Erathis - Goddess of Civilisation and Invention

Erathis is the unaligned god of civilization, inventions and law. Rulers, judges, pioneers and devoted citizens worship her, and her temples are present in most major cities of the world. She lives with Pelor in Lights Blessing, where they are known as "the King and Queen of Light" and rule the Fortress of the Sun.
She is said to be in a relationship with Pelor and is allied with Moradin and Ioun. She is perhaps the only god on cordial terms with Asmodeus, as tyranny and dystopia are forms of civilization. Her antithesis is Melora, the unaligned goddess of wilderness, nature and the sea.

Contents

• Notable Centres of Worship
• The Church of Erathis
• Tenets of Faith

Notable Centres of Worship

Those who choose to worship Erathis are often found either at the edge of society, working to tame the wilderness, or at its very centre, striving to invent and promote new ideas. Below are a few of the most notable centres of worship throughout Drass.

• The Empire of Winter - Due to the fierce expansionist agenda of the Empire in recent years, worship of Erathis has sky rocketed as inventors develop new methods to connect the empire, and weapons with which to expand their borders.
• Bingtown - The closest the world of Drass gets to a frontier in the current age, the city of Bingtown is the only city on the continent of Blightfall and so has had a strong contingent of Erathis worshippers since its inception. Usually this worship is tempered by the presence of Melora worshippers, however the unique soil qualities of the Bingtown region makes farming impossible. This results in fewer worshippers of Melora, and therefore a more powerful Erathian clergy than usual.

The Church Of Erathis

It comes as no surprise to learn that the church of Erathis has a rather strict internal order based on a rigid military structure, but the leeway given to the individual members to pursue their own goals does come as something of a shock to new recruits and visitors. Responsibility to a society begins with responsibility to the self. The Erathian philosophy of Unity exhorts members to do what is best for the whole by enriching themselves, though always in the context of assisting others.
The church of Erathis is formally divided into four hierarchies, each of which commands its own force of willing recruits of various stations. In practice the four orders overlap considerably, and someone who is nominally a member of one order can receive rank and accolade from another for exemplary service.

• The Order of the Sword are explorers and conquerors who forge into new lands without fear.
• The Order of the Coin are bankers and traders who are as comfortable in an ancient treasure-filled ruin as they are behind a desk.
• The Order of the Hammer takes on the role of policemen and lawmakers, both external and internal, and are the first line of defense against attack.
• The Order of the Gear are inventors, both of grand new machines and of political strategy.

The Order of the Sword

The Order of the Sword make it their business to forge into the wild, uniting disparate faiths and tribes under one rule and laying the foundations of a grander society. Before the forging of the Divine Gate, the Grand Master Sword was considered the leader of the church as a whole and commanded unrivalled power. It is said they could call upon the armies of a hundred nations united under a single goal and throw it against the unconquered wild. In modern times, these operations are limited to assisting smaller kingdoms and warlords in their efforts for unity. The glory days of grand wars led by the Chosen of Erathis are past, though the church works ceaselessly to see them once again.
For now, the Swords must contend themselves with subtly or overtly steering expeditions towards minor victories or serving the efforts of other deities, such as Bane. Indeed, the greatest successes of the church in modern times are attributed to their efforts with Bane‘s church, which in turn credits the funding and careful groundwork laid by the Erathian faithful. The relations of Erathis with other faiths are stretching thin as a result, and will soon come to a head unless a better way is found. The order is split over the issue of Bane; all agree that working with his faithful helps the church achieve its goals, but many are unsure of how long this relationship can last and what effect it will have in the long run.
Of the orders, the Swords are the most likely to be found in adventuring parties, though almost no Erathian would travel alone if they could help it. Not only does exploring conquering wild and unknown lands appeal to them, but they also face an increasingly hostile reception in their own church as the pressure to choose a side mounts.

