Church of the Tidefather

Official Church of Leviathan, The Tidefather

Mythology & Lore

In the beginning, when the world was fresh and new from its inception, the three Primordial Gods were the first born among all the Divines, having sprung forth from the dying body of their father, the Progenitor God Atlas. These three Primordial Gods, having come into being before all other life in the Planescape, were special beyond compare. Moradin, The youngest of brother gods, was given domain of the Ground, Law, and all that lays on and beneath the earth. Bahamut, the second eldest of the three brother gods, sprung forth and took domain of Sky, Morality, and Justness, while the eldest of the three brother gods, he who came first and he who ruled above all his brothers, was given the divine right to rule over Water, Life, and Creation itself.
The firstborn brother used his immense power to shape the Planes and give birth to all manner of life as he sculpted it from the dead flesh of their father, Atlas, like a potter sculpts a pot out of clay. Using his mythical Anvil of Creation to smith the oceans, the skies, the ground, and everything else that has and will ever exist while the Soul Forge was used to create the sentient life that would inhabit the worlds and Planes created through the Anvil of Creation. In this way, the first dregs of life were birthed within the waters of the Prime Material Plane, the first Outsiders came into existence on the infant Planes of the Outer Realms, and the world was truly cemented into shape from its primordial chaotic nature thanks to his efforts.
However, after all had been established and the three brothers had begun to guide the emerging forms of life on the Prime Material Plane, the first and greatest Primordial underwent a catastrophic transformation and fragmented, his divine spark breaking apart because of this unnamed catastrophe and eventually giving life to two new gods: Leviathan and his wife Sturgeon, two oceanic deities to take the place of their father who had died. Each is said to have taken on the duty of representing a different part of the ocean.

Divine Origins

The Church of the Tidefather traces its origins back to when all races were yet in their infancy, when races with as of yet wholly developed minds looked out onto the endless waters of the ocean as they crashed and slammed upon their shores and saw them as the wrath of an angry god.
As these proto-creatures came to venerate the destruction the waters rained upon their homes and learned to accept disaster and hardship as a way of life, they began to strive to emulate the waves that rampaged so freely across the ocean in their daily lives, eschewing the traditions and laws of their homes to pursue their own desires as truly free people.
The Church of the Tidefather claims that the teachings that it knows today were bestowed upon the earliest faithful as they constructed crude rafts of wood and seaweed and set out onto the tumultuous waters they lived near, wholly intent on meeting the source of all the catastrophes they had lived through...and as they were all torn asunder by vicious maelstroms and raging primordial storms, they howled with delight as they saw the true essence of storm and glimpsed the truest nature of the "leviathan" beneath the waves. Even as they sunk to the bottom of the dark waters, this primordial god who so viciously destroyed these creatures again and again saw children who had learned to carry the tiniest spark of chaos inside of them...in them, the god saw those like themself, who raged like storm itself.
Rather than die, these creature found themselves washed up upon distant shores some time later, wholly intact and with a massive tome set beside them, the cover made of coral and storms bound within its pages...The Disaster Scriptures, what would would day become the holy book of Leviathan.

Cosmological Views

The Church of the Tidefather believes that the Great Original God, Atlas, gave birth to all of reality with his sacrifice during the dawn times and the Primordial Gods and countless other powerful creatures from his corpse...and as the corpse of Atlas died and became the Planescape, the life that had been birthed from him was the first thing to act.
The Primordial God of Water and Life, seeing the chaos now roiling all across the newly birthed Planescape, decided to forge it upon their mighty Anvil of Creation...and thus were the planes forged into their current, defined forms from the raw chaos they had been, their mighty anvil pounding the chaos into shape.
As the last hammer blow fell upon the anvil, it is said that the Primordial God, his job done, willingly fragmented himself and abandoned his very existence, following the example of his father Atlas and letting his death give birth to two children, Leviathan, the raging dragon who grew to embody the wrath of the ocean and disaster itself, and Sturgeon, the mother to all who was born to embody the gentler and more nurturing aspects of the oceans. Together, it is believed they represent the whole of the ocean and carry on the legacy of their own father, The Primordial God.
With them in control of the oceans, it is said they worked alongside Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon and Moradin, The Allfather to lead the Planescape out of its infancy.

Tenets of Faith

Life was born to be free. Break the chains of slavery and subjugation and punish those who take away freedoms of others.

Every man a king. Empower yourself and others to steer the course of their own lives. Those who abide the law for its own sake are merely a different breed of slave.

Blame not the storm for the ruin it brings. Hold no grudges and learn to forgive. Life is best lived in the moment and for the future - never beneath the chains of the past.

