White Willows pt9

Religion in White Willows

Religion is important in White Willows. The dominate religion is the Church of the All-Gods, a pick and choose polytheistic set containing numerous gods of all kinds. Temples of the Church of the All-Gods can be found in the city and the villages of the canton and small shrines to specific gods dot the landscape.

The All-Gods

Referred to as the Million and One Gods, the All-Gods are the current gods of the world. There is a vast number of gods this polytheistic faith each with their own domain(s). The Church of the All-Gods is the largest religion in the world. People who belong to this faith are considered followers of the ‘All-Gods’. The religion surrounding the All-Gods religion is ‘pick and choose’ as most people only pay heed to a few gods - the ones that affect their everyday lives or for a specific event. Most of the All-Gods are aloof, spending most of their time in ‘the heavens.’ (In reality they live in the moon). They are somewhat fickle and petty but are a mostly hands off god, granting the occasional miracle and power, mostly via their clerics or worshipers. They are often referred to as the Gods of the world as compared to the New Gods who are gods in the world. There is no ‘alignment base’ for the All-Gods, there are quite a few ‘evil’ ones and a few vile ones. People often choose a primary god of the all-gods to worship as their patron god. Many gods have their own shrines or holy sites separate from All-Gods churches.

The New Gods

There are a few gods that are considered ‘New Gods’. Their faiths are young and while outside the church of the All-Gods, are not against them. The three most well-known New Gods are the Untamed One, the Light Bringer, and Sangiuis. As compared to the All-Gods, the New Gods are extremely active preforming many miracles and they still walk this world. (Like you can go and meet these gods ‘in-person,’ as compared to the All-Gods where you would have to go to the Moon).

The Cults

Cult is a bit of a catch all term for Gods that are not All-Gods or New Gods and are dangerous to the celestial order. The Gods that do not play nice with others, gods that have been ejected from the All-Gods, other-dimensional creatures, demon-kings of Hell, and mad men with mad followers are just some of the examples of cults. Cults rarely work together and are often seeking to destroy or seed chaos in the world.

 

Cosmology

On Avatars and Godlings

Avatars

An avatar of a god is a small fragment of itself, a literal fragment of the greater god’s soul enshrined in flesh. Avatars are fully aware that they are a god and are created by said god in its image. While Avatars can be killed it’s a daunting task as most have powers well outside that of mere mortals.

Godlings

Godlings are ‘children of the gods’ either in a figurative or quite literal sense. While each is their own distinct person they carry a portion or have gained attributes from their parent god’s power. There are two kinds of Godlings, natural and host. Natural Godings are the result of a god mating with a mortal. Hosts are Godlings created by a god putting part of its soul into an already living host.

Heaven, Hell, and the Home of the Gods

Heaven

Heaven is a real place; a never ending palace of white marble columns, open courtyards, and flowing fountains of wine (or beer or whatever you want, its heaven after all). All of your needs are waited on and you spend most of your days relaxing, speaking to the wise, and sometimes looking down on the mortals below (that is rare however, think of it as watching a black and white TV with a speaker missing when you have a sweet high-def 4k big screen with surround sound in front of you). You lounge about with the rest of the good dead in white togas, in whatever form suits you best (most choose themselves at peak fitness). You know your time here is limited but before you leave to go up to the sun to be reborn you get a sweet going away party with a custom cake and live band.

Heaven is physically located just under the sun, at the top of the clouds, where the sun is strongest. Visitors are rare - those with heavy souls get burnt to a crisp by the sun and those with souls light enough to withstand the sun do not want to cheat their way up here. Besides that it is logistically tough to get to Heaven you would have to fly there, traverse the Sky Islands, or find one of the few secret stairways to get there.

Hell

Like Heaven, Hell is also a real place. It exists at the bottom of the celestial sphere under miles and miles of earth. Its where the souls of the bad dead go. There is a black anti-sun down there, its cooks off sin (that’s why everything is on fire and why everyone is screaming). Hell is only temporary, just enough to cook you off before going back into the sun. The worst part about hell is that you don’t know how much time you have to spend there. Hell wouldn’t be half bad (except for all the spiritual fire) if it wasn't for all the damned. There are few resources in Hell and few bits of shelter from the anti-sun. The fight for these resources and their natural inclinations causes most of the damned to be in a constant brutal games of conquest.

The City Without Hunger or Suffering

The City Without Hunger or Suffering is as marvelous as it is massive. The city itself is built on the inside of the Moon. It wraps around itself, if looking up one can see the districts on the other side of the city on the ‘celling.’ It is a city of vast towers and pagodas, minarets, domes, and spires. It is a city of conflicting architectural styles and materials, gold and ivory pagodias next to red brick towers with bright painted onion domes next to stone ziggurats painted red with sacrificial blood next to black obelisks devoid of windows save for a single one next to vast trees grown in the shape of buildings next to pyramids made of stone that contain both the colors and the heats of the desert. Gravity words oddly here. While on the ground it works right yet the higher you go the less its effects can be felt. This limitation has opened up increasingly impossible architectural designs.

