Editing Acrozatarim/Cosmology (section)

==Deities, Worship and the Divine==

There are still cults that worship the Elder Gods, generally held as vile and mad in most lands, but their influence is by no means gone; servitor races, ancient abominations and technologies, and even strongholds that still exist like Baalshegarath.  Most worship is of the Younger Gods in the form of broad pantheons supported by a spiritual and elemental bureaucracy; the Great Elementals are often shown respect but are not generally venerated in the manner of the Younger Gods.

The Younger Gods, as an array of ascended mortals and divine spirits, often serve as a polytheistic source of worship and spiritualism.  There are many of them, including variants and clashing aspects in different regions and cultures.  Most people venerate them as a wider whole rather than being dedicated to a particular one, with the exception of most priests.

The most prominent deities of the Drakkath region are as follows.  Many have different aspects or depictions in different cultures (especially the gnolls) with a few more interesting examples picked out.


'''Aasor''':  Warding, prisons, chains, armour and duty.  Aasor is unique amongst Younger Gods in that he is claimed to have been a dragon; he is worshipped widely, especially in Pharam Sung and in a region of Huron where several ancient horrors remain carefully bound beneath the earth.

'''Churaphrat''':  Death, transitions, truth, murder and mercy.  Churaphrat is a feminine god, lady of death and endings.  She is not widely held in great love, but is shown appropriate respect at times of death and loss, as well as in her aspect of death stripping away all falsehoods and leaving only truth.  She is also known to the gnolls as the Hungering Jackal, a male spirit Younger God; High Kyros have a near-identical goddess to Churaphrat and have assumed the Drakkath name for her, but her origins are different and her aspect seen as more benevolent.

'''Dharummut''':  Fire, blood, battle, beasts, wilderness, wolves.  The Great Wolf is a spirit-god of fierceness, of fire and cold, of blood on the earth and the snow.  It is the Den Mother of the blood-tied, the War-Father of those who fight for their kin and clan.  In the Dawn War it was chained by the Elder Gods when it turned on them, and the massive gouges in Ascaria's landscape are where its claws tore the earth.

'''Grumand''':  Stone, earth, farming, mountains, determination, clear thought.  An ancient spirit of earth that is often heralded as one of the firstborn of the Great Elementals.  Grumand supposedly tore the Great Rift in the far west to stop the advance of Shauku's horrors in the Dawn War; but the same act is attributed to the Stonebreaker in Ascaria, supposedly an ascended mortal Younger God.

'''Immar''':  Travel, change, fortitude, alchemy, the stars, the winds.  Younger God of travel, Immar's clergy are largely an itinerant priesthood and the cult lacks any overall organisation.

'''Ishrak''':  Storms, wind, air, seas, lightning.  The Storm Lady is a terrifying and beloved goddess, but it's unclear whether she's a mortal woman ascended to divinity or a storm spirit, with a significant schism within her church over this matter.  Of prominent worship in High Kyros and the White Bay city-states, there are some very different versions of storm divinities beyond the Drakkath.

'''Lliras''':  Plants, animals, earth, blood, life and death.  A potent spirit of the Dawn Age, Lliras is associated with the wilds and with all aspects of life; the Thorn Circle hold her in very high regard.  Lliras is unusual in that her depictions are remarkably constant in all the nearby lands beyond the Drakkath.

'''Kevayek''':  Plague, disease, rot, decay, the sea.  The Overseer of Disease is offered widespread supplication in hope that he will reign in the pestilences under his command.  With a somewhat sinister reputation as a spirit that first supported the Elder Gods in the war before becoming a turncoat, he nonetheless cannot be denied respect.  Weirdly, at least in the local region, Kevayek has also gained a role specifically as a patron of bloodshed and deprivation at sea.

'''Naskha''':  Magic, sorcery, change, madness, creativity.  The patron deity of Naseria was once a mortal sorcerer of immense power, one with a flock of followers forming something of a priesthood even before he ascended.  Shown respect by many practitioners of magic, Naskha is considered to have a mischievous side often lost by the proud portrayals made by the Naserian sorcerer-kings.

'''Solanthaar''':  Fire, the sun, war, metal, smithing, purity.  Solanthaar is a harsh, unrelenting god; the people of Adbar specifically worship her as a Younger God who was a mortal warleader in the Dawn War, but elsewhere she is generally viewed as the spirit of the sun itself.  She is often considered as the firstborn of the Great Elemental of Fire.  Some minor cults worship her as the Flame of Truth.

'''The Eye''':  Shadows, darkness, knowledge, order.  A strange god who is rarely petitioned, the Eye is also known as the Prophet or the Shadow, a deity of knowledge, secrets and darkness who reputedly sees all and accounts all things in its library of truth.

'''Toran''':  War, order, blood, strength, survival.  The Dark Saviour is the patron of Carthagia and strongly associated with black dragons.  Beyond that nation, Toran receives worship by soldiers and warriors seeking the blessing of the Great Warrior.  Having led his countrymen south to Carthagia, it is said that the very throne he sat upon when he excarnated is the same as the throne that the Carthagian kings sit on.

'''Urazel''':  War, horses, fire, light.  The Preacher to Dragons is the patron of Huron, and like Toran was probably directly involved in the collapse of the Drakkath Empire.  By dint of the extensive Huronese priesthood, the Urazeli faith is one of the most powerful in the region, and Urazel receives supplication by many who are undertaking matters of war, as well as those tending to horses and similar livestock.

I'm fairly sure I'm missing one or two here, but it gives you an overview of the pantheon.

Of course, religion is broader than just the gods.  Some offer worship to the wider celestial bureaucracy, hoping for fate to be tilted in their favour or their wishes swiftly brought to the attention of the relevant god.  Some priests attend to the entire Divine Host, especially in Sukumvarang.  Then there are spiritual philosophies that hold the gods and Bureaucracy in respect, but aspire to higher concepts of personal perfection.

Of particular import is that ancestor worship, or at least respectful veneration thereof, is quite common across many nations.


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