Ioun, the Knowing Mistress

Titles: The Knowing Mistress Home: Hestavar

Alignment: Neutral

Portfolio: Knowledge, skill, prophecy, books

Domains: Knowledge, arcana

Symbol: The Staff of the Vigilant Eye (a stylized shepherd’s staff with an eye in the crook)

Favored Weapon: Quarterstaffs

Teachings

 * Seek the perfection of your mind by bringing reason, perception, and emotion into balance with one another.
 * Accumulate, preserve, and distribute knowledge in all forms. Pursue education, build libraries, and seek out lost and ancient lore.
 * Be watchful at all times for those who seek to control knowledge and keep secrets. Oppose their schemes, unmask their secrets, and blind them with the light of truth and reason.

Followers and Clergy
As the goddess of knowledge, Ioun is a popular patron god amongst scholars of all stripes. Historians, naturalists, alchemists, artificers, and wizards all seek her guidance and wisdom. Those seeking insight into fate and the future frequently seek her aid as well.

Ioun’s clerics have an incredible degree of global cooperation and organization, thanks to frequent use of communication and divination spells. The loose organization of scholars that makes up her faith is known as the Path of the Open Eye. Most clerics are scholars, seeking to enlighten and educate the world, and they often construct academies and libraries to share their knowledge.

Within Ioun’s clergy, a group known as the Order of the Staff takes a more adventurous role, as they seek to reclaim lost knowledge and artifacts. The Order frequently ventures into dangerous areas to gain forgotten knowledge.

Followers of Ioun often face precarious situations in society, as many in power seek to carefully control knowledge to maintain their position.

Traditions and Practices
Followers of the Path of the Open Eye are commanded to never stop learning or sharing knowledge, and followers try to spend at least an hour each day reading, writing, or practicing a skill. Additionally, members of the Path are expected to share the rewards of their knowledge, and the devout offer generous donations to continue funding research and education.

When clerics travel, they are expected to chronicle information. The devout document weather, local customs, unique flora and fauna, geographic features, and other such information. When they find rare or damaged manuscripts, clerics are commanded to preserve and copy the information.

Additionally, Ioun commands her followers to be open and honest with others. Lies are forbidden, unless the truth would result in the loss of greater knowledge.

Clothing and Symbols
Within their libraries and academies, Ioun’s faithful wear robes of sky-blue, symbolizing the unclouded clarity of knowledge and wisdom. They often wear jewelry or wield wands or staffs depicting the Staff of the Vigilant Eye.

Places of Worship
Ioun’s worship occurs in small chapels located within academies, libraries, and research facilities constructed by the Path. Even educational institutions constructed by secular groups generally feature a small shrine for the Knowing Mistress.