The Supernatural in Faelon

The Creator

The “Creator” is a force incomprehensible to men. Is it a being? Sentient energy? A supernatural force? It is unknown and unknowable. The world is born when the creator fuses the elements with spirit. The forces do not naturally merge; it is the power of the creator that brings them together. Faelon is born of this fusion and all things are the result of it, including Ta'ar – men.

The Gaal

The unfathomable complexity of the source of all that is confuses men and leads to strife among them as they dispute their origins, their purpose and the nature of their world. To make itself more understandable to its sentient creations, the creator divided itself into nine “aspects” – the Gaal. The Gaal are separate manifestations of the whole that is the creator, each an important component in the all, but individually more understandable. Each of the Gaal represents itself to men as an iconic symbol, a physical object representative of its role in the totality of the creator.
The Lamp. The Sun, power, energy and truth
The Eyes. The Moons, wisdom, vision and detection
The Hammer. One of the constellations, protection, shaping and strength
The Ship. Constellation, motion, gathering and transport
The Portal. Constellation, deception, chance and destiny
The Hearth. Constellation, creation, healing and change
The Shroud. Starless night, darkness, death and secrets
The Cage. Constellation, crime, greed and imprisonment
The Monolith. Constellation, toil, hunger and desolation
Men view the Gaal in a number of ways and over the centuries many religions have developed to explain the relationship of man to the Gaal. They are not much more understandable than the creator itself, and men attempt their limited understanding through the lens of their own culture.

The Kehinnin

At the birth of the world, the forces that brought it about formed a unified whole. Organic and inorganic substances and the energies that combined and linked them were simply all faces of the same singular totality. Unfortunately for peace and stability, by partitioning itself, the All that is the creator removed the bonds that kept its varied nature in balance. Three of the Gaal – the Shroud, the Cage and the Monolith - embody the negative aspects of the all and no longer forced to exist as a cohesive essence, they rebelled against their fellow aspects. The Revolt of the Kehinnin (“the separate ones”) tore at the very fabric of reality and pulled the world into its three domains – Faelon, Varan (heaven) and Kashorm (hell). The war ended in exhaustion on both sides, with the Gaal unable to destroy the Kehinnin and the Kehinnin severely limited in their ability to move beyond the limits of their realm without help from men twisted to their purposes.

The Sundering

In order to further limit the rebels’ power, the Gaal sundered magic in twain to make it more difficult for man to assist the Kehinnin in moving beyond their eternal prison. A balance was struck that kept any mortal from assimilating the whole of magic back into him or herself. Casters are divided between spells that influence the inorganic and inanimate (“energy" magic, that of the five elements: fire, ice, air, earth, water) and those that influence creatures both living and recently alive (“spirit” magic). Only an immortal may learn the secrets of both, leading some to seek immortality through pacts with abominations such as the Kehinnin and their minions.

The Religions of Faelon

The ancient Krai-jan Empire (the one the Traazorites overthrew) worshipped the Gaal directly.
The Kuzaarik worship the Gaal directly.
The Urdaggar worship the 18 animal totems that are the male and female aspects of the nine Gaal.
Gaal: Male/Female
Lamp: Lion/Eagle
Eyes: Wolf/Owl
Hammer: Boar/Bear
Ship: Horse/Dolphin
Portal: Serpent/Raven
Hearth: Stag/Falcon
Shroud: Jackal/Bat
Cage: Vulture/Spider
Monolith: Mammoth/Shark
The Falkaarans worship 12 male and female gods and goddesses that are the “human” versions of the Urdaggar totems (remember, Falkaarans were Urdaggar once). They do not worship the aspects that are the Kehinnin.
Vidunar: (Lion) War, Courage
Ailea: (Eagle) Truth, Peace
Valar: (Wolf) Learning
Valia: (Owl) Wisdom
Barek: (Boar) Mountains
Glareyn: (Bear) Defense
Jeyna: (Horse) Earth
Orva: (Dolphin) Sea
Syldron: (Serpent) Deception
Sylvia: (Raven) Luck
Modo: (Stag) Forests
Tahnar (Falcon) Sky
The Haradelans worship the same gods the Falkaarans do, but Vidunar (the male aspect of The Lamp and the human version of the Lion totem) is prime and the others all secondary.
The Traazorites worship the Sun God, Runah – the light that showed them way from under the yoke of the Krai-jan Empire. Runah is, essentially, The Lamp, and the Traazorites ignore the rest of the Gaal as of no importance.
The Koronnans worship the Moon God Koromai and the Moon Goddess Koromen. These are the male and female aspects of The Eyes, and their religion is essentially the reverse of the Traazorites’.
The Symidians, Grular and Kandorans worship Kexvar'iss (“the Cycle”) – Life, Work, Family, Hunt, War, Death – each of which is represented by a Face. The Faces are six aspects derived from the old gods, but without the Gaal whose aspects include chance and deception and mystery. The Faces are the six forms man travels through in his life.
The Faces
Horse (Life)
Swan (Family)
Scarab (Work)
Falcon (Hunt)
Tiger (War)
Jackal (Death)
The Grular worship the Cycle, but Narakan the Horse above others.
The Kandorans worship the Cycle, but Krayech the Jackal above others.
The Varkraalans broke away due to religious interference in their lives and forswear all gods, although they do have a spiritual monastic brotherhood.
The Thormenalans, being primarily Faeler, worship the 12 Faeler gods, but being a cosmopolitan nation have many temples to Koromai/Koromen and the Cycle.
The Shakrim worship the Serpent aspect of the Portal, who was not satisfied with his number of followers.
The Trilians are nature worshipers and star gazers.
The Mershael are ancestor worshipers who believe their souls are headed for the Halls of Eternity.
The Kehinnin are the “devils”.

Karelon

Varan (heaven, home to the Gaal) is “above” Faelon and Kashorm (hell, home to the Kehinnin) is “below”, but all three are parts of the same whole. They are the results of the Creator's works.
Karelon is a mirror world, existing in parallel with Faelon but sourced in a different reality. Demons is the common name used in Faelon for the residents of Karelon. The rules of Faelon's physical universe do not apply in Karelon and its very nature shifts from moment to moment. Many demons are jealous of the stability and riches of Faelon and attempt to cross over and take power.

“Good” and “Evil”

Although there is no ‘alignment’ per se in Faelon, there is sure to be some clash between good and evil going on somewhere near the Adventurers. The BrightSword philosophy is that ‘evil is as evil does’, meaning that very, very few things are inherently evil but very many things may take evil actions. Unless possessed or otherwise magically influenced, Adventurers will not ‘radiate’ evil or have an aura that shows as evil to a Detect Spirit spell even if they routinely commit heinous acts. If a player chooses to play an evilly disposed Adventurer, he may (GM permitting) but this disposition will not be ‘detectable’ except through the Adventurers actions. The world will treat an Adventurer as it perceives him to be.

Deities

The Deities available for Adventurer worship will be particular to their culture, but BrightSword makes some fundamental assumptions about them. First, The appearance of a deity is extremely rare if it ever happens at all. They will act through their Chosen to achieve their goals. Second, the souls of those who believe in an afterlife will travel to wherever their Deities reside once they die, unless they have significant unfinished business or their death was extremely traumatic. In these cases they may become Disembodied Spirits for a time.