Perun

Perun

Piorun, the Lightning Tsar. N Intermediate power of lightning, thunder, clouds, rain, war and strength. [He/Him]

Pantheon: Slavic (leader)

Symbol: An amulet in the shape of miniature handaxe

Realms: Quasi-Elemental Lightning / Sparkling Weald; and Outlands / Mountain of Thunder

Proxies: Flaming Marina (human proxy storm sorcerer [she/her] / LN)

Perun appears in the form of a muscular man with long golden moustache and a single lock of silvery hair on his head (the Lightning Tsar doesn’t like beards all that much). He can often be seen galloping around the Plane of Lightning, riding a glowing chariot pulled by cloud-like elemental stallions. His weapons of choice are the handaxe and lightning darts.

He is the warrior god of the Slavic Pantheon, plain and simple. He doesn’t make much distinction between organised armies and chaotic bands of mercenaries; war is war, after all. His philosophy instead favours a more self-sufficient approach to combat, where every warrior knows when to follow the leader and when to act upon their own initiative. What Perun hates though are cowardice and treachery, especially towards one’s own peers or underlings. He considers inciting infighting and strife between his followers anathema.

Of course, Perun’s divine portfolio extends beyond war. He’s a power who’s invoked when treaties are signed, to make sure they’re upheld—count on old Perun to give a bad turn to those who break their word. As the power of storms, he ensures plentiful rain for the fields, while smiting his foes with lightning. Particular foes of the faith include giants and undead (its said that any sod killed by Perun’s lightning cannot become undead under any circumstances), but most of all, dragons.

Those few bashers who’ve seen Perun up close tend to notice that he always keeps his left hand chained behind his back. His faithful claim that the Perun willingly tied himself up like this, perhaps to show that true strength comes from overcoming one’s limitations. Others place the blame on the mysterious overpower of the Slavic pantheon. Some obscure scriptures prophesy how, at the time of the Great Calamity, Perun will unbind himself, unleash his true might—and subsequently die in a torrent of fire large enough to destroy a Prime planet. It is unknown how much of this is a bubber’s tale and how much is Athar’s meddling screed.

In the absence of the Overpower, Perun is considered to be the de facto leader of the pantheon—although this position doesn’t carry much power or responsibility, as Dazhbog, Khors, Svarog and Mokosh are already close enough to each other, while the other Slavic powers don’t seem to have a particular interest in getting together to cooperate.

Like most of the Slavic powers, Perun maintains two realms—one on the Outer Planes and one on the Inner. In the Outlands, Perun’s kip, the Mountain of Thunder, sits near Moradin’s Anvil, a place as warlike as the god himself. It’s bristling with armies of petitioners, loyal to the core and ready to rumble at a moment’s notice. But his favourite realm is surely the Sparkling Weald, a wooden palace in the midst of a glittering forest on a hill in the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Lightning. It’s like something out of a dark fairy tale, all ominous and brooding.

The proxy Flaming Marina (human proxy storm sorcerer [she/her] / LN), also known as Azure Marina, is Perun’s unlikely friend. This brown-haired woman with striking blue eyes seems more elegant than athletic, yet she wields powerful elemental magics of fire and lightning (and chant goes she’s sometimes allowed to take a sip from the realm’s Wells of Strength too). Marina is an expert on tactical matters, making a good use of teleportation and illusion spells. However, what makes her instrumental to Perun is her unusual ability to resist the influence of Perun’s Day.

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.