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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 2927224" data-attributes="member: 3448">Thanks for all the kind words.  It really made my day to read them.As it happens, I have a write-up on Religion in Aphonion that I prepared for new players.  It skews towards the deities PCs tend to worship.  The references to Caldefor are there because another group of PCs is currently based around that country.-----Religion in AphonionAphonion is a polytheistic world, but most temples are organized around a single deity, sometimes with a few servitor deities and saints.  Most individuals are affiliated with a single temple, although some follow both an official more popular deity and quietly a personally preferred deity (sometimes following two benign faiths, as with farmers who are nominally Glor'diadelian but in practice Gunnoran, but sometimes professing a good aligned faith while secretly worshipping demons.)  Most realms in Aphonion have an officially established faith; among non-evil realms, Glor'diadel and Paranswarm are by far the most common established religions.  Some countries permit open worship of other faiths, often with restrictions against a few disfavored faiths (whether evil or simply just contrary to the principles of the realm's ruler), while others essentially ban all religions besides the state faith.Major religions in the Ecumenical Alliance (a roughly good aligned alliance formed to fight Borsh'tro and various demon worshippers):The Creator and his First Daughter (strongly good aligned):  The Creator made Aphonion originally, along with directly creating the elves.  Almost all elves and good faerie worship the Creator and his Daughter.  While the elven gods (and the elves) have tremendous power, they are probably the least active of all the good-aligned deities and faiths, except in fighting back efforts by Morgrath.  (Common as patron for PC elves; rare for all others)Glor'diadel, Lord of Light and Sun God (Lawful Good):  The Church of Glor'diadel is the single strongest force for good active in humanity.  The Church is organized along a hierarchical, episcopal structure (modeled on the medieval Catholic Church).  (Common as patron for PCs)*  Glordiadel has many servitor deities and saints.  These rarely come up in game and PCs are almost never devoted to them.*  State religion of the Archduchy of CanberryParanswarm, Lord of Orderly Darkness (Lawful.  Definitely lawful.  Evil? Neutral?  Good??  That's more up in the air):  The Church of Paranswarm is enormously powerful, organized, expansionistic, and aggressive.  Historically, Paranswarm was the most active force of organized evil among humans.  Now, the Church is divided.  Many Paranswarmians follow traditional evil ways, but many others, including much of the hierarchy, fight vigorously against the forces of evil in Aphonion, particularly fighting Borsh'tro, demons, and other chaotic evil forces.  And many individual Paranswarmians are lawful good, including some orders of paladins.  Even Paranswarmians at their most good tend to be a little bloodthirsty (some would say psychotic).  The Church of Paranswarm is also structured around a hierarchical, episcopal structure, and tends to have very close ties with nobles in Paranswarmian realms.  Human sacrifice is practiced; some, but not all, Paranswarmian realms restrict sacrifices to condemned prisoners.  (Uncommon as patron for PCs, but probably rising in popularity?)*  Paranswarm has one servitor deity (the Weeping Woman, Paranswarm's bastard daughter who weeps for the world, particularly the poor and destitute) (many of the most good followers of Paranswarm, including rare PCs, follow the Weeping Woman) and many, many saints, including the dragon saint Vitrix-Henexoi, St. Barnaby the Often Martyred, the Eyeless Face, etc. *  State religion of Caldefor before its fallGunnora, goddess of hearth and home (Good, neutral I think but might be chaotic):  Gunnora is the goddess of the harvest, fertility, homes, halflings, and similar things.  In terms of total worshippers, she may be the most popular god in Aphonion.  In terms of power, however, her temple is much more limited, because her worship skews heavily towards peasants.  Her temple appears to be fairly disorganized and de-centralized, but that could just be a lack of awareness of its structure.  Some of her clergy are good-aligned druids, I believe.  (Common for halfling PCs; uncommon to rare for other PCs)Dain, god of dwarves (lawful good):  Dain is worshipped by dwarves.  Also by most gnomes, and probably a few other people.  The temple of Dain is as active a force for good as the dwarves themselves (meaning pretty strong, but not very active outside the dwarven homelands).  (Extremely common for dwarven PCs, common for gnome PCs; very rare for all others)Whimsey (very chaotic good):  Whimsey is the goddess of happy creative chaos and freedom.  Whimsey has no organized church to speak of, but some very powerful followers.  Good fey that don't follow the Creator tend to follow Whimsey.  (Common to uncommon among PCs)*  The Mad God:  Not really a servitor so much as a similarly-minded friend deity.  Romantically involved with Whimsey, but they often have lovers' spats - not surprising, considering their erratic natures, but these quarrels between the deities can lead to conflicts between their followers as well. Whimsey also has a bunch of saints and servants; I've rarely seen them active in games, but I think they may have been important for other groups of PCsSytry, Lord of Golden Purity (Lawful, with goodish tendencies):  Sytry has another traditional, hierarchical temple, although there are many fewer Sytryan realms than Paranswarmian or Glor'diadelian.  Followers of Sytry are dedicated to purity, both ritual and otherwise.  The temples of Sytry and Paranswarm frequently clash, because of several unfortunate martyrdom incidents.  Followers of Sytry must not be resurrected; they serve one life and then join Sytry in the afterlife.  (Uncommon to rare among PCs)*  Sytry has some saints.----Other good or neutral faiths:Manumist (Chaotic, mostly, leaning towards good):  Manumist is the god of pleasure and hedonism, especially sexual pleasure.  Manumist's temple is mostly about organized cultic prostitution.  (Uncommon among PCs)Namadon, the Lord of Ants and Insects (Lawful neutral):  Umm... Lord of Insects.  Pretty much sums it up.  Some humans follow Namadon, being all into equality and oneness and stuff.  Not a lot.  (Rare among PCs (I guess common among phraint PCs, but they're very rare, so... back to rare))----Major evil faiths:Morgrath (Neutral Evil):  First Lord of Death, leader of the Noldar (the ancient fallen elves), son of the Creator and a classic Lucifer figure.  Some Morgrathians are reasonable and can be worked with; they at least want to preserve the world so Morgrath can rule it, making them opposed to the more nihilistic evil gods.  Still, pretty much evil to the core.  The Noldar and the more Noldar-aligned drow follow Morgrath, as do some humans and many monsters.  (Not strictly prohibited, but vanishingly rare among PCs; Morgrath has some neutral worshippers)*  Many servitor deities.Borsh'tro, Whipmaster of Destruction (Chaotic Evil):  Borsh'tro is the chief demon god and wants to destroy the entire world, with as much suffering en route as possible.  Leads an evil alliance with Berta and Arthranax.  (Unavailable for PCs)*  Many demon lords and princes serve Borsh'tro, as well as other evil saints and lesser deities.  The Horned Rat, patron god of the Skaven, is among the more notable followers.*  The Shadowlands, including Caldefor now, are Borsh'tro's personal domain and his principal power base on Aphonion.Berta, Goddess of the Ever Changing Amalgamation (Pure Chaos):  Berta is actually chaotic, not evil, but is currently on a destructive kick.  This will presumably end at some point, but it's bad while it lasts.  Not that important, but notably was the patron goddess of the Confederation of South Kingdoms, and was directly responsible for their fall (sold them out to Borsh'tro, essentially).  (Rare among PCs, but possible I guess)Arthranax:  Another major evil god, associated with disease and death.  Not a big on-screen player, in my experience, but fairly major nominally.  (Unavailable for PCs)</blockquote>

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