Sovereign Host
The Sovereign Host is the most dominant religion on Khorvaire. Vassals believe that the Sovereigns and the Six are all around us, shaping and influencing the world within their respective domains of influence. Onatar is with you at the forge, Dol Dorn is by your side on the battlefield. Arawai helps to ensure a good harvest, and The Devourer brings the storms that destroy your crops. The Dark Six are also with us, urging us to give in to our darker natures, to selfishness, greed and cruelty.
The Sovereign Host is one of the most diverse religions in the world, with endless interpretations and cultural variations. Generally, the Host are worshipped as a pantheon, but some individuals feel a closer connection to a particular Sovereign and will focus their worship on that Sovereign, but they will generally still offer prayers to the rest of the pantheon as appropriate.
Followers of the Sovereign Host are called Vassals, but although they share a name they do not necessarily share all of their beliefs. The names and groupings of the Sovereigns can change, but the general idea remains relatively consistent; the Sovereigns do not walk the world in physical form, they are always with you. You don't expect to meet Dol Dorn, but you know that he is with you when you draw your weapon, and you know that Aureon is watching over you every time you cast a spell. Similarly, you know that The Devourer is present in every storm and you can no more fight him than you could fight a hurricane.
The Sovereign Host is an intensely personal faith. The Sovereigns are everywhere, guiding the hands of any who will listen. Due to the diversity in the faith and the personal nature of it's worship, the Sovereign Host has no greater organisation or hierarchy like the Church of the Silver Flame. A city might have a single eight-sided temple to the Sovereigns as a whole, but in smaller communities like villages there might only be a small shrine. Generally, priests are just individuals that are thought to be particular close to one of the Sovereigns; an innkeeper might speak with the voice of Boldrei as a pillar of the community. A priest of the Sovereign Host's role isn't as an intermediary to the divine, anybody can speak to the Sovereigns, they are always with you. Instead, priests act as spiritual advisors, giving guidance and advice, helping you to understand the path you're on in life. Generally, a shrine to a particular Sovereign will serve a dual function related to that Sovereign. A shrine dedicated to Aureon might be found in a library, or a shrine to Onatar in a forge, with the priests also being experts in the field closest to their Sovereign.
There is also a great deal of mythology surrounding the Sovereigns, too much to put in an article on WorldAnvil. The most important are that Vassals believe that the Sovereigns defeated the Overlords during the First Age. There is no inherent conflict with the Church of the Silver Flame here, they believe that the Sovereigns defeated the Overlords, and the Silver Flame must have been the tool they used to bind them.
The Sovereigns
Vassals recognise and worship the Nine Sovereigns, who are as follows:- Arawai, the Sovereign of Life and Love. She is a fertility goddess, and represents the gentler side of nature. She is believed to bring good weather and bountiful harvests, and she guides your hand when you work the earth.
- Aureon the Sovereign of Law and Lore. He is a god of magic, thought to be the First Wizard and the one who brought the gift of magic into the world, and taught mortals how to use it.
- Balinor, the Sovereign of Horn and Hunt. He guides those who walk the line between nature and civilisation, hunters and gatherers, but also the animals themselves.
- Boldrei, the Sovereign of Home and Hearth. She represents community, both the bonds we choose and those we are born into. She encourages people to work together for the common good.
- Dol Arrah, the Sovereign of Sun and Sacrifice. She represents acting with wisdom and consideration in battle, and encourages those who follow her to fight with honour, and be willing to make sacrifices for the good of others.
- Dol Dorn, the Sovereign of Strength and Steel. He is the patron of soldiers, and represents strength and bravery in battle. He guides you whenever you use a weapon.
- Kol Korran, the Sovereign of World and Wealth. He guides and protects traders and travellers, and encourages negotiation and broadening of one's horizons.
- Olladra, the Sovereign of Feast and Fortune. She is a goddess of luck, and the patron of entertainers, gamblers, and those who take risks.
