Imperial Religion

The Imperial Religion is an official state religion of Imperium of Karadia. It is composed of sixty High Gods, hundreds of gods, thousands of demigods, and untold legions of archdaemons and lesser daemonic servants. It's cultural, spiritual and often quite literal influence spreads far and wide, going far beyond the political borders of the Imperium. Of course, its' influence is also the imperial influence, making most of the countries with strong presence of this religion heavily connected to the Imperium of Karadia.
The Imperial Religion' corporeal side is divided between hundreds of cults and doctrines. Differences between them are philosophical, ethical, structural and liturgical. All of them recognize the existence of all High Gods and all of their servants. However, this doesn't stop them from often choosing only a number of them to be venerated and worshipped. All of these organizations are subservient to the Imperial Temple, though the level of compliance varies.

Gods

High Gods

Imperial Religion includes sixty chief deities known as the High Gods. They are divided between three competting Pantheons - White Pantheon, Black Pantheon and Elemental Pantheon. Due to almost all of the remaining entities being directly subservient to one of the High Gods [save for the stronger vassal pantheons], this means that almost every supernatural creature of the Imperial Religion can, in fact, be safely considered part of one of those three Pantheons.
The relation between the High Gods and their godhood is complicated. Exarch of War are two entities sharing a single godhood between them. Hierarch of Consumption is a single god of single godhood but in two bodies. And the Anarch of Skies are four competting entities taking a single godhood in turns, their influence on the Real World establishing the cycle of seasons.

White Pantheon

White Pantheon includes High Gods [titled Exarchs] of things considered good or neutral, yet directly connected to human lives. High God with honour in its domain will certainly issue at least some rules for its followers, High God of agriculture will be much less interested in dictating their worshippers how to live. However, no God of the White Pantheon is actively malevolent. None of them are also particularly destructive in an indifferent way.
White Pantheon's includes gods of Order alignment, with some rare Radiance exception. Unlike the other Pantheons, those of the White Pantheon tend to be much more disciplined and organized in their interactions with the mortals. White Pantheon introduced their rules upon the majority of the Karadian' population. They keep main forces of the Black Pantheon in Gehenna and they judge the Dead with utmost justice and mercy. However, they let Mankind govern itself in peace, leaving the day-to-day lives of mortals to their own devices. And they tend to repel Black Pantheon incursions with combination of their mortal worshippers and rare daemonic help. Their side of the Great Game is one of subtlety.
White Pantheon is the strongest of them all. Attempting to engage the Hierarchs of Gehenna in open warfare would still carry a risk of losing, which would weaken the faith of the believers. Instead it repels its enemies with such half-assed measures, which acts as a clear sign of its power. After all, if Hierarchs can't even force Exarchs to fight for real, how could they hope to measure up to their heavenly counterparts?

Elemental Pantheon

Elemental Pantheon consists of twenty High Gods known as Anarchs. They are gods of nature, elements and locations (general, such as seas or forests as a whole). Their title of Anarchs sums them up perfectly. There is no hierarchy and no organization within the Pantheon of Elements. High Gods of the Elemental Pantheon are much more busy fighting each other over territory and making new elementals .
Elemental Pantheon cares not about morality and ethics. It is utterly indifferent to mortals and their lives. High Gods of this Pantheon never meet with mortals and never pick their Chosen One. The only mortals they get to interact with are those that abandoned their mortality to become Awakened Elementals. They are pure manifestation of the alignment of Indifference. They expect no worship and receive none of it.
Elemental Gods are interested only in the spread of their elements. High Gods of Mountains or Caves will not care about mortals, nor will Anarchs of Causality of Dreams. However, burning a lot of things (or at least being a powerful fire magician/sorcerer) might make one's get noticed by Flame. The same can be said about other Anarchs of elements. Even then, their attention can easily be more dangerous than beneficial. They are, after all, utterly unpredictable and alien in their thoughts.
Due to being eternally bathed in the almost endless powers of the World Engine, they are unexpectedly strong for their lack of direct worship. There is, however, a clear hierarchy depending on their distance to the Engine. Anarchs of Reality, Unreality and Fate [the so-called Engine Aspects] reside directly within the World Engine, being the ones farthest from common sense of even the other Anarchs themselves.
Second to those Aspects are the Vortex Spirits, the seven Anarchs of prime and secondary elements dwelling in the planes scorched by the energies of the Engine. They are powerful, yet fickle and often irrational. The last type of Elemental Gods are the ten World Shapers, inhabiting the Elemental Wastes, where power of the Engine is the weakest. Their realms are mostly stable and passable, yet very dangerous.

