Test Article for Primer Article on the Nine

Scarterra was created by the primordial god Turoch. In the Age Before Ages, Scarterra was little more than a cosmic farm. Mortals lived and died simply for Turoch to consume their souls, until Turoch's nine most powerful servants reluctantly joined forces to overthrow their tyrannical overlord in a cosmic battle known as the Divine Rebellion.

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Turoch's former servants: Maylar, Mera, Korus, Nami, Greymoria, Khemra, Zarthus, Hallisan, and Phidas each fashioned a portion of Turoch's corpse into a tool or weapon which became a symbol of their power. These symbols of power are known as the Divine Trophies.

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Before the Nine overthrew Turoch , the Nine established the Compact, an agreement on how the Nine would divide up management of the natural world and how they would apportion worshipers. No Scarterran mortal knows exactly what is or isn't in the compact but the Cult of the Compact claims to uphold it as best as mortals can do and they form the societal basis for how ordinary mortals worship the Nine.

Deities have been bending and even breaking the tenets of the Compact since before Turoch's body starting cooling. The main aspect of the Compact that held up over time, was the establishment of the Dominions. Each Dominion encompasses a large portion of the natural world and each of the Nine has jurisdiction over one Dominion. Originally the Nine agreed to split all mortal worship between them equally nine ways, but Nami bestowed all mortals with free will so they could choose to worship or not as they saw fit. Others eventually followed Nami's suit and gave mortals knowledge and tools in order to win their praise. This knowledge and power bestowed on mortalkind is collectively known as "Gifts. Beyond the Dominions and the Gifts, certain aspects of the cosmos were reshaped by the actions of the Nine by unconsciously. The Divine Rebellion created the cosmic law the Dragons' Path, the Scarterran Zodiac, and the Void among other things. The Nine rarely exercise their power against the mortal plane directly. They tend to use mortal divine casters, oracles or manifesting Spirits to act as their proxies in the mortal realm.

The Nine can empower mortals to utilize a portion of the Nine's innate magic. These divine spell casters are called theurgists. Theurgists are either favored souls who are born as conduits of divine power or anointed who are imbued with divine power later in life due to their piety. Many mortals who are not theurgists nevertheless dedicated themselves to one or more of the Nine and act their agents and proxies in the mortal plane.

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While the Cult of Compact works on worshiping the Nine as a whole, they are both aided and sometimes hindered by the Nonagon. "The Nonagon" collectively refers to all priests and priestesses of the Nine everywhere, but each nation and tribe has its own local version of the Nonagon in some fashion and these different Nonagons sometimes butt heads or even come into violent conflict. Each broader priesthood is dedicated to one of the Nine, but even if they are not fully unified. While each priesthood has some traditions held world-wide across Scarterra, each priesthood has its own version of factions and schisms that all wish to influence mortal society towards their specific interpretation of their deity's will.

As each Nonagon faction tries to influence individuals, communities, and whole nations towards their own ends, individual Scarterrans try to influence the Nonagon factions as everyone from loyal peasants to mighty monarchs tries to influence priests and priestess to serve their own ends creating a complex web of intrigue and politics that drives or at least exacerbates all conflicts in Scarterra.

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Some believe these shifting alliances and emnities unconsciously mimic the the shifting relationships of the Nine themselves and others believe that the Nine actually unconsciously follow mortal alliances and conflicts.