Religion

in A Guide to Elyndel

The deities of the continent transcend mortal minds and exist beyond their reach. In the Common Era, their engagement in worldly matters is exceedingly limited. In times of need, they may empower champions of their domains. There are rare instances, in which they materialize as avatars; however, the destruction of an avatar bears no consequence on the god's true essence. More often they might send a celestial or fiend – emissaries of the gods and wardens of the outer planes...

The Primordial Powers

In the beginning, there were two primordial powers: Cosima and Aeon. From their union came the emanations of the celestial and elemental powers. The material plane, where these powers converged, received structure from the elements and life from the gods.   The gods debated whether to design their creations with innate abilities or to let their creations’ strengths develop naturally. The primordials found this intriguing. Cosima favored arming the life forms for success, while Aeon, patient and curious, was more interested in the latter option. Because they could not agree, they decided to sunder the material plane into two timelines so that they could see both paths to their ends...   One world became a home to diverse primal races, blessed with gifts from their creators. The other world saw the rise of humankind, forged through a brutal and wasteful process without such blessings. The deities of the human world grew disgusted by their creations and were twisted by their hatred. Together, the fallen gods conspired to create a great flood that would destroy all life.   Cosima and Aeon did the only thing within their power to ensure humanity's salvation, and merged the timelines into one -- but this had lasting consequences. The flood could not be prevented entirely, but it was diminished by half. So too was the potency of magic reduced. Scattered throughout the seven seas , the surviving humans eventually found landfall and established tribes throughout the new world.   The pantheon of Prime Gods continue to protect life in the mortal world while The Fallen work to sow seeds of destruction...