Pholtus

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Greyhawk Deity

Pholtus
Title(s)	Pholtus of the Blinding Light
Home Plane	Arcadia
Power Level	Intermediate
Alignment	Lawful Good (Lawful Neutral)
Portfolio	Light, Resolution, Law, Order, Inflexibility, Sun, Moons
Domains	Good, Knowledge, Inquisition, Law, Sun
Alias(es)	none
Superior	none

In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Pholtus of the Blinding Light is the Oeridian god of Light, Resolution, Law, Order, Inflexibility, the Sun, and the Moons. His alignment is Lawful Good (Lawful Neutral), and his worshippers may be of any Lawful alignment. Pholtus's symbol is a silvery sun with a crescent moon on the lower right quadrant. His colors are white, silver and gold. His home plane is Arcadia. He has an unfriendly rivalry with Saint Cuthbert and despises the Oeridian wind deities (Atroa, Sotillion, Telchur, Velnius, and Wenta).

[edit] Description

Pholtus himself appears as a tall, slender man with pale skin, flowing white hair and bright blue eyes burning with the fires of devotion. He always wears a silky white gown and a cassock trimmed with gold and silver, embroidered with suns and moons.

[edit] Clergy and temples

Buildings consecrated to Pholtus are white. Services include many brightly burning candles, long sermons and choruses of the worshippers' anthem, "O Blinding Light".

Pholtus's priests are most active in cities, where they seek to reveal the light to unbelievers. Clerics of Pholtus are never completely without light if they can help it. Magical light is preferred, but a candle or a piece of luminous fungus will serve if no other light is available.

Some followers of Pholtus claim that he set the sun and the moon in the sky and maintains them in their rigid procession to show all creatures the One True Way, a strict path which allows no deviation but absolutely assures rightness. Such claims are not regarded as doctrine.

The faith of Pholtus often conflicts or works at cross purposes with that of Saint Cuthbert, whose alignment is borderline Lawful Neutral/Lawful Good.

[edit] References

Gygax, Gary. World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting (TSR, 1983).
Gygax, Gary. "The Deities and Demigods of the World of Greyhawk." Dragon #68 (TSR, 1982).

Holian, Gary, Erik Mona, Sean K Reynolds, and Frederick Weining. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (Wizards of the Coast, 2000).

Moore, Roger E. The Adventure Begins (TSR, 1998).

Noonan, David. "Beings of Power: Four Gods of Greyhawk." Dragon #294 (Paizo Publishing, 2002).
Noonan, David. Complete Divine (Wizards of the Coast, 2004).