Deity in Absentia

Domains: Light, Law, Fire, Knowledge, Sun, Good

 

Andarus the Lightbringer is the patron of humans and those who invoke the Light. To his faithful, Andarus raises the sun, and is credited with being the illuminator of mankind’s destiny, first giving inspiration to man; and with being the purifier of the world, bringing fire for the faithless and the monstrous. This is reflected in his Church’s two most prominent Orders: The Stone Temple Circle and the Flames of Andarus, located centrally in Steinkreis. 

 

Andarus’ faithful make up the most prolific religion on modern Thain, and it is the state religion of Steinkreis, the great human capital city in the center of the island. The vast majority of humans on the island pray to him. Although his faithful believe otherwise, like all the now-absent deities Andarus does not directly answer prayers nor manifest on Thain; his power is instead invoked through the rites, rituals, and knowledge he left behind for his people - most primarily kept by his orders, some lost to time.

 

Following the Godswar, his devoted teach that he alone did not perish, but remains ensorcelled by the spells of the Shadow God Zentarus - until such a time as the island is utterly purified of the shadow, humanity’s destiny is realized, and he can at last return.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Death, Frost, Ice

 

Adlina is the patroness of necromancers and others who communicate with the dead. Her chilling rituals often manifest in frost and ice. She has few followers who would admit openly to being observant to her, but is often invoked in rites and rituals surrounding death - either in protecting the dead or in her being chased from them, depending on the tradition of the believer. There are no official orders to Adlina on Thain, but knowledge around her remains scattered across the land.

 

Following the Godswar, Adlina’s name is not forgotten by many who walk the land, and the desperate and grief-stricken might yet seek rites to invoke her power and so see once more what they have lost. The Orders of Adlina are little more than pockets of undeath cults and those who seek once more the embrace of those who have left this world - but so long as mortals die, the Order will never wholly vanish.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Magic, Destruction, Secrets

 

Bak’non’s cult reached its height during the second age in the northern city named after the deity, who was known to walk among his people in mortal guise. Over time, however, the high priests of Bak’non’s followers became corrupted by their power, instituting a series of increasingly-draconian laws and rituals and sealing away much of the knowledge given to the people of the north by Bak’non for their own purposes. Because of his close connection to the people, Bak’non’s own personality began to change in concert with his priests, and he became withdrawn, secretive, and even violent, demanding human sacrifice in his name. No one knows exactly what caused the great collapse of the city of Bak’non, but in the wake of the fall of the city, rumors abound of a star falling from the sky to crush the wayward god and his priesthood. 

 

Now, followers of Bak’non believe that through ritual sacrifice they can gain favor with the god, even in death, and that the mysteries he once shared freely might still become known once more. These cultists, however, are not welcome in any civilized society, and their dark rituals must necessarily take place in hidden places, far from the prying eyes of onlookers.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Water, Air

 

Patroness of beauty and the open skies, Ceriana is one of the ancestral founders of elvendom on Thain - with Valorien, it is still told by the elves that the pair were among the first to arrive upon the land from the mists beyond the shores, and were the first to discover the High Magics of the First Age of Thain. With those powers they strove against the others who would shape the land, striving for a land of perfect elven beauty, often even when it went against the wishes of the island’s other occupants and races. In her pursuit of perfection, the Elves following her spurned many races and brought into being many ancient grudges. Even as she ascended to divinity, the tragedies of the First Riftwar destroyed much that they had tried to build.

 

Ceriana perished in the great Godswar of the Second Age with the other gods, but her rites and rituals are still observed in the elven city of Greenvale on the South Coast, where her mission still remains to the Order of Ceriana - as her people strive to this day to rebuild the beautiful ruined city she began, even in the shadow of doubt from the South Coast’s other occupants. She is chief among the elven ancestors they revere.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Death, Magic, Destruction, Evil

 

Thain is a land that epitomizes a paradoxical verdant life - both of monsters and the stubborn resistance of mortals; but it is also a land of entropy - the principle that all things are shifting, disordering, and dying. The Faceless One is the manifestation of this principle - a man who once stole some of the powers of the gods, even as they strove to give the land order and safety, and shattered that security by feeding that power to the Void beyond the Shadows to himself ascend to divinity.

