Stern Alia

The Shield Mother, the Mother of War

Stern Alia
General information
Portfolio:	Oeridian Culture, Law, Motherhood
Home:	unknown
Alignment:	Lawful Neutral
Superior:	none
Rules items
Domains:	Inquisition (CD), Knowledge, Law, Protection

Stern Alia, called the Shield Mother and the Mother of War, is a demigoddess of Oeridian culture, law, and motherhood. She is the mother of the half-brothers Heironeous, Hextor, and Stratis. She is also the tutelary goddess of the island nation of Thalos in Western Oerik, which was settled by Aerdi explorers many centuries ago.

Relationships

Alia is the mother of Heironeous and Hextor, although they have different fathers. Another son, Stratis, is mentioned in literature for the Chainmail miniatures game in Dragon #285, but he is deceased.

It was the Shield Mother who gave Heironeous the gift of meersalm, coating him with it at birth, which made his skin immune to mortal weapons. She neglected to do so for his brother Hextor, which began the jealousy that eventually led Hextor to the Lords of Evil.

Clergy

The clerics of Stern Alia organize local militias to fight back against threats, buying time for the professional armies.

Paladins

At the moment, paladins of the Shield Mother are on a quest to recover the Shield of Stratis, one of the artifacts left scattered across the land when that son of the Mother of War was killed. The church would do anything to win this holy relic.

Temples

In the Flanaess, Stern Alia's cult is mostly limited to Medegia. In Thalos, her powerful church works hand in hand with the monarch of that country.

Myths and legends

According to myth, Alia used to to leave her arms and armor in the care of her sons Heironeous and Hextor while she met with her many lovers. Once, before recorded history, a servant of the half-brothers, a man called Savnok, convinced his masters to allow him to guard the armory of Stern Alia while they attended to other matters. Left alone with the relics, Savnok could not resist trying on the goddess's armor. Drunk with power, he knew he could never bring himself to take it off, so he fled to the mortal realm, where he began carving a kingdom out for himself.

As long as he wore the armor, Savnok could not be harmed by any mortal weapon or energy, so he did very well for himself. Stricken with guilt, Heironeous and Hextor became determined to retrieve the suit before their mother returned. He was immune to Heironeous' lightning, however, so Hextor broke into the armory again and acquired his mother's bow and arrows. Though young, still two-armed Hextor could barely draw the bow, his arrows hit their mark, and Savnok slowly bled to death from small wounds.

Hextor advised his brother to help him replace the missing items and hide the body of Savnok beyond the edge of the cosmos, where their mother would never know about it. Heironeous agreed to the plan, feeling like he owed Hextor for solving the problem. He has felt guilty about this deception ever since.

Bibliography

• Conforti, Steven, ed. Living Greyhawk Official Listing of Deities for Use in the Campaign, version 2.0. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2005. Available online:[1]

• Brown, Anne. Player's Guide to Greyhawk. Renton, WA: TSR, 1998.

• Pramas, Chris. "The Armies of Thalos." Dragon #287. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2001.
• -----. "The Empire of Ravilla." Dragon #285. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2001.

• Reynolds, Sean K. "Core Beliefs: Heironeous." Dragon #354. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2007.

• Sernett, Matthew, Dave Noonan, Ari Marmell, and Robert J. Schwalb. Tome of Magic. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2006.