Gods and Religions of Golarion, a short overview

There is evidence confirming divine beings, such as gods, exist and can influence the world. As such, religion is an integral part to many cultures. While there are no people denying the existence of gods, not everyone deems these beings worthy to be worshipped (such as the whole nation of Rahadoum). Below is a list of the most well known and important gods throughout the Inner Sea region, plus some other gods, faiths and divine beings that may be relevant to the campaign. It is unclear wether deities with similar portfolios, worshipped in different regions (e.g. Sarenrae in the Inner Sea Region and Shizuru in Tian Xia) represent vaguely different aspects of the same deity or two deities seperate from each other. (The entries will include an alignment, but that is given just for the sake of a short overview, as we do not really use the alignment system)

Main Gods

Abadar, Master of the first vault (lawful neutral): Abadar is a patient, calculating, and far-seeing deity who wishes to bring civilization to the frontiers, order to the wilds, and wealth to all who support the rule of law. His primary desire is to see the purifying spread of civilization, enlightening the dark corners of the world and revealing the clockwork perfection of the cosmos. His nature is not hasty, for the pace of society’s reach is slow but relentless. He strikes a careful balance between good and evil, seeing benefits on both sides and refusing to endorse one or the other. His followers believe he is responsible for elevating the various humanoid races from simple tribes to beings capable of creating huge cities.
He puts words of diplomacy in the mouths of leaders, guides the pens of those who write laws, and steers coins into the hands of those who practice fair commerce. The god of cities is stern, but rewards those who work hard and whose actions benef it others as well as themselves, though he is morally ambiguous enough to recognize that not every person can benef it from every decision. He frowns on the misuse of slaves or beasts of burden, considering it a waste of resources and detrimental to the prof itability of civilization as a whole; he views using cheap laborers rather than slaves as a better option, as then the workers can use their funds to participate in commerce and rise above their low station through established economic channels.
Abadar teaches that discipline, keen judgment, and following the law eventually lead to wealth, comfort, and happiness. He does not believe in free handouts, and because of this his temples sell potions and healing spells or scrolls rather than giving them to those in need. Any who protest are directed to the temple of Sarenrae. People attribute cities, law, merchants and wealth to his areas of concern.
Asmodeus, Prince of Darkness (lawful evil): Asmodeus stands among the oldest beings of the multiverse. Fragments of heretical tomes like the Asmodean Monograph, the Book of the Damned, and the Script of Flies claim he was among those responsible for the creation of the stars, the planets,and the first mortal things, but that his pride led to a conflict over the free will of lesser creatures. The bravery of the goddess Sarenrae forced him to acknowledge his murderous role in the war, and he abandoned the battlefield, swearing that one day his opponents would understand the true depth of the conflict—a time when he would return and his inferiors would beg for the order he embodies.
While many theologians and immortal agents of the gods deny the legitimacy of this Asmodean account of the multiverse’s prehistory, the supreme age of the topic and blurring between truth and lies make these records difficult to outright dismiss. He is a god of rigid hierarchies, imposing systems where every creature knows its place, the strong rule over lesser beings, and the weak are properly subservient to their superiors. He is an omnipotent tyrant who creates and destroys as he sees fit. What mortals call “evil” is the natural order of the multiverse to his vast and ancient understanding—water flows downhill, fire burns,and the strong dominate the weak.
He revels in the art of negotiation and delights in deals that appear fair but that actually give one party a disparate advantage—those of superior intellect should recognize when such methods are used against them, and those who don’t see these traps deserve to have their dullness exploited. The Prince of Darkness concerns himself with contracts, pride, slavery and tyranny.
Calistria, the Savoured Sting (chaotic neutral): Calistria is the most widely worshiped elven goddess on Golarion—an ancient deity with a long memory for old slights, at once mysterious, alluring, temperamental, and passionate. Although most of her worshipers are elves, she is popular with other races as well, for at some point almost everyone has felt the fire of lust, engaged in trickery, or been driven to revenge.
The Savored Sting is a sultry manifestation of everything in elves that is fascinating to other races, her beauty characterized as sensual, desirable, and arousing. Although she considers herself female, Calistria has been known to take on a male form that is attractive enough to make any mortal flushed and weak in the knees. She is mischievous, perplexing, devious, and silvertongued, disarming her most powerful rivals with pretty words that, upon careful reflection, reveal themselves as humiliating insults.
