AuldDragon's AD&D Blog

Koriel is the patron of the ki-rin and t’uen-rin, as well as other powerful paragons of law and good. He is a wandering power, constantly working to foil the forces of evil throughout the outer planes, while sending his followers to face evil on the Prime Material Plane. He has only a small number of humanoid followers, who look to Koriel as a model of their behavior.

I’ve also revised my previous Jazirian entry and added a shamanistic humanoid cult.

Koriel (PDF Version)
(The Vigilant, the Vigilant One)
Intermediate Power of the Planes, LG

Portfolio:                 Learning, protection, vigilance against evil
Aliases:                     None
Domain Name:           None/Wanders
Superior:                   None
Allies:                       Aerdrie Faenya, Annam, Bahamut, Celestian, Corellon Larethian, Eachthighern, Fanthros, Fharlanghn, Heimdall, Heironeous, Helm, Istus, Krocaa, Linroth, Pelor, Remnis, Rao, Stronmaus, Syranita, the Norns, Torm, Tyr
Foes:                           Various fiendish lords, any deity of great evil
Symbol:                     Ki-rin horns and eyes
Wor. Align.:              LG

As a great force for good across the multiverse, it is fitting that their patron Koriel (KOR-ee-el) is suitably powerful. He is said to be the swiftest being in the multiverse, constantly flying to aid those threatened by great evil and only staying long enough to thwart the plot before moving on again. His love of life is so great that it is said he will not willingly tread upon the ground, lest he harm one blade of grass or one lowly insect, and so spends all his time in the skies. He is a ward against encroaching evil, and from the heights of the sky is always watchful for evil acts. He teaches the meek and the good, as he believes knowledge is the ultimate ward against evil.

Much like the ki-rin on the Prime Material plane, Koriel is constantly on the move throughout the upper planes, watching for incursions of evil creatures. He coordinates his actions with other powers of goodness, for he dislikes offense and stepping on other’s toes; he also understands that many other powers encourage their proxies and petitioners to fend off attacks as a matter of training and testing. While he will chase foes far, and his roaming a take him even to the Astral, Prime, and Inner Planes, he does not take the fight to the lower planes without a pressing need; in such places there are no innocents to protect or defend. When possible, he favors acting through his mortal creations, the ki-rin, t’uen-rin, and the duruch’i-lin, as well as powerful followers such as lammasu, shedu, and monitors. These creatures venerate Koriel and gain their powers from him, but are not priests in the normal sense; the relationship is more like parent and nearly grown child, or lord and vassal. Only to a handful of mortal humanoids does Koriel grant priestly magic in the normal sense.

Myths surrounding Koriel often regard him as the powerful mount of the prime lawful good deity or the creator god in the local pantheon. To the giants, he is Annam’s steed, and Annam will ride him again at the end of all creation. Some elven myths claim that Koriel was ridden by Corellon Larethian in his battle against the orcish deities, and in some obscure myths from Oerth, it is said Pelor rides Koriel daily, bringing sunlight and warmth to the lands. In all cases, the Vigilant One is tied closely to powers of creation, as well as those of goodness and justice.

Koriel spends very little time with other deities, and rarely speaks to them except to coordinate his actions against evil. This is not to say he has no allies, however; far from it in fact. He has a strong network of alliances with deities of air and justice, travel and vigilance, although he is only close to Syranita, the protector-deity of aaracokra. It is said that when he needs to rest, he visits her realm, and is always a welcome guest. Some say his vision is so keen that he can not only see to the ends of the horizon, he can see fate itself. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but it is known that he maintains contact with deities who can see the weave of history, such as Istus and the Norns.

As a wandering protector, Koriel is extremely active, although he generally restricts his direct actions to the Outer Planes. When he detects active evil on the Prime Material Plane, he favors alerting ki-rin or other followers before sending an avatar. Typically only if a follower is unavailable, has fallen in an attempt, or the evil is much too powerful will Koriel dispatch an avatar to handle the threat. He occasionally appears to commemorate the passing of renowned and benevolent sages and rulers.

Koriel’s Avatar (20-HD Ki-Rin, Paladin 30, Mage 26, Cleric 26)
Koriel appears as a large ki-rin with brilliantly gleaming golden scales that shimmer even in darkness. His eyes are a deep violet, like the purest amethyst. His mane ripples with rainbow hues, and his tail, flanks, and fetlocks are covered in gold and silver fur. He draws his spells from all spheres and schools.

AC −7; MV 36, Fl 600 (MC: A); HP 253; THAC0 −9; #AT 3
Dmg 4d4/4d4/6d6 (hoof/hoof/horn)
MR 50%; SZ H (16 feet long)
Str 19, Dex 19, Con 19, Int 24, Wis 24, Cha 24
Spells P: 13/12/12/12/12/11/4, W: 6/6/6/6/6/5/5/5/5
Saves* PPDM 1; RSW 2; PP 2; BW 2; Sp 2
* Includes paladin +2 save bonus to a minimum of 1.

