Walkena
LE ROI-DIEU
Alignement : LE (LN, LE)
Police divine : le mal
Compétence divine : tromperie
Capacité divine : Force ou Sagesse
Domaines : famille, liberté, soleil, tyrannie
Domaines alternatifs : devoir, feu
Sorts du Clerc :1er : mains brûlantes, 3ème : boule de feu, 4ème : mur de feu
Edits :Respecter les lois de Mzali, tendre la main à Walkena et obéir à ses instructions, s'opposer à l'exploitation de l'étendue de Mwangi.
Anathème : Consorter ou commercer avec des peuples non-Mwangi, défier les ordres de Walkena.
Arme favorite : la lance
Dans la cité-état de Mzali, dans l'étendue de Mwangi, réside un mort-vivant au pouvoir immense, un dieu-roi de la taille d'un enfant. Dans le passé, Walkena était un descendant mortel des dieux qui régnaient sur Mzali dans les temps anciens, l'un des rois du soleil d'un ancien empire et de l'âge d'or de la cité. Des siècles plus tard, son corps préservé a été retrouvé par des membres du Conseil de Mwanyisa, qui régnait sur Mzali à l'époque. Croyant qu'il était un présage de la résurgence imminente de la ville, le conseil l'a enlevé pour l'exposer à Mzali. Lorsqu'une armée de la cité sargavan de Kalabuto attaqua la ville, Walkena se réveilla - cette fois sous la forme d'une créature morte-vivante - et tua chacun des envahisseurs dans une pluie de feu purificateur.
Walkena est totalement différent de ce qu'il était avant sa mort. Alors qu'il était autrefois plein de bonté et de compassion, il est devenu autoritaire et inébranlable après son réveil. Le jeune roi soleil incarnait auparavant une douce compassion, mais il est devenu aussi dur que le soleil d'été. Il purifie, mais à un prix terriblement élevé.
La position de Walkena est que tous les résidents de l'Étendue de Mwangi sont liés, qu'ils doivent tous pratiquer l'unité. Ceux qui s'associent et conspirent avec des étrangers sont des traîtres et un danger. Bien que ses moyens ne soient pas toujours considérés comme bons, il est prêt à tout pour protéger son peuple, à condition qu'il ne le défie pas. Son plus grand objectif est de redonner à sa patrie la gloire qu'elle a connue par le passé.
Bien que cruel dans son règne et terrifiant pour ses ennemis, Walkena a longtemps été l'un des plus forts points de résistance contre les forces coloniales et l'exploitation de l'Étendue de Mwangi. Nombreux étaient ceux qui hésitaient à affronter les abus du dieu-enfant, craignant de critiquer l'un des plus éminents défenseurs du peuple Mwangi. Le dédain apparent de Walkena pour la nouvelle nation de Vidrian fait craindre à beaucoup que Walkena ne soit plus nuisible qu'utile à long terme. Malgré cela, Walkena reste un personnage fascinant pour beaucoup. Sa grâce transparaît dans chacun de ses actes et de ses paroles. Il bénit ceux qui se sont consacrés à l'Étendue de Mwangi. Walkena ne prêche pas les grandes récompenses après la mort, mais plutôt la grandeur dans la vie.
AVATAR
Lorsqu'il lance le sort d'avatar, un adorateur de Walkena gagne les capacités supplémentaires suivantes.
Walkena Vitesse 60 pieds, marche aérienne ; Mêlée [une action] lance sacrée (portée 20 pieds ; feu polyvalent), dégâts 6d12+6 perçants ; Portée [une action] feu du soleil (augmentation de la portée 120 pieds), dégâts 6d6+6 feu.[1]
Presentation
Once a mortal child-king of Mzali, Walkena bore the power of his ancestors, the Old Sun Gods. He was a fair but stern ruler, little given to petulant temper tantrums of other children his age. As a young king, he was already fond of order and enjoyed using laws and policies to rule Mzali and the lands around it. Walkena was quite wary of outsiders, as they did not adhere to, or even respect, the strict laws placed upon them when visiting his ancient city. Yet the foreigners were essential, his advisors assured him, for trade is what made Mzali strong and wealthy, allowing Walkena and the advisors to adorn themselves in gold and fine cloth.
As he grew—though still a child—Walkena began to believe his advisors were wrong. Outsiders brought wealth, but they also brought irreverence and turmoil.
