The Winter Lady [GURPS 4e]

Suitable for fantasy campaigns.

The Winter Lady – Google Docs

 

The Winter Lady

 

The Winter Lady is a goddess of the cold and winter; She is also the primary deity of healing in her pantheon.  Worshippers of other pantheons often find this to be contradictory, but those who follow the Lady have no confusion in their hearts. After all, cold slows decay, and keeps things fresh and unsullied. It would be only natural that a goddess of ice would have the power to preserve the health and life of Her followers. Her church’s religious symbol is the snowflake; the colors of the goddess are blue and white.

The Winter Lady is definitely aligned with Good, and generally pleasant in aspect. In marked contrast to other cold-themed deities, She gives off the aspect of a cheerful, somewhat earthy nature spirit with no particular emotional hangups.  This remains true right up to the moment when something truly infuriating (like, say, a demonic plague) occurs: at that point, Her demeanor changes from “nurturing” to “avalanche.” It takes effort to anger The Winter Lady, but when it happens, watch out.

 

The Winter Lady does not favor gaudiness or ostentation in Her church .Her clerics are expected to be generous, diligent, and abstemious in their personal habits; they typically do not practice a secluded monastic life, but the Winter Lady’s church funds many hospitals with a permanent religious staff.  Generally, the faith’s hierarchy consists of priests, bishops (in charge of a region), and arch-priests (selected from retired bishops, and who form a council that the Winter Lady gives broad directives to).  The Church of the Winter Lady has a generally positive reputation in most areas, given that it’s a faith that promotes healing and is studiously nonviolent.

 

The Winter Lady has a special kind of priest called Beloveds, which are described in the template below. Note that this character lens does not have any of the skills and knowledge typically associated with a priest; The Winter Lady has a habit of often going outside Her ecclesiastical hierarchy to find Her Beloveds. The ecclesiastical hierarchy compensates for this by encouraging Beloveds to eventually formally become official priests of the goddess. Many do, particularly when they reach old age.

 

Beloved of The Winter Lady [0, + Spells]

Advantages: Clerical Investment [5], Power Investiture 1 (Uses “Power Investiture as Modified Magery,” Thaumatology, pg. 67) [10], Religious Rank 1 [5]. Cap on Power Investiture is 3.  Blessed, Talent (Healer), and True Faith are also common, but not required (more than a few clerics have all three advantages without also having the Power Investiture).

 

Disadvantages: Vow [“Winter Lady’s Oath:” must tend the sick and injured, may not gather riches from healing] [-10], Pacifism [Cannot Harm Innocents] [-10]. Actual priests will have Disciplines of Faith [Asceticism] or a Vow of personal poverty. Note: the Winter Lady’s priesthood is encouraged to marry and have children.

 

Spell List: all spells from the Healing College, Seek Water, Purify Water, Create Water, Freeze, Frost, Ice Slick, Melt Ice, Coolness, Create Ice, Snow Jet, Purify Food, Preserve Food, Sleep, Mass Sleep, Stun, Resist Pain, Turn Zombie. A Beloved of the Winter Lady will typically have 15 to 20 points in spells, always including Minor and Major Healing. Also note that the Winter Lady frowns on using Her gifts to actively harm people, although self-defense is allowed.

 

 

The material presented here is my original creation, intended for use with the GURPS system from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.

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