Religion
Akea, the Weaver who Spun the Thread of Dreams
Akea, the Weaver, the All Mother, creator off all things. She is the departed goddess who makes her home in the world of Dream which other gods cannot fathom. To her children, the living races possessing sentience and intellect, she gave the gift of sleep and the power to touch that which lies beyond the Waking World.
In the beginning, all races were immortal and the pain of death was unknown. Akea looked upon the various races of Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Dragons, Orcs, and otherwise and feared them. In giving them the power to touch dreams, the All Mother felt she had created an engine for her own destruction. If the living races of the Waking World could touch upon the stuff of dreams, the day could come when they gained knowledge of Truths and with that knowledge challenge the power of the gods, or even the Weaver herself. Rather than face this eventuality, Akea departed the Waking World, withdrawing from the physical realm to hide within the endless, unfathomable depths of Dream.
The All Mother is known but few people openly worship her today. She has departed and answers no prayers.
Moiras, the Wolf, He who Watches, the Night Caller, Time
Moiras is the god of death, the one who gives importance and meaning to time, the master of the living who gave them the gift of mortality.
Moiras and his sister Moira were the twin gods of night. When Akea's thought first gave rise to the world, there was no sun. The twin gods Moiras and Moira held court beneath the eyes of the endless night. While Moira was the master of the beauty of darkness and the clean light of the silver moon, Moiras was given over to the mysteries and secrets that lay concealed in the fathomless shadows.
From the beginning, the god Moiras looked upon the All Mother and loved her. Rather than being her servant, he strove to be her equal so that she might one day return his love. Moiras strove to create, to give form and function to his own desires as a means to bring him closer to the power of the Weaver. When Akea left the Waking World for Dream, hatred turned in Moiras’s heart, hatred for the living, contempt for those who had driven away his only love.
Moiras knew Akea’s fear: that the living would one day gain the power to challenge the gods themselves, that they would learn the Truths needed to change the Waking World. Their potential, after all, was unbounded by any constraint. Understanding this, Moiras developed a plan. He would give measure to the endless night and eliminate the threat of the living by ending the gift of life.
He spoke to his children, the wolves, lovers of the moon and shadow. He promised them a place by his side and a life unending if they would help him with his task. Some of them listened, and he wove his shadows about them so cleverly that no living thing could outrun them, no barrier could hold them back. Moiras set his wolves to hunting, and in their jaws the living first felt the bite of mortality.
For each thing that lives one of Moiras’s wolves records a time and a place. When the wolf comes for you, your time in the Waking World is ended. Moiras’s name is whispered fearfully by those who feel that death is near, but he is an uncaring god. It is said that he can be bargained with and death can be put off for a time, but no one knows what possible offering could move the Night Caller.
Moira, the Nightshade
Twin sister to Moiras, Moira rules the night now that her brother has other duties. She is the master of the moon and its cycles, controlling the tides and knowing of things hidden in shadow. Moira is often quiet, making few problems among her godly kin and enjoying the quiet worship of nocturnal creatures.
Rumors abound that Moira has a darker side, a master of secrets things forbidden, but heresy is usually dismissed as idle ramblings at the local pub.
Aili, Finder of Lost Children, the Child, the Innocent Judge
Aili is the child goddess of mercy, innocence, and forgiveness. Where she came from is unknown, but she seems singularly detached from all the other gods. She is a protector of the weak and a master of roads and doors, ever able to find the path and aid the lost. Her symbol is the nightingale, and it’s said she sends her birds to soothe away the pains of the righteous, the innocent, and the pure.
Moiras, the Night Caller first gave measure and meaning to time by bringing mortality to the living. The death god made no plans for the souls of his victims; for him it was enough to have ended their power in the Waking World. The spirits of the dead were forced into a sham of an existence, wandering the world without friends or an ability to feel physical objects around them. Many of them gave over to despair, and their tears of hopeless frustration were more than the Child Goddess could bear. Aili sent her nightingales to sing away the pains of the departed and lead them along hidden paths to the Dream that lay beyond the Waking World.
Aili’s name is invoked at funerals and it is said that the presence of a nightingale near a sick person’s bed bodes well for a speedy recovery or a safe journey to the afterlife. Healers keep nightingales and leave them near their sickest patients to sing away their pains. While a popular god with temples in all cities, Aili is seen as inscrutable. She alone among the gods seems to know the way between the Waking World and Dream, and how she can keep this secret to herself is a mystery.
Yalel, the Master of the House, the Father
Yalel is the master of the house of nature, and an untidy house he keeps. It’s said that every river, every puddle, every field, every blade of grass, every mountain and rock and tree and leaf has one of Yalel’s children to look after it. His moods and the rules of his house are as unpredictable as the wind and rain, and Yalel himself may at one time appear to be a winsome youth or a wizened old man. He’s been known to shift genders on a whim, and legends of him seducing and coupling with mortals abound. Indeed, in this fashion many of his uncountable children are reputed to have come into being.