Through a series of increasingly strict laws, Walkena first limited non-Mwangi trade in his city, and then banned it entirely. He felt that those who violated his laws needed to be made an example to others, and his methods of punishment were cruel.
Walkena’s advisors disliked the young king’s cruelty, but they disliked the loss of their influence and their finery even more. When those who went to Walkena directly were executed for their temerity, the advisors instead beseeched the Old Sun Gods themselves, begging for the power to stop Walkena.
The Old Sun Gods listened. They had also seen Walkena grow cruel, but he shut out their whispered promptings for compassion. With little other recourse, the Old Sun Gods instilled the power-hungry advisors with a fraction of their divine might. These imbued advisors called themselves the Council of Mwanyisa after mwan, a particularly fine style of stark white cloth which Walkena’s draconian and xenophobic decrees had made difficult to procure. No member of the council could match Walkena for power, but together, they possessed enough might to overthrow him. Walkena fled to his bedchamber where he was later found slain, although the killer was never identified. Priests still loyal to the slain child-king stole his corpse and buried him within a hidden tomb, in the manner of his ancestors.
The council immediately instilled its own order, returning trade to Mzali but keeping many of Walkena’s legal reforms that allowed them, as the city’s new leaders, to severely and indiscriminately punish outsiders. The Old Sun Gods sought to pull their power back, but the canniest among the council had tied their borrowed divine power tightly to their souls, and the Old Sun Gods were unable to take back what they had freely given.
The Council of Mwanyisa passed rule to its descendants, but the divine power thinned in each generation. Unlike the line of sun kings, it was not theirs to keep. Soon, only law and tradition, rather than divine might, empowered the council to rule. Foreigners began to take advantage of Mzali’s weakening leadership, and a series of floods and plagues practically depopulated the city.
Yet hope was found deep in one of the old tombs: the mummified child-king Walkena and the treasures with which he’d been buried. The mummified body was put on display in the grandest temple in the city’s center. News of the city’s resurgence and newfound wealth—in truth, stories embellished by the council’s agents desperate to restore Mzali’s relevance—spread across the land.
A century ago, Chelaxian colonists from Sargava marched to Mzali to plunder its riches and conquer the city. In a bright flash of sunlight, the mummified body of Walkena sprang to life, calling down the sun to punish the invaders. The Chelaxians were incinerated, and the gold adornments of Mzali shone like new. The mummified god-king had returned to lead his city in its hour of greatest need.
Walkena wasted no time in asserting control, and the people of Mzali soon learned that death had exacerbated Walkena’s xenophobia and cruelty, instead of tempering them. Walkena kept the Council of Mwanyisa as his advisors; they were, after all, adept at administering the city and unable to murder him now that he was both undead and wholly divine. He established a caste of priests to erase any evidence of the Old Sun Gods and place Walkena alone as the patron and god of Mzali.
The powers of a god can work wonders, and Walkena still loved the people native to his city. He sheltered them from outside influences, providing them with safety and security at the price of unquestioned loyalty. Many in Mzali see Walkena as their savior, and Mwangi people from across the continent flocked to Mzali to share its wealth and venerate its god-king. Walkena is no longer an indecisive child but a stern ruler whose word is absolute law.[2]
Personification and Realm
Walkena is still a boy in appearance, although his apparent age changes based on the time of day. When the sun is at his highest, he seems oldest: perhaps 13 or 14 years of age. He seems no older than 10 or 11 at dawn and dusk, and at night he shrivels to the size of a sickly toddler. Walkena always retires to his chambers in the Temple of the Deathless Child before dark so that no one other than his closest and most trusted advisors see him in his diminutive state. His once-dark skin has faded to the pallor of a corpse, and he still wears the wrappings from his mummification beneath his fine clothes and heavy gold adornment. He is never seen without his radiant crown of gold, carved to depict the rays of the shining sun.
