Of gods & mortals

The following is a transcription of the handout I give players prior to the game to help them relate to the world.  I modified it for the [10] level DCCRPG system and to incorporate the idea of "corruptions." Most of the changes are to Gorhan, Justica, and Elyr.

[edited for spelling and other minor errors and updates: 6-28-13 ]

Of Gods and mortals-

{reference: the family tree of the Gods of Áereth article}

First off, in the World of Áereth, there are no atheists.  It’s a completely alien concept to the peoples of Áereth. The Gods and Goddesses of the realm receive worship from the people, and the Gods in turn send aide to the people and the world of Áereth through their clergy.  The Clergy of the various deities take very active roles in society especially during the Interregnum.  One could even argue that without the clergy and the Engineers Guild: civilization would have collapsed by now.  They have greatly enjoyed this increase in corporeal power.

Below are listed many of the Gods & Goddesses of Áereth that play prominent roles in Human society and their daily lives.  This isn’t an exhaustive listing, just the most popular ones and their roles in society.

***

Elyr- Goddess of Healing [C-G]-  She believes that life should be sustained at all costs & is worth any risk.  She is also one of two Gods who can remove Corruptions (makes you invaluable to wizards).  Clerics of Elyr function as the doctors of this society.  Low levels (1-5) clerics wander the world bringing aid to those in need, during this time they tend to develop specialty skills.  At 6^th level they decide whether to stop wandering and live out their lives in the hospital/temples, or continue their wandering ministrations: this choice is permanent.  Elyr has a particular hatred for demons & aberrations and grants her clerics powers and abilities to deal with these creatures.  All clerics of Elyr are limited to non-lethal weapons and are not allowed to kill unless fighting evil; additionally, they radiate a zone of purity = 10ft / level that grants all within it range +1 / level of cleric bonus to saves.

Gorhan the Valiant- the Helmed Vengeance [L-G]- The Valiant One, He who fights first is the patron God of those who fight against the lawless & corrupt; he also acts as executioner when required by his wife Justica.   Gorhan doesn’t bother to heal anyone who hasn’t proven themselves to be honorable, brave, or innocent.  Usually this means that the recipient of the healing has just survived a battle, or are the peasants caught on the battlefield.  Those who are killed in combat are His to judge. If the soul is found honorable, or innocent then they are granted a pleasant after-life; if judged corrupt, then the soul is obliterated.  The clerics of Gorhan are divided amongst two sects; one that is male only and one that is open to all stouthearted folk who hear the Valiant Lords call to battle.  The clerics of the male only sect are paired off with clerics of the female only sect of Justica’s clergy.  They live their whole lives within the Temples of Law and function as the Imperial Judicial system.  The open order is generally known as the Ordo Militantis they spend operate as battlefield troops or helping the Clerics of Thormyr with securing the Empire from harm.  In this capacity they are mostly responsible for escorting members of the wandering order of Justica, hunting the undead, & as bounty hunters serving Final Justice on those who have fled Justica’s wise and merciful decrees.  All clerics of Gorhan radiate a zone of courage = 10ft / level that grants +1/ level on saves verses fear.  Preferred weapon is the Longsword.

Justica the Blind seer of Truth- Bringer of Justice [L-G]- the merciful Goddess of Justice & Defensive Combat seeks to remedy all hurts and redeem all evil.  Those who atone for their crimes shall be cleansed of their sins and corruptions.  Those who deserve death & will not repent their crimes are given over to the clerics of her husband Gorhan for execution.  Wizards who repent of their evil actions can have one or all of their corruptions removed by purifying flame.  If the wizards repentance is true then the fires will only burn away the corruptions acquired by the wizard, and he/she will then swear oaths to one of the Gods of White or Neutral magic.  If they betray that oath, they die.  Justica selects naturally blind female or other women who then lose their sight when they become clerics.  They are secretly compensated with the “blind sight” ability which allows them to function somewhat normally; but only allows them to discern rough shapes and sizes, as well as distances and movement within range.  The clergy is split into 2 sects; one lives their entire lives within the temples of law with their husbands tending to the Imperial legal system. There are a rare few women of this second order who are assigned a cleric from the Ordo Militantis as escort while they wander the Empire delivering justice to those who cannot seek it on their own.  All clerics of Justica radiate a zone of truthfulness = 10ft / level that forces all within range to speak truthfully; Willpower save DC=12+1 per cleric level to overcome.  If target overcomes the effect, then the cleric gains a spot check DC= the result of the lying targets success.  Clerics of Justica may banish/turn Demons and creatures of Chaos in addition to undead.  Preferred weapon is the quarter staff.

