Zeboim, divine power of Strife

 After Morgion, and Chemosh, last in the series of divine refactoring is Zeboim.

The goddess is somewhere between Chemosh and Morgion: You know why people might follow her teachings, but she seems to be kinda... aimless?

I agree, Strife is a difficult divine power to qualify, but I believe the goddess can be modified so she becomes more active, instead of just being the goddess you placate when going at sea.

So, for my campaign... what to do with Zeboim?

Constraints

All gods of Krynn must have an active, inspiring contribution and teaching to soul's evolution and learning. This constribution/teaching does not need to be pleasant, but it has to make sense, even in a twisted way.

The corollary is that priests of all gods should have a philosophy/teaching that makes sense, even in a twisted way: No one should become priest of Chemosh by being coerced into it. If one thing, faith should be sincere.

The modified god (here, Zeboim) should remain recognizable, and, perhaps, from casual examination, should appear like the original version. Only when digging deeper will someone (a reader, or a character) would realize the difference.

Inspirations

For our rework of Zeboim, we need to look around to see if there are interesting concepts we could borrow.

Original Zeboim

Like for Chemosh, The wiki entry for Zeboim is quite extensive, but spends a lot of time in stories where she is not shown in her best light.

From the Holy Orders of the Stars sourcebook, we have the following attributes for Zeboim:

• Portfolio: Oceans, storms, jealousy, spite
• Worshipers: Sailors, pirates, evil druids, evil sea creatures
  
• Domains: Chaos, Evil, Storm, Water

What comes out, for me, is both chaos and nature, as well as, obviously, water and ocean. Also:

[Zeboim] admonishes the soul to unleash its deepest urges, acting fully in the throes of any pent-up aggression and frustration. In doing so, she foments unrest, anarchy, disorder, and rebellion. [...] Her driving need is to create anguish and volatility between the souls of the world, so that they remain vital and active, not stagnant or witless.

-- Holy Orders of the Stars, p107

The takeway of Zeboim's entry is that she is volatile, and regularly stirs up trouble... and that's all.

Eris, Greek goddess of discord

Like most Greek gods, Eris is more suited to a "Desperate Housewives of Olympus" than anything worthwhile. Let's not go there.

Set, Egyptian god of deserts, storms, disorder, violence and foreigners

This one is heavy. First, Set should not be mixed with its caricature (i.e. Conan's serpent god). He was actually defender of Ra against Apep, the serpent god of chaos... until foreign invaders, the Hyksos, came to Egypt, and became real fans of Set. This didn't go well when said foreigners were ousted out. Set's worship didn't get easier in later periods, for similar reasons. And like that, Set was seen as... some kind of traitor god?

Vikings

The obvious source of inspiration is the viking raids who had plagued western Europe around the 9th century, or at least, our highly fictional, even romanticized, version of it: Fearsome and fearless warriors burning and killing.

No settlement was safe from such raids, even those who were deep inside land.

Also, Skyrim's Nords (despite their lack of relation to liquid water) and a Song of Ice and Fire's Ironborns (including their adoration for their Drowned God), because they themselves took inspiration from vikings.

Pirates

The difference between pirates and vikings lies only in the romanticized "freedom" the pirates were supposed to uphold. They, and the few ports they controlled, were free from any crown, living the good life, instead of submitting to others' control.

Berserkers

Assimilated to the vikings, berserkers are actually a bit different: Any warrior entering some kind of frenzy in the midst of battle can be considered a berserker.

The Barbarian class of D&D is actually well-fitted for this role. The Wildfire archetype for the Druid (found in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything) might be a good fit, too, but the fire kinda doesn't mesh with Zeboim's water element.

Werecreatures

Werecreatures are just like Berserkers, but with less control, and more animals in them.

Problem: There are no werecreatures on Krynn, and even if there were, having three moons wouuld make the lives on those affected by moon phases very miserable.

Kaiju

How many monsters came from the seas, from the "here be dragons" of ancient maps, to the kaijus plaguing the Pacific Ocean for some reason. Monsters from the Greek mythology, like the Kraken, Charybdis, Scylla.

