A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

Fourteen were the gods of lost Valyria, fourteen the fire mounts upon which they built their realm, not without cause. It was said of old that the gods kept their thrones in the heart of the mountains, where the flames of the earth burned strongest. These then were the holiest shrines, built not by mortal hands but by divine will, or at least so the tales told.

For most of the dragonlords the gods were a distant thing felt only through the hand of their priests who generally played the games of politics and power just as readily as any other sorcerer. It is little wonder then that several currents of thought sprang out over the centuries which claimed either that 'the gods' were nothing more than an antiquated veil for some novel means of reaching for arcane power. The priests themselves cared little for such talk so long as it was kept to whispers shared in one's cups, though on the singular instance when such arguments were used in an attempt to strip wealth and lore from the cult of Balerion the consequences were swift and brutal, putting an end to all mention of 'divine impotence' for half-a-millennia and more.

The gods of Valyria never proselytized, seemingly caring little for the adoration of multitudes and preferring instead the loyalty of secretive cabals steeped in hidden lore, a legacy of elder times when the sons and daughters of the Great Wyrms hid from their ancestors' eyes as they plotted their destruction.

None held to this principle more so than Syrax called the Lady of Magic and the Whisperer of Prophecy. Where the others offered their gifts to priests who served openly in at least some respect, such as the Warpriests of Balerion or the Navigators beholden to the Mistress of the Winding path, the priests of Syrax worked in secret, some say to help fulfill their patron's prophecies, with one exception—the threefold oracle of Lyceos—where any who would dare, and possessed a heavy enough coin pouch, could learn secrets of the past, present, and future far beyond any common magic.

At the other end of the scale one finds Meraxes, she who watches over soldiers, for soldiers are many and those lesser in rank no less vital to the workings of the army than the great generals, perhaps even greater for an army without a general can raise one of their own to the task, but a general without an army is a soon-to-be corpse. While the framework of secret worship still technically held true, it was threadbare at best with ascension into a particular circle more a matter of building and enforcing the bonds of fellowship.

The Gods and Their Servants

Balerion
The Crownless King, The First Rider, Battle Born

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Domains: War, Law, Domination

Known Servitors: Smoke Creature Half Dragons thought to be the breath of the god given form and will, though some heretical texts claimed they were his own children reserved for eternity by their father's side.

The Church: Worship of Balerion took three broad forms. War priests venerated him as the battle born, said to have been conceived and then reborn upon the field of war as did those who wished to be reborn in battle after some great great tragedy. Many did not survive this trial in blood and flame and were instead immortalized though their death even if only by a narrow scrawl upon a temple wall. Other dragon riders worshiped Balerion in his aspect as the First rider who 'brindled the savage dragons'. Last though certainly not least the lawkeepers and inquisitors worshiped him as the crownless king who refused the acclamation for those who would name him king and instead appointed the Assembly of the Forty.

Tenets of the Faith: One must keep one's promises to the letter, always know the law of the land and be decisive in seeking redress for any insult offered.

Caraxes
Death's Claw, The Still Lord, Keeper of Souls

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Domains: Death, Pact, Protection

Known Servitors: Asphyx

The Church: The priests of Caraxes were scholars of death, distant at times seemingly callous to the affairs of the living but never so much that they did not offer counsel to high and low alike. According to Lady Calderis they also offered more if one were willing to stake one's soul upon the pledge, knowledge, secrecy to veil one from foes. It is more than you can say to guess how many heretics from his brothers and sisters the dragon god received over the years.

Tenants of the Faith: Acquire knowledge and with knowledge you shall be tested, guard diligently the urns of the fallen against any who would define them.