Black Pantheon

Black Pantheon is composed of twenty gods [titled Hierarchs] who are gods of things bad. It is a pantheon composed entirely of deities of Chaos or Ruin alignments. Unlike indifferent Anarchs, Hierarchs take things personally. They are intentionally trying to make the world a worse place. Of course, they are gods of Mankind. They wouldn't be worshipped at all if they didn't put a proper spin on their activities in order to present themselves as a viable alternative to the Exarchs. Or find another ways of becoming important.
Majority of the Black Pantheon gods have more than one face. A High God of anarchy and revolution will also be a patron of freedom. High God of slaughter and war will also be a god of strength and martial prowess. Hierarch of Lust will be a patron of both the sex between a married couple and every imaginable perversion. These Hierarchs will sometimes be worshipped in their benevolent guise alongside Exarchs, however this will not stop the cultists following their darker side from dwelling in the darkness.
Some of them - namely the Hierarchs of Irony, Pus and Desolation, care not about being worshipped. They exist to bring ruin to mortals by spreading plagues, bad luck and other disasters. They are not worshipped - they are appeased by sacrifices and other rituals in order to keep them away. They occasionally bring ruin even to the the Black Pantheon' realms of Gehenna.
The remaining ones are the Pentagram. The four gods being the ambassadors of the Beyond within Gehenna, spreading their corruption and breaking minds of the mortal in order to make them insane enough to actually worship them. Those that fall to the worship of Pentagram are forever lost, their very souls tainted beyond redemption.
Due to the internal situation of the Black Pantheon - which is currently engaged in the eternal War of Gehenna - they are very proactive in the Real World. They seek ruin or chaos, and are desperately trying to subvert the Exarchs' grip over the mortal species of the Imperium. Unsurprisingly, this is something that they succeed in only occasionally. While Hierarchs themselves are above mortal ken, their servants are very interested in persuading mortals to work for them. Be it through contracts or persuasion.

