Deities of Eldreon

(Due to the sheer complexity of creating a bunch of interrelated pantheons and lots of godly backstory, the various pages on Gods and religion will be under development for a long time).

Divinity is the essence of the eternal. There exist some being who began as divine entities, the so-called Primordial deities, and there are those few beings both mortal and non who have managed to acquire a measure of divine power - the Ascended. As a being gains divine power it can claim dominion over certain spheres of reality and can then grant a measure of that dominion on to its priests.

Throughout the history of Eldreon gods have been worshiped, either alone in devoted cults or as pantheons of organized religions. The personalities, causes, and concerns of the gods are as varied as their followers, and some of the most destructive periods in Eldreon's history have come as a result of their feuds.

Here you will find a list of the chief deities of Eldreon, as well as links to more thorough descriptions. The information listed here is a compilation of the "common knowledge" of the learned of Eldreon. Note that the grouping here is a scholarly one and the gods are not listed in terms of how they are worshiped - for details on pantheons, see the Religion page.

Known Primordial Deities

The Primordials are a varied bunch, as might be expected of ageless beings spun out of the fabric of the cosmos itself. Some of them are active deities highly interested in the affairs of mortals - others are aloof, and rarely intercede personally on behalf of their worshipers. Still others seem more akin to powerful, nearly-mindless natural forces than thinking beings, and barely acknowledge their worshipers at all.

Following is a list of deities whom are generally accepted to be true Primordials.

Asmodeus (Lawful Evil)

Lord of the Pit and the foremost power in Hell, Asmodeus was one of the beings most instrumental in bringing about the current order of the cosmos. His worshipers are structured into rigid hierarchies and tend to have a fanatical respect for authority and rank - though just as in Asmodeus's home the Pit, behind the scenes are a multitude of ambitions, plots, and conspiracies meant to advance the interests of a few at the expense of the many. Asmodeus retains his authority due to his ability to thwart and punish all attempts to strip it from him - a circular bit of logic that is echoed throughout the places where he is worshiped.

The Triarch (Lawful Good)

Three gods form the celestial authority known as the Triarch - the Archate Lords Makeal, Kabrael, Athael. They rule in Zenith, the most strongly Lawfully-aligned realm in Heaven and the direct counterpart of the Pit. Unlike in the Pit, however, Zenith is a realm of utter harmony and jealousies and rivalries are unknown amongst the Archons who call it their home. The Triarch themselves are the exemplars - perhaps even the source - of this harmony. They are always worshiped as a unified whole, though mortals often cherish one Archate Lord in particular for various facets of their nature: Makael as a god of martial strength; Kabrael as a god of knowledge; Athael as a god of reason and diplomacy.
 

Mortrom and Oros (Lawful Neutral)

Gods of Law and Punishment. Mortrom is the god of Pure Law and judgement, while Oros is his complimentary god of punishment and earned torment. There are certain heretics who claim that these are really two sides of the same god, but in general they are worshiped as individuals. Worshiped in some form by most races (with orcs a notable exception).

The Dwarven Gods (Varied)

 Though known to be Primordials, the Dwarven gods are not often worshiped by other races of Eldreon (save for the goddess Childa, beloved of all merchants). For more information on them please see the Dwarven Religion page.

 

Kiagon (Neutral)

The fury of nature, personified. Kiagon is a god of the full power and destructive potential of natural forces, barely kept in check by intellect and always teetering on the edges of control. A favorite deity of druids and rangers the world over. Many dragons worship Kiagon as their divine ancestor. Kiagon itself rarely makes its will known, and indeed rarely seems to have plans of any kind.

Felathren, the Mother (Neutral Good)

A goddess with many guises, she is variously depicted as a beautiful woman in the bloom of pregnancy, an armored warrior woman, a towering oak tree, and a bouquet of tall interwoven flowers with the sun behind them. She is a potent goddess of fertility and protection.

Hadrold the Fieldfather (Neutral)

Hadrold is a god of agriculture and the humble home. He is worshiped by most of the civilized races in some form, though especially by humans and halflings. Halflings revere him as one of their primary gods, and some of their creation myths identify him as their father, who wooed the wandering goddess Cyaile and produced the halfling race.