Though her sense of humor is rich and sharp, she considers silly jokes and crude pranks beneath one who can convey an hour’s speech in one small gesture and a lifetime of emotion with a careful look. Lies are her meat and drink, halftruths are her favorite wine, and double entendres are a luscious dessert. Her areas of concern are lust, revenge and trickery.
Cayden Cailean, the Drunken Hero (chaotic good): Cayden Cailean is one of the Ascended, a mortal man who became a god after passing the grueling tests of the magical Starstone. Three days after entering the Cathedral of the Starstone on a drunken dare, the good-natured sellsword emerged a living god, baffled and amused. His behavior changed little after his ascension: he continued to fight for just causes, sample various drinks, and avoid things he didn’t want to do.
Thus, Cayden Cailean became the patron of brave souls, alcoholic spirits, and the freedom to choose your own path in life. He expects his followers to be brave in the face of danger, though there is no shame in necessary retreat—he’s the god of bravery, not reckless stupidity. He loves good-spirited toasts, friendly bar brawls, bawdy songs, and standing up for the underdog. He loathes slavery, meanspiritedness, bullying, teetotalers, and restrictive laws and customs. He believes that everyone would get along better if they could all just sit down and have a drink, preferably in the company of attractive companions.
A former mercenary, he believes in fair pay for a job well done, whether in coin, drink or something else. Bravery, ale, freedom and wine are among his areas of concern.
Desna, Song of the Spheres (chaotic good): Desna is an impulsive and aloof goddess who delights in freedom, discovery, and mystery.
Her aloofness stems not from arrogance, but from confidence in her own abilities and her desire to be unburdened by troubles. She is a collection of contrasts—an ancient goddess who dislikes predicting the future, a traveler who cares nothing for her destination, a carefree creature of instinct haunted by a past stretching back eons, and a peaceful deity forced to battle with old enemies, eternally young despite the weight of ages and stars upon her. As a luck goddess, she always believes there is a chance for success, but knows that dreams can turn to nightmares and bright destinies can become dark fates; these opposites in her own nature define her and give her things to strive against.
She challenges those who would corrupt her domain or who have wronged her friends or followers, striking at them with burning starlight, bad luck, and energies alien to Golarion. Although her dominion over dreams and stars means that many seers, diviners, and mystics revere her as an informal goddess of prophecy, she delights in the freedom of people to choose their own destiny. She prefers to use prophecy as a tool for exploration and creating choices, notfor limiting action and snuff ing hope. Desna's areas of concern are dreams, stars, luck and travelers.
Erastil, Old Deadeye (lawful good): Erastil is an ancient deity who first became known on Golarion when early humanoids began to domesticate and dominate their natural surroundings. Legends claim that Old Deadeye crafted the first bow as a gift to mortals so that they might learn to hunt and survive in the dangerous world. Though civilization has continued to advance beyond simple villages, Erastil remains popular in tradition and in the frontiers of the world.
Erastil is primarily a nature deity focusing on the plants and animals that farmers, hunters, and ranchers deal with in their challenging lives. Erastil eschews crusades and brazen heroism, and he has no grand plans to eradicate chaos and evil from the world; he simply wants people to be able to live their lives in peace without the threat of being devoured by monsters, conscripted into an army, or destroyed by world-ending magic. He is a stern patriarch whose spirit is as hard as wood. He isn’t afraid to face down a bully, nor is he too proud to calm a frightened child. He teaches how to read the turning of the seasons, how to know when to sow and reap, how to tell when livestock are sick or gravid, how to poultice a wound and set a broken leg, how to spot a straggling sheep or the signs that a dog has gone rabid. He believes that cooperation leads to friendship and safety, and that if mortals respect the gifts of nature, it will sustain them.
He loves customs that encourage strong family bonds—no matter how quaint they are by modern standards—and enjoys hunting for sustenance but not for sport. Happy weddings and new babies make him smile. He is not one to spout philosophy, and instead gives practical advice and hands-on teaching. His areas of concern are family, farming, hunting and trade.