Meraxes
The Watcher in the Night, the Soldier's Friend, the Duty-Bound

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Domains: Dragons, Nobility, War

Known Supernatural Servitors: Revenants of soldiers who have died in the service of some seemingly impossible duty (They gain the Law-Bound template)

The Church: The servants of Meraxes, as She is remembered in Volantis, were for centuries keepers of memory and honor whose task it was to keep alive the honor of the citizen soldier. Alas the use of Unsullied and sellswords had rendered them less and less relevant with each passing year as the priests struggled to retain some scrap of influence by aggrandizing magisters of a more martial bent, even those who only possessed the desire for glory in battle but not the skill to claim it. Yet through it all the altar was never dark, the swords still stood upon the Walk of Heroes, even those wrought of priceless spellsteel. No family would dare disgrace itself by drawing a blade sheathed in the earth beside a great general's ashes. Visions began to fly through the dreams of the keepers of the temple, whispers in the deepest night, for what is death, even a god's death to duty's call?

Tenets of the Faith: The virtues Meraxes calls for are those for a soldier to live by, ever to have a weapon but never to draw it thoughtlessly or in haste, to keep the orders of one's superiors lest they work against the greater interests of the army and one's comrades, never to fight a war of fratricide.

Shrykos
The Cupbearer, the Smiling One, The Youthful Power

Alignment: Lawfully Neutral

Domains: Charm, Wealth, Luck

Known Servitors: Shae, said to be the once mortal devotees of the God ascended though his favor these silver-tongued shades once served as neutral envoys and protectors among the Lords Freeholder. Charming and even tempered these masked spirits nonetheless held a particular loathing for the Shadow in the East and all its works

Church: The cult of Shrykos was both favored by the young seeking blessings of charm and wit and favored them in turn. It held to the value of all that was beautiful and the potential for beauty and art in everything from a fine sculpture to a cunning turn of phrase. Though the faith itself did not survive the Century of Blood, one can hear echoes of the Youthful Power in the Lysene aristocracy's disdain for harming children

Tenets of the Faith: Though on a too-swift reading one might mistake the values of Shrykos for mercy or kindness and indeed neither of those conflict with his service if the Smiling One his faithful held more to a sort of abstract hedonism, and appreciation for the finer things in life within the bounds and rules of society

Vhagar
Far-Traveler, Sky Dancer, The Merchant's Friend

Alignment: True Neutral

Domains: Sky, Travel, Trade

Known Servitors: Mercane, Etiainen

Church: Merchants explorers and innovators made up most of Vhagar's priesthood, though any who started upon a long journey prayed to her for good fortune. Her dominion over the sky and that which passed though it also made Vhagar the favored patron of sky ship crews. Among the highest of the Lords Freeholder the Sky Dancer was often viewed with some disfavor for her free spirit and changeable whims, though though few of those who flew upon the winds of dragons dared openly disdain One with power over the wind

Tenets of the Faith: Vhagar encouraged her faithful to embrace new ideas and seek out new opportunities to 'rise above familiar paths upon the breath of wonder'. Exploration trade and even colonial expeditions were seen as something of a pilgrimage to the faithful of Far Traveler and thus any who would cast needless obstacles in the paths of such endeavors were seen with disfavor. It was not uncommon to hear outright smugglers swear to her according to Malarys.

Tyraxes
The Lord of Iron, The Dragon Smith, The Scarred One

Alignment: Lawfully Evil

Domains: Toil, Rune, Greed

Known Servitors: Axiomites, Metal-clad Azer

Church: Favored most highly among those who forged spellsteel and other works of metal and blood Tyraxes was seen as one who drove his faithful to perfection in their work and themselves. Those most ardent in their devotion to him even replaced appendages of flesh with those of metal and iron, though the process was seen as barbaric in Valyria's later ages growing ever more uncommon in the latter centuries of the Freehold, with most artificers preferring less extreme devotion. The flesh-smiths, once rivals of the cult held the abandoning of the practice in thinnly veiled contempt. In Urax's words words 'better to walk a crooked path than be rooted in place by fear'

Tenets of the Faith: Toil was first among the virtues of the Lord of Iron, but 'to each according to his nature'. For the slave the whip and for the master binder the athame and the forge, the peril of damnation.

OOC: Third god up.