The Gygax 75 Challenge Part 2.7: Religions of Eordh

As I may have argued elsewhere, the primary unit of belief is not gods but religions. A religion may have zero, one, or many gods in it.

Below are the primary religions of Eordh in the Fifth Age and the gods (if any) they believe in.

The Imperial Pantheon

The Imperial religion practices syncretism. Sol Invictus is the Eastern god Mitra renamed, Perkunnus comes from the North, and Kel, Thalassa, and Nox come from the South. Even Mortifex, the evil god of Death and Undeath, has a place in the pantheon.

Imperials usually arrange their temples and shrines in a square or courtyard, with the major temples on a central courtyard and the shrines to lesser or foreign gods along the walls. The shrine to Mortifex is always near the entryway, for traditional reasons. In modern times, the Imperial cult of Sol Invictus takes pride of place, eclipsing the Supreme Triad traditionally honored as the most important of the gods.

Beyond that, the Imperial faith is simple: sacrifice to the gods, and they will give you good fortune.

The Northern Pantheon

Northern polytheism is much like Imperial polytheism: offer sacrifices to the right gods, and they will grant good fortune.

In addition to Perkunnus, known as Perun in the Northern Pantheon, Northerners revere the following gods.

The Southern Pantheon

Southern religion resembles Imperial religion. One notable exception is that Southerners have a tradition of chthonic cults, not only to honor Chthon, lord of the underworld, but the darker aspects of all their gods.

In addition to Kel, Nox, and Thalassa, the Southerners regard Dyeus and Chthon as the greatest gods in their respective spheres.

Eastern Gods

As befitting a hegemony, everyone in the East reveres Mitra (whom the West calls Sol Invictus). The faithful pray to him when they rise in the morning and before they retire for the night; they speak His name when good fortune blesses them or ill fortune threatens to overtake them. His temples are always the biggest and most ornate in the east.

Despite this henotheism every city-state and tribe has its own patron deity. Of these, the following are the most widespread, reflecting the cultures, civilizations, or ruling families of the East.

Mitraism

Mitraism arose from the East’s polytheistic tradition, but as a ruling god, state religion of a former empire, and sole Law-aligned deity of the East the Great God Mitra and Their religion developed a few unique traditions:

1. Avatars: While the other gods may incarnate briefly to move among mortals, Mitra has spent three lives as a mortal: once as a First Age hero, once as a Second Age prophet, and once as a Fourth Age empress.

2. Divine Hierarchy: The East recognizes numerous demigods, godlings, minor and major gods, and the Great Gods listed above. Mitraism has its own hierarchy of divine beings: holy messengers, the Avatars of Mitra, lesser and greater yazatas (divinities of Law), ahuras (major diviniities of benevolence and creation), and the Greatest God Mitra, second only to the benevolent Creator.

3. Earthly Hierarchy: This penchant for hierarchy extends to the organization of the Mitraist sect. Acolytes and Priests tend the faithful, as in many sects. The Magi once served the role of Clerics before Mitra acquired Their own Clerics. Above Clerics ranks the Muftis and Gradn Muftis who interpret the Books of Mitra, from which they derives Mitra’s laws. A Caliph reigns over the sect as both spiritual and temporal ruler of Triskaya, center of Mitraism. In past ages a Prophet, bearing the words of Mitra Themself, might outrank even the Caliphy, but in the current age no holy man has earned a Caliph’s recognition as a true Prophet.

Canonism

Canonism venerates a cosmic, multiversal Law and the Most High, embodiment of Law and creator and sustainer of the cosmos. The teachings of Canonism stem from the Canon, the Book of Law, which the Most High related to humanity at the dawn of time, i.e. the First Age. The Canon also teaches a “universal” morality that may be hard to put into practice.

The faithful gather in massive Temples, meant to evoke the grandeur and majesty of The Law. There the priests read from the Canon and teach how the Law is supposed to apply to daily life.