 

Only the deranged and the insane offer prayers to The Faceless One - his mention alone in most civil societies is a curse or a swear at best - yet even as he vanished with the remainder of the gods during the Godswar of the Second Age, his occult students remain, swearing that he somehow survives within the Void itself. The Order of the Faceless One has many names and presences upon the isle who have followed his fell promises to power by whispering into the beyond: The Bane of the Land, the Church of the Darkness Below, The Cult of Vindrya. These orders would tear down the already tenuous gains of civilization and plunge all into the Void - a final extinguishing of the spark of civilization that the other gods once began.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Strength, War

 

Karishma was once the goddess of Karistad, a Second Age civilization that stood once where the Iron City now stands. Her rites and rituals taught the art of war and featured tests of strength to the people of that place. It was the belief of many of her disciples that the island could only be ordered if the immoral were purified and the land’s many injustices righted - chief among them the injustice of personal weakness. The militant Karistad nearly succeeded in that vision in her name, bringing war and conquest across the island until at last it arrived at the gates of the great human city of Vongottstein, where Steinkreis now stands today. The resultant war saw the return of the Rift, the second Cataclysm, and the destruction of both civilizations - but Karishma’s observance did not wholly perish from the island. 

 

In the modern day, The Order of Karishma has re-emerged across the isle among the many places Karistad once conquered, its legend even supposedly haunting the ruins of a monastery called Bevolkere on the North of the Island. It is gaining a foothold once more even in the imaginations of the humans of the Iron City whose devilish patrons’ grasp over their city has begun to fade in the face of the final closing of the Planes. These Karistadian rites are often brutal, with few exceptions - they are zealous pursuers of their own harsh demands for strength and justice, and rarely suffer the weak to survive.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Earth, Law, Protection

 

The Dwarves of the First Age were, by legend, led from the depths of the ground where they were awakened in the Far Northlands. They journeyed southward to a prophesied mountain that would one day be their home - and the prophet who led them there was Ruurik, the Lawgiver, first awakened. It was Ruurik who taught the first Crafts, Ruurik who named the clans, Ruurik who worked the first Truesilver Crown, Ruurik who named the mountains, Ruurik who wrote the Laws of Hammersong, and Ruurik who ascended through the powers they unearthed deep within the mountain to godhood.

 

Today the great Dwarf is revered by many, and the subject of the line of Kings that he left behind is how best to govern as he would - Ruurik was an ardent isolationist, believing that like Mithril the Dwarven way of living was best kept pure and uncomplicated by outside practices. It was Ruurik’s assertion to his kindred that so long as Dwarves alone inhabited the halls and the caverns of their hearts were never made larger than their kin, then Three Pillars alone should hold them up: To never lie, never steal, and never kill. Today many who revere Ruurik worry that this way of life has become complicated - at the behest of the young King Rugar XV, Hammersong trades openly with the humans of Steinkreis, and in some Dwarven families human adoptions are not unheard of. The Order of Ruurik resist these changes, keeping the rites and rituals he left behind that they believe only hold power so long as their people’s way of living remains pure, and believing that the security and protection of all their kind is at stake.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Fire, Strength

 

Ancient Orcish legends tell that Andarus stole fire from Tozak, who first created it - hanging it in the heavens to give light to all mankind, and forever beginning the enmity between Orcs and Man. The truth of these legends is questionable, but the disdain between the two is no less real - yet in the rare union of the two, among Tozak’s half-orc children in the Barbaric Frostcutter Tribe who dwell in the far north where nights are long and days are short, his rites and rituals are often essential to surviving the cold dark.

