The Gods of Orentia are many and varied. Some gods represent natural forces of the world, and others have power over ideas or regions. They are sentient manifestations of metaphysical forces given birth to by Orentia, given power and form by the universe’s (not just the mortals’) belief in them. The gods can be broadly caategorized into three groups: Major Gods, Minor Gods, and Lesser Gods. All Gods hold much sway over the world and are known to regularly and directly intercede in mortal affairs. Though the different peoples and cultures of the world may sometimes have different names for them, all know and worship them to some extent. These gods have flawed and varied personalities. They frequently conflict with one and other, play games with mortals’ lives, and are generally fickle and petty. Worship of these gods is therefore important to life on Orentia, and it is almost as dangerous to be favored by a god as to have invoked their ire. Whether you love or fear them, they must all be respected.
Major Gods
The major gods are labeled as such because of their near universal worship. Irregardless of one's culture, location, or occupation, these gods have an effect on the lives of every one of Orentia's residents. As such, they are very widely worshipped and very powerful as gods go.
Minor Gods
The minor gods are often specific to the worship of a particular culture or civilization, and tent to focus their power and effort on the members of that culture or civilization. While no less important than the Major gods, their worship is less universal and their power less omnipresent. They are listed below by the cultures they are closely associated with.
Aarakocran
Longuoian
Dwarven
Elven
Peutian
Halfling
Alqursani
Meuhtoctonan
Parthenian
Lesser Gods
Also called loa, kami, anima, or spirits, lesser gods are beings of such minor divinity that they are entirely unable to compete with the other, more powerful gods for a realm of their own in Celestia. Instead these beings live in the mortal realm, hidden from the eyes of mortals who would covet or misuse their meager divine power. These beings are too numerous to name, and their divinity comes from the dedicated worship of the local area. They may be the god of a particular forest, the guardian spirit of a certain island, or the kami associated with a local natural phenomena.
Nearly all inhabitants of Orentia are polytheistic and worship a number of gods. The worship of one god does not exclude the worship of others, as worship tends to be specific to each god's domain. One might pray to Orentia in the morning, Jack Daniels over lunch, and Calypso before bed all in the same day. Indeed, the only residents of Orentia who may not consider themselves polytheistic are clerics, who devote themselves to one god above the others, (though often not to the exclusion of the others).
A dedicated worshipper of a god who works in a temple, monestary, or shrine may go by many different titles such as monk, priest, speaker, kaahen, tohunga, shaman, keeper, or acolyte. A worshipper who has earned the trust and been granted power by the god they have devoted themselves to is a cleric, and generally holds authority over acolytes.
Temples exist wherever worship of a god is commonplace enough to be constructed by a local cleric with the help of the community or wherever a nation has decided to build one in order to expand a patron god's influence. These temples hold a number of clerics and acolytes who live and work there serving the local community and acting as the instruments of their god's will in the region.
Outside of temples however, many small shrines to one god or another can be found scattered across the seven seas. Some are even small enough to be carried, though most who require portability in their worship will simply carry a small holy symbol or figurine instead.
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