Tsukiyo (Pathfinder)
My latest Pathfinder character is a cleric of Tsukiyo, a god I fell in love with when I realized it allowed me to access the powerful Darkness and Madness domains without having to worship evil! There is not a lot of information out there about Tsukiyo, though, and most of what does exist is really more about his fellow Tian-Xia deities. Before I could effectively play a priest of Tsukiyo, I had to understand more about this strange god that is committed to goodness and purity while also embracing madness. So I made it up.
I tried to interweave my ideas in with Pathfinder’s existing lore. For me, the most compelling details in the canon are Tsukiyo’s betrayal by his brother, desecration by Lao Shu Po, and subsequent resurrection. I zoomed in on this, hoping to flesh out a personality that has seen the absolute worst that godhood has to offer and still maintains his devotion to goodness… but perhaps with a bit more zeal than most would be comfortable with. In short, I wanted Tsukiyo to be “lawful good, not lawful nice.”
Tsukiyo
Prince of the Moon
God of the moon, jade, and spirits
Alignment: LG
Domains: Darkness, Good, Law, Madness, Repose
Subdomains: Ancestors, Archon, Insanity, Moon, Night, Souls
Favored Weapon: longspear
One of the twenty major gods of the Tian Xia pantheon, Tsukiyo is the virtuous Prince of the Moon, the Darkness, and the Night; his lover is Shizuru, Empress of Heaven and Goddess of the Sun. Tsukiyo’s relationship with Shizuru is not an easy one, however, as they never meet one another, in a symbolic representation of the separation of night and day, save for the times of a solar eclipse; those rare times are, of course, fleetingly fast.
Tsukiyo is also the brother of the evil god of death and destruction, Fumeiyoshi. Aeons ago, Fumeiyoshi grew jealous of his brother’s loving relationship with Shizuru and, on one occasion, grew so angry he murdered Tsukiyo. A legend holds that the very first stones of jade were formed at this time from the intermingling of Shizuru’s tears with Tsukiyo’s blood; because of this, jade is sacred within the church of the Prince of the Moon and his holy symbol is a crescent moon made of the stone.
Shizuru ordered a great tomb of jade built for Tsukiyo to lie in everafter. She then recruited Yaezhing, the punisher of the gods and the enforcer of divine justice, to punish Fumeiyoshi by banishing him to his brother’s tomb and stripping him of his position. She stated Fumeiyoshi would forever envy his betters as the undead envy the living and, indeed, Fumeiyoshi is now styled the Lord of Envy and in his portfolio are dishonour, envy, graves, and the undead.
Interlude: The Tale of Lao Shu Po
Fumeiyoshi’s treachery did not end with fratricide. After decades of solitude, he heard scurrying and squeaking outside his cold stone prison. “Who goes there?” he asked.
“I am an ordinary rat, my lord, called Lao Shu Po,” responded a small voice.
Fumeiyoshi immediately formed an evil plan. “Dear Lao Shu Po, no one else could help me but such a creature as you, so I believe you were sent to me. Use your small size and your cunning to enter this tomb. Feast on the cold flesh of my dead brother. You shall ascend to such power as no rat could ever imagine, and then you shall free me as payment for my sage advice.”
It does not take much to prod a rat to eat. Lao Shu Po slipped into the tomb and feasted on Tsukiyo’s body. It was only after she had eaten her fill that she realized that her paws were paws no longer but human hands, with gray corpsemeat under the fingernails. She felt her face — gone were her whiskers and her long nose, and in their place was a wizened old woman’s head.
Then Fumeiyoshi called out: “Are you finished, Lao Shu Po? I hope your meal was to your satisfaction. Now come and help your friend Fumeiyoshi.”
Lao Shu Po followed Fumeiyoshi’s voice to his grim prison. She raised one of her bony hands to dismiss the golden bonds that held him in place… and stopped. She knew little of power, but she knew much of hunger, and she did not find the two very different now that she had experienced both. Power, she thought, was like food; there was only so much to go around. She resumed her rat form and fled between Fumeiyoshi’s bound feet, stopping only to nip a bite of flesh out of his calf. Thus the cunning Lao Shu Po stole her godhood from the brothers.
