Sooo whats Kord's position? Whats he for? What does he do that other gods dont cover- whats his job exactly? Is he there to be the 'Arnold' of the Greyhawk gods like in this ad: Advert
Can anyone give me more about this god please!
Here's a recent story from my campaign regarding Kord. There's a dwarf barbarian of CN alignment who claims to revere Kord. I tell him I think he's closer to Eyrthnul, as he loves killing stuff and wearing their body parts as trophies, hates taking prisoners, etc. However his party fights on the side of good, and he hasn't done anything totally heineous, so I leave him morally neutral. Recently this dwarf decides he wants to get his axe enchanted to be to be holy. The priests of the town tell him they will only enchant his weapon if he is dedicated to a good god. No problem he says, and heads to the temple of Kord. He's made donations there so doesn't expect a problem.
However, the priest of the temple of Kord is familar with this dwarf. He has reservations so he puts him to a test. When the dwarf knocks on the door to the priest's chamber, the priest, a hugely muscled seven foot tall human, smashes his fist into the dwarf's face without saying a word. The dwarf, angered by the unprovoked attack, pulls out his waraxe and attacks the unarmed, unarmored priest!
He failed the test. When a chosen of the brawler punches you, you punch him back, jump in to a grapple, mix it up until someone's unconscious, then go have a drink. You don't try to chop his head off.
Note that I'm not saying Kord or his followers never engage in lethal combat; just that as good characters they would be more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt.
Every Earthday (6 Flocktime, 13 Flocktime, and 20 Flocktime) is a holy day for the temple of Kord in Safehold. Anyone who visits the Chapel of Brawlers will be informed of the holy days and asked to participate if they want.
On each of these days in the evening, the temple of Kord in the Temple Square becomes rowdy. Crates of bread, cheese, filleted fish, goldenrolls, stew, and dead goats are brought into the temple as well as barrels of Banshee gold, Banshee stout, Rauxian Porter, and bottles of pulque, spirit mead, and strega. Those who worship Kord are allowed to participate with the chief priests getting the lion’s share of the best food and drink and those who are worshippers getting a good amount of food and beer.
A party is going on. The temple of Kord, usually an open room with training equipment for sport and body building, has been turned into a great feasthall. Barrels marked with sign of the Bashee Brewery stand in one corner, a pile of mugs atop them. In another far corner is a very solid-looking table with various bottles. The altar has been slid back to the wall, revealing a great fire pit underneath is and four whole goats are roasting over the flames.
Rough, solid-looking tables and chairs fill the place and are heaped with food and drink. There’s bread and cheese, filleted fish, goldenrolls, pots of steaming stew, as well as fruits and steaming cooked vegetables.
As the party gets underway, there are feats of strength such as lifting great weights and arm-wrestling contests. There are regular wrestling contests, boxing matches, and games that rely on agility and skill.
Arm wrestling is a straight Strength vs. Strength roll with the winner getting a little up on the loser. The first one that makes three strength checks in a row is the winner. Wrestling and boxing can be handled normally. The games usually consist of tossing balls through a stone hoop set on one wall. The space to play is limited and usually consists of one-on-one matches.
As the evening wears on, the participants get more and more rowdy. Every hour or so, the collection basket goes around and as the evening wears on, those who have not donated much are strong-armed into giving more or are challenged to arm wrestling contests (with a bet being made) by the man taking the donations.
Those taking donations take care to empty their baskets into slots in the walls. These are fed down to a lower chamber where the money is kept safe.
At midnight, the ceremony seems to finish up.
The chief priest stands up.
“We have had a great Earthday celebration,” he says, holding his arms wide.
Everyone in the room stiffens and suddenly looks at those around them, wide grins on their faces. They appear ready for something.
“You have all given generously and we have worshipped Kord greatly,” the chief priest says. “Now ... GET IT ON!”
He leaps at the nearest carousers and attacks them, punching one man in the face and kicking another in the stomach, and the place erupts into an enormous brawl. Tables are tossed over and chairs flung across the room.
No one uses weapons and most are doing only non-lethal damage but everyone is fighting and will continue to do so until only one is left standing.
That, at least, was what they ran into there.
He wears a Girdle of Frost Giant Strength, Gauntlets of Ogre Power (It says he sometimes loans these items out to other fighters in battle-I assume that means his faithful).
He uses an intelligent sword named Kelmar which is a dancing, electrified +5, with detect enemies and telepathy and a special purpose of slaying dragons (That could tell you what his worshippers like to hunt).
He has a secondary two handed sword +3 that he uses when Kelmar dances. (So swords are his thing.)
It says once a day he can polymorph into a Titan (This tells me that any and all means to buff up should be employed by his worshipers).
