Categories
Building a Character Pathfinder Races Roleplaying

PF2 Religions Calistria

Pathfinder 2 – Religions

Campaign – Calistria

Thassilonian Resurgence

Calistria Overview – The Savoured Sting, The Lady in the Room, The Unquenchable Fire

  • Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
  • Portfolio: Trickery, Lust, Revenge
  • Realm: Gardens of Deceit and Delight (Elysium)
  • Allies: Cayden Cailean, Desna, Norgorber, Shelyn
  • Enemies: Rovagug
  • Relationships: Cayden Cailean (intermittent lover)
  • Temples: brothels, churches, hideouts, mansions, taverns
  • Worshipers: Pleasure Industry, elves, hedonists, performers, scorned lovers, thieves
  • Sacred Animal: wasp
  • Sacred Colours: black and yellow
  • Divine Ability: Dexterity or Charisma
  • Domains: Chaos, Charm, Knowledge, Luck, Trickery
  • Favoured Weapon: Whip

Calistria (pronounced kah-LISS-tree-ah) is a goddess of many faces and guises, including lust and revenge. She is held in especially high regard by elves, who often identify her moods and attitude with that of their people. A fondness of wasps has earned this vengeful deity the title the Savoured Sting; such creatures live on after harming their enemies, a trait to be emulated should one seek to inflict pain on another.

Calistria usually appears as a female elf of otherworldly beauty, arrayed in seductive dress of flowing yellow silks. These gowns do little to hide her lithe and graceful form, and she is often depicted in the company of giant wasps.

As symbolized by the three daggers of her religious symbol, Calistria has three aspects: lust, revenge, and trickery. Silver-tongued and charming, she is a master of weaving insults into compliments and laying intricate groundwork for retribution at its finest. She is a goddess of vengeance, but it would be a mistake to assume that means she pursues justice. Calistria is fickle, shifting her loyalties and interests as her whims take her—though she never forgets a slight, and any who think she has forgiven will surely find it is only a matter of time before they are targeted by a long-term plot of revenge to lay them thoroughly low.

Though she is one of several elven deities, Calistria is by far the best known outside of elven communities, and thus many non-elves view her as the representative (or even the only) elven goddess. This conclusion is not entirely unreasonable, as Calistria represents those aspects of the elven ancestry that many other people see as alluring, intriguing, and fascinating. Among elves, she embodies characteristics endemic to elven culture and identity, such as free-spirited pursuit of one’s own path, and further embodies a truth lost on shorter-lived peoples: the flexibility and capriciousness of Calistria provides a model for maintaining perspective and composure over a centuries-long lifespan. As a result, she is closely associated with the elven people by elves and others alike. Of the elven deities, she receives by far the most worship from non-elves.

Aphorisms

The following phrases are used by followers of Calistria to articulate the finer points of their deity’s teachings.

  • Love the food, not the chef: Seeking an object of desire or revenge can be sweet, but Calistria loathes the thought of becoming too consumed by love, a need for revenge, or any other single endeavor. This saying warns followers of the risk of letting a need for revenge overtake the rest of their lives, and it reminds them to keep a degree of emotional distance from the target of their physical desires.
  • See to your own wounds first: When one is wronged, the urge to retaliate immediately is strong, but this directive encourages followers to ensure their own needs are met before pursuing vengeance. Those needs may be literal wounds, emotional turmoil, or carnal desires, and ignoring them is akin to leaving a wound to fester. Of course, the saying also leaves little room for doubt about the steps to be taken after.