Partial conclusion

There aren't many satisfying inspirations.

Vikings, pirates and berserkers might serve as inspiration for various kind of worshipers for Zeboim, but these are "land-focused", which is a problem:

The sea

Zeboim being a goddess of seas, it makes sense she might have some influence on anything underwater... Also, the obsession of the gods and mortals with Ansalon might be explained by a forced isolation caused by hostile oceans surrounding it. Is Zeboim's mission to isolate Ansalon through tempests and currents?

Marine beasts

Beyond the normal dangers we can expect from high sea waters, there are some dread things lurking in deep waters, things you don't want to meet. So you pray Zeboim for her clemency and her favor, so the monster actually leaves you alone.

Any monster will do. Most notably, aquatic dinosaurs, but also dragons, and giant version of marine life, like octopuses, whales, or sharks (megalodons!).

Aquatic elves and civilizations

If Zeboim is the mistress of the seas, then I don't see how aquatic elves can live there without her permission. At the very least, unlike on the lands, the aquatic elves (mostly the deep sea Dargonesti) might be under constant threat of attack from a giant monster.

The strife

Perhaps we need to focus on the reasons for strife, and what strife can achieve. Beyond raiders like vikings, we have revolts, revolutions. When a population reaches a point where it can't bear much oppression anymore (whether real, or imagined), then the disorder coming from the revolt can topple leadership, governments, and possibly, whole nations.

The breaking point in the French 1789 Revolution was an elite trying to hold to its privileges, facing a population that was more and more oppressed, both by the political power of their elite, and by poverty, and several years of famine. Had the Habeas Corpus been integrated in France's monarchy, perhaps the 1789 Revolution would never had happened. The chaos and disorder (and lots of death, let's face it) were at this point necessary to induce a change that had been denied many times before when asked "nicely".

Sirrion might have been perfect for this role, but here, we are looking at something that suddenly breaks, and destroys everything in its wake.

Zeboim, divine power of Strife

Zeboim represents the divine power of strife, which enables souls to rise up, against anything that might inhibit, control or hinder it, by releasing their deepest, most shameful impulses, fully acting when one is overwhelmed by aggressiveness or repressed frustrations.

Unlike Sargonnas, who is focused against specific slights, Zeboim encourages unrest, lawlessness, disorder and rebellion, in a systematic attempt to counteract imposed order and law.

In this, she directly opposes both of her parents, Sargonnas, and mostly Takhisis, whose obsession for control opposes the disorder and resulting freedom favored by Zeboim.

Zeboim, through her priests, will inspire and support anything that will undermine a status quo, be it the power of the aristocracy, or of a dictator, or even a perfectly functioning and just society. This makes her the enemy of most of Krynn's gods, who usually favor lawfulness and order, no matter their pantheon.

Oppressed people are, of course, much more likely to revolt with violence, and in this, the followers of the goddess will both inspire them, encourage them, and support them. But make no mistake, the ultimate aim of this divine inspiration and support is to replace the status quo with chaos, and nothing, including the well-being and self-determination of the population, will calm down the followers of Zeboim.

On the other hand, pirates and raiders couldn't care less about the goddess (if we except the mandatory reverence when at sea), but it doesn't matter, as she couldn't care less herself about them, as long as they do what they do best: Raid, kill, destroy, and undermine civilizations. In this, they will find the support of Zeboim's priests, bards, and barbarians.

Berserkers (i.e. D&D barbarians) are more than likely to attract Zeboim's attentions. They usually end up dead, finding their rage failing them at the most crucial moment, or succumb to their most base instincts and join bands of raiders and priests of Zeboim.

One unexpected side of Zeboim is represented by her druids. The exploitation of nature, and its taming by mortals and their little ordered societies, and thus, the lack of respect for it, isn't really something she appreciates. Unlike druids of Habbakuk, or even Chislev, Zeboim's druids won't shy away from the worst crimes to remind the mortals to not only respect, but fear nature itself.

Conclusion

I'm not really satisfied by this version of Zeboim. It's hard to keep the what exist of that goddess, and makes it interesting for my campaign while keeping the new version compatible with generic Dragonlance for other to uses.