Cyaile (Chaotic Neutral)

God of travel, exploration, adventure, and freedom. Cyaile is the erstwhile wife of Hadrold whose wanderlust often tears her from his company and sends her out amongst the infinite cosmos. Hadrold waits patiently for her return each time. Though a neutral god, Cyaile has a particular hatred of slavery and her devotees can often be found working against slavers and any state that supports them.

Seranas (Chaotic Neutral)

A deity of dream, mystery, music, chaos and possibility, as well as containing a distinct streak of hedonism. Seranas is an enigmatic deity who rarely seems to have discernible motives. The beliefs, personalities, and ambitions of her followers influence the aspects of her worship nearly as much as she influences them.

Finn (Chaotic Good)

Lord of Joyful Battle, Finn is often depicted as a hulking red-haired man wearing plate armor and wielding a greatsword. Even in the midst of the most dire battles, against the most sinister of enemies, Finn possesses a feral delight in the contest. He is an energetic god, delighting in taking up good causes. He is a close ally of Byrin, though their widely differing temperaments cause some friction between both them and their followers.

Byrine (Lawful Good)

The Heavenly Crusader. Byrine is a warrior goddess who opposes evil with single-minded focus and utter mercilessness. There is very little humor about Byrine. She is the closest godly ally of Zenith and the Triarch

Akallin (Chaotic Neutral)

Akallin is Finn's brother, and like Finn loves battle and conflict. Unlike Finn, he cares little for any cause, whether benevolent or cruel. He cares only for the trial of combat, the more brutal and demanding the better. He is known to adore challenges and duels, and both he and his followers seek out strong foes to defeat.

Dariel (Chaotic Good)

Heaven's Assassin. Dariel was once a Chaotic Neutral trickster god. Not technically a god of assassins, his worship nevertheless always included an element of carefully and cleverly applied violence. Due to his incredible cunning, he was known as one of the most dangerous forces in the cosmos. Sometime after the mortal Tessa became a goddess, Dariel fell in love with her. At first she refused him due to his often violent nature and neutral stance, and he eventually allied himself with the side of Good in order to win her over.

Vuul (Neutral)

A god of the unknowable depths, which includes the sea. Vuul shares much in common with Kiagon – and indeed, some of Kiagon's priests even claim the two are part of the same divine family. Vuul, however, is even less concerned with the affairs of mortals than Kiagon is and very few individuals claim to be its priests. Though not necessarily worshiped, Vuul is revered and honored by all races that live close to the sea.

Arrosh (Chaotic Neutral)

Another sea god, but in contrast with Vuul Arrosh is very much involved with mortals. Arrosh is a temperamental god, but his power over the sea is greatest of all the gods. He is widely interpreted to be the god of the depths, as opposed to his sister Arrond, goddess of the shore and the coast. With her he is worshiped amongst both elves and even more so by the drecna.

Arrond (Chaotic Good)

With her brother Arrosh, Arrond is the goddess most worshiped by mariners and those who live near the coast. Her brother's power is the greater, but he is also less likely to respond to the pleas of his servants – whereas Arrond loves all those who love the sea, and tries to intercede for them with her brother. She is one of the favored deities of the drecna, who often claim to be her children.

Hayaiph (Neutral Good)

A deity known best in Southern Golm, Hayaiph is a God who treasures purity, the natural order, and harmony. Her servants are devoted enemies of the undead and extra-planar interlopers.

Ascended Deities

Bel-Kari (Neutral Good)

Goddess of prophecy, divination, and foresight. Bel-Kari was a mortal elven woman, an oracle who helped guide the initial elves to their new home in Thanduilin. Her prophecies so overwhelmed her later in life that she went blind, seeing always the shifting mists of the future. Upon her death she ascended and was immediately reborn as a goddess. She resides in Elysium in her Starhall, and strives to protect the fates of all good creatures. Though originally an elf, she has a following amongst good-inclined magic users of many races.

