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Religion

Introduction

Religion in the twenty worlds is an interesting concept. Since there is no doubt that the gods exist, faith does not take the same form as it does in the “real” world. Instead, worshipers have faith that their chosen deity will take the time and effort to watch over them and protect them - even though they are but one of millions demanding the same attention.

In actuality, the gods do watch over and protect their faithful, but are prevented from taking direct action by a millenia-old agreement known as The Concordant. This agreement is sometimes described as a “gentlemen's agreement” and other times described as a force of nature that physically inhibits the gods' activities. Whether it can be overcome has been a matter of heated debate amongst the clergy since the beginnings of the worlds.

Another major difference between the “real” world and the twenty worlds is that the gods are known to have limits. No dogma claims their deities are omnipotent, although most claim that the combined power of the pantheons is greater than anything.

Overview

The human gods (sometimes referred to as “The Terran Gods”) originally lived on Earth (another of the twenty worlds). They left that world when the mana became depleted sometime around 3000 BCE and came either to the Prime World or Godsland (depending on which stories you choose to believe).¹⁾

While the creation of the twenty worlds is often attributed to the various gods²⁾, most dogma is quite clear on the assumption that the multiverse existed prior to the arrival of the gods. In fact, there are numerous references to divine beings that predate all known current gods. Chief among these are the Earthmasters.

The Sacred Texts

There are at least four documents that are considered sacred to (nearly) all Human religions. These are The Tale of Time (which tells the story of creation), The Tale of the Transgression (which tells the story of man's relationship to the gods), The Tale of the Spire (which tells of the gods greatest gift to man), and The Tale of the Return³⁾.

The Pantheons

The various “families” of the Human gods seem to prefer to keep their followers separated. Because of this, each nation (or kingdom) tends to focus on one pantheon. However, since the other pantheons are acknowledged to exist, and to be gods, there is a healthy amount of respect for “foreign” religions.

This open attitude, though, has been sorely tested in recent years in Spindrift and Rota, where an influx of foreign refugees from the wars have brought with them their unusual gods. In some places, tolerance has given way to bigotry, and in others open hostility has broken out.

Here is a list of pantheons by nation:

Pantheon	Nation
Asgardian aka “Norse”	Rota
Celtic	Spindrift
Pharaonic aka “Egyptian”	Backbone and Teleme
Olympian aka “Greek”	Lowland and Teleme
Babylonian and Sumerian	Resh
American Indian	Etenaî, Dyanaî, and Comani
Central American	The Ouraî in Teleme
Chinese	Dumaka
African	Arela

Non-human deities

Each race has its own pantheon. The main ones are listed here:

Oddball Pantheons

In addition to the actively worshiped pantheons, there are several classes of divine beings that either no longer have worshipers, or never truly had them.

These are:

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¹⁾

This is, of course, not common knowledge – since most people are not even aware of other worlds.

²⁾

Many scholars reject the notion that the gods created the twenty worlds. They cite as proof the fact that the gods were unable to deal with the loss of mana on Earth. This, they claim, means that the worlds are bigger than the gods.

³⁾

which was documented by this author twenty years ago, but never detailed, so I've forgotten what it actually contains

frp

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