Pelor

X Worldbuilders:

GM James R

Pelor is the Neutral Good deity of the sun, summer, agriculture and time. 

About

Pelor's clerical domain is Life. His responsibilities contain the protection of the common man: ensure good harvests, the rising of the sun and opposes the marauding bands of orcs that rampage by now and then. He is commonly worshipped by humans, having at least one shrine near almost every human settlement, regardless of size.

History

Creation

Pelor was among the original six creators of the realm. Along with the gods Mielikki, Gruumsh, Obad-Hai, Moradin, and Garl Glittergold, Pelor was responsible for the creation of the material plane of Quelmar. According to the church's gospel, Pelor was busy even before the existence of living beings. Pelor's duties included creation and maintenance of the Sun, as well as the light it produced.

Once living plants and creatures were introduced into the realm, Pelor took on the responsibility of overseeing and protecting the development of said life forms. Together with the gods of nature (Mielikki and Obad-Hai) Pelor nurtured and assisted with natural selection, evolution of creatures, and the eventual introduction of sentient races, including Pelor's children the rakshasa. It was not until the sentient beings began to ask the question "Where did the force of life originate from?" that Pelor truly began to gain power. Due a desire to explain the explainable, Pelor began to answer the questions of the people, and in response Pelor's status as a worshipped deity was achieved. For many years, Pelor flourished as a symbol of prosperity and life. Many prayed to the god in hopes of ensuring prosperous life, plentiful light, and safety for their loved ones and their endeavors.

The Fractured Dawn

Then everything changed with The Holy War. The 100 year war was a nasty business for mortal inhabitants of Quelmar and for the gods themselves. As the war waged on, Pelor watched in horror as the life he worked so hard to protect and maintain the balance of, was shattered unnecessarily. Yet, the cause of slaying Tiamat and her dragonkin meant that sacrifices had to be made. Pelor called upon his followers to fight for the realm, and of course they did. Many of his loyal followers were lost in the fight. In the final battle against Tiamat, Pelor was among the deities that fought and eventually won, but at a great cost. During the battle, Pelor was forced to use all the strength he had, as all the gods were.

But something went quite wrong, and in the unimaginable battlefields that only gods use to fight, Pelor was destroyed by an unholy blast---a strike from Lolth meant for Corellon Larethian, but intercepted by the golden god of protection. The beam was powerful enough to kill a smaller god, but up against The Shining One, it instead caused a divine splintering. This event came to be known as The Fractured Dawn.

Split into pieces, Pelor existed in a state outside of godliness, outside of mortality; in a sort of limbo. Perhaps it was the loss of hope that had come from The Holy War or perhaps it was an effect of the spell, but his followers seemed to have no recollection of him or desire to follow him. Instead. He found that the domain of the sun and light had been reassigned by the people of Quelmar to a new character he was unfamliar with, Lathander. The domain of protection, something Pelor had been building and encouraging, was gifted to a former Paladin of his who had died in the war, now taking the title of Helm. The follower's of Pelor's Life domain seemed to have no followers at all, and had perhaps disappeared. It was almost as if the world had forgotten that Pelor's love of Life had ever existed.

Powerless without followers of his true name, Pelor waited in limbo for many years, watching as life became less and less precious to people. As if they had forgotten what it was like to be in the midst of a war, a new war began only two years after the holy war had ended, this one among the mortals of Quelmar.

The Doctored Eve

After years of witnessing the bloodshed from his powerless state, Pelor experienced an unexpected surge of power. It was as if for a brief moment, the domain of life had slipped from the grasps of whoever had stolen it. Frustrated and fed up with the war, Pelor used what strength he could muster to do one of the only things he could with this brief moment of power. He created a life. Without full control of the magic, Pelor was not able to determine or select the details of the life form. By randomness, or perhaps by necessity, a Faerie Sprite came to exist purely by miracle smack dab in one of the most bloody and violent war fronts, the Fey Front. As quickly as the power had come, it vanished and all Pelor could do was hope that this one miracle would be enough.

