The Pantheons of Arcydea

Currently, there are several major pantheons that govern distinct areas of Arcydea.

A major hostile religion within the campaign, the Faith of the Traveler is focused on extending the Traveler's Reach as far and wide as it can manage. Formerly a church focused on the Arcydean pantheon, the Church has gradually reduced its deitific population to focus (at least, ostensibly) on worship of Arc, the Wanderer; keen-eyed individuals note that they don't even quite do that. The Traveler's holy symbol is of a boot clad in steel, representing the Traveler's fortitude in roaming the lands. The territory they govern is known as the Traveler's Reach, which they are constantly looking to expand. In truth, the Traveler is one of the two creators of Arcydea, the God of Destruction, Nyx, and his Church is led by an immortal known as Janus Nevegaro, the Grand High Master of the Church.

The Church of the Traveler is a well-organized holy order, with divisions mostly based on job role:

• Knights of the Church: Not to be confused with the holy Templars, these are warriors who believe in the holy word of the Traveler, and dedicate themselves to defending its people. These temple knights have no real magic to speak of, but attend to day-to-day defense of the church, supported by Templars to a limited extent.
  • Spellblade Knights: A few Knights of the Church have incorporated magic into their combat style, making them more dangerous combatants. Individual Spellblades often serve as leaders for a local group of knights.
  • Pact Knights: Some other Knights of the Church receive blessings directly from their god, giving them powers that in some ways rival wizards or clerics. These pacts take a toll on the knight in question, but those who have taken the Pact are among the Church's most fanatical supporters.
• Sacred of the Church: The priesthood of the Church is the most well-known aspect of the Church – and the most prone to corruption. Priests impress upon the congregation that their sins will doom them to an afterlife eternally suffering the torments of the Demon of the Scythe, and that atonement for one's sins through word, gift, or deed in this life will alleviate eternal damnation in the next.
  • Masters: The Masters of the Church are high-ranking spellcasters with both arcane and divine powers who typically manage a smaller city's operations or act as high-ranking bureaucrats in a larger city's management. They are most prone to abuse of power, all in the name of righteousness and atonement, and many commit acts of depravity or evil that would make demons blush.
  • Arch Clerics: The Arch Clerics of the Church are among the most skilled of their number, usually responsible for the management of an individual Church if no Master is directly responsible. They are also responsible for ensuring that the goals of the Church are being met, and encouraging the spiritual growth of lesser Clerics.
  • High Clerics: These are high-ranking priests of the Church who often run Churches in smaller villages, or are one of a small group of priests who control individual operations of a Church in larger communities.
  • Clerics: These skilled priests are the rank and file of the Church proper, although in out of the way places like Avylian, they are few in number. Clerics often handle matters of importance within the Church and work on developing arcane knowledge as well as their divine wisdom to better serve their god.
  • Priests: These are low-ranking clerics who minister to the needs of the congregation in general and handle most of the day-to-day operations of the Church that are important but not important enough to take up the time of a Cleric. They commonly hold masses, ceremonies such as weddings and funerals, and tend to the needs of the flock. It is difficult to develop further in the Church without developing some evil in one's nature.
  • Acolytes: These are the errand boys (and girls) of the Church, either first-level clerics, commoners, or unskilled slaves put to task to serve the Church and obey the priests and clerics above them. They are not typically dangerous, although there is always the possibility that someone more powerful is watching through their eyes…
• Church Mages: While Masters encompass both the arcane and divine aspects of church magic, those who dedicate themselves to the arcane side are commonly known as Church Mages. Interestingly, arcane mastery is somewhat more common among Masters than divine mastery, and is often their initial focus; as such, Church Mages are ones to watch carefully, as they may be next in line to become a Master.
