Ezun (pronounced EH-zoon), or the Bear-Who-Is-King, is a deity worshiped by the hobgoblins of Akatzar] in the southern Stormlands. Ezun acts directly through his mortal avatars, of which only one exists at any given time. These avatars are invariably particularly strong and cunning leaders of the hobgoblin tribes, who go to great lengths to prove their status in war.
Edicts and anathema
- Edicts
- Take captives in battle, forge your own weapons and armor, prove your superiority in combat and in command of other fighters
- Anathema
- Appear in public without wearing armor, kill a bear unnecessarily, return from war empty-handed
Beliefs and followers
As a god of warfare, Ezun commands those who worship him to follow his avatar into battle, bringing in line those who have allied with false exemplars and subjugating the unfaithful. The god's followers prove their devotion through emulation - they craft their own armor, take captives in battle, and fight their way into positions of leadership, just as Ezun did when he brought together the hobgoblins of the Stormlands into tribes for the first time. This hostage-taking in particular is often both ritual and practical. Nearly all are ransomed back to their tribes, and therefore provide a method of acquiring wealth and prestige, but it is no less a demonstration of faith, especially when targeting those who are said to be in Ezun's high favor.
At the center of Ezun's faith is their avatar, a figure who is simultaneously a mortal and the god. There can only be one avatar at any given time, though there are typically many claimants, all of whom attempt to prove their legitimacy through combat with each other, in direct duels sometimes but more commonly through leading their tribes to war. Should a powerful avatar succeed in their show of strength, however, they are capable of uniting the warring tribes, a prospect always feared by the neighbors of Akatzar and those living under the hobgoblins' rule. In all the millennia of Ezun's worship only four avatars have ever even briefly held the title uncontested.
Warfare waged in Ezun's name is highly ritualized. Participants attempt to capture each other, or else to inflict injuries that will lead lasting scars, but not to kill or maim. It is in part this avoidance of the worst violence that allows his faithful to continue their worship without reducing their numbers or excessively weakening themselves.
Ezun is typically pictured as a four-horned bear clad in burnished metal armor. Depictions of the god directly are rare, however, as any imagery is more often of the current avatar, though the avatar often wears a helmet and armor reminiscent of that of the god.