Golarion suffered without the Prince of the Moon. The seasons became wildly unpredictable. Long winters and short planting seasons starved the people. Ships floundered on oceans that were still and smooth as glass; fishers returned home with empty nets as the ocean’s denizens died off without the churning currents carrying nutrients from richer waters. Shizuru went to Qi Zhong, the god of medicine, and fell to her knees, begging as only an empress could beg, that the Master of Medicine resurrect Tsukiyo. Qi Zhong felt the imbalance in the world and acquiesced.
Even a god cannot experience death and return unscathed. The Tsukiyo that returned from the grave was one that had experienced the blade of his brother’s naginata between his ribs, one who had felt the sharp teeth of Lao Shu Po at his flesh as he lay and could do nothing. The Tsukiyo that returned to Shizuru experienced fits of insanity, falling victim to emotional tempests. Thus when he returned, he added to his portfolio madness, repose, and spirits (thereby becoming the patron of the samsaran race who are associated with reincarnation). Though still dedicated to goodness and purity, his vindictiveness in battle became legendary. He did not so much as defeat his opponents as break them, causing entire legions to go insane and turn on their fellow soldiers, or cursing corrupt rulers by stealing their minds, leaving them shells of their former selves.
Tsukiyo and Shizuru are known to have had at least one offspring, the star archon known as the Dusk Ronin. Although Dusk Ronin has not strayed from her original moral teachings, she has been banished from her parents’ domain in Heaven due to an unknown occurrence, and now seeks to atone for her transgression.
The holy symbol of Tsukiyo is a jade crescent moon. As with all the pantheon of Tian Xia, Tsukiyo is associated with a sacred animal; in his case, he adopts the hare. The image of a moon-gazing hare is a popular one in Tian-Xian paintings, and so intertwined are the Tsukiyan symbols of the moon and the rabbit that folklore states that the dark splotches on the moon’s face are a hare doing mysterious work — the “hare in the moon”. What that work is varies by region — in Minkai, it is crushing cinnamon sticks with a mortar and pestle, a symbol of immortality; in Tianjing, it is creating sticky rice cakes, a treat enjoyed during festivals.
The Church
On Golarion, Tsukiyo’s worship is most significant on the continent of Tian Xia where he is classed as one of their twenty major gods. His faith is particularly strong in Goka (where there are impressive statues of Shizuru and Tsukiyo, some 250 feet tall, guarding the entrance to Xu Hong Bay), Jinin, Minkai, Nagajor, Tianjing, Wall of Heaven, and Zi Ha. The ruler of Zi Ha is Gyaltho Tuku, a very powerful cleric of Tsukiyo. The Prince of the Moon is also a popular god in the Forest of Spiritswhere scattered shrines dedicated to him are found.
In Minkai, the links are particularly strong: firstly through Tsukiyo’s close relationship with the patron goddess of Minkai, Shizuru. Secondly, it is believed that Tsukiyo created the emblematic Jade Throne on which the emperors of Minkai have ruled for over a thousand years. Thirdly, in the capital of Minkai, Kasai, stands the Tree of Souls: a huge cherry tree considered to be the soul of the empire of Minkai. This tree is tended by priestesses of Tsukiyo and all the earth around the tree is classed as sacred. Currently, the priestesses are aiding the druid Osuzu to determine how the now damaged tree can be healed.
Services vary depending on the phase of the moon. Each moon phase holds a particularly meaning in Tsukiyan doctrine, based around his death and rebirth, and each phase has its own accompanying prayers and rituals.
Tsukiyo’s clergy is predominantly clerics and druids with their eyes on the heavens. The samurai and paladins who worship Shizuru also pay homage to her lover when they make offerings.