Soleth the Patient- Gentle Shepherd of the Dead- [L-N] He is the God in charge of final judgments of dead souls and ensuring that they do not return to the land of the living.  His clerics do not kill unless it is to offer mercy or in defense of themselves or others.  To that end, they are more than willing to heal those in need on the grounds that if a simple healing will allow a person to keep living as normal and without suffering: then it is not that persons time to die.  Clerics of this order are quite popular amongst the masses due to the fact that these clerics have the ability to grant their faithful the promise of never rising as undead: even if they die alone in the middle of nowhere.  The clergy of Soleth maintain the palliative & mortuary services for Imperial society, whether it is in the temple/mausoleums or wandering the world.  They avoid combat wherever possible, but they are strident defenders of their faithful and the innocent.  As the Shepherd of the Dead, Soleth is particularly angered by the fact that the Great Enemy has found a way to cause the newly dead to rise within an hour of death.  With the arrival of the Dark Star, this interval has dropped to 1d6 rounds…{ up to 1min.} so the clerics of this order are very busy these days.  Low level clerics (1-6) are tasked with wandering the lands quelling the dead and searching for the cause of this restlessness.  7^th level clerics and those who have become sick or injured in their travels are left to attend the temples until it is their turn to pass over.  All clerics of Soleth have the power to Speak with Dead at will and they all know how to brew the elixir of Eternal Peace; the draught which prevents resurrection.  They also know how to prepare the Elixir of Mercy for those whose time has come; this potion numbs and eases the passage into death for those who would welcome death as a release from their pain and worldly burdens.  All clerics of Soleth gain +1 on turn checks and damage results verses undead.  They radiate a zone of final resting; any who die within 10ft / cleric level of a priest of Soleth will not rise up again.  Preferred weapon is the bastard sword.

Thormyr the Loyal [L-N (g)]- God of guardsmen & those who would protect others- this Demi-god was once Human and remembers well the suffering of the flesh.  Thormyr does what he can to alleviate suffering of others, as to the “final” judgment… his clerics let the sufferer decide if euthanasia is preferred.  Clerics of this order are tasked with the daily policing of the realms.  Their authority to do so extends to the entirety of the Empire (or such as is left) not just to one town or area.  The temples of this order serve as the jails and headquarters for the Empire, Thormyr’s clerics are mostly found wandering on assignment (levels 1-5) while elder members of this clergy (6^th) are usually assigned large sectors to monitor.  All clerics of Thormyr share in his hatred of devils and are granted the power to banish them as well as undead; furthermore these clerics can use mundane weaponry to harm devils and extra dimensional creatures.  These clerics automatically bypass damage reduction and gain +2 bonus to hit and damage versus devils & outsiders.  All clerics of Thormyr have a very special aura; all thief activity within 10ft / level of a cleric of Thormyr is slightly suppressed.  All larcenous or illegal activities within the radius of effect suffers a -1/ level of the cleric to any thieving abilities being utilized.  Preferred weapon is the club or spear.

Poderon the Merchant [C-G]- The patron God of merchants, bankers and businessmen and any who make their livelihood buying or selling with the public.  His Temples are found in many forms; from warrens of shops and eateries under one communal roof to a mobile street vendor.  Anywhere commerce and industry are found is the province of Poderon.  In the old Empire, before things started to crumble, every citizen was issued a 3” x 4” x 1/8” oak wafer.  On one side was the owners name and picture, on the other were the listings of their accounts; legible only to the owner.  Whenever transactions were made, the sums were added or removed instantly.  If these cards became lost or stolen, they become useless.  Now only skilled craftsmen and those of the merchant classes within the largest of cities have enough money in circulation to actually need these items.  Most folk these days use barter for needed transactions.  Poderons preferred weapon is a war-hammer.

He also the Gnome Father and has another persona as the engineer, inventor, or tinker and in this aspect he is the patron deity of the Gear Gnomes.  Poderon is married to Myna, the Goddess of Luck and they have two daughters; Wyshalar the Wanderer and Neshti the Stealth-maiden.  All gnomes venerate Poderon as the archetype of their form, but it is his daughter Wyshalar who tends to the daily needs of the Wyld Gnomes and commands their loyalty and love.  Neshti doesn’t get along with her father all the time, as they have different ideas about the rules of ownership…  that is why she is the Patron Goddess of thieves.