But focusing on her role in inspiring revolt and chaos, and less on her personal problems and indulgences, I believe I made her a bit more proactive goddess, directly opposing most other gods, instead of skulking in a corner like a frustrated teenager whose smartphone was confiscated.

Chemosh, divine power of Permanence

Next in the series of divine refactoring, Chemosh.

While not as problematic as Morgion, or, say, Zeboim, Chemosh is still the "baddie" who apparently has nothing else to do in his eternity than torment and depress people.

Undeath is too much a fascinating concept to be left as it is now.

So, for my campaign... what to do with Chemosh?

Constraints

All gods of Krynn must have an active, inspiring contribution and teaching to soul's evolution and learning. This constribution/teaching does not need to be pleasant, but it has to make sense, even in a twisted way.

The corollary is that priests of all gods should have a philosophy/teaching that makes sense, even in a twisted way: No one should become priest of Chemosh by being coerced into it. If one thing, faith should be sincere.

The modified god (here, Chemosh) should remain recognizable, and, perhaps, from casual examination, should appear like the original version. Only when digging deeper will someone (a reader, or a character) would realize the difference.

Inspirations

For our rework of Chemosh, we need to look around to see if there are interesting concepts we could borrow.

Original Chemosh

The wiki entry for Chemosh is quite extensive, but spends a lot of time in stories where he is not shown in his best light, to be fair.

From the Holy Orders of the Stars sourcebook, we have the following attributes for Chemosh:

• Portfolio: Death, the undead, murder, false hope
  
• Worshipers: Crazed cultists, assassins, necromancers
• Domains: Death, Evil, Trickery, Undeath†

The really part I want to work with is that his portfolio/domains include both death and undeath.

Examples not to take inspiration from

Both Pathfinder's Pharasma and Exandria's Raven Queen are not sources of inspiration. These gods strive to maintain some kind of status quo between life and death, and undeath is not their focus (and is usually a problem for them).

In the same way, Death, the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, the Grim Reaper, and Orcus (despite being as Chemosh-y as Tiamat is Takhisis-y) are not sources of inspiration.

The Necromancer Archetype

A necromancer isn't just a practitioner of dark, or demonic magics. A necromancer deals in the magics beyond life and death. While this knowledge is not necessarily "evil" per se, it is clearly violating classical and modern societal taboos about life and death.

This taboo is very interesting, if we can somehow integrate it in the narrative. The ultimate necromancer might be quite active, striving to irrevocably change known and accepted laws of life in the universe, for some reason (power over the dead, desire to mitigate the cruelty of death, etc.).

Partial Conclusion

There aren't a lot of satisfying inspiration.

Chemosh, divine power of Permanence

Chemosh represents the divine power of Permanence. That is, how a soul might resist change induced by external factors, and thus, evolve only in a way it wants, at its convenience.

The Cycle of Souls is imposed by the current law of Krynn's universe, and is, in Chemosh's viewpoint, by design messy and lossy: How many memories are lost to time? How much enlightenment has been cut short by a premature death, and reset to zero?

This cycle is deemed necessary, and even desirable, by most of Krynn's gods. But as far as Chemosh is concerned, it is widely inefficient. And Chemosh believes that, with his own divine power of permanence, he can cheat the process, and foster the souls Chemosh favors into an accelerated ascension.

To mortals learning about the truth of the Cycle of Souls, the mortality of their own identity, their own avatar is the real tragedy, and Chemosh offers a hope to fix that. This is why Chemosh favors necromancers, as they are the only one able to research necromancy, and push its limits beyond. Chemosh hopes that, with the right inspiration, and with the right necromancers, the god might unearth the secret to circumvent the limitations of the Cycle of Souls.

This is clearly the most outrageous violations of the Laws of Krynn, and Chemosh knows the others gods, no matter the pantheon, would not let that happen, for Chemosh would then be all-powerful, dwarfing both Paladine, Takhisis and Gilean.

So the god works slowly, through indirection, and showing less ambition, and more glee at witnessing the antics of the undead puppets shambling their way around Krynn.