 

These rites often center around strength, and the Firebearers of Tozak undergo a wide variety of ritual tests and tribal trials that guarantee only the strongest and least likely to lose the fires entrusted to them will carry them. These practices are still carried out among the Bagnorn Orcs of the Grey Iron Mountains from whom many of the Frostcutters descended - and are a part of the heritage that resists being civilized. The mention of Tozak in most civilized spaces is, for this reason, much akin to a swear - for adherents of Tozak tear down much of what the civilized world strives to build.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Knowledge, Dreaming, Inspiration

 

The mysterious arrival of Gnomes in the early First Age is recorded only by the Elves - who tell stories of spirits of dreaming inspiration given bodies by the early Kenku - first walkers of the land. These legends often center upon Spar’kanith, the First Spark of inspiration brought into the world of Thain, who led the rest to find home in a world of waking. Spar’Kanith gave the first gnomes home among the trees of the South Coast, deep in the wild woods beyond reach of man, elf, and Dwarf - for he alone had learned that the inspiration they were capable of sharing with the world gradually took the memories of and lives of those spirits-made-flesh.

 

It was Spar’Kanith’s wish that the Gnomos, first Gnomes, should remain hidden from the world - but inspiration begs to be shared, and his early people could not help but seek those who could appreciate their ideas. In his final act, Spar’Kanith devised a way to ascend - and in so doing, even after his death in the Godswar, the Gnomos believe he guides their souls back to the dreaming world when they die. He is sometimes still revered among gnomes and those who they now live closest with - the Hin of Sandburrow might offer a prayer to him as they put a ship to sea for the first time, and the Gnomes of the land often intone him before beginning a new experiment - but there are few true devotees to Spar’Kanith on Thain, and almost no rites and rituals save prayers and rites of inspiration and memory.

 

Those rare gnomes who attempt to devote their lives to his last wish of saving their people lead a hard life - for the inspired never wish to be hidden away as Spar’kanith designed. The Dreamers of Spar’Kanith are little more than a cult in the eyes of Modern Thain, their deepest ambition to somehow remove the gnomes from contact with those who empty them with each new idea.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Trickery, Death, the Lost and Forgotten

 

Umbra, often known as The Raven, is a being whose features and likeness is - like much of what they oversaw - forgotten. The debate of Umbra’s identity, gender, or occupation are only idle conversation pieces among those who still pray to them - for Umbra’s followers do not often entertain such questions - and Umbra’s supposed death in the Godswar makes such answers a novelty. What is dead and what is forgotten are often the same thing - but those who truly know the life of The Raven believe they survived, for survival at any costs is one of the tenants of The Raven.

 

Thieves and those who would conceal great truths primarily keep the few rites that survived Umbra - while there are no formal cults nor orders to Umbra on the isle, there are often bands of thieves who keep the tenants they left behind - an honorless and self-interested code whose adherents, like The Raven, bides their time, awaits their riches, pursues their quarry, and survives at all cost.

Deity in Absentia, Archfey of Spring

Domains: Animals, Nature, Healing

 

Elven legends tell of Cerania and Valorien, the greatest among the first two Elves upon Thain, and discoverers of the High Magics the land could promise the Elves. Both ascended to godhood wielding these powers, with hopes of shaping the beauty and direction of the natural world to a paradise of Elvendom - even in the face of the island’s other many inhabitants. While Ceriana and the first Elves founded Greenvale, it was Valorien who traveled Northward to strive with the powers that shaped those lands - and in so doing, first encountered the Archfey. Elven Legend tells that the Archfey of that realm were cunning. They made promises to Valorien for powers greater than the ones he had - if indeed he would only forsake those High Magics forever. Assured in the knowledge that the Archfey could not lie, the bargain was struck: his knowledge of High Magic was locked away forever, and he was made Archfey of the Spring - but the nature of the Archfey too became his, and that power is alien and perilous. His mind was quickly bent away from the designs and altruism of mortal-kind, and solely upon the providence that his new Fey-spirit ordained.

