The Ascended

Far more ancient than the Dragon Empire’s mysteries, hundreds of gods are known by name in the South, most of little consequence. But a few of the great Southern gods have expanded their followings deep beyond the Southern desert, or north into the wet, dark woods. The gods of the South are not creatures of draconic enigma or bloody reaving and wenching. Instead, they are creatures of finely honed knowledge, of perfect ritual, of the true and proper understanding of this life and the next. The Southern gods are deep and wise and treacherous, and never to be underestimated. Their faiths are millennia old. They have risen above the fray of a hundred petty citygods. They stand implacable and firm in the face of time, chaos, and decay, eternal and unyielding. At the same time, some of the peculiar Southern gods have animal heads and walk among their worshippers, pleased to sleep in their temples and terrify their priesthoods on occasion. The Southern gods are happy to meddle and happy to remain wildly inhuman, both cruel and kind. For all that their people love them, for Nuria Natal remains the oldest kingdom of Midgard, able to view all younger realms with a certain wry disdainfulness. The ancient gods of the realm make it so.