Afterlife

Afterlife of Imperial religion is separated into three main parts, each of them governed by different pantheon. Those that die are said to be visited by Death and informed, which of them is willing to take their souls on the basis of their deeds in life.
Heavens are opened as long as one lived good enough to satisfy the basic requirements set by the Ember, the Exarch of Authority and enforced by Exarch of Judgment, and Exarch of Mercy. Those that failed are banished to Gehenna even if they managed to clear requirements of some of the gods of White Pantheon.
In the middle of it rages the World Engine, surrounded by unpredictable currents of Aetherial Vortex. Its exhaust fumes created the Elemental Wastes, that serve as a clear division between Heavens and Gehenna, two opposing side of the imperial afterlife.
Heaven, Gehenna, Elemental Wastes and the Beyond (existing beyond the light of the World Engine) are essentially a common term for many smaller dimensions. Nobody but Gods really knows how many of them are there. Most Gods have their own, personal pocked universes, exactly as big as they wish. But... many powerful servile archdaemons, demigods and vassal deities has their own domains. Because of that, most of it is... at the very least troublesome to understand.
Heavens are a part of the afterlife controlled by the White Pantheon. It is unique in the fact that it is supposed to be relatively well connected, almost to the point of the division between dimensions being almost undetectable (though there are still different places). One simply walks forward, and sees his surroundings slowly morphing from one realm into another.
Heavens are painted as a place of breathtaking beauty, forged from the power of the World Engine to be like the Reality... but beautiful and perfect beyond compare. There is a central location - believed infinite or almost infinite in size - called Elysium, which is as diverse as Reality, but of much greater size.
It is created from many smaller dimensions, forged into one great construction. Because of that, trying to say anything about its geography is ultimately a pointless endeveour, since Elysium does not follow rules of Reality. As far as scholars and seers know, it seems to be divided into layers, has many pocket sub-universes, and is endless. But that's merely beliefs, as Elysium is unachievable for the living.
Overwhelming majority of the Dead and servile deamons live in Elysium, but not High Gods. Most of them live in smaller dimensions, heavily woven together with the Elysium. Their palaces (or mountains/holy forests etc.) can be seen from the outside, but to actually reach it, you need to be considered worthy. Despite being separate dimension, they are still connected very strongly to the core dimension of the Heavens.
There are also smaller, and more 'themed' worlds in the Heavens (hence, plural), governed by a vassal gods (for example - elven ones) or few other beings of great power. The only trule separate location are the Free Duchies, a smaller versions of Elysium placed between Elysium and Elemental Wastes, to protect the Heavens from the Gehenna incursions.
Gehenna is a world of the Black Pantheon. Once a place of neverending punishment and terror under the despotic and absolute rule of Hierarch of Chains it long ago devolved into a state of utter anarchy. Today it is a place separated into dozens if not hundreds of dimensions ruled over by gods of Gehenna or their powerful underlings (servile archdaemons, demigods and vassal gods).
Most of them are a place of dread and terror, unhospitable to say the least, but there are also worlds were evil is practically rewarded for eternity. There are no longer any common rules, there is only an eternal War of Gehenna played on a scale that makes the Great Game look like small skirmishes. It's essentially the End Times, but ones that never spill into the Reality.
The High Gods of Black Pantheon wage a neverending war between eachother, played partially for sport and partially in hope of achieving victory in this perpetual civil war waged between four main factions. Sometimes they also launch incursions against the Heavens, rarely being able to pierce through the Free Duchies.
A small part of it - called Pandaemonium is almost entirely devoured by the Beyond. Or, it has changed into Beyond. Or, it devoured Beyond and changed into something similar in the process. Or, it is the Pandaemonium's ruler, Malice, plot to usurp power over Beyond while letting it enter the light of the World Engine. It's a complicated place.
Aetherial Vortex is a raging inferno surrounding the World Engine, where space, time, magic power, lifeforce and all elements and paraelements rage against each other. It's less of a location as it is a state of Unreality - all dimensions placed there would doubtlessly cease to exist, torn apart by the powers of the Engine. Still, some stubborn remnants of those remain.
It is the realm inhabited by the Vortex Spirits, whose eternal fight for dominance stops everyone from trying to access the World Engine. It is, however, said that in the eye of the storm, right above (or beneath. Or within.) the World Engine lies a place where the Vortex Spirits have no access. It is a place where all High Gods can meet to discuss things, under the watchful gaze of the Engine Aspects. The last time that such a meeting occured was during the Dawn War.
Elemental Wastes are a dimensions (or lack of them) that exist in the middle of the stream of unstable elemental energy that is exhausted from Aetherial Vortex. Not only are they bathed in raw energy, but they are also inhabited by the ten World Shapers. Dimensions here are places that can only be described as extreme. Mountains that can reach stars. Plains so large that it would take generations of mortals to reach the other end. Caves and forests that never end.
There are living beings there, of course. The most devastating creations of Anarchs of Fangs and Leaves. Each of them capable of laying waste to entire armies of mortals. And if that wasn't enough, the raw energy of the World Engine is still strong here. Entire planes can occasionally burn to cinders before getting restored, simply because it was bathed in a bit too much energy of fire. And sometimes armies of elementals spill from the Vortex, destroying everything in their path.

Beyond is a common brand for a places existing outside of the World Engine's light. It is a domain of things that are better left unspoken, banished there at the Gods' will. This is a place for Aberrants unconnected to any religion in particular but that exist and are active in the Imperium of Karadia.
The common belief of them existing in Beyond serves as a powerful deterrent, since it pushes all but strongest of such beings into the Beyond, robbing them at least partially of the benefit of having their domains in some unspeakable, unknown location. It also means that High Gods are a bit closer to them in a physical sense of the word, and at least theoretically makes them merely a sidenotes on the story of Creation, making their Cosmic Horror Story-like self created backgrounds a bit less credible.

Mythology & Lore

Age of Silence

At the beginning, there was Silence. An endless multiverse of stagnancy, filled with planes of existence where everything could only live forever or be forever dead. Nothing was born. Nothing died. Nothing changed. This state lasted for eternity, as even the time was frozen in place. But then, something emerged from the indescribable and unknown Song Beyond Silence, three primordial entities who were to become the source of the Imperial Religion. Bringing the end to the Age of Silence.

