 Akadi
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| Alias(es): | Queen of Air, the Lady of Air, Lady of the Winds, Queen of Air Elementals |
| Power: | Greater deity |
| Pantheon: | Faerûnian pantheon |
| Symbol: | A billowing white cloud on a dark blue sky |
| Alignment: | True neutral |
| Cleric alignment: | LN, N, CN, NE |
| Portfolio: | Elemental air, air elementalists, movement, speed, flying creatures |
| Worshippers: | Animal breeders, elemental archons (air), rangers, rogues, sailors |
| Domains: | Air |
| Favoured weapon: | Flail |
| Allies: | Aerdrie Faenya, Shaundakul |
| Enemies: | Grumbar |
Akadi (pronounced: ah-kah-dee) is the whispering wind and the blinding gale storm, her form changing from season to season. Her kiss might be moist and sweet or bitter and cold. Uncaring, she carries sounds and scents along on her journey, but she never pauses to impress upon a traveler the importance of her travels.
Akadi has only been seen twice in written record in avatar form on Toril. The Queen of Air normally appears as a huge column of swirling winds resembling an immense tornado that towers from the earth into the clouds above. Her voice can range from the whisper of the slightest breeze through the trees to an insistent roar that can be heard for miles in every direction. In religious art she is often portrayed as a huge, translucent blue woman with gigantic feathery wings that trail away into clouds. Her wings are said to toss the winds about the surface of Faerûn. Like all the elemental lords, Akadi is relatively uncaring of her followers on Toril. Her reactions are difficult to gauge, and she seems almost an alien being in her responses to most mortals not native to the Elemental Plane of Air. The relative inaction of Akadi and the other elemental lords has led to their being viewed as only lesser powers in the Realms and their followers being classed as cultists. Akadi is known as Teylas in the Hordelands, a god of the Elemental Plane of Air. The distinction between a female and male form of the Lady of the Winds makes no difference to the faith. Akadi does seem to have some small affection for her followers, but most often displays that affection when they make large offerings to her by burning precious incenses that waft to her on the winds — so it could be argued that she only cares when she is bribed to do so. While appeals to Akadi to change or still the winds, provide good flying currents, or bring gentle rains meet with her approval, she grants no prayers to raise or quell harsh storms, as storms lie within the purview of Talos and Umberlee (though she occasionally manages a whirlwind of brief duration but stunning force).
The Church
Akadian priests are strongly encouraged to learn weather sense and to acquire skill in playing a musical instrument that involves blowing air through it to produce sound (such as woodwind instruments, brass instruments, organs, and bagpipes) in addition to their required proficiencies. Before the Time of Troubles, all of the elemental cults had clerics in their ranks. Now, only specialty priests remain. Why Akadi decided to gradually convert her clerics to specialty priests is unknown. Since the Godswar, the Akadian church has added a small order of mystics and an order of crusaders to the church to round out the capabilities of the priesthood. In primitive or nomadic societies (such as those of the Tuigan), Akadi is served by shamans. Few priests of Akadi ever settle down in one place, so few communities feel threatened or benefited by the appearance of an Akadian priest. Akadian priests blow into a town or village upon the morning breeze and are typically gone by the time the sun sets. A philosophy of incessant movement and wanderlust has ingrained itself into the church of Akadi, and few temples exist to the Lady of the Winds. Those that do are most often open-air circles of wooden poles adorned with feathers and streamers that flutter in the slightest breeze. Priests of the faith travel across Faerûn, spreading the word of Akadi at each opportunity. They often lecture on the joys that the freedom of Akadi brings, but seldom stop to argue semantics or principles with those who would them, choosing instead to sew the seeds of the Queen of Air and then continue along to “wherever the winds take them.” This tendency to spout high-sounding verbiage has led to more than one Akadian priest being called a “windbag” in several senses of the word. The priests of Akadi are divided up between the Whisper and the Roar. These are not rankings within the church or even a division between those clergy members with parish territories and those of an adventuring bent. Rather, these are distinctions in philosophy of action. Those who follow the Whisper typically work behind the scenes, seldom showing themselves to be a member of the church of Akadi. Members of the Roar are much more direct about their involvement in the affairs of Faerûn. The