Great-grandchild of the sister's gibbon's friend of the nephew of the Campaign that Would Not Die, now in 3.25e Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster

Gods of Alair

Dwarves

Abbathor the Collapser

Where the pit-props fail and the roof caves in, Abbathor has weakened them; where the firedamp lurks to blast dwarves to the next life, he has gathered it; where the sudden flood fills the mine and drowns the miners, he has filled the water-pocket; and where the seam peters out and the gold is gone, Abbathor has gathered it to himself.

Moradin’s great foe, his brother Abbathor represents all that is evil in the dwarven race. Most of all, he is greedy. His lust for treasure - gold, above all - is greater than any other hunger in the universe. Some twisted dwarves honour Abbathor, mostly those dishonest ones who become thieves from other dwarves, but generally he is acknowledged as existing but seldom if ever mentioned. His domains are Chaos, Evil, Death and Destruction.

Athagari

The patron of home and hearth for dwarves, Athagari is more often reverenced in a nod and respectful word on entering a home, in serving a meal and so on. She watches over the bearing of children, so rare and precious to dwarves, and the complex and strange processes involved in contracting a marriage.

Doignar

Dwarves are an orderly lot, generally, but where one varies from such traits the cult of Doignar is there to guide him. The rather rare dwarvish wizards and sorcerers tend to honour Doignar as the only god who really understands the strange mixture of dwarves and arcanism.

Kord

While dwarf leaders, generals and nobles will pray to Moradin before a battle, the average footsoldier will invoke Kord instead. Kord is the master of the headlong attack, the surprise overrun, and the stand against terrible odds. His nature is more chaotic than any other dwarven deity, and where dwarves have to deal with chance, luck or hope, they call on Kord. His domains are War, Chaos, Luck and Strength; sometimes (but not always) Good.

A cult of Kord exists among humans also, venerating the same god but viewing him differently; the humans see him with a sword not an axe for a start. This aspect of Kord is sometimes referred to as Kord Battlemaster, whereas the dwarven aspect is called Kord of the Axe, or more often just Kord.

Kord has taken considerable interest in recent events, largely through the agency of the Hand of Kord. Hildraft's inadvertent focussing of Kord's power into what became the Kordasa has greatly increased Kord's influence and significance on the Prime Material, not least by a sudden increase in worshippers. Kord was also responsible for the overtures to the other gods that ended the Holy Wars.

Kosin Vuran

When dwarves die, the first thing their souls encounter is the calm, implacable but kindly presence of Kosin Vuran, who, regardless of their choices in life, guides them to the afterlife they have earned.

Moradin the Soulforger

Moradin rules and leads the dwarven pantheon, and his people have many names for him; Soul Forger, Dwarffather, All-Father, Creator and so on. He forged the first dwarves out of iron and jewels and breathed life into them. He governs the arts and sciences of the dwarves; smithing, metalworking, engineering and war. His domains are Earth, Good, Law and Protection.

Elves

Anfadil

More honoured by the Sea Elves of the coast than the other kindreds, Anfadil is the raiser and queller of storms and the protector of ships. Never once has any elven ship foundered whose crew had made due reverence to the Lord of the Deep. Of all the elf gods, Anfadil is least tolerant of humans, and has no compunction about raising storms to sink human vessels. He is also the patron of honour, justice and law, and is called on when difficult legal matters are at hand. Many tales are told of his horse, Tilonlias. His domains are Law, Water, Travel and Destruction. Anfadil is the god whose curse, laid on Cain, was twisted by the latter to make him into the First Vampire.

Anladur

Anladur is the patron of those who seek knowledge and lore, and those who probe the futures and their omens. She is also the nearest the elves really have to a god of Death, and funerary rites fall to her priests

Elmaria

Elmaria is the gentle goddess of healers and helpers, of paladins who redeem, and of that great rarity, elvish childbirth. She shows a fiercer side, however, in her attitude to fiends summoned to the world, and her priests specialize in excorcism.

Gamarion

Gamarion is the Fire god of the elves, and the deity revered by the more extrovert members of that race, especially those concerned with the arts.

Mithlendel

Mithlendel the Maker is revered as the Cunning Hand, the crafter, designer, solver; he is the patron of those presented with insoluble puzzles. Patience is one of his virtues, and his followers think nothing of spending a hundred years making a single object.

