Editing DragonStar5E.Setting (section)

=== Religion of the DragonStar Empire ===
In ages past, across Known Space, the Core Races inhabit countless worlds all having their own gods and goddess, deities and the divine that they worshiped. Scientists, theologians and archmages had tried to come up with a logical explanation as to not only why they found so many of the same races on so many worlds but also that the races had similar linguistic traits and deities. Eventually, a prominent religious leader proposed a theory: all the gods of every religion were the same, just different aspects of the twelve "True Gods". Some deities have elements of two or more Deitypes. These twelve Deitypes seeded similarities all across the life-supporting worlds of the galaxy. This theory led to a new religion that formed the basis of an emerging unified interstellar culture. This religion is called the '''Universal Church of the Twelve'''. 
==== The Twelve ====
The Universal Church recognizes twelve ‘true’ gods, split or organized into four groups of three gods each – those that ‘lead’ (the Father, the Judge and the Destroyer) those that ‘act’ (the Lovers, the Warrior and the Reaper), those that ‘know’ (the Magnus, the Merchant and the Trickster) and finally those that ‘create’ (the Mother, the Stormlord and the Smith).
The gods and their basic Domains: The Father (Heroism, Light, Order, and Strength), the Judge (Balance and Protection), and the Destroyer (Chaos, Curses, Deceit and Fire). The Lovers (Beauty, Good, Life and Protection), the Warrior (Fortune, Life, Strength and War), and the Reaper (Darkness, Destruction, Evil and Secrets). The Magnus (Fortune, Knowledge, Magic and Secrets), the Merchant (Fortune, Deceit, Trade and Travel), and the Trickster (Deceit, Earth, Knowledge and Science). Mother (Beasts, Nature, Water and Wilderness), the Stormlord (Air, Life, Water and Weather) and the Smith (Crafter, Earth, Engineering and Metal).

The '''''Lovers''''' are the patrons of the home, cute kittens & puppies, and True Love. Their priests are guardians, protectors, and keepers of the hearth. Elves where her first born and most favored. 

[[File:FadingGun.Sword.jpg | 325px | right]]
The '''''Warrior''''' is the patron of war, fighting, mercenaries. The Warrior is patron of the Orks, Half-Orks Warforged whom he favors. While there are individuals of the other races who are better warriors, few overall excel at the violence output of an orkish mercenary company. 

The '''''Reaper''''' is the patron of suffering, random violence, and destruction. The Warrior alternates between allying with the Lovers (to protect them) and the Reaper (to sow destruction). The Reaper favors no race but those drawn to darkness worship him. 

The '''''Father''''' is the bringer of justice, order, civilization and holding the chaos at bay, patron to leaders and nobles everywhere. Most of the origin myths have the Father (and the Mother) creating the worlds from the raw chaos. He is the oldest of the gods and nominally the head of all gods. When the Father created his race, he made the Giant and the Goliath, larger and more impressive than all the other races. He is also favored by the Githzerai for their adherence to order and opposition to chaos.

The '''''Judge''''' is a protector of the innocent, punish of the guilty, and the one to see that all the universe is in balance. The Judge wanted Humans to be the most capable of handling anything and made them the most flexible. 

The '''''Destroyer''''' is a random element of the chaos from which the Father formed the universe. The Destroyer's goal is to return the universe to the chaos from which it came. The Reaper may want inflict suffering, the Destroyer does not care. The Destroyer made no races but some have come to worship him and his aspect of destruction. 

The '''''Magus''''' is patron of magic, knowledge, secrets and patron to Dragons and Drakes along with the Aasimar, Dragonborn, Changelings and Rakasha. The enmity between the Magus and the '''''Trickster''''' is as deep as the hate between Father and the Destroyer. The Trickster is not only a god misdirection but also of knowledge and science. While the Magus wants knowledge to be doled out to those who have earned the privilege, the Trickster wants knowledge to be free to all. The Trickster is a thief, stealing from the Magus and spreading the knowledge about. Gnomes and Goblins are his favored. On many worlds, as knowledge advances the Magus and, by extension, the Dragons fade away. Not so in the Empire. [[File:DragonStar5E.priest.jpg | 350px | left]] As the Trickster steals, finds, or creates new ideas the Magus matches him, teaching his patrons and priests a counter or more impressive version. When the Trickster mixed alchemy and steel to make guns, the Magus taught the Dragons magic of fire, ice, and lighting. When the Trickster and the Smith constructed ships capable of flying to orbit, they found Space and Star dragons gliding on the solar winds. When scientists built artificial habitats to colonize other worlds, Magus cursed all the races to sicken in the places not blessed by the Mother (the exceptions being Dragons and Dwarves). When the Trickster uncovered the secrets of the atom and built weapons, the Magus taught a few Dragon leaders the spells to shatter entire worlds. The Merchant is the mediator of knowledge, and indeed all things, the patron of travelers, explorers, teachers, and (of course) merchants. 

The '''''Merchant''''' has invented a few things (like money), but prefers to trade the secrets of others. Ratfolk and Vishkanyas are his favored.

The '''''Mother''''' is the patron of nature in its wild state, untamed animals, and patron to the Rootwalkers. Mother wants to nurture, provide for all and is still a little rough. Because of the Magus curse, every world has large areas of untamed wilderness. Wolfen and Thri-kreen where her first children. 

The '''''Stormlord''''' represents control over nature without destroying it, taming the wild without losing its essence. He has taught the elves how to bio-engineer living things, without destroying them. He is also the patron of the Goliath and Shifters. 

The '''''Smith''''' is patron to the Dwarves, the Warforged, engineers, mechanics, and the Unborn. The Smith and his priests take all the wild, crazy ideas of the Trickster and builds practical, usable items. He uses magic and technology in equal measure. He also represents the tearing apart of Nature, rebuilding it in his own image. For this the Mother resents the Smith for destroying her creations either for parts or as a consequence of other processes.

There are still those who cling to their old native “gods” but most residents of the Empire see this as foolish or quant. The Universal Church tends to have a very unfavorable outlook on these worshipers and will not allow them within holy ground. This is fine with most as the Universal Church tends to be large structures where all 12 gods have a place within. Worshippers of the old gods of good or evil are often uncomfortable with this lax attitude.