Category:Religion

The Deities of the Talmaron Campaign Setting are divided into pantheons:

The Pantheons

None of the deities listed here are racially exclusive, although many of the primary churches of those gods are steeped in deep-seated racism. The gods themselves seem pleased to grant powers and gifts to any suitably devout servant (or, in the case or oracles, to whomever they see fit to grant power).

The Human Pantheon

There is only one major human deity in the Old World, with tribal deities and ancestor worship being uncommon, but not unheard of, alternatives. The primary human deity has numerous servants, mostly Saints and Archangels, who fill roles outside of those supplied by his purview.

Maeleldil

Saints

Though it is not expected to have a mechanical effect, the holy symbols of saints are typically icons carved as cameos or painted on slates.

St. Erden Dragonblood, patron of dragonslayers

St. James, patron saint of wizards and sorcerers.

St. Michael, patron saint of messengers and travelers.

St. Peter, patron saint of death, judgement and justice

St. Justine, patron saint of deposed nobles, prostitutes, maimed soldiers and those fallen from grace.

St. Frederick, patron saint of mourners, loss and necromancy.

St. Jude, patron saint of desperation and technology.

St. Agab, patron saint of divination and fortune telling.

St. Roger of Hawkins, patron saint of grifters and ad hoc solutions.

St. Tithus, patron saint of war and conquest.

Others too numerous to mention.

The Halfling Pantheon

Halflings worship a single mad moon god who wears many different faces. While they acknowledge- nay, insist -that each of these faces is only one facet of the same mad god, they also argue that each should be treated as though it is a distinct entity with distinct desires and goals.

Chiura

The Elven Pantheon

The elves have a pantheon of gods, each of which represents one of the four classical elements.

Losh

Makila

Gnorri

Shori

The Gnome Pantheon

Gnomes who don't follow a deity from one of the other racial pantheons tend to be animistic nature-worshipers.

The Orc Pantheon

Orcs primarily worship Archdemons, although many of these are restyled as gods in their own right, and their worship may even be sanitized to a less brutal form, especially as orcs become more comfortable in their roles as pirate-kings of the high seas.

Other Races and Cultures

Gnolls

Gnolls, like Touri and humans, worship the sun and the moon. They view the moon goddess as a supremely powerful matriarch queen, and her husband the sun as a lazy but good-natured dabbler, who rests by night so he may join in dreaming. It is said among the gnolls that the moon went on an errand for many years once, and left her husband in charge of the world. He imagined and created all the various races, growing more excited and whimsical with each of his creations. When his wife returned, she laughed at her husband's folly and created the gnolls as her chosen people to harry and feed off the strange creatures her husband had created.

Illithid

Deep within the earth, the scheming aberrant race of squid-faced wizards known as illithids practice a sort of philosophical religion known to them as Illthea, the worship of the divine self. They are able to grant themselves, though devotion, meditation and strange self-determined prayers, divine power. To date, no other race has ever replicated this feat.

Goblins

Goblins (and Bugbears, Hobgoblins and other miscellaneous goblinoids) primarily engage in fetishism, ascribing spiritual purpose, volition and intent to inanimate objects, typically things make of animal parts, bones, hairballs and/or bezoars. This ranges from the simple object fetishism of common goblins to the dolls and rattles used by hobgoblins and bugbears.

Kobolds

Kobolds worship dragons, ascribing power to dragons beyond what even dragons claim. Kobold shamans erect totems in honor of their draconic patrons and, in time past, used to make substantial sacrifices to their dragon masters.

Connections

The Elven Pantheon is sometimes believed to have originated as animistic concepts from within gnome religious practice, which predate all other pantheons (and might, in fact, be the source of all deities). Losh, Makila, Gnorri and Shori have shared suffixes that are common to both Elven and Gnomish languages (the -ri suffix indicating vitality), although the elements of gnomish animism include aether (Orikal), the substance between the stars, and mana (Sirri), the pure essence of magic. "Chei" is a gnomish word similar to the prefix of Chiura's name that means "color of moonlight." Maeleldil doesn't have a direct connection, but in defense of this theory of theistic origins, the worship of Maeleldil (at least as a sun god) predates the concept of historic records.

Most scholars of ancient history agree, at the very least, that Chiura and Maeleldil were once deities from the same pantheon, possibly as the goddess Chia and the god Ma'illumen. The halflings are pleased to concede that this is possible. The humans are horrified by these implications.