  • Arch Mages: These are the most powerful among the mages of the Church, and are often only a few steps away from becoming Masters in their own right; they are capable of acts of wizardry such as complete control of individuals, or destruction on a large scale.
  • High Mages: These are mages who are working their way towards the grand mastery that Arch Mages represent; many are also developing their divine aspects, or at least enough ability to convincingly fake it when necessary to keep the worshipful masses impressed and inspired.
  • Mages: These are as close to 'rank and file' as one can get with wizardly mastery - skilled enough to do most of the things one associates with wizards, without being a threat to the power of greater mages and Masters just yet. Many take on apprentices to train, gradually molding their attitudes to be in line with Church politics.
  • Journeymen: These are apprentices who have developed sufficiently in their magical understanding to be allowed to journey into the world at large, or who are not yet true mages but are still more skilled than the lowly apprentices.
  • Apprentice: Apprentices are basically first-level mages or unskilled would-be-mages who are still developing their craft under the tutelage of a more experienced mage or perhaps even a Master of the Church. Like Acolytes, many of them are basically low-ranking laborers or even just slaves that are suspected to have some magical talent that can be cultivated for later exploitation.
• Templars of the Church: Commonly known as the Knights Templar, these “temple knights” are the paladins of the Traveler, and as such are expected to seek out evil (as the Church defines it) and destroy it, and promised absolution for the sins they may be required (or “required”) to commit along the way. Templars are a mixed bag - some are ineffably corrupted and abuse their positions with acts of depravity that would make Masters proud, while others genuinely believe they are doing the right thing and fighting against evil.
  • Templar Lords: These are the high command of the Templars, usually in charge of a large group of Templars in an area where the military aims of the Church are sufficiently important not to trust command to a priest or mage with little understanding of military warfare. Templar Lords are not necessarily evil by nature – their rise to power is usually due to their martial, tactical, and even strategic prowess rather than their willingness to commit acts of atrocity against “sinners”, and those elevated to the position are done so by other Templar Lords, with the Church taking less of a heavy hand towards political manipulation of the system as long as it wins them battles when it needs to. The other categories of Templar are generally determined by their combat style, and as such the chances that they have fallen into depravity depend highly on who commands them and for what purpose.
  • Templar Knights: These Templars are the example most people think of when they think of a Templar; armed with a long sword and a large shield, they are trained to fight alongside each other, capable of defending each other, but equally capable of holding their own in single combat.
  • Templar Guard: These Templars are experts at the spear wall, and use large shields and spears in combat. They are often deployed in situations where the entrances are limited and overhead attacks are unlikely or easily predictable, such as pitched defense of an underground base or in combat with mundane armies that have little in the way of magical support.
  • Templar Blades: Templars who wield a great axe or great sword in combat are commonly classified as Blades – they have no defensive focus, and instead focus mostly on putting down or injuring major threats as quickly as possible. They often clear the way for more specialized units to enter a combat, but are not cannon fodder; ideally, they deploy against large, fleshy targets that need a powerful military response.
  • Templar Breakers: These Templars are among the most misunderstood of combatants; while their weapon of choice (the spiked chain) is thought of as a weapon of savagery, in truth, Breakers are usually sent after mages and others who might have a need to maintain concentration, and are focused on causing them pain enough to limit their options until they can be successfully captured or eliminated. They are seldom deployed in military action unless there is a clear target that needs to be brought down. They are often mounted or given magical assistance to increase their field mobility and deploy them against high-value targets quickly.
