View source for Alia:Religion and Divine Magic

==Outsiders, Gods and the Supernatural==

The gods do not walk the earth in Alia.  Nobody knows for certain
the nature of the universe, although many religious groups claim to
know the answers.

Good and evil exist, but are not magically detectable or protected
against.  Characters should not choose an alignment.

Outsiders do exist.  All of them are alien in psychology, language and
motivation.  Most have very abstract goals, representing ideals and
concepts rather than anything humanistic.  They are forces of nature,
elemental icons, or avatars of a cause, idea or place.  They manifest
as spirits, or demons, or angels.

Ghosts and Undead do exist.  The seem to be caused by one of two
things: the souls of the dead that remain on this world, spirits that
possess and animate the empty bodies left behind, and/or bodies or
skeletons reanimated by magic.  Many undead are not particularly evil,
they are instead motivated by a desire to complete an important task
in this world (admittedly often revenge), or are mindless tools of a
controlling magical force.

==Planes of Existence==

===Ethereal===

The ethereal plane touches and overlaps all other planes.  It is the spirit world, and many believe the gateway to the afterlife.  Ghosts, spirits and anything that is intangible exists in the ethereal.

===Astral===

Where the ethereal plane overlaps and touches all other planes as a mirrored reflection of reality, the Astral Plane is a plane of connections and gateways outside of reality which allows for travel between different locations and planes of existence.

===Alternate Planes===

Some Outsiders come from other planes of existence.  These planes 
are *not* the afterlife but stange and alien worlds.  The worlds 
of Celestus, Infernus, and Tartarus are ancient worlds whose
inhabitants have risen to great power over the millenia.  They 
are home to Celestials, Infernals and Demons who war constantly amongst each other for dominance over the multiverse.

====Celestus====
Celestus is a world of endless sea and mountainous islands.  Celestials have evolved into a society governed by tradition and ceremony but without formal leadership or rank.  Celestus has been at peace with itself for millenia but constantly wars against Infernus and Tartarus.  

Celestials value personal honor above all else.  They 
each strive constantly to show themselves to be powerful, skilled and honorable to gain status in their society.

====Infernus====

Infernals come from Infernus, a world dominated by vast mountain ranges and plains.  Infernus is a constantly warring society.  
It is a single empire divided into nine kingdoms that compete amongst themselves for supremacy.  Each kingdom is divided into nine principalities that also compete amongst themselves for Kingship (and so on... down to individuals in a clan competing for clan leadership).  It is a society of endless betrayal, secret alliances and open war.  When infernals aren't scheming amongst themselves with their huge armies for status and power, they war and across the planes against Celestials and Demons. 

Infernals value power above all else.  The strong, the powerful and the ruthless rule.
 
====Tartarus====

Tartarus is a ruined world, broken by endless confrontations between the powerful Demons that live there.  It is a world of darkness, lava flows, and immense arcane power.  Demons have no society or tradition beyond the dominance of the strong over the weak.  Powerful Demon Lords enslave those who are weaker to do their bidding, but otherwise little rhyme or reason is seen in thier actions other than a constant dispute over the immense resources of the terrible Tartarus landscape.  Demons feed on magical energy and even though their home world is rich beyond belief in magic, they often seek easier sustenance on other planes of existence, raiding Celestus and Infernus for their own ancient magical resources.

==Religion in Alea==

Tito, thanks for your kind words.  As to unhracitable comments in traditionalist blogs, it took me seconds to find examples: Anyone who really believes that muslims will negotiate meaning, as the ideological Vatican phenomenologists lend pretense too, does not comprehend the actual nature of mohamatenism. When they are sufficiently strong in Europe then they will bend the defenceless, hedonistic materialists of the EU with the iron will of their fanatical politicised faith and enslave the weak-willed European of the so-called liberty he imagines he posesses. The numbers grow each year while the white man's dwindles and they have noticed. Time is on their side. Abortion, sodomy and artificial contraception with some euthanasia with increasing sterility already condemns the future of the continent to such subjugation.If you doubt this then read the history of the Chosen People   God disciplines his idolatrous followers even to the point of captivity and the destruction of the holy places.And in another blog, linked by the first one:The Judaism of the western world throught the gnostic cabbala cult of the defied man of the jews is the cause of the fall of the Catholic monarchy of the papacy and all other catholic and protestant monarchies. The Jews are trying to create a world wide labor republic according to them in which annointed Jew leaders with messiah like qualities will bring social justice. Get rid of the Jews. Get rid of their cult of man and being a member of the Jew collective. Materialism is the God of the Jews and now our God not Christ. All the Marian apparitions are to warn about the Jews and the faith required to overcome their pagan atheism.As far as I can tell, these are  mainstream  traditionalist blogs, not far-out or sedevacantist ones.  There are plenty of comments like these, and too many similar posts in the blogs themselves.

===Elemental Pantheon===

Pre-golan, the dominant religion was belief in the
four siblings, Umos the god of earth, Wikri the god of fire, Enosa the
god of water and Freda the god of air, who together created the world.
In particular orcs and goblinoids believe that they are descended from
Wikri the god of fire, and that their duty is to act like the flame of
the earth and consume all in a blaze of glory.  Many humanoid and
giantish races also subscribe to this pantheon.

