Alia:Religion and Divine Magic

Outsiders, Gods and the Supernatural

The gods do not walk the earth in Alea. 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 disire to complete an important task in this world (admittedly often revenge), or are mindless tools of a controlling magical force.

Religion in Alea

Monotheistic (Golanist) Religions

The major religion of the northern civilized peoples is that of the Order of Man. This is the main mono-theistic religion of the region although it is a growth from an older (less morally rigid) religion called Golanism. Golanists are tolerated within Nolton. A more recent splinter from the Order of Man is the Church of Man also referred as the Southern Heathens. They differ in interpretation of the holy books of Golan the prophet and the later books of the prophet Narek (which is the basis for the Order of Man.)

The basic theology of golanism is that:

• there is only one god, who created the world and all in it
• all creatures have a soul
• God sees all but does not take action on the earth
• when a creature dies God judges their lives and either: casts them back into the world as a spirit, or re-incarnates them, or brings them into the eternal reward of heavan
• To make it into heaven one must strive to uplift all life.
• There is a hierarchy of life. Lower life is reincarnated as higher life once they have attained the lessons they are meant to learn. It is thought that intelligence and wisdom are the ultimate goal. Dragons are revered as the highest form.
• No creature is ever re-incarnated as a lower form of life. If they fail, they remain as they are or if they have failed many times they are cast back as a spirit.
• Spirits may be incarnated if they accomplish the task set to them.

Golanists are mostly vegetarian, "eat not the flesh of the thinking" most will eat fish, some birds. Mammals are mostly not eaten - the larger and smarter the animal, the less likely they will eat it. Though neccessity and hunger overrides this tendancy. Thier morality is one of moderation, they have a heirarchy of morals - chief among them is preservation of life including their own - and it's understood that of necessity it is sometimes necessary to "choose the lesser evil". They do not prosyletize, but will discuss their philosophy with anyone who has an interest. The respect the educated and the wise among them and amongst other cultures. Their charity often goes towards schools and educational centers as well as to support their religious orders.

The Order of Man and the Church of Man subscribe to the basic belief in re-incarnation, but believe that Humankind are the ultimate pinacle of life. They say that Narek the Prophet was sent by God, to save Humanity and bring them the message that humans are the pinnacle of creation. They classify magical intelligent beasts as "demons". They believe in a hell, where unworthy human souls are cast if they fail. The Order and Chursh of Man believes that humans only live one life and then their souls are finally judged.

The Church of Man differs from the order on several minor points, but the major schism is that the Church of Man believes that Narek was God, walking the earth, whereas the Order believes that Narek was a human with an pristine soul that God chose to enlighten humanity.

The Church and Order are basically identical in morality. They believe that all life was put on the earth for the benefit of humankind. The are not vegetarian like Golanists are and see such a practice as ridiculous. Humans rightful place is above all others in their hierarchy. And within the race of humans they also assert a hierarchy based on class and birth. With royalty above the nobility above the non-noble upper class, above the middle and lower class. They believe that non-human humanoids are inferior to humans - and tolerate them only if they "don't cause trouble". The most respected elf or dwarf other non-human is seen as below the lowest working class human. Slavery is outlawed in the northern countries, but widely practised in the south. (Acceptance of slavery is broadly coincidental to the Order/Church schism, but based culturally rather than in church doctrine). Many dwarves, halflings and gnomes from the south have fled to the north, elves from the southlands have mainly stayed, successfully fighting off, slave raids on their forests. Half-orcs in the south have been largely subjugated and taught the Chruch of Man philosophy and mostly accept their place in life a slaves to humans. In their hierarchy of sins, the Church and Order place the life of Humans as first and foremost. Captial punishment however is accepted as a necessity, and as humans often do, there is much killing in wars. All this is excused as fighting for the will of god. The Church and Order do prosyletize and commit a large effort of bringing the word of Narek to those who have not accepted it. Pagan, elemental and nature worship are outlawed and many preachers are sent to remote communities to try to bring them into the fold. the Order of man is the offical religion of the north, the Chruch of Man in the South.

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.

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.) Most notably Dragons often follow this belief - they are amused and tolerant with golanist worshipers... sometimes.

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

Divine Spell Modifications

Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law - Doesn't exist

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

Paladins of a God or Cause

The Paladin power of Smite Evil, is replaced by a generic "smite foe", and the paladin looses the ability to detect evil at will. The paladin is no longer alignment restricted, but must follow a code of conduct of the god or cause that they champion. They lose the ability to Detect Evil, but gain a +4 class skill bonus to Sense Motive checks.

Holy/Unholy/Axiomatic/Anarchic Weapons

These weapons must be converted to "Divine" weapons which do +d6 of Divine damage to all creatures, or +2d6 damage and bypass damage resistance of any Undead, Elemental or Outsider, and any creature with /divine damage reduction.

Good/Evil/Law/Chaos Damage reduction

This is replaced by the /divine type damage reduction.

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 - Their element Spirit/Nature - Animal, Plant