  • Templar Strikers: These 'hammer and anvil' Templar warriors use a heavy mace in combat to smash open enemy armor, along with a thick shield to shrug off the blows of their enemies. They are usually called up against armored opponents that are putting up significant resistance, although they are masterful at eliminating skeletal hordes if one happens to come along.
  • Templar Ragers: These greatly feared Templars are not necessarily great paladins, but they are fantastic barbarians, as they have the ability to invoke their god's rage against their enemies. They typically fight with a great axe or greatsword, and are unleashed under many of the same circumstances as their brethren the Blades, though they are equally likely to be sent in to strike at the flanks of an enemy to overcome their defenses in less direct manners.
  • Templar Riders: These Templars are masters of mounted combat, and as such they specialize in the use of the lance and horse to strike down difficult foes. Templar armies that use Riders often have a supply of lances handy for the inevitable breakage or losses in combat, so that Riders can quickly resupply and then charge back into the fray to slay another enemy. They are more inclined than other Templars to challenge their opposite numbers in a pitched fight, having a certain pride in their ability to out-joust lesser opponents.
  • Templar Rangers: Although the sight of a heavily armored bowman is one that many do not take seriously, they do so at their peril; Rangers are just as strong and tough as their Templar brethren, and are skilled archers as well. Many are trained in mounted archery so that they can swiftly ride to where they are needed and strike down enemies from a superior vantage point.
  • Templar Hammers: Technically a misnomer, as “Hammers” actually use halberds in combat; these mounted Templars basically focus on unseating mounted combatants through massive force, then leaving them to be picked off by other opponents. On foot they are dangerous enough, with sweeping blows that can cleave through armies, but on horseback they are able to hammer enemies with the full force of a galloping horse behind them, increasing their effective strength phenomenally and allowing them to chop through even fully armored knights.
• Inquisitors: The ugly unseen side of the Church of the Traveler, the Inquisitors are the rogues who keep the Church running by doing what needs to be done behind the scenes - which often involves murder, torture, kidnapping, slavery, and other unsavory behaviors.
  • Nightwatch: The Nightwatch act as the church's secret police; they don't stand out in a crowd, but they silently report on what they see, to give the Church ideal blackmail material to use to collect tithes from the 'sinful' and to report on signs of dangers to the Church that need to be quashed.
  • Questioners: The Questioners are the interrogators of the Church, and are masters of getting information. This can just as easily be through a few well-placed questions at the local bar as through torture of a knowledgeable subject until they tell you everything to earn the mercy of death, but most people only think of the horrible conclusions when thinking of the Questioners - and that's the way the Church likes it.
  • Venombloods: These seedy figures are master poisoners – typically for purposes of committing assassinations in places where direct violence is undesired. While they are fully capable of slipping nasty concoctions into someone's drink at the local pub and bringing it to them disguised as the beautiful barmaid, they are equally capable of poisoning a knife or a crossbow bolt and leaving them dead and bloodied in an alleyway for the town's guards to find later. The business of the Venombloods is death, and many of their poisonous concoctions used are inventively horrific.
  • Infiltrators: Sometimes the Church doesn't want to make it obvious that they have broken into a place - times when the subtle hand of a thief is needed more than the boot of a Templar. The Infiltrators are specialized burglars who break into locations where the Church needs to gather information, steal important items, or otherwise cause difficulties without resorting to open violence. They are very busy in territories where the Church does not yet have complete control.

