Legacy of Darkness (3.5e Campaign Setting)/Religion

The Fall of The Gods

When the world shattered, people turned to their faith to preserve them through the troubled times, but fevered piety from so many became a burden to the gods, who were simply not powerful enough to ease all the ills of their followers. In the face of neglect, many turned away from the gods, as ruin and famine spread. Many shards simply died out, and the deities lost even more. As the destruction spread, people turned to those of faith as scapegoats, blaming the gods for their plight.

The Golden Wars and The Rise of The Union

In Maial, the great home of the celestial gods and the angels; a rebellion began. Infuriated by the gods' neglect, a covey of angels known as the Eight stormed the domains of the gods one by one, destroying them in cold blood in their homes. The angel Ehurios led the attack on Mount Toron, home of the greater god Kol; he was slain by that god's power released during his death throes. With the last celestial god destroyed, the remaining Seven had a new powerbase and a nigh infinite new army at their heed and call. More and more angels flocked to their banner as they marched from the heavens to the other Outer planes, assaulting the gods of Armatas in the first successful war against those infernal.

By the end of the Golden Wars, as they were called, only the Final Three remained to rule Maial: Dhazriel, Esphia and Avexilia.

The Final Three began in Palantium, spreading their decree through the dreams of a young merchant named Alam Terse. They tasked Alam with building a church in their honor, where all might come to learn the virtues of the angels. The followers of Child Alam, as he became known, forged the first Union Church in 659 AS in the city of Lern. The First Church remained the Union's powerbase until about 822 AS, when Exarch Yumiel Shrinad funded the building of Licil Thedes in Palance. Today, the massive enclave houses the the Union's clerical academy and thousands of priests, Knights and laborers. It is considered the greatest centre of knowledge in all the shards.

With the creation of the arcanos velaque, the Union began to spread the word of the Three to other shards, although their conversion tactics were simple and mostly peaceful. The new technology brought word of the Union to Helsinsid, whose natives happily adopted angelic worship alongside the veneration of their goddess Amurali. The Il'noa were anointed by the church and sanctioned by Imperial decree as honorary Knights, a move some said brash, but it served to remove any tension between the two shards.

Supposedly foreseeing some threat that the young god represented to the Empire, Exarch Baenes ordered her surrender and execution. When she refused, the Navy responded with the utter destruction of Helsinsid's cities and temples. Amurali summoned the powers of the desert to aid her people, but after a fierce battle with Madae Abbas, she was slain-petrified, shattered and buried deep within the sands.

The New Gods

In times of trouble, people seek out those with power for guidance and protection. Just as they turned on their gods for their neglect, the people turned to their heroes as idols and leaders, propping them on a pedestal as items of worship. Like so many of the old gods, the new deities ascended past mortality through the devotion and fear of their subjects.

Given the limited populations of the shards, an individual belief system generally has room for only one deity; this makes actual pantheons extremely unlikely, although rumors of a collection of gods of this sort circulate throughout scholarly circles.

• Alandeal Fenrunner

• Amurali

• Camirie

The flamboyant swordsages of Cuesecan aren't particularly known for their piety, but one hearth deity holds sway over their hearts. Camirie was said to have been a noble warrior-queen who saved her small kingdom from a mighty beast long ago. Through the constant revisions of the tale's retelling, no one really remembers what in hell the creature was, but they do remember it's defeat.

Although much beloved by her people for her prowess in battle, Camirie lay down her sword to tend to the orphans and victims of the constant battles against the shard's monsters. She left her kingdom in the hands of the Darther and became a wanderer, laboring in the fields and helping tend the infirm in exchange for a bed and meal. Days turned into weeks, months into years, into centuries. The legend of Camirie lived on, passed on from mother to child. It became customary to leave fruit and cheese in a family's barn, in the hopes that she would come and tend the lambs and kids during spring.

When Cuesecan manes emigrated to Palantium, the brought the worship of their goddess with them. The Church realized that, to keep the new citizens happy, they'd have to make allowances to ensure their reverence would go unpersecuted. They encouraged a Cuesecan holiday known as the Shiver Night, a festival in the Labor District comprised of feasting and the lighting of candles all throughout each abode. Every year, the festival grows in size as more and more Maunu (not merely Cuesecans) join in the revelry.

For now, the church is content to allow the festival persist, even with the crackdown on worshippers of other gods among the shards.

Camirie is said to look like a fair skinned, matronly woman garbed in roughspun linen. She's been said to leave motes of golden light floating in the air in her wake.

• Ranelis-Enur

• Tharkis

Children of The Gods

The chilled night air bore the sent of quiet peonies, liming him from behind with the persistent susurrus and saline of the Jhereg. The still alabaster halls glimmered in the moonlight as he strode silently, across milkily iridescent marble. He rounded the gentle curve of the hall, into swelling gossamer canopies. The open-air bedchamber was of simple elegance, as was his taste-various shadings of white punctuated with petite horticulture, flowering as in always. At it's medial, an opulent congregation of exotic silks and furs allowed one to gaze easily across the sea to the heights beyond.

She lay there, curled in infantile grace atop the mound. He paused to admire her perfect form, angled towards the right as if in supplication to the moon. She stirred slightly, and a tangled brown lock slipped across her budding breasts, down the gentle swell of her stomach. She knew of his presence, even unconsciously. His humours were part of her now, flowing through hers in a sort and she would always know him.

He sat on the cool marble and his gaze drifted from his beloved, across the bay. The fires that raged in Lile's realm raged bright, and the screams of battle tore his ears asunder. A droplet of grief coursed down his hardened cheek.

Sensing his discomfort, she twisted gently towards him.

"Join me in repose, dear Kol." Kiyl lilted languorously. "What troubles you?" His armor fell about his feet, next his robes and signet. He crawled across the furs and took her towards him, her delicate frame countenance for his stoic body. With her slender spine against his chest, he could feel her heart reverberating through him-into him. The tears began anew, an ephemeral drizzle upon her skin.

"It is nothing, my lover," He replied from beneath the elegant miasma of her hair "Sleep, for I am here."

Like an iron stockade he encircled the mortal girl, letting his mind slip from the revolt that blazed across the sea.

---

Since the gods rose, their affairs with mortals have been notorious. With the abilities to go nearly anywhere or do anything, some have gone through incredible lengths to acquire these young lovers. The offspring of such unions are something else, not quite gods-but definitely not mortals. From bestial appearances, inhuman strength, innate magical abilities-the half gods can become a force to be reckoned with.

When the gods fell, their offspring were driven to extinction by hunters trained by the angelic host. It has been rumored that the infamous Sisters Mourning are actually daughters of the hunt god Vanur, although the fact that the Union hasn't declared them a threat makes the church think otherwise.

To date, no recorded child of a mortal and a young god (or of two young gods, for that matter) is known.