Religion

Religious Upheaval

The realms are currently embroiled in the greatest religious controversy of the present age, one which threatens to embroil the continent in wars and revolutions. For centuries, the Celestial Order shepherded the masses of the continent. In recent decades, however, the dominance of the Order has been challenged by several new movements, most notably the Redemptionists, the Levellers, the Shi'am, and the Path of the Nine Rings.

The Pantheon

Most of the religious movements - including the Celestial Order and their various detractor movements - support the worship of (or at least acknowledge the power of) the full pantheon of gods. People in the realms might be devoted to a certain patron God or Goddess, or they might worship all the good gods, or they might make offerings sporadically to select gods for specific purposes. With the exception of the Luissan state cult, which revolves solely around the veneration of Oghma and magic, and the Path of the Nine Rings, which is atheist, the difference between the religions is not which Gods ought to be honored, but how.

The Celestial Order

The foundational documents of the celestial order were codified nearly eight centuries prior by the elves, and since roughly that time, the Order has been the dominant religious movement everywhere on the continent, except for in Luissan. Priests of the order preach from their verdant garden-chapels in nearly every city that the purpose of intelligent life is to preserve the world, and to see that the Gods are venerated. A garden-chapel is a large park-like complex that combines shrines, grottoes, manicured groves, or water features into a busy, but orderly place of worship. The main activity of the Celestial Order is to see to the many important and exacting rituals which must (allegedly) be carried out to ensure the preservation of the cosmos. Clerics of the Celestial Order are also the arbiters of the Law, a massive and complicated body of literature comprising rulings and recommendations on nearly every topic conceivable. The Order is not concerned primarily with charity, but sometimes engages in it when the Law demands it. Clerics of the Celestial Order are often devoted to the Lawful and Good deities, and the life, order, city, grave, war, nature, or light domains.

The Redemptionists

The redemptionists are a variety of movements with the common idea - in contrast to the Celestial Order - that preserving the world in its current form may not be the best outcome. The main redemptionist sects are focused on 'redeeming' the world by using the power of the Gods as much as possible. In practical terms this means that redemptionist religious movements reject the Law and frequently oppose older political structures in favor of new ideas. They are also much more interested in contacting the Gods directly, and their rituals are highly varied, but frequently involved ritualized debate or performance. Many prominent followers of the redemptionist movements are clerics of the trickery, tempest, peace, twilight, knowledge, forge, or arcana domains devoted to the more chaotically-aligned gods.

The Levellers

The Levellers appeared around the same time as the redemptionist movement, but differ in that they are more concerned with how divine powers are applied on the world. They believe that divine magic and power should not be wielded by select members of the Celestial Order, but rather shared as widely as possible. They argue that while mortals cannot control who the Gods choose to favor, they can control how those favors are used. Hence the name reflecting their intention to "Level" the playing field between those mortals the Gods favor and those the gods seem to have ignored. They are anti-hierarchical, but there are leveller clerics who devote themselves to using their divine magic for charity and the public good. Leveller clerics belong to many different domains but share an ascetic and austere style.

The Shi'am

Now nearly universally outlawed, the cult of the Shi'am was the first and most extreme anti-order movement to appear in the realms. The Shi'am argue that not only is the world not worth preservable, it is beyond redemption, and should be destroyed as soon as possible. The Shi'am cult spread like wildfire across the realms among the peasantry dissatisfied with their position in life, despite the best efforts of the Order and Kings and Emperors to put a stop to it. In 2092 CA the immortal Lich Bakûl appeared to the Shi'am and lead them in a ritual to open a rift to the Abyss in the (now destroyed) Kingdom of Haegrilon. While the ritual was not successful, the resulting devastation destroyed the Kingdom and the area is still known as the @Sundered Lands today. Bakûl re-emerged in 3003 CA and the resurgent Shi'am was destroyed by a coalition of armies from the various kingdoms. Prominent Shi'am followers are death domain clerics, warlocks, or necromancers.

The Path of the Nine Rings

Directed by the enigmatic statesman-monk Cassiel, the monks of the nine rings are centered in Gildorien, but has a handful of missions in other nations. Cassiel teaches that the Gods are petty children, unworthy of veneration; similarly, all powers that grant magic to warlocks are to be shunned. Mortals are on their own, and only through the rigorous application of ethics and introspection can they achieve peace and serenity. In Gildorien, everyone is taught to be a philosopher-warrior, but those dedicated enough become monks of the nine rings. The nine rings themselves represent nine ethics: 1. Self-reliance, 2. Self-defense, 3. Altruism, 4. Bravery, 5. Prudence, 6. Contemplation, 7. Humility, 8. Sacrifice, and 9. Dignity.