Jazirian the Eternal Serpent

Update Feb. 1, 2017: I’ve made a revision of the Jazirian entry to include a humanoid shaman class and clergy details, as well as some unique spells for both couatl and shamans.

This entry is a little different. Jazirian has no priesthood, so there is no specialty priest information; I also decided (s)he wouldn’t be the time to grant spells to non-couatl followers, either. However, I took the opportunity to write up some additional cultural details on couatl. Hopefully it will prove interesting. I’ll probably treat Shekinester, Parrafaire, and Stillsong the same way. Also, I suppose I should note that I did not incorporate the information from A Guide To Hell for the simple reason that I did not like it; I also felt it did not keep to the earlier canon.

Jazirian (PDF Version)
(The Eternal Serpent, the Rainbow Serpent, the Feathered Serpent, Creator-God of the Couatl)
Greater Power of Mount Celestia, LG

Portfolio:                 Community, peace, learning, parenthood, eternity, wisdom, couatls
Aliases:                     None
Domain Name:           Solania/Uroboros, the Gates of Wisdom
Superior:                   None
Allies:                       Aerdrie Faenya, Akadi, Annam, Bahamut, Io, Koriel, Quetzalcoatl, Remnis, Sardior, Shekinester, Syranita, the Seldarine, Thard Harr, Moradin, Garl Glittergold, Yondalla, the Seelie Court, many other gods of good and neutrality
Foes:                           Faluzure, Merrshaulk, Sseth, Tiamat, many other gods of evil
Symbol:                     Uroboric couatl
Wor. Align.:             LG

The ancient creator and patron of the couatl, Jazirian (jah-ZEAR-ee-an) is both incredibly powerful and supremely wise. The Eternal Serpent, who is both hermaphroditic and sexless, is contemplative and reflective, attentive and listening to the world around him/her. Despite his/her great power, The Rainbow Serpent is ultimately a peaceful deity, wishing above all for the spreading of learning and knowledge; his/her couatl followers are faithful in all regards to these causes and way of thinking.

Jazirian is part of no pantheon, being the singular creator-god of the feathered couatl. (S)he has many strong allies throughout the planes, however, most of which fall into three specific groups. The first group of allies are the leaders of the various good-aligned pantheons, such as Corellon Larethian of the Seldarine and Moradin of the Morndinsamman. The second group the Eternal Serpent is allied with are those air and sky gods who are good or neutrally aligned, with Syranita, Aerdrie Faenya, Remnis, and Akadi being prominent members. The final group the Rainbow Serpent is strongly allied with are the gods of law and good, particularly the likes of Bahamut and Koriel. There are many other gods that Jazirian is allied with as well; it is known that Sardior’s wandering Ruby Palace is a frequent visitor of the Rainbow Serpent’s realm of Uroboros, and (s)he is also known to have ties with Io, Quetzalcoatl, Thard Harr, and the Seelie Court. There are few deities of neutrality, and even fewer of good who do not at least hold a deep respect for the wise creator of the couatl.

Consequently, Jazirian has a considerable number of enemies. In particular, reptilian or serpentine deities of evil, such as Tiamat and Sseth, oppose the actions of the Rainbow Serpent and his/her couatl followers. Other known enemies are particular Abyssal lords and the Lords of the Nine in Baator. However, they are too disorganized and the Eternal Serpent has too many allies for any enemies to mount concerted attacks.

As such an ancient and powerful being, it would be expected for Jazirian to show up in a considerably wide range of creation mythologies of other races, but (s)he oddly does not. The couatl, who see him/her as the perfected spiritual manifestation of the World Serpent archetype, claim this is due to the invisibility of his/her influence and guiding hand. Couatl theology states that only they are able to truly perceive the might, power, and guidance of their creator. Most other creatures with such beliefs would become arrogant and domineering, but the couatl are humble, feeling that it is their duty to help improve the lot of creatures not so blessed as they are. As the couatl see the Rainbow Serpent as the perfected form of the World Serpent, they see many other similar beings as imperfect or immature forms of the World Serpent. In particular, evil serpentine beings, including Merrshaulk and Sseth, are seen as evil due to their own fear, ignorance, or immaturity. In some naga mythologies, Jazirian is portrayed as male, and mated with Shekinester to produce the lesser naga deity Parrafaire. Couatl theologians discount such beliefs as mere stories, however. Another mythology, of particular note amongst the yuan-ti, is that Merrshaulk slew Jazirian; once again, the couatl scoff at the idea and point out they still have magical powers and regularly receive omens and visions from their patron. The final major myth mentions the Eternal Serpent was once joined with another Elder Serpent of Law, and it is they that created the multiverse. The origin of this myth and current identity of the other serpent are a mystery, but once again, the couatl are dismissive of it as just a story.