Craftsmanship and magic are inextricable to the elves; he also wields the arcane, and governs the energies that power elven magic. His domains are Magic, Law and Knowledge.

Nimnarie

Nimnarie cares for all wooded lands, and unlike her human equivalent Ehlonna takes a rather dimmer view of logging. Her devotees live as “close to nature” as possible, either living wild or encouraging trees to grow into a form suitable for use as shelter. Her domains are Earth, Plant and Protection.

Nodonn Silver Hand

The warriors of the Elvenhost revere Nodonn, the Swift and Sure, Silver Hand, Battle Lord. The least predictable of all elven gods, he grants and withholds his protection on a whim or chance, although he clearly favours the brave and daring over the dull and plodding, and despises cowards. He yearns for the day he can face Gruumsh in a fair fight and finally kill him forever. His domains are War, Luck, Strength and Destruction.

Sabath

Sabath was originally one of the gods of vanished Khabra in the far south, see that section for more. Like the others, he placed all that remained of himself in an item of his regalia, in the hopes of it being discovered by fresh worshippers. Sabath's regalia was discovered by a human rogue named Eloy Brackensen, who spread his corruption far across the lands of Alair. His master-stroke was seducing an elf-maid named Milani to following Sabath; in later years, she led a bloody coup in Belamir and created the dark Scorpion Empire.

Sabath regards himself as older than and different from the rest of the gods and disdains to follow their agreements and rules. He was the only deity who refused the pact

Open worship of Sabath is outlawed in most parts of Alair, and most worshippers operate in secret.

Ironically, it was a priest of Sabath who was the first in Alair to Resurrect anyone since the Dawn Concords.

The Triad

The worship of the Triad emerged as a rejection of the ancient gods of the Erlyid Empire, and spread across southern Alair. This - and the resistance of the existing faiths of the Erlyid gods and The One of Nhased, was one of the triggers of the Holy Wars. They can be worshipped as individuals or as a group.

Belisama

Belisama symbolizes nature, in all its unpredictable, compelling, enchanting, dangerous glory, and magic - especially ritual and nature magic, particularly by women

Taranis

Taranis is the Storm God of the Triad, the Bull God, headstrong, reckless, honourable and loyal but not overmuch given to thought or introspection

Lyr

Lyr is the Sea God, and thus unpredictable, whimsical, vengeful and strange. He is also the arbiter of justice, and the patron of darker magics, of the use of inadvisable power for the best of intentions.

Erlyid

The Gods of the Erlyid Empire were the strongest opposition to the Dragon Varkar Barduric, and after the Dragonslaying their faith spread through most humans in Alair. Their church reacted violently to the arising of the faiths of the Triad and Sabath, and engaged in an ultimately self-destructive war with Nhased at the peak of the Holy Wars.

The faiths have outlived the Empire, but in a much less structured and heirachical form.

Aderra

Aderra is the deity people appeal to to settle things, for ideas, for justice and for answers. Her priests are often experts in divinations and informational magic. Books and the written word are very important to followers of Aderra, and her priesthood maintained several of the biggest and best libraries in the Empire. Followers of the faith could research there at will; outsiders had to donate significant contributions to the church to be allowed in. Her domains are Knowledge, Magic and Law.

In recent centuries, Aderra's church has declined in popularity in the North. Many of the libraries have closed through lack of funds or personnel; the libraries in Karsten and Lanirkos were burned on the orders of the Theocracy. The civil war in Stryre at the end of the Holy Wars era saw the destruction of her magnificent basilica in Narthal and the largest library in the world.

Diruc

Surprisingly, for a dynamic and expansionist empire, Diruc was the closest there was to a war god in the Erlyid pantheon. Diruc the Steadfast brings rewards and honour to those who hold fast, keep the line, watch their comrades’ backs, honour their word. His church sponsored several fighting orders, including the Order of Kellan. His domains are Good, Law, Strength, Protection and War.

Diruc's church split, with the mainstream Church of Diruc abhorring the orc alliance and refusing to have anything to do with them, and the Church of Diruc the Warrior adopting a more accomodating approach to such allies, even to the point of allowing half-orc and occasional full orc priests. Despite the years that have passed, the departure of the orcs from the Empire and its eventual fall, relations between the two are not good, and occasional flare-ups and even fighting will happen in towns where there are churches of both denominations.

