> [!infobox]+ Pelor > <div class="infobox-coat-of-arms"> > <div style="text-align: center; padding: 5px;"> > <div class="character-name-container"><div class="character-main-name">Pelor</div><div class="character-epithet">the Dawnfather</div></div> > </div> > </div> > <div style="text-align: center; padding: 0.2em;"> > <img src="PelorSymbol.png" alt="Pelor" style="max-width: 250px; height: auto;" class="internal-image"> > </div> > <table class="infobox-table"> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Province</td><td class="infobox-data">God of the sun, summer and agriculture. Generally worshipped by farmers and people who live off the land.</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Alignment</td><td class="infobox-data">Neutral Good</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Symbol</td><td class="infobox-data">A bright gold, eight-pointed star</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Holy Day</td><td class="infobox-data">Highsummer, 10^th Heatswrath</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Type</td><td class="infobox-data">Greater <a href="Deities.md" class="internal-link">Deity</a></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Home Plane</td><td class="infobox-data">Pelor is often found within the Fortress of the Sun, a shining, golden citadel that brings vibrant life to the limitless orchards of the Blessed Fields of <a href="Elysium.md" class="internal-link">Elysium</a>.</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Divine Champion</td><td class="infobox-data"><em>Not Known</em></td></tr> > </table> ### About Pelor rules over sun and summer, his vigil encircling the ages as the keeper of time. As lord of agriculture and harbinger of the harvest, he is worshiped by farmers and most common folk, and his priests are welcomed in many lands. Supporter of the needy and destroyer of evil, the Dawn Father is often the patron of paladins and rangers who follow a similar creed. He is also known for his defeat of the [[Tharizdun|Chained Oblivion]] and is revered by those who hunt aberrations. ### Depiction Tapestries of old match early texts describing Pelor as a paternal figure in silver and gold armour, his head a beacon of light and fire so bright that his face can barely be seen. Many statues in holy places use the head as a brazier, lit with each dawn and extinguished at dusk. ### Divine Domains Many of the Dawnfather's clerics are granted powers of light, life or nature. ### Holy Day Pelor's holy day is called Highsummer, and takes place on the tenth day of the fifth month. While other parts of [[Aeborhia]] feast, the [[Stacien Empire]] uses this day as an opportunity to enlist more soldiers in its army. The military holds great feasts and hands out toy soldiers and other propaganda, encouraging people to enlist and help fight against the savage lands to the north and bring order to the continent. In the military funded summer camps in [[Goldsgrove]] in [[Aekacira (Country)|Aekacira]], this day is set aside for competitions between the campers to show off their skills. ### Commandments of Pelor - Be ever vigilant for evil. People are quick to forget the lessons of the past. - Help relieve the suffering of the innocent. - Deliver the light of the Dawnfather where darkness dwells, and do so with kindness, compassion, and mercy. ### History - #### The Age of Founding When the gods first arrived in [[Aeborhia]], Pelor chose not to create anew but instead to nurture what already existed. While [[Melora|Melora's]] beasts roamed the land and the sentient races lived as hunters and foragers, it was Pelor who showed them how to till the soil, plant seed, and reap harvests of their own. In doing so, he gifted them not only sustenance but stability. By taming the sun itself, he brought steady light and warmth, ensuring the growth of crops, the thriving of animals, and the flourishing of mortal life. Beyond the fields, Pelor instilled in mortals the values of family, commitment, and responsibility - bonds that tied communities together. From these teachings arose the first guardians of his faith, the order known as [[Pelor's Swords]]: knights sworn to shield the innocent, embodying the light of the Dawnfather in both blade and spirit. These knights made their home in Pelor's own fortress where the Hall of the Sun now stands in [[Goldhearth]]. The current temple being built on the