in that island, capital of his kingdom.

However, Aroden wasn't aware of the necromancer's plan. The only path for immortality required a special step in the ritual of un-death: being killed by a god. This above is the reason of the mystery in the location/identity of The Wyspering Tyrant's phylactery or soul cage. Plus another mystery in Aroden's death, that became the dead god Pharasma's top secret that nobody knows or can't know.

By supporting us on Patreon you will get access to more than 400 creatures, maps and assets! Complement your campaigns with hq hand-drawn tokens and start building the adventure of your dreams with our isometric and 2D assets 🏰!

[nnibarrel]

@murthingsblog got me hooked on pathfinder divine lore, and now this is your problem too))) Arazni when she was a herald of Aroden / Thalachos, herald of Sarenrae... "His metallic skin is as hard as steel to any that wish to do him harm, but as soft as velvet to anyone kind, merciful, and good"...

"He is on friendly terms with the heralds of Shelyn, Cayden Cailean, and Iomedae, and several sources show that he knew Arazni, herald-goddess of Aroden."

Thalachos vibes BIG cute energy, why there's nothing here on him yet... Anyway, now I have three angels of Sarenrae to hyperfixate about and a second herald angel bro. (like Inheribro) (Gods, he even looks a lot like Hand of the Inheritor.)

[dailycharacteroption]

Deity Drop 8: Iomedae

And so we’re back to the top of the list, looking at our second of the core deities of the Inner Sea Region, and it’s perhaps one of the most important for humanity: Iomedae the Inheritor!

The youngest of the Inner Sea deities, Iomedae lives up to her title by being the one that inherited the title of God of Humanity after Aroden’s death after serving as his second Herald after the death of Arazni. However, she did not start out this way.

Indeed, Iomedae is our first example of a mortal risen to godhood (outside of Aroden himself) and the latest (confirmed) to have done so by way of the Starstone, the legendary artifact that granted Aroden his own divinity, which he sequestered away in the Starstone Cathedral, a dungeon meant to protect such a powerful object and test the mettle of those who would dare to seek divinity.

In her mortal life, Iomedae started as a Chelish paladin in the service of Arazni and served in the Shining Crusade against the Whispering Tyrant. It was during and after that campaign that she performed 11 miracles, some of which were merely impressive feats for a mortal, others showed a spark of divine favor. The exact details of which are lost to time, but it is generally considered that the lessons learned from them are more important than the particulars.

In any case, her final act was turning her cloak into a bridge across the bottomless span to the Starstone Cathedral, where she took the test and ascended to divinity, where Aroden took notice of her and offered her a spot as his herald, which was recently vacated by the death of Arazni.

However, Aroden himself later vanished, presumably dying, leaving his followers and humanity in general in the lurch, that is until Iomedae stepped into his shoes, becoming their patron.

That being said, Iomedae is a very different deity to Aroden, focused more on goodness and righteousness and the fight against evil than he ever was, which he actually found inspiring.

Iomedae is a goddess of honor, justice, rulership, and valor, and leads by example to encourage mortals to do the same. Whenever mortals show courage against evil, compassion to others even when it puts themselves at risk, and even hand in their use of authority, The Lady of Valor smiles upon them.

So yes, Iomedae is the deific embodiment of what a knight is supposed to be, and those that follow her genuinely can be expected to be devoted servants of law and order, both on the crusade and back home seeing to the people.

(Keep in mind that unlike the real world, the crusades of Iomedae’s followers are generally expected to actually be motivated by a desire to defeat evil, since such things are tangible and real in Pathfinder. That being said, even lawful good groups can make mistakes, and not everyone is comfortable with the association with the Crusades)

The Light of the Sword appears much as she did in life, being a Chelish woman with short dark hair, adorned in fine plate mail with her sword and shining shield in hand, and sporting an aura that strikes fear and unease into even most fiends.

Iomedae’s personal realm does not seem to have a unique name, but it is located on the second tier of Heaven, taking the form of a pastoral and peaceful land that is nevertheless dotted with several keeps. The militant nature of the realm makes it a useful support for the archon armies of the heavenly mount, with many archons training there and staffing it’s keeps in case someone ever dares to invade the celestial realm.

Naturally, humans make up the majority of Iomedae’s worshippers, though she accepts all with righteousness in their heart. Warriors that value honor, as well as civilians that try to live their less violent lives by the same principles are equally worthy to her. Additionally, there is a sizable population of halflings that believe in her message despite having a history of enslavement by humanity in the Inner Sea Region.

The Inheritor counts most lawful and goodly gods among her allies, and the chaotic and evil as her foes. She shares something of a rivalry with Irori due to the differences in their methods of ascension to the divine, and she holds a grudge against Pharasma for her secrecy concerning the death of Aroden. She typically has no friendly dealings with beings of evil, though she cautiously hears out Asmodeus and his cronies, sifting through the lies and corruption for nuggets of wisdom.

