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# Part of Simon Phipp's RuneQuest/Glorantha Site

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Glorantha is a Fantasy world setting and RuneQuest is a Fantasy Game.
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Copyright © 2001 Simon E. Phipp
Created On 26 April 2001
Last Updated On 26 April 2001

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# White Face

## Mythos and History

White Face was born during the time of the EWF and studied there, but nobody knows what he studied. He seemed to study nothing but also seemed to watch everything. He watched the masters at their works, he watched the dragons playing, he watched the people coming and going. He watched the Faceless Statue for a long time and decided that he would follow the Statue, thus beginning his Path to Godhood. After many journeys, White Face had become as faceless as the Statue and returned to the Throne for more studies, but as he watched the Statue he saw a stranger come and speak strange words to the Faceless One. White Face withdrew into the shadows and watched as Pavis awakened the Statue and together they marched away to the south. White Face followed them, always keeping hidden and always watching, until Pavis defeated the giants of Paragua. White Face slipped within the walls of the city and watched the workmen building and the priests praying. He followed Pavis to the plains and saw him wound and then heal Waha. He followed Flintnail and saw where he went to after he left Pavis. He followed Thog when he defeated the forces of Pavis and followed Joraz Kyrem when he brought allies to defeat the giants and trolls.

After a while, White Face decided that it was time to act, not just to watch, so he used his knowledge of what he had seen and traded it with others for more information. Sometimes he traded well and sometimes he traded badly. Sometimes he had to steal as when he performed the Four Nests Quest and stole an egg from each of the Rivals. Once, he watched the people of Pavis call out for aid from the Darkness and he followed them to the north and saw that trouble was coming, but he was tripped on the return journey and could not warn the citizens of Pavis of what was coming.

During the troll occupation, White Face watched many people and traded information about the trolls and their enemies. He always kept himself in the shadows, an anonymous face in the background, and even when he sold information he sold it either as White Face or as some other person. Some say that he died during the troll occupation, others say that he followed Pavis into retirement, others say he still walks the Rubble and searches for new things to watch.

## Cult Ecology

White Face is the god of watching from the shadows, the god of information gathering and of trading of information. His worshippers claim he is the god who watches that which other gods do not see.

His worshippers are secretive and do not draw attention to themselves. They go about their normal business and do not show themselves as followers of White Face for to do so would endanger their effectiveness.

White Face trusts very few people, but is friendly to the cults of Pavis and Flintnail. He has a rivalry with the Lanbril cult and distrusts the thieves of Lanbril. He has traded information with many of the deities of Pavis and so does not like nor dislike most of them, he is even neutral to the troll deities. White Face dislikes Chaos and generally reports any information about chaotic deities to other stronger deities.

Holy days of White Face fall on Wildday of Truth Week and his High Holy Day falls during Sacred Time.

White Face is associated with the runes of Illusion, Shadow and Truth.

## The Cult in the World

White Face is worshipped by certain people who live in clans descended from White Face himself. These were fathered by White Face during his stay in Pavis and have kept his memory strong. Very few outsiders can worship White Face as he is very difficult to track down, although it has been done in the past.

The cult survives by finding and selling information and is known to be fairly honourable and truthful in its dealings. Most of the cults in Pavis have had dealings with White Face and know where they can buy information.

White Face has a few shrines within the Big Rubble, all in houses or places where White Face lived. These are guarded by his cultists and are not known to outsiders. Shrines are in Oldtown, Downtown, Blind King's Hill and New Pavis. The Throne is also a Holy Site and worshippers sometimes make a pilgrimage there for unknown reasons.

Shrines are headed by the oldest Faceless One who is often the leader of the clan. Other Faceless Ones wait their turn to become oldest and assist the High Priest. There is no overall control of the cult and each clan is relatively independent of the others.

Burial practices follow the Pavic norms and include burial in stone coffers. Many worshippers of White Face also worship other deities and their burial rites often take precedence as White Face is not a god of the dead.

## Initiate Membership

Those belonging to the clans that worship White Face may join the cult by sacrificing 1 POW as they reach adulthood.

Outsiders may only join if they find out about White Face, track down one of his temples and prove themselves worthy of his worship. Normally this involves giving the cult information that it requires or passing a test set by the Faceless Ones. In any case, the candidate must pass a Test of Holiness and must give a gift to the Faceless Ones. Failure means that the candidate must be killed as White Face must keep his secrets.

Initiates may learn cult skills and spirit magic spells. Initiates may sacrifice for cult special Divine spells and also for Associate Divine Spells.

### Cult Skills

White Face teaches the skills of Act, Mimic, Shadow and Disguise.

Mimic (Communication Base 5%)
This allows the user to mimic the voice and gestures of another. Success allows the user to pass as the other person unless they are drastically different in appearance. This is often used to ridicule others or to pass as the other person.

White Face teaches the Spirit Magic spells of Copy Voice, Image Creation and White Face.

Copy Voice (2 points, temporal, passive)

This allows the user to exactly copy another's voice for 5 minutes. Listeners will be unable to tell that the user's voice is different from the copied voice. The user must have heard the voice to copy it.

White Face (3 points, temporal, passive)

This spell allows the user to change the appearance of his face to exactly match anothers. The user must have seen the other face in order to do this. No examination will detect the difference. Unlike Image Creation, this does not go away if jostled and is a passive effect.

## Faceless Ones

These are the Priests of White Face. They must have shown themselves to be secretive and clever, to have mastered the skills and spells of the cult and to have gathered information that has helped the cult.

Prospective Faceless Ones must have 90% in 5 cult skills and have 10 points of Divine Magic. He must pass the standard test.

Faceless Ones have access to the Divine Spells of Another Me, Switch With Me, Dark Walk and all 1 point common spells.

## Special Divine Spells

Another Me (3 points, stackable, reusable, temporal)

This creates an illusion that is an exact copy of the caster. It will mimic the actions of the caster until he is killed or the spell expires. If the caster wishes, he can cause it to do other things but this takes a concentration roll and the skills of the illusion are restricted to the caster's skills or INTx3% whichever is lower. If the illusion takes damage then it will disappear and the spell will end. If the spell is stacked, more copies of the caster will appear wherever he wishes.

Switch With Me (2 points, instant, reusable, stackable)

This enables the caster to switch places with a willing person. It instantly moves the caster to where the target is and the target to where the caster is, in the same way that a Teleport spell might move someone. Faceless Ones can switch with copies of themselves created using the Another Me spell.

## Subservient Cults

White Face has no subcults as it is a minor cult. Those members who betray the cult will find that they cannot follow another person in secret, they automatically fumble any Shadow skill attempt. Faceless Ones who betray the cult wake up one day without a face, instead they will have a white face like an eggshell. This cannot be restored except through heroquesting.

## Associate Cults

White Face has no associate cults. It is friendly to the Pavis and Flintnail cults but gains nothing from this.

## Miscellaneous Notes

White Face has strained relationships with the Lanbril cult as their cult functions overlap somewhat, although White Face is not strictly a thief cult. No Lanbril cultists may join the White Face cult and White Face cultists may not join Lanbril's cult. They can join the Black Fang cult, but few do so.

There is no relationship between Gim Gim's Moon Masks, although some feel that Gim Gim is trying to pass them off as White Face cultists. In fact, White Face cultists always report the whereabouts of the Moon Masks and discreetly try to cause them trouble.

[End]