Pantheon Elfico

[DM Artemis]

Erevan Illesere

The Trickster, the Chameleon, the Green Changeling, the Evershifting Shapechanger, the Fey Jester, the Jack of the Seelie Court

Intermediate Power of Arborea
CN
PORTFILIO: Mischief, change, rogues
ALIASES: None
DOMAINNAME: Olympus/Arvandor
SUPERIOR: Corellon Larethian
ALLIES: Avachel, Baravar Cloakshadow, Brandoharis, Dugmaren Brightmantle, Eilistraee, Garl Glittergold, Milil, Nathair Sgiathach, Oheron, Shaundakul, Squelaiche, Tapann, Titania, Tymora, the Seldarine
FOES: Beshaba, Mask, the Queen of Air and Darkness, the drow pantheon (except Eilistraee)
SYMBOL: Nova star with asymmetrical rays
WORALIGN..: NG, CG, N, CN
Erevan Illesere (AIR-eh-van ILL-eh-seer) is the elven god of mischief and change and the patron of elven and half-elven rogues. The Trickster's following is not as large as most of his fellow elven gods for Erevan is too unpredictable for most elves.
Nevertheless, he commands his share of attention from the Fair Folk, particularly by those engaged in thievery or other forms of knavery, those who seek excitement so as to alleviate the boredom of near-immortality, as well as many young elves who seek a life of adventure and danger. Erevan is also revered by some members of the small sylvan races, such as pixies, sprites, and leprechauns, but most such fey beings revere the deities of the Seelie Court.
The Trickster often seeks the company of similarly inclined powers of other pantheons, for the patience of his fellow elven powers has been worn thin by eons of endless pranks at their expense. Despite his fickle nature, however, Erevan is fiercely devoted to the Seldarine, and the other elven powers know that they can count on him to come to their aid should they require it. Erevan is part of an informal group of mischiefmakers that includes Brandobaris, Garl Glittergold, and Tymora. He likes to play pranks with them (and on them), and as a result, he has made a few enemies among the more serious and sober of powers of many pantheons-Helm being a notable examplealthough the Trickster does not much care as long as he is having a great time. The Trickster's boon companion is Avachel, an aspect of the draconic power Hlal, also known as Aasterinian or Quicksilver. The Trickster and Quicksilver are almost never separated and their adventures are legendary among younger elves who dream of emulating the mythic duo's daring exploits.
Erevan has long-standing rivalries with other rogue powers, including Beshaba and Mask, for their cruelty and greed offends the Tricksters light-hearted nature.
Erevan is a fickle, utterly unpredictable power who can change his appearance at will. He is one of the most fun-loving powers in the multiverse, and he seems incapable of remaining still or concentrating on a single task for any extended period of time.
The Trickster enjoys causing trouble for its own sake, but his pranks are rarely either helpful or deadly. However, Erevan becomes very dangerous if sylvan races or weak elven groups are threatened, and he is always championing the underdog.
Erevan rarely rights another being directly, preferring to escape and possibly catch his opponent off guard at a later time. His favorite tactic is to change his height to any size from between 1 inch to 6 feet and alter his appearance to reflect one of his innumerable guises. Regardless of how he appears at any given time, Erevan always wears green somewhere upon his person, a sign of his love of the woodlands the Fair Folk call home. The Trickster's weakness for fine wine has gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion, but his vows to swear off the grape only last long enough to refill his glass. Erevan's fancies are as fleering as a desert rain, and he is attracted to mortals who make their own luck. He does not appreciate those who constantly rely on his favor to get by, and he abandons those who per- sistently rely on his unwavering assistance. Mortals who rely on themselves, however, are often granted a helping hand by the fickle Trickster.