Special Att/Def: When engaging in combat, Koriel shows no hesitation about closing and engaging in melee. He is able to cast a spell in addition to executing his physical attacks each round, although he cannot combine either with his special powers. Koriel’s horn strikes as a +5 weapon, including attack bonus. Any evil creatures struck by his horn are slain outright, although a save versus death magic with a −4 penalty is allowed to avoid the effect. Extraplanar creatures are banished from the Prime Material Plane even if the save is successful.

The Vigilant One can sing a song that dispels any elementals and extraplanar creatures within 200 feet if he desires it; a save versus spell with a −4 penalty is allowed to avoid the effect. He can cast weather summoning, holy word, and resurrection once per day each, and is able to assume gaseous form, wind walk, know alignment, detect lie, become invisible, and call lightning at will. Any spells Koriel casts that deal with air or the sky have double effectiveness, including range, damage, and number of creatures summoned. He is able to create substances as a t’uen-rin, but double the volume and all such creations are permanent.

Koriel’s saving throws are never worse than a 2, and he is even allowed a saving throw against no-save spells with a base save of 4. He is immune to weapons below +2 enchantment and all mind-affecting spells and psionics. He can radiate an aura of awe once per hour. Any creatures within sight must make a saving throw versus spell at a −8 penalty or stand motionless. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to 30 minus the creature’s Wisdom score. They recover after a 1-round delay if attacked physically.

Other Manifestations
Koriel manifests primarily to aid his followers in danger. In such cases, typically wreathes a creature in golden flames that shed light as bright as daylight. While the aura may have a variety of effects as befits the situation, the most common are protection from evil, fire shield, and dispel evil. In addition, any undead or lower planar creatures who come in contact with the golden flames suffer 2d6 points of damage. This is not normal fire damage, and protections against flame offer no defense.

The Vigilant One does not display his favor or disfavor to his ki-rin, t’uen-rin, and lammasu followers, instead communing with them directly. To his humanoid followers, he displays his favor through the discovery of amethyst, jade, oriental amethyst, purple fluorspar, violine, yanolite, and ziose, as well as purple and violet flowers of all kinds. He does not directly display his displeasure, but he makes his disappointment known to with a brief sighing wind that causes the hairs on the back of a creature’s neck stand up, and causes a shiver to run down their spine. He acts primarily through ki-rin, t’uen-rin, duruch’i-lin, lammasu, monitors, and shedu, but occasionally makes use of aasimar, aasimon, anemos, archons, asperii, bronze dragons, buraqs, eagles, gold dragons, hawks, helions, hollyphants, hounds of law, incarnates of justice, mist wolves, noctrals, ruves, and silver dragons.

The Church
Clergy:                      Clerics, specialty priests, crusaders, paladins
Clergy’s Align.:      LG
Turn Undead:           C: Yes, SP: Yes, Cru: No, Pal: Yes
Cmnd. Undead:         C: No, SP: No, Cru: No, Pal: No

All clerics, specialty priests, crusaders, and paladins of Koriel receive religion (ki-rin) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency.

Koriel is mostly unknown among humanoid populations, although his primary non-humanoid followers, the ki-rin and lammasu, are deeply respected by good peoples. When his rare humanoid following has a presence, they are similarly respected for their vigilance against evil, and their willingness to lay down their lives in defense of innocents. They work with other good organizations and clergies, but are often wanderers and rarely stay in any one place for long once a threat is dealt with. In their travels, they also take opportunities to learn new skills, as well as passing on their knowledge, and are valued as fine teachers.

Ki-rin and lammasu do not build temples or shrines, and most of the Vigilant One’s humanoid clergy build shrines in locations deemed important to the faith, such as the location of a ki-rin’s death or the site of an appearance by Koriel’s avatar. Shrines are carved into rock if possible, with a small recess for a candle or other flame below the stylized representation of a pair of ki-rin eyes and a ki-rin horn. Paint or non-precious, colorful stones may be used to enhance the appearance of the shrine.

The Vigilant One’s humanoid clergy is not hierarchical, and has no formal structure. Individual priests create their own titles or forgo them altogether. They usually learn of his faith from a ki-rin or lammasu, with only a small portion learning from another humanoid follower of Koriel. Specialty priests, known as vigilants, make up close to half of his priesthood (45%), with the remainder being paladins (20%), clerics (20%), and crusaders (15%). The gender of the priesthood is close to parity, slightly favoring males (52%) to females (48%). Humans are heavily favored in the clergy (70%), with half-elves (15%), elves (10%), centaurs, pegataurs, aarakocra, and other races (5%) making up the remainder. Ki-rin, t’uen-rin, lammasu, and other powerful lawful good creatures are not formally members of the clergy, and operate more as direct agents of Koriel’s will than true worshipers.

