Saints Physical / Metaphysical Law in Nahele | World Anvil
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Saints

When the world was young, the gods lived on Nahele and walked freely among the mortals, conversing with them directly. The gods taught the early races the secrets of agriculture, hunting, building, and the secret of fire. They had no need of intermediaries, their communications were direct and immediate. But at the end of the second gods' war, the truce agreement stated that all the gods must leave the Mortal Realm...  

The First Saint

  When the gods left Pelagus, the races that were left behind felt abandoned. For a long time, the mortal races struggled to rebuild their world. The Etevin and their cities were gone. Every city reduced to nothing but rubble.   Though the gods had left, they had not abandoned the Mortal Realm, especially those gods that had created races there and had done their utmost to protect them during the war.   Tresdak was the first to create a saint. Golrun was a scout in the army of his king before his ascension. The Geshwarin were a scattered race. Where once there had been mountain ranges, now there were oceans. It was Golrun that found a huge cavern in a mountain range far to the north, that his clan could settle in, and it was him who encouraged his king to send out more scouts to find other caverns, other tribes, and eventually to rediscover the location of the 'First Cavern', the cave in which Tresdak hid the first Geshwarin.   When he was slain by Orcs while protecting a lost group of Geshwarin families that he had found, those that witnessed the event described the body turning to light, rising into the air and exploding with such a bright flash that they all had to turn away, but afterwards, the orcs were gone, burned to ash.   A few days later, after the travellers had safely made their way to the new cavern and told their tale to all who would listen, Golrun appeared to the king and his courtiers as a brightly glowing apparition. He told them that Tresdak had not abandoned them and that they should continue to search for their lost brethren, and too, the 'First Cavern'.   From that day he became Saint Golrun of the First Cavern and those that follow him are known as Seekers. A church was built in his name, where the seekers could train, and where travellers could find rest and shelter.  

Current Worship of Saints

  Most gods have multiple saints, each speaking to a different aspect of their nature. For example the god Shaned has three principle saints:-

  As you can see the saints of each god are often quite varied in the aspect, and are similarly different from one another in their worship and the religions that follow them. Indeed some saints even have multiple religions that follow them, although they are often more like branches of the same religion. It is not uncommon for disputes to occur, but usually, the saint can intervene before anything gets too out of hand. Of course, that depends on the saint and the aspect of their patron god. It is not unknown for different sects following Saint Kalam the Silent to completely eradicate one another.   Barring a few notable exceptions like Saint Golrun of the First Cavern, saints don't get worshipped forever. Most fall out of favour after a few hundred years as people, fashions, even the world changes. Most of the saints being worshipped at the moment ascended within the last thousand years. Some are much younger than that, Saint Alainon of the Eye for example, ascended less than one hundred and twenty years ago.  

Saints in Daily Life.

  For most people, their interaction with a saint comes through a priest or some other form of a cleric of the particular church. This may mean going to a temple, usually making an offering to the church, and then the priesthood will pray to their patron saint on behalf of that person. Depending on what it is you are wanting, you would go to different temples to different saints. Whether you are asking for a bountiful harvest, Fine weather for a voyage, a profitable trade deal, or a healthy baby, you would go to very different saints.   Practically all people have a saint who they consider their own patron. Many will keep a small shrine to a saint in their house or place of work. Sometimes this is done openly, but sometimes in secret. Again this depends on the saint or church, or sometimes the person themselves.
"Saints eh?... I met one once you know, a saint... He wasn't a saint at that time, of course, he hadn't 'ascended'. Alainon I think his name was, shifty fella, not a fan of mages. Last I heard, they were building a church to him over in Telindi or somewhere."
- Lessons from my master -
  • Early Lessons -
  • Dinora Quinn


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