disparate and unfocused nature of the activities of the church of Akadi as a whole has left few in Faerûn viewing it as any sort of threat, although personally ambitious members of the church can sometimes wreak havoc in a particular region. Akadi’s priests are organized mostly into “churches” formed of small cliques who follow a particularly charismatic Akadian. These cliques shift and flow over tune as the group politics lead to some members rising in status, others falling, and others leaving in disgust or empowered by the inspiring message of their leader to begin a new church in a far-off land. This sort of organization is very fluid and often very confusing to those outside the faith, as such folk are never sure who will be in charge in a tenday and therefore who to hold responsible for living up to agreements and contracts. Most Akadians have a reputation for being untrustworthy because of this very problem in their faith’s organization. When tune comes due for an Akadian to live up to a promise, frequently the answer received is: “I’m so sorry, that’snot my job anymore”—if one can find the Akadian the deal was struck with in the first place! Novice Akadians are referred to as Fledglings. Upon undergoing a personally designed rite of empowerment supervised by at least two senior clergy (and usually involving flying), they become full priests. In ascending order of rank, the titles in general use by the priesthood are: Winged One (full priest), Air of the Goddess, Breeze of Light, Zephyr (senior priest), Mistral, Sirocco(leader of a large “church”), and Whirlwind (leader of a very large church or priest of great experience). A priest who has slain or soundly defeated an enemy of the church (usually a high-ranking priest of Grumbar or an earth-based creature of power) may add the honorific “High” to the beginning of his or her title.
Dogma
The teachings of the Akadian church amount to a doctrine of finding one’s own enlightenment. The church feels that one can only find truth in what one is interested in and as soon as interest fails, all chance of finding further spiritual growth has left an activity or place. Therefore, the faithful must move from activity to activity, from place to place, pursuing a personal dream or series of interests and growing through the changing experiences each new day brings. The church pays little attention to resistance to its doctrine; such obstacles will be worn down over time. Few matters are ever deemed so important that the church feels the need to commit itself to a particular cause. The only stance that the Akadian faith takes adamantly is that its members and its priests should not be fettered or imprisoned; such a condition rapidly leads to the onset of depression among the faithful and a languishing death. Novices in the Akadian faith are charged as follows: “The eternal Akadi is change personified. Each new day reveals to us a new side of her. Strive to be as flexible as she is. Pursue everything that interests you in turn. Look at problems from as many viewpoints as possible to achieve the most creative answer. View life as an art form to create anew around you each day to your benefit and that of Akadi. The freedom to move about and to soar on the breeze of life is one of the inherent rights of every living thing. Fly forth and spread the word of Akadi and show through your works the fresh new life she brings.”
Day-to-Day Activities
Listening to the wind, traveling beneath the stars of Faerûn, pursuing personal interests of the moment, and speaking to others of the glories of Akadi dominate most priests’ lives. Some priests become almost obsessively involved in “life experiments” of a practical or esoteric nature. For instance, some may become deeply involved in breeding faster and sleeker hawks or running hounds, others may decide to see how orcs adapt to fierce and freakish windstorms, and yet others may spend endless hours trying to develop artificial wings for cats. Yet, once any project is no longer fun or interesting, Akadian priests drop it like a lead weight and move on to something new no matter how much time they have already invested in the activity.
Holy Days/Important Ceremonies
Each day is an important event in the eyes of an Akadian. The faithful typically rise before the sun emerges to whisper their prayers on the morning breeze and stay up to watch the moon rise over Faerûn or glide the dying thermals of the waning day and joyfully speak their evening prayers.
The Fellowship of Flight is the ceremony that Akadian specialty priests undergo that celebrates their ability, upon reaching a certain level of skill, to summon an air elemental from the Elemental Plane of Air. The ceremony is preceded by an hour of solemn prayer, after which the elemental is summoned. When it answers, it is wafted with sweet-smelling incense, sung songs, sprinkled with flower petals, and given poems praising Akadi to carry back to her realm.