Gorum, our Lord in Iron (chaotic neutral): Said to have been born from the first battles between humans and orcs, Gorum appears as a suit of spiked plate armor with blazing red eyes. He believes in strength and power, the verdict of the sword, and the music of clashing iron. He does not favor good or evil, and the only right he confers upon mortals is the right to fight for their next breath. As long as people struggle against themselves and each other, Gorum’s teachings live on.
The greatest moments in a Gorumite’s life are those spent locked in close combat, with every moment threatening annihilation—all else is dull and dreary. Wherever war has risen throughout the world ever since, Gorum has been there to inspire mortals to greatness on the battlefield. Under his iron gaze, the worthy find glory—and those who fall are forgotten.
Gorum’s priests believe that if the world ever became free of war, his spirit would abandon Golarion in disgust, but he would eagerly return should mortals ever take up arms again. His areas of concern are battle, strength and weapons.
Gozreh, the Wind and the Waves (true neutral): Gozreh is timeless. Born when the first breeze caressed the ocean, she is ever changing, tempestuous, and unpredictable, yet also prone to periods of constancy, stillness, and routine. He is the storm cloud chased by clear skies, the spring warmth that follows winter, and the fair winds that carry seagoing ships. She is the great wave that capsizes those ships, the gentle current that deposits sailors on safe shores, and the rising and falling tides. Those who ply the waters or rely upon the rains know this better than most, and are sure to placate Gozreh and honor him when the wind and waves are favorable.
When at sea or over water, Gozreh is depicted as a woman with wild, flowing green hair, whose body transforms into endless waves. In the sky and over land, Gozreh is depicted as an aged man with a long white beard, emerging from a mighty storm cloud. Gozreh is moody and brooding, able to spend weeks in a glowering quiet only to explode in a fury of water, wind, and lightning.
He is an elemental force, not fettered by the work of mortals. Gozreh's areas of concern are nature, sea and weather.
Iomedae, the Inheritor (lawful good): Iomedae is a righteous knight, fearless in fighting for her beliefs, and a missionary and crusader on behalf of the benign sovereignty of good and merciful justice for evil. She would rather convince evildoers to lay down their arms in honorable surrender than cut them down, but she will wield her mighty sword against those who persist in serving evil. She loathes incorrigible evil, fiendspawn, traitors, and those who abuse good in the name of “greater” good.
Now out from under the shadow of her patron, the slain human culture deity Aroden, she has proven she needs no mentor to guide her—she is valor, glory, honor, justice, and strength, and is unafraid to point her sword at the greatest evils facing the world. Despite her youth and comparative late start, she has been instrumental in fighting evil in the world, even during her mortal lifetime as a paladin of Arazni (and, after that demigod’s death, Aroden himself ).
Born a mortal in Cheliax, she led the Knights of Ozem in a series of victories over the Whispering Tyrant, and participated in his imprisonment. Success in the Test of the Starstone a short time later granted the valiant swordswoman a spark of divinity and brought her to the attention of Aroden, who elevated her to the position of his herald. When the Last Azlanti (Aroden) died, Iomedae inherited most of his remaining followers.
Though born in Cheliax, she is worshiped by many people outside that land, and most recently has taken up patronage of the Mendevian Crusades against the Worldwound. Her areas of concern are honor, justice, rulership and valor.
Irori, Master of Masters (lawful neutral): Irori was once a mortal man whose intense discipline allowed him to attain enlightenment and divinity through physical, mental, and spiritual perfection. He teaches that mastery of the self allows one to master the world, but paradoxically also purges one of desire to master the world.
Countless others seek to follow his path, and he encourages them to challenge their minds, bodies, and souls in order to transcend their self-imposed limits. He is also a god of knowledge; his followers are keen students of history, for experience is key to understanding and there is much to be learned from the experiences of others. Irori knows that there’s no single technique that works for everyone, and that every student must experiment and practice to find the best method for her. He is patient, forgiving, and serene, welcoming all who seek perfection as brothers and sisters. He is a teacher who leads by example rather than issuing reprimands and corrections.
Meanwhile, he constantly tests his own limits as a deity, expanding his awareness and control without impinging upon the interests of others. Originating from distant Vudra, Irori has gained a diverse following across the Inner Sea region as those who seek discipline and selfperfection look to him for inspiration. Irori's areas of concern are history, knowledge and self-perfection.
Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters (chaotic evil): Lamashtu is the mother of monsters, devourer of infants, and source of all that is corrupted and bestial. A monstrous and terrifying deity born from the depths of madness, she is both fiendish queen and revered mother to the horrors that stalk the night. She is a fertility goddess, but though those who pray to her are certainly more likely to survive childbirth, their offspringwill be inevitably tainted.
Her dominion over beasts makes the wilderness a fearsome place, while her nightmares invade the peace of sleep. The endless screams of the insane are glorious hymns to her, and the destruction of all things lies within her desire. Lamashtu’s goal is to corrupt mortals and twist the entire world into her misshapen brood, an enormous monstrous family devoted to her. She’s neither an empire-builder nor a conquering warlord; if her world is full of warring tribes, so much the better, for it means there will always be a need for many births to replenish the ranks of the fallen.
The primitive and desperate have long sacrificed others’ newborns to protect their own, and many stories of infants stolen and replaced with wicked faerie-kind are actually Lamashtu-altered infants who appear normal and then transform overnight into monsters. Lamashtu's areas of concern are madness, monsters and nightmares.
Nethys, the All Seeing Eye (true neutral): Ancient Osirian legends speak of the god-king Nethys, a man whose monomaniacal pursuit of magic opened the fabric of reality to his probing vision, revealing to him the secrets of creation in this world and in the Great Beyond. The sight catapulted him to godhood and tore apart his sanity, creating two minds in one body. Now his fractured mind seeks both to cleanse the world through its destruction and to guard and heal it, to bend and preserve it, to conquer and free it.
Nethys is a god of two warring personalities, prone to sudden and unexpected mood swings. He teaches that the use of magic for its own sake is the highest calling of mortals, for it is only through magic that one can change reality itself, and he embraces all who take up magical study. He does not care about the type of magic involved or the ends to which people turn it, only that they honor it and exult in its gifts. He represents all magic, from the most benign healing spells to the vilest necromancy, and mortal spellcasters of all alignments ask for his blessing.
Nethys’s only concern is magic—its use, creation, and innovation. He is aware of his mortal worshipers and rewards their devotion with divine power. Likewise, those who perceive new avenues of magic and pursue them gain his favor, regardless of the nature or purpose of the magic. His total awareness means he sees every success and every failure, from the first cantrip learned by a fledgling hedge wizard to the rudiments of star-exploding magicdeveloped on the farthest-flung planet. His area of concern is magic in all its forms.
Norgorber, the Reaper of Reputation (neutral evil): Norgorber is one of the Ascended, a mortal who triumphed in the Test of the Starstone and took the mantle of the god of killers and spies. Little is known of his life as a mortal, for he has concealed this information so others can’t use it against him—possibly murdering those who knew him. He has wiped knowledge of his past from even the memories of the other gods, becoming an enigma to all.
Only his most favored worshipers know enough about his goals to help bring his plans to fruition in the world, and sometimes he wipes the knowledge from their minds when their tasks are done to better preserve his secrets. Some sages believe that if Norgorber’s true nature were discovered, he would be undone—perhaps as a side effect of his passing the Test of the Starstone, or perhaps as fallout from some sacrifice he made for greater power.
He is subtle, devious, and cunning, a cold killer who hides in shadows and trades on his power and information. He is a master of secrets, a true gamesman, and he welcomes all into his church—for eventually, all have secrets for which they would kill. In artwork, Norgorber is most often represented only by his holy symbol: a featureless black mask, often polished to a mirror sheen. Some artists evoke his presence with a black masklike badge or an empty black glove, and worshipers have been known to nail a black glove to a door as a warning to someone who has offended the cult.
Norgorber has four aspects, all of them sinister. He is the Reaper of Reputation, god of secrets; the Gray Master, god of thieves; Blackfingers, god of poisons; and Father Skinsaw, god of murder. Members of Norgorber’s cult usually align themselves with one of his four aspects, though some temples venerate all of them.
The faithful mask themselves and hide their identities from their fellow congregants as scrupulously as they do from their victims. Norgorber is the god of greed, murder, poison and secrets.
