Numina Salvation Society
"These small gods, and many others, are in danger of being forgotten and fading away, and need your thoughts and prayers today!" - excerpt from a speech by an Numina Salvation Society acolyte
The city of Lifworðig is sometimes called the "City of a Thousand Gods", and residents will tell you that this is a gross understatement. During the reign of Illustrata, the sorcerer founded the Godcrafter's Guild, which was dedicated to the idea that creating custom gods was the best approach to solving all of the world's problems. He used to the Guild to foster a metaphysical environment that made it easier for Numina (his collective term for gods and spirits born from the Egregoric Force) to manifest, making the intentional and spontaneous emergence of these entities far more likely. Today, the Folk Magic of Lifworðig is still strongly inclined towards the emergence of Numina.
However, no god can survive without support from the Egregoric Force. When they lose ground in the public consciousness, they begin to fade and dissipate. In most places, this is a rare event as the conditions to manifest the god require a strong and sustained core of belief. But in the special environment around Lifworðig, numina can pop into and out of existence every other day. Children's imaginary friends can manifest, along with casual ideas and odd notions, but they all fade away as soon as they are forgotten about. This has driven a few of these numina to drastic actions to survive. The most notorious of this is the being known as Red Jack, whose bloody murders and terrifying appearances have made it a permanent fixture of the city.
These and other incidents have inspired the formation of the Numina Salvation Society, an organization dedicated to the preservation and salvation of endangered gods. Volunteers scour the city and surrounding area for lost and dying numina, and attempt to collect their stories for dissemination. They hire storytellers and bards to share the tales of these small gods so that they are not forgotten.
The Temple of Small Gods
The Numina Salvation Society is headquartered in the Temple of Small Gods, a large building in Lifworðig's Temple District. Inside, hundreds of shrines have been established to the gods and spirits that the society seeks to preserve. A docent will help visitors find a god best suited to their needs, which usually consists of requests for small miracles in return for a small act, such as lighting a candle in the god's name, or a small donation to their upkeep. According to the Society, even the acknowledgement that the small god exists is enough to sustain them for a little while, and dedicating a little more time and thought to them can keep them healthy for days or weeks.
The kinds of miracles these small gods can provide are typically very limited. Finding lost objects is common, along with requests for luck in games or other endeavors. Some people come looking for miracles related to health, love, or power - but they are usually disappointed by the available options. Gods whose powers extend in these directions rarely remain in the Temple of Small Gods, and more often have dedicated clergy and holy places of their own.
Here are some of the best known gods who have shrines in the temple:
- The Goddess of False Youth, whose skill at cosmetics is divine.
- The Hair Fairy, who collects lost hair for unknown reasons.
- The Cindergoblin, a small creature who steals coals from a fire and hides them about the house.
- The King of Play, who rules all the imaginary friends.
Many others only have shrines for a short time, before they are sadly lost, but the Society still preserves the stories of these forgotten gods, in hopes that they can revive interest in them at a later date and recall their Eidolon into existence.
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