The major Arcydean pantheon is based on the gods who existed during the Fourth Age, and who in many cases exerted much of their power to keep the planet from falling apart following the destruction of the moon Century at the hands of the inhabitants of Brightshine. Most of these deities have fallen into obscurity since due to a combination of weakening strength as a result of their sacrifice, and a loss of followers and sacred spaces due to the deliberate actions of the Church of the Traveler. Many shrines and churches to specific gods were converted to Churches of Arcydea that housed multiple gods, which was fine until those churches began removing these gods from their scriptures to the point that only obscure texts still mention their existence for the most part.

Holy Symbol: A jade coin with two sides; one has a pentacle engraved into it, while the other has a swirling vortex. On single-sided symbols and objects, the vortex is usually the side shown and acts as a focus for spiritual communications; however, sanctuaries and places of protection use the pentacle side instead. Recent incarnations of this symbol include a hole in the middle for a cord to go through, so that it can be easily worn as a pendant. The symbolism is ancient, with the coin representing the choices one must make in life, the vortex a symbol of his connection to the Void and to passage between worlds as well as lands, and the pentacle a symbol of his protective nature.

Favored Colors: Green and silver

Appearance: Arc is most commonly depicted as a green-haired elven man, roughly five feet tall, with long hair that almost covers his ears and extends to below his neck. He chooses a wide variety of forms when walking the world or visiting people in their dreams, but green eyes or green hair are a fairly common preference of his, regardless of form or gender.

Favored People: Arc is directly responsible for the introduction of the wanderkin to Arcydea, and is most frequently worshipped by elves; however, he generally welcomes anyone with a good heart.

Portfolio: Wanderers and travelers, the Void, balance, nature

Other Notes:

The Faith of the Wanderer is decried as a blasphemous sect of the Traveler – by those who are not in said sect, generally. They profess to have contact with Arc, the Wanderer, and are led by a prophet who claims to be the son of Arc and one of his champions, Tamara. Joshua has twelve disciples - Judah, Katherine, Reginald, Rhiannon, Ketsuo, Boudica, Sheila, Frederick, Manuel, Petra, Victoria, and Alvin. Arc's holy symbol is a jade disc or coin with a pentacle on one side and a swirling vortex on the other; recent incarnations of this symbol include a hole in the center for a cord to pass through The Wanderer is known to have a wife, the Wings of Chaos, Shydi, as well as a number of consorts.

Arc is the god that has paid the most attention to mortal affairs following the Fourth Age, and seems to be putting forth the most effort in encouraging others to fight against the false church that bears his name.

The deity who grants divine authority to those who rule in Avylian, for the most part, Vargas is more commonly known as Ghamao in older tests, and is the god of justice and war. He is the deity whose divine authority supports the king and queen of Delgado, and to a lesser extent the Lords' Alliance. The clerics of Vargas are vigilant in watching against the incursion of the Traveler, knowing all too well the dangers that a potentially false variant of a religion can cause.

Holy symbol: A balanced set of scales hung from the crossguard of a sword.

Also known as the Blue Lady, or Silathra or Destiny by those who study ancient texts, Faen is the goddess of divinations and predictions, and is commonly known as the goddess of fate - although she is likely to benevolently help people escape negative fates. She was originally symbolized by the red moon of Century, but after its apparent destruction during the Reign of Tears, her religion has undergone major transitions in the following generations. Occasionally, people see Century in the sky, right before a significant moment, but the moon appears blue…

Holy symbol: Her current holy symbol is that of a deck of tarot or playing cards with blue markings of a constellation pattern on the back; the pattern is that of four interwoven strands forming a rope that then unravels into three strands. Older symbols use a red-painted badge (representing the Century moon) with two piercing blue eyes.

Synonymous with the afterlife and the home of the gods, Alshira is also the goddess of dragons, tarns, leupaks, lizardfolk, dragonborn, kobolds, and reptiles and scalykind of all sorts. Her worship has mostly faded as dragons have become less common in the civilized territories of Arcydea, but is seeing a revival.

Holy symbol: A circle made from two dragons, like a sort of yin yang, one darker and one lighter, and in between them all sorts of scalykind.

Chester is the god of overcoming long odds, a mortal who eventually worked his way up to becoming a minor deity through personability and force of will.

Holy symbol: A target with a very tiny bullseye in the center.

Arc's wife, goddess of chaos and the void. Responsible for slaying – then reincarnating – Dlonn after opening the sealed can of evil he was trapped in to finish the job properly.

Holy symbol: A pink flamingo standing on one leg, the other bent, standing atop a castle.

Herb is the god of shadows, thieves and rogues of all stripes, including insurance salesmen, oddly enough. There are rumors of a strong worship pool to Herb located somewhere in the Krytarrim mountain range.

Holy symbol: A shadow with two hands visible – in one, a dagger, and in the other, a bag.

Marie's best claim to fame is meeting Dlonn in the void between worlds when both had been annihilated from the mortal plane, and upon being returned to the material plane, successfully negotiating bringing Dlonn back to life to give him a chance to redeem himself.

