Kel

Goddess of Self-Sacrifice, Lady of Protection

Alignment: Lawful Good

Domains: Good, Healing, Law, Protection

Symbol: Kite shield of purest white

Garb: White robes trimmed in blood red

Favored Weapon: Shields of all types for shield bash

Form of Worship and Holidays: Evening prayers for protection and health at vespers. Special holy days on the eve of the solstices and equinoxes for the coming season.

Typical Worshippers: Humans, Guardians, Paladins, though not currently worshipped.

Kel is the sister of Thyr and Muir, triplet siblings known as the Three Gods. She was popular among humans until around 10,000 years ago when she gave up her life to prevent Orcus from conquering the Material Plane. She was normally depicted as an armored woman holding a kite shield with a benevolent but sad expression on her face. It was said she carried the sorrows of the world on her shoulders and later stated that she must have seen the fate that would befall her. Her principles were the protection and safety of civilized societies where individuals could grow and achieve their destinies without fear of sudden calamity or destruction. When she sacrificed herself, her siblings assumed her spheres of influence and incorporated her goals into their own. It is rumored, however, that a portion of her essence was released upon her death and became twisted with hate and vengeance for the end that she met and coalesced into a new deity that was the very antithesis of all she had stood for — Hel, Lady of Death and Pestilence. If Kel’s church were somehow revived, it is certain that they would make eradication of that apostate faith as one of its top priorities.

Her sacred animal is the lowly hedgehog for his innate protective abilities, and her faithful often repeat the ancient axiom, “The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.”