Walkena’s mood also shifts throughout the day. He is optimistic and lively at dawn; he’s usually seen smiling, and he’s prone to make hasty decisions or even forgive minor slights. He often walks among the populace of Mzali in the morning, beaming radiantly at citizens who know better than to show anything but complete devotion to their god-king and his bodyguards. By noon, Walkena is at his greatest strength and his most unyielding demeanor, so it’s at this time each day that he leads the daily worship from atop the Temple of the Deathless Child at the city’s heart. He likes to meet with dignitaries and the council near midday, as they’re least likely to take advantage of his upbeat morning moods. If Walkena is rendering punishment for crimes so egregious as to warrant his personal attention (for which he typically demands execution), he’s most likely to do so in the middle of the day. By evening, he becomes suspicious and paranoid, often meeting just before sunset with his secret police to arrange disappearances of his enemies, real or imagined.
Walkena’s realm is the city of Mzali. By his own design, few people can think of the city without also thinking of Walkena, as the god-king and his domain are inseparable. Mzali has healthy industries and vibrant markets, and more people move to the city each year, but it’s far from full. Empty temples, manors, and storehouses are found throughout the city, and finding a place to live and work is still very easy. The western necropolis in the city is barred from casual settlement or exploration, and the tombs and temples there likely hold secrets of the Old Sun Gods that Walkena prefers forgotten.
Dogma and Worshippers
Walkena expects to one day receive no less than total adoration from every native inhabitant of the Mwangi Expanse. For now, however, he keeps his attention on the city of Mzali and the fields, farms, and jungles surrounding it. Within this domain, he is strict in the application of his law and expects his worshippers to be equally strict in adhering to it.
All followers of Walkena are expected to stop what they’re doing at noon to venerate the sun. Within Mzali, massive gongs ring out across the city at noon to alert everyone to the time of prayers. These prayers are generally silent, with worshippers keeping their heads uncovered and bowed in contemplation while the sun beats down upon them. Prayers usually last usually no more than a few minutes, for Walkena’s worshippers know that laboring for their community and their god is important, and they must not shirk, even for a moment of quiet prayer.
During Mzali’s noon prayers, Walkena looks down upon the city from the highest balcony in the Temple of the Deathless Child. Although he previously did so merely to bask in the adoration of the crowds and occasionally give a short speech encouraging diligence and faithfulness, he’s now more apt to eye the praying crowds suspiciously, seeking signs of slackened piety. He has not failed to notice that more and more citizens stay indoors, out of his sight, rather than stand in the hot sun beneath his gaze. Noon devotions aren’t required by law, but Walkena is contemplating making it mandatory for all.
Walkena is a god of the sun, and he thus considers night to be oppositional to his nature and his rule. Although he doesn’t expressly forbid the people of Mzali from being out between sunset and sunrise, few of his followers are active after dark. Walkena’s secret police are most active at night, questioning travelers, breaking up meetings, and rounding up those they suspect of conspiring out of Walkena’s blazing sight.
Temples and Shrines
Mzali is known as the Temple-City for good reason: enormous stone temples from Mzali’s ancient days loom above the city, their domes and spires piercing the sky. Most are made of the same pale-colored sandstone, but a distinction between two types of temples is immediately apparent: those dedicated to Walkena are adorned with gleaming gold and carefully tended, while those dedicated to other gods are crumbling and have been stripped of all their ornamentation and finery long ago. Walkena has commanded the removal of all traces of the older gods of his bloodline that once ruled the city (that is, the Old Sun Gods and their quasi-divine mortal descendants who preceded Walkena). These disintegrating temples are thus left hollow and forlorn. Walkena doesn’t mind his people paying homage to other gods in private as long as Walkena’s supremacy is acknowledged, but he wants to avoid active public services that might compete with his own. Pious masons and smiths sometimes work together to restore these forgotten temples and dedicate them to Walkena. If they find hidden chambers containing forgotten treasures or evidence of the redacted gods once worshipped there, they are usually wise enough to keep silent.
Walkena’s main temple, and the centerpiece of all Mzali, is the Temple of the Deathless Child at Mzali’s heart. This temple has always been the largest, but during Walkena’s time as a mortal ruler, it was built higher and wider than ever before. The Council of Mwanyisa used the temple as its headquarters for the generations of its rule after unseating Walkena, but it did little to strip the temple of its religious trappings because the omnipresent reminder of the child-king they’d deposed was useful to instill loyalty. When Walkena returned a century ago, he immediately took over his former temple, gave it the name it bears today, and has been working to expand it yet further.