Holy symbol: An open set of manacles and a key.

The god of nature, and healthy cooking, Daron is a reserved and quiet god, but those who invoke his wrath are reminded at their peril that nature does not play nice at all when it's angry with you.

Holy symbol: A Tree of Life, with all manner of plants blossoming from its branches and all manner of beasts blossoming from its roots.

The god of death and undeath, Gareth is specifically noted as being a dark elf and tends to look out for them when he remembers. He is notoriously lazy and fickle, and has Reapers go out into the world to collect the souls of the fallen and bring them to the afterlife to be judged. He has strictly forbidden hidden object games from being on the list of challenges you can make with Death for souls after one particularly embarrassing incident.

Holy symbol: The Grim Reaper, playing a scythe like a guitar.

Shaya is a wanderkin - one of Arc's original disciples, in fact - who fell in love with Gareth despite his faults. She is a lycanthrope at heart, and serves as the goddess of passions, desires, and lycanthropy.

Holy symbol: A crescent moon with a pair of eyes and lips visible in the darkness.

The goddess of love and relationships in all their forms, Reena seeks to create bonds between people, and explores the potential of those bonds.

Holy symbol: A heart bordered with lavender roses.

God of knowledge and magic, and according to some scholars the original creator of the Orb of Wisdom that Shydi uses.

Holy symbol: An open book with an orb of light floating above it.

Goddess of healing and reincarnation, Khiala governs an island in an out of the way location away from the hustle and bustle of the other gods. She is the ultimate master of healing magics up to and including true resurrection, and is responsible for reincarnating souls when they are ready to return to the mortal coil.

Holy symbol: A feline pair of eyes in the midst of a circle made from intertwining arrows.

The goddess of dark elves, Jarillia is known as the Demon Witch by her detractors. Her homeland was conquered by the Traveler's Reach, eliminating her worshippers, and there is conjecture whether she was killed or captured by the Church.

Holy symbol: A black spider within a web of golden threads.

The goddess of fire and fire elves, Pele lives in a volcano and generally keeps to herself, aside from occasionally dropping in to mingle with her fellow deities.

Holy symbol: A volcano erupting, with fire pluming out the top.

The god of war and combat in all of its forms, Avel'Nikash is best known for being the god responsible for the Colby line of martial artists whose feats have become legend. The family line still breeds strong, and once a generation or so, a new Colby picks up the mantle of warfare and leads armies to greatness. Due to Avel'Nikash's strong animosity with Dlonn, the Colby line was blessed to be better capable at slaying demons and yet cursed to always be detectable by them. However, when after the End of Days the great monk champion Harris Colby took as his bride the succubus Amber, demon and human reached an accord, and demons have since escaped much of their infernal heritage of untrustworthiness.

Holy symbol: A clenched fist.

Child of Gareth and Shaya, Fenoa is one body with two souls, male and female. They serve as the deity of shapechangers to a limited extent, but their power has weakened to the point where they were captured and worship ceased.

Holy symbol: A half-circle, half-square, with one eye blue and one eye red.

Third child of Shydi, Novan is focused on the realm outside of the planet, the inky night of space. Truthfully, he doesn't do much, as the last time he made a major contribution on the godly front, it was a 'gift' to Destiny of a pet human and an ill-planned trip that resulted in the apparent destruction of Century, Destiny's moon.

Holy symbol: A circlet of seven stars.

Originally Dlonn, god of the Void, who went a bit crazy when harassed and mistreated by the other gods over the creation of Nexus (which, it turns out, may not even have been his fault at all.) This god slaughtered half of the existing pantheon during the Second Age before finally being temporarily halted by Alshira and sealed in a trap bound by her very soul. He was eventually defeated and destroyed, only to be reconstituted later at the request of a penitent mortal. Having had time to think things through, and time to spend as a mortal, improved Donal's behavior, and he currently serves as the god of Balance that keeps the other gods from getting too chaotic.

