Rais is another minor deity that was mentioned rather briefly in a single 2nd Edition product. In her case, she was created to be a deity for the dragons (particularly silver dragons) of the air world Edill in the Spelljammer supplement SJR6 Greyspace, which detailed the planets in the crystal sphere encompassing the Greyhawk setting. I developed her as a deity of philosophy and logic, with an emphasis on the truths and creative power of thought. While minor, she can prove to be a very interesting deity in a campaign.
Rais (PDF Version)
(The Cogitative One, Quicksilver, Lady Aletheia)
Demipower of Arcadia, LG
Portfolio:Â Study and debate of philosophy, mathematics, and logic, meditation, silver dragonkind of Edill
Aliases:Â None
Domain Name:Â Abellio/Mountain of Thought
Superior:Â Io
Allies:Â Arcanic, Bahamut, Kereska, Lendys, Sardior, Tamara, Zorquan
Foes:Â Faluzure, Garyx, Kalzareinad (Dead), Task, Tiamat
Symbol:Â Blue flame inside a diamond
Wor. Align.:Â LG, NG, LN
One of the youngest members of the draconic pantheon, Rais (rye-EES) is a deity of thought and logic. She holds that all truths in the multiverse can be divined through meditation, discussion, and debate, and as such, thoughts and ideas are eternal, while material objects are ultimately ephemeral. She is called the Cogitative One, for it is said that no matter what she is doing, a part of her mind is always pondering some philosophical, mathematical, or logical problem. Among the dragons of Edill, she is known as Quicksilver for her mental agility, but this is title is little known beyond that world.
Rais’s worship appears to have first arisen among the silver dragons on the air world of Edill, in Greyspace. Her history is murky, as the dragons of Edill keep no written histories, and their oral histories are concerned more with teaching precepts of logic and philosophy rather than recording specific dates and events. Some sages in Sigil posit that she is an ascended mortal from their ranks, while others believe she is an offspring of Io, created to serve the unique draconic culture of Edill. Whatever her origin, knowledge of the Cogitative One has spread slowly beyond that air world as young silver dragons occasionally hitch rides on Spelljamming vessels to explore the truths and philosophies of other spheres.
Rais has infrequent contact with other members of the pantheon, preferring quiet contemplation and lively debates with her proxies and petitioners. Her closest relations are with Arcanic, with whom she shares a love of knowledge and thinking, and Bahamut, with whom she shares an interest in the metallic dragons and philosophical agreement on how they should lead their lives. She has never had a confrontation with the evil members of the pantheon, but she opposes them in principle. Outside of the draconic pantheon, she enjoys lively discussions with almost anyone willing to engage, and it is said she and Maanzecorian once had a year-long debate on the nature of superiority, both mental and cultural. Rais is known to discuss philosophy with K’ung Fu-tzu and Lao Tzu on regular occasions, and infrequently visits deities such as Oghma and Boccob to learn about the latest ideas and knowledge from their followers. Her most common debate opponent is the myconid deity Psilofyr, as both enjoy rigorously defending their own views of perfection in nature.
Rais is moderately active on the Prime Material plane, often visiting philosopher dragons in disguise to learn from and debate with them. Such visits are overwhelmingly on Edill, although she has visited dragons even on worlds where her name is not known. She has also visited, in disguise, human and demihuman philosophers, although these are visits are considerably rarer. She avoids physical confrontation as much as possible, typically only involving herself to protect her followers from dire threats and the interference of other deities.
Rais’s Avatar (Great Wyrm Silver Dragon, Priest 25, Wizard 20)
Rais appears as an embodiment of a perfect silver dragon. Her scales have a mirror finish, and she exhibits no physical flaws whatsoever. She occasionally takes the form of a silver-haired elf maiden or a flaxen-haired human maiden when interacting with humanoid races. Rais draws her spells from the schools of abjuration, conjugation/summoning, divination, enchantment/charm, and invocation/evocation, as well as the spheres of all, astral, charm, creation, divination, elemental air, healing, necromantic, law, numbers, thought, time, and weather.
