Priests of Yarma

1^st Edition - treat as normal Clerics.

2^nd Edition - treat as specialty priest of Death, according the Complete Priest's Hand Book. See note below

3^rd Edition - get the Death and Destruction domains.

The notes below are the 2^nd ed speciality priesthood for a death god, slightly customized so as to be individual to Yarma. DMs of 1^st and 3rd ed games will want to extract the flavor from the description to use in their own games.

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Notes

The God of Death is, naturally, a terrifying figure whom man regards as an enemy, an unavoidable doom. But he isn't evil, in fact, but the Guide of the Souls who helps the departed spirit on to its reward or next existence.

Priests of Yarma are occasionally agents who must "help" people on to the afterlife, especially if such people have successfully thwarted Death in the past. This duty may take the form of assassination, or of mercy-killing. In some campaigns, spirits sometimes escape the afterlife and return to the land of the living; the death-god's priests must hunt them down and capture them for return to their proper place.

Alignment: The deity is completely neutral. His priests are generally true neutral as he is, but occasionally, one will stray to neutral good or neutral evil. The congregation can be of any alignment.

Minimum Ability Scores: Wisdom 9. Wisdom 16 means +10% experience.

Races Allowed: humans.

Proficiencies

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Nonweapon Proficiencies Required: Religion.

Nonweapon Proficiencies Recommended: Reading/Writing.

Weapon Proficiencies Required: Battle Axe.

Nonweapon Proficiency Group Crossovers: Priest, General.

Duties of the Priest: Guidance. Vigilance against any being which is unnaturally keeping Death at bay. The key word here is unnaturally, meaning in defiance of the gods. Wizards using potions of longevity are okay, until they reach an age of three hundred or so, at which time these priests become their enemies. Healers who cure injury and disease are accepted, unless they stumble onto some technique or magic that allows them to imbue immortality. Even priests who can resurrect or reincarnate are acceptable, because if the gods didn't want them to be able to, they wouldn't have given them the ability to do this.

Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Weapons Permitted: Battle axe (usually styled as a headman's axe), dagger/dirk, knife, lasso (often tied in the fashion of a noose), scythe, sickle, stiletto, sword/khopesh, sword/short. Armor Permitted: None; no shields. All together, these constitute Medium combat abilities.

Other Limitations: Priests of the god of Death must remain celibate (they must remain unmarried). They need not remain chaste (they need not abstain from sex).

Spheres of Influence: Major Access to All, Astral, Charm, Divination, Protection. Minor Access to Guardian, Necromantic, Sun, Weather.

Powers: Inspire Fear (Designing Faiths chapter). Command Undead (same as the evil Cleric ability). The priest of the Death-god does not have to be evil in order to use this power. This is a rare exception to the rule that only evil priests can command undead.

Followers and Strongholds: The followers are received at 8th level, and consist of three third-level priests and six first-level priests of the same order, plus special agents whose class is determined by the specific aspect of the god; these agents consist of one fifth-level character, two third-level characters, and four first-level characters. The priesthood will pay for half of the cost of stronghold construction at 8th level.

Holy Symbol = Iron Bound Gates