Thursday, 28 March 2013

Saint Elizabeth

St Elizabeth is by far the most popular female saint throughout the Fair Kingdom. Her name is the most popular given name across all classes— there is a big chance any woman your party meets will be called 'Elizabeth', irrespective of whether she's a humble peasant, a handmaid, or a noblewoman. The Blood Countess herself is called Elizabeth!

The historical Elizabeth was a 13th century princess of the Fair Kingdom, born in Pressburg, who was betrothed to a Landgrave of the Empire of the One Faith when she was 4 and he was 11. They married ten years later and had three children. Her husband departed to fight against the Empire of the Crescent Moon when she was pregnant with their third child, but he died on his way to war. After his death, Elizabeth left the court, made arrangements for the care of her children, and renounced the world to take care of the sick and the poor, until her death at the age of 24. She was canonised 4 years later, based on several miracles, the most famous of which is the miracle of the roses.

The legend of St Elizabeth's Miracle of the Roses
(from Wikipedia)
One day the young but pious St Elizabeth, in the company of one or more serving women, descends from her castle down to the village below the castle. She is carrying meat, eggs, and bread under her mantle. Supposedly she has taken items from the family dining table to distribute to the poor in the village, against the wishes of her family, who frown upon such behaviour. Halfway down, she unexpectedly meets her husband, who asks, upon seeing her bulk, what she is carrying. Embarrassed and speechless as she is, she does not know what to say. The Landgrave opens her mantle, and to his surprise (in some versions this takes place in the dead of winter) finds her carrying a bouquet of roses.

Pilgrimages to her grave drew as many people as those to Compostela, until they were halted by the New Wayers in 1539 by the forcible removal of St Elizabeth's relics.





St Elizabeth as a role-playing clerical cult:
Temple traits: Cure The Sick, Feed The Poor
Alignment: Lawful Good/Allegiance: Old Way
Temple Weapon: None.
Spheres of Activity: Charity, Chastity, Humility, Patience.
Power: Miracles of healing work at her grave in the church of the hospital she founded after becoming a widow.
Holy Symbol: Rose(s).
Spells: Clerics of St Elizabeth (they are all female) cannot cast any offensive spells or, more generally, any spells that may cause damage to the world.
Allied cults:
- allied with  the Third Order of St Francis
- allied with the Teutonic Order, which adopted St Elizabeth as its secondary patroness

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