Dogma: Knowledge is the best weapon against evil. Use strength and knowledge to battle the forces of evil and protect the good and innocent. Always strive to learn new things and share that knowledge with others. When knowledge is not enough to defeat evil, arms of war must be brought against to bear. But always must battle strength be tempered with wisdom, as needless combat and death just creates more evil.

Day-to-Day Activities: Humanoid followers of Koriel travel constantly, rarely staying in one place for more than a few months. On their journeys, they try to learn as much as they can about any subject that appears useful or that they find interesting. They try to spread this knowledge to those who would benefit from it. Many priests specialize in certain fields, such as agriculture, carpentry, or engineering, and always look to learn new techniques from the people they encounter and spread them to others during their travels. When deciding on their next destination, they choose areas that they believe they can do good in, either through the knowledge they can bring, or places where good peoples need defending.

Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: The clergy of Koriel observe no holy days or special ceremonies. They are expected to show their faith through their actions, rather than through any sort of formal event. However, all priests are expected to offer a short prayer to the Vigilant One nightly, asking to be directed to where they may share their knowledge or defend the downtrodden from evil.

Major Centers of Worship: Any location where a ki-rin has appeared and battled evil is considered a place of reverence. If the ki-rin fell during the battle, such sites are considered especially holy, and members of the clergy will often create a small shrine at which to pay their respects and offer prayers of thanks for the creature’s sacrifice. The only known temple honoring Koriel is located in The Lady’s Ward of Sigil, known as the Wayhouse of Vigilance. Overseen by an elderly human named Tao Tse (hm LG P20), he found his way to the planes early in his life when the magics unleashed between a ki-rin and a tanar’ri opened a gate to Arcadia, coincidentally landing in the midst of a conclave of t’uen-rin. From them, he learned the tenets of Koriel’s faith, and spent decades fighting fiends as he wandered the planes before eventually settling down as part of the temple’s clergy in Sigil. There are at least five other human priests within the temple at any given time, and it is believed there are also at least six ki-rin, t’uen-rin, and lammasu residing within, perhaps in polymorphed form.

Affiliated Orders: There are no martial or monastic orders attached to the clergy of Koriel due to the small size and individualistic nature of the clergy.

Priestly Vestments: Priests of the Vigilant One wear brightly polished brass scale mail during ceremonies or formal occasions, with a fringe of golden fur or feathers. The holy symbol used by the priesthood is an amethyst cut in the shape of an eye, with a gold setting, usually worn as a pendant.

Adventuring Garb: Traveling priests wear clothing appropriate to the climate and journey. Since they often battle evil foes, they prefer strong armor and weapons of high quality; they don’t want equipment that will endanger them by breaking during a combat situation.

Specialty Priests (Vigilants)
Requirements:          Constitution 11, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 11
Prime Req.:                Intelligence, Wisdom
Alignment:                LG
Weapons:                   All bludgeoning and piercing (Type P, Type B, and Type P/B) weapons
Armor:                       Any
Major Spheres:         All, astral, creation, divination, elemental air, guardian, healing, law, protection, travelers, weather
Minor Spheres:         Charm, combat, elemental water, summoning, wards
Magical Items:         Same as clerics
Req. Profs:                Agriculture, blacksmithing, carpentry, engineering, mining, or other trade skills (choose one)
Bonus Profs:             Ancient history (choose region)

• Vigilants may be of any race capable of becoming a priest. Most vigilants are humans, elves, or half-elves.
• Vigilants are not allowed to multiclass.
• Vigilants are protected as if by a permanent protection from evil
• All physical attacks made by vigilants are considered a +1 weapon for determining what creatures they can hit. They gain no bonuses to hit or damage from this ability.
• Vigilants cast spells from the spheres of elemental air and weather as if they were two levels higher.
• Should a vigilant encounter a creature in possession of a ki-rin skin, they must demand it be destroyed; should the creature possessing it refuse, they must attack them, at least until they are able to acquire it.
• At 2nd level, vigilants can cast detect evil (as the 1st-level priest spell) twice per day.
• At 4th level, vigilants can cast create food and water (as the 3rd-level priest spell) once per day.
• At 4th level, vigilants gain a +1 bonus to any single trade non-weapon proficiency (agriculture, blacksmithing, carpentry, etc.) they possess. They gain an addition +1 bonus they can apply to the same or another proficiency for every four addition levels (so another bonus at 8th level, 12th level, etc.); no more than a +3 bonus can be given to any one proficiency.
• At 6th level, vigilants can cast call lightning (as the 3rd-level priest spell) once per day. This functions regardless of the cloud cover in the sky.
• At 8th level, vigilants can cast abjure (as the 4th-level priest spell) or gaseous form (as the 5th-level priest spell) once per day.
• At 10th level, vigilants can cast weather summoning (as the 6th-level priest spell) once per day.
• At 15th level, vigilants can cast astral spell or wind walk or holy word (as the 7th-level priest spells) once per day.
• At 20th level, vigilants gain a ki-rin companion and mount. The ki-rin is a friend and ally, not a pet or servant, and will leave the vigilant if not treated appropriately.