 

To pray to any Fey is perilous, and not something most civilizations would tolerate - the sole exception being the Elves of the Northern Feywood whose complex history of survival often include such observances and pacts. The Fey of Thain both Winter and Summer, Spring and Autumn are all dangerous to stand in the presence of - the Lord of Spring who once was mortal often ensnares mortals in great games among his feasts, transforming them into beasts for both their successes and their failures. Yet those desperate to grow, to heal, and to commune with nature often seek out his court in spite of these dangers - and so too might offer him prayers. The Pacted of Valorien possess some of the only true “supernatural” healing rites and rituals across the island - yet they often expect and bargain a great price for it on behalf of their master.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Music, Travel, Trickery, Chaos

 

Vorel was the deity of entertainment, of trickery and travel - a curious spirit ascending to divinity according to legend by simply pretending so completely that it already was one that the other gods knew no better. From there it sought out others who appreciated its craft in weaving and telling stories. Thain is a perilous land, and perilous tales are often the subject of operas and stories - but so too do hearts yearn for levity and entertainment. To craft great stories and to entertain are skills - skills Vorel fostered through its many rites, rituals, insights and inspirations. As a deity, Vorel often rankled under the prohibitions and strictures of the other gods’ worshippers upon its own - its spirit resisted institutions and authorities, and its “church” reflected this - the narratives of many of the tales it spun and the rites it passed down were anarchistic and individualistic. It knew a performer’s life was often lonely - as are the lives of any who make a living convincingly lying.

 

After its suitably dramatic death scene in the Godswar, Vorel’s observance is - much as it would have enjoyed - the matter of much covert performance and secrecy. The Opera House in Steinkreis is known to be a place where those who privately profess its devotion might gather - though ever maintaining the illusion of faithful Andarians. It is the hallmark of many a True Artist to be accepted within the Society of Vorel; who make up performers, spies, and tale-tellers across the wider world, and whose mission is always to increase personal freedom and liberty, even at the cost of security and safety - the creation of and expression of the individual are paramount, and no life of survival is worth surviving without these things to the Vorelite. The rites of Vorel are sometimes whispered backstage before a nerve-wracking performance, and the name Vorel observed by superstitious entertainers who believe that without it, a performance will surely go awry.

Deity in Absentia

Domains: Shadow, Moon, Chaos

 

Zentarus, brother of Andarus, has long been cast as a heartless villain who attempted to take his brother’s power for his own, causing Andarus’ demise and leading ultimately to the cataclysmic godswar, which resulted in the fall of nearly all of the deific figures of Thain. The study of Zentarus’ rites and rituals is forbidden by the Andaran church without special dispensation, and no civilized person will admit to being interested in Zentarus, let alone worshiping him. 

 

However, rumors persist that in the wild and far-flung corners of Thain there exist small but persistent cells of Zentarans, who believe that Andarus is not humanity’s savior, but rather a tyrant intent on bending all mortals to his will- and that Zentarus, by binding his brother away, has given mortals the ability to worship as they see fit without the blinding influence of Andarus’ light. 

By far the most popular religion on Thain, the church of Andarus is primarily worshipped by humans, though other races have devotees as well. The church was founded in the ancient city of Vongottstein, and lives on today in the human capital of Steinkreis, built upon the ruins of Vongottstein after the cataclysm that destroyed much of the great city. 

 

Little is known about Andarus himself, though many claim that he was once a mortal man who ascended to divinity through a combination of the devotion of his followers as well as finding some shard of godhood in the far western lands, which he and his brother, Zentarus, used to greatly augment their magical gifts. 

 

The church of Andarus is filled by those who desire in some way to serve the Light- a concept which has different meanings to different characters. For some, the Light calls them to heal and bless, and these are the priests and clerics whom you might come across upon the roads, offering to heal your wounds or provide a blessing before you go into battle.