The temple’s most significant feature, to Walkena, is the wide balcony at the top of the temple where he appears at noon on all but the rainiest days. From here, he leads everyone within view—which is nearly all of the city—in a daily prayer to honor himself and the sun. In Mzali, they are one and the same.
Other chambers in the Temple of the Deathless God include long corridors with statues of past heroes and minor gods of Mzali, all kept where they are both physically and figuratively lower than Walkena himself. The temple’s highest level contains Walkena’s throne room, the personal chambers to which he retires after dark, and other balconies from which he can observe the city at dawn and dusk. Members of the Council of Mwanyisa and Walkena’s other personal advisors jockey for the best offices, galleries, and shrines that let them work closest to their god-king.
The Temple of the Deathless Child is heavily guarded by both living soldiers and undead guards. The former often become the latter; devoted mortals in Walkena’s service swear an oath to serve the god-king even after death. When slain, they immediately arise as zombies under Walkena’s absolute control. It’s something of an open secret that Walkena also inflicts undeath upon his enemies, as he delights in turning his former foes into mindless, loyal guardians. Thus, his undead guards might contain animated corpses of devout soldiers standing next to former rebels, all serving together with unceasing loyalty.
A Priest’s Role
Walkena’s priests are the elite of Mzali, and the only ones permitted to wear bright yellow clothing that evokes Walkena’s golden raiment. Although all priests are above the common people of Mzali, there are ranks within the priesthood that engender intense intrigue and conflict.
The high priests are those who advise Walkena and carry out his direct commands. They live within the Temple of the Deathless Child in unparalleled luxury, and they generally pass their titles to their descendants. Although the powers of the high priests faded when the Council of Mwanyisa ruled Mzali, they nevertheless maintained their role as civic administrators, and some high priests can trace their family’s membership in the priesthood back for dozens of generations. The most influential priest is also the head of the Council of Mwanyisa and is expected to keep the rest of the council, as well as all the lower-ranking priests, firmly in line. The current head priest is a stoic but harried man named Zubari (LE male human priest of Walkena 15).
The middle rank of priests, or technical priests, maintain smaller temples and shrines to Walkena across the city and, more rarely, in surrounding communities. They engage in the rites common to priests everywhere: blessing marriages, healing the sick, and resolving disputes. They also serve as Walkena’s eyes and ears in the city, as they report any suspicious activities or disloyalty among the people to whom they minister.
Many part-time priests of Walkena have other careers but dedicate a significant portion of their free time for a 3-year period as a sign of devotion. A prospective lesser priest must engage in rites of purification and tests of loyalty before joining, and most do so by informing on disloyal family members to Walkena’s secret police. Though devout, these lesser priests almost never advance to higher ranks of the priesthood and are little more than laborers for their superiors, receiving food or small rewards in exchange for their service.
Holidays
Followers of Walkena observe only one holy day: the Day of the Cleaning Sun, when Walkena’s mummified corpse sprang to life to bring brilliant retribution down upon the Chelaxian invaders. As the only day set aside for celebration in Mzali, it is a riotous and raucous affair, with face painting, parades, and feasting common throughout the city. Many in the city simply call the day Cleansing, though citizens who want to emphatically remind foreigners of the event sometimes call it Retribution Day. Yet even this celebration in his honor does little to stir joy within Walkena, as he spends the day carefully observing whether anyone is celebrating with less than wholehearted vigor.
The blood of the Old Sun Gods flowed through Walkena’s veins when he was alive, and its residue remains in the mummified husk of his walking corpse. This residue twitches within him on days sacred to the Old Sun Gods. Walkena becomes particularly irritable and cruel on Tlehar’s sacred Rustbreaking Day or Luhar’s sacred week of Longdreaming, as though to distract himself from the pull of his ancestors.
Aphorisms
Walkena spends his time basking in the adoration of his people every sun-drenched noon, though he rarely gives speeches or sermons. Sometimes, a particular turn of phrase strikes Walkena as particularly apt or clever, and he insists that his priests use it and disseminate it among his worshippers. There are thus many aphorisms that Walkena’s faithful use, though most are simply the idle fancies of the petulant god-king who considers himself more poetic than he actually is.
If It’s Not a Friend, It’s a Foe: This saying illustrates the stark duality of Walkena’s perspective. The people of Mzali are to be trusted and protected, but those from outside the city can bring destruction and ruin and should be assumed to be enemies. This saying is often used to warn others to break off an interaction with a stranger, sometimes even before the stranger has a chance to speak.
