The Lumeric Pantheon
As She Who Wends
takes mighty turns,
from winters gloom,
to spring it burns
For all things cycle
with her prowess,
time becomes
a ring that's endless
But turning in her
are two other,
one her sun
and one his brother
The son, he weaves,
creation golden
follow him,
and hearts embolden
His brother wanes,
and takes you yonder,
But be not feared
the stars you'll wander
There is one more
child of the wender
She's born from blood,
the mortal ender
The daughter rises
feared, ferocious,
and one surmises
times atrocious
these great beings
rule our doings,
see our dreamings
So on this hallowed
day of Beltaine,
raise a glass,
to fates linked in chain
Among all the Oroboritic faiths, by far the most widespread is the Lumeric Pantheon. No system of faith has had as profound an effect on Erden as that of the high elves. Its origins lost to the mists of time, the Lumeric pantheon has influenced religions across the world, with a notable and recent exception.
The Lumeric pantheon consists of three gods. First among these is the Oroboros, also known as She Who Wends. The Oroboros is thought to represent the fabric of nature and life itself, and takes the form of a winding serpent eating its own tail, devouring and creating nature as it does so. Two other goddesses have been birthed from the breath of the Oroboros: Kelemvor, also known as He Who Wanes, and Lathandar, He Who Weaves.
Yet some elves would say that there are four gods, not three, in the Lumeric pantheon. That is because a fourth goddess, Sanguine, was created by the elves 10,000 years ago. Sanguine, a being of blood and fury, is generally spurned by elves, but a sizeable minority of elves still place their faith in her power.
The Oroboros is known by many names: She Who Wends, Jormundgandr, or even "the Universe". A nature goddess (or god, depending on who you ask), the Oroboros is a mysterious entity who takes the form of a snake eating its own tail, who represents time and nature. Worshipped primarily by elves and fey across the world, the Oroboros retains a small but devoted following in Lumeris. Followers of the Oroboros do not communicate with their god, and instead look to the beauty of nature for divine inspiration. The Oroborites of Lumeris have their headquarters in the Temple of the Celestial Serpent in Theron. Oroborites also had temples in Emrath, and hidden bastions scattered throughout the world.
Lathandar, the Lady of Light, or She Who Weaves is the god of the sun and life. Created in ancient times as an avatar of light to battle Sanguine, Lathandar has become the god of warmth, rebirth, and the sun. Her followers, the Golden Order, have a mighty bastion in Theron: the Temple of the Golden Leaf. Outside of Lumeris, her followers are greatest in Paxtria and Barovia.
Kelemvor, He Who Wanes, is the newest of the Lumeric gods. Kelemvor, once a mortal, is the god of death, judgement, and the moon. Kelemvor was forged as a grim, silver-masked avatar of vengeance, destined to do battle with Sanguine's legions of undead. His followers in Theron have a temple called the Citadel of the Moon, but also a vast presence outsidde of Lumeris. In fact, Kelemvor may be the most widespread elven god, with bastions in Paxtria, Lornham, and more recently, Barovia and the Holmgardian Empire. Its stalwart paladins have won the Orders of Kelemvor fame in their defiance of the undead.
Sanguine
First the serpent, who weaves and wends
The goddess of blood her only blight
Then came the sun, gold are his friends,
Creatures of darkness struck by his light,
Last came the moon, bringer of ends
the scales of justice forged by his might.
Sanguine; She Who Thirsts; the Pale Lady. In the waning years of the 4th cycle, all know her names, though fewer know her beginnings. In truth, the elves created Sanguine in their hubris, as they were unable to establish with any certainty the existence of other gods. In doing so, they damned the world to ten thousand years of repeated devastation, to plagues of undeath, and to the existence of vampires.
Despite this bloody legacy, there are many in Lumeris who would worship Sanguine once more, who view her avarice as a just response to betrayal. The followers of Sanguine are known as the Calabim, meaning "Firstborn", in Lumeric.
History
In ancient times, the elves and the fey worshipped the cycle of nature itself, symbolized by a serpentine nature goddess called the Oroboros, or She Who Wends. Yet in the days of ten millennia past, when the Eldar were at the height of their power, they scoured the cosmos for this entity, attempting to contact her themselves. They found no answer. Most of the Eldar, the so-called Calabim, turned their back on the Oroboros. In their arrogance, they created a god themselves: Sanguine. They did so through the sacrifice of a million souls at a mighty temple known only to legend as "the Godforge". Yet Sanguine was no benevolent deity.
In the cataclysmic wars that followed, most of the Eldar were cursed as mortals, or became vampires. The Fey retreated to their ancient domain, the Feywild. Sanguine was temporarily defeated, but at great cost: the world was sundered, devastated. The surviving Eldar either returned to the old faith of the Oroboros, or became the first vampires.
In the following ten thousand years, Sanguine would return three times, and in the first two of those cycles she was defeated by the Eldar. Thus, the Eldar added two more gods to their pantheon. The first, summoned by the great prophet Aurelia nearly 8,000 years ago, was Lathandar: the Living Sun. Forged from the sacrifice of ten thousand gold-clad paladins. Lathandar brought gleaming heroes from the Ethereal plane to do battle with Sanguine, becoming the god of rebirth in the process. The second, Kelemvor, had an altogether different path. Born nearly 6,000 years ago as a half-elf, Kelemvor did battle against a mighty necromancer, a servant of Sanguine, and stole the power of a legion of undead to smite them and ascend to godhood. Though the Eldar have not forged a god in many millennia, the worship of their pantheon remains.
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