Conclusion

I know, the moment I decided I wanted to do something like Death Knights of Krynn in my campaign, I needed more than just "Lord Soth wants to invade Solamnia".

In my humble opinion, the undead are the only "fiends" that matter, the universal creature opposing and/or feeding from life, that were universal in every culture, which automatically increased the importance of Chemosh in my campaign.

By giving Chemosh, something more than wanting to spawn undead, and seduce Mina, I make it (again, in my humble opinion) a very, very frightening god, worthy of being opposed by heroes, beyond the undead-rising monster of the week.

Morgion, divine power of Ordeal

By now, it might be obvious I'm not a fan of some of the choices done in Dragonlance.

One of them is having gods that serve no purpose but "be there".

In my humble opinion, Morgion is the most egregious on that subject: That god's modus operandi is to contaminate someone with a disease, and then promise them with the disappearance of symptoms if they become a priest of Morgion, and they start contaminating others... in a universe where Mishakal can heal diseases. You might be forgiven if you think such priests might be fools. I know I do.

So, for my campaign... what to do with Morgion?

Constraints

All gods of Krynn must have an active, inspiring contribution and teaching to soul's evolution and learning. This constribution/teaching does not need to be pleasant, but it has to make sense, even in a twisted way.

The corollary is that priests of all gods should have a philosophy/teaching that makes sense, even in a twisted way: No one should become priest of Morgion by being coerced into it. If one thing, faith should be sincere.

The modified god (here, Morgion) should remain recognizable, and, perhaps, from casual examination, should appear like the original version. Only when digging deeper will someone (a reader, or a character) would realize the difference.

Inspirations

For our rework of Morgion, we need to look around to see if there are interesting concepts we could borrow.

Original Morgion

The wiki entry for Morgion is a bit light, but already goes where I don't want to go: Decay and entropy are not "active forces", they are "expected statistical outcome".

From the Holy Orders of the Stars sourcebook, we have the following attributes for Morgion:

• Portfolio: Disease, famine, poison, vermin, suffering, madness
• Worshipers: Crazed cultists, ratcatchers, corrupt druids
• Domains: Destruction, Evil, Madness†, Pestilence
  

Also:

... spreading his unholy message: only the strong will survive, for to survive is to suffer, and to suffer is to know the truth.

-- Holy Orders of the Stars, p102

This makes Morgion someone whose modus operandi is to inflict pain and suffering, for its own sake. Psychological pain, physical pain, it doesn't matter. The question would then be: Why?

Pathfinder's Zon-Kuthon

© 2014, Paizo Inc/Yu Cheng Hong

In Pathfinder's Golarion universe, there's one god that stands out: Zon-Kuthon.

Zon-Kuthon share many similarities with Morgion, actually: Both are considered mad, and both seem to enjoy the pain and suffering of others.

Kuthites [followers of Zon-Kuthon] run the gamut in their origins and motivations for joining the faith, whether they be evil sadists, demented masochists, or those whose spirits are so wounded that only overwhelming pain distracts them from their sorrows. Others who immerse themselves in spiritual darkness often find themselves drawn to his anthracite embrace.

[...]

Clergy tend to take their fervor for pain and agony to higher levels than lay believers, but are also experts at blending in with normal society.

[...]

Temples of Zon-Kuthon are, for all intents and purposes, torture chambers, and often function as such even when not in use for religious ceremonies. Because of the unique and often disapproved-of practices that take place in the church, temporary temples in caves or basements are kept fairly simple with decorations and tools brought in especially for services. The tools are often disguised as farming implements, should the secret cult be exposed. In more remote areas, believers might make impromptu shrines in places where violence and pain have occurred.

[...]

Kuthites are not bookish worshipers, often choosing to experience their faith rather than study it in a text.

-- Source: Pathfinder Wiki, https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Zon-Kuthon

This clearly makes suffering a tool of enlightenment, at least, in the minds of Zon-Kuthon's followers.

Silent Hill

© Konami

The series of video games, Silent Hill, is known to its disturbing horror, self-inflicted psychological pain due to real or imagined guilt.

The first and third installments are all about a cult trying to bring back some kind of (genuine) paradise through inflicting pain and torture.

