The Followers of the Golden Hills

[Strike_The_Earth]

Pictured above:  A trio of Heroic Battle Gnomes prepare to march towards war with their newest recruit, a Joe the friendly Halforc! Don't mind that homicidal look on his face, he is smiling, honest!

::[ Dhimany 17th : Year 166 : 1388 DR ]::
As the number of silent gods has grown, one strange exception has begun to draw the attention of the people of Sanctuary.

Indeed, many have realized that the gods of the gnomish pantheon have not ceased to grant spells, blessings, and miracles to those who worship them. It has not escaped the opportunistic, nor the former priests and clerics of dead faiths, that Dunwarren itself is a gnomish city - if svirfneblin - and that it would only be natural to pay respects to the gnomish pantheon in such a place.

And so it has become more and more common among the people of Sanctuary:
...to offer prayers to Garl Glittergold to bless them with luck...
...to pay homage to Callarduran Smoothhands in thanks for Dunwarren's protection and the svirfneblin mechanists who created it so well...
...to beg Flandal Steelskin's aid when working crude smithies and craftworks...
...to ask for protection from Segojan Earthcaller and Baervan Wildwanderer when travelling beyond Sanctuary...
...to thank Baravar Cloakshadow for hiding Sanctuary so well...
...to bless the Watchers and Warders in the name of Gaerdal Ironhand that they may better defend the place...
...to ask for inspiration from Nebelun the Meddler when trying something new, or making something inventive...
...to wish Urdlen's frothing madness and wrath fall only upon the enemies of Sanctuary...

Even among some humans, the wielding of blessings in the name of gnomish gods has started to occur. There is a sizable minority of folk who devote themselves to the gnomish gods, as all other powers seem to dwindle and fade.

Entirely out of the goodness of their hearts, pure altruism and the fact that they are just so totally awesome(and for no other self-serving reason whatsoever) the Lords of the Golden Hills, aka the Gnome Gods have recently started sponsoring non-gnome clerics and paladins. A sizable minority of the non-gnomes in the city now worship the Lords of the Golden Hills. Part adventuring band, part church, the Followers of the Golden Hills now sally forth with ridiculous enthusiasm to defend their holy city, Dunwarren while cheerfully spreading the message to literally everyone who will listen even against their will if needed!

In all seriousness there is far more variety here than typical zany gnome stereotypes or zealots, rather the opposite which is what makes this so EXCITING! Most if not all of the new clerics were formally clerics of other gods, making the whole thing a crazy melting pot, a blending of human beliefs and customs, traditional gnome ones and svirfneblin ideas. As well as weabos, obviously, I meant uh... gnomeabos? Relic Guardians, once novel and exciting can now be replaced by something even more novel and unique, a pantheon suddenly opened to a whole new set of people with new ideas! Are you one of the literally dozens of PCs struggling to cope with the loss of your former patron? Now you can shift to a new one! Pretty much anything can fit in here. We also have actual gnome PCs, of course. One aspect which many of the Gnome gods share in their pantheon is a large focus on community, which now allows for many very different people to all come together.

The Followers of the Golden Hills is not simply for clerics and paladins, it is for all devoted followers of the Golden Hills to support their mutual goals. Our current focus is fighting the largest faith in the city(by an enormous margin), a huge group you've all heard of, the followers of Urlden... the Chosen! There is of course plenty of room to try other things and with the Gnome-Pantheon focus on community you can expect lots of support in other endeavors.

To join, make a PC who worships the Lords of the Golden Hills, or have your PC convert to worship them which won't be hard at all considering all the efforts are proselytizing! Not every member is a zealot, those far less pious are welcome so long as they believe in the community spirit of the group fosters would be a good fit as well as those simply seeking their protection.

Recommended Alignment: The group at present has a very strong "good" tilt, in fact we are probably the most goodly aligned player group at the moment, however neutral PCs will find themselves fitting in perfectly well. Civically minded evil PCs/those seeking to reform will probably find a place if their evil is more of a personal one and/or they are trying to change their wicked ways, but any PCs out to do evil will not find much of a place here.

Recommended Race: Any. Worshipers of the Golden Hills are a sizable minority of all the people of Dunwarren now, which means members of every race!

Recommended Class: Any. There is room for everything here, from clerics and paladins, to sneaky rogues, to gnomish basket weavers, merchants, traders and mechanists.

[putrid_plum]

This is probably the best player faction in efu history.  Join it!

[goate]

Disgusting, but solid.