Nethys
| Nethys | ||
|---|---|---|
| Two-toned black & white mask | ||
| Alignment | Neutral | |
| Divine Rank | God | |
| Pantheon | Golarion | |
| Portfolio | Magic | |
| Domains | Destruction (Catastrophe subdomain, Knowledge (Aeon, Education, Thought subdomains), Magic (Arcane, Divine, Rites subdomains), Protection (Defense, Solitude subdomains), Rune (Ward subdomain) | |
| Worshippers | Magicians | |
| Favoured Weapon | Quarterstaff | |
Nethys the All-Seeing Eye and God-King of Magic is essentially what happens when a Wizard with no concept of right or wrong becomes a god. While half of him is dedicated to furthering the understanding of magic, the other half's all insane and wants to blow shit up with magic. Similarly, his most common appearance and motif also share that dichotomy, with one half looking relatively normal and the other being all fucked up and surging with magic. It's said that this was a result of Nethys figuring out how to see into the entirety of time, which would certainly be unable to leave entity unscathed.
Originally, Nethys was a mortal who hailed from a place west of what would become Osirion, the Golarion equivalent of Egypt. Even by this point he was incredibly powerful, as when he met Azghaad, the tribal chieftain who would found Osirion, he declared himself "your god and king" and the guy just accepted it. Thus did Nethys give this guy his divine arcane power and became the shadow-ruler while Azghaad went about unifying the scattered tribes into a single nation. some time after Osirion was officially a thing, Nethys decided that now was the time to become a literal god and left his populace behind. Azghaad then declared Nethys the god of Osirion and made a temple dedicated to the god-king.
Once Azghaad died, his successor was suddenly haunted by visions about magic's destructive potential, went insane, and burned that temple down. Realizing that this was a bad idea, Nethys just quietly decided to go hands-off with his management.
Due to his conflicting nature, there's very few things Nethys does not approve of. First, and most important, is helping Rovagug. Second is giving people spellcasting, rather than teaching them, unless they already have casting (How this works with Oracles is unclear). Third, only introduced in second edition, is pursuing mundane paths over magical ones.
Relations
Considering the many appearances and applications of magic, it's only safe to consider that Nethys is willing to be on anyone's side so long as his visions forsee his participation and it's for the advancement of magic. Being one of the few deities who ascended without the use of the starstone, he takes an interest in Irori (another instance), though the latter doesn't much care, and Nethys' propensity to play all sides of the field does chafe their clergies. The one thing he will actively oppose is the threat posed by Rovagug, as apparently even amoral wizards have limits, and destroying the world is breaching those limits.
Clergy
The universality of Nethys' domains enables for those devoted to him to take many different forms and purposes, all unified in their love of magic. They consider the gift of magic to be a blessing in itself, with zones of wild magic being very favored while zones of dead magic (such as the Mana Wastes) being places where he has shown disfavor.
The one restriction that his clergy is held to regardless of their alignment or purpose is that they are forbidden from using using magic to grant spell like abilities to characters without casting or SLAs of their own. This is because they consider the power to use magic as something that must be earned and anyone who just got handed the cheatsheet to magic is someone who definitely doesn't deserve it.