Ehlonna

The Lady of the Forests watches over all good people who live in the forest, love the woodlands, or make their livelihood there. She is sometimes depicted as an elf, although the reasons for this are unclear. Most hunters and rangers revere Ehlonna. Her domains are Animal, Good, Plant and Sun.

Since the decline of the relationship between the Empire and the elves, and the destruction of Sildor, Ehlonna's cult has faded into the background; and only in the Asedor forest, and the Estor in Stryre, are the woodland temples still operating.

A splinter cult, the Redeemers, lived on the fringes of the Desolation, and dedicated their lives and powers to trying to undo the damage wrought by the dragonarmy. What with the hostile terrain, the fell creatures that wandered the region, and the dragonarmy's patrols, their lives were hard and often short, but they continued to try, yearning to reclaim any tiny piece of the beauty that was once Sildor. Finally, after the Dragonslaying and the return of the elves, they achieved a large percentage of their dream. Their numbers dwindled, moving north to the remaining fragment of the Desolation. It is unknown what their fate was during the Holy Wars.

Gonvan

Gonvan is not - strictly speaking - a god of the Erlyid pantheon, but a demon arrayed against it. In the mythology of the Erlyid, if a harvest failed, Gonvan had attacked Morganna; if a war was lost, he had tricked Diruc, and so on. Pelor is his sworn enemy. There are no public temples or followers of Gonvan, but a few desperate or corrupted individuals do worship and call on him. His domains are Chaos, Death, Evil and Destruction.

During the Imperial alliance with the Orcs, Gonvan blurred together in the popular mind with Gruumsh, chief god of the Orcs. The more conservative in the Empire - and especially the Churches of Pelor and Diruc - actively encouraged this, seeing it as a way of casting the orc people into disfavour and associating them with the mythological symbol of darkness, bad luck and evil.

With the repartiation of the majority of the orcs, this became complete and orcs were seen as followers of Gonvan, pure and simple. This made life for the orcs who stayed no easier, and within a hundred years they were all gone.

Since the fall of the Empire, he has dwindled in common perception to a character in the mythology of Pelor.

Karlan

Karlan is sailor's god, the deity of those who sail the sea. When the Empire still had a seacoast, his temples were in every port, but with the secession of Stryre he became more of a Stryran deity than an Erlyid one, and in recent years has been replaced almost entirely by Lyr of the Triad. Only a very few pirates on secluded islands still venerate him.

Karrath

Karrath is the Guide of the Fallen, leading the righteous to the planes of the Erlyid gods they worshipped in life. He protects people from damnnation, but not from death. His clerics get no access to resurrection magic.

Lilyx

Lilyx is the Goddess of Love, and unsurprisngly for a decadent Empire, she is very earthy and erotic in nature. She delights in the success of love, in the pressing of a suit, and the wiles of a seducer. Her ceremonies often incorporate sex as part of the celebration, and her priests and priestesses are invariably very comely and very skilled. Oddly, she is also the Godddess of Marriage, blessing unions and answering prayers for offspring - often with explicit directions.

Morganna

Where the cycles of nature tick around, bringing the Spring planting around to the sweet harvest, Morganna is there, warming the seeds and nurturing the crops. All seekers after fertility and growth come to her, and a priestess is always present at harvests. Her domains are Earth, Animal, Plant, Healing and Law. Whether they work for the Imperial nobility, the heirachy of Nhased or the Kings of Stryre, the farmers and peasants are pretty much as they always have been, and her rites are celebrated at the corners of the year, just the same.

Of all the Erlyid gods, her cult survived the longest in rural districts of Stryre, the common people feeling that Belisama was rather too wayward for a reliable harvest goddess.

Olidammara

Olidammara is the god of rogues; he delights in wine, women and song. He is a vagabond, prankster and a master of disguise. His temples are few, but many people are willing to raise a glass to his homour; for he represents the blind stroke of luck, the happy chance, the good guess.

Little has changed for Olidammara's cult, except in Nhased where it is discouraged as are all but the One. In fact, many people rely more on luck in these turbulent times than they do on Imperial law and order.

His domains are Chaos, Luck and Trickery.

