Caltolav

Contributed by Shawn (Unlicensed)

Merchant’s Friend, Old Pinchpenny, The Millstone, Roadwarden

Holy Symbol:  Bronze coin with Caltolav’s head in profile, with the draconic phrase "Noach Gixu Velkix" (Wealth Creates Truth).

Portfolio:  Trade, commerce, bartering, hard work, roads, travel

Alignment:  LN

Cleric’s Alignments:  LN, N, LG, NG, LE

Domains (Subdomains):  Community (Cooperation), Law, Travel (Exploration, Trade), Strength (Resolve)

Blessing:  +2 divine bonus to Appraise skill; +2 divine bonus to Diplomacy skill at 5^th level; +2 to Knowledge (geography) at 7^th level; +2 to Sense Motive at 9^th level; all bonuses increase to +3 upon reaching 12^th level

Favored Weapon: Scythe

Caltolav is the god of trade, commerce, barter and hard work.  He takes the form of a solemn bronze dragon.

Centers of Worship

Anywhere there is commerce, hard work to be done or traveling (especially traveling related to commerce).  That’s where Caltolav’s presence can be felt.  Sometimes as a benefit, as when a merchant makes a particularly lucrative trade deal.  Those are times when Caltolav is praised and thanks are given to him.  Other times, like when a newly constructed barn collapses after a violent storm and must be rebuilt, Caltolav is cursed because folks often see it as him giving them more hard work to do.  Larger temples to Caltolav can be found in many merchant’s districts in cities of various sizes.  Smaller shrines are usually found in bizarres or trade fairs and here and there at various points on roads (usually near prominent intersections).  Most merchants carry Caltolav’s holy symbol, even if they are not clergy.  For while they might feel like he is working against them at times when a deal falls through and curse Old Pinchpenny, they’re quick to rub the bronze coins with his image for luck and beseech his blessings when they want The Merchant’s Friend to help them out on a new deal.

Introduction

Caltolav is the god of trade, commerce, bartering, hard work, roads and travel.  He is said to have arisen as the various races came together in communities and began bartering with each other for various resources.  His influence spread as civilization flourished and communities grew and organized their trade and built roads to help facilitate it.

Merchants both praise and curse Caltolav, depending on how their fortunes fare.  If they're making money, then Caltolav is The Merchant's Friend.  If they're losing money, then Old Pinchpenny is the recipient of many a colorful cursing.  Thus, merchants always seek to placate Caltolav before any particularly large trade deal in the hopes of making him smile on their side of the negotiations.  Most merchants put out of their minds the fact that their rivals on the other side of the negotiation are likely doing the same.  Those that consider it can't help but wonder if their invocations of Caltolav cancel each other out, or if perhaps they're entered into some secret bidding war to curry Caltolav's favor.  His clergy are notoriously silent on this issue, as it often leads to merchants offering larger and larger donations to their temples in order to "outbid" their rivals when negotiating.  It's not unheard of for some merchants to barely break even or even take a loss on a deal after taking into consideration the size of the donation to gain Caltolav's favor.

As The Millstone, Caltolav oversees the various aspects of hard work.  Workers seek to placate Caltolav when undertaking particularly difficult tasks in the hopes that he will either make things easier on them, or make the rewards of hard work worth all of the effort that goes in to it.  He is also cursed as The Millstone when people find the work ahead of them too hard to contemplate.

The Roadwarden keeps watch over roads and trails used to move trade in, around and through various communities.  Without roads, trade would suffer, and this is not something that Caltolav wishes to see.  Merchants, caravan masters and other travelers often offer prayers and/or donations to Caltolav, seeking his blessing for a particularly long journey.  He is often seen as the guiding hand that helps a patrol of guardsmen happen along in the nick of time to save a caravan from bandits.  It's also not unheard of for travelers that have taken a wrong turn and become lost to invoke Caltolav in order to try and find the right path.

Caltolav is most often portrayed as a solemn bronze dragon, and this is the form he most often appears in when visiting Merisyl.  He's also been known to appear as a well-to-do merchant of various races (though most often a morphic) with a very shrewd light in his eyes.