Shul [LN] the Teacher/ the Moon Dragon- She is the Goddess of all phases of the moon; the Watcher in the sky, the Glistening Orb, the Law Giver, and the Moon Dragon; she is the Goddess of measurement, tradition, literacy, and the Moon itself.  The eldest daughter of Valdreth and Auzarr, she is credited as giving the standard 13 month calendar to the peoples of Áereth and Ur, the oldest written language which is derived from Draconic and from which all other humanoid languages descended.  Shul is the patroness of bards, engineers, educators and ascetics who follow strict curricula.  During the reign of the Red Emperor (the last Nimorian Priest-King) learning and education in general were barely holding on, but with the fall of Nimoria, temples of Shul started to become more common in the larger cities, and in most of the provinces of the New Criestene Empire.  These “Academies” are temple fortresses and through their educating of the peoples, helped to cement the new empire together by standardizing the education of the citizenry, making “Common” the language spoken for all humans and most humanoids.   Thanks to the wandering Veltoni clans, “Common” has become the language of trade even in the Old Konsaurian Empire, the Colonies, and even into the wild lands far to the north and east of the Empire.
  

In all religious writings, Shul is usually referred to by one of her many epithets rather than by name; a legacy of the secrecy needed to survive persecution by the Nimorian Priest-Kings.  She is not the only Goddess of Magic, but most scholars and wizardly types will offer prayers to Her before starting off on a project… lest they be stymied or side tracked in their endeavors, particularly if there will be a large amount of difficult research and experimentation.  One of the most beautiful of the Gods, she is sought after by many, but her love is only for Ormazd.  Their love is strong, but their separate duties keep them apart for most of the time, save for lunar and solar eclipses… then and only then may the lovers join.  Ormazd scours the world for the restless dead by day, but it is the Watcher in the Sky, reflecting the light and love of Phoenix Lord who keeps up the vigil by night.

Her Holy symbol is any depiction of the moon, or a silver moon medallion that has been inscribed with a moon and a beautiful woman’s face. 

Her clergy along with their temples were nearly destroyed in the Interregnum that ended the old Criestene Empire, but enough of their small monastic forts survived to bring back the wisdom of writing and ancient lore during the last 300 years without which the new Criestene Empire would devolve into embattled factions of barbarians… again.  Her Order is now charged with setting up the schools for the Northern Kingdoms as well as the preservation of history and languages.  Her preferred weapon is a dagger; preferably made of knapped stone, in imitation of the one given to her by her “Uncle” Poderon for a birthday gift.  All lunar and solar eclipses are Sabbath days and all of Shul’s temples are capable of calculating the exact time of the year, month, and day as needed.

Within the context of the Northern Kingdoms, Shul is the giver of the Laws that the treaty bound Kingdoms must obey.  She gains the knowledge of these laws both from the ancient texts in her care and from the will of the Sanctern Pantheon.  Violations of her laws are tried by Clerics of Justica and enforced by the clerics of Gorhan.

Whilst I do not wish to create the entire body of laws for the kingdom, it should be sufficient for the players to know that the laws of the Criestene Empire are nearly the same as those for our real world society: if it is illegal in the real world, then it is probably illegal in the Criestene Empire.  The notable exceptions to this rule are that “Vice Laws” don’t exist as we know them. The civil authorities are not concerned with Brothels, Taverns, & Drug Dens; unless there are any Succubi/Incubi working in the flesh dens, or slavers preying on the inebriated, or making sure that the latest drug of choice doesn’t turn half the population into hamsters.

After so many centuries of being brutalized by tyrants, the people of Crieste have become a fairly tolerant society in order to stave off any future tyranny.  The Citizens of the new Crieste Empire are quite keen on the amenities and luxuries that they have inherited from the old Nimiurian and Former Crieste Empires, but are painfully aware that the plumbing, the roads, and services gained were built with the blood of slaves and the conquered.  Unfortunately, this tolerance rarely extends to wizards and elves both of whom still languish under often brutal discrimination in most Imperial lands.