After various reformations in the First Age, Second Age, Fourth Age, and early Fifth Age, the Canonist hierarchy, from lowest to highest, is the following:

1. Lay Members, also called Servants of Law or Believers, who attend Temple services and practice the teachings of the Canon.
2. Students of the Law, those studying to be Teachers or Priests of the Law.
3. Friars and Nuns, those leading lives of communal contemplation and labor in isolated abbeys.
4. Teachers, those who spread the Word of Law to the unenlightened.
5. Abbots and Abbesses, leaders of the aforementioned abbeys.
6. Priests and Priestesses¹, leaders of the community of Lay Members.
7. Paladins, warriors with a divine calling to fight on behalf of Law.
8. Clerics, those blessed with powers from the Most High.
9. High Priests and High Priestesses, leaders of a greater temple.
10. Jurists, experts in The Law.
11. Electors, High Priests and/or Jurists who choose a Patriarch.
12. Patriarchs, leaders of autonomous Churches within Canonism.
13. Saints, rare miracle-workers who have a special relationship with Law and the Angels.
14. Champions, even rarer warriors specially endowed by the Most High to fight for the principles of Law against the forces of Chaos.

Canonism has not one leader but many, the Patriarchs, who head autonomous but closely collaborating churches within the Canonist faith. Every five years each Patriarch or their chosen representative gathers at a Synod to discuss finer points of doctrine and problems facing Canonism. The appearance of a recognized Saint or Champion may upend normal governance for a time, but otherwise this structure has remained little changed since the beginning of Canonism.

Canon, Mitra, and Sol Invictus

Canonists claim that Mitraism is a debased version of their own religion. While there are many similarities – both are Lawfully aligned – the mythology of Mitra has no precedent in the Canon, many of the strictures of Canonism are missing in Mitraism, and Mitra takes a far softer stance toward “unbelievers” than the Canon writers.² Mitraists claim that both religions describe the same reality in different ways.

It is a fact that Sol Invictus is simply Mitraism stripped of mythology. In the Imperial Pantheon, all the gods have existed solely as gods since the beginning of Time, whereas Mitra twice incarnated as a mortal. The creed of Sol Invictus also omits inconvenient principles like pacifism. Officially, however, the Empire denies any connection.

The Cults of Chaos

The Cults of Chaos believe “Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole of the Law”. They often attract outcasts, the oppressed, and the jaded of their society.

Services in each cult vary from open discussions to parodies of the services of Law to the often-cited pagan rites and blood sacrifices to demons. Each cult, paradoxically, obeys a High Priest, Head Witch or Warlock, Master Sorcerer, or guru; most worship a specific Daemon Lord, Devil Prince, Great Old One, or other malignant being. That said, however, some cults, notably the widespread Solace of the Dark Mother, appear not to have any Infernal connection and simply give their believers a sense of purpose and belonging.

Like Law and Balance, Chaos has its favored mortal champions. Champions and higher Powers of Chaos regard the average cultist as a mere tool to extend their power.

Canonism and other religions of Law are the eternal enemy of Chaos.

The Way of Balance

The Way of Balance is a religio-philosophy that emphasizes simplicity, the natural order, and a flexible but benevolent set of ethics (as distinct from the many “shoulds” of Law). They reject both Law and Chaos; when the Powers of Balance cannot remove the influence of the other powers, they ensure that neither gains the upper hand.

Balance believes in practice, not words. Believers (and open-minded skeptics) join a School of Balance to learn physical exercises, self-defense techniques, and ways to focus their mind and body served with just a dash of philosophy. All walks of life (and classes) practice the Way of Balance, although it’s most popular among working people and travelers. Beyond the lay members who practice and promote its principles lies a loose organization hidden in plain sight, including:

1. Agents, who undertake discrete missions to promote Balance or thwart Law and/or Chaos.
2. Disciples, who learn mystical techniques beyond crude “magic” that gives them extraordinary abilities.
3. Masters, who teach Disciples the techniques they’ve learned over a lifetime.
4. Champions, who fight to maintain the Balance between Law and Chaos by opposing the influence of both.
5. immortals, Jinn, and other supernatural beings, including non-malevolent daemons and rebel Angels, who more directly oppose Law and Chaos, and provide safe havens from the Cosmic Struggle.

