Hanspur

Hanspur

(Deity)

Titles

The Water Rat

Realm

Maelstrom and part of the River Styx

Alignment

Chaotic neutral

Areas of Concern

Rivers
River Travel
Smugglers

Worshipers

Clerics, druids, rangers

Edicts

Learn how to live off the river, guard river travelers from unnatural hazards, save others from drowning

Anathema

Impose needless laws or restrictions, aid daemons or the Apocalypse Riders

Follower Alignments (1E)

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Domains (1E)

Chaos, Death, Travel, Water

Subdomains (1E)

Exploration, Murder, Rivers, Trade

Follower Alignments (2E)

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Domains (2E)

Death, travel, water, wealth

Favored Weapon

Trident

Symbol

Rat walking on water or on a log

Sacred Animal

Rat

Sacred Colors

Blue, gold

Images of Hanspur

Source: Inner Sea Faiths, pg(s). 58–63 (1E)
Gods & Magic, pg(s). 130–131 (2E)

Hanspur is a demigod of the waterways worshiped primarily in the River Kingdoms. Hanspur is the god of the watery domains of the Sellen River and considers himself lord of all who travel his domain. As a travel god, his shrines always lie just outside the town gates. Despite this, he is still paid at least lip service by the peoples of the River Kingdoms, as he smites those who displease him by sinking their boats and flooding their lands. Hanspur considers dams that completely block a river to be unnatural.

Appearance

Hanspur is depicted in art as a bearded man with spiky, reed-like hair. His religious symbol is a rat either walking on water or standing on a flooding piece of driftwood, and he is known to travel with a giant rat companion.

History

Hanspur's identity during his past as a mortal is unclear to many on Golarion. According to the Kellids, he was once a great Kellid king who ruled over the whole River Kingdoms until his death, which marked the loss of Kellid territory to encroaching southerners. Other legends claim he was once a priest of Gozreh. However, his own clerics indoctrinated in the deeper secrets of his faith know of his true origins as a mortal Kellid.

What is known is that Hanspur was drowned by a travelling companion, a priest of Corosbel, who intended to consign his soul to Charon and increase Corosbel's standing in the Boatman's eyes. However, Gozreh intervened and preserved part of Hanspur's soul in his giant rat companion. After a week, Hanspur rose from the Sellen River as a demigod with a fractured soul. It is unknown if Gozreh intended to raise him as a divine being or as a mere guardian of the waterways.

Home

Hanspur claims a river system that twists across the whole Maelstrom as his divine realm. These waterways never stay in the same place for long. Due to his enmity against the daemons, Hanspur also claims part of the River Styx where it borders the Maelstrom, where he tolerates no daemonic presence except for the thanadaemons that ferry people across the river.

Church of Hanspur

Hanspur is considered to be a forbidden god and his worship is banned in many nations because of one of his faith's rituals. His worshipers travel with a lone companion, and then re-enact Hanspur's murder by drowning them at night in the Sellen River, their god's domain during his mortal life. His followers also show their obedience by simulating drowning on themselves or a fellow worshipper.

Clergy

There is no formal garb for his priests, who dress in simple river clothing such as short-legged pants, ponchos, and sandals. They are transient, bordering on vagrant, moving from village to village, bartering and trading with information, magic, and mail. They also hire themselves out as guides.

Temples and shrines

Worshipers of Hanspur have few formal temples, instead favoring shrines built on driftwood and released downriver on small rafts, carried downstream on a wayward and unplanned path. There is one "magnificent" shrine to Hanspur on the northern shore of the Kallas Lake between the River Kingdoms and Kyonin—essentially a flotilla of rafts lashed together—and the cultists who live in the village of Riverton east of the lake have also constructed a shrine to the river god.

Religious texts

His canon includes the Six River Freedoms, and homilies about life on the river.

Relationships

Due to the circumstances of his death, Hanspur considers Corosbel, and by extension all daemonic harbingers and Apocalypse Riders, as enemies and seeks to thwart them whenever possible. Hanspur views Gozreh as an enigmatic parental figure, while Gozreh provides only lukewarm support to him, suggesting that either his ascension was intended or Gozreh does not approve of his actions as a demigod. Despite his help in protecting the River of Souls, Pharasma sees his return to life as a minor affront.

Hanspur and his neighbour Besmara have aided each other on numerous personal matters: she allows him to board the Seawraith and join her in raids against Corosbel's daemon allies, a relationship that also extends to both deities' followers. Hanspur and Gyronna, a fellow Kellid-turned-deity, share a grudging mutual respect.

Although each claims a different river, the followers of Hanspur have occasionally clashed with those of Wadjet when travelling the River Sphinx. Being a lawful deity, Wadjet dislikes Hanspur's chaotic nature and seeks to enforce her laws on his priests on the River Sphinx.

References

Paizo published a major article about Hanspur in Inner Sea Faiths.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.