The Ledger
Name: Eron Mirthgold
Divine Title: The Ledger
Alignment: True Neutral
Patronage: Commerce, Trade, Debt, Negotiation, Contracts
Origin: Mercia, post-Odyssean era
Symbol: A scale perfectly balanced on a silver coin, with one pan bearing a quill and the other a key. Behind it, a golden ledger page unfurls, its ink shimmering with unseen terms.
Common Appearances:
- The Coinmaster: A silver-robed man with golden cuffs, always holding a quill and ledgers that float at his back like wings. His voice is calm, his eyes calculating, and his aura both comforting and uncanny in its impartiality.
- The Masked Auctioneer: A tall figure wearing a mask of polished ivory, speaking in riddles and contracts. He appears during moments of critical deals, often in dreams or at crossroads.
- The Street Broker: Disguised as a humble merchant or clerk in market stalls, appearing to test those seeking shortcuts to wealth—or offer them one at a price.
History and Mythos
Mercia's Golden Age and Eron's Rise
Eron Mirthgold was born in the Mercian port city of Kaelport in the generations after The Voyager (Odysseus) had brought unity to the isles. As Mercia flourished with new trade routes and rising cities, wealth became both opportunity and threat. Eron, born to a minor coin-counting family, swiftly became a master of negotiation, mathematics, and maritime finance. He wasn’t the richest man in Mercia—but he never lost a deal, and he never let a kingdom fall into debt without a way out.
Eron's gift wasn’t accumulation—it was orchestration. He designed the first cross-clan Mercian bond system, created neutral market courts, and arbitrated international treaties that held even during war. His influence was felt in every coin minted and every pen lifted to sign.
A Bargain with Mortality
Eron’s death did not come in battle or illness, but in contract: he wagered his soul to the Devil Lord Mammon in a deal to save Mercia from economic collapse during a multi-nation blockade. He offered himself as collateral to preserve Mercia’s food reserves and merchant fleets. As the embargo broke and Mercia survived, Eron vanished from public life—but the ledgers still bore his signature, updated in his hand.
The World Turtle, ever watching those who build rather than break, approached Eron’s spirit in the liminal space between wealth and void. The World Turtle offered him divine ascension and escape from his deal with Mammon, not for compassion or power—but for absolute understanding of value in a world of extremes.
He became The Ledger—a god not of gold, but of the space where gold changes hands.
Divine Role and Worship
The Ledger is invoked in every contract signed, every market founded, and every negotiation that could bring ruin or salvation. His clergy are mediators, contract-writers, brokers, tax judges, and vault-keepers. They care not for generosity or greed—only fairness, stability, and settlement.
His temples double as banks, arbitration halls, and trade hubs, often guarded not by warriors but by oaths, marks, and ironclad terms.
Common Tenets of His Faith:
- “No coin is earned without a price.”
- “Favor neither the buyer nor the seller—only the seal.”
- “To owe is not sin. To break a promise is.”
- “Every lie will balance the book in blood or silver.”
Relic of The Ledger: The Coin of Balance
"Every agreement echoes in the divine ledger. This coin simply ensures it is remembered."
Wondrous Item (Coin), Legendary → Artifact
Requires attunement by a creature who has sealed at least one oath, pact, written contract with meaningful consequences, or otherwise devotes themselves to the tenants of the Ledger.
This battered Mercian copper coin bears no monarch’s face, no nation’s seal—only a balanced scale on one side, and a blank space on the other. Yet when held, the blank side always reflects the last oath or deal you swore—faintly inscribed in glowing script, only visible to you and The Ledger himself. When used properly, the coin becomes a divine arbiter of promises, enforcing or severing them as needed.
Initial Form: Coin of Honest Dealings (Level 10–13)
Features:
- Oathbind (1/day):
You may use the coin to bind an agreement between two creatures (you may be one of them). Each must willingly touch the coin and speak the terms aloud. While both creatures remain alive: - They cannot willingly violate the terms without suffering 12d12 psychic damage and disadvantage on all Charisma-based checks for 1 month.
- The coin records the agreement visibly until it is fulfilled, broken, or revoked.
- Truth in the Terms:
When you read a contract, clause, or spoken deal within 10 minutes of its formation, the coin glows softly if deception or manipulation is present, even if magically disguised. It will not reveal the lie—only confirm its existence. - Unshakable Price:
Once per long rest, you may use the coin to barter with absolute neutrality. When negotiating with a creature capable of understanding value (even extraplanar), they are compelled to give you a fair or reduced value for whatever it is that you are seeking, over coming any plans, ploys, or tricks they might attempt to use.
Awakened Form: The Coin of Balance Eternal (Level 17–20)
When awakened, the coin becomes unchangeable. It cannot be stolen, destroyed, or replicated. Its blank face becomes a mirror of consequence—showing the fate owed to those who break their word.
Upgraded Features:
- Judgment of the Seal (1/week):
You may present the coin in a moment of betrayal or broken contract. The violator must succeed a Charisma saving throw (DC 18) or suffer one of the following effects (your choice): - Be banished to the Shadowfell or a plane of debt for 1 minute
- Be struck mute for 24 hours
- Lose the ability to lie for 1 hour
- Take 10d10 psychic damage that cannot be reduced
- Immutable Trade:
Once per long rest, you may declare a binding exchange. Offer something of yours (item, favor, spell, memory) in return for something from another creature. If both agree and the coin is present, neither party may renege without divine intervention. - Weight of Oaths:
The coin automatically alerts you when an oath-bound individual you’ve dealt with is in mortal danger, or has betrayed the terms. If they break the oath, you know where and how immediately—even across planes.
Awakening Trigger:
The Coin awakens when used to mediate a deal that averts war, saves a people, or costs the bearer something deeply personal—but ensures fairness for all involved. It does not awaken for personal gain, only for balance maintained at meaningful cost.