Madrah & Denithae; the King & Queen of the Faeries [CN(n) & CN(g)]- are venerated as the Masculine and Feminine aspects of nature.  They are always worshiped together lest on risk offending the excluded partner.  Most farming and agricultural areas have shrines and temples dotting the landscape.  There are no constructed temples, only wild Groves of various sizes hidden in the wild places.  Clerics of the forces of nature are considered to be Druids, though they should not be confused with the Druid Kings of olden times.  They are responsible for keeping the balance between the needs of society and the preservation of the wild places of Áereth.  Clerics of Nature have different auras depending on which aspect they identify with the most; chosen at creation.  One that speeds healing and growth or aids in hunting and fighting.  Each gender of cleric has access to both types of magic, the distinction simply shows which type they will be better at performing based on their nature.  Preferred weapons: the scythe/ or short bow.

The rest of the Gods of Magic are treated separately as wizards are the only ones who usually have dealings with them.

Neshti the Stealth-maiden [CG]-  All practitioners of the larcenous trade other than Assassins pay tribute to Her in hopes that she will favor them in their next roguish endeavor.  She rewards clever thieves, particularly if they are not too greedy with their spoils.  It is not known whether she has temples or clergy: if they exist, then they are keeping quiet.  Preferred weapon is the dagger.

And then came the DCC RPG public beta test...

In addition to the previous material I have a "complete" time-line file written out organizing all of the history presented in the DCC#35 set {plus my own stuff} and covers just over 93,000 years.  It basically works backwards from the material on p114 of the Gazetteer, I just put dates on the battles, marked the beginnings and endings of Empires, and expanded the time frames.

I choose to keep that stuff "behind the DM screen" for now as it would give too much info for players.

From here on out the posts will be my old material that has been modified to the DCC format.  aka patrons, new class write-ups, spells, etc.

Of Gods and Creation:

Expansion:

That which follows, replaces the first few paragraphs of the creation myth of Áereth from the DMs guide in DCC #35

***

In the time before Time, in the place between Places it came to pass that the three beings known as the Triad discovered their divinity shortly after they came into Existence.  It might seem incredible or odd that such a thing could be, but in truth it is not that difficult to become a Deity in the D&D Multiverse… they pop up all the time.  In this case they were newly born to a Crystal Sphere whose pantheon was so over crowded (from a Deities point of view) that in the end they decided to look elsewhere.  Following a subtle call in their hearts, the Triad of Proto-Deities known as Choranus the Builder, Ildavir the Giver of Life, and Centivus the Shaper set out to find and/or make a home of their own. 

But not all Gods have things so easy… if it is possible for Gods to be born; then, it is also possible for them to die.  At the very moment in which the Triad set forth on their epic quest to find a place in the Multiverse; the beings that would later come to be known as the Sancturn Pantheon, were led by the near exhausted Deity known as Oae in frantic haste from a Crystal Sphere that had sheltered them from their birth.  They fled before the unrelenting onslaught of mass-disbelief… the only thing that can permanently rob a Deity of its power.  They were too weak and disorganized to hear any calling of the heart; they simply picked a direction and ran as fast as they could manage with the strength they had left.

On their respective travels; the Triad expanded their numbers, whilst the Sancturn Pantheon simply licked their wounds and tried to make the best of things. 

Then one day the Triad and their progeny found what they sought, a new and untouched Crystal Sphere floating in the gray blankness between spaces.  Upon arrival the Triad and their children sang the secret “Song of New Beginnings” known only to the Gods and those few beings who are fluent in the True Speech of Making and Binding.  When the last notes faded the echoes and oscillations set up in the sphere suddenly stopped.  Where there had been featureless, perfectly smooth black surface there were now millions of portals.  Each portal subtly aligned to the relative positions of other spheres out there somewhere in the greater Multiverse.  With the echoes of their song still ringing in their ears and hearts, the Gods entered into their new home… only to discover Zhühn, creature of the Void…

Inside the Sphere was illuminated faintly by the proto-light from the millions of new portals, widely ranging in size and intensity of light from the phlogiston that shines without actually burning, for it is pure potentiality.  After a great passing of time, and many failed attempts to create their new world, the Triad and their progeny were nearly willing to give up and use the last of their energy to travel elsewhere.  Before they could reach a decision; however, a new rag-tag group of Gods arrived on the scene.  They were older and more experienced than the Triad, but too travel worn and drained of power to affect much change to the situation.  