Channel the Beasts of the Deep. Protect the ocean, nurture the beasts that dwell within it, and keep it safe from those who would seek to control it or leash its untamed fury.

Embody the Changing Destruction. Change and Destruction are life's only constants - bring both to the world and tear down what is to make way for what will be. What endures will only emerge all the stronger as a result.

Ethics

Most debates and contentious topics within the Church of the Tidefather fall mainly fall within two areas: How extreme or literal The Tidefather's tenets should be interpreted, and how diligently/zealously his faithful should be in bringing his beliefs to others and the world.
Some of the faithful hold that, due to how much important The Tidefather places on absolute freedom and how much he loathes any creature being yoked or controlled by another, that they should naturally work to free all those who exist beneath the rule of another. These members can range anywhere from advocates for freedom within populated areas to the most zealous and brutal anarchists who hold no qualms bringing entire countries crumbling down if it means "freeing" those who live there from the yoke of control, often even if "freeing" them would do more harm than good as these extremists genuinely believe that a life lived freely is superior to one lived in service, even if it is shorter.
While a majority of the faithful are not so extreme, there is nontheless much debate about exactly how involved they should get in the affairs of others.
Secondarily, there is also a large amount of debate around how disasters and storm should be treated. Many claim that they shouldn't wish for disasters to come, but should merely accept when they do as natural and allow them to happen and work towards making a better life once they pass. Others take more extreme stances, and believe that not only are disasters a thing to be accepted and welcomed, but should actively be sought out or conjured to help others not of the faithful to accept them as well. These extremists often locate and hoard ancient magic relics capable of manipulating the weather and become disaster cults that bring ruin to their surroundings.
Many of the Faithful, however, fall within the middle ground on many of these debates, and simply believe that creatures should be free and disasters should be welcomed. They often come off as gruff, uncaring, and prickly, and they take quite well to a life of banditry, mercenary work, or adventuring due to their gruff personalities and uncaring for the world around them.

Worship

Much like the followers of The Platinum Dragon , the followers of The Tidefather place greater inherent value on action rather than words. They believe that their prayers and songs to The Tidefather are best spoken by the people they set free, the disasters they endure and survive, and in their unbending and staunch attitudes they carry in their everyday lives.
They never place much, if any, stock in words and always much prefer to kick down a door and carry out their desires rather than preach or speak about them, as they believe that the truly faithful inspire others to follow their example through their actions, their battle cries, and their raging willpower as they crash aside all in their path.
When they do pay verbal homage and/or prayer to The Tidefather, they often do so during great rainstorms, thunderstorms, or other disasters or heavy weather events, sometimes seeking out such events to become closer to The Tidefather so their prayers may be heard that much louder.

Priesthood

The faithful of the Church of the Tidefather are very loosely organized, but the more senior members of this faith are given their roles and titles in harrowing rites known as "Squalls" where they, along with a select group of their allies or those willing to assist them, take a small raft or rowboat they construct themselves out of wood out onto the ocean during a disaster, tidal wave, or into a maelstrom and undergo a trial in which they must beat back 3 separate assaults by the monstrous creatures that dwell within its depths.

Granted Divine Powers

Many of the powers granted by The Tidefather are centered around the ocean, the creatures that live there, or liberating or freeing in nature.
Oftentimes, he will bless those traveling through rough seas with protection from the storm, grant those who are drowning or sinking in rough waters a blessing to let them swim or breathe beneath the waves, or even grant those who call themselves friends of the creatures of the ocean deep the ability to speak telepathically to them and befriend such massive creatures.
Otherwise, The Tidefather is known to grant his blessing to creatures who call out to him in times of true and dire need, often when they lay captured, imprisoned, or held inescapably in dungeons, enchained, or within any myriad of bindings...these creatures who call out to him find themselves freed from their bondage as he grants them his blessing. Once they receive such a blessing, these creatures become veritable avatars of his divine wrath no longer containable with petty mortal bindings, chains and bindings slipping off of their bodies like water and oil as they crash through whatever obstacles lay between them and freedom. Barreling through walls, enemies, and even the ground itself, these avatars of freedom burst and crash their way to freedom and often obliterate whatever structures dared to hold them or restrain them so, sometimes calling forth a massive rainstorm to flood the facility.
Rarely, the Tidefather will answer a prayer of those in need and grant them salvation from a disaster or, even more rarely, send a disaster to a particularly fanatical follower who earns his attention and calls out to him for it.

