The people of the western kingdoms pray to a pantheon of ten deities, referred to as the Luminal Gods, and sometimes acknowledge an eleventh, nameless god referred to as 'the Gatekeeper' on their high days and holidays. The Church as a political entity has grown slowly from the far west, spreading through faith and the sword, the latter being almost inevitable as ideas clash. The position of the Church was secured when the Jorvin Empire accepted its tenets and Emperor Wilhelm bent his knee to the high priests who form the Council of Ten, the leaders of each of the gods' cults who work in unison to make the Church, as a political entity, function.
The Gods of Light
Alchnor the Pure is the god of kings, leaders and rulership. He is depicted as an elderly king usually seated on a throne. His church is diligent in upholding his rule and seeks out the followers of his opponent, Larros everywhere.
Merida the Guardian Maiden was once a warrior in the service of the Arkayan Emperor Marius. Beset by enemies she sacrificed herself to protect him, allowing him to escape an ambush set by his brother which would ultimately lead to the pantheon elevating her to the status of a Guardian Deity. She is set against Baluz the god of pain and cruelty, who slew the original Maiden.
Xella is the Goddess of Nature, dwelling in a flower meadow that is home to a thousand types of insects, birds and other species. Here there is death but it is only the necessary death that nature demands. Xella is seen as a pragmatic goddess as well as a loving one and many of her followers follow nature's example rather than that of mankind. There are frequent clashes between Xella and Alchnor's churches because of this.
At the other side there is the Shadow Pantheon, though only a few worship the dark deities that compose it. These gods are dedicated to everything that is dark and wicked. They delight in all improper things and encourage their followers to do likewise. Unlike the gods of light their worshippers are organised into cults and covens; there is no doubt that what they do, if not wrong, is frowned upon by the authorities.
The Shadow Pantheon
Baluz is craven and sadistic. He delights in slaughter and death, amused by the futility of war and the cries of the dying. His followers are frightening warriors who have no respect for life. Bandit kings, assassins, mercenaries; adventurers, these are his followers, people for whom the number of deaths they cause is more important than the lives they may save. He slaughtered Shayla during the Eclipse War and ruled battles and war unopposed until Merida was raised to the position of goddess.
The Hunter is one of the Chosen, the Shadow Pantheon's equivalent of the Guardian gods and goddesses. His name is lost to time and it is known that he was the first mortal to be promoted to the ranks of godhood. Where Xella is nature in its most beneficent the Hunter is the dark, feral side. He rivals Baluz in sadism and his followers are cruel to the things they kill.
Larros the Broken, a twisted deity at the best of times Larros lays claim not to one cult but two. In the first he takes the form of an authoritarian ruler who rules with a rod of iron and mistreats those he rules. A dark king he rules by fear, rather than trust and breaks his opponents before he will change. The second casts him as a seditious figure, working to overthrow authority by any means possible, whispering that the means justify the ends.
The Eclipse War
It is said that in the beginning the gods, weary from their labour of building the world, sat to rest and watch their new creation. They saw the first dragons hatch from their eggs and take wing. They watched as the world the dragons created rose to great heights but then fell under the encroaching glaciers that heralded the first ice age and how the mightiest of them fell into long slumbers.
They saw the first men take their steps towards becoming what the gods intended them to be.
It was as they watched this that they became aware of someone watching them in return. Looking down they saw their own shadows move, independently. They saw how hideous they were, the very opposites of what the Luminal Gods were. Where one was a defender of the weak, her opposite was a craven killer, where another desired healing, the shadow being was dedicated to sickness of mind, body and spirit. As the gods moved to confront their umbral nemeses the Shadow Pantheon reached towards the world. At their touch the first murder occurred. As their influence spread a forest fire destroyed the great forest leaving a swathe of desert in its wake.
Seeking to protect their creation the gods drew arms and battle broke out, with light and shadow fighting across the world, plunging the world into an eclipse that lasted for days. Battles raged on and on, the shadow gods conjured weapons of darkness and breathed life into dark followers. Their presence corrupted the spirits of the land and water, even darkening the hearts of many of the dragons, transforming them into monstrous engines of war. For their part the Luminal Gods drew their strength from the occluded star Tamor and called upon the loyal followers they had made to care for the world. In a climactic battle at Orm's Reach the two armies clashed, ripping and tearing at each other in a frenzy. Thorn soldiers from darkened forest spirits tore through the mountain kings, whilst a great dragon, Ember, called the Thrice Cursed*, spewed fire and death across the field. The Goddess of Protection, Shayla fell at the battle, the first of the gods to die, devoured by the dragon. Others followed at other battles, Maylon Wood, The Ashen Heights and Scarlet Reach, and each fracas left scars upon the world.
The War claimed the lives of six deities in total, leaving gaps in the pantheons that would not be filled for centuries. For the Luminal Gods the deities of Protection, Maclan the Just and Elya the Learned perished, whilst within the Shadow Pantheon the Nature goddess Jarria, also known as the Poison Queen died under the blows of Alchnor's mace. The other dark gods to die were Arkan the god of theft and ignorance and Myrr the god of Shadow.
The Western Church teaches that the innate nature of the gods allowed them to overcome their doppelgangers, driving them down into the Dark and sealing them there. It is said that the eleventh god, agreed to stay behind and act as jailer, forsaking his name to ensure that the Shadow Pantheon could not reach the world. Today that name is a closely guarded secret, known only to a select few.
It is not known what the shadow worshipping cults and covens teach their new recruits about the war's end but it is assumed that their doctrines have a different take on the matter.
Next time we will return to Sharoban to discuss the role of the Merida's church in the city.
*It is not known if this the same dragon Ember that ravaged the Jorn Islands five hundred years ago though the beast's three heads suggest that it may be so.
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