Let's make some Gods. (Patreon)

Feeling better (and worse.  Covid's like a yoyo.  2 hours later it changes.) but wanted to actually write some actual writing stuff.  Thanks for all your patience.  BTW, if folks have topics or questions, I love hearing them.

This is on the various deities of Quintus.

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The Gods of Quintus have always been somewhat controversial.  Holy magic exists without question, and individuals have prayed to celestial entities and received answers... and yet inconsistencies are rife and spawn ever more questions.  The Ith, if they ever had religion, had lost any and all faith in higher powers before the Breach shattered the world and broke their civilization.  No record of any god or diety was recorded from this time.  Some speculate that the dieties were interplanar beings that moved from the Realms to the world in the moment of sundering.  Others wonder if the momentary brush with infinite power invested in some Ith apotheosis.  Many religions contend the gods always existed, but such statements are usually rooting in ignorance of the Ith and their role creating mortals for sport.

In truth, when the Ith created intelligent mortals, they also created mortal souls; a thaumaturgical setting that would ensure some variety in mortal creations.  The Ith assumed this tenuous amount of magical energy would likely disperse back into the natural magical background, a waste product.  However, no process or mechanism existed to break down this magical energy once created.  Over thousands of years, this magical energy collected and concentrated into a pool of magical potential energy that is tapped by mortals in the process of casting holy magic.

The manifestation of Gods in the aftermath of the breach was the result of billions of souls being released in the cataclysm that tore the continent asunder.  These early manifestations were indistinct and muddled.  Some believed them to be elementals or nature spirits.  These primordial entities can still be accessed today in most of the least developed regions of Quintus.  Shrines to the Mountain King can be found in the Hinterlands of Lithicus.  The religion of Hexan, on the far side of the world, still embraces these animist roots, though formalized and ritualized in the god spirits that rule regions of that landmass.

The emerging city states of Aurum, however, tended to think of Gods as ancestrial souls ascended to greatness.  Figures of myth and legion, they reflected aspects of nature and the societies that venerated them.  The Rivermaiden of Floria was a kind and gentle soul (who occasionally drowned her lovers) while the Seacaller of Corsia was a tempermental tyrant alterating between adventure and terrible wrath.  Thus the question was raised: were the Rivermaiden and the Seacaller two different Gods or the same God?  Divinatory prayer gave the same answer: yes.  A priest of the Rivermaiden could invoke holy magic calling upon the Seacaller, but find their magic warped and violent.

The ambiguity of the gods tormented humanity for centuries.  The elves did not have this problem.  They had no need for gods, knew gods weren't created by the Ith and therefore did not exist, and that holy magic was a strange abnormality or a forgotten Ith creation.  Any elf that displayed holy aptitude was a deviation to be exiled.  Dwarves acknowledged that Gods may exist, but believed them to be some sort of extraplanar invader.  To the dwarves, faith was more certainty, and they saw the divine in mathematical equations.  To dwarves, holy magic was utilitarian and did no more, nor less, than what was expected of it.  To Hobbs, holy magic was a particularly novel way to smash someone, but that was about it.

As humanity spread from Aurum to Ossia, certain codifications came into belief.  The first was that there were 12 gods, 12 being a supreme number associated with geometry and mysticism.  The dodecane pantheon was exported along with silks and spices to other human nations, and gradually merged with more localized beliefs.  In Aurum, the 12 would be organized into three distinct groups, and this organization has persisted.

The Familial Triad are the Lord, Lady, and Lovers.  The lord is involved for laws and contracts, deals with external contracts, and is associated with the sun and time.  The Lady is invoked for household organization, rules and manners, and personal promises and commitments.  The Lovers are employed for marriages, fertility, and are associated with children, innocence, and happiness.

The Fundament Tetrad are The Beast, The Wood, The Stone, and The Storm.  The Beast is a god of hunters, farmers, shepherds, cavalrymen, and anyone devoted to working with animals.  The Wood is the agricultural counterpart, employed by foresters and farmers alike.  The Stone is natural topography, primarily mountains, revered by engineers, surveyors, and those that traverse such terrain.  The Storm is associated with weather phenomenon and hydrology, and is worshiped by sailors, farmers seeking good weather, river dwellers, and other nautical individuals.

The Societal Pentad are The Soldier, The Sage, the Sneak, the Smith, and the Suffering.  The Soldier is a wartime figure, sometimes a mighty warrior, sometimes a dependable lineman, and sometimes a wise general, and is invoked by military and law enforcement alike.  The Sage is a scholar and utilized by all seekers of higher learning and scholarship.  The Sneak is a rogue like rapscallion that breaks rules, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill.  The Smith is a productive figure, making things and worshiped by those that do.  The Suffering is the god of the destitute, forsaken, and desperate.

The standardization of the Twelve helped calm some friction.  The Florian Rivermaiden and Corsian Seacaller were both aspects of The Storm, and thus like seeing a mountain from different sides, were merely different aspects of the same god.  This allowed trade to ease and helped remove some problems of theological conflict.