While all of what is mindless in creation bows to Yalel’s will, he has never been known to force his house to conform to any desire save his own. Praying to Yalel for rain or more sunshine is as fruitful as praying to the rocks in the field that they should move before the plow. Yalel never plays favorites, obeying his own whim and heading the words of no other.
Raga, the Fire-Bearer, Granny Maker
Raga is the god who gave the gift of fire to the living. Once a child of Yalel, she whispered to the rains and storms, letting her nourishing showers fall where they were needed with proper time and measure. To punish her, her father cast her from his house, locking her youth away beneath the roots of the world, forever cursing her with the form and strength of a feeble woman in the winter of her years.
Rather than despair, Raga turned her thoughts to the living whom she had long done her best to nurture and help. She showed them how to make fire, giving them means to light the unending night blanketing the Waking World from the beginning. She showed them crafts of wood and stone and taught them how to fashion what they needed from the bounty of her father’s house.
Raga is highly regarded by all civilized races and respected today even by her estranged father. Even the smallest villages have a shrine erected to this important goddess and all sane craftsman begin their day with a silent prayer to the old woman who first put tools into their idle hands
Rie, the Dawn, the Daughter, She who Lights the Way
Rie is the daughter of Raga, whose mortal lover Kelvir was the greatest craftsman ever to live. So great was his skill that he built a boat from Raga’s tears with sails woven from threads of her gray hair. He sailed his boat to the root of the Waking World and bargained his skill at craft for the youth and beauty of the woman he loved. When Yalel found Raga’s youth missing, he flew into a blind rage and covered the world with the most horrible storm ever seen. For three score days the rain and lightning never ceased until finally Kelvir said goodbye to his wife and boarded his boat to sail to the very edge of the waking world, where Dream and reality meet. Yalel’s storm searches for him there still.
Raga grieved for her loss, but she poured all of her love and care for Kelvir into her daughter, giving over the gift of youth. When Rie was born, so great was the joy of the Waking World itself that the darkness withdrew before the first sunrise.
Rie is a goddess with beauty unmatched, appearing to whomever views her as an ideal vision of womanhood in the prime of her life and in full command of her destiny. Her eyes glow with the warmth and genuine compassion she feels for all creatures that walk beneath the sun. Even bitter Yalel is not immune to her pleas for mercy, and so mortals who seek relief from the ravages of nature always appeal to Rie to speak on their behalf, for the goddess herself is a child of Yalel in many ways and only she seems to have any power to move him.
Rie is the goddess of the sun, of harvest and food, of bounty and friendship. Even the most meager peasant hovel holds some small shrine dedicated to her worship, and her name is invoked before breaking bread by all but the most uncouth beggars. Guidance from Rie and is sought whenever arguments can’t be settled, and the union of marriage is joined in her name.
Strom, the Old Poet, the Standard Bearer, the Old Campaigner
Strom is the god of battle and strength in arms who is said to have sprung from the brow sweat of the first warrior who ever fought for the sake of fighting. Strom has many disciples among the military elite and general soldiers who believe that speaking the Old Poet’s name before battle is a sure road to victory. Strom cares little for individual lives but spends his days seeking new means to battle, besting every opponent by whatever means can be had.
Strom’s form is always that of a battle hardened veteran in either male or female form. He is said to roam the earth freely, moving from battle to battle and offering his services as a mercenary for a few coins whenever the battle is about to be joined. For this reason, most swords for hire don’t bother showing up for a battle until the last possible minute. A mercenary who times his arrival properly is hardly ever turned away.
Kachi, the Bloodletter, Blood Goddess, Goddess of the Hidden Knife
When Moiras’s first claimed a living victim, Kachi rose from the blood of the fallen. She is the insane god ever thirsty for the blood of mortals. Every drop of blood that is spilled is Kachi’s doing, from the kitchen knife that turns in a chef’s hand to the blood spilled on battlefield swords. Kachi is ever thirsty, but she does not desire and end to all life. Her perfect world would see all that lives bound and constrained so that she could carve them carefully, savoring every drop of precious fluid as it flowed across her knife.
To speak her name is to draw her attention, and thus no one seeks her mercy. To avoid her one must simply take the proper care, stay out of trouble, and treat all blades with respect. Still, there are those who do her service, offering their own blood and the blood of others in exchange for the power to wound, to pierce flesh deeply and bathe their steel in steaming blood. Such worship of the Blood Goddess is forbidden in civilized lands.
These represent some of the most important gods in brief. I have details to add about some lesser gods and evil gods, but for PCs I think these are the ones you should bother knowing about.