He goes into a blood rage if injured, and apparently only his grand-dad Lendor can calm him. It says because of this he is widely worshipped by barbarians (A no-brainer).
It goes on to say Kord is a fool for a pretty face. He favors elven and human women, but has ALSO consorted with humanoids and giants (Very Zeus-like). The world is full of his sons and daughters, but few can clam demi-god status (less than 1% it states) The article has a lengthy test on claiming his bloodline and even special powers for being confirmed an offspring of Kord(This would be a great backstory for a character worshipping Kord, even if it couldn't be proved). The fun part is any of his confirmed children may never be lawful, and if they do not enter his clergy or they are pacifists or cowards, then they will be disowned, and worse (30%) of Kord coming to slay the child himself!
The high str, the drinking, brawling, atheltics, the women all seem to point towards how Hercules is often protrayed. Is this a fair comparasion?
Is it also fair to say that Kord worshippers might be hot headed, a little too quick to respond with phyiscal might, a little less than tactful or less than interested in interlectual responses to challenges?
I like the story of the test and the feast, and thanks for the statictical info.
Also I was wondering if there is a 'I get on with - I hate' chart for the Greyhawk Gods with Kord's relationships to the other deities on?
Could you see a follower of Kord in a 'Robin Hood' style situation?
Also I was wondering if there is a 'I get on with - I hate' chart for the Greyhawk Gods with Kord's relationships to the other deities on?
There is one, sort of, but nothing about Kord on it. That said, given his love for hunting draconic beings, I think it's safe to assume there is bad blood between him and Tiamat and, probably, a shaky truce between him and Bahamut.
Could you see a follower of Kord in a 'Robin Hood' style situation?
Er.. I would rather see his follower as a Little John than a Robin Hood :P
The suel pantheon is split along the Law-Chaos axis as well (perhaops more) as along the Good-Evil axis. Lendor the head of the pantheon is firmly LN.
Kord is originally a God from Greyhawk (as are Boccob, Pelor, Olidammara, etc..) and part of the Suel Pantheon.
The Suel are a race of humans. There's currently two main factions of the Suel folk that evolved after the Invoked Devastation and Rain of Colorless Fire and subsequent fall of the old Suel Empire.
The first is the Fruztii, Cruski, and Schnai Barbarians of the North. They're basically Greyhawk's Vikings.
The second is the Scarlet Brotherhood, a folk of blond fair xenophobic supremists living in the south, lead by assassins and evil monks.
Some material on Kord can thus be found in The Scarlet Brotherhood, a 2E GH product.
There's a brief write up in the back of the book:
Kord CG intermediate God of athletics, sports, brawling, strength and courage.
Kord is one of the most powerful of the Suel gods, second only to Lendor his grandfather**. Once worshipped more than any other Suel deity, his following has lessened somewhat since the Greyhawk Warsbecause he does not have a protective aspect. Kord appears as a hugely muscular man with a long red beard and red hair. He wears dragonhide gauntlets, boots and fighting girdle of white blue and red, respectively. He is reputed to be easily distracted by a comely face , and many claim divine lineage due to this lusty god; he prefers humans and elve, but has been known to dally with other demihumans and even giants. He enters a blood rage when severely wounded, and only Lendor can restore him to sanity before he kills all friends and foes nearby; this ferocity endears him to most barbarians.
Kords priests
Kords priests favor physical prowess over magical might and normally use their spells to enhance themselves and their companions rather than attack others directly.Expected to be leaders they wera Kords colors, but never in the same configuration attributed to the god. They consider wearing dragonhide armor to be blasphemous unless the wearer is a descndant of the god. They may chose nonweapon proficencies from the Warrios list art no penalty. Any of Kord's priests who display cowardice are disowned and immediately lose spellcasting abilities, becoming a fighter of equal level.
(2E mechanics
Requirements AB Str 13, Con 13, AL CG; WP any; AR any; RA white red and blue clothing; SP all chaos*, combat, creation*, divination* healing, protection* travellers* SPL detect lawful, protection form lawful;PW 1) +1 on save s vs fear attack, enlarge; 3) save bonus vs fear increases to +2, strength; 5) prayer or protection from normal missiles; 7) cure serious wounds, save bonus vs fear incr. to +3; 10) Strength increases by 1, save bonus +4 vs fear; 13) heal, save bonus +5; TU nil. **) Lendor (Prince of Time and Tedium; LN intermediate god of time, tedium and study) is the father and mother of all the suel powers. Kord is the son of Phaulkon(CG lesser god of air, winds, clouds and archery; a favorite god of military leaders esp. those who rely on archers) and Syrul (the Forked Tongue, The Night Hag, Oathbreaker; NE Lesser Power of the Gray Waste; Portfolio: Lies deceit, treachery, false promises)
In the description of Llerg (the Great Bear, Animal Fang, strongest serpent, God of Force; CN Lesser Power of Limbo Portfolio: Beasts, physical Strength) we find the following sentence:
...his alliance with Kord is a friendly rivalry, with Kord encompassing strength in contests and sport while Llerg's strength is that of a wild animal.