The Leader of this new group of Gods was a being known only as Oae.  He was the wisest of all the Gods, and the Triad gave serious weight to his council, and it was to Oae that they all turned for a solution.  Oae is a crafty fellow and he invited all of the Gods into the private dimension he maintained as part of his identity.  It is a place known only as “the Dreaming” and within this secret plane of existence the Gods found their first true taste of peace.  Once inside this domain Oae gathered the Gods and Goddesses to him and told them his plan.  It was simple… they were all to weave the strands of the “dreaming” into the ideal forms and constructs of the world they wished to be their new home; as a sort of cosmic rough draft.  They were to plan everything down to the most minute details, no cycle of events too trivial to go unstudied and all problems solved prior to investing this new world with any real energy or substance.

The second part of his plan was the product of his observations of Zhühn and its desire to tear all things asunder, leaving only formlessness in its wake.  Oae decreed that all Gods were free to create the cycles and forms of this new world however they chose to do so; but the Gods were to adhere to the following principles:

1. All of their creations must work in harmonious balance with respect to each other,
2. All of the systems and constructs must be designed in such a way as to require that they be broken down into their component parts as a necessary part of their healthy/balanced existence.  It was this second principle that would truly cage Zhühn for eternity; for in harnessing its desire to destroy as part of a healthy cycle of life, the Gods remove Zhühn’s ability to eliminate the whole of the construct.  In order to destroy the world, Zhühn would have to stop destroying things…  which would be contrary to its fundamental principle of existence.

After the Ideal World of Áereth was created down to the last detail, the God Oae once again called the rest of the Gods to him and he spoke to them of the third and final part of his plan.

Oae:  “We have truly woven a spectacular dream, but it is not yet safe from our Enemy.  For in order to make this Dream a reality… we must truly build the world from the mater of the Universe, and not from these wisps of light and shadow.  For this we have always reached out our wills to the formless materials of this new Crystal Sphere, and this has been our greatest failing.  Our enemy is a creature of this place… It is far more capable than we of shaping and rending these materials.”

Gil’Maridth: “With what then shall we build… there is naught else to work with.”

Oae:  “Incorrect.  We have the substance and essence of our own bodies… we are not of this place and so our material is as alien to our Enemy as we are to it; The Enemy will have greater difficulty in destroying the alien matter of our new world than it would if we were to construct our world from the local material.”

Gil’Maridth: “You are asking that we sacrifice our flesh for this new world?!  How then are we to enjoy our creation?!”

Oae: “We are Gods.  We no longer require the need of a physical form, and we should be beyond the need for physical gratifications.  When we began, I said only that I had a plan that would succeed; I did not say that it would be easy, or that it would not require sacrifice.”

After Oae had finished speaking, the Gods voted, and it was decided to follow through on there plan rather than risk oblivion fighting their Enemy until the last of their strength was spent.  However, they were not unanimous in their decision.  Many of the Gods and Goddesses who would later become the Gods of Evil tried to flee rather than sacrifice their forms to the cause.  It was then that all of the Gods realized that they had unwittingly placed themselves entirely at the mercy of Oae.  When they had entered the Dreaming, they had trapped themselves.  Some of the Gods and Goddesses escaped with a trace of their original substance, but most were retained and the Gods shed their bodies that they might have the media needed to build the World of their Dreams…  Thus it was that the World of Áereth was born.

The family tree of the Gods of Áereth

EDIT: 10/19/13:  Fixed some typos

EDIT: 10/30/12:  This was posted originally as a support post for the players in my game, so most of the explanations were verbal.  I get a lot of hits on this page so I figure I should add a little explanation to what all those squiggles mean. First and foremost I'd like to thank the folks at Goodman Games for creating the world of Aereth with their release of DCC #35.  A lot of the info in this chart was taken from my attempt to organize the Gods presented in chapter 2 of the DM's Guide to Aereth.  The rest is my spin on things for my version of Aereth.  I have take the liberty of changing the genders of some deities in order to provide for a more workable chart.

Organization

1. I broke the multiplicity of deities into 4 main parts: one family is the the Triad of Choranus, Centivus, & Ildavir (light blue); one family is the Sancturn pantheon (multi-colored); the lesser Gods became many of the offspring of the various marriages (white); and Zhuhn... the great evil one, enemy of the Gods and creation (black).   Like all family tree type charts, marriages and progeny are marked by solid lines.  The dashed lines represent temporary unions achieved via trickery or violence

 and along with any progeny.  NOTE: Zurvan died ages before the Sanctern pantheon arrived at Aereth; in his death he was split into the two lesser deities of Ormazdd and Ahriman. 

