Stratis

Greyhawk Divinity

Stratis
The sundering of Stratis' breastplate by Grench, as illustrated in Chainmail Miniatures Game: Blood and Darkness - Set 2 Guidebook (2003). Art by Sam Wood.
Names and titles
Title(s):	Law's Crusader, Bane of Chaos Incarnate
General information
Portfolio:	War Crusades, order, soldiers, strategy, wartime alliances
Home:	Material Plane and formerly Ysgard
Alignment:	Neutral; see below
Gender:	Male
Class:	Fighter
Rules items
Domains:	Inquisition, Law, and War
Divine rank:	Lesser- or Demi-god

Stratis was a god of War once worshipped in Western Oerik. His death (in 586 CY) began the Godwar. He was morally neutral in alignment, neither good like Heironeous nor evil like Hextor.

Description

Stratis was an armed and armored warrior, looking like a strong, handsome human man with four arms.

Relationships

Stratis is the youngest son of Stern Alia, and therefore a brother or half-brother of Heironeous and Hextor.

Realm

The location of Stratis's divine realm is unknown, although he grew to adulthood on the plane of Ysgard. He is known to travel the Material Plane, relishing in the war of mortals.

Dogma

Stratis was god of the art of war in all its forms, both just and unjust.

"He lived for battle and the chaos of combat and needed the smell of blood in his nostrils. He scoured the earth looking for battle, and when he could not find it, he instigated it with his godly powers."

Worshipers

Stratis did not originally have clergy in the earliest days.

Stratis is unknown, or virtually so, in the Flanaess, but was very well known in Western Oerik.

Alignment

Stratis battling, bearing his panoply, art by Sam Wood, Core Rulebook, p3 (2002).

In the Chainmail Miniatures Game, where Stratis was published, there were only three alignments: Good, Neutral, and Evil. It was not that the designers made an error or left a Lawful/Chaotic portion out of Stratis' alignment—it was that there were no other components to the alignment system in that (version of the) game. But, this was clarified later, by Chris Pramas, author of the setting and Creative Director for Chainmail, in a private email.

"As for Stratis, I would peg him as Lawful Neutral. So then you'd have Heironeous as LG, Hextor as LE, and Stratis between the two as LN."
—Chris Pramas, via email  (28 Jul 2012)

He reconfirmed this in a Tweet discussing Chainmail on July 26, 2017.

Artifacts and relics

Stratis is known specifically for his weapons and armor. There are no other known artifacts belonging to him or relating to his worship.

Panoply of Stratis

The Flail of Stratis, art by Sam Wood, 2002

The Panoply of Stratis is the sacred arms and armor of the dead god Stratis. These items are sought by the warring factions in the Sundered Empire in Western Oerik. Being infused with the dead god's power, it is believed that whoever controls the items will ascend to become the new God of War in Stratis's stead.

The Panoply of Stratis includes:

• Bonebreak—The god's first weapon, a greatclub, is believed to lie somewhere on the Ghostwind Plateau. (See The Story of Bonebreak below.)
• The Ebon Glaive—Artifact weapon (glaive/polearm) once wielded by Stratis. Forged by Valin, a unparalleled mage-smith of Ysgard. Once located in a place called Scalebane, previously known as the Plain of Edora (a massive draconic graveyard, left behind after a war between good and evil dragons).

The Ebon Glaive is a +5 mithril dragonbane keen glaive of speed. The weapon is neutral, intelligent (Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 18, Ego 39; speech and telepathy), and its special purpose is the slaying of dragons.