AC −11; MV 12, Fl 39 (B), Jp 6; HP 233; THAC0 −3; #AT 3+special
Dmg 2d6+12/2d6+12/6d8+12 (claw/claw/bite)
MR 80%; SZ G (255 feet—body 175 feet, tail 80 feet)
Str 19, Dex 21, Con 19, Int 23, Wis 23, Cha 22
Spells P: 13/12/12/12/11/9/4, W: 5/5/5/5/5/4/3/3/2
Saves PPDM 2; RSW 3; PP 4; BW 4; Sp 4
Special Att/Def: Rais strongly dislikes combat, using her magical abilities to avoid it if at all possible. If she feels she has no choice but to fight, she will do so in a shrewd and tactical manner, attempting to disable rather than kill opponents if possible. Her favored breath weapon is a cloud of paralyzation gas, 75 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 30 feet tall. Any creatures who fail a saving throw versus breath weapon are paralyzed for 2d8+24 rounds. Her secondary breath weapon is a cone of cold 100 feet long, 40 feet wide at the base, and 5 feet wide at her mouth. Creatures caught within this icy blast suffer 24d10+12 points of damage, with a save versus breath weapon allowed for half damage. All saving throws against her breath weapons are made with a −2 penalty. Should Rais score a successful bite attack on a roll of 16 or better, she swallows man-sized or smaller creatures whole, instantly destroying them and any items they possess.
The Cogitative One can cloud walk at will, and it works on any visible, billowing vapors, including cloudkill or death fog. She can cast feather fall at will in addition to any physical attacks she may take in a round, as well as control winds six times per day. She can cast wall of fog, control weather, and reverse gravity twice per day. Finally, she can cast solipsism, there/not there, and disbelief once per day each.
Rais’s aura of dragon fear extends to a radius of 90 yards. Creatures up to 3 HD/levels who catch sight of her are automatically affected (as well as all noncarnivorous, nonaggressive creatures with fewer than 25 Hit Dice) and flee for 4d6 rounds. Trained war mounts of 4 HD or more, organized military units, and single creatures with more than 3 HD or levels do not automatically flee. Rather, they are entitled to a saving throw vs. petrification at a −3 penalty. If they fail this saving throw, they fight with a −2 penalty to attack and damage rolls. No one save another deity is automatically immune to her fear effect.
Rais is immune to nonmagical weapons, as well as all spells below 4th level. She is immune to cold and takes half damage from lightning. In addition, she is immune to poison, paralysis, death magic, and mind-affecting and controlling spells and psionics. Finally, she is immune to all spells from the priest spheres of Thought, Time, and Numbers.
Other Manifestations
The Cogitative One most often manifests her power as a shimmering, transparent silver force vaguely shaped like a dragon. This force typically watches proceedings without taking any action; the appearance of this force instills extra confidence and courage in her followers. For the duration of the appearance, they gain a +2 bonus to saving throws, proficiency checks, and attack rolls. This force can speak as well, usually offering a short phrase to help a follower solve a particular philosophical, logical, or mathematical problem. Rais can also use this force to attack creatures who oppose her will or her followers. In such a case, the silvery force rushes through a target, dealing 10d10 points of cold damage, with no saving throw; creatures immune to cold still suffer 5d10 points of damage from the magical force.
Rais is served by aasimon, baku, contemplators, fal, hollyphants, hsiao, incarnates of temperance and wisdom, ki-rin, lammasu, moigno, noctrals, observers, owls (normal, giant, and talking), ruve, spectators, talking birds, and t’uen-rin. She expresses her pleasure through the discovery of new or forgotten ideas in the fields of philosophy, mathematics, and logic; such ideas may be oral, written, or come as sudden inspiration. She expresses her pleasure through the thorough discrediting of an idea or solution that appeared iron-clad.
The Church
Clergy:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Dragon-priests, specialty priests
Clergy’s Align.:     LG, LN
Turn Undead:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â DP: Yes, SP: No
Cmnd. Undead:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â DP: No, SP: No
All priest-dragons and specialty priests of Rais receive religion (draconic) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency.
Worship of Rais is rare outside of the world of Edill in Greyspace, with only a handful of silver dragons on any given world paying her homage. Her worship is slowly spreading, however, courtesy of a small number of young silver dragons who’ve left Edill over the past few centuries with an interest in seeing the wider multiverse. Her small priesthood is fairly gregarious, however, and they can count on the friendship and support of the more established clergies, particularly those of Bahamut and Arcanic. Lady Aletheia’s followers are often on good terms with human and demihuman scholars, as well.
Because of the nature of the worship on Edill, her priesthood has no set design for temple construction, and even shrines vary tremendously with local aesthetics. Many members of the clergy believe they carry their temples or shrines with them, as a sort of mental space; they often retreat into a meditative trance in order to perform their worship. Amongst dragons with a more traditional, physical bent, temples often contain books and scrolls with esoteric knowledge and thought, favoring philosophical texts over those with a more concrete nature.