The Church
CLERGY: Clerics, specialty priests, thieves
CLERGY'S ALIGN.: CG, CN
TURN UNDEAD: C: Yes, SP: No, T: No
CMND. UNDEAD: C: No, SP: No, T: No
The Seldarine call on agathinon, asuras, and ancient treants as their preferred servants, but Erevan is also served by aasimar, asrai, atomies, bac-chae, bariaurs, cath shee, centaurs, change cats, chaos beasts, chaos imps, cooshee, copper dragons, crystal dragons, dopplegangers, dryads, einheriar, eladrins (particularly coures), elven cats, ethyks, faerie dragons, faerie fiddlers, feystags, firestars, firetails, frosts, grigs, gorse, hamadryads, hybsils, kenku, kholiathra, korred, leprechauns, luck eaters, magebanes, mercury dragons, monkey spiders, nixies, nymphs, ooze sprites, oreads, pixies, pseu-dodragons, raccoons, ratatosk, reverend ones, satyrs, sea sprites, seelie faeries, sprites, sunflies, sylphs, tressyms, vortexes, and weredragons.
He demonstrates his favor through lucky coincidences, playful pranks, and discovery of good luck charms such as alexandrites, amber, azurite, carnelians, frost agates, jade, rubies, turquoises, and electrum coins. The Trickster indicates his displeasure through a sequence of minor misfortunes such as the loss and recovery of valued small items and the like.
Priests of Erevan include multiclassed half-elven clerics, elven cleric/thieves, and elven fighter/cleric/thieves. Erevan's spe ialty priests include elven specialty priest/thieves. All clerics and specialty priests of Erevan receive religion (elf) and reading/writing (Espruar) as bonus nonweapon proficiencies. For the Fair Folk, Erevan represents all that is chaotic and free in the elven psyche and the spirit of mischievous fun they share with many other sylvan beings. The Trickster's church is regarded as little more than a loose fellowship of adventuresome rogues and pranksters, and most elves find Erevan to be too unpredictable for their tastes to actually venerate the god.
Tales of the priesthood's various exploits are widely enjoyed by elf youths and commoners, for they often are at the expense of their elders and those of noble blood and highbrowed attitudes.
Despite the general appreciation for anecdotes about the exploits of Erevan's fol lowers, individuals are often rightly regarded with a great deal of suspicion in person. Members of other races regard the followers of Erevan as archetypal examples of the flighty behavior ascribed to all elves (who can never be safely trusted). Erevan may never be worshiped in the same location twice, and few of his followers remain in at any location for any length of time. As such, only a handful of temples of the Trickster exist, and they are carefully hidden. For the most part, Erevan's houses of worship are little more than permanent shrines by the standards of other faiths and they are reserved for meetings and the like. The handful of priests who tend such shrines of necessity must go elsewhere to pray to their god.
Novices of Erevan are known as the Gullible. Full priests of the Trickster are known as Quicksilvers. Priests of Erevan of all ranks create their own titles and most change their titles frequently.
Specialty priests are known as mischiefmakers. Priests of the faith typically associate themselves with one or more regional branches of the faith, but such ties are voluntary and typically quite fluid. Contact between the various branches of the faith is infrequent at best. The clergy of Erevan includes moon elves (45%), green elves (30%), half-elves of various ancestries (15%), gold elves (9%), and a handful of elves of other races (1%). Erevan's clergy includes specialty priests (40%), spe cialty priest/thieves (20%), thieves (16%), cleric/thieves (14%), and clerics (10%). The clergy of Erevan has slightly more males (53%) than females (47%).
Dogma: Change and excitement are the spice of life. Live on the edge, unbound by the conventions of society in a spirit of constant self-reinvention. Puncture the self-righteousness, sanctimony, and pretension that pervades orderly society with mischievous pranks that both amuse and enlighten. Inspire laughter and happiness, giddy silliness, and welcome release from care so that the routine of day-to-day existence does not become worn so deep that it grinds all the joy from life.
Celebrate the spontaneous, and practice random acts of helpfulness.
