Wastri

Greyhawk Deity
Wastri
Wastri, as depicted in Dragon #71. Art by Jeff Easley.
Title(s)	The Hopping Prophet, Hammer of False Humans
Home Plane	Prime Material Plane (The Vast Swamp)
Power Level	Demigod
Gender	Male
Class(es)	Cleric 15/Monk 8/Assassin 7
Alignment	Lawful neutral (lawful evil)
Portfolio	Amphibians, Bigotry, Self-Deception
Domains	Animal, Law, Purification, War
Alias(es)	none
Superior	none

Wastri is the god of Amphibians, Bigotry, and Self-Deception. His symbol is a gray toad.

Description

Wastri appears as a human with froglike features, dressed in clothes of gray and yellow and wielding a glave-guisarme called Skewer of the Impure.

Relationships

Wastri is amicable toward all human deities other than Zagyg, who once imprisoned him beneath Castle Greyhawk with eight other demigods. He despises the gods of the elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings.

Wastri's relationship with the bullywug deity Ramenos, who also has large numbers of bullywug followers, is unknown.

Realm

Wastri is said to dwell deep in the Vast Swamp, where he is served by bullywugs and warped humans in a fortress-temple called the Sacred Polystery. There, they breed frogs to look more human, and humans to look more like frogs.

In The Scarlet Brotherhood by Sean K. Reynolds, Wastri's base in the Vast Swamp is called the Temple of the Prophet. It is described as a motley collection of huts surrounding a stone ruin. His servants are noted to include bullywugs, grung, and other amphibious creatures. Wastri preaches to his followers, increasing their wrath over the iniquity of elves, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes. Those humans who come to the Temple are dragged into the ruin and emerge months later with toadlike features and sometimes supernatural powers. "False humans" are impaled. Within a mile of the ruin, all amphibious creatures or creatures made amphibious by the ruin's power regenerate one hp per turn.

Dogma

Wastri teaches his worshippers that humans are superior to all other races. Some humanoid races such as goblins, orcs, and bullywugs are fit to serve humanity as slaves; other races, like dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings, must be exterminated.

Wastri believes that amphibious living things are worthy of respect because of their ability to escape to water when the land is dangerous, and vice versa. The demigod admires this resourcefulness and urges his followers to emulate them by maintaining multiple refuges.

The Hopping Prophet's faith is an orderly one. His clerics stress the exaction of the rights and duties of each follower.

Worshipers

Wastri's faith is based from his lair in the Vast Swamp, though his followers have been found as far as the Hool Marshes, the Cold Marshes, and even in Greyhawk City. Old Wastrian temples have also been found within the Troll Fens.

Clergy

The Hopping Prophet's followers are often cleric/monks who leap into battle with poisoned weapons. Wastri himself is accompanied by the Immaculate Image (his monk/high priest), a group of clerics called the Greater Servants, and a pair of huge toads.

In the Sacred Polystery his cultists are divided into Hopefuls (those hoping to become clerics) and his Lesser Servants, who are clerics of various levels. Wastri's current high priest is Baranabas, who dwells within the Temple of the Prophet and guards it against intruders while his master is away.

Temples

Wastri's places of worship are dim, dark, and chill.

Rituals

Wastri's ceremonies involve croaking chants, strange musical instruments, and ritual sacrifice.

History

Wastri is rumored to have once been a mortal human. "Wastri" had been the name of a student of Kevelli Mauk, the founder of the Scarlet Brotherhood. In -418 CY, three years after the Rain of Colorless Fire, Mauk, with his students and slaves, was hiding in the Vast Swamp, on the run from Oeridians. The one known as Wastri and one other were thought killed when the party entered a stone ruin half-buried in the muck, and nothing was heard from either student until the demigod Wastri revealed himself in 216 CY. The Brotherhood, disgusted by the demigod's amphibious, no-longer-human nature, privately declared him impure and never cooperated with his followers closely. In 505 CY, Wastri was captured and imprisoned in the Godtrap beneath Castle Greyhawk by the mad archmage, Zagig Yragerne, and did not escape until decades later.

Bibliography

• Gygax, Gary. "The Deities and Demigods of the World of Greyhawk." Dragon #71. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.
• -----. World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.

• Holian, Gary, Erik Mona, Sean K. Reynolds, and Frederick Weining. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000.

• Noonan, David. Complete Divine. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2004.

• Reynolds, Sean K. The Scarlet Brotherhood. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 1999.

• Sargent, Carl. From the Ashes. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1992.