MechaTarrasque
Hero
In my campaign, the dawn war was between the gods and god monsters. At the end of it, most of the monsters were imprisoned in stasis on the material plane (only the weakest, the Tarrasque, and one whose name I can't spell who was in Pandemonium and is now the god of troglodytes are running free). In Fred Saberhagen fashion, the gods became discorporated and stuck in items. As long as someone holds/wears the item, they get the power of the god, but there is a struggle between the god's personality and the bearer's. Eventually the god usually wins, but traces of the bearer's personality become part of the god's personality (and in some cases overwrite it all together, such as Vecna and Cayden Cailean [who changed the god of wine into the god of folk heroes]). Often there are religious orders based on training candidates to better synch up with the god. My favorite being a conspiracy of gold dragons who make sure a silver dragon becomes Bahamut, as no gold dragon would trust another gold with that power.
The gods were temporarily off the table after the end of the war, and this allowed extrauniversal things like law, chaos, good, and evil to "invade" the universe. By the point the PC's come into being, alignment is integrated into the universe, although some older entities like primordials would like to expel it. The gods have largely made peace with it and are using it to their advantage.
Also, the orcs (correctly) believe they were a divinely created race who guard the god monsters and keep them asleep by sacrificing souls to them. The orcs (possibly correctly) have decided that sacrificing weak (i.e., non-orc) souls will also weaken the god monsters. Pretty much all other races believe (incorrectly) that the orcs are full of dragon guano.
The gods were temporarily off the table after the end of the war, and this allowed extrauniversal things like law, chaos, good, and evil to "invade" the universe. By the point the PC's come into being, alignment is integrated into the universe, although some older entities like primordials would like to expel it. The gods have largely made peace with it and are using it to their advantage.
Also, the orcs (correctly) believe they were a divinely created race who guard the god monsters and keep them asleep by sacrificing souls to them. The orcs (possibly correctly) have decided that sacrificing weak (i.e., non-orc) souls will also weaken the god monsters. Pretty much all other races believe (incorrectly) that the orcs are full of dragon guano.