Others see the Light as a revealing truth, and seek to use it to research ways to know more of the world of Thain, especially the interactions between the magic of faith and the mortal world. These scholars might be found in libraries or studying ancient ruins, looking for the origins of the Light or attempting to find new ways to apply it. 

Still others see the Light as a standard to which all mortal kind should aspire, and seek to convert the non-believing to the cause, sometimes by persuasion and the doing of good deeds, but sometimes also by force of arms. These are the templars, knights, and paladins of Andarus, who each serve the Light in their way, bound by a code of honor or a set of principles. 

And yet, the popularity of the church of the Light has caused it to draw all kinds.  Some priests speak the name of Andarus in the name of atrocities. Militant soldiers seek to spread the word of their lord by force.  In the lands away from civilization, the name of Andarus may be as much a curse as a blessing, for often it comes alongside armored knights looking to bring civilization where they see none.

 

Orders:

 

Flames of Andarus

Religious Symbol: A burning sword

Religious Presence: Regional (Steinkreis)

Organizational Goals: The purification of mankind, the upholding of Law

 

The Flames of Andarus are a recent sect of the Andarian Church that came into being following the Kreisian Longest Night, a night in which cultists of the Shadow attacked the city of Steinkreis and left behind many sorcerous secrets and a general state of anarchy among the poorest of the Kreis. Originally founded to address the needs of the poor in the absence of the King through their own extreme examples of the Light’s influence, the Church’s direction upon King Anselm’s ascent to the throne has shifted to rooting out the remaining sects of shadow worshipers and unlicensed sorcerers, and consolidating the Church’s power by maintaining Andarian faith throughout the Kreisland.

 

Templars of the Flames of Andarus zealously and uncompromisingly seek out sorcerers who have not yet been licensed, cults to the shadow, and footholds of the monstrous, while directly opposing the erosion of Andarian customs and traditions within Kreisian borders.

 

Stone Temple Circle

Religious Symbol: A hand whose fingers are candle flames

Religious Presence: Regional (Steinkreis)

Organizational Goals: The recovery of Andarian-gifted knowledge, the spread of Andarian faith

 

The Stone Temple Circle is one of the most successful and oldest surviving religious organizations on all of Thain, dating back to the raising of the first stones of Vongottstein by founding monk “Johannes Miethe”. Miethe tasked them with traveling the world tending to the faithful of Andarus and converting the hearts of those who lived beyond Vongottstein’s borders. To enable this, he developed a “Fourfold Truth” philosophy among his scholars that was once native to the monks of Qui Vive, a monastery from which he brought his early studies. It showcased a combination of philosophy and physical discipline that enabled the travelers to both traverse the land safely and oppose those who might inhibit their mission. 

 

Today the Kreisian Stone Temple Circle studies the works left behind by the Vongottsteinian scholars in the great Island of the Colossus centered in Lake Haldmont in Steinkreis’ Lakeside district, but many of its adherents still travel the roads of the Kreis and the surrounding lands of Thain on a mission to spread the illumination of Andarus’ light.

 

A Stone Temple Order member is likely one of the best supported members of any order on Thain - Steinkreis’ influence is prolific and the Order’s mission fairly direct. Members of the Stone Temple might be scholars, evangelists, or archaeologists seeking some lost relic.

Religious Symbol: A skull ringed in frost

Religious Presence: Small cults, National

Organizational Goals: Occult, Ritual, Personal

 

A cult of Adlina is almost always conducted in secret, for almost every culture of Thain reveres the dead and fears undeath. Rites and Rituals of Adlina are often kept alive through a tragic line of knowledge passed down among those who have suffered great losses and those they have brought back - it is sordid work to be a necromancer on Thain.

 

To be a member of a Cult of Adlina almost certainly means to keep one’s activities hidden and not outspoken - though many individuals would consider the work morbid and frightening, governments outside The Watch or the Iron City are unlikely to allow necromancy on the level of Adlina.