• The Longsword of Stratis—In the possession of a young elf named Tarquin. He's enigmatic, and hails from an ancient and illustrious family. It is whispered that he may become the Emperor of Ravilla.
• The Shield of Stratis—This artifact was a gift from the Shield Mother (Stern Alia) to her son and bears her likeness. The Shield of Stratis was sought by the paladins of Stern Alia.
• The Spear of Stratis—Stratis’ spear plunged to the forgotten grave of an ancient human warlord, Ahmut, who rose screaming for vengeance and the death of all living things.
• The Axe of Stratis—This axe (which is depicted as either a battle axe or greataxe) was dropped amongst the savage tribes of the Southlands and was seized by a hobgoblin chieftain named Drazen.
• The Flail of Stratis—Depicted as a heavy flail, this weapon came by the hands of a child to the half-fiendish gnoll, Priest-King of Naresh, Jangir.

There are also other arms and armor included in the panoply, including helm, breastplate, bracers, greaves, and thrown dart, but they have only ever been shown in illustrations, and there is little known about them.

Stratis wielding Bonebreak, Ghostwind Campaign, p3 (2002), art by Jeff Easley.

The Story of Bonebreak

Ther origin of Stratis's very first weapon, from The Ghostwind Campaign. p4:

"When Stratis was but a godling, he chafed at his mother's protectiveness. She kept her son safe in her fortress on Ysgard, the plane of heroes. "The mortals need your shield, not I," he asserted, but Stern Alia did not heed him. By day Stratis studied the ways of war on Ysgard's many battlefields, learning from the greatest heroes of the past. In Alia's fortress, however, no weapons were allowed. "There is no war within these walls," she decreed.

Stratis, like all sons, longed to succeed on his own. When his mother was away attending the high priests of Thalos, Stratis made his way to one of her planar portals and stepped through. He found himself in a land of heat and fire. Ribbons of earth floated on pools of magma and the ground beneath his feet oozed acrid smoke. In the distance Stratis could see the World Ash, so he knew he was somewhere on Ysgard still. With godly powers, he strode over the lava and bounded over geysers, making his way to the planespannning tree.

The appearance of this impetuous godling had not gone unnoticed. Savage fire giants spied him from afar and set up an ambush near the World Ash. In the blink of an eye, Stratis was surrounded by a dozen of the brutes, each one encased in glowing hot armor and wielding a mighty two-handed blade. "Your blood is ours, little god," they taunted. "You don't even have a weapon to defend yourself."

Stratis said nothing. Before they could close with him, he leaped over their heads and bounded to the World Ash. He could have climbed the tree and escaped to another plane of existence. He could have, but he did not. Instead, he grabbed a branch and tore it free. He then charged the fire giants, wielding his club with deadly skill, smashing bones and skulls in a bloodthirsty rage. In the end, Stratis stood alone with twelve lifeless fire giants at his feet.

Thus did Stratis win his first battle and gain his first weapon."

Bonebreak was given statistics in The Ghostwind Campaign. It is an enchanted greatclub and has special properties: "Aura of Courage +4, Extra Melee Attack, Fearless, Immune Mind-Affecting Spells, Immune Poison, and Powerful Charge +2."

"The urn of Traleshk is an ancient object thought to contain a secret about the location of Bonebrcak."

History

Stratis "walked among mortal races for the pleasure of their combat."

"Stratis... could never spend his days languishing in heavenJy courts. He lived for battle and the chaos of combat and needed the smell of blood in his nostrils. The young races were honored by the attention, at least at first. But as war followed war, with no respite and no lasting peace, some began to spurn the God of War."

During the Demon War a thousand years ago, Stratis intervened personally to battle the fiendish dragons sent by Tiamat, but he found that killing dragons distracted him from other parts of the war. Needing to kill dragons faster, he descended to the city of Ashbringer in Ysgard's realm of Nidavellir. There he bargained with the dwarven master smith Valin for a weapon capable of killing Tiamat herself. Valin agreed to do this if Stratis would provide the blood of five chromatic dragons, one of each type, the older the better, as well as enough of each of their hides to make a suit of armor for five dwarven heroes, and then use the weapon to lead an assault on Svartalfheim, the land of Nidavellir's ancient foes. Stratis agreed to the terms on the condition that he would be able to name the time of the assault. Valin agreed, and a year later he had completed his masterwork, the Ebon Glaive. As it happened, however, while Stratis was leading the dwarves to victory, one of the most ferocious battles of the war was being fought without him at the site now called Scalebane. It is rumored that Valin sold the knowledge of when Stratis would be preoccupied in Ysgard to Tiamat, but this has never been proven.

