Deities of Lithmeria

Gods can be created from an ideal or concept by the mere faith of players, and a God and their religion can be destroyed by the concerted efforts of players or merely the ravages of time and neglect. Furthermore, the Gods grant miracles to their followers who earn them with service to the religion. Worshippers can even advance to a higher tier of power within the church by taking on the mantle of the clergy, though this comes at the cost of greater restrictions placed upon you by your deity.

Pantheon

The current Lithmerian pantheon is comprised of these Gods and Goddesses:

Ailnoxis - The Forgefist, The Crucible of Fire
God of Fire, Blacksmiths, and Trials

Argeth - The Silent One, The Cold-Eyed, Judger of Men
God of Justice and Law

Grym - Lucky Grym, Goddess of the Dice, Lady Luck
Goddess of Improvisation, Luck, and Chance

Hykrael - The Dreamer, The Chained
God of Dreams and Divination

Nagenth - Master of Death, Lord of Heroes
God of Death and War

Vihar - The Tempest, Lord of Storms
God of Storms, Sea, and Sailing

"It was magnificent. A thousand souls, hands raised high, singing the praises of the great God Brak'furuh. I could feel Him all around us. Feel Him growing in strength as their words poured forth. A light, subtle at first but glowing ever brighter shone around us and I knew that He was with us and that we were blessed." -- Shardon Ol'moon, High Priest of Brak'furuh, 243 BQ

Lore

The sentient spirit is a force that can be difficult to understand. Potentially, collective faith is a force more potent than the mightiest of magics and the strongest of blades. Upon Lithmeria, this energy manifests itself in the most enigmatic of all beings... the Gods. None can fully explain where the Gods come from or indeed what they truly are. Living contradictions, Gods are powerful beyond measure and yet utterly dependant on their followers.

When enough people collectively believe in a God, that God is born. This process is inexplicable and yet undeniable. Every religious cult in recorded history has spawned a God that faded when the cult dissipated. Theologians, philosophers and scholars have determined that for a God, the faith of their followers grants life and power. The greater the faith, the greater the power.

Religion in one form or another has always been part of Lithmerian life. The earliest records and legends of the primitive tribes upon Teladir describe religious ceremonies and collective prayer. More tellingly they describe minor miracles and visions visited upon the faithful by their deities. When the forefathers of the Sovereignty fled over the land bridge to Aspalaria they brought with them their own Gods and religious practices, spreading them to the western continent. Though most of the conflicts in those ancient times were likely about securing vital resources for survival, it is impossible to rule out wars of faith even in those earliest of days.

Conflict over questions of dogma and the forceful conversion of entire villages increased as the tribes of both Teladir and Aspalaria developed to the point where basic, day to day survival was no longer in question. The nature of the Gods' power source, faith, created a zero-sum environment where the only method of strengthening one's deity was poaching the followers of another. Temples were burned, shrines desecrated and entire congregations converted at sword point. Holy wars raged out of control across two continents.

It was the Grandmagus who acted first. With a decree backed by the military might of the Sovereignty, the Magus forced religious conflict underground in Aspalaria. The consequences for disobedience were horrific. For a decade, the Sovereignty waged war upon the Gods themselves. After the Cult of The Rising Star launched a bloody raid on a village where the Priesthood of Hal'al was worshipped, the Grandmagus ordered the eradication of both faiths. In a single week of horrendous bloodshed, every follower of Hil'ul and the Star was captured. Mentalists, guarded by terrifying Towerguards forced the cultists of each faith to methodically flay themselves alive, carving the word "obedience" into their own flesh before perishing as a grim warning to others.

In a way, it was the Grandmagus who ended the religious strife within Teladir as well. The Sovereignty invasion of the eastern continent put an indefinite hold on outright religious conflict between the Teladir tribesmen. Yet, while fear and collective action has kept outright religious war buried beneath the surface on both continents, it is far from eliminated completely -- and in the present age, as the Endless Siege rages on, new cracks have begun to appear in the enforced spiritual peace of Lithmeria.