There is no natural light here, it is all artificial. Bright colored paper lanterns float free bobbling in the lower gravity of the upper levels held aloft by their long burning candles. Marvels of arcane and technological knowhow have made bright colored tubes that adorn many building glowing with a soft neon buzz. Alchemic concoctions fuel thick glass bulbs on the street illuminations those few inhabitants unfortunate enough not to have their own halos, nimbus, aura, or other magical or divine lights.

Major All-Gods of White Willows

Solus

God of Sunlight, Virtue, and Righteousness

Symbol: Golden Sun on a White Field

Solus is a god of justice and good moral upstanding. He is a literal moral crusader. His laws (of which there are many) are the base of many legal and moral codes. His dedicated followers are often highly moral and highly active. Crusades are often called in his name to ‘punish evil’. He is an avowed enemy of both the undead and cults. While extremely active (most people offer at least lip-service to him) he has been on a decline in worship lately as the New God, the Lightbringer has begun to poach some of his members, particular in the Azorian Kingdom.

Crom

God of Strength and Battle

Symbol: An arm clutching a sword surrounded by laurels

Crom is a god of strength and combat. Combat to Crom is a very loose term and can apply to anything from arm wrestling to fist fights to out and out war. His faith is popular with the rough and tumble crowd, thugs, mercenaries, and adventures especially. His followers prize strength both of arms and physical above all else. Bruises are considered the ‘Marks of Crom’. Those that win fights are expected to pay tribute to Crom, often in the form or great feasts and parties. Crom is also seen as a god of sportsmanship, as cheating is viewed as a sign of weakness and as is gloating. Those who are dedicated to Crom are liable to get into a fight with you, but will just as soon buy you a drink afterwards.

Val Vertis

God of Nature and its bounties

Symbol: A tree bearing golden apples

He represents nature in its ‘good’ form – life brining rains, warm summers, spring blooms. His faith requires a reverence for nature – a leave it better than you found it. You do not clear cut the forest, but take what you need and plant two trees for every one you remove. Val Vertis is seen as the patron of spring and the spring equinox is seen as his high holy day. He is very popular with hunters, woodsmen, and druids.

Mortua

Goddess of Death and Fate

Symbol: A robed skeleton holding a candle in one hand and dice in the other

Mortuna despite being a death god is one of the most popular of the All-Gods. She is seen as fickle but fair, only killing when it has been decreed by her dice. Her dice, while they can kill, can also heal or save. Near-death experiences, close calls, and luck are all seen as a roll of her dice. Worshiping her is said to grant a boon on her dice. He followers often pay tribute with sweets, tobacco products, and candles. Any sort of large lucky winnings are expected to give 10% to the nearest All-Gods temple with a Mortuna shrine. She is extremely popular with the poor and those on the fringes of society. Often her clerics will run raffles or lotteries to raise funds to help the community.

Major New-Gods of White Willows

The Light Bringer

The ‘One True’ God

Symbol: A lit lantern projecting light from both sides

The Light Bringer is very similar to Solus, both being associated with crusading and light but the Church of the Light Bringer believes that the Light Bringer is the only divine and that the other ‘gods’ are lesser beings – saints, angles, or spirits. Teachers of the Light Bring focus on how bad events are caused by ‘shadows’ dark reflections of humanity. By purging these shadows from the world one makes the world a safer place. Much of these teachings are vague and unfortunately what constitutes a ‘shadow’ varies from Light Bringer sect to sect. While most agree that cults and dark magic are shadows some also throw other things in there as well leading to violence.

The Untamed One

The God of Nature, Unbroken

Symbol: A Bioluminescent Deer or Elk or its glowing antlers

As technology has progressed nature has often suffered. Loggers have pushed farther and farther into woods once wild. Large smokestacks spew smog that smothers the sun. Hills and mountains are ravaged for their ores and other prizes within. The Untamed One stands in defiance of this. While Val Vertis might be the god of ‘good’ nature, the Untamed One is the god of wild nature. It is the god of predators and of violent storms, of forest fires and of rugged survivalist. There is no organized churches for the Untamed One only many ‘chosen ones’ that he has designated defenders of the wild, often not willingly.