Political Influence & Intrigue

Due to their emphasis on freedom and lack of a very unified religious structure, it is altogether rare for followers of The Tidefather to become overly involved in local politics of where they happen to end up as, outside of the Eastern Imperium, they lack a unified church that other faiths can rally behind within the walls of a city, though temples to The Tidefather serve this purpose should such a need for a meeting arise.
However, the individual groups of the Faithful who find themselves within the walls of civilization have been known to get involved in politics if they believe that doing so would serve to free a creature or creatures chained or kept prisoner under the yoke of another's rule, or if they feel that doing so would suitably shake up and destabilize an old and decrepit system they view would be better served with some added chaos.
More commonly, the faithful of The Tidefather get involved with politics and more advanced cultural systems is during the aftermath of a disaster that recently passed through a country, be it man-made such as war or a natural one such as an earthquake. During the aftermath of such events, the faithful often come in and provide relief and comfort to those affected by the event, preaching the tenets of The Tidefather and helping rebuild in the process. For this, they are often loved and well-respected in the more disaster-prone locations in the world, and they are often treated as an incredibly welcome sight when all seems lost and fallen to ruin...for where ruin exists, it is said the followers of The Tidefather will never be far behind.

Sects

Due to the fragmented and chaotic nature of The Tidefather's following, he has less sects than other gods as his followers are rarely cohesive enough to form many unified faiths. However, there are some sects that have appeared over the eons of his faith's existence...due to the disorganized manner in which his followers exist, they are almost entirely widespread and without a central home as other sects are.

Cult of the Storm Heralds

Description: A fanatical sect of the Church of the Tidefather, the Cult of the Storm Heralds believe that disaster and ruin are the most holy thing, and believe that spreading these things to the world serves to "uplift" the nonbelievers and teach them the value of disaster. They are extremists who are disliked by a majority of the rest of The Tidefather's church, and are often hunted due to their tendency to use magical relics and artifacts to manipulate the weather to send storms and disasters to the world, killing countless creatures in their "prayers'.
Motto/Maxim: "Let disaster spread to every shore, and let ruin fall upon all the world."
Home Territory: Widespread within the western continent

Church of the Chainbreakers

Description: A popular sect of the Church of the Tidefather, the Church of the Chainbreakers are a group who place great emphasis on freedom, and travel the lands breaking the imprisoned free from their chains and freeing those who desire it from their bondage. They believe that, while life is meant to be lived free and without restraints or chains, they also understand that not all desire or deserve the freedom The Tidefather preaches of. It is this understanding that makes this Church so popular, and their capability to use judgement and discern which among those who call out for them do so our of true desperation and need, and who simply does so out of a desire to get free to wreak more cruelty on the world. They are a more innately "good" sect of The Tidefather's church than others, but are no less chaotic or wild.
Motto/Maxim: "We are the disaster the bound and the shackled pray comes upon their jailers."
Home Territory: Widespread, No Central Home

Church of the Battered Ringbearer

Description: The most popular of The Tidefather's sects, the faithful of this church follow a dogma that preaches that chaos and wildness is best when counterbalanced with reason and restraint...thus, they are almost exclusively found in the company of the faithful of The Tidemother , who they often marry or become romantic partners with. It is this balance of freedom and chaos with reason and control that makes this Church so popular, as the faithful still go about following the edicts of The Tidefather, but are more grounded and restrained than others of their number. This is thanks to the influence of their partners, who they treat with love and respect as those who help keep them grounded and understanding in their quest to bring the ways of freedom and chaos to the world.
Motto/Maxim: "Chaos needs a counterbalance."
Home Territory: Widespread, No Central Home

Order of the Roaring Bard

Description: An odd sect whose faithful interpret the tenets of The Tidefather and strive to emulate the ways of storm and thunder through song and music. They are often bards or similar professions, and greatly enjoy singing and performing in booming voices, vicious stomps, and howls of glee.
Motto/Maxim: "Our voices are thunder, our songs a storm."
Home Territory: Venau Necrocracy, The Eastern Imperium

Order of the Furious Freebooter

Description: Perhaps the most extreme of The Tidefather's sects, the faithful of this order take The Tidefather's teachings to the extreme and believe that all life was meant to be lived free and unrestrained, and go to any length to "free" any they find from the shackles that bind them while making no effort to understand why they were bound in the first place. They destroy prisons to free those imprisoned regardless of the crime, obliterate governments to "free" those that ascribe themselves to it, and crush all creatures and constructs which they believe shackles others.
Motto/Maxim: "Better to die than to ascribe yourself to any man's law."
Home Territory: Widespread, No Central Home

No laws or rules, only freedom!

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Alternative Names

The Maelstrom-Born, The Squallriders, The Typhoons

Demonym

Levidran

Divines

• Leviathan, The Tidefather

Controlled Territories

• The Infinite Squall

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