The Peering Eye

Stiúradh

The Player of Games
Lord of Subtlety
The Third Hand
The Innocent
Manipulatus Exquisitatum

Bard 20, Telepath 20, Outsider 20, Deity 12.

Stiuradh is a quiet and usually unremarked God. He is an affable listener, good company and makes very sensible suggestions to his friends and even to his foes. He is very helpful. Everyone, Gods and mortals alike end up doing what Stiuradh wants. His every action, word and thought is calculated. His plans and machinations extend millennia into the past and future. He consults extensively with Brionglóid, Áisnéis, Críonna and Cluiche. He is Croí’s most trusted advisor.

Alignment
Chosen Balanced (Unaligned)

Portfolio
Manipulation, Strategy, Tactics, Games, Trickery

Favoured Weapon
Dagger


Worshippers
Generals, Kings, Politicians, Ambassadors, Spies, Merchants, Tieflings, The Inquisition

Sleight of Mind
The more subtle influences of The Church; philosophical, spiritual and intellectual are usually overlooked by peasants and princes, commoners and kings. The great clerical work 'Sleight of Mind' by Arch Vedic Leraci Domos Pentunii of Stiuradh outlines how The Church should control it's flock without resort to direct action through either military, magical or economic means.

The content of this book would shock many kings, emperors and merchant prices to see how they are manipulated. In typical Stiuradh fashion the book is hidden in plain sight, The Church insist that all educated people read it at an early age and take a very dim view of those who avoid reading it in favour of more interesting pastimes such as the observation of drying paint.

The Book is extraordinarily convoluted in it's language and the structure of it logic. It takes an extremely dedicated reader, a sharp intellect and iron discipline to understand what is being explained by the book. The result is exactly what Vedic Pentunii predicts in the closing chapter. None of the books thousands of readers outside The Church have any idea what the book is about. The Church of Stiuradh's Sleight of Mind policy rules uncontested.


Dogma

Enter The Game
Existance is not a game it is The Game. Every creature and every thing you perceive is an illusion and a piece within The Game. Reality is not the board upon which The Game is played, because the board is merely a piece within The Game itself.

Observe
Use every means at your disposal to learn everything about The Game.

Think
Distill your knowledge using the questions and models of The Game. Analyse the information at your displosal and the information not at your displosal equally. Plan. Destroy those plans and plan again. Continue until the plans cannot be destroyed.

Act
Sometimes to act requires actions. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes actions are violent, brash and loud – the province of Charon. Sometime actions are thoughts or hints, barley transmitted – the province of Shale. Mostly actions must be balanced.
Once an action is taken immediately return to observation and thought before another is taken. Reactions are for the weak of mind. Poor players react.

Win
Your will becomes the actions of others. Their desires and motivations are maleable to the lightest tough of your control. This is how The Game is played.


Clergy and Temples

Priests of Stiuradh rarely display the symbols of their God openly, even though it is their divine right to do so. Worship of Stiuradh is conducted constantly in their minds and actions, as they strive to manipulate the actions and thoughts of others. They rarely show any emotions, take any actions or utter any words, that do not follow a set of constantly updated machinations.

They have few if any temples. A shrine to Stiuradh is a logical ephemeral pattern of behaviour, constructed through the arrangement of sentient creatures, according to patterns that are part of an ongoing scheme. Very astute observers will occasionally be disturbed by the realisation that they are in fact a living part of a Stiuradh shrine, part of a Stiuradh priest’s moves within The Game. A more disturbing realisation will often then be, that the priest wants them to realise this and that their nested reactions to the realisation of their part in The Game have been calculated by the priest to get them to act as they will. Most give up their attempts to outwit Stiuradh priests at this point.

Note: The picture above depicts a Stiuradh temple, not Stiuradh Himself or any of his priests.