Sanguis

The God of Blood, Bakers, and Sacrifice

Symbol: A golden chalice set with three rubies

Blood is power, quite literally for Sanguis. He is quite open with his miracles but demands blood sacrifice for them. Most miracles are well outside the price range (so to say) of most people so most of his miracles are minor or generic (healing minor sicknesses, bountiful harvests, etc). His religion is very popular among the poor as most of the All-Gods demand a sacrifice of material things for assistance - things that they often cannot spare. His temples are small, centered on a small marble dais with groves that lead to a central blessed golden chalice. His temples often run bakeries and give out sugar cookies rich with warm spices to those that have sacrificed blood to Sanguis (they also run the occasional bake sale). While not considered an All-God he is also no enemy to them either. Many come to him after the All-Gods have refused to help them. There has been a recent shift for many to come to Sanguis first before going to the All-Gods, something that has invoked the ire of the church. There are rumors that his temples preform human sacrifice.

Major Cults of White Willows

The Yellow King

Other-Dimensional Entirety

Symbol: A robed man wearing a golden crown holding scepter with an otherworldly symbol.

Also known as ’Die Koning Geld, ‘little is known about this god or its cult. What is known is that it is attempting to bring its realm – Carcossa – into this one, either as an addition to this world or as a replacement. His cult is extremely secretive and prefers to spread via memetic viruses in books, plays, and other works of art.

Orcus

God of Domination and Death

Symbol: A white ram head on a black field

Orcus has on multiple occasions tried to destroy all or some other gods. He believes in the supremacy of death and that all things dead fall under his sphere of influence (including other dead gods, the power of which he incorporates into his own). His member seeks to spread death far and wide, spreading war, plague and famine. His ultimate goal is to kill every living thing and to control them. Many of his cultists are either undead or necromancers.

Nergal

God of Undeath, Revenge, and Forbidden Knowledge

Symbol: A white skull with a crown of platinum.

Nergal was an Old God and one of the All-Gods. Nergal was a god of death and knowledge (and according to many the husband of Mortuna). Either Orcus or Set (or both) killed him, yet he did not die. Now undead he seeks to return back to life and to slay both Orcus and Set. He is willing to upset the whole of the natural order to do so. Many of his cultists are undead or seeking vengeance against those that have wronged him. His cults are very small in membership, generally each cell having less than ten members.

THEOMO

God of Magic, Insanity, and Frogs

Symbol: A green webbed hand

THEOMO was once a Void Elf wizard obsessed with making a name for himself. In doing so he walked down a path that brought him to the many strange and foreign corners of the universe. In one such corner he met the Sladdi, strange frog-centaur like creatures that live the nebulae of the Void Sea and who can shape the raw elements with their minds. While studying with these inherently chaotic creatures his mind broke but in doing so developed the spell that would become his namesake – THEOMO’S MARVIOLOUS MISSILE. Almost identical to an extremely common spell known by many casters THEOMO’S MARVIOLOUS MISSILE has a key difference; it would overwrite other spells in the mind of its caster and eventually turn them into strange frog like creatures known as Boggies. This affect was responsible for the First Spell Plague and in do so caused THEOMO and the celestial sphere that he tested the spell in to be isolated until the arcane infection came to pass. THEOMO has risen a few times and his most recent rise brought upon the second spell plague – more commonly known as the Boggie Pox. To the few remaining Boggies, along with a few mad wizards and some others who think that becoming a Boggie is a stage of spiritual enlightenment, THEOMO is their god and savior.

Odorath

God of Slavers, Chauvinists, and Hell

Symbol: An unbroken length of chain

Before his godhood, Odorath was one of the Invincible Overlords of Antiquity. A violent and ruthless warlord he subjugated all those he conquered under a reign of decadence and cruelty, built on the backs of slaves. Odorath was brought down by one of his slave-concubines (she strangled him with one of chains he kept her tied to). Cast down into Hell for his life of evil Odorath would not be contained by petty demons. He raised an army of the damned and has conquered his own portion of Hell. Now he seeks to burst free from the Pit, take back what is ‘rightfully’ his. An ancient prophesies foretells of a heroine – the Liberatrix – who is destined to slay Odorath and annihilate his soul. Little is known about the Liberatrix, except for her gender. To prevent this Odorath commands his followers to subjugate women whenever possible. Unsurprisingly there are few female followers of Odorath.

Set

God of Snakes, Subterfuge, and Magic

Symbol: A golden ouroboros with gemstones scales

Far before the time of man, reptiles ruled the world. Set was the chief gods of the ancient Snake-Folk. The Snake-Folk were an advanced people highly knowledge in the arcane arts. They made great cities all over the world the ruins of which form the basis of many ruins and dungeons. In the early times, before written history, man fought a great war against the Snake-Folk and drove them underground. (It is said that man was losing this war until Nergal stole the secret of magic from the Snake-Folk.) Set and his cult seek to destroy the world of man and return the Snake-Folk to power.