Day-to-Day Activities: Priests of Erevan are wild, mischievous, independent, and utterly unpredictable, playing tricks on others for the sheer joy of it. They oppose settled interests of all sorts and delight in upsetting both the rule of law and powerful people and in generally creating mayhem. They have little in the way of formal duties, and minister to the faithful primarily through example and instruction in the skills required of mischievous rogues.
Holy Days/Important Ceremonies : Followers of Erevan gather monthly for a Midnight Gambol, which is held in a sylvan glade beneath the light of the full moon. The exact location of each Midnight Gambol is a secret that is passed among the faithful by word of mouth in the days leading up to the event.
Anyone who manages to discover the festivities through his or her own ingenuity is welcome to participate. Erevan's followers are often joined in their revels by the mischief-loving subjects of the Seelie Court, particularly sprites and pixies. Each Midn ght Gambol includes the sacrifice of beautiful objects (most of which are borrowed), dancing, wine-drinking, tale- telling, and endless prank-playing.
Major Centers of Worship: Given the faith's restriction prohibiting followers of the Trickster from ever worshiping their god in the same place twice, it is not surprising that few temples of Erevan of any note exist in the Realms. However, a few sacred sites, scattered throughout Faerun, serve as the foci of pilgrimages by Erevan's most daring followers.
Overlooking the head of the Arglander River in the heart of the High Peaks (the mountain range due south of the Deepwash) lies a hidden cavern complex known as Quicksilver's Lair. Said to have once been the abode of Avachel, Erevan's boon companion, the legendary site is now the home of a clutch of mercury dragons, believed to be the descendants of Avachel. The caverns house a vast store of beautiful objects, most of which were brought there by followers of the Trickster. The resident wyrms guard the objects with care. If the tales of the Fair Folk are to believed, the greatest collection of relics from the ancient elven realms of Eiellur, Syorpiir, Orishaar, and Thearnytaar is hidden here as well, assembled as those realms crumbled before the armies of Ilythiir. All priests of the Trickster aspire to pray to their god once in their lives at Quicksilver's Lair, but the route to the site is a secret that each petitioner must discover separately. The High Peaks are said to be strewn with the lost treasures brought as offerings by those who failed to find the lair.
Affiliated Orders: While no formal military orders are associated with Erevan's church, countless bands and guilds of elven and half- elven rogues have been founded in honor of the Trickster. A notable example is the Knaves of the Missing Page, a fellowship of elven spellfilchers (mage/thieves) based in the Vale of Evereska but active throughout Faerun. Knaves specialize in the recovery of elven magical artifacts, spell scrolls, and spell tomes that have been acquired by other races, particularly humans.
Priestly Vestments: The ceremonial garb of the Trickster's priesthood emphasizes the practical over the ornamental.
Erevan's priests wear black leather armor and black leather caps, though their armor is often concealed by clothing or cloaks. The holy symbol of the faith is a stolen trinket of some sort that has been blessed by a priest of Erevan. Each such holy symbol must be replaced by another purloined token at least once every ten days, more frequently if at all possible. Note that the spell create holy symbol is never granted to priests of Erevan as the god expects them to provide for themselves.
Adventuring Garb: Priests of Erevan outfit themselves as is common for rogues, favoring black leather armor or silenced elven chain mail for protection and weapons such as clubs, daggers, darts, knives, lassos, long swords, short bows, slings, short swords, and staffs. Magical items that facilitate thieving skills as well as those that allow the wearer to alter his appearance or form are highly prized.
Silenced elven chain mail has each link of chain armor wrapped in thin leather or light cloth bunting. This to some extent silences the armor, at the cost of increasing its encumbrance by one-third and increasing its price significantly as well. Of course, it is even rarer than ordinary elven chain mail itself. Silenced elven chain mail has the following modifiers to thief skills: pick pockets (-25%), open locks (-5%), find/remove traps (-5%), hide in shadows (-10%), and climb walls (-25%).