foundations after the [[Dawn-War]] and the city building itself up around it. Pelor created the plane of [[Elysium]], a four-layered realm of pure good. Pelor made his Fortress of the Sun in the centre of the limitless orchards in the blessed fields on the uppermost layer, Amoria. Members of [[Pelor's Swords]] could earn a place here upon their deaths if they served with honour. During the Age of Founding, many of Pelor's earliest settlements became vulnerable to the rampages of the Primordials. Where other groups could scatter and flee, the faithful of the Dawnfather were bound to their farms and fields, making them easy prey for destruction. Though he remained neutral when mortals were first granted the gift of arcane magic, the alliance of the [[Betrayer Gods]] with the [[Primordials]] forced Pelor to act. When the [[Age of Founding|Schism]] erupted, Pelor and his holy order, the Swords, took up arms in full measure, becoming an unstoppable force of light upon the battlefield. It was in this age that Pelor led the [[Crusades of Dawn|Crusade of Dawn]], a series of long and brutal campaigns, each spanning centuries, that ended with the imprisonment of five Betrayer Gods: - With [[Bahamut]] at his side, he struck down [[Gruumsh]] and cast him into [[Acheron]]. - Alongside [[Erathis]], he battled [[Torog]] and banished him into the [[Far Realm]]. - He fought shoulder to shoulder with [[Eilistraee]] to drive a maddened [[Lolth]], broken by the loss of her son [[Vhaeraun]], deep into the [[Abyss]]. - [[Zehir]] he bound to a prison plane adrift in the [[Astral Sea]], beyond the reach of his venomous plots. - And finally, it was Pelor who sealed [[Asmodeus]] himself into the [[Nine Hells]], his [[Pelor's Swords|Swords]] shining as a vanguard of justice. The [[Crusades of Dawn|Crusade of Dawn]] burned like the rising sun - unyielding, radiant, and relentless - forever etching Pelor's name as one of the greatest champions of the [[Age of Founding|Schism]]. - #### The Age of Arcanum In the [[Age of Arcanum]], Pelor held little concern for the soaring magocracies and their flying cities, choosing instead to guide his faithful who remained upon the earth. He blessed their fields and harvests, and directed the [[Pelor's Swords|Swords of Pelor]] to protect the vulnerable, for many ground-dwellers were scorned by the mages of the flying cities as lesser citizens, unworthy of the arcane power that lifted cities into the heavens. Under Pelor's light, those left behind endured, their lives given dignity and strength through his watchful care. When the Archmage [[Vecna]] tore open a gate to [[Harkon]], an elder [[Deities|deity]] from a far away world, it was Pelor who rallied the [[Prime Deities]] to act. The gate was sealed in less than a day beneath their combined might, yet not before countless horrors poured through - among them the first [[Vampires]], whose curse spread swiftly across [[Aeborhia]]. Though the wound could not be undone, Pelor's swiftness ensured that [[Harkon]] himself was denied entry, sparing the world from devastation. - #### The Dawn-War The [[Dawn-War]] marked the bloodiest age of divine conflict, unlike the [[Age of Founding|Schism]] before it, there were no [[Primordials]] to contend with, this was purely god against god. Of the eight [[Betrayer Gods|Betrayer]] Gods who rose in rebellion, it was Pelor who banished five, his campaigns remembered as the [[Crusades of Dawn|Second Crusade of Dawn]]. The first of these victories came early in the war, when a fragment of [[Tharizdun|Tharizdun's]] essence slipped free of its prison in the [[Abyss]]. Even this sliver of the Chained Oblivion was a power to rival any [[Deities|deity]]. Together, [[Ioun]] and Pelor devised a desperate ambush: [[Ioun]] would act as bait to draw [[Tharizdun]] into combat while Pelor struck with the fury of the sun. The plan nearly cost them everything - [[Tharizdun|Tharizdun's]] strength proved overwhelming, and [[Ioun]] was left gravely wounded, her followers almost annihilated. Only with the blessing of [[Avandra]] did Pelor at last drive the Chained Oblivion back into the deepest layer of the [[Abyss]], sealing him away once more. Later, Pelor led an all-out assault on [[Zur-Irqaz]], the colossal mountain fortress of the [[Betrayer Gods]] in [[Vangrallag]]. Alongside [[Moradin]], he spearheaded one of the most devastating battles of the [[Dawn-War]]. Thousands