Pharasma, Lady of Graves (true neutral): Pharasma is the stern observer of life and death, scrutinizing the tangled webs of fate and prophecy, mercilessly cold in the administration of her duties. Having seen infants die, the righteous fall too soon, and tyrants live to advanced age, she makes no judgment about the justness of a particular death, and welcomes each birth with equal severity.
At the moment of a mortal’s birth, she knows the many possible paths each soul could follow, but reserves her official verdict until the last possible moment. Legends claim that Pharasma saw Aroden’s death approaching—and even judged him as she does for all those born as mortals—but did nothing to warn even her own followers, many of whom were driven mad by the event.
Though prophecy is no longer reliable, prophets continue to be born, and most of them are rendered insane by their confusing and contradictory visions. Though she allows resurrection, the Lady of Graves opposes undeath as a desecration of the memory of the flesh and a corruption of a soul’s path on its journey to her judgment.
The Lady of Graves concerns herself with birth, death, fate and prophecies.
Rovagug, the Rough Beast (chaotic evil): Spawned to destroy worlds, Rovagug tore into existence while the cosmos was still young, devouring and destroying everything he touched and laying waste to the careful creations of the gods. Trapped by a union of desperate deities, Rovagug shudders in anguish and impotent rage, causing the earth to shake and mountains to crumble.
He bellows and clouds of toxic gas billow from rents in the ground. He births monstrosities that clamber from the rotted depths of the world to ravage and destroy in their creator’s place. Rovagug does not dream of glory or wonders. He dreams of the end of existence, shoveling all that lives into his devouring maw and crushing all that does not beneath his terrifying form.
His ruin is not slow entropy but rather destructive fire. All rational beings, divine and mortal, hate and fear him, for he is the hastener of the end, the Unmaker, enemy of the gods and of life itself. Rovagug is the god of destruction, disaster and wrath.
Sarenrae, the Dawnflower (neutral good): Sarenrae is one of the most popular deities on Golarion, and followers of many other faiths respect her power, dedication, and generosity. Once a powerful angel known as an empyreal lord, Sarenrae led the heavenly hosts in the charge against the Rough Beast, Rovagug, and it was she who dealt him the great blow that led to his chaining.
Now a goddess in her own right, Sarenrae is kind and loving, a figure of light, guidance, and healing, and has great patience with those who choose to be blind but may one day see. Yet for all her compassion, Sarenrae is also a powerful force against evil, and strikes down the irredeemable without mercy.
Her faith is ancient; it first became popular among Keleshite humans, then spread to the Garundi in ancient Osirion and into other human and nonhuman civilizations as well. Sarenrae is a goddess of boundless love and exquisite kindness, a caring friend, mother, sister, and protector of all in need. She delights in healing the sick, lifting up the fallen, and shining a guiding light into the darkest hearts and lands. She brushes off insults and deflects attacks, patiently trying to convince those who perceive her as an enemy that their belief is false.
For all her patience and gentleness, however, she is no victim: if it becomes clear that her efforts are wasted, she responds to violence and predations upon the innocent with cleansing fire and scorching light. She dislikes cruelty, lies, needless suffering, and thoughtless destruction. Ancient and timeless, she stands fearlessly against the full tide of darkness, promising that the dawn will always come, and with it, hope, truth, and kindness will triumph. Her areas of concern are healing , honesty, redemption and the sun.
Shelyn, the Eternal Rose (chaotic good): Shelyn has watched over the multiverse with a gentle heart and generous eye since the beginnings of sentience, encouraging mortals in peace and love and reveling in even their crudest artistic awakenings.
A passionate and creative artist in both matters of the heart and works of beauty, she teaches that true beauty takes many forms, that kindness is its own form of strength, that no force is more powerful than love, and that every person is beautiful in some way. She has experienced enough pain herself to recognize the sting of sacrifice, and has soothed enough broken hearts to know that love and beauty are not easy things.
Yet despite the realities of pain and loss, she remains an eternal optimist, helping to mend the deepest pains and turn the coldest hearts toward love and light. No mortal, monster, or deity is immune to her power. Shelyn represents all aspects of love, whether a parent’s devotion to his child, companionship with a beloved pet, the steady tenderness of an old couple, the chaste adoration of a paladin for a deity, or the passion of new lovers.