Jazirian is not generally directly active on the prime material plane, preferring to work through his/her couatl followers. (S)he will only send avatars after consulting with other lawful good deities, and generally only in times of great peril to lawful good beings or when major elements of creation are endanger.

Jazirian’s Avatar (36-Hit Die Couatl, Wizard 36, Priest 36)
Jazirian appears as a rainbow-colored couatl of varying (although always vast) size, sinuously winding his/her way through the air or rotating as a great snake with its tail in its mouth. (S)he uses spells from all spheres and schools, favoring those that immobilize rather than kill or hurt outright.

AC −5; MV 12, Fl 36 (A); HP 288; THAC0 −9; #AT 1 (2)
Dmg 3d10 (bite) / 3d10 (constriction)
MR 80%; SZ G (30–200 feet)
Str 19, Dex 21, Con 22, Int 22, Wis 25, Cha 25
Spells P: 15/14/14/14/13/13/11, W: 8/8/8/8/8/8/8/8/8
Psionic summary: Mental #AT: 2; Mental THAC0 −5; Mental AC −10; Dis all/Sci all/Dev all; PSPs: 234; Att all; Def all.
Saves PPDM 2; RSW 3; PP 4; BW 4; Sp 4

Special Att/Def: Jazirian attacks twice per round, once with a bite and once with a constriction attempt; if the latter is successful, all further constriction attack rolls are automatically successful on the victim until they die or are released. The Eternal Serpent’s bite is poisonous if (s)he wishes (save versus poison at −8 or die immediately).

Jazirian radiates awe at a radius of 120 feet, such that no being seeing him/her and failing a saving throw versus spell at −4 can attack him/her unless attacked first. (S)he is immune to all spells below 4th level, poison, paralyzation and petrification, all death magic, illusion/phantasm spells, and (s)he cannot be affected by mind-controlling spells. Only weapons of +3 or better enchantment can affect him/her.

Other Manifestations
The Eternal Serpent will frequently send visions to elder couatl as warnings or apprehensions, as simple directives or requests for information. In the last case, the information is usually something the couatl does not actually know, and is requested to seek it out. In addition to the visions (s)he sends, the Rainbow Serpent may manifest as “bright omens” that take the form of unusual changes in floral, avian, or insect behavior; these can appear to all couatl, but require interpretation. On very rare occasions, on the order of every one thousand years or so, (s)he may manifest as a spiritual presence felt by all attending the birth of a couatl destined to develop great magical or prophetic powers. A single brightly colored feather is all that remains after the presence leaves; such a feather cannot be destroyed by any normal means and does not decay naturally, but has no other powers, and is meant as a reminder of the Eternal Serpent’s favor. These young become known as “Chosen by the Feather” to all who hear of the incident.

Jazirian is served by a great number of creatures, primarily of law and goodness, including aarakocra, aasimar, aasimon of all types, adamantite dragons, archons of all types, asperii, blink dogs, bronze dragons, buraq, couatl, duruch’i-lin, electrum dragons, flumphs, gold dragons, good major incarnates as well as minor incarnates of charity, faith, justice, and wisdom, guardian naga, ki-rin, lammasu of all types, monitors, noctrals, serpent lords, shedu, shirokinukatsukami, silver dragons, simurghs, steel dragons, t’uen-rin, and winged snakes. (S)he does not show favor through the discovery of any particular items; generally (s)he will communicate favor or displeasure directly to the couatl.

The Church
Clergy:                      Shamans
Clergy’s Align.:      LG
Turn Undead:           Sha: Yes
Cmnd. Undead:         Sha: No

All couatl and shamans of Jazirian gain religion (Jazirian) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency. Couatl gain an additional two religion proficiencies of their choice as well.

The Eternal Serpent is well known amongst many of the more organized churches on the various known worlds, and all good and most neutrally aligned clergies hold a deep respect for couatl. Evil clergies hate and despise the Eternal Serpent’s followers, and ever seek to destroy them whenever they can. In the jungles couatl typically call home, primitive faiths greatly fear and respect Jazirian’s children. Many primitive tribes set up shrines and hold sacrifices to Jazirian, although (s)he is quick to put a stop to those who sacrifice living creatures. Some tribes take to worshipping the Rainbow Serpent and couatl as their deities, and Jazirian quietly encourages them towards lawful goodness. Couatl themselves neither build temples nor have holy sites.

