Holy of Holies

Friday, September 7, 2007

In the Player's Guide to Rise of the Runelords, we had a chance to illustrate six of our core deities' holy symbols. Unfortunately, that left the other 14 deities with nothing. What happens when a player wants to draw a sketch of his cleric of Iomedae? How does the GM describe the giant symbol of Rovagug carved into the walls of the evil temple?

Eventually, the symbols of all 20 core deities will be illustrated, but for now, the following list of short descriptions at least gives you an idea of what their symbols look like. For Erastil, Desna, Shelyn, Abadar, Gozreh, and Sarenrae, the look is set. For the other 14, we may still decide to go another way with some of these symbols, but for now, you can use these in your campaign.

Abadar: Golden key with a cityscape carved into its head, with four runes and a keyhole along the lower edge.

Asmodeus: Red pentagram.

Calistria: Three slender daggers touching their pommels together so the blades radiate out from the middle.

Cayden Cailean: Slightly dented and well-used iron tankard.

Desna: Butterfly with star, sun, and moon symbols on its wings.

Erastil: Arrow nocked in a bow made of a pair of antlers.

Gorum: Iron sword thrust into the side of a rugged mountain.

Gozreh: Leaf with a drop of water dripping from its tip.

Iomedae: Elegant longsword with a circular sunburst behind the sword's hilt.

Irori: Dark blue hand, palm out, inscribed inside a sky blue circle.

Lamashtu: Monstrous three-eyed jackal head seen from straight on.

Nethys: Androgynous porcelain mask, one half black, one half white.

Norgorber: Black featureless mask with one silver starburst for a left eye.

Pharasma: Comet whose tail trails out behind it to form a spiral.

Rovagug: Circular fanged mouth surrounded by nine curling spider legs.

Sarenrae: Angel with arms outstretched and wings curled above in an ankh-like shape.

Shelyn: Exotic songbird with a long rainbow-colored tail curling up over its head.

Torag: A gleaming silver hammer with blocky runes on it.

Urgathoa: White-eyed housefly with bloodstained wings and feet and a distorted human skull pattern on its body.

Zon-Kuthon: Battered skull with no lower jaw; a spiky chain has been threaded in one eye socket and out the other, so the two chains hang down like metal tears.

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief, Pathfinder