On Midsummer, the church holds its only calendar festival. To attend this festival, all of the faithful who are able to travel do so for tendays before Midsummer. They gather in the Shaar at the rums of Blaskaltar, which contain the site of the first known shrine to Akadi in Faerûn, now obliterated by the hand of time and seasons of wind and rain. Here the chant of the heroes of the faith is recited by all present and new names are added to the roll commemorating those who have passed on during the past year.
Major Centers of Worship
Few permanent temples to Akadi have been erected. Many of her shrines are tended by a rotating cycle of priests as they travel the countryside, leaving the shrine when their replacement arrives. The holiest site of the Akadian faith is the mound of the First Shrine of the Queen of Air in the ruins of Blaskaltar in the Shaar. The structure is long gone through ages of neglect; however, the faithful gather here yearly to remember the history of their church and its great members so that they do not lose their past and thus become doomed to repeat it.
Affiliated Orders
The order of Akadian crusaders is known as the Knights of the Wind’s Four Quarters. Its members tend to pursue personal quests and errands for church elders or carry out the ongoing vendetta against the church of Grumbar. Mystics of the faith belong to the Companions of the Summer Wind, who tend to be good-aligned, the Disciples of Spring’s Breeze, who are mainly neutral, or the Alliance of Midwinter’s Teeth, who are evil.
Priestly Vestments
Priests of Akadi dress for rituals in robes of white, light gray, and light blue, representing the many faces of their goddess. Silk is a preferred material in vestments, as its flowing nature pleases the goddess, and rare silks dyed in flowing or rippling patterns of blue or white are highly prized. Many priests wear jewelry of milky opal, crystal quartz, augelite, turquoise, beryllonite, blue spinel, or sapphire, and these are the stones from which Akadian holy symbols are constructed. Air elementals blow fine grit over one of these gemstones, thereby inscribing Akadi’s symbol; the stone is set into a piece of jewelry, forming a holy symbol.
Adventuring Garb
Adventuring priests and Akadian clergy members on the road dress practically, though they favor clothes or accessories of white, light gray, and light blue. They recognize that traveling through the countryside on the enemy element of earth requires heavier clothing to shield oneself from that harsh element. They typically confine their use of silk to a scarf or decorative vest and pack their ceremonial vestments carefully to protect them.
Specialty Priests
NAME: Airwalkers (not implemented in game) ALIGNMENT: CN, CG, N, CN, CE WEAPONS: Any one melee weapon; all other weapons must be missile or thrown weapons. ARMOR: All armor types up to and including chain mail and shield. MAGICAL ITEMS: Same as clerics, except forbidden from using magical items with earth-based effects.
- Karsus and aaracokra may be airwalkers. - Airwalkers may cast wizard spells from the elemental air school in addition to priest spells. These spells are cast as if the airwalker were a mage of the same level. Airwalkers pray for their wizard spells instead of studying to memorize them, and chosen wizard spells replace priest spells potentially available for use that day. Airwalkers are always able to read elemental air spells on scrolls or in wizard spellbooks as if they knew read magic. - All airwalkers gain a +2 bonus to saving throws vs. the harmful effects of air- or wind-related spells or cloud-like or gaseous breath weapons. - Airwalkers are never injured from a fall so long as the distance of the fall does not exceed 10 feet per level of the airwalker. - At 5th level, airwalkers gain the ability assume a wraithform once per day. - At 5th level, airwalkers can summon one 8-HD air elemental once a day. It is important to note that the elemental summoned is not a servant of the airwalker, but rather is looked upon as an agent of Akadi that is to be respected. The ability to summon an elemental is granted once each day when airwalkers receive their normal complement of spells. - At 7th level, airwalkers gain the ability to fly once per day. - At 9th level, airwalkers gain the ability to cast cloudkill once per day. - At 9th level, airwalkers can summon one 12-HD air elemental once a tenday. All the same conditions apply as for summoning an 8-HD air elemental. - At 13th level, airwalkers can summon one 16-HD air elemental once a tenday. All the same conditions apply as for summoning an 8-HD air elemental. - At 15th level, airwalkers can move through the Elemental Plane of Air without need for food or water. - Airwalkers who work together can summon an elemental of greater HitDice than they would otherwise be able to alone. As long as both summoners remain alive, the elemental remains under their control for one full hour.