Talos

This article is about the deity Talos; if you are looking for the moon of the same name see here.

Overview

Talos personifies the destructive forces of nature and is a god of storms, forest fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and general destruction. He often comes across as petty and vengeful, and appears to be motivated by rage and anger, and the desire not to appear weak or compromising before his followers or the other deities of Faerûn. He is like a malicious and twisted child without boundaries and with unlimited power, and exults in burning, breaking, flooding, killing or utterly destroying anything he can get his hands on.

Description

Talos appears as a broad-shouldered bearded young man with one good eye. The other is covered with a dark eye-patch, and some sages speculate that the empty socket is filled with swirling stars. He goes bareheaded and wears a half-suit of field plate worn over smooth black leather armour, and black leather gloves. In Calimshan he often manifests in the form of a turban-wearing dusky skinned genie rising out of a sandstorm.

Possessions

Talos possesses three staves. The first staff is made from the very first iron forged on Faerûn, and can command the very winds and use them as a weapon. The second staff is made from the first silver smelted on Faerûn, and can call up deadly waves, waterspouts and whirlpools in any body of water. Finally, the third staff is carved from the first tree ever felled on Faerûn, and can command the earth to move and can cause earthquakes.

Holy symbol

Talos's symbol consists of three lightning bolts, of different colours, radiating from a central point.

Favored weapon

None. Talos relies on his command of the destructive forces of nature in battle. He prefers to use lightning bolts as a weapon but can also spray out cones of cold as per the spell. The priesthood of Talos have chosen to use longspears, shortspears or halfspears as their weapons of choice.

Realm

World Tree cosmology

In the World Tree cosmology of Realmspace, Talos resides within his planar realm, known as the Towers of Ruin, which is located on the outer plane of Fury's Heart, which he shares with his subordinate deities Auril, the Frostmaiden, Malar, the Beastlord, and Umberlee, the Bitch Queen.

Great Wheel cosmology

In the Great Wheel cosmology, Talos resides within his planar realm, known as the Towers of Ruin, which are located on Pandesmos, the first layer of the Windswept Depths of Pandemonium. Located on a hillock, the twin Towers of Ruin, also known as the Screaming Towers and the Towers at the Heart of the Winds, are little more than pillars of precariously stacked rocks constantly bombarded by lightning strikes and hurricane force winds. Severe winds blow out of the center of the realm towards the edges, supplemented by stinging rain and strangely accurate bolts of lightning which ensure that few unwelcome visitors get to to see the Towers.

Worship

Talos counts the ravager, the raider, the looter, and the brigand among his followers. Those who favor him see life as a succession of random effects in a sea of chaos, so the devout should grab what they can, when they can - for who can say when Talos will strike and send them into the afterlife? Although Talos is a popular deity, his name is invoked more often out of fear than out of reverence. He does have priests, mostly traveling doomsayers, who warn of disasters to come and accept charity in exchange for blessings of protection. Many of his faithful wear a black eyepatch, even if both eyes are intact.

In Spelljammer

Talos is a member of the Faerûnian pantheon and as such is considered a native deity of Realmspace. Priests of Talos are able to recover spells wherever they may be in wildspace. Once they enter the Flow, they can still cast spells as per normal, although they can only recover spells once they enter a crystal sphere. When a priest of Talos enters any other sphere where there is a deity of destruction present, they may pray for new spells as per normal. However, there is a chance the malicious and spiteful deity will grant them a spell they hadn't requested. The priests of Talos are unpopular in wildspace due to their destructive and chaotic behaviour.