Gods and Pantheons

The Gods and Pantheons of Teiravon 3, as recorded by Steelcap.

The Pantheons are as Follows.

The Saints - Followers of virtue, recognizing those individuals who embody the traits which they strive to achieve.

The Ancients - Followers of the Old Gods, terrible horrifying forces of unfathomable power and utter disregard for mortal fate.

The Twins - Followers of the dual forces of light and dark, good and evil, the inherent duality of all things that exist.

The Lords - Followers of the harbingers of chaos in rejection of the stagnation of order. The bringers of change and the source of inspiration and novelty.

The Scales - The followers of the beneficent and majestic order of all dragon kind. The law bringers and the source of all civilization.

The Sun - The followers of the first and oldest way, the path of light and warmth, the source of all life and the beating heart of all creation.

The Watcher - The followers of the lonely one. He who stands in contemplative observation of the universe, the truth and wisdom, the action by inaction, the knower of things.

The Stream - The followers of the harmonious understanding of the nature of all life. The shared force which permeates the planet and all its denizens, orchestrating actions not for good or ill but for the holistic mechanism of all ecology united.

The Ancestors - The followers of tradition. Those that came before building the path to those who will come after, each generation stands upon the last to exalt and elevate those who will come yet further on.

Warrior's Path - The followers of the only truth you can grip with your own two hands, that combat proves the measure of all things, the strength of your arm and your conviction, the keen edge of your sword and your wit, your courage, dedication, tenacity, and the drive which pushes you forward.

Each of these pantheons is a complete religion world view, they acknowledge typically the beliefs of other religions but see them ultimately as mistaken or misguided, some regard each other with hostility, some with bemusement. Detailed understanding of each pantheon and how it relates to the other religions are forthcoming.

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The Saints

"We do not condemn those who have not yet reached perfection, let it not be said that these worthy few who are recognized act as a condemnation of your acts, no. Let it only be known that these few show us the path, they prove it can be walked, even if only in some few aspects, and perhaps someday, everyone can walk it together." - Brother Tommin Vetarii, Cleric of the Saints.

Within each person it is said, is the potential for great virtue, often beset by inequity and woe which can prevent that greatness from being expressed. But never the less, the potential is there in us all and the Saints prove it to be so.

Adherants of the saints venerate the virtues they see as inherent in everyone, the 8 Virtues.

Valor Humility Honesty Sacrifice Justice Compassion Honor Spirituality

Each of these virtues has been embodied by virtuous individuals recognized posthumously for their achievements by the church. These group are known collectively as "The Saints" and are said to act both as a beacon to aspire to and a guardian over the living yet to reach them. All adherents of the Saints strive to live virtuous enough lives that they themselves might be remembered in this way. Due to the universality of their message and the recognition of many individuals of other religions, the saints are generally accepted to be lesser practitioners of what ever religion happens to be checking.

Dedication: Counts as any other pantheon when checked.

Prayers Aid - Restores the greater of 15% total hp or 20 flat healing while curing poison. Smite - Deals between 10-20 pure "Holy" damage. Bless - Boosts stats by 20% Curse - Reduces stats by 20% Boon - Creates "Mana" a perfectly satisfying food that any animal loves. Sanctify - Reduces all damage in the area by 20% Resurrect - Returns a ghost to life.

What they think of Other Pantheons Ancients - "It must take great courage to call upon creatures they know despise them." Twins - "Good and Evil needn't co-exist, the righteous can follow a path without shadow." Lords - "If only their creativity was put to more constructive aims." Scales - "They certainly are... dedicated, though their laws seem rather arbitrary." Sun - "I must say I admire their spirit of cooperation." Watcher - "Respect for the truth is a very fine thing indeed, though perhaps a bit single minded."