On most worlds, dragons do not form organized priesthoods, as there are too few of them and they are far too individualistic. Only worlds with very dense dragon populations or very structured dragon cultures will develop hierarchical priesthoods, and the form they take are likely to be unique to those worlds. Specialty priests of Rais are known as dracologoi (singular: dracologos). While silver, steel, electrum, and amethyst dragons are the most common members of her clergy, any dragon may join. A small minority of her priesthood consists of dragon-priests (10%), with the overwhelming majority being specialty priests (90%). Amongst half-dragons, Rais’s worship is confined almost exclusively to half-silver and half-steel philosophers, sages, and wizards.
Dogma: Thought is the most powerful force in the multiverse. Thoughts and ideas directly influence the physical world and all creatures, and thinking sets the sentient apart from the animal. Meditation and debate distill ideas to their basic truths by shedding that which is false and contested. All truths can be arrived at through logic and philosophy, and all things can be explained with numbers and equations. The draconic clergy on Edill also teach that recording ideas in physical form robs them of their power.
Day-to-Day Activities: Followers of Rais spend a great deal of time in thoughtful meditation. They are also very social, and enjoy lively debates with other creatures, dragon and non-dragon alike. They are eager to discover new ideas and philosophies, but prefer to do so through discussion rather than reading, so they can debate the merits of those ideas. While the dragons of Edill almost completely eschew recording their knowledge, feeling it diminishes the purity of thought, Rais’s followers beyond that world aren’t nearly so strict, although they do generally prefer to leave the recording of their ideas to others.
Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: Followers of Rais observe no holy days, feeling that meditation and debate are inherently acts of worship. At the discovery of a new philosophical breakthrough or the solving of a previously unsolved logic puzzle, they will offer a prayer of thanks to the Cogitative One. Followers of Rais sometimes organize great debates or discussions at infrequent intervals, inviting any great thinkers they know; while such events are not explicitly stated as honoring Rais, her followers see them as a form of ceremony.
Major Centers of Worship: The clergy of Rais have yet to establish any temples on the worlds where her worship is known. On most of those worlds, the clergy is too small and too young to have constructed any temples; while the clergy on Edill are of an appropriate size and age, they eschew physical manifestations of worship. Some younger members of the silver dragon clan of Coldwing in Io’s Blood Isles have recently embraced the worship of Rais, and it is possible they will construct a temple sometime within the next 100 years.
Affiliated Orders: None.
Priestly Vestments: The holy symbol used by priests of Rais is a clear crystal octahedron; when used by the priest in spell casting and religious ceremonies, it glows with an internal blue flame.
Adventuring Garb: None.
Specialty Priests (Dracologoi)
Requirements:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Intelligence 16, Wisdom 14
Prime Req.:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Intelligence, Wisdom
Alignment:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â LG
Weapons:                  Any, but normally a dragon’s natural weaponry
Armor:                      Any, but normally a dragon’s natural armor
Major Spheres:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â All, astral, creation, divination, healing, law, numbers, thought, time
Minor Spheres:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Charm, elemental air, weather
Magical Items:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Same as dragons, clerics
Req. Profs:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Debate (CoW)
Bonus Profs:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Oratory (PO: S&M)
- Dracologoi can be of any true dragon that is capable of becoming a priest.
- Dracologoi are not allowed to multiclass.
- Dracologoi gain a +2 bonus to their saves versus spells from the spheres of numbers, thought, or time.
- Once per day, dracologoi can cast withdraw (as the 2nd-level priest spell).
- At the 2nd age category, dracologoi can cast thought capture (as the 1st-level priest spell) once per day per age category.
- At the 3rd age category, dracologoi can cast idea (as the 2nd-level priest spell) once per day.
- At the 4th age category, dracologoi can cast unfailing premonition (as the 3rd-level priest spell) once per day.
- At the 5th age category, dracologoi can cast genius or solipsism (as the 4th-level priest spells) once per day.
- At the 7th age category, dracologoi can cast logical protection (as the 4th-level priest spell) or there/not there (as the 4th-level wizard spell) once per day.
- At the 9th age category, dracologoi can cast disbelief (as the 6th-level priest spell) once per day.
- At the 10th age category, dracologoi can cast divine inspiration (as the 7th-level priest spell) once per week.
- At the 11th age category, dracologoi gain the protection of mind blank (as the 8th-level wizard spell) permanently
- At the 12th age category, dracologoi can cast time stop (as the 9th-level wizard spell) once per week.
Raisian Spells
In addition to the spells listed below, priests of the Cogitative One can cast the 2nd-level priest spell impart knowledge, detailed in Faiths and Avatars in the entry for Oghma.