Nearly all of the Eternal Serpent’s followers are couatl; there are a smattering of other lawful and good creatures who revere him/her, but Jazirian grants no spells to them. It is through his/her power that couatl gain spellcasting power, but this is a constant ability, and they are not priests.  Priitive tribes who take to worshipping couatl and Jazirian tend to be human, but there are a smattering of other races as well, particularly a small number of jungle dwarves. All such priests are shamans, although there are some unique specialty priests and clerics of the Rainbow Serpent who serve her directly on the outer planes/ Such specialty priests typically have the same powers and spell selections as her shamans, but without the Constitution requirement and without the spirit powers of the shaman class.

Dogma: Virtue untested is merely innocence. Each journey is a journey into death, but each death is a rebirth. The ultimate knowledge is peace. Teaching and learning are the greatest of virtues

Day-to-Day Activities: Couatl are solitary creatures, although they consider themselves all part of an extended family. They have a deep curiosity, and frequently seek other members of their species out to share and discuss knowledge they have gained, although they do not spend a great deal of time together before moving on. They use their innate telepathy to transmit all their knowledge back to Jazirian, and it is through them that (s)he has become one of the wisest and most intelligent creatures in the whole multiverse.

Humanoid shamans who follow Jazirian spend much of their time solving disputes within their tribes justly and fairly, encouraging discussions of grievances over fights, and strongly admonishing acts of revenge. They teach members of their tribes to respect the lives of creatures found in their jungles, and to never take more than they need or underestimate the dangers around them. While not warlike, they understand the need to defend their communities and lands from predators and evil foes; they would prefer to not kill if possible, but understand that it is sometimes necessary. They never refuse a surrender, and never allow prisoners to be enslaved.

Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: Couatl have no holy days, and the Rainbow Serpent demands nothing of them, wishing only that they seek to ever learn and defend the concepts of law and goodness. Shamans within humanoid tribes tend to create holy days and ceremonies based on local appearances and actions of couatl, and as such all such events are specific to their tribes.

Major Centers of Worship: As couatl build no temples and do not worship Jazirian in any organized fashion, they have no known holy sites. Humanoid shamans consider any location where couatls have appeared or died to be holy, but they as they are not a part of an extended priesthood, none of these sites are known much beyond their own tribe.

Affiliated Orders: None.

Priestly Vestments: Couatl do not garb themselves in ceremonial clothing, even when polymorphed into humanoid form. They may wear uroboric rings in humanoid form if they manage to find any and it would not give away their true identity, but this is simply personal preference and not part of a priestly outfit.

Humanoid shamans of Jazirian wear robes dyed or painted to evoke the appearance of rainbow-hued scales, with brightly colored feathers in both a headdress and a cape made to look like folded wings. The holy symbol of the priesthood is a bracelet in the shape of an ouroboric serpent if they have metalworking skills; if not, it is a thick bracelet of multicolored threads with a left-hand twist.

Adventuring Garb: Couatl in humanoid form wear whatever is practical to blend in with the local populace. Humanoid clergy of the Rainbow Serpent use weapons and armor appropriate to their tribe, but often embellish it with colorful feathers or paint.

Specialty Priests (Shamans of the Rainbow Serpent)
Requirements:          Constitution 12, Wisdom 14
Prime Req.:                Wisdom
Alignment:                LG
Weapons:                   As appropriate for their tribe
Armor:                       As appropriate for their tribe
Major Spheres:         All, animal, charm, elemental air, law, protection, summoning, travelers, wards
Minor Spheres:         Healing, plant, thought
Magical Items:         Same as clerics
Req. Profs:                Healing
Bonus Profs:             Etiquette, survival (jungle)

  • Most shamans of the Rainbow Serpent are humans, although a wide variety of jungle tribes venerate Jazirian.
  • Shamans of the Rainbow Serpent have triple the normal chance to have a psionic wild talent, and they are not penalized for being a priest.
  • Animal summoning spells cast by shamans of the Rainbow Serpent always favor serpents, flying serpents, and avians over other creature types when possible.
  • Shamans of the Rainbow Serpent have a taboo against killing serpents of any kind, except to defend themselves. They are allowed to harm them in order to drive them off.
  • Spirits summoned by shamans of the Rainbow Serpent often have color-based, chromatic, or prismatic spells among their effects, appropriate to their rank.
  • At 5th level, shamans of the Rainbow Serpent can cast detect good or evil (as the 1st-level priest spell and its reverse) and ESP (as the 2nd-level wizard spell) once per day.
  • At 12th level, shamans of the Rainbow Serpent can shapechange (as a druid) into a couatl once per day. They gain none of the magical or psionic abilities of the creature, but can fly, constrict, and poison with their bite.