The Church

Caltolav's church is organized along the same lines as a merchant's guild.  Entry level clergy are known as Peddlers.  They advance through the ranks as follows:  Hawker, Monger, Wholesaler, Retailer, Vendor, Trafficker, Broker, Agent.  The head of a particular temple is known as that temple's Master Merchant.  The head of all of Caltolav's churches is known as The Grand Merchant.

The members of the clergy are well versed in the various issues associated with matters of trade, and many is the clergyman who is also the wealthiest merchant in a given city.  Though given Caltolav's teachings, the members of his clergy find ways to feed a portion of their wealth back into the commerce of their local community to allow trade to flourish as much as possible.  For though Caltolav smiles on their own personal mercantile expertise, he also urges them to aid trade in general when they can, for as trade prospers, so do they and the church.

Caltolav doesn't have any paladins, though he does have inquisitors.  They are known as Intercessors and are dispatched by the church to resolve various trade issues.  Disputes when the involved parties can't come to a resolution on their own, matters of trade disruption, breaking monopolies, and any other matters that could cause disruptions in everyday trading matters on a large scale.

The church also sponsors patrols of armed soldiers (usually led by a mid-level member of the clergy or inquisitor) to make sure roadways are kept secure in areas where more secular authorities have neglected to do so.  The members of these patrols take after their patron and call themselves Roadwardens when doing Caltolav's business.

Paladin Code

As mentioned previously, Caltolav does not empower any paladins.

Temple and Shrines

Caltolav's temples are usually grand affairs made of the best materials available in a given area.  They are often located in the heart of the most wealthy merchant's district in larger cities, near the sites of the most centralized shops in smaller cities, or near the fields where farmers and others set up their temporary stalls for trade during fairs and festivals in small towns and villages.  One can often find small shrines dedicated to Caltolav on the larger roadways.  Small temples that serve as way stations for Roadwarden patrols are also located on certain roads.  These temples sometimes have an attached priest, but often are left unattended and thus are not particularly elaborate, but mainly serve as a roof under which Roadwarden patrols can seek shelter if need be. 

In some instances, Caltolav's temples double as trading houses where merchants without established shops are allowed to set up temporary booths to display their wares.  For a small fee of course.  The temples also usually oversee the processing of merchant's licenses in areas that require them.  They process the licenses and turn over any applicable fees or taxes to the secular authorities.  In these locations, the temple also oversees apprehending and punishing anyone that breaks the law in regards to selling without the appropriate licenses.  These areas are generally where Caltolav's Intercessors find the most work needing to be done.

A Priest's Role

Priests of Caltolav also double as merchants in many cases.  They seek to wheel and deal in order to further the church's aims and means.  They also do what they can to help keep commerce running smoothly in their areas of influence.  Bad economic conditions displease Caltolev and can cause problems not only for secular communities and governments, but also the church.  In this capacity, the priesthood takes it upon itself to foster good trade practices within a community and preaches against merchants being too greedy, as greed can be bad for commerce.  The church also often seeks to intervene on the behalf of common folks when a secular government becomes overly oppressive in its taxation, as overly burdensome taxes can hurt commerce as well.

The priests are also there to help out members of a community that are faced with hard work.  Though some look at them as not too far removed from "slave drivers," priests of Caltolav will often make an appearance to exhort workers on larger projects and tell them that Caltolav will reward them with a feeling of great accomplishment when their work is done.  Though some take comfort in these words, not all do.  Hence why the phrase "Great, here comes a Little Millstone," is often heard muttered under a worker's breath when a priest of Caltolav begins expounding on the benefits of being a hard worker.  In these instances it's not all just words though.  At times the priests seek to help relieve fatigue through the use of divine magic to help keep workers going when they might otherwise need to stop and rest.

Most of Caltolav's divine casting clergy are either clerics or inquisitors.  There are no paladins that follow his ways.  Very few oracles do so, though they are not unheard of.  There are no known instances of shamans and rarely will a warpriest feel the calling to Caltolav's worship, though there have been a few that dedicate themselves to the life of a Roadwarden.