2.  There are still 12 deities, 5 devils, & 5 known demons from chapter 2 of the DM's Guide to Aereth that will eventually become the core of table 2... whenever I find the time.  And that doesn't cover any of the new material presented in DCC RPG :)

3. From top to bottom the chart sorts out the deities into good versus evil, with those closest to the top are 'good' aligned and those at the bottom are 'evil' in alignment and the 'marriage line' between Asuarr and Valdreth represents the 'neutral' boundary in between.  This is a general trend and may or may not correspond with the material in DCC#35.

4. From left to right represents a new way of sorting the deities specific to my version of Aereth.  In my creation story Oae presents the Gods with a means of trapping Zhuhn as the force of entropy.  In order to make this happen the Gods are required to sacrifice their physical form to create the world in a way that Zhuhn cannot destroy.  However, the Gods are not required to give all of themselves to the process and some of the Gods (the ones at the bottom of the chart plus the ones that will be on table 2) rebelled and abandoned the work of creation.  This is a new epoch of time I introduce to the Aereth meme and it is known as the God Wars.  The Deities on the right gave the most of themselves to Oae's great spell of creation and the amount of deific participation in creation drops off as you move to the right of the page.

5. The Gods of the Civilized societies are all clustered in the upper left quadrant, and Oae retreated into his special realm of creation that mortals understand as the place where Dreams come from.

6. The numbers on some of the deities represent their birth order and loosely translates to the hierarchy of the Gods.  It was chosen to mirror the order that the Gods created the races; as listed in the DCC#35 material.  this is important, because it is only the deities listed in white squares that have any serious interaction with the mortal world; the others are too tightly bound up in the 'machine of the universe' concept at the heart of Oae's spell of creation.

7. Special note on Pelagia: Zhuhn's last act before it was imprisoned was to kill her child, causing the sundered pieces to become the twin Rat Gods Nimlurun & Narrimunath.  Understandably, she went completely insane and her anger and sense of loss are mirrored by her children; the consequence  being that these deities have slowly become twisted... some are now considered evil by mortal standards.  The real world ramifications to all of this are simple: no one travels by sea if they can avoid it.  Most ships are incapable deep water voyages, because most folks won't sail beyond sight of land for fear of Pelagia's madness.  The fact that the Creistine Empire managed to colonize another continent then becomes an even greater symbol of their might: but the truth is that it was Kalian ship building technology that made it all possible.  But I digress... and this is perhaps the subject of another post later on. :)

Societies and cultures:

The Resources available in the DCC#35 Gazetteer are packed with info on history and culture, but (necessarily) there are large gaps left for DM’s to fill.  Thanks to the work done on understanding the nature of the world in such detail, has allowed me to understand the environments where the societies have evolved.  For example, I know from my studies that the zones where the deep ocean currents transition from cold to warm are some of the richest feeding grounds on earth… stable food supply = thriving populations and cultures.  These regions are also at the heart of conflicts between nations, but environment is only half the equation when trying to understand a culture.

Thankfully the folks at Goodman Games thought to include some information on the Gods & Goddesses of Áereth…  of course, by the time they were done there were 78 powers from the Major players all the way down to the Abyssial Pits.  It’s the largest chapter, and in my early attempts to run games in this world… it frightened off many would be players from playing clerics.  A lot of my work over the last couple of years has been streamlining the cosmology.

For starters, I must make an observation about fantasy RP Games in general: they always present clerical magic as “faith in the power of (insert God of choice)” to act on behalf of the faithful.  The fundamental flaw in this paradigm is that there is no such thing as faith in a D&D-style game environment.  The Gods & their power are FACTS of life.  Atheism is an alien concept and those who don’t believe in the Gods, or who fail to give Gods the respect they are due: are thought to be insane, and those who disrespect the Gods are sure to feel their wrath.  The stories of these people would not be filled with allegorical tales, but with historical records of folks who’ve suffered the wrath of the Gods.   

So in my games I have switched to using the word “belief” rather than “faith;” and it is the belief of the mortal races that sustains (and even creates new) Deities.  To me this is the logical extension on the theories set down in the Ecology & Culture guide on how magic moves through the food chain.  In return for the mana of mortal belief, the Gods then return the energy back into the material plane via their respective roles and duties within the “world machine” (as I like to call it) and the acts of the various clergies.

