It Slices! It Dices!

Shi'ir is generally the kind of goddess who has few seriously devoted followers, but who gets a measure of worship from just about everyone...including a number of her fellow divinities. She actually has shrines all over the place and even some major temples, although several of the latter are on a time-share basis with Aphrodite and/or Loviatar. In one rather famous instance, the three goddesses also share the same High Priestess, which is a bit awkward for her for while Shi'ir gets on well with both, Aphrodite and Loviatar don't like each other much.

Shi'ir can manifest looking however she wants, really; any race and coloration, but as suits her domain, while she's never naked, she's never wearing much, either. She got her start as the semidemigoddess of garter belts, and worked her way up to a brief stint as the demigoddess of exotic bedware, from which she quickly vaulted up to the well known Goddess of Leather and Lace.

In any case, her actually devoted followers tend to be a bit of an odd lot. Note that they're *not* exclusively female; she will take transvestites as well, and several of her recorded miracles have been of rewarding favored male devotees by turning them into women. Most of the women who go into her service are actually the strongly independant ones - the ones who want to look good to please someone in specific, and the specific someones who want someone to look good for them, make up her broader base of undevoted support. (This is less true in the kingdom of Al'Kapone, where the emirs specifically maintain temples to her for their concubines in their palaces, but that's emirs for you. You'd do it, too, if you had that kind of money.)

Her basic tenets run to the importance of form over function, though something that both functions well *and* looks good is equally in her domain. (The former being lace, the latter leather.) She likes sparklies - value per se isn't as big a deal, so she'd like a cut gem worth 50 gold over a gold band worth 500, and either over a pile of 5000 gold coins.

Similarly, her followers have a certain image to maintain... I'm thinking a requirement that any...non-transient goods a follower of Shi'ir purchases should cost an extra 25% for quality. Eg. I gave Savannah Rose a leather backpack, but it's not just the standard battered brown leather adventureres pack; it's shiny, treated black leather with embroidery. By `transient' goods I'm thinking mainly of the minor things you just use up...rations, torches, that kind of thing. This also generally won't apply to magic items, since by and large those are inherently of high quality. (This *would* restrict the use of those magic items specifically designed to look bad, though. I expect part of Savannah's [the PC] problem with that sword is that it's such a -dull- grey. It's possible to make the whole grunge thing into a pretty good Look, but an effort has to be made.)

Commandments: (Note that these are phrased to Shi'ir's liking, but are to be taken more..metaphorically, overall.)

1. Thou Shalt Not Cover Thy Bellybutton; It's Really Quite Amazing How Sexy They Can Be. (Actually, you *can* cover your bellybutton, per se - say, when sleeping, you're allowed to be under a blanket, and you can even wear clothes that do it. The thing here is never to be ashamed of your body. Probably this would prohibit many long-term means of hiding it, though short term is okay as long as it's not out of shame; eg. an invisibility spell for good reason is fine; because you think you're fat isn't, and I decided a ring of invisibility would likely go against Shi'ir's `theme' even if Jenni hadn't wanted it more. >gryn<)

2. Thou Shalt Not *Look* Bad, Even When Thou Art Or Feel So. (Mostly ties in to the requirement of taking appearance into account even on practical matters. It does suggest not whining, but that's a suggestion, not a prohibition.)

3. Thou Shalt Not Honor Thy Mother and Thy Father, For Thou Canst Too Easily Picture What They Did To Become Such. (Mainly just that, as with most Orders, Shi'ir wants to come first in her followers' lives, especially while they're in training. You don't have to break off all ties with your family, but you do have to be fairly independant of them.)

4. Thou Shalt Eat Thine Ice Cream -Slowly-. (Mainly a commandment to enjoy life, as available, and to try to share your enjoyment of it.)

When it comes to the undead, I'm seeing followers of Shi'ir having, kind of, both options of the good or evil priests; ie. able to Turn or take control over them. The former because they're icky; the latter as a form of seduction (and, in practice, mostly used on vampires, who have been known to travel for miles in hopes of being taken over...but it can be used on any, and ultimately it's still a matter of willpower - they don't have to do anything gross for it.) However, they do this as a cleric of one level lower, because Shi'ir's reasons for dealing with undead that way aren't as compelling as those of, say, any of the various Life or even Light gods. ("Get Thee Hence From This Plane!" is often more compelling than, "Eeeewwwwwww!", even if both are accompanied by Divine Right. Similarly, "My Master Tsog'muh'hekuva'guy Commands You To Do My Bidding!" is, especially on the less intelligent undead, more effective than, "Hey there, big boy, why'ncha come over to our side? " 'Course, they can do the command thing, too, and back it up with a nice whipcrack, but strangely, that usually has more impact on enemies who HAVE a pulse. )