While Law and Chaos regard each other as their implacable enemies, opposition from Balance sometimes goads Law or Chaos to strike back against this seemingly peaceful, naturalistic thorn in their sides.

Demi-Human Religion

Dwarves

Dwarf religion is a mystical, personal experience, which is why Dwarves don’t talk about it much. It involves a reverence for the earth as the provider of life and wealth, and a lot of mostly internalized laws covering all aspects of Dwarven society. It has little to do with “morality” as humans understand it. A “good” Dwarf may be stingy and violent (but never a thief or liar); a “bad” Dwarf may be a paragon of human virtue but disrespect the ways of Dwarfkind in sometimes hard-to-pin-down or downright trivial ways.

Dwarves revere the gods, but do not worship them in the same way as humans. Instead their religion tells tales of the First Dwarves and other notable ancestors. Often they sound like nonsense, but Dwarves tell them seriously. Each story has a moral, albeit one non-Dwarves might not identify.

Khulduk (“teachings” in Dwarvish) concerns rules of lawful Dwarf conduct and the lore behind them. Khulduksim (“teachers”) have become experts in these rules, and instruct other Dwarves who seek to uphold them. Most Khulduksim hold down other jobs to pay rent, as advising other Dwarves is their duty; they cannot demand gold for it. Only a few such scholars become famous enough to survive entirely on “gifts”, made under strict rules and after the Khuldukis renders his judgements.

Dwarves have no priests or Clerics, unless they convert to another religion. Even then, they will always remain Dwarves.

Elves

Elves, in contrast, have several gods, but individual Elves treat them more like distant and perhaps embarassing relatives than linchpins of reality. They only truly revere their forests and the natural world.

Elves have their own lore and myth cycles, but elves characteristically don’t take them too seriously. The characters of these cycles seem larger than life and heroic but also foolish and sometimes petty.

The best-known of these mythic beings are the following:

Elves have no priests; their ceremonies have “celebrants” and “assistants”, and most feature a Loremaster to relate a pertinent myth or legend. Celebrants are usually the village headman, and Loremasters a village elder or respected scholar, but any elf could potentially fill those roles. Just like humans, ceremonies revolve around transitions in life or nature: equinoxes and solstices, births (rare), marriages, deaths (even rarer), etc.

Halflings

Halflings pay lip-service to a distant Maker, but reserve most of their reverence (and blasphemy) for a being they call Lady Luck. The Lady (as Halflings call her) has no temples or shrines, merely a small talisman near the door of each Halfling dwelling which a Halfling will touch upon entering.

Non-itinerant Halflings, however, have an almost fanatical devotion to Propriety. There is a Way Things Are Done, and a set of Things That Are Not Done. Most of these rules go out the ventilation shaft once a Halfling goes Wandering, but upon returning to Halfling society a Halfling will return to Propriety as much as possible … and still be thought a little “strange”.

Halflings have no priests, or rather every Halfling can be either a priest of Lady Luck or a theologian of Propriety, i.e. a ne’er-do-well or a busybody.

Vanishing Religions

Arcanism

More of a philosophy of magic than a religion, the Arcanists once plumbed the depths of the Arcane. Thanks to a now virtually extinct religion, the movement is effectively dead, its works burned in bonfires. The Imperial Wizards’ Guild has sworn to revive it, but they are effectively starting at zero.

