Chapter Two: The Gods of Aeliode Chapter Two The Gods of Aeliode Religion Within the Imperiums setting, there are four main pantheons of gods to be found in three of the four dominate cultures (Avitian Empire/Ceravossian Republic, the Ostmen, and the Cantreavs of Tir Ydrail) The Triufir and the Ostmen both have a pantheon dedicated to their lands while the Avitian Empire encompasses two sets of gods, those of the Northern Empire and those of the Southern Empire As such, there are three main divisions all of the world’s religions can be relegated to We shall call these divisions the Multi-Planar Religion, the Prime Plane Religion, and the Natural Religion Multi-Planar Religion Multi-Planar Religion’s defining characteristic is based upon the essence of the God in the Pantheon Gods in this realm exist throughout all planes and are the creators of existence on the grand scale These gods forged the world out of nothing and created all the beings, races, and lands by their will These gods are the most foreign to mortals Their behavior is beyond the understanding of all save other gods They cannot be truly destroyed, though their avatars may A prime example is the goddess Tulhesa Her slain body is the foundation upon which all planes of existence were built In a sense, she is the entirety of creation in which the mortal races spend most of their lives within Though she is slain, she still exists and exerts her plans upon all of creation Multi-Planar gods also tend to be worshiped by multiple cultures, but not always in the same way A multiplanar god will manifest to a particular culture in a way with which the culture can best understand the god’s wishes and areas of influence The god tends to have a different name, their holy sigils will often look slightly different, and their avatars manifest take on an appearance in line with that culture For example, Paladrus is worshiped in the Southern Empire and often takes the form of a great silver serpent Paladrus in the rest of the Avitian Empire is known as the Allafar, an aging man who is the father and judge of all creation Again this god manifest as Lugh to the Tuatha as a man in the prime of his like with golden hair and a great spear These avatars are particular to those regions and the god’s influence within that region can be seen in its worshiper’s treatment of the god So as the god Palatine of the Southern empire was imprisoned by the other gods, his influence is almost nil in regards to the passing of events there; there are just a handful of clerics who pass his blessings upon the world But as Allafar of the Avitian Empire is held above as the most powerful of all the gods, his ability to guide the destinies of his followers is great; there are many clerics through which his power manifests This multicultural effect is known by none but the most well informed scholars Prime Plane Religion Religion at the prime plane level mimics Multi-Planar religion in practice, but its nature is drastically different Though still gods of great power, Prime Planar god’s divinity is on a much lesser scale than Multi-Planar gods Gods of this tier have power only over the Prime Plane, though they may travel to other planes, and while they are still powerful beings while traveling, they not have the same ability to shift reality as desired in the way they can on the Prime Plane This is a result of the fact that they did not exist before the creation of the planes as the MultiPlanar gods did Instead, Prime Planar gods began their existence during or after the creation of the Prime Plane and, therefore, their power and fate is intimately tied to it Secondly, Prime Plane gods are tied to specific locations Not only are their powers lessened by travel between planes, but also within the Prime Plane itself These gods have gained worshipers within a particular region and are therefore omnipotent in that region If a god wished it, they could create week-long earthquakes in their home region without any difficulty That same god outside their home region would still have the power to create an earthquake, but the strain of doing so would quickly tire them Instead, they tend to send their clerics into foreign lands to their work The Morrigan is an example of a Prime Plane God She 25