Before my party heads to Kaer Maga, I am looking for all the information on the Peacock Spirit, is there a handy checklist of products that contain such information?
It's one of the dead gods, though that can be a temporary situation (see the recently resumed cult of Lissala). The amount of info, as in official, canonical info, is really pretty slim, and mostly found in RotR and Lost Kingdoms.
It and its followers were, even in their active years, incredibly mysterious, and illusion was a major part of the church/cult. IIRC, its alignment is LE, and it has a large number of monasteries still dotting Varisia and the Lands of the Linnorm Kings. A decent number of its former order, including all "surviving" members of the Order of the Green Feather, are graveknights (or perhaps worse). Its faith was wholeheartedly endorsed by Runelord Xanderghul, so a lot of his temples and monasteries are spread around the old region of Cyrusian. There's several major ones in Shalast as well, including the Black Tower (see Jorgenfist) and the Therassic Spire, IIRC.
Believe me, I'm drooling at even the mere mention of Peacock Spirit details, but it seems Lissala has supplanted it in most folks' old Thassilonian cult interests. Not that Lissala's faith isn't fascinating too, just... Peacock Spirit.
The big question is whether there is a Peacock Spirit / Melek Taus connection.
Good looking out!! I now have something to read for the weekend.
Well, the names mean the same thing.
Here's some little bits on our friend the peacock.
In the RW, Mayil, the half-brother of Ravana, was a peacock-Rakshasa. He's found in Sri Lankan myth. The Maurya dynasty's name may mean 'of the peacock' and they were linked to the Asuras by the Brahmins.
Arabic and Yezidi legend make Melek Taus the same as Azazel, the angel of death, whose state of fallen-ness varies in legend.
He is not, apparently, the same as Iblis. Maybe. He may be identical to Tammuz, the dying god and consort of Ishtar.
According to Javan legend, Iblis entered paradise by being eaten by a peacock, which flew over the wall. There he was excreted and reformed.
The eyes on the peacock's feathers are linked to the evil eye in India. They can eat aconite (wolfsbane) as they are immune...
The "Drunken Peacocks" (Matta-mayura) are an order of Saivite ascetic Tantrik monks in India. One of their specialties was initiating royalty into Tantrik enlightenment.
Tantric I believe is the correct spelling. Great information!
Tantrik from Tantrika (one who uses tantra), is sometimes used by scholars and Tantra practitioners of South Asia to prevent confusion or association with Tantric, which tends to have a specific (adult) meaning in English.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Jeff Erwin wrote:
Turin the Mad wrote:
Tantric I believe is the correct spelling. Great information!
Tantrik from Tantrika (one who uses tantra), is sometimes used by scholars and Tantra practitioners of South Asia to prevent confusion or association with Tantric, which tends to have a specific (adult) meaning in English.
Yeah... giving worshipers of the Peacock Spirit Trickery, Evil, Nobility, and Rune are all great choices. Aside from what we've revealed about this guy in Runelords, though... we don't have much more information about him at all yet. He was created by Wolfgang Baur in Pathfinder #1, and like the Oliphaunt of Jandelay (which he also created) we've been tinkering with the idea ever since. Neither was originally part of Runelords, and since by the time we got in Wolf's "history of Thassilon" article, work had already been proceeding apace on all of the other adventures, we didn't really have the luxury of weaving them into the AP in a more significant role. You can certainly expect us to return to both of these mysterious forces at some point in the future, though!
Anorak
Shaun Hocking
Contributor
thebwt
GeraintElberion
Lazaro