- Onatar, the Sovereign of Fire and Forge. He guides the hands of everyone who creates, and inspires crafters to improve their work.
The Six
Vassals also observe the existence of the Dark Six, who are as follows:- The Devourer, who is the tsunami that overwhelms and the wildfire that consumes. He represents the primordial, terrifying power of nature, and how we will never truly tame it.
- The Fury, who guides you when rational thought has failed you. She is the rage, the reckless all-consuming passion, your base instincts.
- The Keeper, who represents the darker side of commerce and encourages self interest above all else. He is a god of the dead, and greedily hoards the souls of those who have gained his attention. He is also known for a willingness to make deals, which priests make on his behalf.
- The Mockery, who represents betrayal and cruelty. He will drag you through the mud and drive you to betray your principles, but at the end of the day, you'll have won.
- The Shadow, the Sovereign of Ambition and Temptation. The Shadow whispers that there is no "common good", everyone is out for themselves and why should you give when all others do is take? The Shadow is also the keeper of forbidden, dangerous knowledge, and hoards secrets like the Keeper hoards possessions.
- The Traveler, who represents chaos and change. The Traveler was not originally a member of the Sovereign Host like the others, and touches on all of their domains. The Traveler is enigmatic, but all who worship or fear them can agree: whatever gifts the Traveler might grant, they will always lead to chaos. The Traveler will force you to change and adapt, with no care for whether the change is good or bad.
The Pyrinean Creed
The interpretation of the faith that is most commonly worshipped throughout Khorvaire is the Pyrinean Creed. When human settlers originally migrated from Sarlona, they brought the faith with them. Most of the time, when someone makes reference to the Sovereign Host, they are referring to the Pyrinean Creed, and though it may have changed over time, the version of the faith practiced in Pyrine formed the very foundations of the Five Nations and later the Kingdom of Galifar. You can see the values of the faith in the values of the people, you should follow the laws (Aureon) and value the traditions and culture of your community (Boldrei). Industry (Onatar) and commerce (Kol Korran) are encouraged, but care should be taken not to succumb to greed (The Keeper). When conflict breaks out, you should fight with courage (Dol Dorn) and with honour (Dol Arrah), and you should make an active effort to avoid engaging in cruelty (The Mockery). You should trust in the laws and process of your community, and not fall to vigilantism (The Fury). The Sovereigns, and the values they embody, are baked into the foundations of the Five Nations, and can be seen everywhere you go. Many people are not active worshippers of the Sovereigns and don't really believe that the Sovereigns are guiding their every action, but they still know the names of the Sovereigns and roughly what they stand for. Most Vassals will have heard the term "Pyrinean Creed", but the history of the title is mostly only of interest to scholars. Whilst most people will know the name, they won't understand the context or what it really means.Alternate Representations
Worship of the Sovereign Host is varied and diverse, and the most common differences are in representations of the specific Sovereigns, rather than wider differences in belief. Most Vassals explain most of these alternate faiths as variations of the Host, believing that the same deities manifest themselves to every person, just sometimes in different forms that would be more comfortable to those people.Adar
The Path of Light has a large following amongst the Kalashtar of Adar, but it is not the only faith there. Adar is a land of extreme weather, and this is reflected in their religion. Adarans pay homage to Braahyn, the god of the wilds and the movement of the earth; his wife Aarakti, the goddess of abundance and storms, and their daughter Sorzai, the goddess of passion and the howling of the winds. All three of these deities combine aspects of either Balinor, Arawai or The Fury with The Devourer.Cazhaak Creed
The Cazhaak Creed is the dominant religion in Droaam, and has the most contrasting interpretation of the Sovereigns and Six to the Pyrinean Creed.Church of the Wyrm Ascendant
