Veles
Volos, the Cattle God. CG intermediate power of domestication, trickery, music, shepherds, gold and magic [He/Him]
Pantheon: Slavic
Symbol: A bear’s paw or bull’s head
Realms: Outlands / Hinterlands / The Tsardom of Gold
Proxies: Boyan (human bard proxy [he/him] / CG)
Veles is one of the most revered Slavic powers, although you wouldn’t guessed it by the looks of him. His avatar is a scruffy old man with goat horns, horse legs and the tail of a cow. Some Clueless think of him as some kind of a satyr, or even a fiend. That couldn’t be further from truth, though Veles welcomes satyr, bariaur and centaurs in his realm.
The divine portfolio of Veles is indeed broad, but his main concerns are domestic animals. While he obviously doesn’t protect them from slaughter (and nor do he wishes for them to be free, since he knows domestic animals rarely survive in the wilderness), he does however frown on berks who mistreat them, and fiercely protects livestock from threats like disease. This peculiar relationship is one druids and Beastlanders do not approve of. However, Veles is quite popular with shepherds and farriers, whose prayers he answers freely.
Veles is also a patron of bards and tricksters, and he himself is something of a trickster too. He enjoys wandering the planes in the guide of a human, performing tricks or helping those in need, even in regions where he as a deity is unknown. Veles’ favorite pastime however is thwarting the Sea Tsar and freeing kidnapped musicians. Veles is also an enemy of Stribog, but on good terms with the rest of the pantheon. There are, however, persistent rumours of Veles being in secret alliance with the Zmeys, who want to bring Slavic powers down. The dark is that these rumors are false, spread by Athar and Troyan, mostly among those who don’t worship Slavic powers. Their persistence however has even got bloods like Perun a bit peery about Veles’ true motives.
Veles proxy Boyan (human bard proxy [he/him] / CG) is a renowned skald and sage, with the power to shape-shift. Despite looking like a frail old man, Boyan has formidable physical and magical might. He is friendly, if prone to getting carried away while talking about heroic deeds and glorious battles.
Sources: Margarita and Jon Winter-Holt. Margarita notes: While this homebrew power is based on Slavic folklore and beliefs, the amount of actual information we have on pre-Christian Slavic deities is so minuscule that building any kind of lore out of it is impossible. However, there are a lot of folk beliefs about things these deities are thought to represent, which I have worked into the piece.