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Hextor Through the Ages
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Journeyman Greytalker

Joined: Oct 29, 2018
Posts: 192
From: Salt Lake

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Tue Jun 24, 2025 9:36 am  
Hextor Through the Ages

Quick question everyone!

Both the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (3e) and Deities and Demigods neglect telling me if Hextor is a Flan deity, or a Suel Deity, a Bakulunish Deity, or an Oeridian Deity. I know he's a Great Kingdom deity -- Hextor is mostly worshipped in the Great Kingdom and the Great Kingdom of Ahlissa.

So which Pantheon is he? If Hextor is a real Deity, then going by different names for different cultures would make sense for him. I discuss Hextor as a possible real Deity in my second article, which deals with a possible schism in the past where Heironeous worshipers split from Hextor worshipers. The possibility that the two brothers would have been worshiped in the same church during the Great Kingdom's founding, building, and Height -- then the church splits into two and the two churches became rivals during the Great Kingdom's decline is the idea.

Well, to get to the point, I'm wondering if Vecna's Empire actually worshiped both Heironeous and Hextor under different names.
Master Greytalker

Joined: Jun 29, 2001
Posts: 796
From: Bronx, NY

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Tue Jun 24, 2025 2:13 pm  

According to the Gold Box, Hextor, and Heironeous, are "OC", which indicates Oeridian and "Common" origin.
Such dual origins are called out in the text for notice but never explained.

It is generally accepted that the two are of overtly Oeridian origin, something notably stressed in later products which tended to heavily downplay the mixed ethnic composition, particularly in the central Flanaess.

The extent to which members of other cultures, ethnic groups, and even races will have cults of the two varies greatly among people who use Greyhawk. I have rather significant crossover. Others reject such utterly.

As for a cult dedicated to both brothers existing at some time, several people have suggested such a thing, and I even wrote one up. Mostly to taunt a certain individual because it is fun, but also to indulge in developing a specific religion for Ket to explain some of its attitudes.
 

As for Vecna, it is the general consensus and structure of myself and Gary Holian that his realm began with a strong Old Faith, and my suggestion that it had developing Middle Faiths, a concept I cover in an old essay here on Canonfire.

Vecna himself was strongly irreligious, having betrayed the Old Faith and discovering he had been betrayed by Mok'slyk, identified by Gary as Y'chak the Violet Flame from Lords of Madness.

However, Vecna was anything but the kind of crypto-atheist typically inserted into materials, as he began a cult dedicated to himself. Vecna disdain other powers, he did not, and does not, deny their validity.
Adept Greytalker

Joined: Apr 11, 2009
Posts: 387
From: Hells Kitchen (NYC-version)

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Sun Jun 29, 2025 3:56 am  

I look at Hextor and Hieroneous as two paired Oeridian gods, and part of the "civic religion" of the original migrants. His worship is strongest in the Old Aerdy East, though there are small cults as far west as the Central Flanaess. He has little purchase in the Sheldomar Valley, where I have religion practiced differently to emphasize the cultural divergence between Oeridian and Suel.

I usually look at the ethnic origin of the gods as an indicator of which human group they came from, and the following "C" indicates that they are probably worshipped across groups. This is less ethnic profiling than the regional culture which while the people may look Flan may function in an Oeridian fashion.

Finally, those gods who just have "C" after their name, I look at more as a new group of post-migration gods. These tend to demand exclusivity in worship, unlike the other deities... but that is a post for another day.
Journeyman Greytalker

Joined: Oct 29, 2018
Posts: 192
From: Salt Lake

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Sun Jun 29, 2025 2:39 pm  

Thank you, to you both.

Tarlton, your insight does help. And thanks, Samwise, for your answers to my questions.
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