(OREAIS, OROS - “MOUNTAIN”)
“THERE ARE NO SCALES UPON THE MOUNTAIN,
ONLY MEN AND THEIR MANY-COLORED INCLINATIONS.”
Latter Hallow Patrinne: Spirit of Mountains, Sky, and Tradition.
Aliases: Aspect of Sundra, Dragon of the Halepiggen, the Bladebreaker, the Mountaindrake.
Symbols: Shields, mountains, dragons, stone and mortar, plate armor, scales.
Worship: Outlast all adversaries; exercise inhuman patience across the turn of seasons; maintain tradition, be the bridge which connects generations.
Dwelling: The Halepiggen of Tousale in Orralune, Tousav, and the winds of the fjords.
Equivalents: Sundra (Marathan/Mazzaroth), Dragon God Oreais (Tousale).
As early as the Second Age, the Tousaleans chiseled the origins of their enclaves into grand murals which broke the harsh winds. The birth of their world, witnessed from atop the peaks, was hewn into the lintels of their archives. To the Tousaleans, their patron god Oreais was both mountain and myth. It was a grand dragon which coiled about the summit of the Halepiggen, the largest mountain of the fjords whose peak was believed to be Oreais’ tail-tip. The dragon god was patient as the sky, witnessing the turn of heavens since the earth first resolved itself from gloom. To its chosen people, it whispered the secrets of creation. Its words were so fierce and tongue so elemental that its breath was believed to form the whipping winds of the steppe.
The association of Oreais with Sundra was a fraught one born of mixed interpretations. To the Tousaleans, this draconic god—so ancient as to be beyond wisdom—was a shepherding force which revealed hidden facets of the world. Their independent discovery of Theurgy was supposedly a product of his knowledge, as were the anachronistically advanced construction techniques which allowed their fortresses and godshrines to be built. When the Tousaleans and the Marathans collided in the Middle Third Ages, a bevy of mistranslations, a misattribution of Oreais to the legend of Harm’lyoth, and an over-reliance on their few cultural synchronicities created a conflation between the Marshal and the mountain drake. Were these two guardians not both fathers to their chosen people, if only different in vocation? Supposedly, but the Tousaleans resented the degradation of their god to the level of mere men.
The Tousavi Empire had less qualms with unraveling the Tousaleans’ reverence. Upon the dissolution of the sage societies, their patron god Oreais was stripped of its scales and garbed in resplendent armor. No longer a dragon, but a warrior-monk of Silvermere’s enclaves. Made supplicant to, most critically, the new Church of the Unsullied Soul. To this day the image of Patrinne, named for the wrought stone of the razed Tousalean archives, is an androgyne figure completely covered by its heavy plate. It wields a shield and a sword, its weapon raised heavensward to pierce the clouds, and from its helm unfurl the wings of a dragon. The last trace of what was, and, to the Tousaleans, always had been.
Acts of Favor
- A handful of mountain soil or stone dust (1 Favor)
- A brick or stone block of Bulk (1) or higher (3 Favor)
- Patrinne stone (5 Favor)
- Blood mixed into mortar (5 Favor)
- Stoneworking tools of Bulk (1) or higher (10 Favor)
Invocations
Scales Complexity: 1 Favor: (#, minimum of 3) Range: Touch Duration: Persist (1) AP: 2 Effect: The target’s DR against all damage is raised by 1 for every 3 Favor expended.
Raise Mountain Complexity: 2 Favor: 6 Range: Paces (5) Duration: Persist (2) AP: 3 Effect: You create a Line (3) of Hardness (3) stone.
Drakenward Complexity: 3 Favor: 8 Range: Touch Duration: Instant AP: 2 Effect: You perform a Block against an attack directed towards you or an adjacent target. It utilizes whatever weapon you are holding, and uses your Willpower in place of Strength or Dexterity. If you successfully block all damage, the attacker suffers the Freezing (1) condition.
Reshape Stone Complexity: 4 Favor: 15 Range: Touch Duration: Instant AP: 3 Effect: You mold up to Sphere (3) of stone from a point you touch. This reconfigures the stone into any shape or pattern, but cannot create or destroy what is already there. If a creature would be harmed or trapped by the stone, they must spend 1 AP to reposition themselves out of range; if they do not, they are unable to evade in time.
Winds of Antiquity Complexity: 5 Favor: 20 Range: Self Duration: Persist (5) AP: 5 Effect: Ancient cold radiates from you, thickening the air with frost. All creatures within Sphere (3) suffer the Dazed (1) and Freezing (1) conditions. Each time you take damage for the duration, every creature within range must succeed a Willpower vs. Dexterity contest; on a failure, they suffer the Freezing (1) condition and are knocked Prone.