Servants of Calistria

  • Threv – This frog-like shape-changing sorcerer is obsessed with vengeance and prefers gifts of poison or ranged magic to allow him to carry out vindictive murder.
  • Vendenopterix – This slender elven-looking woman, with ragged, insectile wings, is a seductress and faithful servant of the Savored Sting. Though her kind are often mistaken for succubi, they do not have the reprehensible maliciousness of those demons.
  • Herald of Passion – Menotherian Appearing as a huge bear-sized black wasp, the Menotherian can also attain the form of a stunning elven beauty. She is the personification of Calistria’s lust, vindictiveness and deceptive aspects as well as her Herald and most loyal servant

Church of Calistria

The faithful of Calistria can be found across Golarion, but her tenets of lust and vengeance have taken especially firm root in Absalom, Galt, Kyonin, Nex, the River Kingdoms, the Shackles, Taldor, and Varisia. The followers of the Lady in the Room fulfil varied roles wherever they are encountered, anything from spy to prostitute and beyond, but always in support of their goddesses’ mercurial nature. Such individuals deal in trickery and mischief, encounters of the flesh, and knowledge that is both secret and dangerous. The pursuit of these goals can often lead the faithful to wander the world.

Holy Texts:

  • The Book of Joy – This book details the various passions held sacred by the goddess known as the Unquenchable Fire and her church.

Content Updates

  • 2021-08-16 – Update to layout and menu.
  • 2020-11-15 – Updates from Lost Omens Gods and Magic.
TRAP Religions

Abadar, Calistria, Cayden Calilean, Desna, Erastil, Gozreh, Lamashtu, Norgorber, Pharasma, Urgathoa, Zon-Kuthon

Pathfinder 2E

PF2 Menu: Adventures, Classes, Factions, Feats, Items, Races, Rules Updates

TRAP: Campaign, Design

Game Management: Annotated Stat Block, Character Creation, Choosing a New Campaign, GM’s Luck Roll, Playtest Thoughts, Running Games over Skype, Tracking Experience

Class Build: Minion (Mitflit), Barbarian (Nexa Shoanti Half-Orc), Bard (Quest – Goblin), Cleric (Pimwinkle – Halfling, , Krol – Elf Half-Gnome), Druid (Barak – Dwarf, Cangacerio – Human Half-Elf), Fighter (Kordar – Elf Half-Human, Zed – Human), Monk (Willy – Human), Oracle (Luna – Shoanti), Ranger (Duzhar – Orc Half-Human), Rogue (Sparky – Dwarf), Sorcerer (Belath – Cheliax), Wizard (Parry – Elf Half-Dwarf)

Discussing the Rules: Animal Companions, Archetypes, Companions, Crafting PF2 Items, Feats, Minions, Playing the Game, Shapechanging, Summoning

Game Modes: Encounter, Exploration, Downtime

Feats: Background, General & Skill, Location

PF1 Conversions to Pathfinder 2: Adventures, Classes, Items, Faction

References: Creatures, Equipment, Items, NPCs, Spells

Thassilonian Resurgence Adventure Path (TRAP) Campaign

Design, Campaign, Campaign Journal, Runelords

Jade Regent Adventure Path (JRAP) Campaign

Personalities, Campaign Journal, Region – Minkai, Prophecy – The Broken One, Characters – Social Feats

References

b1 – Bestiary 1 (Paizo)
cr – Pathfinder Core Rulebook (Paizo)
gm – Game Master created
lopg – Lost Omens Players Guide (Paizo)
lowg – Lost Omens World Guide (Paizo)

Library of Books

B5, d20 System, Pathfinder, SW

Main Logo

This site is constantly under revision, no blog posts are final as this is a work in progress place for me to develop my game settings and rules. Some posts might be placeholders for future content, so feel free to check back later for updated information.

Basic Links: Who Am I?, Home, Game Tools, Game Session Videos, My Campaigns, My Library, Site Map, Subscription Information

Game Systems: Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder 1 & 2, Shadowrun, Star Wars. Other Game Systems

Site sponsored by the author AS Hamilton (my wife) with her books available on amazon kindle.

Advertisement

By thedarkelf007

I am a long term gamer, I run 6 RPG's a fortnight, host board game, card game and LANs each about once a quarter and have an addiction to buying more games. Games I am currently running are Pathfinder (1st and 2nd Edition) and Dungeons and Dragons (5th Edition).

Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s