...and there's some material in the chapter on religion:
Many soldiers worship Kord although he's generally not as popular as Llerg among the military. Kord is worshipped by the savage troops brought from Hepmonaland, but not those from the Amedio [Jungle]. He's invoked to bless contests of Strength and other athletic competitions, and more than one rowdy tavern bears the God's name.
This applies to the Lands of the Scarlet Brotherhood who preeminently worship other (evil) Suel gods, mainly Syrul, godess of lies, Wee Jas, and Pyremius the Blazing Killer.
An earlier version for 2E Kord (and others) can be found in the From the Ashes Box, the chapter is available as an rtf-file at Wotc.
An alternate Version by Russ Taylor is available here: Russ Taylors Kord Also check out his site for his versions of all the other greyhawk Gods.
A short descriptions of several greyhawk deities can be found on this site including symbols and some more material on Kord (scroll down!)
Descriptions of the Greyhawk Northern Barbarians and the Scarlet Brotherhood can be found on here:
Barbarians
Scarlet Brotherhood
The Barbarians piece does contain some more interesting info on Kord.
For a general brief explanation and description of almost all Greyhawk terms check out the Flanaess Cyclopedia here.
Kord
Known by most as 'the Brawler', Kord is worshipped by many barbarian peoples of Suel blood. He is revered equally for his ferocity in battle as his skill in athletics. Kord is the son of Phaulkon and Syrul.
Cult in the World
Kord is the barbarian god of berserks, athletes, and monster slayers. In myths, he is portrayed as wearing a girdle of red dragon hide, boots made from the skin of a blue, and gauntlets wrought from the hide of a white. These three items are the source of his strength and his speed, though he lends them to others without diminishing himself. Kord’s cult observes their High Holy Day on the 4th of Needfest. Annual Games generally occupy the entire Needfest Festival. Normal holidays are held the first Godsday of each month. Services to Kord are held on local battlefields or athletic stadia. Kord’s priests mimic the apparel of their Lord, donning white boots, red girdle, and blue gauntlets when they lead their flocks in prayer.
Lay Membership (the Athletes)
Requirements: Lay members of Kord's cult are expected to excel at the same things Kord is reputed to
have done; be it feats of strength, skill, or combat. Skills taught include Climb, Dodge, Jump, Swim,
Throw, Sing, Speak Languages, Lores (Human, Suel), Scan, Ceremony, and Greatsword attack/parry.
Initiate Membership (the Brawlers)
Requirements: Standard. Initiates of Kord are considered the elite troops of most barbarian tribes,
feared for their battle-frenzy and their rages. Spirit Magic: Bladesharp, Coordination, Endurance,
Fanaticism, Glamour, Strength, Vigor
Acolyte Membership (the Gauntlets)
Requirements: Kord's acolytes need only devote 30% of their time and income to the cult, excluding trophies taken in battle, which are exempt from tithing.
Priesthood / Rune Lords (the Rages)
Requirements: Kord's priests are also considered Rune Lords. These individuals live for battle, or, if that is unavailable, competition. In times of peace, Kord's servants arrange large gaming events, where one can compete to be acknowledged the best of clan, tribe, or nation.
Virtues for Kord include: Energetic, Proud, Reckless and Warlike.
Common Divine Magic: all Special Divine Magic: Berserk, Command (Wolf,
Horse), Crack, Truesword
Associated Gods
Phaulkon: provides Command Sylph
Kelmar, as I see it, is more intellegent and wise than Kord. It doesn't really dominate him, their relationship would be more friendly. (not to mention that as a God, Kord is immune to mind affecting) It gives good advice, sometimes Kord takes it. Think the Tick and Arthur. The sidekick is the brains of the bunch. Both however are united in a common cause....killing evil dragons.
I am still interested in what Kord's clerics actually do? they cant spend all day in the gym or starting fights in bars- so what do they get up to? Some obviously adventure, others are soldiers; so do the rest work for militia's- 'keeping the through superior arm power'.... *ahem*
I can see preparing for and organising raids on draconic types taking some time but apart form being the church you call on when you need a wagon wheel lifted back on what do Kord's worshippers get up to?
Also, unless Kord has a big following in that particular community, its likely that his priests have a day job to help support themselves.