Thoth

Goddess of knowledge, learning and communication. She is also worshiped under the names Iah and Ioun.

Her worship tends to be concentrated in larger settlements, where her temples double as libraries; however, almost every institution of learning from the largest big-city university to the smallest rural one-room schoolhouse contains a shrine where teachers as well as students will pay her homage.

She is closely associated with several other deities, mainly through a similarity or overlap of remit. These include Sukunabikona and Bahamut as deities of magic (reflecting the knowledge and learning required for most arcane practitioners), and Shikichihime in her capacity as divine messenger. There are also persistent legends that Thoth confers regularly with The Fatespinners to document the lives and fates of all mortals who have ever lived.

She maintains cordial or at least civil relationships with nearly all of her fellow deities, the notable exceptions being Lolth (whose approval of deceit and treachery are anathema to the goddess of knowledge) and Tizareus (who stole some particularly dangerous knowledge from Thoth's keeping, went mad and yet was granted apotheosis in consequence).

A notable feature of Thoth's temples is the message service provided by the clergy. Anyone can enter a temple of Thoth and ask that a message be sent to anyone in another city where a temple to Thoth exists. The cost of the service (in the form of a donation to the temple) is flexible and depends on multiple factors including whether the sender or recipient is a worshiper, the urgency of the message (things deemed urgent may cost more, as more direct magical means are required to get the message to its recipient in a timely way), and the nature of the message (things deemed to be of interest to the temple or the general public will cost less than messages of purely personal or private import).

Thoth rarely engages with her worshipers (or mortals in general), and the location of her home and divine archive is an extremely closely held secret. The main reason for this is a simple one: even the goddess of knowledge understands that there is some knowledge too dangerous to be shared with mortals, for their own well-being (and perhaps that of the divinities and cosmos as well).

The ibis, the elephant, and the octopus are sacred to Thoth. Her most common symbol is a quill.