The Order of the Coin

The Order of the Coin, sometimes nicknamed the Bankers, is given the responsibility to safeguard routes for travellers and trade and to maintain economic stability. The Coins are by far the most powerful order currently in service as civilization has splintered into a thousand points of light in the wild, and their task is daunting. They must make dangerous treks to remote places several times a year, promote expeditions into ancient ruins in an effort to recover lost wealth and maintain the value of coinage to better promote economic unity, not easy when every nation insists on stamping its own king on metal, and there are few tactics they won‘t resort to in their duty.
The Bankers must contend with safely transporting gold reserves from place to place, travelling to remote areas to set up new teleportation portals to better aid future reclaiming and making roads secure for traders to travel. But it also falls to the bankers to keep safe their vaults, and here lies the order‘s greatest task. With the fall of empires, many vaults and their locations have been lost to time. A family of claimants (or even ancient immortal claimants themselves) might wish to reclaim items stored in such places centuries later, prompting the order to send forth an expedition into ruined cities to open a safety deposit box, assuming that some daring adventurers haven‘t claimed the articles already. The Order must occasionally hunt down adventurers who wield powerful items meant for storage, and reclaim them by force if necessary. The bankers will stop at nothing to maintain their reputation for reliability.
Of all the orders, the Coins are most susceptible to falling into the trap of Tiamat‘s greed and selfishness. They must make money for the church, but it‘s all to easy to skim profits or make shady arrangements for the purpose of wealth, actions which harm the whole. Wealth is the driving force of prosperity and conquest, so these unfortunate souls must learn caution should they wish to avoid the Hammer.

The Order of the Hammer

The Order of the Hammer takes upon itself to maintain the laws of whichever society they inhabit, defend the strongholds of civilization and punish crime against society. They are considered a rough lot, having long since come to face the realities of their work, and will stop at nothing in their investigations. They must also investigate their own church for weakness and are given invasive authority to do so, as personal freedom is sacrificed for the good of the whole. Moreover, they must uphold the law of the church which can create problems of jurisdiction when they overlap with the laws of a nation. The Hammers officially divide themselves into the Guard and the Arbiters, with the former serving a militant role and the second focusing their efforts on being neutral judges. Some cities fold the two together, forming a formidable police force which takes upon itself to arrest, judge and punish, while others abhor the very notion.
Hammers must uncover heresies of greed and selfishness within their own ranks, all while juggling jurisdictions and personal stress. Many of them simply burn out at a young age, even with the gifts their goddess grants them. When combined with endless temptation and familiarity with Tiamat‘s worshippers, the Hammers are ironically often in danger of seceding from the church. Wayward souls will stumble along this path all too often.
Hammers will sometimes swear a vendetta of justice upon a specific threat to law or a city, such as an army of invaders or an organized criminal gang. They drop all formal titles to Erathis and act alone as loose arrows, sometimes even uncaring of collateral damage as long as the job gets done. Their reasons are often personal, such as the death of a loved one or the loss of a partner, but the end result is usually a flurry of daring heroics and massive bloodshed. Whether the church approves is another matter entirely.

The Order of the Gear

The Order of the Gear is considered the strangest of the four hierarchies. It‘s their duty to not only find and invent new ideas and technology, but also to reinvent that which has come before in an effort to make it better. The inventions they take credit for may often be wondrous as their reputation demands, but the ones the order are most proud of are functional and effective, ranging from the letter of credit to a better kind of horse collar. They are also political activists, constantly reinventing social constructs and political theory. They tend to work closely with the church of Ioun, as long as their particular brand of historical revisionism doesn‘t get too much in the way.
The central philosophy of the Gear is not unity, but what they call the River. The Gears will patiently explain that their work is never ending, but also that their work can become meaningless in the blink of an eye should better ideas come along, borrowing earlier ones as tributaries form a larger stream. What they don‘t tell just anyone is that the same concept applies to societies; that some societies simply come to a natural end, while the surviving ones borrow traits from those that came before and start over. Essentially, the philosophy of the River is a direct contradiction to Unity in that it expects empires to fall, much as Unity impels them to rise. It‘s not unknown for other Erathians to look askance on this idea, and it has on occasion even been deemed heretical, leading to internal warfare in the name of unity. But as the Gears say, this is also the function of the River.
The Gears are deeply involved in politics wherever they go, be they interpersonal or national. They tend to interpret everything they see in a political slant, which annoys followers of Ioun who value a neutral viewpoint, and will readily reinterpret history and even recent events to suit their views. Adventuring Gears will often dabble in useful alchemy and delight in finding new societies and learning about them as much as they enjoy immediately meddling with them. They are also explorers, and often travel with settlers who wish to form a new community.

Tenets of Faith

Erathis has straightforward commandments, all centered on one goal; build and maintain civilization. Her commandments do not command behaviour from individuals, but instead motivate the whole towards a purpose. She commands society, not the person, and even pits societies against one another for the sake of simple testing.
An example of her many laws:

• Work with others to achieve your goals. Community and order are always stronger than individuals.

• Tame the wilderness to make it fit for habitation, and defend the light of civilization against darkness.

• Seek out new ideas, inventions, lands and wilderness. Build machines, cities and empires.

Divine Domains

Knowledge

Divine Classification

Deity

Alignment

Lawful Neutral