Her servants are composed of angels and archons in abundance, and she even has her own unique angelic servants in the form of the iophanites, small burning disc-like angels that can transform into shields. Her current herald is the mortal Queen Galfrey, who stepped down from her previous role as leader of Mendev in order to serve the goddess. Her previous herald was the Hand of the Inheritor, who was captured and corrupted by the Demon Lord Baphomet, leading to his death. Additionally, Iomedae is served by the likes of the superior iophanite Jingh, the celestial gold dragon Peace Through Vigilance, and Saint Lymerin, a former priestess of her goddess uplifted to an avian-headed celestial form.

Iomedae’s domains are Glory, Good, Law, Sun, and War, with the subdomains of Archon (by way of Good and Law), Chivalry, Day, Duels, Heroism, Honor, Hubris (by way of Glory), Light, Redemption, Revelation, Sovereignty and Tactics; all of which reflects her nature as a god of righteous warfare, but also of kindness and perhaps a little recklessness in the pursuit of what is right.

Meanwhile, her 2E domains are confidence, might, truth and zeal, which reflects those aspects as well. Additionally, she offers the alternate domain of duty, as well as magic of uncanny accuracy, increased size and might, and warding oneself with flame.

The obedience of the goddess is simple enough, being an hour long ritual of reaffirming one’s vows to follow her teachings while dangling your holy symbol from your preferred weapon. Those that do so are blessed with insight when it comes to diplomatic matters and recalling information about the upper echelons of society.

But of course, as a full deity her expanded powers are split into three. The first of which, her evangelist powers, reflect her courage and the fear she strikes into evil. She grants spells that dispel fear and imbue allies with the blessings of courage and heroism. From there, She grants power to pierce the magical defenses of fiends or protection from them if you are no caster, as well as the ability to infuse spells (or weapons for non-casters) with holy power to pierce the immunities of such fiends.

Meanwhile, her exalted ones draw upon her command of holy energies, able to cast protective wards, enthrall with words, or smite with rays of light. They can also learn to imbue their weapon with a deadly burst of holy wrath against their foes, and even summon mighty shield archons to aid them.

Finally, her sentinels reflect her history as a mortal paladin, first granting spells that bless weapons or armor, as well as bolster strength. Afterwards, she grants them an improved ability to smite if the sentinel is a paladin, or a lesser form if they are not. And finally, their blades are blessed to banish fiends back from whence they came.

Iomedae is actually very prevalent in Starfinder, retaining her role as patron of humanity, as well as any species that values honor and valor alongside warrior prowess. Her largest religious organization is the Knights of Golarion, which act as righteous defenders of the Pact Worlds and anyone else that calls out for aid with their mighty fleet of warships.

That will do for today, but I hope this was inspiring and interesting to read, and shines some new light on the role of the typical “uber paladin deity”. Tomorrow we’ll be going for something a bit more obscure, delving into a forgotten god from the Mwangi Expanse.

[murthingsblog]

I love Aroden. No, really

I came to this through all five stages of acceptance.

Yeah, I started out with "fuck Aroden" for many of the decisions he made and the things he did (or didn't) do

And then I stumbled upon Tyrant's Grasp, Arazni's story in Arcadia, and... I thought harder than I probably should have.

I don't like to think of the god of humanity as a selfish jerk. But I do like to think of the god of humanity as... A man. You know, humans. At their best and at their worst. Aroden made feats as much as he made mistakes. His mistakes were extensions of his feats, and his feats were extensions of his mistakes.

He wasn't perfect.

I like to think of him as a hero in a Greek tragedy - a man who makes decisions he thinks are right, but which lead to disastrous results. Because he doesn't know what the audience knows.

And the other layer of Aroden is that I like to think of him as a man. A terribly lonely man who, by virtue of his position, can't get close enough to anyone to tell them everything that's on his mind. Hell, he's a mortal who lived an incredibly long life even before he became a god. Who probably wanted to be loved. But for whom the only way to feel love was through worship.

Who wanted to be a hero, a defender of humanity, but then watched as his great victories turned into even greater losses. The Age of Glory, the Golden Age of humanity - the age of utopia under the protection of the living god - was to be the greatest of them all.

And in the end. The best thing he could give humanity was his own death. After all, the gods can be destroyed. But humanity will survive.

Aroden has the potential to be a tragic hero. And between the jerk and the tragic hero, I choose the hero.

[vixensdungeon]

I'm generally not a huge fan of Pathfinder or its default setting, but you know what really twists my tits about it?

The lazy calendar. In the original Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting book for D&D, an attempt was made at having a somewhat unique calendar, with twelve months (no length given for some reason but 30 each seems likely), and a leap day added to the end of Arodus (August) every eight years, the month likely chosen due to the significance of the now dead god Aroden. Seems decent enough.

Then when they released the Pathfinder game itself, they changed it to just simply match the Gregorian calendar in every way, which has one major problem: the Gregorian calendar only makes sense because it is the result of some really specific shenanigans, and no one in their right mind would actually design it that way from the ground up. Why is the second month of the year the shortest, and the leap day added to the end of that one? There's a reason for that in our world, but none whatsoever in Golarion.

