1. Quenvara, the Rootmother – Deity– Patron
2. Orthuun, the Blind Sovereign – Deity – Patron

It’s been roughly a month and a half since I finished my second full write-up of converting my Calvenor cosmology to deities and patrons (see links above). I haven’t forgotten about this project or been uninterested in continuing it, but things like finding a heroic system to play Paizo Adventure Paths and leveling up my protagonists have taken up this Wednesday slot.

Oh, and I may have also used some of this time to commission an ultra-cool image of today’s god by the almighty Anaislalovi. She’s generously agreed to continue supporting this project, so expect more amazing images of the pantheon as these entries roll on! Always, all artwork is © anaislalovi with all rights reserved. Instead of being a jerk and taking her stuff for free, throw a few bucks her way!

Since it’s been a minute, here’s a reminder of what I’m doing today: My Tales of Calvenor story involves a completely homebrewed world, playing the game Tales of Argosa. I have fallen in love with this world of mine, and already done a lot of work in the background on things like, for example, the eternal struggle between humanity’s city-gods and the demon-gods of the wilds. Since I aspire to run a Dungeon Crawl Classics (my all-time favorite fantasy TTRPG) campaign with friends in Calvenor, one of the biggest barriers to doing so is the detailed work of creating homebrewed deities and patrons. Voila! This project is—slowly, with affection—creating those conversions.

At the same time, I’m addressing my longtime confusion of what constitutes a “deity” as distinct from a “patron” in DCC. In Calvenor, clerics and wizards can choose any of the immortal beings in my setting, city-gods or demon-gods, to be the source of their power. Your DCC class, essentially, dictates the nature of your relationship with that being and what the god lets you do.

Since my story has recently turned to the city of Oakton and a swirling series of subplots surrounding the Inkbinders Lodge, it only made sense to tackle the Herald next.  

The God Caldrien, the Herald

Okay, first of all… how great is that art!? Working with Ana is a joy, and she’s so talented.

This write-up was the first one in which I was truly flying solo without looking at an existing deity from either the DCC RPG Annual or one of the dozens of third-party supplements. Apparently, a god of history, information, and news is rare, and so thinking of, for example, Caldrien’s canticles was more difficult and took me longer than the previous two. They also, as a result, might be less balanced. I worry that “Scholarly Recollection” is a little underpowered, and perhaps that “Consult the Scrolls” is too good. For the third canticle, I made a whole new spell called “Voice of Authority” that was my attempt at the classic Command spell, DCC-style, until I realized that the spell Word of Command is in the core rulebook, and somehow I’d missed it despite looking at the list several times. Doh! So now that third canticle is a little goofy.

For Calvenor fans, note that I made Caldrien’s sacred animal the mouse. Tatter was going to have a role as either Alric’s familiar or a scout from the Lodge, had the little critter survived. Alas.

Anyway, here he is as a deity… Enjoy!

You can also view the full PDF of Caldrien here.

Next week, we’ll turn our attention to Caldrien as a patron. Please let me know what you think below or via email at jaycms@yahoo.com!