Adventurers

Not surprisingly, any adventurers drawn to follow Caltolav will be those of a more mercantile bent.  Ones that seek to turn a profit from the items or information they gather during their adventures will at the least offer a small prayer or token offering to Caltolav when seeking to trade or sell their gains, whether ill gotten or legitimate.  More mercenary type adventurers will also seek Caltolav's aid when negotiating fees for their services. 

Thusly, most of the adventuring types that follow Old Pinchpenny are generally rogues or fighters or the other classes similar to them.  He also garners followers from some alchemists and wizards that seek to use their expertise to turn a profit when not adventuring.

Clothing

Caltolav's clergy generally dress well when performing duties that pertain to mercantile issues or commerce in general.  After all, it's a poor merchant that doesn't dress well, and that would reflect poorly upon not just the individual priest, but also the church in general.

Those priests involved in a job pertaining to The Millstone tend to dress in more practical work-type clothes, though generally well made none-the-less.

Whatever clothing they may be wearing, the priests generally work bronze into the coloring if not wear torcs or bracelets made of that metal.  And of course, none is found without a large bronze coin with Caltolav's profile on it, often worked into a necklace or other piece of jewelry that is easy to present when necessary.

Holy Texts

Of Good and Greed:  The Merchant's Way is the main holy text of Caltolav's church.  It teaches the basics of commerce as well as gives examples of how greed can harm not just a merchant, but the very body of commerce itself in the form of various legendary tales.  It also exhorts good practices like merchants making sure at least a portion of their income makes its way back into the community at large to help drive the wheels of commerce.

Working Rewards is a smaller tome that outlines the reasons to want to work hard when the goal is worthy as well as the rewards one can expect from being a hard worker.  Needless to say, this text is not nearly as popular as the other tome.

Warding the Roads:  Commerce's Lifeblood is a tome dedicate to the "art" of making sure commerce is free to flow along the roads of the various lands of Merisyl.  It lays out common practices followed by Caltolav's Roadwardens in their duties to maintain and protect the roads that are so essential to their patron's pursuits.

Aphorisms

"Take the Millstone from my neck."  Commonly used by those worn out form working hard.  An exhortation to Caltolav to allow them to see the end of their job so they can rest.

"Old Pinchpenny picked my pocket."  Usually used by a merchant that came out on the lesser or bad end of a deal.

"That's an investment worthy of Caltolav."  One would be a fool to not put money into that project/idea/investment.

Relations with other religions

Caltolav is almost universally neutral to most of the other deities of Merisyl.  The primary exceptions to this are Ator, Szalavalar and Zelaguir.  He gets along well with Ator as her followers often produce a large number of goods that help fuel the wheels of commerce.  Likewise, Szalavalar's interest in order and contracts is regarded highly by Caltolav, as those are both things that help commerce and hard work go forward.  Zelaguir is despised though, for his portfolio includes deceit and greed, two things that are anathema to good commerce as far as Caltolav is concerned.

Realm

Caltolav's realm on the Draconic Plane is reputedly the largest open air market in the multiverse.  It is known as The Grandest Bazaar.  Merhcant's from various planes can be found moving about or selling from their booths.  Numerous inns are scattered about to cater to the merchants and those seeking to purchase their wares.  It's said that anything one could hope to buy may be found at The Grandest Bazaar, though some items take much more looking to find than others.  No items are forbidden to be sold in The Grandest Bazaar.  The only real rule is "Do not interfere with trade."  Thieves are dealt with extremely harshly, as are those seeking to cheat someone on a deal.  Caltolav himself resides in a large merchant's villa in the middle of the bazaar.

Planar Allies

Stre'von'nex is an ancient celestial bronze dragon and serves as Caltolav's main go between with his worshippers.  The Bronzed One is a Marut Inevitable armored in bronze instead of gold with levels in the inquisitor class.  He serves as the head of the Caltolav's enforcers in The Grandest Bazaar.  Anyone that seeks to violate the rules of the bazaar will find him to be an implacable foe.  The Pale Rider is a ghostly inquisitor dedicated to Caltolav whose duty to protecting the roads continued on past death.  He will sometimes appear to those in dire straights on one of the many roads of Merisyl.