Pantheon: Wee Jas
The Witch Goddess, The Ruby Sorceress, The Stern Lady, Death’s Guardian
Wee Jas is a witch goddess of death with the mixed portfolio of magic, death, vanity, and law. She thinks of herself as a steward of the dead. Though she is a relatively benign death goddess, she has no problem with undead being created – though she prefers they are not reanimated against their will, and their remains are procured in a lawful manner.
Clerical details
Weapon:
Worshipers, Clergy & Temples
Followers of Wee Jas are known as Jasidin. Wee Jas is especially popular with Suel wizards and sorcerers, and many necromancers revere her. As a death goddess, common people look to her for safe passage into the afterlife. She is also honored by those involved with upholding and interpreting laws (judges, magistrates, justicars, etcetera). Followers of Wee Jas will often exclaim "By the Ruby Lady!" or "By the sands of time!" a curse said to enemies would be "May your sands run quick."
Vestments
Priests of Wee Jas wear layered full-length hooded robes of alternating gray and black. They wear hoods that include a veil to cover their eyes to identify with their blind goddess. They wear jewelry with skull and gem motifs on their arms and necks as well, and carry staves. Their favored weapon is the dagger, but they will use many weapons of the sort favored by mages.
Hierarchy
Clerics of Wee Jas, known as Karuth, are most often women, although men are not discouraged to participate in the Ruby Temple. Clerics of lower level are expected to defer to ones of higher level at all times.
Clerics of Wee Jas often have long-running partnerships (and sometimes romantic relationships, even culminating in marriage) with clergy of Arawn. Legend tells that when Arawn aided Brigantia in her quest to revive her slain husband, Wee Jas agreed to allow Arawn full access to the Underworld and its secrets, in exchange for shared administration of it. That in turn allows Wee Jas time to study the arcane more deeply, and ensure the laws of the universe were preserved in Azuth's return.
Temples
Temples to the Ruby Mistress include underground crypts and catacombs that are used to protect the bodies of the dead. These crypts are believed to house the bodies of wealthy nobles and powerful spellcasters (sometimes buried with their personal magic items). Commoners are buried outside in graveyards.
Temples have various mages researching spells on a permanent basis. Each temple will specialize in a school of magic, although most necromantic formulas are shared between the various temples. Priests are also responsible for aiding people on to the afterlife, although the specific nature of this aid depends on the alignment of the priest.
Rituals
Clerics of Wee Jas commonly administer funerals, and aid in the transition into the afterlife. Using various kinds of magic, priests are called to aid those that are dying (calming loved ones, easing the dying's pain, or even speeding a person's transition). With permission from the family, a member of the church will oversee the death a person, silently observing and taking notes. When the body does finally die, the church also handles all matters with the burying of the body as elegantly as possible.
Clerics also arbitrate disputes, give advice on magic, investigate magical curiosities and create magic items. More powerful clerics use their magic to fortify their temple and city. Priests are also responsible for keeping libraries of magical information and aiding the research of new magical spells.
Festivals
The church recognizes the following holy days:
Nights of a waxing moon: On those nights when Celene or Luna are waxing, Jasidin light magical bonfires, create illusions, and offer praise and sacrifice to their goddess.
Goddess' Blush: On the 4th of Coldeven, Jasidin gather at a temple to burn a piece of jewelry as a sacrifice to the Taker.
Ruby Convocation A holiday mainly for clergy and laity of high status, the Ruby Convocation is held every ten years. On this festival, modeled after an extravagant ball, contacts are made and reinforced, stories are told, and knowledge is exchanged. At the end, the guests drink wine out of a goblet with a ruby sitting in it; this is known as the Ruby Toast, and is given in thanks to the Ruby Sorceress. After the drink, the ruby is cast into a fire.
Orders
Priests of Wee Jas belong to one of three sects based on their alignment: Wee'descans (LG, LN), Seekers (LN), or Jas'partan (LE, LN). The Wee'descans and the Jas'partans are continually fighting amongst themselves, and deaths are not uncommon. A priest may not change sects, and must choose his sect by 3rd level.
The good sect, called the Wee'desca, believe that undead are an abomination to their God, and rarely miss an opportunity to destroy them. They believe that magical research is a secondary role of the priest. They are known to cast Raise Dead (at no cost) for exceptional followers of the Goddess, as well as casting Raise Dead and/or Resurrection in return for materials that can be used for magical research, for cash, or for other items of interest.
The evil sect, called the Jas'parta, believe that everyone (but the priests and their closest followers, of course) should be aided along to the grave, and seek to give this aid in the best manner possible. This may or may not include outright killings and other forms of euthanasia. The Jas'partans believe that undead are not an abomination, and that they can be useful allies. They even go so far as to support the creation of liches so that magic users or clerics may continue magical research beyond their normal lifespan.
The neutral sect, called the Seekers, believe that Wee Jas's main emphasis is in magic and magical research. The Seekers therefore do the most magical research of the three sects. They tend to destroy most undead, with the exception of lichs that will aid them in various research. The Seekers will occasionally choose an exceptional researcher from any of the three sects and perform the elevation to Lich status. Given the various views of the sects, few are chosen from the Jas'partans, none have yet been chosen from the Wee'descans, and the bulk have come from the Seekers.
Dogma
The Ruby Temple teaches that each life is like an hour glass, the sands slowly running out until your time is up. When a character dies but is brought back to life through magic, it wasn't that characters time to die...just yet. They believe that death is immensely powerful, and the moment when a soul crosses over permanently is a moment of extreme magical power. Despite the churches fascination with death it strongly opposes the creation of undead, viewing them as abominations to their Mistress' laws of death. There are, however, liches devoted to Wee Jas that see their existence as an experiment in the nature of death and magic, with the clear understanding that they must destroy themselves when they have learned as much as they can from the experience. Those who do not are hunted down as heretics.
The Abominable Devastation: This is a short text considered heretical by most of the Jasidin church. It suggests that Wee Jas deliberately removed the defenses of the Eldar, leaving them vulnerable to Hordish invasion, in punishment for sins against magic.
The White Book: This tome, over a hundred pages long, explains in a detailed manner the funerary customs of the Eldar. Its rites and prayers, which differ according to a corpse's former status in life, can be used to prevent a spirit from rising as one of the undead.