Pelor the Shining One

Pelor is the creator of many good things, supporter of those in need and the adversary of evil. His cult is the most common among the humans of Alair, and his priests are generally well received wherever they go. The knightly order of Aeglor’s Fist was sponsored by the Church of Pelor, until the religious changes in Stryre. His domains are Good, Healing, Strength and Sun.

The priesthood of Pelor were vehemently opposed to the Imperial alliance with the orc race. In the centuries since then, however, certain exceptional individuals have guided the church to different paths, and it now accepts members of nearly any race.

Paladins of Pelor are widely regarded as the most driven crusaders in Known Alair.

Fae Mhor

The Dark Elves are at heart a theocracy, bound to the demon of the Abyss who seduced them away from their brethren, and only one religion is permitted them.

Lolth

Lolth, the Queen of Spiders or Queen of the Demonweb Pits, is the goddess and creator of the Fae Mhor and a chaotic evil deity who revels in chaos. She patterns her life and the lives of her worshipers on a regimen of chaotic acts and the veneration of spiders. The way that new-born spider broods tear each other apart to survive especially appeals to her. She promotes this by encouraging her worshipers to kill their rivals, thus ensuring that they are the strongest of the 'brood'. Her love of chaos often makes her appear mad but the wise see her as a calculating individual who is always several steps ahead of those who believe that they can anticipate her. She is cruel and dominating, forcing her will upon her followers and her enemies, a will which instructs the strong to crush the weak in the most torturous way imaginable.

Lolth's clerics have no set uniform, but spider motifs and darker clothes are the norm. Some rites require the worshipper to have no clothing at all. Her sacred animals are arachnids. Her clergy sacrifice the living and treasure to her glory.

Dragons

Tiamat

Tiamat, Queen of Many Colours and of None, is the deity revered by evil dragons, respected even by those who do not and according to some accounts mother to them all. She operates largely from the shadows, constantly seeking to expand her brood across the world.

She miscalculated badly when she supported Varkar Barduric, as that dark beast planned to double-cross and replace her. In the wake of his slaying, she has resumed attempts to pour dragons out of the North into Alair, though many now only pay her lip service. She is constantly on the lookout for a means to subjugate them once more - a way to cross into the Prime Material in true body to put her subjects back under the lash. Fortunately, no-one has been insane enough to facilitate this - so far.

Bahamut

Bahamut, though primarily a dragon's god, is revered in some surprising places. He is very stern, and disapproving of all Evil, accepting no excuses for evil acts. Despite this, he is one of the most compassionate beings in the multiverse. He has limitless empathy for the downtrodden, dispossessed and the helpless. He urges his followers to promote good causes, but prefers to let them fight their own battles where they can. To him, it is better to offer healing, counsel or temporary refuge than take others' problems upon himself.

Lizardmen

Shushkrah

The Scales of Steel (the meaning of Shuskrah in Krultac) is the archetype of the perfect Lizard warrior; strong, quick, cunning and merciless. He shows his people the safe islands and the deadly quicksands, and gives them the strength they need to overcome humans and crack their bones for meals. The shamans of Shuskrah teach what little magic lizardmen use, but are also deadly fighters and canny marsh rangers as well. His domains are War, Water, Evil and Strength.

Shuskrah's cult suffered dreadfully under the Dragon. Varkar decreed that there was only one god in the Dragonrealms, and that god was Varkar Barduric. All temples of Shuskrah, even the hidden ones in the deep Trakar, were destroyed, and all known priests slaughtered. Nonetheless, in odd corners, followers of the old god remained faithful, and many otherwise concretely loyal lizard warriors would surreptitiously make the Sign of the Scale before going into battle. There were persistent rumours that there was a secret temple hidden somewhere so deep in the Trakar that even Varkar could not find it - some said it was underwater - where a secret society of lizardfolk worked and planned for the day their people could throw off the yoke of the Dragon and revive the true faith of the lizard people. This group came out of hiding during the invasion of Varkar's realm by the Elvenhost, and provided assistance. After the war, they settled in the north to found what became Dalaghendor. The location of their secret temple, however, has never been discovered.

After the Holy Wars and the dragon invasions of the early 1900s, Dalaghendor was no more, and the cult of Shushkrah has reverted from being a state religion to a cult among the scattered lizardman communities.

