Ahnadhus
There is a pantheon of nine gods in Ahnadhus. The gods live in the sun which is bright because of their divine energy. The Gods are Thaev, Naestha, Kúthad, Fautól, Dalavú, Pras, Ólundae, Seladra and Júkla. Tarvik is a god but is not worshipped as he was imprisoned by Thaev thousands of years ago, before the first civilizations emerged.
Each god is either Peace or Chaos aligned. Chaos aligned gods aren't inherently bad and Peace aligned gods aren't inherently good. It simply refers to how they are percieved by the people and whether they are more likely to bring about revolutionary changes to the world or make small changed to it's current state.
Thaev is the main god. They are neither male or female and are represented as the sun itself. Thaev has no true physical appearence as they represent everything. Thaev created the other nine gods, based on characteristics of themself. Then he created the universe and everything in it, including the world. They then allowed the nine gods to fill it with their creations. First, Júkla filled the world with water and created wind and weather. Then Naestha filled the world with plants. Next Kúthad created animals to fill the land, sea and sky. Ólundae created the force of magic which allowed the flow of energy between the creatures and plants the world.
Tarvik attempted to create the first forms of intelegent life. These First Beings were similar to the Kymaeskeg but possessed much more power. These beings were huge, masters of hunting and destruction and utterly horrifying to behold. They had vast knowledge of the universe, almost equal to that of the gods themselves. They flew to the sun, causing the world to go dark as the light was dimmed. They waged war on the gods within, fighting for the power over life itself.
The gods defeated the First Beings, sending them back to the world and stripping their powers from them. Thaev tasked Fautól and Dalavú with punishing these beings. They decided to split the First Beings into two separate halves. Dalavú created the perfect predators, masters of the sky and with an innate aptitude for magic. These became the dragons . Fautól took the intellegence and ingenuity of the First beings and formed them into the humans with a drop of his blood. Each new race was created in the likeness of each god.
Ólundae allowed each new race to have control of her magic but nowhere near as much as the First Beings could. The link between humans and dragons remained after the split, with each half searching for the other. This is why humans and dragons can bond today.
Tarvik was punished by Thaev, accusing him of trying to destroy them. Thaev would have banished Tarvik then but Pras, god of justice, pleaded with him not to. Instead, Thaev made Tarvik the god of death, tasked with ensuring the spirits of the beings he created found their other half and made it safely to the sun where they could finally rest.
As the world grew, Seladra gave the humans the language of the gods, Gaervar so that they could communicate and write, allowing them to pass information down the generations and build civilisations. Pras taught them morality and from there the humans created laws and rules to protect themselves.
Tarvik, who had resented the other gods since the war on the sun, devised a plan to overthrow Thaev and steal his power so that he would become the ruler of the heavens. Instead of guiding the dead's spirits to the sun, he began collecting them and absorbing their power. Eventually he had collected enough power and headed to the sun to confront Thaev.
They fought and Tarvik would have won if the other gods hadn't helped defeat him. This time, Thaev showed no mercy and imprisoned him deep within the ground where he would remain for all eternity. Thaev made Júkla the new goddess of death as she was already the goddess of travellers. Dalavú begged Thaev to allow the possibility for Tarvik to be freed one day as she was in love with him. Thaev allowed this and tasked Ólundae with creating an object which could be used to free him if he ever showed remorse for his actions.
The object, Sova Kobis, was kept in the sun, hidden by Thaev until Dalavú stole it and hid it on the world below in the hope that either the humans or the dragons would find it and free Tarvik.
Structure
At the head of the religion is the high preist. They are always a woman and live in the Grand Temple of Thaev in Erala Rúa. She is responsible for carrying out the most important rituals and upkeep of the temples.
There are eight, lower ranking preists or preistesses, each representing one of the other eight gods. There is no preist for the tenth god. These preists each works in the temple build specially for their god. They are responsible for maintaining all the smaller temples in their area and report any news to the high preistess. These large temples are always located in cities, most often at or near the centre.
The lowest ranking preists and preistesses are in charge of leading prayers and rituals in their own temples. They are only responsible for their own temples which are used to worship all of the nine gods.
All preists can recieve visions from the gods although this happens very rarely. They look after their people and provide guidance. They officiate marriages and funerals as well as blessing newborns and the dying.
Public Agenda
The preists of Ahnadhus want to spread their message of acceptance and community across the continent in the hopes of preventing any future wars and forgiving past mistakes.
Assets
The temples can range from small wooden buildings to grand, sprawling demonstrations of power. Bigger temples tend to hold lots of money and employ guards to keep theives and soldiers out. The bigger temples typically have some form of fortifications as they can be used as a refuge for times of war.
History
Ahnadhud is older than the civilisations of Órlekanú as it came with the first Gaenans from the west.
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