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The Ancients

"Seek not to hasten their return, any more than you would hasten an earthquake or tidal wave upon the land, for they are beyond the power to influence. To our hopelessly primitive understanding, they are unknowable, yet if we are to stretch out infant limbs and learn to crawl to their presence we must be prepared to suffer the growing pains of madness on the way to enlightenment." High-Priest Sarento, The Codex Sagaticus

Beyond the limits of mortal understanding, far off in the distant reaches of space and yet somehow also lurking just beyond the thin veneer of reality separating this world from another, there reside The Ancients. Creatures of impossible age, understanding, and power, whose inhuman intellect so drastically outstrips mortal minds that one would go mad simply attempting to comprehend them.

However, this is not to say it has not been tried with some success. Like a force of nature itself, the brave, the foolish, the dedicated , and the mad have won secret knowledge of the nature of the cosmos from aligning their thinking to those of these most ancient ones.

Prayers Aid - Restore 20% Mana Smite - Deals 50 Poison/Cold damage and drains 10 mana. Bless - Gain 100 in all stats, but deals high damage. Curse - Renders the target mad, all actions consume mana. Disabled upon mana depleted. Boon - Creates a highly poisonous yet brittle dagger. Sanctify - Fills an area with tentacled monstrosities Resurrect - Returns a corpse to life, calling back the spirit from wherever it was.

What they think of Other Pantheons Saints- "It is good to acknowledge the great works of those who came before you." Twins - "Perhaps they temper with light what they fear to look too deeply into in dark." Lords - "But a fraction of the madness that awaits us all." Scales - "As we are to dragons, so dragons are to the great Ancient ones, trifling lesser beings." Sun - "Even this mighty star will be swallowed upon their return." Watcher - "Let them turn their contemplation skyward and recoil in horror at what they learn of the true nature of reality."

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The Beneficent Order of their Most Exalted Scaled Ones

The Scales

"Be thou not feared lowly mortal creature, for you stand now in the presence of they upon whose back the very firmament of the world rests. They who cradle us as a awesome and scaled mother cradles her unworthy infant child. Seek not to understand their arcane and unknowable ways only to accept that what they demand of us if no more than the LAW. For they are the bringers of order and peace, wisdom and nobility itself, and all the good of this world stems from their will and obedience to that will." -Archbishop Serville Talonborne

Striding upon the world as mortal gods in their own right, the beneficent order, the holiest panoply of scales guides their adherents with a firm and righteous claw. It is not always clear to their followers why they demand what they do of us, but the price for disobedience is swift and fiery. Adherents of the scales obey what is known as "Dragon Law" or simply "The LAW" for short, brought down first to the priests of Dragon Tooth Isles and growing more and more elaborate and well understood with each subsequent generation. Dragon Law keeps Order and its clerics are charged with baring witness and bringing righteous judgment to violations of dragon law they see. Observant adherents will notice that the Law-bringers are often more likely to observe violations that people OTHER than that particular cleric may be violating. But it is of course heresy to question the divine judgment of the Law-bringers. Particularly when they are clad in the raiment of dragons which by divine authority, transubstantiates them into living dragons themselves.

Judgment - Declare as judged any target you witness violating dragon law.

Prayers Aid - Restore 10-15 HP, heals an additional 35 if target adjacent to the Judged. Smite - Sets a person on holy fire. Dealing 6-10 damage. Stacks on Judged Targets. Bless - Increases damage based missing HP. Curse - Deals damage every time a target is Judged. Boon - Clads the caster in the Raiment of Scales, making them a "Dragon" Sanctify - Defines a border through which the Judged may not cross. Resurrect - Executes a judged target who is under 10% Hp, sacrificing them and resurrecting anyone around them.

Dragon Law Say no words the dragons find displeasing (Dragon Swears) [ riik, lpuul, tzarreth, simose, nar ] Do not preform nor use the fruits of Alchemy Do not use mechanical gadgets created by Tinkering Do not drop gold upon the ground Do not equip yourself with weaponry Wear not the scales of dragons Never strike a dragon