The Age of Creation

One of them later became Ember, the Exarch of Authority. Second one was to become the Tyrant, Hierarch of Chains. The third one is now known only as the Primordial. Those three beings saw the Silence and despaired. However, to create something, something else had to be sacrificed. Ember and Tyrant slew the Primordial. Out of its willing sacrifice and the power of its slayers the World Engine was born. A center of everything. A beating heart of the multiverse. Its inception devoured a hundred planes and scorched a thousand more. Aetherial Vortex and Elemental Wastes began existing.
The World Engine has spawned the three Engine Aspects, the divine manifestations of its will and influence, each a splinter of the Primordial from which they were born. Through them, the Vortex Spirits and the World Shapers were born, making the gods of the Elemental Pantheons the second oldest one after the Ember and Tyrant.
The birth of the World Engine illuminated the remaining worlds of the multiverse. Silence was no more. Things began changing. Things could be created. And things could die. The multiverse was split by the raging currents of the World Engine. Ember and Tyrant began assembling their realms on the opposing sides of the Elemental Wastes, using the creative powers of the Vortex Spirits and World Shapers and the power of the Engine to do the job. Thus the Heavens and the Gehenna was born. The Age of Myths begin.

The Age of Myths

Discord's Last Prank - The Hierarch of Discord was the second Hierarch to be created after the Hierarch of Lust. She was an early archetype of a prank-god, in a way a jester on the Tyrant's court. One of her pranks, however, went too far. When Exarch of Day and Hierarch of Night were born, a third child was to be born too. However, it never came to be. The third child was wrong. An entity so corrupted that its very existence risked the life and sanity of the other two High Gods.
It was excised in time, with the remaining rot in the blood of its siblings purged out later on. However, Discord stole the remains as a part of a sophisticated plot to create a new god, an anti-Tyrant of Ember's blood and evil unmatched even by Hierarch of Chains himself. Things, however, were much worse than she thought. She underestimated the power of the corruption in its blood. Soon there was no Discord, merely a puppet wearing her skin and godhood. The newborn Malice, Hierarch of Hatred, hide in the forgotten edge of the Gehenna until the Shattering began.
Once it happened, he carved a realm of Pandaemonium, soon having Discord give birth to Hierarchs of End and Pain. Thus the Pentagram was born, and the Beyond has expanded into the fragmented Gehenna.
The Shattering of Gehenna - Ember and Tyrant created a number of Exarchs and Hierarchs to help them govern their realms. Each of them created a queen to rule alongside them. Soon new High Gods were born, rather than created. The two realms were in a state of equilibrium, until Shadow, the Hierarch of Night, has rebelled against the Tyrant. This rebellion resulted in Tyrant's downfall due to the betrayal of his consort. In the end, Tyrant was defeated, his crown was broken into pieces.
When that happened, the elemental powers responsible for the creation of the Gehenna went berserk. The entire realm was broken, like the Tyrant's Crown. Hundreds of larger and smaller planes were created, each ruled not by the Tyrant but by now independent High Gods and lesser entities. The Gehenna War has began. And the Tyrant went insane.
In the past, he was cruel and despotic, seeking nothing but complete control of his side of the multiverse. However, when his crown was broken, his rule was ended and Tyrant himself was humiliated, things changed. From then on, Tyrant was singlemindedly dedicated to dominating his oponents, reforging of the Gehenna, and the revenge on the Ember. Hierarch of Night was, after all, a progeny of the Ember himself. To Tyrant it was a plot. A way to undermine his rule by the oldest of Exarchs.

Age of Dawn

Once the Age of Myths ended, all three Pantheons were fully formed. It was at this moment that the Real World was created. A board upon which the Great Game is waged, the realm where the time is linear and both battles and gambles can come to an end. Mortals were created, the true multiverse changed into a place of their final rest.
Of course, there were usurpers. The Old Gods, created through the mortals' overusing the mechanism in which faith increases the power of supernatural entities. They were not true gods, much less the High Gods. However, once they grown fat on the mortals' belief, they refused to recognize the High Gods as the true sovereigns and creators of Reality. When High Gods deemed the world they created as ready for them to announce their presence, they first had to extinguish the Old Gods.
Once that happened and the Dawn War was no more, the Great Game could finally begin.

List of Gods

White Pantheon

Gods
Ember, Exarch of Authority
Judge, Exarch of Judgment
Hammer, Exarch of Industry
Shimmer, Exarch of Day

Demigods
Grimhammer
Herald of Light

Elemental Pantheon

Gods
Destiny, Anarch of Fate

Demigods
Keeper

Black Pantheon

Gods
Tyrant, Hierarch of Chains
Shadow, Hierarch of Night
Plague, Hierarch of Pus
Rage, Hierarch of Conquest
Agony, Hierarch of Pain

Demigods
Redwing
Herald of Darkness

Permeated Organizations

• Grand Empire of Karadia