The Church of the Wyrm Ascendant is an unorthodox interpretation of the Sovereign and Six that asserts the Sovereigns were dragons, not mortals.Darguun
The Dhakaani were actively atheistic, but following their fall to the kapaa'vola (see Heirs of Dhakaan) their descendants began to worship a pantheon of sixteen gods that roughly matched up with the Sovereign Host. This is more gods than modern worship of the Sovereign Host, and the details of the sixteenth deity have been lost to history. Some goblins in Darguun have taken to referring to this sixteenth deity as "The Overthrown", a naming convention that would place them amongst the Dark Six. After the formation of Darguun and closer relations with the other Five Nations and in particular House Deneith, many modern goblins revere Balinor, Dol Arrah, Dol Dorn, The Mockery and The Shadow together.Mror Holds
The dwarves generally worship the Sovereigns, but with a particular focus on Kol Korran, Boldrei, Olladra, Onatar and Dol Dorn. Each of the dominant clans of the Mror Holds have a variety of different religious views, but they have mixed the mythology of the Sovereigns into the mythology of their own people, mixing tales of the Sovereigns with those of their clans founders.Restful Watch
Vassals of the Restful Watch honour Aureon and The Keeper. They handle funerary rites for all of the faithful, and a Restful Watch temple can be found in every major city in the Five Nations. Smaller communities may have a shrine and a single priest who watches over the graveyard. They believe that souls pass through Dolurrh on their way to the realm of the Sovereigns, and that once a soul has passed on to the Sovereigns they can never return. One of their duties is helping those who have lost someone to choose appropriate grave goods to distract The Keeper and ensure that their soul reaches Dolurrh.Rushemé
The giants of Xen'drik also worshipped a pantheon of gods similar to the Sovereign Host. Giants calling themselves the Rushemé camped near the city of Stormreach in Xen'drik, and shared stories of their faith with the settlers there. These giants revered a mixture of primal and divine entities, with a particular focus on four gods. They revere Ouralon the Lawbringer as the bringer of magic, and hold that he was consumed by his shadow, serving as proof that all arcane magic is ultimately doomed to bring about our downfall. Rowa of the Jungles Leaves is the goddess of life and nature, but also prone to fits of rage, combining aspects of both Arawai and The Devourer. Banor the Bloody Spear is both a god of war and the bridge between civilisation and nature, mixing aspects of Dol Dorn and Balinor. Finally, Karrak the Final Guardian and Keeper of the Dead preserves the most important souls from fading away after death, representing a more positive spin on The Keeper.Sahuagin
The Sahuagin venerate a single god called Sha'argon, The Devourer. They believe that Sha'argon is the only god worth venerating, and that after he defeated and devoured the Overlords, he also consumed Arr'ai and Ba'alor, forcing the other Sovereigns to flee in terror, abandoning the world.Shadow Marches
The orcs of the Shadow Marches traditionally worshipped a smaller pantheon that contained some of the same archetypes as the Sovereigns, who melded these beliefs with those of the human settlers. Garu-Umesh the One Eyed was merged with stories of Dol Dorn, Baaldra the Protector with Boldrei, Baalkan the Beastlord with Balinor and Ollarasht the Gambler with Olladra.Talenta Plains
The halflings of the Talenta Plains worship spirits rather than the Sovereign Host directly, but they particularly revere a deity of the hunt that they call Bally-Nur, who greatly resembles the Sovereign Balinor.Three Faces Cults
The Three Faces cults refers to a collection of individual traditions that worship and honour the Sovereigns and Six in unusual groupings. They are not necessarily connected. Whereas the Pyrinean Creed says we should honour the Sovereigns and shun the Six, and the Cazhaak Creed argues the opposite, the Three Faces cults believe that there are some on both sides who make excellent points. Some notable Three Faces cults include:As is the world, so are the gods. As are the gods, so is the world.
Type
Religious, Divine Host
Alternative Names
The Sovereigns, The Host
Demonym
Vassal
Subsidiary Organizations
Permeated Organizations
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