Otherwise, they get an armor effect similar to the one in MWWG -leather can be tight, metal armor can be your basic bikini-and-bracelets style, and they still get full effects. On a practical side, this keeps their armor largely unencumbering, letting them keep full dex-bonuses. (It's also much lighter, obviously, where that matters...I know you pay some attention to that, even though we don't actually add everything up to the ounce...) They make shields that are those kind of stylish swept-back arm braces, too. {I'm picturing this as a divine effect; more an extension of token-armor's hardness to cover beyond the actual metal -it may be similar to the psionic `body armor' effects - rather than somehow trying to explain that they only get hit where they're covered.}

Along with this, her priestesses also get some protection from the elements; I'm thinking equivalent to the same effect as a Ring of Warmth, but I'd have to look that up and see what it actually does. I'm at least pretty sure there *is* such a thing. Cold protection is the strongest (not immunity to cold attacks, but I'm thinking to the point of an automatic saving-throw success - so if a saving throw would negate a given cold-attack, it's immunity. If it's a `save-for-half', she takes half), but it does extend also protect against sunburn (not important on a grey elf, I expect, but there you are - I design for the masses, darnit), incidental scratches from passing branches and whatnot, and that kind of thing. The things adventurers don't worry about anyway, but, well.

And, well, as a metagamer, I'm debating whether or not a lot of special effects really balance dropping a level on the undead thing - if I remember right, neutral clerics already have the option of either turning or controlling. I can't immediately think what else I'd suggest, though. Maybe some kind of level-based bonus to Charisma or Comeliness rolls? (I had a couple of more risque ideas, but truth to tell, I don't think the group we have for this wants to go that way...)

Alright, here's what I'm thinking on Shi'ir from here...I got a chance to look at the Ring of Warmth, and what I had for that is definitely a bit much - they really don't have much that gives you an automatic save like that. {I know this is exactly the sort of thing you're not that interested in, but bear with me here... I'm thinking it out as I go, and I do like to play with this stuff.} The closest they have is the "Endure Cold/Heat" spell which automatically cancels one cold or fire attack but gets broken itself doing it, and since this is supposed to be a constant divine bonus kind of thing, that won't work...what I'm thinking would be best is a permanent Resist Cold spell (it's a 1st level Clerical spell) - gives +3 to save versus cold attacks, and halves damage. {So you take half damage if you fail, quarter if you succeed, while non-damage effects are still an all-or-nothing effect with a bonus to save but no automatic immunity, as my original idea would've given.}

The armor effect I had is only going to apply to the extent you pay attention to encumbrance. The only thing armor bulk really effects by the rules is movement rates, so I suppose it made sense that I was able to catch up with Jenni's character when she was running off with the swords, but...there's a little tirade in there about how the armor class given by armor already accounts for keeping your Dex bonus, and cancelling that just because they're wearing bulky armor would render the whole game invalid. Anyway, thing is, being able to wear a plate mail bikini (or even, someday, a Full Plate Bikini +3, maybe, with little tassles) really only matters if I ever get Alisia to do a picture.

So, from a metagame standpoint, right now I'm dropping a level on Turning and taking the +25% cost to buy equipment in exchange for some cold resistance, which, as rare as real cold attacks tend to be even in arctic campaigns, is pretty unbalanced...

What I'm hoping for is a couple more `at will' 1st level spell effects, though I have some limits in mind on them. First would be the Command spell (one-word commands; I forget what kind of saving throw they get, but given that a long *series* of one-word commands could be a lot more powerful than they intended this spell to be, I'd suggest they get a cumulative +1 to save for each consecutive Command.) This would require that she have her whip in hand and give it a snap, which has the further limiting effect of putting it on the whip's speed for combat use (5, if I remember right).

The second is the Friends spell, which adds...it's either d6 or d8 to your Charisma, I forget which. This would be a matter of taking on the Lacey aspect of Shi'ir, and would prohibit wearing more than leather armor. {Alternately, I might suggest restricting *any* armor, but merging this with a Sanctuary effect - requires people to save vs. magic before they can attack the cleric, unless the cleric attacks them first. Hmmm.. actually, I think that works better, but it's two spell effects, so...? Any thoughts? Opinions? Do you care? } Of note, for Savannah Rose specifically, her Charisma is 17, so this would generally put her into the divine levels. (Probably goes for most of Shi'ir's priestesses, actually; I expect they have a minimum of 15 or 16.)

Command requires she be able to talk to them, of course. Friends doesn't, and as a divine effect, I'd suggest the effect span pretty well across racial and even species lines, at least regarding anything above animal intelligence. (Allowing for the King Kong effect, admittedly; just because they don't want to harm her can't guarantee that she'll like what they DO want to do.)