From a more practical “character view,” the story of the pantheon of Áereth is the story of strangers uniting in common cause to create a home for themselves.  As they struggled they formed the same bonds of love and friendship... and enmity;  just like any other intelligent free-willed beings.  In this model, the Deities of the Triad and the Sancturn pantheon play the parts of Parents to the lesser Gods & Goddesses; as well as Grandparents to many of the Demi-gods.  Furthermore, to help players understand how the Deities interact with the characters daily lives I assigned societal roles for the various clergies.  

 For example: Justica & Gorhan and their “son” Thormyr constitute the Imperial criminal justice system; Shul and her son Delvyr maintain the educational systems of the Imperial citizenry; Elyr & Soleth provide the healing and mortuary services, etc.   I find that a well defined sense of purpose goes a long way in helping players RP their characters.  The next post will be a graphic that I put together to show the various social relationships of the Gods with each other.

A solid line represents a consensual union of Gods and the children produced; a broken line indicates non-consensual unions due to trickery or violence, and the children produced.  It needed to fit on 1 page, so the amount of info about the Gods is wrapped up in the best 1-2 word descriptions of their main duties.

A moment for practical review:

Some of the benefits of the detailed write-up and the planetary mechanics have been unexpected,the latitude lines for example.  Following on the Earth model, each degree of latitude is roughly = 69.8 miles and the lines are drawn for every 5 degrees.  They are embedded onto the map, so when I enlarge it to clip and copy for a smaller game map: I have a consistent scale for distance.  It was 4 months of research and drawing well spent.  Incidentally, for any who may be curious: my reasons for choosing an axial tilt of 27.5 degrees are many, but mostly it was needed to allow the Biomes drawn on the map to align with where they should be on a real globe.  It’s the old “form follows function & function dictates form” theory of design.  Most of the choices for orbital mechanics and such were also set down to support the features of the map.  The bottom line is that my version of Áereth is a world of savannas, jungles, archipelagos, and icy wastes; with very thin temperate zones.  

 As a result of the axial tilt the high & low-pressure systems that help to drive the winds are shifted; so the sub-tropical high pressure zones are at 35 degrees N & S latitudes; the sub-polar lows are at 65 degrees N & S latitudes…  I’m no meteorologist, but I believe that this should act to drive especially fierce polar winds due to compressing the bands of moving air.  Which lends more support to the fierceness of the storms idea.

One of the most handy features of the Ecology & Culture guide are the details on understanding and modeling weather & winds; as well as the break downs on the different biomes and where they are to be found.  For me, a lot of this stuff is review (I’ve always been good at biology & natural sciences) but this resource is written from the FRPG point of view, which provides some excellent ideas for making the natural world a more interesting and challenging place for the players.  I’ve not gone to the trouble of building detailed “it’s going to rain at X time and at Y intensity” charts, because I can look at the latitude on the map and know what the weather should be based on the season and the prevailing wind patterns.

 

Steps 2 - 4:

As you can see from previous posts; with the availability of such awesome maps, most of the work I needed to do for these steps was to work backwards to place the ocean currents, tectonic rifts (not shown on the map) and volcanic regions.  I know where they are and which direction they are moving, but I figured the odds of major events like Áerethquake or eruption are so slim that it wasn't worth drawing out.

The short version is that there is the Mid-Empyrean Oceanic trench that is pushing the two continents away from each other and slowly causing the islands on the opposite side of the planet from the rift to rise up into what will eventually be a continent... in a few million years.  Most of the rest of the info in these sections was excellent, but mostly review for me, as I grew up on public-access TV.  Though I highly recommend the "Plant Earth" documentary series for any DM wishing to enhance the feel of their game world.

I should call attention to the part of section 4 that calls out the workings of magic.  As I stated before, Áereth has a dangerously high magic field; but it flows through an ever shifting Ley line system that oscillates at 10ft per year can be broken down into 5 basic types: magic rich line ending in magic rich terminus; magic rich line ending in 1 of 5 elemental portals; magic rich line ending in null terminus; null line ending in null terminus; null line ending in a portal to the Fae Kingdom (elemental life/ element of wood in the 5 element systems).  The Ecology & Culture Guide has one of the better representations of this mechanic, I didn't have to tweek it that much, but I'll need to turn my notes into a graphic so the explanations won't confuse anyone.