Tessa (Neutral Good)

The Reluctant Warrior. Once a mortal woman and a cleric of a now-forgotten deity, Tessa lived during a time of great strife. She was a leader within her nation and was famous as a healer, but also for taking up the spear of a fallen warrior against enemies of her people. When her god fell, Tessa was forced to fight all the harder as her nation had been amongst the primary benefactors of his power. When she died, she united with her old god's power – hidden away by his deific allies – and ascended as a full goddess. She later become the lover of the god Dariel, and helped to bring him to the side of good.

Cruxin (Chaotic Evil)

A god of bloody vengeance and torture. Cruxin was a man who lived under the ancient Kadeshi Empire. Born into a tradesman's family, somehow his father made enemies of a local minor noble - who took it upon himself to enact sundry cruelties against Cruxin's parents and kin, which steadily escalated from petty to heinous. With the government uninterested in aiding a poor man against one of their own, his father was eventually executed and his mother enslaved, and then the noble's attentions moved on to Cruxin himself, who fled to a distant city. There he married and started a family - but his tormentor pursued him and subjected his new family to the same sadism. His children enslaved and his wife killed, Cruxin finally succumbed to death himself - and became a god seemingly from the power of his hatred alone. It is often rumored that the fall of the Kadeshi Empire is due in no small part to Cruxin's wrath.

Aphaeos Indarae (Chaotic Good)

Once a half-elf from the continent of Anador, Aphaeos was the greatest mortal musician to have ever lived. A devoted follower of Seranas in life, he traveled the world seeking new kinds of music, composing for every people and every society and every creature he came across. Songs he created are sung in elven halls under the stars, among orc tribes in battle, by dwarven miners at their work and drecnan mariners at sea, and even in the temples of the Father of Humankind. In an effort to bring music even to the deaf, he is credited with the creation of symphonic light, the art of using shifting kaleidoscopic arrays of color to bring some of his joy to those who can not hear. So great was his worldwide acclaim and adulation that upon his death he became a god, nearly supplanting Serenas herself in the sphere of song and some other forms of artistry - but his former deity held no grudge for the usurpation.

Urgat Ironhand (Lawful Neutral)

A half-orc raised among the orc tribes of Greater Liria before the Sundering, he learned to make his way amongst that brutal people by virtue of his intellect and guile. However, he was eventually exiled by a chief who viewed him as a threat - but knew his popularity was to great to simply slay him. Urgat lived for some time among humans, then among dwarves, learning a vast amount of engineering knowledge - and more importantly, about law and government. When he got older, he engineered enormous semi-magical golems. Then he returned to and conquered his former tribe, setting himself up as the chief and law-giver. He taught his tribe something of civilization, law, and structured society. After his death, enough of it did to give them an edge over their neighboring tribes - as well as the neighboring Drecna. Thus, Urgat's memory is despised by the mariner people. His tribe held him in great adulation for showing them new meanings of strength and conquest, and thus he attained a measure of godhood.

Other Deities

Not all deities have so clear a history as those above. For one reason or another, there exist gods who origins are shrouded in mystery and uncertainty.

The Father (Lawful Good)

The Father is a very active Lawful Good god who - though his religion originated in Kulmar - claims rightful dominion over all humankind. Clerics of the Father don't get along well with clerics of gods which attract a lot of human worship – though they have no problem with the gods of other races. Some nations outright forbid clerics of the Father from entering, while in Kulmar itself, the Church wields considerable political power. This faith has strong ties with dwarven religions, as the gods of the dwarves rarely compete for the worship of humans. The Father has always claimed to be an original and Primordial god who - with his wife, a now-lost goddess - created humankind. This is disputed by other sources, however, including famously by Asmodeus himself, who claims that the Father is an Ascended god - and ascended fairly recently. For this reason as much as for their conflicting natures, the Lord of the Pit is the most hated enemy of the Father.

Verasch (Neutral Evil)

A divine spirit of fire and destruction, and one of the only gods to make its home on the Material Planes (within the Plane of Fire). Verasch attracts worhip from those who desire power over all else, even if they can't always control it; and from psychotics who wish only to destroy. Dragons who tend towards evil also frequently worship Verasch. While his history is poorly known, Verasch himself makes no claims to his priests about his true nature as primordial or ascended and is seemingly unconcerned with the distinction.

The Gods of the Dark Tapestry (Varied)