Parrafaire was the demigod patron of nagas and son of the greater goddess Shekinester, the Naga Queen.[2][4][6] The Naga Prince was a power of tricks and traps,[7] an exemplar of vigilance,[8] and a guardian of magical secrets and locations deep below the surface of Toril.[1]
Description[]
Parrafaire appeared as a 10‑foot-long (3‑meter) winged water naga with the head of a human male sporting feathered ears. Neither his skin tone nor the color of his feathered wings were fixed, changing to suit either the environment or his wishes.[4]
Personality[]
Parrafaire was a playful, light-spirited, deity[5] that delighted in creating clever decoys and diversions, relished the subtlety of riddles and mazes, and took glee in offering cryptic clues.[7][1] Although not exceptionally dangerous, however, the chaotic neutral god was nevertheless a force to be reckoned with, for despite his levity he could still prove to be perilous to interact with.[7][5]
Parrafaire's trickster ways were not to be mistaken for a lack of mental capability, for he was fairly wise and thoughtful,[5] attempts to deceive or outwit him not going down well unless incredibly well-planned and executed. His one mental weakness was flattery, heartfelt appeals to his intelligent riddles and expressed admiration of his skills, which gained some mileage with the wise but slightly vain Naga Prince.[4]
Powers[]
Through the powers of his mother, Parrafaire had the powers of a greater deity concerning the planar travel, number, and replacement times of his avatars despite being a demigod.[4]
The avatars of Parrafaire was skilled in both illusion magic and thievery. He was mostly resistant to magic, always mind blanked fully immune to poison, paralysis, mind-control, illusory magic, and gases. The Prince of Hidden Secrets could access the following spells three times per day: fear, feeblemind, maze, and globe of invulnerability.[4]
Parrafaire could lash out with a powerful bite, laced with a unique poison that could leave his targets confused. He flew through the air four times faster than he slithered across the ground.[4]
Possessions[]
Parrafaire was greatly empowered by the large gold band around his tail, which acted as a ring of warmth and a ring of fire resistance.
Divine Realm[]
Parrafaire realm, known as Trickster's Delight, was located in Minethys, the 3rd layer of Carceri. Despite being an entity of chaos, Parrafaire didn't truly "belong" on Carceri; unlike other residents he was not an exile or outcast of any kind and could come and go as he pleased.[7][9]
Activities[]
Parrafaire was a protector of secrets, magical lore, concealed wisdom, and hidden places, but his role was not to completely prevent access to that which he safeguarded. Rather, his purpose was to test the wisdom, skill, and resourcefulness of those who came searching for it, and he was completely unconcerned with the morality or ethics of those vying. He placed various (non-lethal) traps, distractions, labyrinths and hints to challenge those seeking out said secrets, and might appear hhimself to deliver riddles and puzzles that would need to be answered before passage would be granted.[4][1]
Relationships[]
Parrafaire was the son of Shekinester and Jazirian, two aspects of the World Serpent.[6] He was somewhat close to his mother in essence, being a guardian of secrets, but unlike Shekinester, the secrets he protected were not of his own nature.[5] Rather, the Naga Prince defended the secrets of others, including his mother and a diverse assortment of other gods; for example, he served Dumathoin, a dwarven god asssociated with underground secrets, much as Parrafaire himself was.[4] Furthermore, he was a wayward and errant child sometimes willing to allow mortals to peek at the secrets that Shekinester herself would guard more carefully.[5]
Ironically Parrafaire was an outcast on Carceri, the plane of the rejected and cast away, for the other deities resident to the Red Prison hated him for being out of place.[7]
Worshipers[]
Few beings, if any, truly worshiped the Naga Prince, and thus he had no established church, although almost all nagas paid him at least indirect homage.[4][1] The Harmonium, despite their tendency to follow powers of law and order, put great value on the ideal of guardianship that Parrafaire exemplified.[8]
The Prince of Hidden Secrets did have religious teachings, but these took the form of riddles and puzzles that needed to be deciphered by his worshipers.[1]
Parrafaire's favored weapon was the tail scythe and his signature weapon was the +1 warning tail scythe.[2]
History[]
Far before Parrafaire was born, the World Serpent was the greater deity of the scalyfolk. Over time however, to match the many, often conflicting demands of its worshipers, the World Serpent had split into several different deities, each carrying a fraction of its power. Shekinester was the embodiment of the World Serpent's wisdom and the keeper of its knowledge. Later, two other fragments of the World Serpent, Jazirian and Ssharstrune, began to court Shekinester, but in the end she chose the former and became pregnant with his child.[6]
Enraged by his rejection, Ssharstrune attacked Shekinester, forcing her to devour him. The unforeseen consequence of this however was that Shekinester had taken in the destructive element that the evil naga god embodied, the same destructiveness that had split the World Serpent in the first place. As a result, Shekinester became a multi-aspected goddess, though not fully divided into seperate deities.[6]
When Parrafaire was finally born, his mother expelled Ssharstrune's corpse and tasked her son to forever hide away the destructive force it made manifest so that she would not truly split apart as the World Serpent had done. The Naga Prince complied with the desires of the Queen, since which the two had been venerated as the guardians of the nagas.[6]
Appendix[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd, Darrin Drader (July 2004). Serpent Kingdoms. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 187. ISBN 0-7869-3277-5.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd, Darrin Drader (July 2004). Serpent Kingdoms. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 188–189. ISBN 0-7869-3277-5.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 176. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 Carl Sargent (May 1992). Monster Mythology. (TSR, Inc), p. 101. ISBN 1-5607-6362-0.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Carl Sargent (May 1992). Monster Mythology. (TSR, Inc), p. 97. ISBN 1-5607-6362-0.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd, Darrin Drader (July 2004). Serpent Kingdoms. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 27. ISBN 0-7869-3277-5.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Colin McComb (December 1995). “Liber Malevolentiae”. In Michele Carter ed. Planes of Conflict (TSR, Inc.), p. 11. ISBN 0-7869-0309-0.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 47. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.
- ↑ Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 176. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.