The Witch Goddess, The Ruby Sorceress, The Stern Lady, Death’s Guardian
Intermediate Deity
Symbol: Red skull wreathed in flame
Home Plane: Acheron
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Portfolio: Death, magic, vanity, law
Worshippers: Necromancers, wizards
Cleric Alignments: LE, LG, LN
Domains: Death, Domination, Law, Magic, Mind
Favoured Weapon: “Discretion” (Dagger)
Relics: Ruby blade, scrolls of uncertain provenance
Wee Jas (wee jass), deity of death and magic, is most often portrayed as a stunning woman dressed in a beautiful gown, wearing some piece of jewellery with a skull motif. Wee Jas is a demanding deity who expects obedience from her followers. She respects Boccob, but the two do not have an alliance.
Wee Jas promotes using spells and magic items (though many of her followers insist she favours the creation of such things).
Wee Jas tells her followers that magic is the key to all things. Wee Jas promises that understanding, personal power, security, order and control over fate come with the study of magic. She admonishes her followers to respect those who came before, because they left their knowledge and died to make room for them. She reminds them that death is inevitable, but she promises that their learning and memory will be honoured by those who come after.
Wee Jas’s priesthood has a strict hierarchy. Her clerics are known for their discipline and obedience to their superiors. Clerics of Wee Jas arbitrate disputes, give advice on magic, investigate magical curiosities, create magic items and administer funerals. Clerics of lower level are expected to defer to ones of higher level at all times. They wear black or grey robes.
Temples to Wee Jas are few and far between, but she counts many powerful sorcerers and wizards (especially necromancers) among her worshippers. Most of her temples are located in or near graveyards or catacombs, and they always contain crypts where powerful wizards are buried. They also contain extensive libraries of arcane lore and large collections of items that once belonged to great wizards from past eras.
Wee Jas trains her clerics in academic fashion, offering classroom instruction punctuated by increasingly difficult examinations. Her academies are not unlike boarding schools, where small infractions of grooming and uniform regulations are punished with a system of demerits.
The followers of Wee Jas are fascinated with magic, especially magic that breaks the boundary between death and life. Rebuilding a plundered tomb, resurrecting an ancient sage, and braving Limbo to ask questions of a long-dead wizard are the sorts of quests the Ruby Goddess sponsors.
More so than most deities, Wee Jas venerates a series of deceased “honoured ancestors”. Worshippers rarely speak of the will of Wee Jas, instead attributing commandments to ancestors such as “Yag the Many-Eyed Traveller says…” or “Grant me the calm of Queen Ochtho XIV…”.
Wee Jas’s temples are covered with funerary trappings, and many have shrines and catacombs where powerful spellcasters are buried — sometimes with a spellbook, staff or magic regalia. The Wee Jas clergy casts spells on behalf of anyone not obviously opposed to Wee Jas’s alignment or agenda, but they often demand service or information in addition to a donation to their church.
Funerals are obviously important rites to Wee Jas followers. In addition, many followers have monthly Rites of Accumulated Lore, where clergy or lay leaders read aloud from musty tomes about magic, ancient history or other esoteric topics.
An 18th-level githzerai sorcerer is a common herald for Wee Jas. Allies are formian taskmasters, formian myrmarchs and horned devils.
Source: Deities and Demigods (Page 96), Complete Divine (Page 119)