Orcs

These are the traditonal or Old Gods of the orcs. After Gorfang's adoption of the ancient Khabran god Hektis (see below) and the establishment of the Gorfangach, their cults lost a lot of ground. With the subsequent splintering of Gorfang's empire in the Holy Wars, things have balanced out and around half the orcs in Alair now venerate (or dread) these deities.

Bahgtru

Bahgtru is the son of Gruumsh and Luthic the Cave Mother. Though scorned and derided for his stupidity and lack of self-will, no one says ill of his awesome might. Other orcish gods call upon him for assistance; he is obedient, though his incredible strength always exceeds the expectations of others, and he may accidentally (?) cause harm to those who command his services, especially if they fail to give him some respect. It is said that Bahgtru once fought a tremendous reptilian monster from another world, and slew it barehanded by breaking all of its legs. His symbol is derived from this epic battle. Since this, Bahgtru has never been known to use weapons or armor of any usual kind. He wears little other than a great pair of cesti, or gauntlets, studded with steel rivets, with which to beat his victims flat. Bahgtru is a huge, incredibly muscular orc with dirty tan skin and dull green eyes; his tusks, protruding from either side of his mouth, are glistening white from gnawing on bones. Stronger clerics of this cult may help weaker clerics along to the next plane, usually without the latter’s permission.

Grummsh "One-Eye"

“Old One Eye” is the primary Orcish deity, although he has a family of other appalling gods under him. His name is forbidden to be spoken except by his priests, and he’s referred to by euphemisms (Old One Eye, The Eye, The Unsleeping, etc). His enmity for the elvish gods is undying and never-ending, particularly for Nodonn who he has fought once and swears one day to crush. The orcs revere him, but they fear him more, and they sacrifice and pray primarily to keep him away. The power of the priesthood depends primarily on the wits and cunning of the individual priests; if things go wrong for an Orc group and the priest is not clever, they will often blame him and slaughter him as unworthy of One Eye; if he’s clever, he will shift blame to the “sinful weakness” of the community and induce them to sacrifice heavily to reverse their recent bad fortune. His domains are Death, Destruction and Evil.

Since the alliance with the Empire and his election as Overking, each successive Garkaur took care to link the improved fortunes of the orc race with himself, and thence through to One Eye. While not himself a priest, he kept a battery of Royal Priests who made sure the word of Gruumsh agreed nicely with the word of Garkaur. Gruumsh himself was apparently not unpleased at this development, as Garkaur remained in the saddle and the fortunes of the orcs remained, on the whole, good.

When the dwarf Hildraft and half-orc Sack engineered the death of Garkaur and the removal of the entire orc race from the Empire, this changed, and the successive clanlords and priests now jockey endlessly for power and influence.

Ilneval

When Gruumsh does not have time to command his armies in Hell, he turns the job over to his chief lieutenant, Ilneval, master of command and strategy (next to Gruumsh, of course). llneval is the symbol of the leader type, the one who plunges into battle with nothing but victory and destruction on his mind. It is hinted that llneval covets Gruumsh’s position as the chief god of the orcs; he has been said to have deposed one or two other orcish gods, relegating them to lesser status, in his climb to power. llneval is more of a "captain’s god" than a god of the common orcish soldier; Gruumsh is preferred by chieftains and orcish kings, and Bahgtru by common warriors. Though Gruumsh does not trust Ilneval, He-Who-Never-Sleeps has Bahgtru on his side, and this relieves some of his concerns.

llneval wears a suit of red iron mail, and wields a sword that slays all non-orcs it strikes. He cannot be touched by missile weapons because of his armor’s magical powers, and is immune to non-magical weapons as well. He appears to be a very war-wise and confident being; his face and arms are heavily scarred from the many battles he’s fought, but the scars only increase his appeal to his orcish followers. The clerics of Ilneval use broadswords as weapons, wear red metallic armor, and are expected to be good military leaders as well as good clerics.

Luthic

Luthic governs several spheres. She is the goddess of female orcs, orcish fertility (more so for females; Gruumsh is the male fertility god), caves and caverns (which she digs herself), servitude (as she serves Gruumsh), and primitive medicine, and she helps restore orcish morale. Luthic is the deity closest to Bahgtru, her son, and he will follow her commands over all others’, even those of Gruumsh. Other orcish gods and goddesses fear her great claws, which are so strong they can tunnel through solid rock. Orcish clerics call her the Cave Mother and conduct her services underground. Though she represents female orcs, she is worshipped by males as well for her ferocity and her healing powers.