Religious Symbol: A tome with an eye at the center

Religious Presence: Small cults, Regional (The Northlands)

Organizational Goals: Occult, Sacrificial, Personal

 

A cult of Bak’non is almost always kept in secret, for it centers upon a taboo across much of Thain - human sacrifice. Clerics of Bak’non often pass down the rites and rituals of secret knowledge he kept for himself - knowledge that was often uncovered through morbid prices. Bak’non is a keeper of great secrets, and those who would join a cult of Bak’non are often seeking forbidden knowledge, answers to unknowable questions, and information they can gain nowhere else - they are almost always characterized by one who is willing to pay the highest prices.

 

To be a member of a cult of Bak’non almost certainly means to be hidden and not outspoken - no civilized society on Thain embraces the human sacrifice Bak’non often asks for his knowledge.

Religious Symbol: An Eagle’s Wings on an Arrow

Religious Presence: Regional (Greenvale)

Organizational Goals: Zealous Mission

 

The Order of Ceriana are invariably Elves - the order would teach its secrets to no others, and excommunication from the Order for divulging the rites and rituals of Ceriana is often accompanied by a century or more of faithless imprisonment, until the rituals are long gone from the memories of those who carelessly divulged them. Cerianites believe in the mission of Ceriana - that to civilize Thain can only truly be accomplished by the elevation of Elves above all other races, to rule and to guide through their long lives and great collective wisdom.

 

To be a member of the Order of Ceriana, one must certainly be elvish, and likely must believe in Elvish supremacy and the necessity of ordering the world to the design of Elvendom.

Religious Symbol: Many, varied

Religious Presence: Small and large cults, National

Organizational Goals: Occult, Varied Goals, Destruction of Order and Life

 

The cults of the Faceless one are many and varied - and many within them do not even realize that they actively propagate his works. The supernatural pressure of the island toward its own entropy is forever at war with the many pockets of civilization that attempt to resist it - yet many adherents also pursue personal goals through these organizations. These small pockets of Void-worshiping cults are many and varied across Thain, from the Bane of the Island, to the Church of Darkness Below, to the cult of Vindrya and more. Wherever the promise of being king of the ash heap appeals to mortals, the Faceless One’s occult circles find a foothold.

 

To be a member of the Cults of the Faceless One would be to be truly outcast - only the wildest and most dangerous parts of the world are filled with adherents of the unmaking of all.

Religious Symbol: Seven Swords Converging on a Star

Religious Presence: Regional (Former Karistadian colonies, Iron City primarily)

Organizational Goals: Conquest, Purgation of Weak Civilizations

 

The Order of Karishma’s rites and rituals primarily revolve around grueling personal tests and displays of physical discipline - it is an Order that prizes strength and believes that the path Karishma shows her adherents toward a better Thain is through the dissolution of weakness. It mandates the conquest of people who show weakness of character - this can be on a moral level, or on an ability to take decisive, strong actions. Through these acts of fitness, it maintains that life on Thain will survive.

 

To be a member of the Order of Karishma, one must espouse some amount of Karistadian supremacy and devotion to Karishma’s strength that would bring them into opposition with most of the world.

Religious Symbol: Three Pillars on a Shield

Religious Presence: Regional (Hammersong)

Organizational Goals: The Isolationist Purity of Dwarvenkind

 

The Order of Ruurik was once the most powerful clerical body in Hammersong - and although it still holds some sway in the advisement of King Rugar XV, the young King’s mind has clearly turned toward the opportunities for greater riches and profits in the wider world. The Order of Ruurik demands piety toward Ruurik, and maintains that outside contact with the world increasingly diminishes the focus of the Dwarves upon the great works that they could do without an endless train of distractions and complicated moral problems that the other races of Thain constantly bring with them. “The best tunnels are straight paths” is an adage of those Dwarves who still keep Ruurik’s rites and rituals. They are quick to contest the presence of outsiders in their homes - even at the invitation of the King, and are quick to point to the many complications outsiders bring as evidence of Ruurik’s teachings as being vindicated.

