The Ruinous Divines
The Ruinous Divines are a pantheon of deities who, under the rule of Asmodeus, began the ancient event known as The Scourge. Asmodeus, through sheer power and cunning united powerful deities and their mortal armies to fight with him, promising them each a cut of the mortal realm and granting them untold power to fight against The Order Tide. With their armies of fiends and mortal armies the Ruinous Divines brought untold destruction to the mortal planes, but with them banished they now scheme behind the scenes plotting to take back there lost glory and power.
Mythology & Lore
Before Vitanova on the planet known as Faerun, the god called Asmodeus and ruler of the then 9 Hells acquired an ancient artifact of untold power known as The Crimson Gem, an artifiact which allowed him to control both Devils and Demons. Using this power Asmodeus through both force and cunning united several powerful deities and formed the pantheon known as The Ruinous Divines bringing armageddon to Faerun and threatening to wipe out its entire population. Were it not for the intervention of a group of heroes and the two gods known as Kalos and Prodotis offering the last survivors of the realm sanctuary. The armies of hell followed the survivors to this untainted land, but when the weak mortals found new strength worshipping a new pantheon, The Ruinous Divines were being pushed back. However, in a move of great cunning Asmodeus infected the mind of Prodotis and turned him against his brother and made him the king of hell. After centuries of bloody fighting however, the Ruinous Divines would fall when Prodotis would be mortally wounded by his brother Kalos and all deities were banished from the mortal planes, forced to use proxies and operate in secret. Many worshippers have abandoned the divines, but to those who are still loyal their cults spread like a plague and threaten to once again bring ruin to this world.
Divine Origins
The Ruinous Divines is made up of the patron gods of many monstrous races and those who worshipped them naturally found themselves drawn to fight for them in The Scourge. The divines promised power to many and enslaved many more and thus their ranks rose rapidly and developed a zealous following. Their teachings and rituals are as varied as their worshippers and hold no official or organized churches, instead they are spread across various congregations or cults each of which have their own traditions and cultures.
Cosmological Views
The world and the universe at large was created specifically to be ruled over by this group of gods, and all its worshippers will see its share of the bounty.
Worship
The worship of this pantheon is incredibly varied due to the amount of gods and the divided nature of their alliance. There is no organized church, and sometimes the different worshippers are even violent as rivalries have formed and the fall of the pantheon after the scourge was violent.
