LetsBuild5e:Religion

What do people believe?

The Gods with a Thousand Faces

We have decided to have a unique pantheon of gods for the setting. (Decision: [1] ) Some powerful fiends also feature in religious stories. (Decision: [2] ) Some gods are purely local or racial, but many regional pantheons are in fact understood to be the same gods with many different names. (Decision: [3] ) The gods are all variably depicted as male, female, both or neither. (Decision: [4]) Beyond the gods and principal heroes, every culture has several unique cultural figures, but there are a few that have obvious parallels in other cultures. (Decision: [5]) Worship of the gods, both collectively and individually, is the main form of religious expression, but oracles, religious self-defence groups, and abstract philosophies are also widespread in the starting region. (Decision: [6])

The Possessors of Power

The pantheon of gods is primarily held to consist of:

• The Chief God, known as Bormerene, Ranganir, Shekihen, or Vurtirad. The chief god gained power by overthrowing Kugbazel, the Elder Dragon God who was the parent of the other gods. Orcs additionally regard Vurtirad as the creator of their race. Portfolio: Rulership, liberation, storms, the sky.
• The Trickster, known as the Changer: Metepes, Mötirum, Sheliter, or Vltad. The Trickster is more often shown as female than male, but her appearance is highly variable. She is not a seducer, but rather a subtle deceiver. She plays a pivotal role in many of the most widespread myths. Portfolio: Trickery, subtlety, travel.
• The Death God, elder sibling of the other gods, known as Endprazad, Haltita-Reng, Shepireth, or Ungbepe. The Death God is a peaceable deity, who let their younger sibling claim the chiefdom, safe in the knowledge that all things come to death in the end. Portfolio: Death, ends, peace, the soil.
• The Healer, who is known as Avatzakad, Shehipet, Fulvik, Avatbrak, or Vizeveltipes. The Healer is also seen as a protective figure, and is second only to the Lover in legends of the gods secretly walking the earth. Portfolio: Healing, children, defence.
• The Lover, known as Lorno, Melazekto, Shebideth, or Utzad. The Lover is a lusty god, seen as both romantic and sexual in nature. The Lover is often said to wander the earth in disguise; some even claim the Lover is always at large somewhere. Portfolio: Love, poetry, sex, conviviality.
• The Wisdom God, known as Denopes, Mratgatad, Sherenowos, or Zaghallir. The Wisdom God is seen as responsible for legitimising arcane magic use by mortals, and is revered for knowledge and patience. Portfolio: Wisdom, knowledge, time.

The two principal enemies of the pantheon are:

• The Elder Dragon God, called Kugbazel, Shesipev, or Urimaibepe. The Elder Dragon God was the first god, and parent of the others. Legend tells that the Chief God overthrew their parent after the Elder God tried to keep the warm-blooded races on the darkened side of the world while dragons enjoyed the fruits of the light side. The Elder Dragon still waits, somewhere outside the world of mortals, licking its wounds and hoping for revenge. Portfolio: Dragons, power, revenge, parenthood.
• The Chief of Fiends, called Balmeverni, Furgend, Horrib, or Ligen. The Chief Fiend was fooled by the Trickster into entering a pact by which neither gods nor arch-fiends could directly attack mortals. Since then, it has sought ways to hamper the gods and their worshippers by many subtle means. Portfolio: Lies, usurpers, fiend-summoning.

Another fiend, known as Asupuxai, Fligmrat, Renodor, or Zagezirang, is seen more as a rival than an outright enemy of the gods. This fiend is said to be one of the greatest makers of warlock pacts.

The Old, Old Story

The core myths (Decisions: [7] [8] [9] [10]) are:

