The Sundering Basin Religions
Four great faiths shape the world. People swear by their own faith and nobody else's. A follower of Auren won't curse by the northern gods, and a northerner won't call on Auren.
The Auren Faith
The Auren Faith worships one God, Auren, and most of its followers simply call him God. Auren lived roughly a thousand years ago and was crucified in 327 BF in the city that later became Valcaris, the Imperial capital. The cross is the faith's sacred symbol because of it. His followers are called Aurenians.
Malachar is the Adversary, a fallen being of great power and the source of evil, corruption and temptation. He isn't God's equal, and he takes no body and walks no road. He works through deception: the lie that sounds like truth, the temptation dressed up as reason. When an Aurenian says "Malachar's work," they mean that what they're looking at has a source beyond ordinary human wickedness.
The disciples were Alric, Cassian, Tavian, Severin, Luceran, Mathor and Bastian. They carried Auren's teaching across the land after his death, and their accounts became the Testament of Auren, the faith's holy book. Alric founded a church in Valcaris that grew over the centuries into Saint Alric's Cathedral, the faith's greatest pilgrimage site.
The church is led by an Archbishop, with Bishops over regions, Priests over local churches, and Acolytes in training. Its holy places are cathedrals, monasteries and churches. Its day of worship is the Day of Auren.
Practice. The Sign of Auren is made with the thumb: forehead, then chest, then one shoulder and across to the other. Believers make it in prayer, in fear, at a grave, passing a wayshrine, and over a child as a blessing. Northern believers tend to make it small and quick, half-hidden inside a cloak. The faith passes from parent to child, most often mother to child, in small pieces over the years, and the child is meant to choose it freely in the end. Most Aurenians close a prayer with "amen," but some families never say it, holding that a prayer you truly mean is never finished.
Speech. "By Auren." "God have mercy." "God's mercy." "Malachar take him." "That's Malachar's work."
The faith is strongest in the Imperium and is slowly spreading north along the trade roads. Aurenians call followers of the older gods pagans.
The Northern Gods
Most northerners say simply that they follow the old gods. The faith has no central authority and no great temples. It lives in clans, families, and warrior tradition, at shrines, sacred groves and hall altars, and in the sagas. Seers and god-speakers read the signs, and Jarls and clan leaders make offerings on behalf of their people. Oaths sworn in the gods' names are sacred.
The Nine:
Rovan, the High God and All-Father: kingship, wisdom, and ancient authority
Hrothgar: thunder, storms, strength and protection
Korvyr: war, honor and sacred oaths
Aegvar: the sea, storms and northern voyages
Nyrissa: fate and destiny
Draugor: death and the halls of the dead
Korrim: the forge, craft, and the making of weapons
Trask: the trickster, god of change, cunning and deception
Valrik: strategy, tactics, and hard-won wisdom
The greatest warriors are taken after death to Rovanhall, where they feast, train, and wait for the last battles of the gods. Others pass to lesser halls or to the realms of their ancestors. The Shieldmaidens of Fate, armored women riding through storm and battle, choose who is worthy.
The faith honors strength and endurance, honor and loyalty to clan and oath, the acceptance of fate, and the belief that what a warrior does decides what is remembered of them.
Speech. "Rovan willing." "Korvyr witness it." "Nyrissa already wrote it." "Draugor take you." "Blood and iron." Rough northern talk also leans on curses of cold and frost.
The Imperial Pantheon
The Imperium worships eight gods, known together as the Divine Eight, and its religion is bound up with civic life. Each god has temples in the Imperial cities, the largest temple district stands in Valcaris, and the gods' favor is called on before wars, decisions of state, and great public works.
The Divine Eight:
Valerius, King of the Gods: the heavens, storms and divine authority. Patron of the Imperium itself, whose rulers claim his favor.
Lysera: wisdom, knowledge and learning
Dravus: war, conquest and martial glory, called on by soldiers and generals
Thalor: the sea, rivers, and travel by water, called on by sailors and merchants
Aurelia: harvest, fertility and prosperity
Ordinus: order, hierarchy and lawful structure
Noctyra: fate, night and prophecy
Vulcar: fire, craft, metalwork and creation
The priesthood includes a High Priest or High Priestess over each god in a region, temple priests who keep the temples and make the sacrifices, augurs who read omens, and temple servants. Citizens leave offerings of food, incense, wine or animals at the altars, and festivals for the different gods fill the year.
The threshold touch. Many raised in this faith touch the door frame with one hand before leaving a home, a small habit of asking the household gods for safe passage. It's done without words, often without thinking. Southerners carry the habit north, where nobody notices it.
Speech. "Lysera's eyes." "By the gods."
Veil Spiritualism
The oldest of the four, and the least organized. Veil Spiritualism holds that a boundary called the Veil separates the world of the living from deeper layers of reality, full of unseen forces, currents and spirits. Some people can feel disturbances in it.
It has no central authority and no single doctrine. Its spiritual leaders are called Veil-speakers, seers, or spirit-workers, and their knowledge passes through apprenticeship and oral tradition. They often serve as healers, advisers, and readers of omens. Offerings are left at forests, rivers, and ancient stones.
Its followers believe that balance between the world and the Veil must be respected, and that disturbing it carelessly brings danger. They speak of ancestor spirits who linger near their families, of spirits from deep beyond the Veil, and of demons, rare and terribly dangerous, from its worst reaches. Places where strange power gathers are called thin places, and people of every faith borrow the phrase.
Aurenians tend to distrust the Veil's practices. Many northerners keep Veil traditions alongside the old gods. The Imperium tolerates Veil practitioners without supporting them.
Speech. "The Veil hears it." "Spirits witness." "Beyond the Veil with you." A whispered "thin place" is a warning.
Death and What Comes After
Most faiths agree that the soul leaves the world at the moment of death and doesn't stay. Followers of Auren believe the soul faces God's judgment. Northerners believe the greatest warriors go to Rovanhall. Veil followers speak of passing beyond the Veil into unseen realms, and some peoples believe the dead join their ancestors. Nobody in the world can prove which is right. It remains one of the great questions argued over by priests, philosophers and mages alike.