Pantheon Monday: Claustrum the Oppressor

CLAUSTRUM

(Lord of the Lock, the Scourge, the Oppressor)

Intermediate God, LE

Portfolio: Slavery, oppression, exile

Aliases: Gorash

Domain Name: The Iron Citadel, Acheron

Superior: None

Allies: Dinismayl, Kypselus

Foes: Haeron, Halor, Heimir, Avauna

Symbol: A pair of manacles

Worshipper Alignment: Any evil

Lord Claustrum (CLAOW-strum) is the patron of slaves and slavery. Many believe that he is related to the orcish god Gorash, which even his own priests don’t deny. Claustrum’s worship is thankfully contained to a few particular regions where slavery is widely practiced: the Free Cities, Essad, and Soloth are the only lands were he is worshipped in any great numbers. He is the private god of a good deal of Essadi slave-drivers and Masters, however, for his bounty has essentially provided the wealth of that kingdom.

Claustrum revels in the use of legitimate force to crush others. For this reason, he is also the patron of exile and those who are forced into exile often blame Cruel Claustrum for their fates. He appears as a brutally muscled man wearing a war-helm and holding a whip in one hand and a length of chain in the other.

The Church

Clergy: Speciality Priests

Clergy’s Alignment: LE, NE

Turn Undead: No

Command Undead: Yes

The temple of Claustrum is a small affair organized under its chief outpost in the Essadi city of Magyr and the sub-temples of Eles and Thurayn. The actual physical buildings in honor of Claustrum resemble those of Tallial in that they make frequent use of iron and steel as decorative motifs. Chains are common as well, wrapping columns or simply nailed into the floor. Like many cults, Claustrum’s only allows the inner cultists to celebrate in his most holy rights and thus the temples are divided between public space (without an altar or cult-statue; a “public” altar is generally located outside the temple) and private space where the cult may practice.

The chief of Claustrum’s ministrations on Arunë holds a position known as the Overseer; he resides in Magyr at the Brazen Temple there. Directly beneath him are fifteen administrators known as the Council of Chains who advise him and decide which of them will be his successor upon his death. Individual temples are governed by a high priest, who answers to the Overseer, and contain many and varied stations.

Amongst these are the Coinmasters, who purchase and sell slaves for the greater monetary gain of the temple; the Quarterman who is responsible for feeding the temple staff as well as any slaves; the Hunters, who are professional slave-catchers devoted to both catching new slaves from other populations and hunting down escaped slaves; the Chained Priests, who worship Claustrum in the dark places of the temple and the slaves themselves, who do the work normally reserved for acolytes.

Dogma: The dogma of Claustrum is simple and an easy one to comprehend. The world, Claustrum teaches, is broken down into slaves and slavers. There is no more natural relationship than that between master and slave. Man is the slave of the wild and nature, just as other men are his slaves. Claustrum teaches that every interaction can be seen as that between an inferior 

Priestly Vestments: Chained Priests generally wear chains as a decorative element, draping them all over their bodies or making belts and manacles of them. Iron gray is their favored color, and a crown of fused chain is often adopted by those in the order.

Chained Priest of Claustrum

(Specialty Priest)

REQUIREMENTS: Strength 12, Wisdom 9

PRIME REQ: Strength

ALIGNMENT: LE

WEAPONS: Club, staff, whip, mancatcher, blackjack, bolas, sling

MAJOR SPHERES: All, Charm, Combat, Guardian, Thought, Wards

MINOR SPHERES: Law, Protection, War, Weather

MAGICAL ITEMS: Chained Priests may use any magical items available to evil clerics.

REQ. PROFS: None

BONUS PROFS: None

Chained priests are slaves to no-one, and Claustrum makes certain of this. For this reason, all chained priests are completely and 100% resistant to mind-altering magic such as charm, domination, chaos, suggestion and other such effects that would cause them to lose their free will.

At 3rd level, the Chained Priest may cast an additional hold person spell once per day on top of any other spells they have prayed for.

At 5th level, Chained Priests casting the spell trip may decide to cast it instead upon a length of chain (at least 15’ long). If they do so, the chain will not only trip those who fail their saves, but it will wrap around the first person to do so. This effectively binds them in place for 1d4+1 round/level of the priest.

At 7th level, Chained Priests may pray for a special version of the wizard spell domination as though it were part of their spell lists.

At 10th level, Chained Priests receive divine aid when fighting social inferiors. In any instance where they are fighting someone who is of lower social standing than they, including orcs and out-casts, they receive +2 to-hit and +3 to damage.

At 15th level, the Chained Priest speaks with ultimate authority such that if he shouts a command, it is as though he has cast the first level priest spell, command. The person it is addressed to, if they can hear it, must save vs. petrification or instantly obey.