Much later, it is said that Stratis was seen riding to battle with the Baklien horsemen who were invading the empire of Ravilla.

Death of Stratis

Stratis was killed in 586 CY (given in lore as "five years ago") by a party of mortal adventurers who foolishly thought that by killing him they could win peace for their peoples. Instead, Stratis's death embroiled all of Western Oerik in conflict—in the Godwar.

An elven hero, Marinn recruited other heroes who were from all the "young races" (also referred to as "mortal races"). They gathered together artifacts of great power capable of slaying a god and then lured the God of War into an ambush.

"The conflict lasted a full day, and the raging Stratis cut down nearly all the mortal heroes. When only three remained, Marinn saw the opportunity he had been waiting for. A blow from the axe of the ogre champion Grench had gashed a hole in Stratis's breastplate. On a signal from Marinn, Grench and the human warrior Braddock rushed the God of War and grabbed hold of his arms. Then Marinn took his ancient elven blade and thrust it through the rended armor and into the god's heart."

When Stratis's hot blood fell on the ground, it burned through the earth and opened passageways to caverns buried for millennia, exposing corridors and chambers leading to the drow settlement, Kalan-G'eld. Deep in the underoerth, the blood of Stratis became as mist, floating around in crimson clouds to this day. Clouds of Stratis's blood announce themselves with the sounds of screaming, the thud of arrows, and the pounding of hooves. Those who touch the clouds are gifted with a portion of Stratis's divine spark and has proven to be a "mighty source of power, and warbands clash fiercely over its possession."

Curse of Stratis

Main page: Godwar

With his dying breath, Stratis decreed that there would be nothing but war until a new god of war ascended to replace him. He ascended into the sky in a pillar of fire and scattered his weapons and armor to the four winds.

Various factions of the region battled for control over Stratis's panoply, for it is believed that whoever gets enough of Stratis's armaments would become the new god of war. Thus began the Godwar.

In Living Greyhawk

Some regions in the Living Greyhawk campaign continued on their own shortly after the campaign had already ended (2008, or 598 CY), to tie up plotlines and such. In the Shield Lands (Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota) Stratis was resurrected before the end of the campaign in 598 CY, ventured to the Abyss battling evil and chaos, and returned afterward to the Shield Lands to continue his battles against Iuz.

"The dead god of war was resurrected at the siege of Law's Forge by a ritual which was orchestrated by Simen Sharn , though he did not fully understand it himself. As Iuz sought greater power from relics of the Unmaker and worked to pull it onto the Prime Material, the greater gods were unable to interfere directly, so they lent their support to the ritual to raise Stratis, intending that he would walk the Oerth and oppose Iuz and his forces. CY 599 has seen the Shield Lands reclaim its lands at an unprecedented pace."

See also

See also: Category:Chainmail

Gallery

• 
  The sundering of the breastplate of Stratis.
  Art by Sam Wood.

References

Bibliography

• Pramas, Chris. "Ahmut's Legion." Dragon #286. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2001.

———. "The Armies of Thalos." Dragon #287. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2001.

———. "The Ebon Glaive." Dragon #296. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2002.

———. "The Empire of Ravilla." Dragon #285. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2001.

• Tweet, Jonathan, Rob Heinsoo, and Chris Pramas. Chainmail Miniatures Game Starter Set. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2001. Item code 88339
• Tweet, Jonathan, Skaff Elias, Rob Heinsoo, Chris Pramas and Skip Williams. Set 2 Guidebook: Blood & Darkness. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2002. Item code 88010.
• Grace, Joshua B., Stratis, Lich Greyhawk, 2009

———. The Halzephon Prophecy, Lich Greyhawk, 2009.

Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

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