Description:

Iroas is the steadfast god of honour and victory in war. When soldiers march to battle, his voice is the thunder of their footsteps and the crash of spear on shield. Soldiers, mercenaries, and athletes all pray for Iroas’s favour in securing victory. Common folk pray to Iroas for courage and fortitude in times of struggle, for his is the battle nobly fought and won.

Bold and confident with a soldier’s demeanour, Iroas is the pinnacle of martial pride and bearing. He is stoic almost to a fault, but also exhibits a wry sense of humour. Those who honourably shed blood in Iroas’s name can count on his support. Cowards and oath breakers are to be despised, and traitors don’t deserve mercy in battle.

Iroas most often appears as a powerfully built centaur with a bull’s body rather than a horse’s, clad in gleaming armour and wielding a spear and shield. He speaks in a booming baritone that projects power, confidence, and courage. He has been known to appear as a burly soldier or a mighty bull before his followers. Whatever form he chooses, Iroas carries himself with precision and majesty at all times and doesn’t tolerate disrespect or undue informality from those who would deal with him.

Iroas’s Influence:

Iroas personifies the glory of victory, honourable combat, and physical competition. He is the unspoken bond between soldiers on the eve of battle, the courage of the standard bearer holding colours aloft in the midst of battle, and the exultation that comes after a hard-won victory. Iroas pushes his followers to excel in their chosen fields, particularly war and athletics, and gain honor through superior skill, training, and dedication.

War is, fundamentally, a terrible experience filled with pain, loss, and fear. Unfortunately, as Iroas sees it, war is also necessary. He sees preparing for and winning life’s essential battles as being of paramount importance and the highest calling one can experience.

The true warrior fights with honour, courage, and dedication, and values training, discipline, strength, and esprit de corps. In Iroas’s eyes, nothing is more valuable or honourable than a honed blade wielded by a trained warrior loyal to a just cause. This message is ingrained in the ethos of Akros, the polis that claims him as its patron. His precepts and codes of conduct are incorporated in the civil and military laws of Akros.

Iroas values strength and determination in less deadly pursuits, as well. He believes sports are a fine proxy for war, as just as in a battle, superior skill and strength lead to a victory. What Iroas truly loves is a winner.

Lastly, Iroas urges his followers to blunt the advances of his brother, Mogis. This directive inevitably means combat, since Iroas knows of no other way to solve problems. Diplomacy isn’t an act of cowardice per se, but because it isn’t an activity Iroas is prepared to engage in, it isn’t something he expects of his followers.

Iroas’s Goals:

Iroas sees existence as a series of glorious battles to be won by both him and his followers. War is a testing ground from which only the bravest and strongest emerge. Between battles, there are feats of endurance and physical prowess to perform. Iroas exhorts his followers to hone their bodies and minds just as they hone their blades. He is certain that to slacken his vigilance and grow lazy would guarantee his demise at the edge of his brother’s blood-soaked axe. Iroas pushes his followers to be ready at all times to meet conflict head-on.

Divine Relationships:

Iroas is defined by his opposition to his twin brother, Mogis. Although both love battle, Iroas holds an honourable and valorous view of warfare, whereas Mogis lusts for carnage and butchery. Iroas firmly believes that mortals will always fight, whether in war or in less consequential pursuits. His charge is to ensure that war is waged with a code of honour and to prevent his brother’s depravity from spreading through the world.

Iroas holds an abiding respect for Purphoros, who girds his warriors in the products of his artifice. Iroas sees finely crafted arms as the highest form of art, sublime and deadly at once. Still, Iroas finds Purphoros’s volatile temper and bouts of passion unbecoming of one with such talent at creating weapons of war.

Iroas champions the cause of justice and thus seeks Heliod’s guidance and counsel from time to time. During Heliod’s piques of arrogance and temper, Iroas is the one who advocates restraint and calm. More often than not, the two deities agree where matters of justice and honour are concerned.

Worshiping Iroas:

Iroas is interested not in pretty words, but in great deeds. The faithful of Iroas show their piety by comporting themselves well in contests of athleticism or skill. Swearing an oath to win a battle in Iroas’s name and failing to do so is a great shame upon a warrior, thus such a promise is never uttered lightly.

The fifth month of the Meletian calendar is Thriambion, named for an annual commemoration of the Meletian conquest of Natumbria. This victory cemented Meletis’s control over the entire peninsula. But in Akros, the month is called Iroagonion, for the Iroan Games. These games are the grandest display to honour Iroas. To even compete in the Iroan Games is considered noteworthy, as the poleis send only their finest athletes. The grand prize, besides a ceremonial wreath, is the opportunity to be visited by Iroas himself.

Iroas’s Champions:

Alignment: Usually chaotic, often good
Suggested Classes: Barbarian, cleric, fighter, paladin, sorcerer
Suggested Cleric Domains: War
Suggested Backgrounds: Athlete, folk hero, soldier

Many champions of Iroas are warriors for honour and justice. They often seek to embody martial courage and are motivated by strong personal codes of honour.

Iroas’s Favour:

Iroas has a soft spot in his heart for underdogs, even if they lack the strength to win the fight. It is easier, he believes, to make a hero from a weakling who has a heroic heart than it is to turn a brute into a defender of justice. What’s more, the victory of the strong gives them glory, but the victory of the weak gives glory to Iroas.

Why did Iroas seek you out as a champion? Perhaps you proved your courage even when victory eluded your grasp, or you demonstrated a willingness to use your strength for good. Occasionally, Iroas’s choice of a champion has as much to do with his enmity toward Mogis as it does with the mortal he chooses; is there some connection between you and the god of slaughter?
The Iroas’s Favour table offers a few suggestions.

Iroas’s Favor:

1 You were born on the eve of a major battle.
2 Your twin sibling is a champion of Mogis.
3 You showed great courage in a losing battle.
4 You proved yourself in a contest of strength and skill at the Iroan Games.
5 You called upon Iroas to witness an oath of victory in battle, and he took notice.
6 Despite having been knocked down repeatedly in life, you show grit and determination in all you do.

Devotion to Iroas:

Following Iroas means making a commitment to combat in pursuit of righteous aims, not as a way of applying coercion or domination. It also means dedicating yourself to the pursuit of excellence, for the god of victory desires victorious champions. As a follower of Iroas, consider the ideals on the Iroas’s Ideals table as alternatives to those suggested for your background.

Iroas’s Ideals:

1 Devotion. My devotion to my god is more important to me than what he stands for. (Any)
2 Courage. No fear or pain can turn me away. (Any)
3 Loyalty. War forms bonds that are more real and lasting than the ties of love or family. (Any)
4 Heroism. The powerful must protect the weak. (Good)
5 Liberty. The strong mustn’t exploit the weak. (Chaotic)
6 Excellence. People should look to me as an example of the best that mortal folk can be. (Any)