Church of Pure Truth

Widespread in the Fourth Age, the Church of Pure Truth was a heretical sect of Canonism. They believed that all magic, even Clerical magic, was evil, and purged not just witches and sorcerers but Clerics. The Church had only priests (not Clerics) and witch-hunters. All had spell-like powers of detecting evil, turning undead, and protection from evil.

Theirs was a Puritannical, joyless faith that viewed poverty and sickness as a matter of insufficient faith, not a socio-economic ill. In its early stages the Church rooted out supernatural threats. In its latter days its hypocritical theocracy hoarded tax money like any other short-sighted noble class. High-ranking Inquisitors, Hunter-Knights, and Elders lived in opulence while the “sinful” working poor listened to harangues from well-fed preachers.

When the Continental Empire marched through the Pure Truth heartlands the common people greeted them as liberators. Only a few adherents remain, mostly around the town of Bolg.

Druidism

Druidism is a little-known, fading religion in the Western Isles. Reportedly all its priests have Cleric-like magic, but oriented to nature instead of healing, protection, light, etc.

“Bards”, roving troubadors with magical powers, are also said to be priests of a sort, although you wouldn’t know it from their behavior.

Magianism

While originally from the East, Magianism at one time spread into the rest of the Continent. Their fame and power inspired the popular term for supernatural invocations, “magic”.

While the Magi primarily practiced a form of of arcane magic, their powers rested on the belief that certain magics were inherently Lawful and safe, and others inherently Chaotic and dangerous. Thus it belongs in the realm of religion.

Mitraism and other Eastern sects eventually assimilated the Magi in the late Fourth Age, with many of the remainder choosing Wizardry in the early Fifth Age. Only a few members of this ancient order persist today, mostly practitioners of Ritual Magic.

Ritual Magic

Once a common form of magic, the performance of long, elaborate rituals to draw down supernatural power has faded in the current age. Wizards and Clerics can cast spells with only a few words and gestures, and far from being persecuted they have the backing of powerful guilds or temples.

The only ones who still conduct ritual magic are priests at temples without a Cleric in residence, apprentices still learning the principles of arcane magic, the few remaining magi and theurges, and hedge witches who are but a pale reflection of the originals.

Sorcery Cabals

Relics of the Fourth Age, sorcerers reject even the loose guidelines of the Imperial Guild of Wizards and seek greater power through far more dangerous experiments. Most are little better than Chaos Cults.

Theurgy

Theurgy isn’t a religion so much as a practice of invoking Luminaries, “holy beings” known in the East, through rigidly prescribed rites. This stands in contrast to the gods, godlings, and demigods of clerical magic, the elemental and extradimensional powers of common wizardry, and the dark gods, antigods, and demons associated with dark magic. Unlike Clerics, in particular, Theurges commanded Luminaries much like Wizards command elementals and demons.

Very little is known about Theurgy in modern times, thanks to the witch hunts of a now virtually extinct religion. It’s said that Theurges had numerous taboos, notably causing direct harm to a sapient being and “opposing the dictates of Fate”, whatever that means. (Magi also proscribed tampering with “Fate”.) In return for honoring these taboos, and other practices of which we know only rumors, Theurgists could erect barriers of protection, dispel lesser magics, and seal or banish supernatural monsters, among other rumored wonders.

Witchcraft

In modern times the term “witch” has been applied to a number of women from village “wise folk” and inconvenient old widows to faerie hags and wicked female magic-users.

The term originally referred to a type of spellcaster, usually female, with both an innate grasp of magic and an independent streak. They rejected gods and wizardly patrons alike, although some sources claim they worhshipped an unnamed goddess.

During the Fourth Age, witch hunters of a now virtually extinct religion tracked down and executed all those accused of using magic, including Clerics, Arcanists, Witches, herbalists, and the usual scapegoats. The bloodlines of Witches went extinct, as did the secrets of “witchcraft”. Of that time only folk tales of witches eating children and making pacts with demons remains.

These days it takes a great deal of bravery if not foolhardiness to call oneself a Witch.