As it turned out, it was. The faerie, named Eve, maintained a belief in the value of life that no other creature in the realm was able to possess in the midst of a war. Though she did not know it, each action of life saving and faith she enacted strengthened and emboldened Pelor. Though she was unaware, she was the very first follower of the Life Domain since the fall of Pelor at the end of the Holy War. The young miracle managed to exceed Pelor's expectations: managing not only to uncover the truth about his death (that he had been split by a spell into three slivers, distributed between Lathander, Helm, and Nerull), but she managed to, with the help of her friends, eventually resurrect him to his full power. She would later be known and revered as the Patron Saint Eve.

Pelor in the PR Era

Pelor's resurrection was not without consequence. 

Firstly, it was not possible to reunite the life, light, and protection domains without fusing the three slivers all of which had developed an attachment to new deities: Light to Lathander, Protection to Helm, and Life (in the last moments leading up to the resurrection) to Eve. In a moment of great sacrifice, Helm and Lethander both gave up their powers of their respective domains, and Eve gave up her mortal body, fusing her own life force into Pelor, in order to revive the god. As thanks for her sacrifice, Pelor granted Eve a permanent place by his side as a confidante and Saint.

Secondly, the separation of the sliver of life meant the breaking of The Curse of Life, which meant that many lives would be lost and would lead to the eventual return of the dragons. Pelor believed quite strongly that the mortal races needed to unite as much as possible in order to prepare for the trials to come. Thus, as his following slowly rebuilt, he encouraged his followers even more than before to foster an environment of camaraderie and unity. His initial followers in the new world, known as The Evening Prayers, dedicated themselves to facing the consequences of this new world and the newly restored balance of life and death.

Notable Miracles and Interventions

The Gift of the Tiny Sun

Unable to protect themselves from the harsh winters, humans would often take refuge in caves during cold winter nights. But one night, a woman lost her clan and was stranded in the woods. As the night stretched on, the air chilled and the sky darkened more and more. On the brink of freezing to death, the elf prayed to Pelor for the power of the sun to bring light and warmth. And thus, Pelor granted the elf The Gift of the Tiny Sun in the form of fire. Fire would go on to be incorporated in the lives of magic-users and non-magic-users alike.

The Unforgiven (Origin of Vampires)

A group of Pelor's followers turned from him and attempted to use his powers for evil, embueing a necromancy and disrupting the balance of life. And thus,  Pelor cursed the former followers to nearly eternal and somewhat unbearable existence, using his power over the sun domain to ensure that no vampire would ever see the light without great suffering. According to legend, Pelor would forgive the vampires and break their curse, if they would only ask.

"The Light of Pelor"

A non-believing scholar went on a trip to the desert. He walked for many days and nights, seeking to learn about an ancient desert beast. Stubborn and unwilling to turn back, the man eventually ran out of food and water. He nearly died of starvations among the desolate sound mounds but the God Pelor took pity on him. He imbued him with great knowledge of the creation of the Quelmar realm, and the existence of the gods and the role they each played. He shared with him the secrets of the power of life and light. With a new found desire to share his findings, the man returned from the desert, not dying by some miracle, and wrote "The Light of Pelor."

The Creation and Guidance of Eve

See Eve's story. After his resurrection, Pelor would occasionally ask Eve to assist him by returning to the material plane as an exarch.

Followers

Pelorians believe that the life-giving sun is the best cure for all of Quelmar's ills. They believe Justice and Freedom are brought about through charity, modesty, perseverance, and self-sacrifice. Pelor priests teach that the truly strong don't need to prove their power. Pelor is wrathful against forces of evil, and is especially opposed to the undead. However, Pelor urges his followers to remember that excessive attention to things evil can blind one to the truly important things: compassion and goodness. These are what must be emphasized above all.

Pre-resurrection Pelor was worshiped and followed mostly by human clerics, priests, and common-folk. Though there was the occasional paladin or druid, Pelor's inability to resist helping the innately magic-less race made the humans kind of a passion project for him.

Post-resurrection Pelor found a much more diverse group of followers. This was in part, due to a newly resurrected desire for faith and protection in light of the Realm War, and in part due to the efforts of The Evening Prayers - A group of early followers of post-resurrection Pelor. Post-resurrection followers of Pelor were encouraged not only to embody compassion, goodness, charity and modesty, but also community. This was something introduced to the god by his savior Eve, who, in her mortal life, greatly valued unity and the coming together of races.