Sure, it's easy to work with vis-a-vis weekdays and moon phases and whatnot since you can just use the ones from our world, but it's also incredibly lazy and boring and I hate it.

[onehobgoblin]

I went into r/BatmanArkham

[golariontoday]

23 AR: First Guard established https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/First_Guard Aroden commanded volunteers to defend Azlanti Keep in the First Siege of Absalom. This unit became the First Guard, protecting the state from external threats.

[honourablejester]

Sticking with Pathfinder for another minute:

Pathfinder Deity Spotlight: Cayden Cailean

Once a mortal human, Cayden Cailean is now one the few deities known as the Ascended. In his mortal years, Cayden was a sellsword of no small fame, known for his boisterous manner, skill with a blade, and fearless resolve. During a particularly rowdy night of drinking, a series of escalating dares led the wandering mercenary to attempt the Test of the Starstone. He emerged from the Starstone Cathedral 3 days later, laughing, a fully realized god. Divine responsibility did little to change Cayden’s attitude from what it was in his mortal life. He continues to crave adventure, drink, and pleasurable company while abhorring bullies, tyrants, and cowards.

Cayden has no formal churches or structure clergy, but simple shrines to him appear in almost every tavern and roadside inn. Many of his priests own such businesses and offer healing to patrons, some of whom may have been injured during a drunken brawl. While Cayden’s faith is a charitable one, Caydenites still seek payment for such services— at the very least, the injured party is expected to purchase a round of drinks for the house. Only in places where worshippers of the Accidental God are in direct opposition to the local powers, such as where a rebellion is forming under a tyrant’s nose, is his church out of the public eye. Caydenites can bring themselves to be quiet in the face of oppression only for so long, however, and once a rebellion reaches full bloom, the god’s silver tankard is often proudly displayed across every bar.

As a mortal, Cayden often found himself at odds with the work he was hired to perform and abandoned jobs that went against his conscience. This gave him a reputation for being unreliable among his more unscrupulous employers, but it garnered significant respect from clients with stronger morals. Legends tell of him taking contracts to free entire crews of slaves, undoing the operations of predatory business owners, and other rebellious deeds for the good of the common folk. His worshippers often involve themselves in similar matters: safeguarding the freedom and prosperity of working-class people, overthrowing tyrants, and helping the oppressed to relocate to freer lands. His champions, in particular, embed themselves in nations with harsh laws and stir up rebellions— often from the back room of a tavern.

--- Lost Omens: Gods and Magic (2020)

Cayden Cailean, the Accidental God. God of alcohol, pubs, and freedom fighters. One of the things that the 2e source doesn’t mention, and one of the reasons that I love him, is a little tidbit I found mentioned on a wiki (so I’m assuming it’s from a 1e source). And that is that he’s called the Accidental God because he doesn’t remember how he did it. The Test of the Starstone. He doesn’t remember how he passed it. This mad lad got black out drunk, took a lethal test with a 99%+ failure rate on a dare, and then woke up three days later as a god with no idea what happened in between. Which is just. I mean. You’ve got to admire it? Exactly three people aside from Aroden have ever passed the test of the Starstone. In all of history. Three. Iomedae, goddess of paladins, Norgorber, mysterious god of thieves and murder, and this man. Cayden Cailean, the Accidental God. Who got drunk and did it on a lark, and became a god to his own surprise, let alone anyone else’s.

And who then woke up, abruptly an unplanned deity, and went right. I can do something with this.

And, okay. He’s a fairly typical Robin Hood type god? Rebel looking for a cause, champion of the little guys, an adventurer who stumbled into a lot more power than he ever could have expected. He’s the sort of cheerful, boisterous adventurer who you probably do want to punch sometimes, who has power in some ways because he lucked into it. But. But. In some ways, also, not because he lucked into it. Because he may have been drunk at the time, and he may not remember what happened, but he did pass the Starstone Test. A test that people have been attempting for four thousand years, and that killed everyone that attempted it except this man and three others. So there was skill there, as much as luck, and there was depth as well.

He's a cheerful, boisterous adventurer, an accidental god, the god of alcohol whose temples are all pubs, but he had principles even as a mortal sellsword, and he stuck to them even at the risk of his business. And he sticks to them still. He woke up from a bender as a god, and went, okay. I can help people like this. I can fight so much bigger tyrants, and protect people on so much bigger a scale. And I do respect that about him.

I also just enjoy his public house temples as well. It’s a fun sort of echo and reverse of how many medieval European breweries were in monasteries. Sometimes holy ground is the local pub. Heh. And the little detail that you can get healing services there, at the cost of at least a round of drink for the house. Like, that’s just a fun set-piece? You and your party get badly injured in a fight in the woods or the dark alleys of a city, and you drag yourself a nearby pub, and then scrounge up the coin to buy a round to get your guts put back in. A pub which, incidentally, may also be the meeting place and headquarters for the local resistance movement, with the full blessing and support of its divine patron.

There’s just. There’s a reason he’s a popular god? Even if his personality might rub you the wrong way a bit on occasion. There’s a nice thread of something genuine running under it, as well as a banger origin story, and some fun trappings to his faith.