Gods of the Second Era

The beginning of the Second Era was marked with the formation of the next wave of gods. Some scholars suspect that they were the most powerful of the beings who would otherwise be celestials, fey, or fiends, but did not fit in with any of the categories. Other scholars suspect they were born of the desires of Donar and Ura. Still others suggest they spawned from the formless chaos of Molous, by the same mechanism that Donar and Ura did. None have found conclusive evidence for any of these three hypotheses.
The first of these was Sil’vat, Guardian of the Hearth, whose domain is that of life and living beings.
Born in balance with Sil’vat is Layoya, Mistress of the Dead, whose domain is that of death and the ends of living beings.
Along with these came Keris, The Destroyer, who would see as his charge the domain of destruction, as a rebuke of the creative urges of the other gods.
Last of this wave is Aeshlir, Maiden of Binding, whose domain is that of the forge and of resilient creation.

A Note on Time

With these gods came the time known as The Second Era, and it is here that time becomes relevant. With lasting consequences for things like life, death, construction, and destruction, events became ordered by time in meaningful ways.
As such, while few stories exist from The First Era, The Second Era is where we see the beginnings of mythology. The actions of the gods played out across time and space, and words of their deeds made it to the ears of such beings that would begin the chains of oral histories that would spin into the legends and myths we know today.

A Note on Morality

If you’re used to the myths of Earth, or even the myths of Faerun and other classic realms, it can be difficult to understand the relationship that the gods of Naria have to concepts like good and evil. Hearing of a god like Keris, The Destroyer, it is difficult to imagine that as a god that would encourage altruistic deeds, or condemn selfish ones.
However, on Naria, the gods themselves are not tied to any such concepts. Each has their will, and each is willing to act in accordance with their interests, but to say that one is “good” or “bad” would be shortsighted. In the same way that you on Earth may not be able to distinguish a revolutionary (“good”) from a terrorist (“bad”), so, too, is the concept of morality amongst the Narian pantheon impossible to pin down.
Just as cruelty may be considered justice, or as murder may be considered mercy, so, too, do the domains of the gods contain multitudes of faces.

Related People

• Aeshlir
• Keris
• Layoya
• Sil’vat