Luthic appears as a huge female orc who wears no armor, but has unbreakable black claws four feet long. Her hair and eyes are dull black and her skin is dark brown with a medium brown on the nose and ears. If she hears anyone abuse her name, orc or non-orc alike, she may choose to render that being susceptible to any disease, so that the next time the victim catches even the most minor of ailments, it will prove fatal within days. Orcs who follow her worship sometimes rub dirt on themselves to ensure they will have many children, and clerics use earth in casting curative spells (though this is purely a symbolic gesture and not a true material component of the spell). Luthic’s worship is one of the few that allow male and female orcs to become clerics; nearly all of the other deities permit male clerics only. Orcs in her tribe (Vile Rune) generally dwell underground, and seem to commit fewer raids against other creatures, though they are especially fierce if their lair is threatened.

Shargaas

Shargaas the Night Lord lives in a tremendous cavern system below the fiery plain of one of the levels of Gehenna. It is said that his caves extend infinitely, and are darker than the blackest night. There, no creature has sight but Shargaas himself and his orcish spirit servants. Shargaas, though blinded completely by light from the sun, can see perfectly well in darkness out to a range of a mile or more. He can also climb any surface, even perfectly smooth ones, without slipping. In the days when he is said to have walked upon the earth, Shargaas could also hide himself and his followers so well that no mortal could detect his ambushes or lairs. As might be expected, orcish bandits and half-orc thieves hold Shargaas as their patron, as do other regular orc tribes. The major religious holidays in the worship of Shargaas are the times of the new moon, when the sky is dark and cloudy.

Yurtrus "White-Hands"

Yurtrus the White Handed is the terrifying orcish god of death and disease. He appears as a huge, vaguely orcish giant covered with peeling, rotting green flesh; his hands, however, appear completely normal except for being chalk-white in color. Yurtrus has no mouth and doesn’t communicate; the orcs have a way of saying "when White-Hands speaks" when they mean "never." Yurtrus is surrounded by a huge envelope of stinking gases out to 120’; any mortal beings within this radius are incapacitated by the foul miasma. The clerics of Yurtrus wear pale white gloves made from the skins of non-orcish humanoids, humans, or demi-humans, during their ceremonies. They wear thin armour woven of the same materials. In combat they use maces with the weapon’s head made in the shape of a white fist. When plague or disease strike the orcs, the clerics of Yurtrus appeal to him for an end to the illness with great sacrifices of slaves and prisoners.

Red Dust Nomads

Hobushu

A mighty horseman and archer, Hobushu once had a bet with his father the Sky and mother the Earth that he could shoot an arrow through the moon in the daytime; the prize was to be everlasting strength and freedom for his people. His shot struck home, and the splinters that were broken off the moon became the stars; every month, the side of the moon he knocked off turns to face the world and can be seen to this day. The nomads of the Red Dust believe that if they live well, fight bravely and die in battle, they will join the mighty Kozaki that ride the skies with Hobushu. His domains are Animal, Protection, Travel and Strength.

Events in the north were so distant to the nomads that they were barely aware of Varkar; if they thought of him at all, they believed he was some kind of large animal that Hobushu would hunt and shoot if he needs to.

Of all the nations of Alair, the nomads of the Red Dust came out of the Holy Wars the best, claiming great swathes of land and two major cities from their eternal foes in Stryre. When the truce was established, Hobushu and the Triad agreed to make Djasrem a land for both, and a blending of the two peoples - hitherto unthinkable - built a buffer between the two nations. Hobushu's cult, as well as that of the Triad, is followed there.

Nhasedans

The One

A relatively recent faith, originally restricted to the central regions of the Erlyid Empire. In the year 420, a mysterious prophet appeared in Lanirkos and began preaching the faith of a god he would call only The One. His own name he never revealed, saying only that he was 'the voice'. The cult was a simple and undemanding one, involving a basic respect for all forms of life, and an energy created by harmony between all living things. The only drawback was that the faith of The One precluded tolerance of the existence of any other gods. This was not popular with the Imperial authorities. Over the next few years, The Voice of The One was persecuted and hounded, though his followers some of them in high places managed to preserve him from major harm. Claims of miracles were alternately voiced and denied.