3rd Level
Thought Net (Pr 3; Divination)
Sphere:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Thought
Range:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Special
Components:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â V, S, M
Duration:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Special
Casting Time:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 6
Area of Effect:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Special
Saving Throw:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â None
This spell can be cast in one of two forms, as chosen by the priest upon casting. The first, and most common, form allows the priest to collect thought objects as described in the thought capture spell from a remote location. The location the priest can collect from can be up to 10 miles away per level of the priest, and need not be a place the priest is familiar with or even visited. However, the less familiar the priest is with the location, the fewer thought objects the priest can collect, if any. The thought net persists at the chosen location for one round per level of the caster. For each round the thought net is at the location, it has a percentage chance to collect a thought object. For a location the priest has seen no more than once, the base chance per round is 5%. For locations the priest has a passing familiarity with, the base chance per round is 35%. For locations the priest visits frequently, the base chance is 55%, and for locations the priest is intimately familiar with, the base chance is 75%. There is an added bonus of 5% if the priest has visited or seen (including the use of scrying and similar magic) the location within 24 hours of casting the spell. Finally, the priest’s casting level is added as well to arrive at the final percentage chance. At the end of the duration, the thought net returns to the priest, along with any thought objects collected.
The second form of the spell allows the priest to lay a thought net at her current location in order to collect thought objects from creatures passing through the area. The thought net persists for up to one day per casting level, but it returns to the priest automatically as soon as it collects a number of thought objects equal to the priest’s level. The chance a thought object is collected from any given creature is 50%, plus the caster’s level. Thought objects collected by this spell are completely random.
The material component for this spell is a small net of silver thread worth 30 gp.
4th Level
Logical Protection (Pr 4; Abjuration)
Sphere:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Thought
Range:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 0
Components:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â V, S, M
Duration:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 2 rds./level
Casting Time:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 7
Area of Effect:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 10-ft. radius
Saving Throw:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â None
When this spell is cast, the priest is surrounded by an invisible aura that protects them from illogical thought processes. The priest and any others within the aura need never check morale during combat, although they will certainly retreat if they logically believe they cannot prevail. They are also protected from all fears and phobias, natural and magical, evaluating the danger posed by creatures logically. Their emotional states cannot be adjusted magically, either, although this spell does not make such creatures emotionless. Finally, they never knowingly make illogical statements or arguments, and they immediately recognize logical flaws in the statements of others.
Spells that force certain actions, such as sleep and command, are unaffected by this spell. Similarly, charm spells are unaffected by this protection, although commands and requests made by the caster of the charm may force an early saving throw against the charm effect if the action would be illogical.
The material components for this spell are eight small solid black and solid white discs or chits, in any combination.
5th Level
Invoked Reality (Pr 5; Alteration, Invocation/Evocation)
Sphere:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Numbers, Thought
Range:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 120 yds.
Components:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â V, S
Duration:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Special
Casting Time:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1 rd.
Area of Effect:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1 illusionary creature or object
Saving Throw:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â None
When a priest casts this spell, illusionary objects or creatures selected by the caster become real and completely solid. Illusionary creatures can cause real injuries, illusionary bridges can be crossed, and illusionary fire can burn. Illusions made real have all the effects of the original illusion, so a goblin created with a phantasmal force spell is completely silent when made real. This spell can affect any single illusionary object or creature; for the purpose of this spell, a wall of multiple bricks or a forest of multiple trees counts as a single object if one spell was used to create them. If a single spell created multiple illusionary creatures, only one may be affected by this spell. The duration of the invoked reality spell varies based on what is being made real. Any normal animal of Semi-intelligence or less becomes permanently real in every way, but is no longer under the control of the spellcaster who created the original illusion. Illusions of base material (rock, stone, common wood and plants, etc.) also become permanent, while worked common metal returns to its illusory state after 1 hour per level of the caster, and precious metal and stone returns to its illusory state after 1 round per level. Illusionary creatures of Low Intelligence or greater and monstrous animals of any Intelligence level that are of two Hit Dice or less persist for 1 hour per level of the caster, while all other creatures persist for 1 round per level. Time spent in a real state counts towards the duration of the original illusions; if the illusion spell would have expired while the object or creature was real, it expires immediately upon returning to an illusory state, otherwise, it continues to the end of the duration as an illusion.
The casting priest must concentrate on the illusion they wish to make real for a full round while casting this spell, being able to take no actions other than moving slowly. Dragons cannot cast this spell in flight.