• I: Metepes the Trickster once conned Ligen, Chief of Fiends, into signing a pact that prevented the evil creature from outright slaughtering or destroying mortals. But they had to sign the pact themselves to do it, which prevents the gods from interfering too directly in mortal lives either.
• II: The androgynous hero Darrai stole the blood of the injured Kugbazel and gave it to mortals to drink, who became sorcerers; Bormerene punished Darrai, but the secret was already out.
• III: Enkram, daughter of Darrai, planned to steal the Divine Language from the gods; Metepes was impressed with the folk-hero's plan and assisted in its completion. Because a god had helped, Enkram escaped the worst wrath of the other gods. The words that were stolen were enough to bind powerful beings to the first warlock pacts.
• IV: The Death God is the Chief God's older sibling, but yielded the chiefdom willingly because all things come to Death anyway.
• V: The warm-blooded humanoid races were originally one race. The Elder Dragon left them on the dark side of the world, and gave the light and fruitful side to the dragons. The humanoid races realised they had been sold short, and tried to dig right through the world. Elder Dragon divided them into many different races and cultures to confound them.
• VI: Shesipev the Elder Dragon preferred its creations, the dragons, over its own children, the other gods. When Shesipev sundered the humanoid races, Bormerene realised the Elder Dragon had become a tyrant, deposed Shesipev, and took power. Shespiev became known as Kugbazel ('nothing-king'), and now sleeps uneasily somewhere. (In the human version of this myth, Bormerene led Ungbepe and their other siblings to depose elder-dragon-god; in the orc version, Vurtirad showed their worthiness by having the courage to do it single-handed, and Endprazad merely helped with the aftermath. Orcs also believe that they were specifically created by Vurtirad at this point.)
• VII: As punishment for rebellion, Metepes was tasked to accompany Enkram to get wisdom from the end of the earth. Metepes faithfully completed this task, using trickery for good, and was thus reconciled to Denopes. The wisdom they retrieved gave mortals the understanding necessary to turn the Divine Language into new forms of magic. This is the origin of wizards.
• VIII: Every god has a tendency to wander the Earth in disguise, doing things which fit them; in particular, the Lover periodically assumes an avatar and wanders the world as a romantic hero.
• IX: The priest-queen Moburene owned the sacred artefact of the Healer, but was unable to use it. The wanderer Lises-Huvnamunu handled the device unknowingly, and by his innocence gained the power to cure priest-ruler. This shows the merit of travelling adventurers.

Is it not written?

Orcs, Gnomes, and the humans of the Old Imperial cultures have a legend which is rejected by elves, dwarves and other humans (Decision: [11]):

Lises-Huvnamunu was on a journey, and met a strange companion who provided helpful advice and useful supplies. After the companion departed, Lises-Huvnamunu reached his destination and was confronted by the fiend Asupuxai. Lises-Huvnamunu defeated the fiend using the advice and supplies provided by his companion. When the fiend had departed, he realised his companion had been the Healer.

Words and Pictures

The humans and orcs of the Old Imperial culture and its successors in the magocracies mostly depict the gods as heroic orcs and humans, except that the Trickster is usually shown as a dark elf or other non-orc, non-human. The trickster-god is a noted shapeshifter, but is usually depicted as female. The steppe tribes avoid direct depictions of the gods, and instead depict their regalia or other inanimate attributes. Traditional dwarvish culture holds that a god may be depicted in any form, but it is the written or carved name of the deity that makes it a meaningful depiction. Traditional gnomish culture favours ostenatious and complex depictions of the gods, often using heroic statues completely covered with names, praise-names and hymns to the relevant deity. The halflings use a system, developed by the steppe halflings, where each god is represented almost exclusively by a simple pictogram derived from the steppe tribes' symbolism for the gods. The predominant elven culture is iconophobic: direct depictions of the gods are forbidden - even their names are only written in specific contexts - but songs and recitations are used widely to refer to and praise the gods.

It is unknown to non-dragonborn whether the dragonborn even worship the same gods as the warm-blooded species. The insect-people have a lifestyle that is mysterious to outsiders: it appears highly ritualised, but no conventional religious observance has ever been noted. (Decisions: [12])

In most temples, the priests either ritually represent the gods in magically-enhanced sacred drama, or lead and encourage the congregation to encounter the divine personally. In doing so, they are seen as bridging the gap between the mortal world and the divine world. A number of temples also feature rituals involving sacred objects, and others encourage the congregants to enter into debate about the meaning of the sacred texts.

In general, there's a fairly closely observed distinction between clergy and laity; it's rare for the priest to be styled as a mere representative of the people. A few temples of the Trickster have an occasional (roughly annual) ceremony in which they choose a layperson at random to be 'priest for a day' in the place of the actual priest. (Decision: [13])

One player, Mr the Geoff, has done some work developing Orc lore.

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