of warriors, demons, and many of Pelor's own [[Pelor's Swords|Swords]] fell before the fortress walls. By its end, however, three of the [[Betrayer Gods|Betrayers]] were banished: [[Bane]] cast into [[Acheron]], [[Torog]] bound to the borders of the [[Far Realm]], and [[Zehir]] hurled into the [[Astral Sea]]. Both Pelor and [[Moradin]] were grievously wounded, and though Pelor fought on, [[Moradin]] would not return to the field for the remainder of the war. Even wounded, Pelor answered when the Archlich [[Vecna]] rose to godhood, carving a place in the Pantheon for himself as the Raven Queen had done before. With his Champion, Paragon [[Duana]] of Hope, the Flame of Morning - the First Sword of Pelor - he led the [[Pelor's Swords|Swords]] into the [[Shadowfell]], storming [[Thar Amphala]], [[Vecna]]'s dark city, with the [[Raven Queen]] and [[Kord]] fighting at his side. At the peak of Entropis, Pelor and [[Duana]] battled the newly ascended god and his vampiric general, [[Kas]]. [[Duana]] fell in the struggle, slain by [[Vecna]] and forever after remembered as the Dawnmartyr. In his arrogance, [[Vecna]] turned to taunt Pelor, but in that moment Kas betrayed his master, striking him with his cursed blade. Though [[Vecna]] slew Kas in turn, the wound left him weakened, and Pelor struck him down, casting him adrift in the [[Astral Sea]], condemned to wander in isolation. From that day forward, [[Plate of the Dawnmartyr|Duana's armour]] was enshrined as the symbol of office for the leader of [[Pelor's Swords]] - the First Sword of Pelor. - #### Post Dawn-War When at last the [[Dawn-War]] ended and the [[Prime Deities]] chose to withdraw from the [[Material Plane]], Pelor felt only relief. Nearly a thousand years of constant strife in the [[Dawn-War]], and thousands more in the [[Age of Founding|Schism]] before it, had left even the Dawnfather weary. Yet in leaving, he did not abandon his people. Instead, he entrusted them with the values that had defined his guidance since the beginning - duty, family, and moral strength. These teachings were gathered into a sacred tome, the Eight-Pointed Star, by the High Priest of his church. That priest, in humility, refused to have their name recorded, declaring that this age belonged not to mortals but to Pelor himself. The first copy of the Eight-Pointed Star is preserved to this day, enshrined within the Hall of the Sun in [[Goldhearth]], a radiant reminder of the god's enduring light and the foundation upon which his faithful still stand. ### Modern Worship of Pelor In the present age, the church of Pelor stands as one of the most structured faiths in [[Aeborhia]]. Local priests and priestesses tend to villages, towns, and cities, while bishops oversee the faithful of entire kingdoms. Beyond them, high priests govern regions and continents, and together they form the Council of Light, gathering once every ten years in [[Rexsall]] to guide the direction of the faith. The [[Pelor's Swords|Swords of Pelor]] remain a shining order of virtue, though diminished in number compared to their golden age during the [[Dawn-War]]. Today, they count just over four hundred members: most are squires and knights, sworn to protect the innocent, while roughly twenty hold the rank of Dawn Warden. Above them stand the Eight Paragons of Light, each embodying a different facet of Pelor's teachings, one of these would be the First Sword of Pelor - the bearer of [[Plate of the Dawnmartyr|Duana's armour]] and standard of the order. At the heart of Pelor's church lies the Eight-Pointed Star, the sacred tome written all those thousands of years ago, composed of stories recounting the Dawnfather's deeds and interactions with mortals. Each tale carries a lesson of duty, compassion, and perseverance, forming the moral foundation upon which his worship endures. For the faithful, the Star is not only scripture but a light in times of hardship, a reminder that Pelor's warmth still shines upon the world. ### Known Worshippers of Pelor #### Champions - [[Duana]] † - Champion of Pelor that fell against Vecna in the Dawn-War. Paragon of Hope and First Sword of Pelor. First wearer of the [[Plate of the Dawnmartyr]]. #### Other Worshippers - [[Father Hubert]] - Priest of Pelor's church in [[Zhavrin's Gate]]. - The [[Pelor's Swords|Swords of Pelor]] - A holy order of knights devoted to protecting the innocent and spreading the values of Pelor.