She prefers relationships based on more than just carnal desire; while she does not oppose such relationships, she hopes that such physical trysts blossom into something deeper. Likewise, she does not consider greed or craving true love, whether directed toward riches or an uninterested person. Shelyn concerns herself with art, beauty, love and music.
Torag, Father of Creation (lawful good): Torag is an ancient god, and his dwarven followers credit him with the creation of the world at his great forge, striking his new work again and again with his hammer to get the shape he desired. As the rocks tumbled and the sparks flew, the dwarves were born—beings made of stone and with bellies full of fire. Even with setbacks over the millennia, under his stern eye the dwarves found prosperity.
Torag is a hard and proud patriarch, a distant but loving father. He is often thought of as a purely dwarven god, yet continues to gain traction among humans. Torag loves the dwarves, and has come to love his non-dwarven worshipers, but withholds most direct aid and affection from both, for he sees life as a hard journey, and if he sheltered his children from all hardship, they would not know the value of their own hard work or the satisfaction of their achievements.
He created the dwarves to be tough, stubborn, wise, and creative—traits they would need to persevere and overcome all obstacles—and expects all his worshipers of all races and walks of life to seek to embody those traits.
He opposes those who act without thinking, rebel, or place their community at risk. Torag opposes the destruction of wellcraftedand frowns on burying armor and weapons with the dead, as these items can help protect a vulnerable community or bring needed coin to an impoverished one.
Torag is a shrewd planner, a great advocate of contingencies, and he holds forethought as one of the principal gifts of living well. However, he knows there are times when a dwarf needs to abandon a failing strategy and think on her feet, so Torag respects officers, soldiers, and wardens who demonstrate this quality.
He prefers organized defenses to tactical assaults, and tactical assaults over reckless charges. The father of Creation is the god of the forge, protection and strategy.
Urgathoa, the Pallid Princess (neutral evil): Urgathoa is an utterly amoral, hedonistic goddess, concerned only with satiating her own desires regardless of the consequences others suffer. Like Desna, she strives for experience and a full appreciation of the world—but her appreciation is utterly selfish.
She was once a mortal woman with a tremendous appetite for life, one who rebelled against the notion of being judged by Pharasma and losing the joys of living. Somehow in death she found the strength to tear herself from Pharasma’s endless line of souls and return to Golarion, becoming a divine being and the world’s first undead creature. Her existence is a corruption of the natural order; some say her first divine footprints upon the soil of the Material Plane birthed plague and infection, and that the first wraiths were born of her breath.
The goddess’s half-rotten form limits the sensations she can experience, so she makes up for this lack with gluttonous depravity—she’s tasted the brains of human infants to savor their innocence, torn the heart from the last living member of a race just to feel the sensation of its hot blood on her hands, and inflicted boils and leprosyupon handsome princes just to see the unique patterns they form on royal flesh.
To her, the dull existence of a dead soul is pointless and tedious compared to the vibrant intensity of mortal or undead sensation, and creatures should cram as much sensation into existence as possible.
Asceticism is repugnant to her, and she particularly loathes those who follow the strict taboos of the Prophecies of Kalistrade. Her areas of concern are disease, gluttony and undeath.
Zon-Kuthon, the Midnight Lord (lawful evil): Zon-Kuthon is a twisted, cruel, jealous god who defiles flesh to bring pain and misery. He represents ever-present pain, emotional darkness, consuming envy, and debilitating loss. Unrepentantly evil, he finds only brief joy in the pain he causes others.
His very existence is a corruption and parasite upon the world. His alien mind constantly seeks new ways to oppress, humiliate, demoralize, and destroy others. While his true goals are incomprehensible, his stated desire is to flay every living thing until the entire world is an intertwined mass of bleeding flesh writhing in pain-wracked ecstasy.
He whips the minds of serial killers, guides the hands of torturers, and plays the nerves of the suffering like a master musician. Zon-Kuthon offers no great wisdoms, no promises of universal truth, no guarantee of rewards in the afterlife. His strange mind sees little difference between this life and the next, and he tortures living flesh and dead souls alike with hideous pleasure and delicious pain.
It’s possible that this bleak nihilism may be part of some more elaborate master plan incomprehensible to even his greatest priests, but so far the method and message is that existence itself is suffering. His faith is lawful, following the natural hierarchy of the strong preying upon the weak, whether for food, entertainment, or proof of dominance. Zon-Kuthon concerns himself with darkness, envy, loss and pain.