 

To belong to the Order of Ruurik one would certainly have to be a Dwarf, and likely to espouse some measure of Dwarven isolationism and supremacy.

Religious Symbol: A Fiery Lamp

Religious Presence: Small Tribes, Regional (Northlands, Grey Iron Mountains)

Organizational Goals: Conquest, Survival, Zealous Mission

 

The Firebearers of Tozak are primarily Bagnorn Orcish in origin - one of the few examples of monstrous religious organization on the island of Thain. The ancient enmity between orcs and mankind is born out in this uncompromising design - the Orcs who belong to this particular tribal faith are among the most zealous in their mission to burn the settlements of men and claim all lands as Orcish lands. Their rites and rituals, left to them by Tozak, primarily surround the explosive fires that often come their archers’ arrows, as well as the forging of great thick arms and armor for conquest. There are further rites around ritual purification and tests of strength for tribal leaders, often brutal and unforgiving for those who fail them.

 

To be an outspoken Firebearer of Tozak would make one an outcast in all places but the remote Northlands and the Bagnorn Orc tribes, who are often hostile to outsiders and are unlikely to recognize a non-orcish Firebearer, paradoxically, no matter their strength.

Religious Symbol: A Convergence of Leaves

Religious Presence: Regional (Feywood), Individual

Organizational Goals: Propagation of Fey Pacts between Mortals and Valorien

 

The Pacted of Valorien are often the unwilling servants bound to the Lord of Spring in the Northern Feywood. Valorien, Once-Elven, is one of the few true sources of healing magic upon the island of Thain - and his prices are often driven as pacts with mortals, who themselves are tasked with bringing more mortals into his courts or at the least giving something of great value to the Archfey in return. In rite and ritual, the pacted are the subjects of a highly competitive deity who also enjoys games of chance and competition - sometimes such favors as his chosen can give can be won from his clergy through such feats.

 

To be an openly pacted of Valorien would make one an outcast in almost all places but the Feywood - yet the Pacted of Valorien paradoxically seek out others to draw them into Valorien’s fey web of promises and pacts.

Religious Symbol: A small spiral-shaped mark, easily missed
Religious Presence: Small cults, National

Organizational Goals: Religious, Political, Personal Freedom; Anarchy

 

The society of Vorel is a society of loosely anarchistic storytellers, writers, and musicians that broadly speaking oppose law, government, prohibitive religious traditions, and the inhibition of culture. Some of the more determined of Vorel’s followers are outright seditionists, political assassins, and spies seeking to undermine the governments of the world. That there is value to governance and political organization is not a concern to the devotee of Vorel’s secret societies - the negatives always outweigh the positives in how freedom and self-expression are curtailed under their purview. The rites and rituals of Vorel are often deeply kept secrets within the society, for they are indispensable in keeping the society hidden and from being utterly destroyed. There are often tests of loyalty and devotion to cause and ideal involved in the passing down of these rites that determine whether someone is a true devotee of the free spirit, or if they are simply posturing.

To belong to the Society of Vorel would mean concealing one’s true faith behind a mask while constantly seeking out other like-minded anarchists whose facade you correctly see through.

Religious Symbol: A closed eye

Religious Presence: Small church, Regional (Sandburrow)

Organizational Goals: The Removal of Gnomes from Broader Society for their own Welfare

 

The nature of gnomes, who are descended in some way from spirits of dreaming inspiration native to the island of Thain, is like a finite amount of water kept in a cup that is slowly drunk by those to whom they give inspiration by being around and by their own drive to create while collaborating with those they surround themselves with. In the case of many of Thain’s most ambitious races, this would spend the Gnomish race quickly - the Dwarves, Humans, and Elves of the land could burn through the gnomish people in only a few generations. It was Spar’kanith himself who purportedly settled the Gnomes among the Hin, least ambitious and assuming of Thain’s races, and so gave them their long-desired camaraderie without burning them out entirely - yet as the Third Age of Thain has progressed, many Gnomes have become nervous as the Halfling’s culture has grown and refined and now extends to sailing, shipbuilding, and naval warfare. 

