The Laughing Rogue
Intermediate Deity
Symbol: Laughing mask
Home Plane: Ysgard
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Portfolio: Rogues, music, revelry, wine, humour, tricks
Worshippers: Rogues, bards, actors, vintners
Cleric Alignments: CG, CN, CE
Domains: Celerity, Chaos, Luck, Mind, Trickery
Favoured Weapon: “Swiftstrike” (Rapier)
Relics: Pipes of amorous revelry, rapier of desperate measures
The deity of rogues, Olidammara (oh-lih-duh-mar-uh), most often appears as a brown-haired man of rakish appearance, olive skin and merry eyes, but he often goes incognito. Olidammara delights in wine, women and song. He is a vagabond, a prankster and a master of disguise. His temples are few, but many people are willing to raise a glass in his honour.
Olidammara loves upsetting anyone who seems too attached to an ordered life and a predictable routine. He urges his followers to bend every effort towards mastering the art of music. He also teaches that life is meant to be happy and entertaining, and the best jokes need a target to hang them on. The tables can turn on any trickster, and Olidammara’s followers should accept the laugh and appreciate the trick when it happens to them. Wine, Olidammara says, is one of the joys of life, and the only thing better than making wine is drinking it. Avoid misery, temperance and solemnity, for they are the greatest poisons to the soul.
Olidammara’s religion is loosely organized, but his clerics are numerous. They usually work among urban folk or wander the countryside. Olidammara’s clerics often have a second occupation, such as minstrels, brewers or jacks-of-all-trades. Thus, they can be found almost anywhere doing or wearing anything.
Temples dedicated solely to Olidammara are few. But as his followers say, there is a temple of Olidammara anywhere there is wine, song and laughter. Most formal temples of Olidammara are hidden, because they usually double as hideouts for thieves. Many drinking establishments include at least small shrines to Olidammara.
Becoming a cleric of Olidammara seems easy enough to an outsider — it looks like one celebration and escapade after another. But would-be clerics are being keenly observed even in their least sober moments as more senior followers of the Laughing God look for the right mixture of joy, whimsy and mischief.
Missions that steal from the rich or embarrass the mighty are the headiest wine of all. Followers of Olidammara might engage in intrigues at the Duke’s masquerade ball, steal offerings from the temple of a rival deity, or rescue a world-spanning thief from a prison on the plane of Pandemonium.
Olidammara’s prayers are more often sung than spoken, and they almost always rhyme. There are very few established liturgies, because Olidammara’s worshippers are expected to freestyle-rhyme praises to their deity.
Simple shrines to Olidammara are common in concert halls and public houses. However, the larger temples are hidden (often in the city’s sewer network), because they double as a hideout for thieves. Those who know where a temple to Olidammara is can buy or sell all sorts of stolen or forbidden goods there.
Olidammara’s rites range from the simple (the Ceremony of the Cork, practiced when a particularly good bottle of wine is opened) to the elaborate (New Moon Follies, a three-act comedy performed by and for Olidammara worshippers). Most feature alcohol, song and laughter.
A 24-HD death slaad is Olidammara’s herald, although it rarely takes its true form. Allies are janni genies, grey slaads and death slaads.
Source: Deities and Demigods (Page 88), Complete Divine (Page 116)