Gwythr

at a glance

• Patron deity of Italy.
• Symbol: weighing scales.
• Suspended from the Council of Originals.
• Currently living under house arrest on Shyllipa Major.

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character profile

Name: Gwythr (gwih-the with a hard 'th', as in 'this'; rhymes with 'wither')
Gender: Cisgender male
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Nationality: Italian

Magic:

• Identifiable by the colour navy.
• Widely skilled at most forms of magic. More of a jack of all trades than a master of one.

Appearance: Gwythr has the appearance of a man in his fifties and stands at the taller side of average. He has light skin, grey hair, a high forehead and pale, watery blue eyes. His most prominent facial feature is his nose, which is large and hawklike. Gwythr typically wears smart and semi-formal clothes and is rarely seen without a jacket.

Looks favourably upon:

• Those who support his views.
• Other original fairies.
• Those who intend to cause trouble to the Council of Originals, Mallos or the Shaman royal family.

Looks unfavourably upon:

• Members of the Shaman royal family.
• Non-fairy beings.
• Ordinary fairies in general.

Personality: Gwythr is authoritarian with a strong tendency towards rules and order. He is not a fan of democratic process and prefers the concept of a single, strong leader who is capable of getting things done, believing democracy is weak. Gwythr sees the original fairies as a "master race" and considers all other fairies to be impure and therefore inferior beings. Gwythr fears the so-called extinction of the original fairies and seeks to expand the "master race" through breeding programs. He is intelligent, patient and cunning, and genuinely believes in the righteousness of himself and his own ideas.

Relationships with other deities:

• Enemy of Aura and Mallos. Gwythr especially hates Mallos.
• Gets along reasonably well with Lorraine.
• Suspicious of Tsi and Zed.

epithets

Native language: Italian
Native term: signore
Epithets: ma'at-inety ("bringer of order")

council role

Gwythr is a suspended member of the Council of Originals. He has formerly served as the Chairman, the Intergalactic Ambassador and the International Ambassador of Earth.

He has also previously served as High Judge of the Star Chamber.

monotheistic cult

Gwythr's cult gained rapid momentum when he became Chairman of the Council of Originals over a thousand years ago and it became an established, centralised church circa 1300 AD. With a headquarters in Rome, the Gwythrian churches spread across Europe and north Africa. Each church is more of a hub, similar to a monastery, with employees who undertake a wide range of roles. For example, a single monastery might contain:

• A traditional church with priests who give services and hold confessions;
• A church court with a religious judge;
• Land with agricultural workers;
• Offices with scribal, diplomatic and administrative workers;
• Law enforcement officers and guards "borrowed" from the Alliance.

Since Gwythr was disgraced and sacked as Chairman, the Church's stability has been threatened and it has become largely decentralised. Many monasteries have "rebelled" and now operate independently. Additionally, several extremist sects have been created or have gained support, with a number of them attempting to take control of the Church network.

Gwythrians, like their church, tend to be more conservative people. Where there is a local Gwythrian monastery, it often has a large impact on the day to day lives of the nearby residents, who attend it regularly to pray, confess, settle disputes or trade. Gwythrians who do not live near a monastery often have small shrines in their homes and read from the holy book, known as Gwythr's Instructions or the Instructions of Order. There is an expectation upon Gwythrians to pray daily, and they make the sign of the weighing scales over their foreheads before prayer.

Many Gwythrians have not accepted their deity's wrongdoing and consider their god, and themselves, to have been wronged. Many of the extremists believe that Tsi used the Shaman civil war to frame Gwythr in a personal attempt to grab power.

role in polytheistic cults

Gwythr often appears as a prominent god in polytheistic cults, due in no small part to the millennium he spent as the Council of Originals' Chairman.

He most commonly appears as a god of order, wisdom and propriety. He also represents justice, fairness, politics, balance, law, morality, tradition and knowledge. He commonly appears in the role of a "guardian of the tongue", i.e. someone who helps people to conduct themselves in a proper manner and speak sensibly. Gwythr is a preferred deity of those who work in politics or law and order, and is often invoked in fairy courts at the beginning or end of a hearing. He often appears in mythology as the deity who resolves a conflict or offers a final judgement on an indecision.

Gwythr is often "counter-balanced" in mythology by Mallos, who represents the chaos to Gwythr's order. He and Mallos are regularly shown not necessarily in conflict, but often balancing one another out.

reputation on shaman

As a former tyrant of Shaman and instigator of the civil war, Gwythr is the original villain of Shaman. His name still strikes fear into the hearts of many, and he has become the bogeyman or the monster under the bed. Under his dictatorship many lives were ripped apart - so much so that even the newer generators born after his time are feeling the profound effects. Those who remember the civil war are particularly fearful of him.

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