Gods of Karnum
The gods of Karnum are many and diverse, both in power and nature. They take very active roles in the world and most decide to actually reside within the material plane, however the best way to understand how the gods behave is to understand how they came to be
The Great Origination
Before the beginning there was Rymaldír, the god of creation. Now, to call Rymaldír a god is technically a misnomer, because he is a being completely independent and over the gods as mortals know them. He does not abide by the laws that they abide by, in fact he made thsoe laws, and unlike the gods, Rymaldír has little concern for his continued existence, but instead he is eternal. In the beginning Rymaldír created what was originally all of existence, and Karnum within it, reflecting his very being within the creation. However, Karnum was nothing like any being alive knows it, for it was barren, with the only living beings being the plants and fungi of the world. After Rymaldír created the this realm he became bored and began to create the other planes but after creating all the other planes of existence he still found himself bored. All of the places he had created were so still, with nothing but the wind moving about them. The plants were alive and intricate and glorious and yet he still found himself unimpressed with his own creation. He could not think of what else to put in the worlds, for it was not in his nature to create dynamic and chaotic moving creatures, for he is a god of order.And so Rymaldír created divine essence. This essence is what gods are made of and what gives them power. However this essence by itself was inanimate without character, and so Rymaldír reached out into the interweaves of the multi-verse, outside of the existence he created, and took some of the chaos that made its home beyond the shell of existence as we know it. He took this chaos and the divine essence he created and mixed them together and out of the combination was born an unnamed god of pure chaos. Rymaldír being horrified by a being so incredibly contrary to his very nature immediately destroyed this god. As he was considering how to make something good out of the divine essence the fragments of the god of chaos began to coagulate into individual gods, each one distinct from one another and from Rymaldír and yet not nearly as chaotic as what they originated from.
Rymaldír was proud of what had resulted from his creation and looked in great pleasure as the gods began to shape his creation into colorful and wonderous beings, elves, humans, halflings, Tritons, and all the races of the world. To give these beings life and character they infused them with drops of the very divine essence they were made of what men of the today may call the "soul". However soon he noticed an exception to what he liked. Kelthûzamach, the god of death and oblivion was a god that had acquired the greatest portion of evil from the unnamed god and the greatest portion of chaos. He went about consuming and destroying what the other gods created, slaughtering the newly birthed races of the world and consuming their souls, obliterating them entirely while making him more powerful from their destruction. The other gods raced to create more than he could destroy but struggled against the devastation that he could reap. At the peak of his power he began to consume even the creation of Rymaldír, consuming mountains and devouring the forests. Then, Rymaldír intervened. Rymaldír desired to leave the new gods alone regardless of whether they made things exactly as he desired or not, as it was the only way to acquire the variety in his creation that he desired, however Kelthûzamach forced his hand to create laws that would lord over the gods lest all of his creation be destroyed.
The Law Rymaldír is a natural law that needs no enforcer, but simply is, and manifests as such. The edicts of the laws are as follows:
- Divine essence shall be slowly drained away from sedentary gods, and ripped away from those that destroy what has been created and leave nothing behind.
- More divine essence shall be bestowed upon a god dependent on what value their creation, or their domains, bring to the world.
- Any action made by a god shall sap them of some of their divine essence dependent on the magnitude of the action.
The Struggle Between Creation and Oblivion
The laws of Rymaldír allowed him to be sure that the other gods would not begin to truly destroy his creation, but it did not stop Kelthûzamach. By the time the edicts had taken affect Kelthûzamach had already become so powerful that they had little affect on him. Kelthûzamach no longer depended on divine essence to sustain him, but rather now gained his power from non-existence itself. Every time he destroyed something the very nature of that thing being no more would strengthen him. Kelthûzamach had nearly become powerful enough to rival Rymaldír himself. Rymaldír needed to act quickly, and so he pursued Kelthûzamach into the realm he had created for himself, now known as the Realm of Negation. Rymaldír was at first able to easily tear apart Kelthûzamach, replacing portions of the rogue god with pure creation and debilitating him. As Rymaldír tore Kelthûzamach apart he noticed himself becoming weaker. Not only was Kelthûzamach's essence of pure eradication taking a toll on the creator god but in addition the entire Realm of Negation was having the same effect. He became weaker and weaker, and although it may have been possible for him to destroy Kelthûzamach altogether not only did he fear for his own life, but he also knew that if Kelthûzamach managed to wound him, even slightly, the act of destroying a part of creator god would make him nigh unstoppable.