Holy symbol: A cloak made of stars.

Goddess of technology, innovation, communication, and portals. Mekista was strongly worshipped in Grenadine, Milochan, and Crommel, although she faded to near obscurity in recent history. However, her power is growing as a resurgent interest in technology has begun.

Holy symbol: A spiral of gold circuitry on a green backing.

God of mechanics, engineers, and mechanical constructs, the Mechanist is actually a man by the name of Eddie Lancaster, who ascended to godhood to become the builder of great machines for the gods, such as their flying craft. Why do gods need flying craft? Style, of course.

Holy symbol: A wrench and gear.

Technically, Helios is not the Sun – he is the driver of a large schoolbus that glows and heats the earth below as it travels. In the days when Arcydea was a flat coin, he would circumnavigate the disc by day, and rest at night on the other side of the world. In the modern era, his bus still travels around the world, but seems to take no stops. While the name of Helios is thought to derive from ancient Greek, nobody has confirmed whether he is the actual Helios from Greek mythology, or simply an also-ran who does similar work in Arcydea.

Goddess of wanderball and the arena, this demigoddess is a ferocious and tenacious fighter who believes in combat pragmatism above all else. She is the de facto leader of the Wandering Designs private military company when not directly led by Arc, and is a master strategist.

Holy symbol: A sword, staff, and orb within a circle.

Whoever said luck was a lady hasn't encountered Kieran – a self-proclaimed Wanderer following in his father's footsteps who has made it his goal to ease the suffering of the people. Unfortunately, nobody's heard anything from him in this cycle, but chances are good that he's somewhere in the Traveler's Reach - hopefully not as a prisoner.

Holy symbol: A large gold coin with two different heads.

Once a mortal chef who sought to make everything - including sentient species - taste delicious, Morton is now a minor demigod due in no small part to the faithful clientele of his chain of restaurants, McGrieson's. Despite this, the other gods aren't too keen on his existence.

Holy symbol: An arched M next to a curving G.

Somewhere in Arcydea, there exists a vampire who was old when the Nexus was first born. The oldest existing vampire on the planet, having lived longer than many of the gods, the bloodline of this vampire is rumored to be all-powerful, and he is rumored to have as his young (by comparison) bride a woman with strong psychic powers.

Holy symbol: None.

Phred is an ancient demon - well, technically a horned devil - that was originally brought to Arcydea a very long time ago as part of an arch-demon's attempt to conquer the world. That didn't pan out, and through a somewhat unlikely set of circumstances Phred ended up getting along well with Shydi, and eventually became helpful to the gods. As an indirect result, in the wake of the Fourth Age, he is recognized as the god of contracts, and unofficially as the patron god of devils and demons looking to adapt to Arcydea (or looking for a one-way ticket home after being stranded in Arcydea), as well as tieflings and similar creatures.

Holy symbol: A contract with a pentagram seal.

Outsiders who migrate to Nexus occasionally bring their religions with them to enough of a degree that their gods get a foothold on the land, usually in the Backwaters. However, three specific examples are worth noting.

The Bek'laran people worship the Egyptian pantheon exclusively, as they originally arrived on Arcydea during a massive flood that washed them into this world. As such, the Egyptian gods hold power in that country, but nowhere else.

Technically, this is Loki of Asgard, or at least one permutation of him, who ended up in Nexus due to a mixup in departure from Asgard to Midgard. However, he's decided that he actually rather likes the chaos of Arcydea, enough to stick around and have some fun.

Holy symbol: Two serpents coiled around each other to form an S shape.

As it happens, enough Christians wander into the Nexus that there is staunch belief in their existence here. Interestingly, holy powers sourced from Jehovah do seem to work, though direct counsel is not commonly reported; it's unclear whether holy priests of Jehovah do their miracles on their own or through their faith. Muddying the water is the fact that many mortals can use 'holy' powers if their belief in a philosophy is strong enough.