Other deities and divine beings

Shizuru, Empress of Heaven (lawful good): Shizuru is the Empress of Heaven, goddess of ancestors and the sun. She is also the goddess of honor and swordplay, and is the patron of samurai and other honorable swordfighters. Shizuru loves the moon god Tsukiyo, so much so that she returned him to life when he was slain by his brother Fumeiyoshi.
The two lovers are rarely together, however, just as night and day are forever divided, but the two deities are able to rejoin, if only briefly, during rare solar eclipses—a sacred time for both faiths. Shizuru’s worship is popular throughout the Dragon Empires, but her faith is strongest in Minkai, for the emperors of that land revere Shizuru as their divine ancestor.
Shizuru is often depicted in art as a beautiful samurai, as a magnificent dragonwith golden scales, or as both simultaneously. Shizuru is the goddess of ancestors, honor, the sun and swordplay. Her worship is more popular in Tian Xia than in the Inner Sea region.
Tsukiyo, Prince of the Moon (neutral good): The surface of Golarion’s moon is marred with a great scar, and the people of Tian Xia say this is where Tsukiyo, the Prince of the Moon, was struck down by his brother Fumeiyoshi, god of envy. When his lover, the sun goddess Shizuru found him the next morning, her tears mixed with his blood to create the first pieces of jade.
Returned to life by Shizuru, he acquired the portfolio of spirits in addition to the moon and jade, and became patron of the reincarnated samsaran race. Always calm and kind, his death has changed his view of the world, growing more thoughtful, offering his understanding and quiet comfort to those who are lost, demonized, or misunderstood.
Tsukiyo is the god of jade, the moon, and spirits. His worship is more popular in Tian Xia than in the Inner Sea region.

Other faiths and philosophies

The Green Faith: Many divine scholars believe that druidism may be older even than the concept of faith. In the earliest days of the world, before even mortal man could envision such abstract ideas as gods or philosophies, the world in which he lived was a constant. The heat of the sun, the coolness of rain, the violence of a storm, the strength of a beast, and the beauty of a wildf lower were all physical proof of the complexity and power of nature.
Certainly, the fact that ancient druidic marks appear in cave paintings or carved in stone so ancient that the markings are little more than shadows testifies to the faith’s ancient genesis. The philosophy of the Green Faith may be one ofGolarion’s oldest. Dedicated worshipers of the Green Faith spend some time each day in deep meditation, communing with the natural forces.
Peasants and farmers show their adherence to “the old ways” by hanging bundles of fresh herbs over their doorways, tending to their holdings without disturbing the natural order, and showing respect for nature whenever possible.
Not all druids are members of the Green Faith, but only the most bitter and disenfranchised druids scoff at or deride the philosophy’s values.
The Prophecies of Kalistrade: Based on the dream-records of an eccentric mystic from the early days of the Age of Enthronement, the Prophecies of Kalistrade teach a regimen of sexual and dietary prohibitions, exclusive adornment in the color white, and the wearing of fulllength gloves to prohibit physical contact with those who do not follow this path to enlightenment.
Those who adhere to the Prophecies can expect to achieve vast personal wealth and success later in life—followers of the Prophecies who remain poor or destitute have, invariably, neglected one of the philosophy’s core teachings, and thus do not deserve to reap the benefits of a life walking the straight and narrow path of Kalistrade.
Followers of the Prophecies of Kalistrade have weathered the recent change in ages quite well—they feel sheltered from the panic and turmoil surrounding Aroden’s death, and point to this as proof of the inherent superiority of following this philosophy over blind allegiance to a god. Gods can die. Thought and tradition can not. Many followers of this philosophy have come to believe that a time of transformation is at hand, a transition into an age where the gods become relics of the past, and the true followers of the prophecies shall inherit the world.
Certainly, ongoing and relentless expansion and evergrowing financial holdings suggest Druma will continue to grow in the years to come. This philosophy’s great strength is in its open acceptance of new members, regardless of gender, race, or background.
Although humans are generally the most common members, anyone capable of demonstrating the ability to adhere to the philosophy’s strictures and thus amass personal wealth is welcome, making this philosophy (and the nation of Druma) a popular destination for refugees.