However, as the Dodecan faith spread to Lithicus and Ferria, it ran into trouble.  Faiths there questioned what the Breach could have been if not a divine act.  Thus the question was demanded of missionaries: which god of the Twelve broke the world?  They had no easy answer.  If there was an evil entity that could do that, why didn't the gods stop them?  If the Gods themselves did it, why venerate those that almost destroyed the world.  A Raken missionary named Triska tried to answer.  She claimed that one of the twelve had caused the breach secretly, and the other gods had saved the world!  But no one knew who the betrayer was.

The Triskadecan Heresy was the first of its kind, and it would spawn countless headaches.  This 'thirteen god' was often called The Breaker, The Wicked, or The Corruptor.  Some superstitions rose around the number 13 being cursed, and followers of the Heresy would say 'twelve and one' gods instead, skip the number on addresses and floors.  The thirteenth god became an outlet for the angst and need to judge the morality of others.  Indecent behavior would be blamed on bad morals or spiritual corruption.  To the Dodecan Faith, sin didn't exist.  People were just people.

The struggle lead to violent conflicts in Cuprium and Stenum between the faiths.  Dwarven secularism undermined the power of the faith in Aurum, and the broken and dangerous topography of Ossia made dialogue difficult.  The Triskadecan heresy absorbed the majority of the dodecan faith.  Only a few southern temples stayed true to the 'pure religion'.

However, why have twelve Gods when you can have many, MANY Gods?  The city state of Razkadesh decided there weren't just twelve gods but dozens!  Maybe hundreds!  They couldn't name them all, but with some strange and exotic herbs, maybe they could name a few!  Thus the Razkadeshi Pantheon was born, in a cloud of mind altering hallucinogens.  A god for birds!  A god for gold!  A god for wheels!  A god for toilets!  They proposed that gods managed all these things and when they disagreed you had problems like broken axles or a cracked chamberpot.  They called these gods the Raz, and that they managed the universe.

The Razkadeshi Pantheon never spread much further than the Razka plain and the Rahja, but shrines to the Raz can be found in many port cities, and most Twelve Temples will have a few icons to the gods.  Razkan grafitti sometimes can be found in places 'this toilet is sacred to Baulgazgut!'  The mythology surrounding it is contradictory, highly irreverent, often gross, and halarious to most Razkani followers.

Ah, but why have gods at all?  This was the thinking behind the rise of secularism in Aurum.  Could an atheist do holy magic?  Someone who refused to worship any God?  Why yes.  Yes they could.  And so this begged the question: was there some 'not God' out there granting powers?  The reformed dodecan faith said the Broken granted heretics divine power.  But other more practical thinkers theorized that the idea itself granted power.  The Aldonish scholar Lacadaemus coined the term 'Divine Philosophies'.

The philosophies were dedicated to concepts and philosophies of what was a good life or why things occurred.  Rather than subscribing to an entity doing a thing, the idea became more important.  Aurum kings liked this idea, particularly when the ideas were 'loyalty to your king and superiors.' and 'pay your taxes'.  Thus Philosophies tended to thrive in Aurum while Faiths thrived elsewhere.  Moreover, Dwarves, who would scoff at divine entities, were tantalized by philosophical debate and thus fueled their spread.

An example of one such philosophy is 'The Immaculate Order.'  Born during a terrible plague that ravaged much of Aurum, members noted that the plague was spread by people coming in contact with the blood, semen, and excrement of the infected.  Thus they proclaimed that filth was a corruption, cleanliness reflected virtue, and extolled bathing and sewer systems, which helped put an end to the plague.  To adapt, the Order extended their philosophy to moral acts.  Doing bad things made you feel bad and made you sick so be good and take your bath.  Unfortunately, some members of the Order added 'women menstrate, blood is unclean, women are innately corrupt filth' and proceeded to make life shit for women for two centuries.

Many other philosophies followed such tangled roots.  Primitivism promoted as simple a life as possible in ascetic contemplation. Superiorism claimed the universe was an arrangement of strength and weakness.  Transactionalism claimed everything was made of money and all interactions were transactions that could be contractified.  Dualism claimed everything had a reflection.  What philosophies were accepted and which were forbidden varied considerably, usually keyed to whatever needs the rulers had at a given time.

Of course, if you were an elf, you didn't have a God, you had the elven Primus, which was better.  Elves capable of holy magic learned to hide it quickly, as elves are expected to embrace their place in society and no elven precessor could use holy magic.  The few who can may request exile or execution, while others may be driven out or forced to flee by an overzealous lightning knight.  Since elves using divine magic lead to the rebellion which lead to the Breach and the destruction of the Ith, the motive behind such sentiments is clear.  Such elves tend to become philosophers or wander, seeking the source of their divine powers.  A few truly desperate pray to the Elven Primus, but he kills any such devotees upon discovery.  Drow tend to follow the Sufferer in some way, though a few follow the Lovers.

Finally, what if there's just one god?  That was the question