Temples and Shrines
In cities,Tsukiyan houses of worship are typically found next to those of Shizuru, his lover, and built in a complementary style — for instance, in black marble to contrast a temple to Shizuru in white marble. Far from civilization, simple temples to Tsukiyo exist in dark forests, the better to watch the moon and stars. Statuary and carvings in jade are prolific in wealthier urban churches, and even poorer temples have at least one small jade figurine, usually in the shape of the crescent moon that is Tsukiyo’s holy symbol, or the hare that is his sacred animal. The ceiling of the main worship area of the church is open so that services can be held under the night sky.
A Priest’s Role
Tsukiyo’s worshippers perform the service of brokers between the living and the spirit world. As part of this work they may tend to cemeteries, defend villages from evil spirits, or ensure the common people conquer their fears of the dark. The tale of Fumeiyoshi’s treachery has never been forgotten by those who honor the Prince of the Moon, and more martial clergy members may dedicate themselves to the eradication of evil undead.
The Tsukiyan church is also the authority on Golarion’s lunar calendar in Tian-Xia. Tsukiyan astronomers and astrologers are renowned throughout the globe for their knowledge and accuracy. Hei Fang remains the god of sailors and fisherman, and Kofusachi the god of travelers, but the experienced know that a star map drawn by the Tsukiyan church is a a boon for anyone embarking on a journey.
A somewhat unexpected role of Tsukiyan priests is that of midwife. Pagan belief in the moon and the hare as fertility symbols prompted those desiring children to pray at Tsukiyan shrines; this tradition was passed down throughout generations and although little is formally recorded in scripture about this aspect of Tsukiyo, it has become de facto practice in much of Tian-Xia. Tsukiyo’s priests rose to this challenge, and now it is common for mothers to request a Tsukiyan priest to attend them throughout their pregnancy and birth.
A Tsukiyan priest always performs her prayers at night, preferably under the open sky.
Adventurers
Tsukiyo is not a martial god, so those who follow Tsukiyo, unlike those who worship his lover Shizuru, are more likely to leave home to chart the heavens or view some rare astronomical event than to seek out and destroy evil. However, no true worshipper of Tsukiyo can ignore the poor and oppressed when she encounters them. Once engaged, Tsukiyan clergy are ruthless in the pursuit of justice and purity — for a Tsukiyan, “good” is not necessarily synonymous with “nice”.
Clothing
There are no formal raiments for worshippers of Tsukiyo, although they tend to prefer fabrics in jade green or the black of the night.
Holy Text
The Tsuki-Hon is less a traditional holy text than a record of moon phases and star movements going back millennia, with accompanying tales and psalms dedicated to Tsukiyo. It is a living text, with each generation of priests adding to it.
Holidays
Tsukiyo’s holy days are variable, as they fall on the solar eclipses of the year. A total solar eclipse, in which the moon completely covers the disc of the sun, leaving the sky burning with a white ring, are high holidays that occur once a year, but vary with the eclipse’s location. Fervent worshippers may travel across the globe to be present for a total solar eclipse, as the same location may only experience a total eclipse once every decade or more.
These periods represent the rare occasions that Tsukiyo and his lover, Shizuru meet and are celebrated with elaborate celebrations. Folklore states that babies born during these period are destined for great things, and couples who long for children note these dates, as fertility is considered at its peak at this time.
Aphorisms
To continue is power†: A reference to Tsukiyo’s return from death and continued adherence to the principles of goodness and purity. No matter what one goes through, staying true to one’s beliefs is its own kind of strength.
By the Jade Tomb: Words uttered when a Tsukiyo priest makes a solemn promise, or when taken by surprise.
Relations with Other Religions
Tsukiyo is the lover of Shizuru and an enemy of his brother, Fumeiyoshi, who murdered him. He has good relations with Qi Zhong, who resurrected him, as well as Desna, with whom he shares a love of the night sky. It is unclear what Tsukiyo’s relationship is today with the evil rat goddess, Lao Shu Po, but it is likely not to be close or friendly. He is also at odds with the sadistic Lady Nanbyo, who heaps trails and misery upon mortals and revels in their prayers to be spared.
