Alignment: Neutral Good
Portfolios: merchants, information, money, mysteries, history
Races: human, elven
Animal Totem: Eagle

Physical Description: His statues depict a tall and lean man, with brooding eyes and close-cropped hair and beard. Wearing long flowing robes with wide sleeves and a hood pulled back, he gives viewers the impression of long travels. In one hand is always a thick tome labelled "Andremos", meaning 'information' in the old Karatikan tongue. When painted, his hair is dark, and there are dark circles under his eyes, as though he hasn't slept in a long, long time. His robes are usually of a flowing teal that turns to purple closer to the ground.

History: Lul was actually a mortal man at the start of the Storm Wars. Working as a sorceror who dallied in the merchant trade, he made a considerable sum of money with wise investments, and poured the money into his research. As the war wore on, and he did what he could to support the war effort, Agincoth came to him one night in a dream. The Goddess of Knowledge knew that she would die before the wars were over, whether Nathel won or not, and asked Lul to become one of her special priests, to research a way to defeat Nathel even after the fall of the goddess. Lul accepted the task out of duty more than love or adoration, and immediately became both a sorceror and a specialty priest of Agincoth. As the seasons ground on, Lul made considerable progress, finding the long lost blade known as Giran Howell (see item entry). Giran Howell, also known as the Soul Rapist, provided Lul with a secret that would haunt him for the rest of his days as a mortal. Agincoth immediately promoted him to Disciple, and Lul used the weapon to slay one of Nathel's lieutenant's, the god of pain, Hyark. During the slaying of the god, Lul's knowledge of and power over the weapon, infused him with a considerable portion of the god's powers, elevating him from Disciple to archon. In the ensuing chaos of newfound powers and mental agony, Giran Howell was lost, only to be found by the armies of Nathel. Lul, in his new form as archon, became a herald of Agincoth, privy to a great deal of her secrets. When Giran Howell struck against the north, in the hands of Simon Luminar, Lul helped to stem the tide of panic among the other gods and their followers. Once the wars were over, the archon had earned a considerable reputation among the other churches, and had earned the respect of the various leaders of the Karatikan Alliance. Agincoth revealed her 'death' to Lul, and using Giran Howell, elevated him to the status of true god. To everyone else, it appeared as though Lul had merely accepted the portfolios of the goddess after her death -- at his hands. As the Inquisition started up, the followers of Yatindar openly thanked Lul for killing the Goddess of Magic, even though many mages and sorcerors still maintained their abilities. If any of the churches suspected anything, they kept it to themselves. Lul and his own Disciples and followers took over the work of Agincoth's clergy, and added several portfolios that had been neglected by the other gods, including merchants and mysteries. The Church of Lul grew in power during the Inquisition, as it ferried mages and sorcerors away from the east and the Inquisitors, and helped merchants and traders grow in ability and wealth. During the War of the Undead, the libraries of Lul proved invaluable repositories of information on the undead, and the various libraries served as last bastions in some beleaguered cities and towns.

Relic: The exact location of Lul's Relic has been kept such a secret that rumors continue to circulate to the effect that perhaps not even Lul's Chosen knows where it is. Supposedly, there are a number of clues scattered throughout the Book of Lul that give hints to where the Relic -- and a vast treasure -- lie. Many merchants while away their free time studying the various hints within the holy book, hoping one day to find the Relic of Lul, and the treasure that goes with it.

Church: The clergy of Lul serve a two-fold purpose -- they act as librarians for repositories of knowledge, and they act as beneficiaries for merchants. The headquarters of the Church of Lul, based out of the Kranthagian Library in Karmen, houses the Chosen and his Disciples. From there, they send messengers and books, special cargoes and secret scrolls, to all the other libraries. Each libary is divided into two portions; one portion, the general public can peruse for a small fee. The other portion, the priests will peruse for a larger fee. Since followers of Lul are expected to keep a diary, and turn it over to the church upon their deaths, these diaries are kept in the priest-only section of the libraries, known as the Covenants. Inside each Covenant, also work a great many scribes and thinkers that help to orchestrate the knowledge kept inside the holy libraries. The clergy helps the merchants by standardizing the coinage wherever they are, with proven scales and purities, and by acting as stock brokers and inside traders, as well as keepers of obscure trading facts. Each accolyte is assumed to be a keen study of trade, a fair appraiser, and a font of obscure knowledge that might be related to turning a profit. The church's secret agenda is to help the mages, and maintain their faith against the return of Agincoth. Only a select few know of this agenda, and they are referred to as the Eagle's Wings sect. As many secret or sensitive books and documents pass from library to libary, several spell books lie within the more important libraries, available only to mages and sorcerors who know how to find them. The majority of the church's followers, merchants, guildsmen, traders, caravaners, and goodsmen, take the same view as their neighboring churches and faiths -- believing Agincoth dead, magic an evil of the Storm Wars, and Lul a hero for his murder of the Goddess of Magic.

Clerics: The mainstay of the Church of Lul is its clerics, who divide their time between studying the teachings of the God of Mysteries, and being shrewd information merchants. They aid the merchants' guilds by providing healing services, blessings for commerce, and loaning the larger caravaners and traders a young accolyte in need of experience. They are often called upon by various lords to aid in commerce, or to bring the perspective of history and incitefulness to a troublesome delimma. The clerics are free to wear armor as needed, but the blatant use of offensive weapons (such as swords and axes) is frowned upon; instead, most clerics use maces, staves, or gauntlets.

Specialty priests: The inside liners and primary information gatherers of the Church of Lul are its Quitzara. Though they maintain ties to the merchants and traders, they act primarily to solve puzzles and mysteries, and to gather information from around the globe. Armored as the situation permits, their primary weapons tend to be garrots, knives, and dirks, even while they carry more obvious weapons of defense, like the clerics. The Quitzara have Intelligence scores of 14 or better, Wisdom scores of 12, and Charisma scores of at least 10. Lul grants these priests major access to the spheres of All, Charm, Creation, Divination, Guardian, and Summoning, and minor access to the spheres of Combat, Healing, Necromancy, and Protection. The Quitzara also have phenomenal abilities: 1) all spells from the spheres of Charm and Divination have casting times of 1 and require only verbal components, 2) they can negotiate prices down by 25%, and 3) the Quitzara had innate ability to smuggle up to fifteen pounds ethereally, so that thieves could not pick their pockets, guards could not confiscate weapons, and brigands could not find valuables. To demonstrate their faith in Lul and their loyalty to the Church, the Quitzara all had red eagles tattooed on their deltoids, so they rarely kept their shoulders bare of clothing. However, the tattoo of the Quitzara served to alleviate the fears of merchants, and signalled the presence of an unbiased arbitrator.

Monks: The distant monastaries and nunneries of Lul are havens of knowledge, bastions of light, and caretakers of ancient secrets. Their simple lives in the public eye hide complex and harmonious minds that disect ancient records, solve puzzles for entertainment, and collect strange bits of knowledge and information. They rarely travel, save to bring new information or a new puzzle (or its answer) to another monastary, or to one of the libraries of Lul closer to the cities. Well disciplined for the long hours necessary for study, and well-trained because of their isolation, they are very self-sufficient men and women.

Next God from Gaeleth's Gods