Iomedae
Iomedae the Inheritor | ||
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Aliases | The Inheritor, Light of the Sword, Lady of Valor | |
Alignment | Lawful Good | |
Divine Rank | God | |
Pantheon | Golarion, God Claw | |
Portfolio | Honor, Justice, Rulership, Valor | |
Domains | Animal, Glory (Chivalry, Heroism, Honor, Hubris), Good (Archon, Redemption), Law (Archon, Sovereignty), Sun (Day, Light, Revelation), War (Tactics) | |
Home Plane | Iomedae's Realm, Proelera, Heaven | |
Worshippers | Paladins | |
Favoured Weapon | Longsword |
Iomedae the Inheritor is the ultimate Lawful Good deity in all of Golarion, so much that she's pretty much the archetype of all paladins everywhere. She's also one of the few mortal beings who managed to ascend to divinity by touching the Starstone. She serves as the ultimate arbiter of justice among Golarion's diverse pantheon and foremost crusader in the battles against demons and other wickedness (see the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path for an example). Oddly, despite this outlook, she finds that she has to ally with Asmodeus in this matter - mostly because he's still Lawful and a fellow member of the Godclaw, a small league of gods who are the ultimate embodiments of law who seek to stamp out chaos no matter where it hides.
Iomedae was born in Cheliax, back in the good ol' days when they were still a vassal-state of Taldor and had not yet gone full-retard on devil-worship. In her late teens she joined with the Shining Crusade, an alliance of various nation's militaries to combat a powerful lich known as the Whispering Tyrant. Great things seemed destined for Iomedae, as her bravery and conviction led her to steal victory from the jaws of defeat countless times, and with a little divine intervention -including summoning Aroden's herald (who died anyway lol) and having her sword magically reforged into an artifact after it was shattered by evil magic- the crusade was eventually victorious. After the Whispering Tyrant was vanquished and sealed away forever the time being, she was given command over a city in Cheliax for a year, which grew to great prosperity under her stewardship all the while she would go out at night and fight monsters like she was the goddamn Batman Isaac Newton or something. A year later she would take the Test of the Starstone and pass, upon which point the god Aroden formally asked if she would replace his slain herald, to which she agreed.
And thus the reason for her nigh-insufferable righteousness stems from these humble origins as a paladin of Aroden, and now to be recognized by her sempai! Smiting the wicked and protecting the innocent had finally paid off. Things were finally going good for a while... until her patron deity Aroden suddenly suffered a severe case of the permadeaths off-screen, right on the cusp of a promised new golden age for humanity! And thus did she inherit most of his followers, his power and his legacy as humanity's god of goodness. But also, she has A LOT of really big fucking messes to clean up now as the world simultaneously descended into chaos on various fronts.
The Horn Incident[edit]
Unfortunately for Iomedae, if there's one thing she's known for, it's a time in Wrath of the Righteous where she appears before the players personally. She decides to grill the PCs to test them and see if they're ready, which involves asking them questions. Several of these questions are trick questions, where she's actually looking to see the party's reaction to them, and one is about one of her own personal deeds. Answering correctly causes her to drop off some minor artifacts. Answering wrongly (or just answering in a way she doesn't like) causes her to blast them with celestial horns that do up to 20d6(nonlethal) sonic damage. Also, openly mocking her (or objecting too strenuously to what's going on) causes her to permanently deafen and render mute the person doing it. So essentially, she's popping up in the last leg of a long adventure to inflict severe pain and injury on a party that has done nothing but try to help her, brag about her own deeds (when one of the things she's explicitly meant to be testing is humility), and generally act more like a power-tripping brat than the cosmic ideal of honor and protection that she's supposed to be. In fact, going by what's known about her church in official material, she was apparently acting in defiance of her own edicts.
This one was so bad that even the designers stepped in and admitted they'd screwed up on the forums, since they figured the sonic damage was survivable at that point and therefore it wouldn't be a big deal, and because of the way the encounter is written (if one person in the party gets the right answer, they all do), most parties with a good amount of brain cells and at least one person with Knowledge (Religion) should be able to avoid taking any damage. However, the paragraphs upon paragraphs of things Iomedae will do to the party for stepping out of line in a casual conversation (such as rendering a person permanently deaf, blind, and mute for simply making fun of her) caused a lot of players to interpret her as a psychopath. Consequently, any conversation about her is inevitably going to tip in the direction of the incident.
Starfinder[edit]
Iomedae takes the loss of Golarion particularly hard following the Gap. She dedicates all her resources and congregation to finding where the planet took off to. Her church also takes on a strong Humanity Fuck Yeah vibe, complete with cathedral ships and chainsaw knights.
Gallery[edit]
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A worshipper of Iomedae
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A temple of Iomedae
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A flying cathedral of Iomedae
The deities of Starfinder | |||
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Lawful | Neutral | Chaotic | |
Good | Angradd - Duellona Hylax - Iomedae |
Arshea - Cavrabon - Chaldira - Jalvari Ranginori - Sarenrae - Shelyn - Yaraesa |
Black Butterfly - Cayden Cailean Desna - Weydan |
Neutral | Abadar - Isvith - Kadrical Otolmens - Talavet |
Accelsys - Apholine - Dagosarn - Eloritu Facilian - Ibra - The Lost Prince Nivi Rhombodazzle - Ng - Pharasma Saloc - Shyka - Triune - Uvonn |
Azathoth - Besmara - Calistria Flux - Groetus - Lambatuin Oras - Ydajisk - Yog-Sothoth |
Evil | Asmodeus - Damoritosh Lissala - Occhiorasoi - Zon-Kuthon |
Cixyron - Ghatanothoa - Lao Shu Po Romgul - Urgathoa - Zyphus |
Cthulhu - The Devourer - Hastur - Lamashtu Meyel - Nhimbaloth - Nyarlathotep Pazuzu - Ragadahn - Shub-Niggurath |