Rymaldír fled from the cursed plane and with his dwindling power created the Domain of Light, the antithesis of Kelthûzamach's realm. There he recovered his strength. Although Kelthûzamach does not dare leave his realm to this day his tendrils still reach into the mortal realm, where he finds the beings just weak enough for him to take before the gods can intervene. And so, devouring the essence of creation, he recovers his strength while the creator recovers his. Rymaldír, knowing the danger of allowing the devourer in the void to feed uninterrupted continued to invade his realm, weakening him but never able to fully destroy him. And so, to this day, Rymaldír struggles against Kelthûzamach in a constant stalemate. He continues to grant more divine essence to the gods that he has approved of, those he deems his children. The gods, unable to even enter the Realm of Negation for even a moment, assist their father in the great battle by creating things and stewarding over the realms that their father, now weakened, can not. Always trying to create enough to outpace the Devourer only to see more of their creation die. A struggle between creation and oblivion, likely to never end.
The State of Things
The story above may be true but it is also the testimony of the gods it tells of, and it is not the first testimony they have given. Thousands of years ago they did not even tell mortals that Kelthûzamach existed and said that death was the natural course of life, but they had to recant this after The Obliteration of Ghalanaer. They also claimed that gods were immortal and could not be killed and the battle between Kelthûzamach and Rymaldír was not part of the story, but then Taux, the goddess of Monstrosities and Fear told the world of the death of prior gods, and so the gods had to recant that as well and gave Rymaldír's fear of the Realm of Negation as the reason why Kelthûzamach is allowed to live. Because of these reasons, and many more, many people are suspicious of the gods and do not trust them completely, if at all, and even fewer worship them. It is only their priests and acolytes who trust them fully and worship them. To those of other realms it may seem strange for the gods to give such plain answers to people, and to be expected to answer to their followers at all, but that is where Karnum differs from the realms of gods who hide themselves behind the veils of other dimensions. In Karnum the gods walk among the people. The creation deities, those that create creatures and substances to replace what Kelthûzamach destroys have their own realms in the Domain of Light, true, but they still frequently visit the Mortal Realm. They resemble their creation much of the time but besides that they vary considerably. For example, Dwaghúm, god of Dwarves, looks like a 4 story tall dwarf with skin of bronze that is cracked in places, revealing his fiery interior. Vulain, goddess of Tritons and the sea, on the other hand is a walking reef, bearing nearly no resemblance to the tritons she has created. As for the lesser deities, they lack a realm of their own in the Domain of Light, and thus are always in the Mortal Realm. And, regarding Kelthûzamach and Rymaldír, neither has ever been seen by any man. On the part of Kelthûzamach mortals are glad, but as for Rymaldír seeming absence most are suspicious as to whether he even exists.Deities of Karnum
The table below lists the deities of Karnum that still live. They are sorted by name, the domain through which they gain divine essence, their alignment, and whether they are a lesser deity (who only gains divine essence through actions relating to their domain carried out by living beings), a creation deity (who gains divine essence through the creation of a particular thing and anything else in their domain), or a greater deity (Rymaldír and Kelthûzamach, both of whom are beyond the restrictions of the other gods).
| God | Alignment | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Aman, god of giants, goliaths, and physical strength | N | Creation Deity |
| Baelith, god of fire and light | CN | Lesser Deity |
| Balkarn, god of battle | N | Lesser Deity |
| Dwaghúm, god of Dwarves and Memory | LG | Creation Deity |
| Ghandur, god of beasts and anger | CN | Creation Deity |
| Goffer, god of gnomes and inspiration | LG | Creation Deity |
| Gyla, goddess of halflings and love | LG | Creation Deity |
| Haiyun, goddess of elves and plant-life | CG | Creation Deity |
| Hamût, [placeholder] | CN | Lesser Deity |
| Hyrandir, [placeholder] | CG | Lesser Deity |
| Ithil, god of grief and pain | N | Lesser Deity |
| Lihti, god of comfort and healing | NG | Lesser Deity |
| Kelthûzamach, god of death and oblivion | CE | Greater Deity |
| Kraux, god of "savages" and envy | CE | Lesser Deity |
| Mawthrax, god of dragons and greed | N | Creation Deity |
| Maulik, god of lizardfolk and obsession | N | Creation Deity |
| Meowlan, goddess of tabaxi and wonder | CN | Creation Deity |
| Nandar, god of blight and decay | NE | Lesser Deity |
| Pielma, [placeholder] | LG | Lesser Deity |
| Rûhl, goddess of rûhntír and change | N | Creation Deity |
| Rymaldír, god of creation | NG | Greater Deity |
| Talrazanor, god of corruption and fiends | NE | Lesser Deity |
| Tariel, goddess of magic and weather | CN | Lesser Deity |
| Taux, goddess of monstrosities and fear | CE | Lesser Deity |
| Tyron, [placeholder] | LE | Lesser Deity |
| Vulain, goddess of tritons and the sea | LG | Creation Deity |
| Yuria, goddess of joy and hope | LG | Lesser Deity |
| Zaelon, god of purity and celestials | NG | Lesser Deity |
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