The Sun Loves Attention, but Its Beauty is Punishing: This is a warning to anyone who might underestimate the god-king due to his apparent youth, but it’s also a caution against prying too closely into the affairs of Walkena’s priests.
From Warming to Burning: This common phrase means a situation has gotten out of control, but it has extra weight when used by anyone who’s seen Walkena’s cruel method of execution called the Punishment of Seven Angry Suns.
If You Lack Strength to Lead, Have Loyalty to Follow: Class divides are strong within Mzali, and this saying emphasizes that divide by characterizing those in the working class as being weak of will and lacking in power. Though publicly used by priests to chastise those who seem to be grasping at a station beyond their rank, it’s also used privately by parents to scold their disobedient children.
Sacred Text
The city of Mzali has had a multitude of holy texts over its many thousands of years of existence, though each set of text was hidden or destroyed by successors when necessary to cement their power. Mzali’s sealed temples and tombs hold many fragmentary bits of sacred lore, and a complete reconstruction across Mzali’s long history is now completely impossible. Among the treasure uncovered with the child-mummy Walkena was a series of wide golden spearheads etched with tiny writing. Each bears the words, “Power, Protection, and Protocols” around the collar where the spearhead would attach to a haft. Taken together, these etchings constitute a code of religious principles and fundamental laws. Walkena doesn’t remember enough of his mortal life to recall whether Power, Protection, and Protocols was a text he commanded to be written or something handed down from a previous ruler, but as they demand unquestioning obedience to him, he’s adopted the text as his own.
Most of Walkena’s priests bear strips of cloth with all the text of Power, Protection, and Protocols stitched upon them with words nearly too small to read. At night, they keep their long strip wrapped around their bodies underneath their night-clothing to mimic Walkena’s repose in mummification. Although few priests have memorized the entirety of Power, Protection, and Protocols, nearly all worshippers know its first lines: “Before we learn words or how to praise, the sun is there, guiding us to rise and burning away those who would harm us.”
Although not deemed a holy text on par with Power, Protection, and Protocols, followers of Walkena keep a careful watch for the so-called “tablets of fire,” ancient tablets with prophecies about Mzali’s resurgence. The prophecies upon these tablets might refer to leaders other than Walkena; indeed, some of them might be read to predict Walkena’s downfall. Walkena’s priests freely share those tablets that have been “correctly interpreted” to support Walkena’s rule and hide those tablets that they can’t spin to be wholly supportive of their god-king. Redactors work hard to make the slightest possible revisions to the tablets of fire—an extra character here, a lacuna there—to bolster their god’s credibility even further.
Relations with Other Religions
Beyond the Old Sun Gods, whom Walkena secretly fears and whose faith he’s actively worked to banish from Mzali, Walkena doesn’t prohibit the private worship of other gods. So long as Walkena’s edicts are obeyed and he’s publicly proclaimed to be superior to other gods, he cares little about worship in people’s homes. Walkena has little interaction with other gods, as he’s focused on his own realm, so conflicts between Walkena’s faith and other faiths normally arise among worshippers instead of between the deities themselves.
Walkena tries to foster good relations with other gods of sun and community, such as Sarenrae, though his cruel nature means Sarenrae ignores his overtures. Walkena is both suspicious of and arrogant toward gods of night, shadow, or darkness, such as Zon-Kuthon, but he’s too focused on Mzali to provoke the Midnight Lord’s ire too often.
Walkena (LE)
The god-king is the unquestioned ruler of Mzali. His sphere of influence encompasses not only the city, but aspirations for greater conquest of the Mwangi Expanse. He is also a god of exclusion and xenophobia, treating his own people as supreme and foreigners as dangerous influences that taint the purity of his city and its people.
Edicts Uphold Mzali’s laws, tend to Walkena and obey his instructions, oppose exploitation of the Mwangi Expanse Anathema Consort or trade with non-Mwangi peoples, defy Walkena’s orders Follower Alignments LN, LE
DEVOTEE BENEFITS
Divine Font harm
Divine Skill Deception
Favored Weapon spear
Domains family, freedom, sun, tyranny
Alternate Domains duty, fire
Cleric Spells 1st: burning hands, 3rd: fireball, 4th: wall of fire