In this religion, the races are descended and/or created by the gods.

* Orcs and goblinoids - Wikri, fire
* Elves and gnomes - Freda, air
* Giants and dwarves - Umos, earth
* Humans and halflings - Enosa, water

===Spirit and Nature Worship===

Rural humans and many non-humans practice
spirit worship.  They do not acknowledge a creator - or they admit
ignorance to the creation of the universe but do worship the spirits
of their ancestors and the spirits of nature.  (This is basically
equivalent to atheism - since spirits are observable in Alia.)  Most notably,
Dragons often follow this belief - they are amused and tolerant with
golanist worshipers... usually.

==Common Worship by Race/Culture==

 Orc/Goblinoid            Elemental
 Humans of Giant Mtns     Elemental
 Republic Humans          Order of Man
 Rural Humans             Elemental
 Wood Elves               Spirit
 Republic Elves           Elemental
 Rhode (All Urban)        Church of Man
 Wood Gnomes              Spirit
 Rock Gnomes              Elemental
 Deep Gnomes              Golanist
 Giants                   Elemental
 Dwarves                  Elemental
 Grey Dwarves             Elemental
 City Humans              Order/Church of Man
 Halflings                Golanist

==Nature of Divine Magic==

Where does divine magic come from?  Everyone has a different story.

Golanists, Order and Church believe it comes from God, the creator.
Church of Man believe that evil divine magic comes from demons in
hell.  Order and Golanists believe that evil divine magic is a
corruption and misuse of a gift from god.

Elementalists believe that it comes from their patron god.

Spirit/Nature Worshipers see Divine magic as just another form of
magic.  Where arcane magic is harnessing the power of the universe
through mental discipline, divine magic is another approach where
casters surrender to the flow of magic through nature and work with
the universe instead of struggling against it.  Beneficial Divine
magic is seen as the magic of life and in harmony with nature where
Destructive Divine magic is seen as the magic of Death and the magic
of the spirit world.



==D20 Rule Modifications==

===Clerics===

Clerics and other Divine spell casters do not get their spells as granted powers from their god, but are casters of magic in their own right.  They may choose two domains of their choice and a loss or change in their faith does not lead to a loss of spell access or divine abilities.  There are no alignment restrictions on spells.  Any cleric may cast Animate Dead or Concecrate, or Desecrate.  Clerics still must choose whether they channel positive or negative energy, determining whether they can rebuke or turn undead and whether that may spontaneosly cast Cure or Inflict Wounds spells.

====Prefered Cleric Domains====

Clerics may choose spheres of their choice regardless of religion or
background although there are cultural prefereces.

 Golan - Knowledge
 Order - Sun
 Church - Good
 Fire/Water/Air/Earth - Elements
 Spirit/Nature - Animal, Plant
 
===Divine Spell Modifications===

The following spells do not exist in Alia:

* Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law - These spells don't exist.  There are no magical means of determining somebody's ethics or morality.

For the following spells, remove alignment restrictions.  The spells
will affect any creature or spell that the caster wishes to affect as
if they were of neutral alignment and any Undead, Elemental or
Outsider as if they were of the opposing alignment:

* Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law 

* Magic Circle against Chaos/Evil/Good/Law

* Chaos Hammer/Unholy Blight/Holy Smite/Order's Wrath

* Dispel Chaos/Evil/Good/Law

* Blasphemy/Dictum/Word of Chaos/Holy Word 

* Holy Aura/Unholy Aura/Cloak of Chaos/Shield of Law 

The Good/Evil/Law/Chaos cleric domains do exist.
 
===Blackguards and Paladins===

The Paladin power of Smite Evil and the Blackguard power of Smite Good, are replaced by the generic "Smite Foe", which works on anything regarded as an enemy. There are no alignment restrictions, but Paladins must strike a deal with a Celestial, as Blackguards must strike a deal with an Infernal or Abyssal Outsider.  They lose the ability to Detect Evil or Good, as well as Aura of Good or Evil, but gain a +4 class skill bonus to Sense Motive checks.

===Assasins===

There are no alignment restrictions for Assasins.  In Alia, assassins are a respected (and feared) trade. They are regarded as a political necessity, and if not exactly legal then as a political tool somewhat worse than diplomacy and somewhat better than war.

Guild assasins have a code of honour that they rigidly adhere to, including the following:

* There is one motivation for assassination, money.  Morality, ethics, revenge are the concern of the customer and/or the mark not the Guild or it's members.  The Guild deals in money and death, nothing else.

* The price of an assasination is dictated by the difficulty of the job, and the importance of the mark, not anything else.

* Money must be paid up front and the job is guaranteed.  If the initial attempt fails, the job will be re-assigned to a more competant assasin, if necessary.

* No lasting harm is to come to any bystanders.

* The death of the mark must be quick and clean.

There are some Assasins who operate outside the auspices of the guild, they may or not have their own code of honor, many are unlike the guild in that they do have moral, ethical or political motivations.

===Holy/Unholy/Axiomatic/Anarchic Weapons===

These weapons are be converted to "Divine" weapons which do +2d6 damage and bypass damage resistance of any Undead, Elemental or Outsider, and any creature with /diving damage reduction (see below).

===Good/Evil/Law/Chaos Damage Reduction===

This is replaced by the Divine type damage reduction.

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