Finally, in 453 Imperial, The Voice of The One died in Karsten and was immediately and publicly assumed into Heaven. The cult of The One grew rather rapidly after that, becoming more militant in the years after its first and only prophet lived and died. The Church of the One has worshipers of all kinds and races, and the domains of Good, Healing, and Animal. Since siezing control of the central province of the Empire, the heirachy of the One waxed massively in power, exerting a strong but generally benevolent dictatorship over the population, and achieving some measure of control of very nearly every facet of life in their land. Generally, their rule was no better or worse than that of most secular governments, but in one aspect they were absolutely adamant; there is no true faith other than that in The One, and all other faiths are false idolatary and not to be tolerated. All citizens of Nhased had to be members of the church in good standing; anyone holding any form of power or public office above a certain level had to be a member of the priesthood. The penalty for preaching a foreign faith anywhere in the land was branding and banishment for the first offence and death for the second. Visitors of different faiths were tolerated, though overt displays of their creed - public worship, open wearing of holy symbols, public use of clerical magic - was punished severely. The great mother-temple, the Cathedral of The One, was the largest religious structure ever created in Alair, and also the de facto capital of the Theocracy.

There were several knightly orders which served the Church, of which the most notable were Vokrid, Rogryn and Fimgalet. Knights of Rogryn were particularly noted for their unceasing vigilance along the fringes of the Desolation.

All this changed during the Holy Wars period. The renewed vigour of the Erlyid Empire under Crixus the Great and his successors resulted in renewed expansionism to the west, and war with Nhased. For ten years, mighty imperial legions strove with the Army of the Light of the One, back and forth over increasingly ruined country on the border. Despite nearly two thousand years of war-lore, the Empire was definitely coming off worst by 1792 when a single event changed everything. The Voice of The One, subsumed into Heaven on his death in 420, returned to Alair with the Word of The One.

Preaching at first at the very front line, he entered the holy city of Karsten and spoke to enraptured thousands in the great Cathederal of The One. The People of the One, he said, should not seek to conquer the infidel, only defend and protect themselves against his wiles and assaults. In a paroxysm of religious remorse, the commanders of the Light Ones pulled their forces back to Nhased's original borders and opened negotiations for an armistice.

It was this point that Cardinal Gilraid, Commissioner of the Designators of the True Faith, made the shocking claim that the newly-appeared prophet was not what he claimed to be, but an Imperial imtelligence agent. While the presentation of evidence and counter-evidence, witness and counter-witness lashed back and forth, the theological debate and accusations of heresy and blasphemy were more fiery by far. The monolithic Church of the One had never known internal disagreement on this scale, and the schism split the entire Theocracy into fragments, with adherents of each side scattered randomly across the country, each man examining his own faith to choose his side.

After several bloody years of confusion the two factions established themselves into stronghold areas and settled into a protracted and savage civil war.The Gilraidists, the larger party, were hampered by fighting a war on two fronts, with both the Empire and with the Voicers. The latter were still guided by the Voice of the One, upon whose head the Gilraidists placed an astronomical price.

In 1850, the Voice of the One, desperate to end the sectarian war between the Voicers and Gilraidists, began a complex and powerful piece of ritual magic, the Ritual of Flaying. The spell was targeted on the largest concentration of Gilraidist troops, somewhere in the Brinnon region of Nhased. It took him a year to complete and when released, inflicted unbelievable amounts of damage to both land and life. The effects were far in excess of what was intended; shockwaves rippled out from the original target for nearly two hundred miles, exterminating all life and reducing the countryside to a magically poisoned wasteland. Technically, this won the war for the Voicers, but their country was effectively destroyed. Over half the population of Nhased was killed in one day. Karsten and Lanirkos were both ruined and the Cathederal of the One, centre of their faith, was destroyed and the ruins inaccessible. The Voice was not seen again after the Flaying, and it is supposed that he was destroyed by his own apocalypse.

The damage of the Ritual of Flaying extended over the eastern border and engulfed most of the war zone between Nhased and the Erlyid Empire, destroying ninety percent of the fighting capability of both nations in one stroke. A big slice of the Asedor Forest was also destroyed, displacing many wild elves and centaurs, some of whom fled north into the rest of Alair, especially Belamir.