The second is actually a self-inflicted hell, by people who have, consciously or not, committed real (or imagined) crimes, and whose guilt (real, or imagined) is now torturing them. There's nothing binary there, only gray areas. In a way similar to Ravenloft's Dark Powers, Silent Hill seems to twist reality to trap its victims, amplifying their pain.

Then, there's the body horror, and the monsters. All you have to do is to google "silent hill monsters" (warning, explicit/disturbing content: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&safe=off&q=silent%20hill%20monsters), and you'll find the horrific, disturbing, and yet fascinating creations of Team Silent, the original developers of Silent Hill. (Also, the music... seriously).

Resident Evil

Despite what one may think, Resident Evil is about mutation. The "undead" zombies are a byproduct of a contamination with the T-virus or one of its variants. But the most important effects of these viruses and parasites are the exceptional and obscene mutations of some of the host bodies, turning them into a great variety of monsters, depending on circumstances.

You can find examples of these grotesque monsters in the following link (warning, explicit/disturbing content): https://www.google.com/search?q=resident+evil+monsters&tbm=isch&oq=resident+evil+monsters&safe=off

Unlike the other inspiration sources, the Resident Evil monsters are there only to provide a roster of creatures.

The Tzimisce Vampires

Vicissitude, by John Cobb

Created by White Wolf for their Vampire: The Masquerade role-playing games, the Tzimisce are demented, monstrous deviants, dealing with torture and body horror.

Their main power, Vicissitude, is all about body modification, both of the self, and others. And Tzimisce do enjoy experimenting on others, finding there some kind of crazy spirituality.

Tzimisce are the stuff of nightmares, even for other vampires (who are far from being angels themselves). One would rightly prefer Final Death to falling into the hand of a Tzimisce, and those unlucky to find themselves the subject of Tzimisce's experimentations (or art creation!) sometimes come out "whole", even if joining their torturers in their cruelty and spiritual beliefs.

Other Sources of Inspiration?

There are other potential sources of inspiration, but they all fall back into one of the examples above. For example, the Cenobites from the Hellraiser movies, which are, arguably similar to Zon-Kuthon, above.

Partial conclusion

All these inspirations lead us to a variant of Morgion, which (hopefully) is more "active" and has a clear motivation beyond ruining everyone's day.

Morgion, divine power of Ordeal

Morgion represents the divine power of ordeal: Only through pain and suffering can one soul find true enlightenment.

Any kind of suffering will do: disease, madness, physical and psychological torture. And it is best when self-inflicted, even if unwilling subjects can still profit from a fraction of their "beneficial" effects.

Mercy is, in the disturbing mind of Morgion or his followers, an empty lie, leading to a stagnation of the soul. It is much better to foster its growth and self-understanding by pushing its limits beyond what it can tolerate. Some will never recover from the ordeal, falling into catatonia that won't really protect them from further abuse. But others will ascend into a higher understanding of the soul, and will become true paragons of Morgion's philosophy.

A victim of Morgion's acts might search for Mishakal for relief... or might become so damaged mentally they now embrace their suffering. A sadist might find in Morgion's teaching some kind of moral excuse to indulge in their urges. A torturer or executioner might find solace in "knowing" their victims will grow spiritually under their "care". Truth is, Morgion doesn't really care about the original motivations: Both the tormenter and the tormented will learn from the ordeal.

Of course, from the outside, Morgion's small cult of followers are best described as a group of cruel, sadistic and masochistic creatures, enjoying inflicting pain on themselves, as well on others. There are also rumors of monstrous, aberrant creatures flesh-sculpted from victims (or even leaders?) of the cult.

Conclusion

Followers of Morgion are not anymore coerced into having faith. They are not unwilling victims (at least, not anymore). They are active believers in some kind of deviant spirituality that is pushed into extremes, that leads to horrific acts, all in the name of spiritual enlightenment and ascension.

In the end, instead of dumb cultists to oppose our heroes, we can now have a wide range of either gory or sophisticated cultists, both primal and civilized, all hell-bent into sharing their vision of enlightenment with others, with of without their consent.

I sincerely believe this version of Morgion is more "believable" than the original one.