Jazirinar Spells
Some of the spells below are both wizard and priest spells. The wizard forms are restricted to couatl with wizardly powers, who need neither somatic nor material components to cast.

1st Level
Luckfeather (Pr 1; Wiz 1; Enchantment/Charm)
Sphere:                    Protection
Range:                     0
Components:           V, S, M (V)
Duration:                 1 turn/level
Casting Time:          4 (1)
Area of Effect:         1 feather
Saving Throw:        None

By means of this spell, the caster enchants a single large feather to grant luck to a creature who carries it. This luckfeather functions exactly as a stone of good luck, granting a +1 (or +5%) bonus to dice rolls involving luck or to avoid adverse situations (saving throws, Dexterity checks to avoid harm, etc.). This bonus does not apply to attack rolls, damage rolls, or spell failure rolls. The bonus granted and the duration of the effect is doubled if the feather enchanted is plucked from the caster’s own body first; this only functions in the caster’s natural form, they cannot polymorph or shapechange into a feathered form to gain the benefit.

While enchanted, the feather gains rainbow hues that last until the enchantment expires or is dispelled. The feather must be willingly given for a creature to gain the benefits; if a creature forcefully takes the feather from a possessor, the feather’s enchantment is automatically dispelled.

The material components for this spell are the priest’s holy symbol and a single large feather.

2nd Level
Insect Cloud (Pr 2; Conjuration/Summoning)
Sphere:                    Summoning
Range:                     120 yds.
Components:           V, S
Duration:                 1 rd./level
Casting Time:          5
Area of Effect:         5-ft.-radius cloud
Saving Throw:        Special

This spell calls forth a cloud of small, biting insects such as gnats and mosquitos. These small insects swarm around a targeted creature (or their head if they are larger than the cloud), biting and otherwise irritating the creature and any others within the cloud. Every round for the duration of the spell, creatures within the cloud must make a saving throw versus poison or suffer 1d2 points of damage per two levels of the caster for that round, and any spellcasting is disrupted. In addition, they suffer a −2 penalty to attack rolls and Armor Class regardless of the outcome of the save for the duration of the effect.

Any damaging area of effect spells or magical powers that cover the area of the cloud (burning hands, fireball, lightning bolt, dragon breath weapons, etc.) destroy the insects and end the spell.

3rd Level
Rainbow Scales (Pr 3; Alteration, Invocation/Evocation)
Sphere:                    Animal
Range:                     0
Components:           V, S, M
Duration:                 4 rds. + 1 rd./level
Casting Time:          6
Area of Effect:         The caster
Saving Throw:        Special

When this spell is cast, the priest’s skin changes into thick, overlapping scales of a shimmering, rainbow hue. These scales grant the caster a natural armor class of 5; this is not cumulative with other armor (no additional effect is gained from leather or scale armor, and banded armor grants its normal AC of 4), but is cumulative with Dexterity bonuses, magical protections that provide AC bonuses rather than a static AC, etc. In addition, the shimmering scales cause a feedback effect against spells directed against the priest. Any creature casting harmful spells directly at the priest suffer 1d3 points of damage per spell level of the harmful spell cast, with a saving throw versus paralyzation allowed to avoid the damage. The rainbow scales spell does not cause feedback against non-harmful spells or area of effect spells, and harmful spells have their normal effects on the priest.

The material component for this spell is a large reptile scale, or a large piece of shed skin from a smaller reptile.

 

5 Responses to Jazirian the Eternal Serpent

  1. Samir says:

    I think Jazirian is an alliase for Quetzalcoalt, the aztec god of wind and wisdom.

    • AuldDragon says:

      Officially it isn’t, but certainly on some worlds it could be (sort of how Nebelun is an alias for Gond in Realmspace, even thoguh they are separate entities). I wouldn’t complain if someone made it so on their homebrew.

  2. I will be using this information- among many other sources of fact and speculation- in a research paper on Jazirian, Couatls, and Oruboros(with proper citation, of course). Thought you’d like to know. You can find me on Candlekeep.com under the same full name I use here.

  3. I am interested in any references you can make to your sources for this information, as well, if you’d like to possibly include them in the article.

    • AuldDragon says:

      The main sources I used for Jazirian were Monster Mythology, the Planescape Campaign Setting, the Planescape products “Planes of Law,” “On Hallowed Ground,” and “Guide to Hell.” I wrtoe this to match the format of the three deity books (Faiths & Avatars, Powers & Pantheons, and Demihuman Deities), which is why there aren’t citations. Anything that isn’t in those products can be assumed to be my own creation.

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