The Church of The Sovereign Host
Within the Kingdom of Korbal, there is little official restriction on the focus of an individual's worship, as long as that worship fulfills two criteria:
The focus of the worship must be recognised as a deity by at least one culture of significant size
The worship itself must not contravene any secular laws of the kingdom
However, there is still a social stigma attached to worshipping deities outside of the traditional state pantheon.
This means that although worshipers of recognised deities, such as Pelor or Melora are not persecuted, their congregations are likely to be limited in size
The focus of the worship must be recognised as a deity by at least one culture of significant size
The worship itself must not contravene any secular laws of the kingdom
However, there is still a social stigma attached to worshipping deities outside of the traditional state pantheon.
This means that although worshipers of recognised deities, such as Pelor or Melora are not persecuted, their congregations are likely to be limited in size
Mythology & Lore
Freimut and Gudrun
Freimut and Gudrun were the first deities in the Korbalian Pantheon, representing the national ideology of looking to the future while drawing caution and lessons from the past.
Depicted as Husband and Wife, the other gods and goddesses are their children:
Aimar and Brant
Aimar and Brant were the first children born to Freimut and Gudrun. Twins, born seconds apart, they are as similar and separate as only twins could be.
Aimar is the elder, and very much his mother's son. Charged, as much by himself as his parents, with defending them all against the ancient evils of the world before the true birth of Teraima, he was gifted with a shield of star-matter, impenetrable as long as his will remained strong.
Brant, only a moment younger than her brother, is as much of her father as Aimar is of their mother, far more prone to making a decision in the moment and taking action. A number of their legends begin with Brant taking action against an outside force, sometimes for a slight against their parents, other times simply because she deemed them too powerful. Her violent actions are generally at least partly successful in these tales, but more often than not they result in retribution from those she struck out against. This retribution tends to be at least as violent as her own action, most commonly by a considerable margin.
Such tales almost always end with Brant and Aimar succeeding by fighting back to back against a force neither would be able to handle alone.
Heilke and Alawis
Heilke and Alawis were the second pair of twins born to Freimut and Gudrun. Unlike their elder siblings, they were very much a pair.
Heilke, ever curious, spends half her existence journeying out between the realms, gathering images, tales, and new information, from exotic spells, to new styles of cooking. The other half she spends sharing her new knowledge with her family, most enthusiatically her twin and, just as importantly, planning her next journey.
Alawis, less adventurous, but no less eager for new experience, devours everything Heilke shares each time she returns and they spend extensive periods together, with him crafting great artworks to capture the sense and emotion of her stories, both of which are often copied into the great histories their mother keeps, a record of both experience and fact.
This fusion of the two brought about the korbalian saying: "Fact or Feeling, True is True.", sometimes shortened to just "True is True", which means that, whether a thing happened exactly as recounted, or simply seemed to be that way, it was still true for the person telling of it. This mixed definition of "Truth" is also why there are two different stages to Korbalian Trials, Punishment for Crime and Restitution for Injustice.
Reingard
Reingard was the first of Freimut and Gudrun's children to be born alone. He was the also the first to take an interest in doing more with the world around him than simply studying it. It is therefore of little suprpise that it is within his legends that the first mentions of humans arise, at least as more than an casual observance.
According to these legends, Reingard worked with the humans to develop their internal rules and figuring out how to build on their hunter-gatherer roots to understand how to cultivate both plants and animals for a greatly eased lifestyle.
In this he was helped by his elder siblings to guide the humans in their growth, between them teaching their charges about magic, organised combat and all the other things they needed to defend themselves and their newly civilized holdings from the rampaging bands of demons and monsters.
Livina
Livina is the youngest of Freimut and Gudrun's children and, unilke her many siblings, she is prone to acting without any caution and, even more difficult, has difficulty in asking for help before it is too late.
Her most commonly told legend is the one which also granted her epithet. It revolves around her interactions with a collection of other deities and is the tale which resulted in the birth of the Tyrants' Cabal, the cruel reflections of the Sovereign Host.
In the legend, Livina is approached, while wandering outside her family's homestead, often as a result of a falling out with one of her siblings, most commonly Reingard, the cause of their squabble is unfixed. The entity which approached her is also a factor which changes dependant on the telling; sometimes it is Asmodeus, Master of Devils, in other tellings, it might be Oberon, King of The Archfey. In a rare few tellings, this entity is one of the Tyrants Cabal themselves, possibly as a shadow of their future selves.
Whoever this figure might be, they come to Livina with a promise of granting her family the greatest gift they could ever receive. Being innocent and kind, always protected until no by her elder siblings, Livina takes the mysterious figure at their word and follows them out into the Astral Sea.
There she is surrounded by the forms and faces of her family, but coloured both by her recent sadness and frustration and the twisted manipulations of the cruel figure who had led her astray, the figures she sees are only the most frustrating aspects of her family; Reingard's refusal to accept her help, Brant's Constant need to provoke their enemies, Heilke's long absences, Gudrun's obsession with the past.
After long enough for these thoughts to embed themselves in her memory, but not too long, Livina realises how far she has strayed from home and sets off home, followed by her mysterious new friend, mouthing platitudes and asking her to come back again and spend more time with him. In spite of herself, his flattering tongue and breadth of knowledge convinces her to return.
They meet again and again, each night Livina returning to her family with tales and knoweldge that even they have never heard before. for the first time she feels like she is being treated as an equal by them. Little realising that the memories of all their distorted faces in the Astral Mists have been getting stronger, the more and more she tries to quell them by 'defeating' the differences between them.
Eventually, she is out so late with her new friend that they wander deeper into the mists than any previous visit, so far that she cannot make it home before her family becomes worried. In spite of her apologies and her explanations, their anger spills over.
Freimut berates her for doing only the same thing each day.
Gudrun accuses her of not remembering how long she had been.
Aimar shouts at her for making her family worry.
Brant rages that it could be an enemy in disguise.
Heilke demands to know why she went so far, so carelessly.
Alawis Laments that she never has enough detail to her tales.
Reingard simply threatens to punish her with stricter limits.
In sadness and pain, Livina flees back into the Astral, to the waiting arms of her 'friend'. He listens to her sobs, cares for her in her pain and slowly, subtly, reinforces her displeasure with her family, changing the brief hurt into resentment. He damps down her affections and fans the flames of hate.
At the deepest moment of her sorrow and pain, he plunges a blade into her heart and from the wound, along with her blood out scream the shadowy forms of the Cabal, dark, horrid reflections of her family, each an exaggeration of their worst aspects.
Fortunately for Livina, before the last gasp of her life flees her breast, Aimar and Brant, leap over her and join battle with the newly formed evils. Driving them back and away.
Heilke and Alawis take her up and carry her away, while Reingard begins an incantation to guard her life.
Before he can succeed, a final burst of darkness emerges, with Livina's own guilt and grief erupting from her in a shadowy form of her own image, Loreley, the Tempter.
Type
Religious, Pantheon
Demonym
Vassals
Parent Organization
Permeated Organizations
Deities
Divines
Location
Notable Members
Related Ethnicities
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