Vampires

Cain

As documented in the forbidden book of the Sopedalia, Cain was the first elf ever to murder another elf, back in the Golden Age before the coming of other races to Alair. Cursed by the elvish god Anfadil, he twisted the effects of the curse to suit his own ends, now horribly distorted, becoming the first vampire in the process. Believed dead, he operated under cover, bestowing the Blood Gift on more and more sentient creatures. The elves, mightier then than in later days, proved too resistant for his purposes, perhaps because their lifespans made the "eternal" life of the vampire less appealing, but with the arrival of humans Cain was furnished with all the raw material he needed, and his power grew rapidly. The oldest of the High Clans were created personally by Cain to organize his forces, though some rebelled and abandoned his cause to pursue their own goals. Finally, the existence of the subculture of the vampires became known to the elves, and five of their greatest heroes, led by Galoriand and Elverandil, challenged Cain in his lair. Though they defeated him, they were unable to put an end to him, and were forced instead to imprison him on the demiplane Arnora, pinched off and sealed against any conceivable intrusion. An attempt to rescue Cain by using one of the two Primal Weapons to breach Arnora, masterminded by Cullinan, was foiled by the destruction of the Vintares Gate and the sequestering of Zero-One in the Hallows.

Vampires still venerate Cain, but he is unable to grant prayers or spells and so has no priesthood; technically his position is that of a demigod or legendary hero.

Khabra

Khabra was an ancient land located deep in what is now the great desert south of the Red Dust. It rose and fell in the time between the arrival of humans in Alair and the founding of the Erlyid Empire. The cities and fields were swallowed by the desert and with the death of their last followers the gods of Khabra faced the dreadful fate of becoming Lost Gods. In a desperate attempt to avoid this, they poured all their remaining power into binding themselves each into an item of regalia, buried deep beneath a pyramid lost in the sands. If a being could be persuaded to take up the regalia and convert to their worship, they could rise again.

In the fullness of time, a party of four adventurers did discover the pyramid, and each took to themselves a piece of regalia. The gods they accepted survived and returned to the world; the rest met their end, fading to endless whispers in the sand. Only the survivors are listed here.

Hektis the Warmaster

Hektis is Sabath's brother, and must constantly be on watch for his sibling's treachery and malice. Adopted by the orc Gorfang, the cult of Hektis spread into the orc fortress of Gadûhvrás after his takeover of the ruins, and became the state religion of his empire, the Gorfangach. After the collapse of that empire in the Holy Wars, Hektis' cult remains primary in Gadûhvrás and Kishshul.

Nebekheshut the Fatemaster

Nebekheshut is the messenger, the courier. He delivers all effects to their cause. He does nothing, makes nothing, takes nothing. He simply connects things to where they must go. He brings life and death, but he neither creates nor kills. He is inescapable and unchangable, the ultimate instrument of a cold and indifferent fate.

His regalia-bearer, Lynien Savanoth, restored his cult as the "Balancers", distributing wealth differently, and on her deification accepted his ability to grant Resurrection to her followers.

Since that time, little has been heard of the cult of Nebekheshut, and it is possible that the Fatemaster accepted his end and passed away.

Gennen of the Book

Gennen of The Book is the knower of all things, the keeper of the scrolls, the wise man, the holder of the answers. He knows the deeds and thoughts of all men and helps judge them after death, assisting his consort Nepthis in this.

Gennen's regalia was taken by the aasimar sorceress Méabh, increasing her magical power and knowledge of many things greatly. After the conclusion of her journeys with Gorfang, Eloy and Lynien, Méabh returned to the ancient Giantish ruins in the Deep Trakar and established the Sorcerer's Isle, later known as Tearstone, a secret retreat and college for sorcery and research. A closely-guarded secret, Tearstone remains a mere rumour even now, but the cult of Gennen of the Book is still followed there, five hundred years after Méabh's day.

Thieves

Lynien, Lady of Chance

After her death and the recovery of the Seeds of Life, Nebekheshut ceded the power of Resurrection to the tiefling thief and adventuress Lynien, elevating her to the status of a Goddess.

She is the Goddess of Thieves and the Fateless, of Chance and the Unexpected, the light-fingered and self-sufficient; Lynien, Lady of Chance. Those preparing to venture out on thieves business, those about to risk all on blind chance, those with their backs up against the wall and nothing but insouciance to help them, call on Lynien.