Korielar Spells
All of these spells are both wizard and priest spells; they work identically for either spellcasting class, with the exception of their casting times. The casting times for the wizard versions are noted in parentheses next to the priestly casting time. The wizard versions are restricted to ki-rin and other non-humanoid spellcasters who cast wizard spells. They are not available to humanoid wizards.

3rd Level
Horn of the Ki-rin (Pr 3; Wiz 3; Invocation/Evocation)
Sphere:                    Combat
Range:                     Special
Components:           V, M (V)
Duration:                 Special
Casting Time:          6 (3)
Area of Effect:         Special
Saving Throw:        Special

This spell creates a spiraled cone of force in the shape of a ki-rin horn. It can either be wielded like a short spear or willed to strike a creature up to 30 yards away. If wielded as a spear, it strikes as if it were a +3 weapon for determining what it can hit, but has no attack bonuses, and deals 1d6+4 points of damage. In this form, it lasts for one round per two levels of the caster, and the caster suffers no non-proficiency penalties when attacking. In this form, the horn lasts for one round per level.

The second form strikes unerringly with no attack roll necessary. If the target is good, they are healed for 2d6 hit points, and gain a +2 bonus to all morale or fear checks until combat is over. If the target is neutral or evil, they suffer 3d6 points of damage, with a save allowed for half damage. This usage expends the spell.

The material component for this spell is the priest’s holy symbol.

4th Level
Speed of Koriel (Pr 4; Wiz 4; Alteration)
Sphere:                    Travelers
Range:                     0
Components:           V, S, M (V)
Duration:                 Special
Casting Time:          7 (4)
Area of Effect:         The caster
Saving Throw:        None

With this spell, the caster gains the capability of moving at tremendous speed for a time. While this spell is in effect, they are able to move at three times their normal speed when traveling in a roughly straight line; should they need to navigate dense foliage or steep and twisty inclines, their movement rate returns to normal. However, as this spell also allows them to “float” a few inches above the ground, they suffer none of the normal terrain penalties for movement. To the caster, this air is as firm as solid ground, and allows them to walk above even non-solid surfaces such as snow, water, or quicksand. Since they are not actually touching the ground, they leave no footprints or scent to track, although broken branches or scent left on bushes can still allow tracking (allow tracking proficiency checks with a −6 penalty, assuming there are bushes or tall plants the caster might touch in his travels). This spell lasts for two turns per level of the caster. This spell is not cumulative with magic that enhances movement rate such as haste or boots of speed, but the caster may run or jog with this spell for as long as they would normally be able to.

Ordinarily, the caster must slow to his normal movement rate to engage in combat, but may expend the remainder of this spell to enchanted his normal walking (not running or jogging) movement during combat. For every two turns remaining of this spell, disregarding fractions, the caster’s combat movement rate is tripled for one round.

The material components for this spell are the priest’s holy symbol and a tail feathers from two different fast-flying birds, such as hawks, swifts, or frigatebirds.

5th Level
Awe of Koriel (Pr 5; Wiz 5; Conjuration/Summoning)
Sphere:                    Summoning
Range:                     0
Components:           V, S, M (V)
Duration:                 Instantaneous
Casting Time:          1 rd.
Area of Effect:         The caster
Saving Throw:        Special

With this spell, the caster calls upon the power of Koriel to radiate an aura of awe to those within visual range. Creatures of at least semi-intelligence who catch sight of the caster while this spell is in effect must make a saving throw versus spell or stand motionless for a number of rounds equal to 20 minus their Wisdom score. For creatures with no explicit Wisdom score, assume it is the same as their Intelligence. Creatures within 60 feet of the caster make their saving throw with a −2 penalty, while those outside that radius make their saves normally. Beyond 300 feet, the save is made with a +6 bonus. The awe is dispelled immediately if a creature under its effect is attacked physically. Should the caster use spells such as suggestion or emotion on a creature awed, they suffer a −2 penalty to their saves.

The material component for this spell is 50 gp worth of gold dust that the caster blows into the air during casting.

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