 

The Dreamers of Spar’kanith are the small church of gnomes who prize Spar’kanith’s original mission highest of all - and they have cause to believe that the Halfling expansion will potentially claim their race if it is not slowed. Within Sandburrow, this small religious faction does not have great political power, but it does often manifest in outspoken protests, pamphlets, and even acts of sabotage to slow down the Hin’s growth and so save the last relationship between Gnomes and other mortal races. 

 

To be a Dreamer of Spar’kanith would be to almost entirely oppose the evolution of Hin culture, and to operate in secrecy as a devotee of what amounts to Gnomish supremacy or isolationism.

Religious Symbol: A raven’s feather

Religious Presence: Small cults, national

Organizational Goals: Varied: (The Keeping of Secrets, Theft, etc.)

 

Adherents of the Raven are rarely an organized faith consisting of more than a few men and women, for it is rare for there to be any more honor than that among thieves, who are the central adherents to Umbra’s philosophies of acquisition and concealment. While often these small devoted sects are primarily bands of thieves, occasionally the Adherents of the Raven play a larger part in the cultural landscape of a world by stealing those things that the members deem too dangerous or powerful - often to mixed results as these objects fall into the hands of the very manipulators and thieves who would keep them from the world.

 

To be an adherent of the Raven would be a life of secrecy - few cities outside The Watch would ever stomach the open professional of cults of Thieves and Secretkeepers in their midst.

Religious Symbol: A full moon in a crescent moon

Religious Presence: Small cults, varied, regional

Organizational Goals: Opposition to Order, The Harnessing of Personal Power

 

Zentaran cults have littered the history of the Kreis - the Shadow Prince of Thain who was once purported to be the brother or closest friend of Andarus occupies a place among Kreisians, who primarily observe Andarian faith, as its central villain today. Though Zentarus is gone, many of his rites and rituals have resurfaced across the land in the form of shadow rituals that increase an individual’s personal power and allow them to rise up against and oppose the Lawful Order of the land.

 

To belong to a cult of Zentarus would be to occupy a place in opposition to almost all orders of Men, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Hin - it would mean the tearing down of the social fabric that keeps civilization tenuously alive on Thain.

Those who would willingly pact to Azuul or one of the many devils of the Iron City face a growing challenge on a Thain that has closed the entrances and exits to planar portals and for whom waystones are the only (painful and brief) entrances and exits for extraplanar beings. Azuul’s worship among those of the Iron City that bears his name is still prolific and widespread, but the conference of powers by him has seen a great deal of decline, and his clergy have scrambled in recent years to maintain power as the humans of their city strive to claim a foothold within it.

 

Yet to sell one’s soul still confers great power in some circles, and few circles is this as notable as Azuul’s own - the Devils of the Iron City are all too glad to have mortal allies indebted to them, and often do lend a measure of their own remaining and dwindling power to those humans who would fetch the right price with their actions. To be a pacted of Azuul or any devil on Thain is to work for the silent strengthening of the infernal foothold upon Thain and to often unflinchingly marry one’s entire life and soul to the designs of those devils.

 

To be pacted to a devil often requires some direction and conversation with a Thain staff member, as their existence, personalities, and motivations are many, varied, and often ambiguous.

The archfey are ancient, often alien, and always dangerous presences, no matter their court nor affiliation on Thain. An Archfey can belong to one of several courts of power, but all desire some presence within the mortal realms, which they find useful or entertaining. The desire of mortals is a currency of the Fey, for whom it is an almost intoxicating drug, and they are often all too glad to strike pacts inherent to their nature in order to see those desires unfold, while often reserving the terms of their pact or bargain for an especially amusing, cruel, advantageous, or interesting moment.

 

To be pacted to an Archfey often requires some direction and conversation with a Thain staff member, as their existence, personalities, and association are many, varied, and often ambiguous.