Religions of Hârn
Religion On Hârn
The people of Hârn are a religious lot and practice a variety of spiritual beliefs and practices. There are currently ten major religions on Hârn, centered around ten 'gods'.
The Good
The 'good gods' represent the virtues of Charity, Chastity, Diligence, Humility, Kindness, Patience, and Temperance. Their followers want to do what society perceives as good.
Larani: is the Lady of Paladins; the good ‘goddess’ who represents order and the chivalric ideals of; faith, piety, honor, righteousness, truth, justice, courage, and strength. She teaches perfection through order and faith. Larni directly opposes Agrik and his followers their savage and chaotic attempts to achieve perfection through strength, mean survival, and brutal and unnecessary conflict. Larani is most popular amongst the nobility.
Peoni: is the good 'goddess' of peace forgiveness, love, life, and healing. She believes in achieving perfection through teaching peace and forgiveness. She nurtures with love, feeding the hungry, bringing hope to the hopeless, healing the sick, and forgiving sinners. She rewards patience, virtue, chastity, temperance, and forgiveness. She is the most popular 'goddess', especially amongst the lower classes.
Save-K'Nor: is the 'god' of intellect, learning, and true knowledge. The keeper The Illimitable Tome the concordant between the gods. Save-K'nor seeks to guide his adherents, by perfecting their intellect and knowledge of moral philosophy, so that they may understand the true nature of Kelestia and thereby select the righteous path of their own free will. The church of Save-K'nor has few adherents because of their focus on scholarship, however, their level of education put many in place to be of singular influence on events.
Siem: is the benign ‘god’ of magic, mysteries, and dreams. Siem is the oldest of the 'gods'. He chose to withdraw from the other ‘gods’ to his own idyllic domain within Kelestia, 'the Blessed Realm', where all remains preserved in a pristine state and there is almost no passage of time. He is most associated with the Faerie folk, Elves and Dwarves, thought some Men worship him too.
The Bad
From the perspective of the 'good gods' the 'evil gods' are responsible for all the ills of the world; Disease, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. For their part, the 'evil gods' perspective is that they wish to rule Kelstia by any means necessary.
Agrik: is the ‘god’ of war. He believes might makes right, only the strongest should rule, and that the uncertainty of conflict brings necessary improvement. War and tumult are the great threshing floor that separates the worthy from the unworthy. Agrik is in direct opposition to Larani and her rigid adherence to order.
Morgath: is the ‘god’ death, retribution, and revenge. Lord of the undead, suffering, and chaos. Morgath gathers souls to feed the Shadow of Bukrai and upend the order of the universe, he offers those in service to him eternal life, of a sort, with the offer to become and Amorvis.
Naveh: is the ‘god’ of nightmares, thieves, and assassins. He rules the night and is the silent death. Seemingly Nihilistic, Naveh's purposes are obscured in shadow, seeming to with no discernable aims.
The Indifferent
The remaining ‘gods’ are neither good nor evil, but somewhere in between, they don't feel particularly strong about having worshippers or not.
Halea: is the “Maker of Bargains”, the amoral ‘goddess’ of beauty, wealth, and hedonistic pleasures. Halea usually appears to humans as a beautiful young woman. For Halea, greed is good, power is better, there is no sin, only pleasure matters. She has shrewdly maintained position and wishes things to continue as they are so as to enjoy pleasures.
Ilvir: known as the “Ochre Womb and the “Brooder in the Blasted Plains”, Ilivir creates strange beings known as Ivashu. The purpose of the Ivashu are a mystery known only to Ilvir. Ilvir’s adherents are drawn to him by the promise that after death their souls will be reincarnated into Ivashu, which they believe is a higher form of life.
Sarajin: is the 'god' of courage, strength, prowess in combat, fame, clever tactics, battlelust and the “sport” of war. He loves Kalestia as it is. His followers seek his favor by gaining fame, with acts of bravery in combat, canny gambits, and martial skill. Sarajin is said to most often appear as a giant, yellow-haired warrior in leather and furs, carrying, Fakang, his massive double-bladed axe.
These are not the only 'gods' that are worshiped on Hârn and elsewhere. Most barbarian tribes have their own gods and there are many lesser deities and spirits who have their own believers, religions, customs, and cults.
The worship of Morgath and Naveh are illegal in Orbaal.
The worship of Larani and Peoni are illegal in Rethem. However, a blind eye is usually turned towards the worship of Peoni as the majority peasants worpship her.
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