Here's a sample from the way the cults & orders section is being revised. It's now presenting all data relevant to each Zodiac Stone in one section, then focusing on other cults, pretenders and philosophical orders in their own sections:
The
Divinities
The divinities are almost universally chosen by happenstance: a lucky or
hapless soul stumbles across a Zodiac Stone without a symbiotic bearer, waiting
to bond. A few, such as Milina, were created early on and have existed for over
two thousand years now as demiurges, unable to unite the shards of the
respective stone or overcome their rivals to the point where a new true god
would arise. Most are mystics (Kalie’Yana), scoundrels (Piscrael) or wanderers
(Mardieur Mardiuex) who found their respective stones by happenstance and are still considered avatars. Mardieur
Mardieux, for example, stumbled across the long-lost grave of the elven hero
Itharian, who was an avatar of Akquinarios for centuries. Within that grave lie
the Aquarius Stone, and the key to the divine path.
The Zodiac Stones are a unique force within Chirak. Each of the twelve
stones comports to an astrological sign, which is in turn tethered to one of
the twelve planetary bodies orbiting in the skies of Chirak. The mystical
nature of the Zodiac transcends this realm, and the Zodiac as a power of
prophecy and the divine is known by planar scholars to resonate throughout
other planes of existence; but they believe that such a resonance originates
with the World of Chirak itself.
The Stones are largely a mystery, but the most learned scholars of the
current era, including certain Preservationists, believe that the Zodiac Stones
are unique crystals which are attuned to a power called the Divine Wind. This
is a physical manifestation of the divine energy of the world itself, which can
be harnessed and turned into a godlike force. The stones allow this to
happen….and without them, no divine power is otherwise possible in the world.
So long as the Zodiac Stones continue to exist, the Divine Wind can be unlocked
and harnessed.
A bearer united with a stone find that he can influence the divine magic
awarded to his worshippers. The stones by default tend to reward belief that
reflects the last active master of the stone, and if that master was a true god
in status then the influence will run deep. Younger avatars and demiurges can
begin to “overwrite” this influence with time, effort and meditation.
More about how the Zodiac Stones work will be described shortly. For
now, what follows is an overview of each stone and the known entities –both
alive and dead—associated with that stone.
Divinites of the Aquarius Stone
The Aquarius Stone is associated with the sacred power of healing and
water, and has a strong association with principled goodness in morality. Made
of jasper, the stone is mostly complete, but several shards are missing in the
current era. Mardieur Mardieux, the current principle avatar of the stone, has
recovered two shards, one of which he placed in his great axe to imbue it with
additional power.
The Aquarius Stone ties to the constellation of the Water Bearer in the
northern skies, and is tethered to the constellation of the Manta Ray in the
southern skies. Followers of the stone’s divinities currently trend toward law
and goodness, but that is changing, as Mardieur Mardieux is a neutral good
minotaur and his influence is slowly coming to dominate the divine magic of the
stone.
The Aquarius Stone has been in the possession of the following
divinities:
Akquinarios
Regarded as the sacred god of life, water and goodness, Akquinarios was
believed to have been the last true god to wield the Aquarius Stone. The
stories of the old Final War suggest that he sacrificed himself at the very end
to stop the world from being destroyed, but in doing so gave up his life force;
in the form he had taken he manifested as an immense manta ray in the sky made
of an entire sea’s worth of water, and on his death Akquinarios rained to the
ground, flooding the old Mythric Empire in a great rain which did not end for
weeks. When it was over, the Sea of Chirak had been formed in what was once the
centerland of a vast continent on which the old Mythrics held their seat of
power. Now…drowned ruins and a great inland land-locked sea.
Relics and ruined temples dedicated to Akquinarios are found all throughout
the Kaldinian Isles, and his indirect influence remains as there are still
cults which worship him, though they have recently begun to embrace his most
recent successor, Mardieur Mardieux.
Queylinzar Itharian
Between the time Akquinarios perished in the Apocalypse roughly 2,500
years ago and the time Queylinzar Itharian found the Zodiac Stone, roughly
1,500 years had passed. Exactly how Itharian came to possess the stone is not
certain, but stories suggest it was given to him by Kalie’Yana, who even than
was a spirit of the Sea of Chirak, birthed some said from the residual magic of
Akquinarios himself.
Itharian was a wandering adventurer and hedge knight of the Xernethian
elves. He was born over 1,000 years ago into a diminished elven empire, a
powerful but fading eastern kingdom which had suffered great losses and never recovered
from the Apocalypse. Around five centuries ago he fell in battle against a
never-ending hoard of goblins and orcs which all but annihilated the last of
the old elven empires, and led to the enslavement of the first eradariin.
Legends of the Xernethians suggest that their safe mountainous woodland
in the Dreamwood was forged out of the magic of the Aquarius Stone as used by
Itharian. His protection, and sacrifice, mirrors Akquinarios in many ways,
albeit tinged with the elven interests. It was not until five centuries later
that his lost tomb was unearthed by Mardieur Mardieux, a wandering minotaur
ranger.
Seminzal the Deeplord
Seminzal was an aquatic sahuaguin dwelling in the Sea of Chirak. He
possessed a shard of the Aquarius Stone and used to rule his people under the
guise of a god reborn. He had forged the shard into a weapon (a trident) which
allowed for impressive power but never bonded with it. He was confronted by
Mardieur Mardieux and slain in 647 EC, though some believe his cult may have attempted to resurrect him.
Mardieux Mardieur
The current living avatar of the Aquarius Stone, Mardieur Mardiex found
the stone in the grave of Itharian in 645 EC and bonded with the stone by 647
EC, in time to destroy the resurrected spirit of the old betrayer god Minhauros
(see more on this event under Minhauros and the Taurus Stone).
Mardieur began his life as a wayward minotaur of the Huron Tribes,
serving as a mercenary and wandering ranger who arrived on his first sea voyage
in Barcen, Espanea, in time to witness the theft of the Book of the Planes from
the Librarium of the Preservationists by the arcanist Santana and his minions.
Mardieur Mardieux became swept up in a series of events that escalated into the
resurrection of a dead god, his own death and resurrection, the discovery of
the Aquarius Stone, and ultimately his ascension as a true avatar.
Mardieur has only been a true avatar for about 12 years now, but he has
gained a cult following thanks to his prominent role in freeing Barcen during
the two-year war between Espanea and Nithiad, leading to the liberation of the
city. His association with the old cults of Akquinarios restored a measure of
faith in the lost god, and over the last decade numerous temples have been
restored in both his name and that of his forebear (Itharian, alas, remains
largely forgotten).
To live up to his newfound status as a cult figure and “living” divinity
Mardieur Mardieux decided to seek out the other remaining shards of the
Aquarius Stone, of which four remain unaccounted for that he knows of. He
also decided to make a pilgrimage to the West, where he had heard the secret
fate of the other fallen gods lay hidden. He disappeared near Pelegar in 648
EC, captured by the enigmatic otherworldly chaos lord Molabal, and did not
reappear until he was freed in 657 EC, after which he resumed his journey West
to distant Abraheil.
Other Aquarius Shards
Mardieur believes there are five other as-yet undiscovered Aquarius
Shards in the world, and he has worked hard on techniques to sense their
location. So far he has had luck with finding only one (Seminzal's) and the other
four remain elusive. Whether they are dormant or have masters remains to be
seen. He has also experimented with creating shards, removing a sliver of the stone and imbuing it in his great axe to forge a relic weapon.
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