Exiled Pantheon

The Exiled Pantheon is the family of gods worshipped throughout the Lands of Exile. The gods that people worship are beings created by The Dark One, the sole god with the power of creation, and ages ago they sided with mortals and prevented absolute annihilation. There is no concept of an all-powerful, absolutely good god in this world.¹

In the mythology of Teneris, the gods of the Exiled Pantheon are the Dark One's children. The Dark One prefers absence and nothingness to existence, and the infinite silence of the Void to the cacophony of the world; involuntarily, in his dreams, he created all things outside the gods, and he holds no love for them.²

The hierarchy of the divine

Like mortals, divine beings are not created equal. At the top of the hierarchy stands the Dark One, the only one with the power to bring things into existence from nothing.³ Below him are four kinds of divine being:

• Greater Gods, created by the Dark One as a conscious decision. Their portfolios are extensive and can overlap, and they reside in the heavens, the upper planes. Born of his will, they can never die as long as the Dark Father lives, though, as in The Time of Silence, they can fall "silent".³
• Auxigon, gods whose powers cover a narrower concept or a specific region: nature spirits, gods of seasons, local deities. Some scholars call them Lesser Gods, but the term is considered disrespectful. Legends tell that mortals could steal their divinity through risky rituals, yet speaking of "ascended" mortals can itself be considered heresy.⁴
• Searne, servant gods directly beneath the Greater Gods, who possess their own divinity while their portfolios always fall under the god they serve. Offerings and prayers given to them belong to their master. The best known is Shamyaza, an archangel who gained divinity by the will of Alarath and is the god of "holy vengeance".⁵
• Gods of The Void, nameless powers that belong neither to the material world nor to the upper or lower planes, and were not created by the Dark Father. Their power always manifests in the world through a kind of distortion.⁵

The gods

God	Role	Portfolios	Symbol
Alarath	God of war and justice	War, Justice, Order, Revenge	Helmet
Amarath	God of home and compassion	Life, Light, Homeland, Mercy	Cauldron and ladle
Apathe	Goddess of broken fate	Darkness, Witchcraft, Trickery, Ambitions	Spiderweb
Aquaron	God of sea and rivers	Balance, Sea, Storms, Nature	Trident and tides
Korhak	God of strength and violence	Rage, Valor, Strength, Honor	Broken axe
Malachar	God of luck and outcasts	Trickery, Loss, Charity, Luck	Dark feather and coins
Volkan	God of artisans	Creation, Hardships, Discipline, Obstinacy	Hammer and anvil
Rakash	God of death	Death, Life, Knowledge, Undead	Flaming heart
Viridia	Goddess of nature	Life, Nature, Harvest, Seasons	Acorn
Zeolet	Goddess of magic	Knowledge, Magic, Secrets, Light	Stars and moon
Zyndalybob	God of adventure and peace	Life, Home, Laugh, Curiosity	Sleeping cat

The gods of the Exiled Pantheon are by no means the only powers worshipped in the realms. The Fran people and the natives of Canarque have pantheons of their own, and scattered cults and local divinities are found across Teneris.²

From shepherds to watchers

In the First Age, every forgotten civilisation had a god who served as its teacher and shepherd; the Greater Gods walked the world through their avatars, guiding people and teaching them many things.⁶ During The Desolation the surviving gods were forced to withdraw to the higher planes. The Church of Alarath teaches that gods living among mortals had left all of Teneris exposed to the Dark One, and that the best way to protect mortals is to watch over them from above.⁷

Worship

The average person worships different gods in different contexts, and most vocations have a patron deity: farmers make offerings to Amarath for a good harvest, magic users worship Zeolet, and soldiers revere Alarath above all. Most people worship a deity tied to their livelihood, family or home, while others feel called to a particular god for reasons of their own.³ Though people often worship several gods, they usually hold one in a special place in their hearts.⁵

Individuals often carry or wear a small token of their favoured deity: a pendant or pin in the image of the god's holy symbol, or some other personal keepsake.³

Worshippers generally see their relationship with the gods as practical and reciprocal. They believe that prayer and offerings are how one invites the blessings of the gods and turns away their wrath. Worship is also civic: the Empire's ideal citizen must be both a subject and an ally of the Twin Gods and the other Greater Gods against the absolute darkness.³

Beliefs vary from province to province and from village to village. Sometimes local gods are met, and sometimes the Greater Gods of the pantheon are interpreted in local ways; the further one goes from the centre, the more the story diverges from that of the High Church.³

Temples, churches and Sanctuary

Even when a temple is raised in the name of a single god, those who wish to honour other members of the Exiled Pantheon can find solace there. The teachings of some gods contradict those of others, and in such cases differences of opinion arise among the priests.⁸

In Sanctuary, the city of temples a few miles southwest of Marble City, each god of the Exiled Pantheon has a priest of the highest rank, a Patriarch. The head of the Cult of Zeolet is always a woman and bears the title Matriarch.⁹

Places among the Patriarchs are reserved even for the leaders of the cults of Apathe, goddess of the drow, and Korhak, the cruel god revered by barbarians. Their temples stand only in Sanctuary, with chained doors and empty halls. The teaching holds that if Apathe and Korhak one day kneel before Alarath in repentance, they may return to their places in the heavens, and their Patriarchs may take their seats on the council.⁹ Apathe is not in the heavens with the other gods.¹⁰